I have to admit that being a book-holic, I've been excited about the idea of portable e-book readers since I first heard about them some years ago. The idea of being able to carry my entire library with me, of only having to take one "book" on holidays was something that excited me.
When you think of an e-book reader, most people think Sony PRS 505 or Kindle. I’d like to introduce you to one alternative -- the Bookeen Cybook Gen3.
I purchased one of these in May, on the recommendation of my best friend who bought one for herself last Christmas.
About the Cybook
It weighs less than the average paperback, yet, when you hold it in its case (If you purchase them from Bookeen directly, they are leather and come in several different colours, yet re-sellers usually only stock black.) it feels like you’re holding a book.
Using E-Ink technology, the contrast on the page is very similar to a printed page, and very clear and easy to read; easier, in fact, than when reading a computer screen. Unfortunately, E-Ink technology is still in the black and white/greyscale phase, so coloured covers and images loose a little of their impact.
The screen is not backlit, which means that you need to be reading in the daytime or with a light. However, I have found that a small book light will clip nicely to the leather cover and solves that problem!
The page turning is very fast and there is no ghosting. At the bottom of each page, a bar shows how far you are through the book. This is great, but it would be better if it incorporated page numbers instead.
Most navigation is done through the one button set -- similar to that on a Nokia cellphone. The central button brings up a main menu, and the side navigation square allows page turning and navigation of the menu.
The Cybook battery lasts an incredibly long time, 8000 page turns! It is easily re-charged through your PC using the USB cable supplied (you also use this cable to download your e-books).
The Cybook itself holds about 500 books -- and has a slot for a 2GB SD card, which will hold a couple of thousand more. No longer will you say "I don't have anything to read!"
The e-book format used in the Cybook is Mobipocket -- the same that Kindle uses. Mobipocket also has a desktop version of the reader, which you use to manage your e-books and which will then synchronise with your Cybook. Mobipocket also has an RSS feed reader which can then be downloaded to your Cybook and read in comfort!
The Cybook will also read PDF, TXT, HTML, PalmDoc and it supports images, MP3 and True Type Fonts (TTF). Currently, the Adobe E-PUB capability is being trialled on Cybooks sold in Germany, but it is expected that it will be expanded world wide shortly.
As far as its hardware goes, the Cybook is fairly fragile -- and should be protected from severe bumps and should never have anything put on top of it. The cover (sold separately) will protect it from some things, but you should still take care. In particular, the glass plate that the E-Ink "floats" on is incredibly fragile and breakages to this are not covered under the warranty.
The Cybook firmware has not quite caught up with its hardware -- especially when it comes to deleting files from the e-book. There is no folder management on the Cybook itself, although there is an upcoming firmware upgrade which will enable the delete button and folder management.
What I Don't Like
Unfortunately, Bookeen seems to be very bad at communicating with their customers / users. This seems (from talk on forums) to be especially bad if you need to contact them for support.
For this reason, if nothing else, it may be best to purchase through a re-seller as they would be your point of contact if something goes wrong.
As stated above, the CyBook seems to be a fairly fragile piece of hardware -- though I believe the same can be said of most e-book readers. This is one piece of technology that really does need to improve across the board of all manufacturers -- let's face it -- if a page is torn in a book, you still can read it. If the screen in an e-book cracks, it needs to be replaced. I have also found that the CyBook will freeze for no apparent reason, and needs to be reset. This reset is fairly simple, but it is annoying.
On the initial charge the battery ran out within a few days and crashed the reader. Again, a reset fixed the reader so that I could re-charge. Since that initial use, the battery has settled down and it is functioning correctly (I had IT technical hardware people check and they confirmed it was a battery problem – they also said that this is a fairly common problem with any battery-driven technology).
Technical Specifications
* Display: 6-inch E Ink Vizplex screen, with 166 DPI, B&W, and four gray scale
* Resolution: 600 x 800 pixels
* Processor: Samsung 200MHz (S3C2410 ARM920T)
* OS: Embedded Linux
* Size: 4.7”x7.4”x0.3” (118x188x8.5 mm)
* Weight: 6.13 ounces (174 g), including battery
* Battery: 1000 mAh Li-polymer battery (8,000 screen refresh)
* Input/output: SD card (no SDHC support), mini-USB 2.0, 2.5mm earphone plug
* Memory: 8MB ROM, 16MB RAM, 64MB internal Flash
* Supported formats: e-book (Mobipocket PRC, PalmDoc, HTML, TXT, PDF), image (JPG, GIF, PNG), sound (MP3), fonts (TTF)
Bookeen CyBook Gen 3 is available from Books on Board.
Megan McConnell is an Australian book-holic who has been Bellaonline.com's Embroidery editor since its inception. She is also an unashamed geek.
