Be Book

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Gottaa

Full Member
Watched the Gadget Show last night and saw the new technology (to me at least) of portable e-readers, which use e-Ink or I-Ink to make the display actually look like ink on paper, it means no LCD so much longer battery life and no worries about what angle you read the book on. The hugs plus for me is that you can increase the font size which means I could actually read a book again.

Now the Gadget show showed 3, the Be Book, a Sony one which only reads stuff purchasable on Sonys store, another one which looked more like a sub-notebook type attempt, and they did mention the Amazon one which is only available in the US at the moment but is also limited to only viewing books off Amazon. The Be Book is the cheapest and reads all formats (so books from the Sony & Amazon's e-book store) including a large selection of free older books. And overall I'm really impressed, though �229 for the Be Book while the cheapest is still a fair whack of cash.

www.mybebook.com is the website, and if anyone has actually seen one in the flesh I'd love to hear about your experience, the resellers seems fairly limited at the moment and ideally I'd rather see and use one in person before spending the cash than just buying it and hoping over the internet.
 
Corwin

Corwin

The Burninator
Have you tried popping into waterstones, they used to have E-Book readers available in there.
 
A

Aciiid

Full Member
Yeah I've read e-books before on my old pda, the sony one (like most sony products) only works with Sony books (betamax/vhs anyone?).

E-books are usually a standard format, like pdf, and can be read by multiple readers so I would recommend not using the Sony one for now at least. The low energy readers emulating paper are still emerging and I would also recommend waiting a couple of years at least for the technology to settle in and patents etc. I read on the new scientist about 6-8 months ago someone developed a bendable plastic display that also had a sort of crystal display so when the power was cut it still displayed an image, but was only black and white (fine for e-books).

My only gripe with this technology (and I'm surprised they didn't mention this on the program) is that they expect you to buy the book for the reader and every reader, you can't transfer the book once you've read it or share it in anyway (other than giving your reader to someone else) a bit like i-tunes selling music. So TBH I think e-books are still a poor substitute for normal paper books and see it as another way for Sony/whoever to sell the same book multiple times to the same person, not to mention bump up the price for the privilege as well.

No doubt apple will sell it on I-Tunes though and it will be a glorious success selling books for a pound but we'll have to wait and see.
 
G

Gottaa

Full Member
If you buy the e-book for example off Amazon, how exactly can they stop you having a copy on the PC and a copy you move onto the e-reader of your choice ? iTunes does it because you buy it via you account, but unless you sign into your account on the be book how can it check ?

And waiting is a good idea, but basically since my eye problem I've simply not been able to pick up a book and read, and I'm quite excited by the idea that I can (even in e-book/electronic form), the emulation of paper just being a huge bonus on battery line and not havign to worry about reflection.

It's certainly unpolished technology right now but I am excited by the idea of it, I think we have a waterstones near so I will have a look in one, I may also see if I can convince my boss to become a be book reseller and then try one he gets in :)
 
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Aciiid

Full Member
If you want a sample .lit file for readers to see if you like it or not, you can download some free books that are no longer in print or are out of copywrite.

here:
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/


I'd recomend H. G. Wells War of the Worlds and I think it's the origional text so uses old style language but is worth it if you want to try out your text to speach which some of the readers can do.
 
G

Gottaa

Full Member
My main interest is in the abilty to just be able to make the font larger and read it myself, I've got into audio books but tend to find a book then is hugely judged by the person that reads it, Stephen Fry for example reading the Harry Potter books I could listen to over and over again, the other I think american guy which I got by mistake I wouldn't want to listen to again. And having a book read by a computer .. while it does work it I think is technology that doesn't really do a good job
 
G

Gottaa

Full Member
Yeah, tried a few things, best I found was a hand magnifier with a light, but it means it's a faff to read a book, and this looks like it does the magnifying on the paper before you read it, so while I would have to turn more pages it would be easier in general
 
S

StGeorge

Full Member
Aciiid said:
My only gripe with this technology (and I'm surprised they didn't mention this on the program) is that they expect you to buy the book for the reader and every reader, you can't transfer the book once you've read it or share it in anyway (other than giving your reader to someone else)
Click to expand...

But you can't share a book other than give it to someone else to read. Well, you could copy it but then you're breaching copyright.

Having said that, the system with ebooks is very difficult. I have bought quite a few from Fictionwise and, although I can download them as much as I want, they have to go on a version of MS eReader that is activated for me. That's where the trouble starts, as I'm sure you can imagine :(
 
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Aciiid

Full Member
StGeorge said:
But you can't share a book other than give it to someone else to read. Well, you could copy it but then you're breaching copyright.
(
Click to expand...

and that's the crux of the problem. With a book you can give it away, with the sony reader and sony books you have to give your whole collection away for the person to read that one book. MS and Sony both have a system where the book gets registered with that one device and it then gets locked to it.

Fictionwise is great and you can download the .lit files and transfer them around, but it's been a while since I used them.
 
G

Gottaa

Full Member
Ohhh, but it's still not on sale in the UK, and rumoured prices put it over 100 quid more than the be book, and I can't see that it does anything extra, apart from look a little bit slicker
 
S

StGeorge

Full Member
Aciiid said:
With a book you can give it away, with the sony reader and sony books you have to give your whole collection away for the person to read that one book.
Click to expand...

Yeah, there ought to be a way that you can get the copy off your machine and pass it to another device. Don't suppose they're in a hurry to make that happen though!
 
Pit.Sweat

Pit.Sweat

Full Member
I'll stick with mobireader for my n73 until summit better comes out for a mobile. Being able to convert almost all file types including pdf onto one device and be able to change the font size and orientation with a freebie prog is better than forking out on yet another gaget to carry around for me.
Just too handy when the missus tries clothes on when we're shopping.
 
Cullhaven

Cullhaven

Hernes Son
What happens when they get full - can you take books off and store them so you can add new ones, or would you have to delete them and re-buy if you wanted/needed them again?
 
Cullhaven

Cullhaven

Hernes Son
hmm wouldnt mind getting rid of the graoning bookcases we have dotted round the place. As a hoarder who likes to throw NOTHING away, one of those would suit me down to the ground .
 
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