I like the ideas of wi fi and a touch screen, but the overall styling of the device does not appeal. I prefer the square design of the original BeBook.

This video may be of interest from this week’s Frankfurt eBook Fair.

Thanks

I’ve used a BeBook for 8 months. I nearly didn’t keep it as my first one lasted a week before the off/on button broke and fell inside the case. The second was dead on arrival. The third worked and continues to work excellently. There was clearly an issue with quality control but the support staff at BeBook were helpful during this rather sorry start

My advice to potential purchasers would be research this product, other readers and eBook sites. The market is developing and there are many formats available. The BeBook can read nearly all open or free file formats but at the time of writing (May 2009) the only protected format is MobiPocket. The market has not yet reached the maturity and ease of use that music has with iTunes, so equip yourself with knowledge and research to obtain the most from your reader.

I use a 2GB SD card to store my books. Using this with a cheap USB SD card reader makes for fast and trouble free transfers from my computer to BeBook.

Using PDFs, Mobi, text and HTML files, I have never seen the BeBook forget what page you were on. With the latest firmware, depending on the file format you use, there are more than three zoom levels. You can also load additional fonts to an SD card and thereby change the look and feel of your book. This will be of assistance for the visually impaired.

I like the fact that the BeBook’s firmware is regularly updated, as the product is developed and the users’ needs’ are met. Try getting Sony to act on its users’ suggestions.

The e-Ink screen is beautifully clear and not at all a strain on the eyes. I’ve read my BeBook on the train for instance, with bright sunlight streaming through the windows without a problem. My iPod Touch was unusable in the same conditions.

The battery life is good, although the quoted 7,000 page turns is over-stated. Since I last charged the BeBook four weeks ago, I have read Pride and Prejudice, and skimmed chapters in other books probably totalling some 1,500 page turns and still have two out of four bars showing on the battery. You can use a standard Nokia mobile phone battery as a spare. Charge it in the phone to save time on a USB trickle charge.

I have experienced the occasional crash, usually reading books with tables. The BeBook usually stutters, restarts and takes you back to the page you were reading.

All in all, I’m very pleased with the BeBook. I’m happy with what I can download for free and buy on-line in Mobi format. I’ve knocked off a star due to issues with build quality, but otherwise this is a great eBook reader.

As I understand it, you’re going from HTML in OOO to PDF with Rockwell. All of the PDFs, I’ve made from OOO have been with standard M$ web fonts, which seem to have been rendered okay.

You may have more luck with Rockwell if you add it to the fonts directory on your SD card or internal memory. All you need to do is create a directory when the reader or SD card is connected to your computer. Make sure it is simply named “fonts” and place the TTF fonts you want to be able to use in their. You would then need to use the reader’s settings menu to change the display font to your choice.

Good luck.

Resolution: I had to ignore complaints from OOo and just use Rockwell anyway. Also, make all of the headings not bold. OK, but not really a brilliant solution, and I still don’t have a batch-mode way of doing it.

Wouldn’t it be great if zipped HTML files rendered properly, or if some commonly accessible fonts had been used

Some folk tell me that fonts can be added to the font directory at the top level of the device’s internal memory, but I can’t see that folder on my BeBook.

Anybody have any tailorable (pref command-line) solutions for making nice-looking PDFs without resorting to all this font-changing nonsense?

Please note, these are the original firmware files from Endless Ideas, unchanged except I have renamed them to make identification easier as time progresses. Please also note these are large files (40MB) approximately and may take some time to download.

November 2008

January 2009

February 2009

The Nokia battery is ever so slightly thicker than the original and so you need to replace the compartment cover carefully.

I have noticed an improvement in the longevity of the Nokia battery, which I charged overnight, compared to the original. I’m most of the way through the 900 or so pages of Darwin’s Origin of species and after that week’s work it is still on 4 segments. So far so good!