Thursday, November 8, 2007

Cybook Gen 3 review

Gigi from eBooks About Everything has received its Cybook Gen3 and has decided to share her first impressions on her blog. So if you want to know her thoughts about the Cybook Gen3 follow the link.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

I have received and am enjoying my Cybook. There are a couple of issues that I would love to see addressed in a software update.

1) Library navigation. I have 400 ebooks on my cybook, and with the memory card I believe it has room for three or four times that number. Even when I go to 20 books per page (where titles are almost unreadable because they are so tiny) I have 20 pages to go through in my library. I need some better way to get to a book. Say search for a word in the books title. Or a tabbed interface that has the alphabet.

2) I also need some better way to find my way through a book. Twice, I have opened another book to check something out, and when I returned to the original book I was at the beginning. This shouldn't happen, but when it does the only way to quickly work my way through a book is to go to chapters. Page turning speed is fine for reading but it is way too slow for looking for a certain section. I need to be able to skip X pages at a time.

3) I wouldn't use the Cybook without the leather cover. It is NOT at all flimsy, but it is so light that I worry about it getting knocked around. However, the cover makes it difficult to push the page forward button. The cover needs some adjustment around the button. I have worked out a fix, but you may want some change in the design.

With three complaints you may feel that I'm not happy, but overall I am very pleased. I have already read two books on the device and I really enjoy using it. It is a great improvement over the PDA I used to use.

However, these items are a bit frustrating, and I do believe the Cybook could be improved with a few minor tweaks.

Unknown said...

P.s.

I would also like the ability to remap the buttons. For example, I doubt I will use the Cybook to listen to music, so I would like to remap the volume keys to become alternate page up/down keys.

Bookeen said...

Dear Michael,

Concerning the Library navigation, we do agree with you. We are thinking about the best way to classify the documents (folders, alphabet, etc.). No final decision yet, but folders seem to have our preference. It will be available in a next firmware upgrade.

For the navigation through the book, we will certainly add the ability to keep turning pages as long as the button remains pressed.

Concerning the cover, we will soon propose a new cover as a separate accessory with a different design. In this new design, the navigation button will be much more accessible.

regards,

Michael (for Bookeen)

Unknown said...

Bookeen - really pleased you are making the adjustments as mentioned, especially folders. Will those of us that bought a leather cover be able to exchange to one that is more user friendly?

Unknown said...

Regarding organizing the library/titles.

I would ordinarily vote for folders, but I do have one reservation with this approach.

You are somewhat dependent on the support from the Mobipocket desktop. For example, RSS support comes from Mobipocket. (BTW, I am looking forward to this. I think I can subscribe to my google calendar via RSS. Therefore, my reader can have a doc with the current calendar on it).

Anyway, I'm not sure about this, but I believe that Mobipocket does not support folders -- it wants all of your books to be in a common folder for synchronization. Is this correct? If so, I would recommend an approach that is more consistent with the Mobipocket approach.

Sally said...

I am enjoying my Cybook very much! I read the comment about the cover and agree a different design would be nice, I would like to request more color options as well! Also any chance for some more fonts to be added to the firmware upgrade? Just a few?

John said...

1. I note that my cybook gen3 is not recognized as a mobile reader device with mobipocket 6.1, only as a mass storage device.

2. Also Bookeen really needs to change the firmware to allow the user to remap the keys to their own liking.

I love the screen! I've read two books on it since receiving it last week. Hopefully some additional searching and viewing options in the library navigation will be updated in firmware and made available soon

Autrement ou ailleurs said...

Les acheteurs de produits nouveaux sont conscients de leur position d'explorateurs:il y a la notion de confiance envers le concepteur, même si on peut s'étonner que les testeurs des prototypes n'aient pas eu le même regard!
Merci pour les promeses d'upgrading, et peut être des conditions privilègiées pour les acquisitions des premiers objets améliorés !
Bonne chance au Gen 3

Tommy Persson said...

If remapping of the buttons were available I would put "Lookup Mode" on one volume button and "Back" on the other. Now you cannot do everything with your right hand since you need to press "Back" to get out of a multi choice dictionary lookup.

Anonymous said...

Would it be possible to cure the problem with the screen refresh option in the software update? . If you turn refresh off it works ok until the gen 3 is turned off. When turned on again the refresh is back on but is displayed as off in the settings. Turning it on and off in the menu cancels it again until power down. Very annoying !
One other issue, the casing could do with some more clips, especially around the side buttons as it has some movement. Apart from that OK so far

Anonymous said...

What's really bad is that you have to activate the LOOUP mode everytime you wan to look up a new word. That's highly umpractical because I need the dictionary about two or three times on every page on a book (let's say) about Astronomy. When the LOOKUP MODE is SELCETED it should stay on!

PLEASE!!!!

John-Michael Harkness said...

i am keen to get an ebook reader, but my main purpose is for a large collection of ebooks i already have in PDF format, how well can this device read PDF files. I know there are other ebook readers that say they are PDF compatible but the PDF needs to be converted to be readable, is this the case with this device? Thank you, John

John-Michael Harkness said...
This comment has been removed by the author.