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Worth Reading?
+18 [28 votes]
Netherlands company Endless Ideas have released a fresh eBook, the BEBOOK. Seemingly a rebrand of the Chinese Hanlin V3, the device uses a 6-inch 600 x 800 e-paper display and is capable of reading .doc, .txt, .pdf, .jpg, .htm and .rtf files. Onboard storage is 512MB, expandable via SD card, and file transfer is courtesy of a USB 1.1 connector. The company claims to be working on Mobipocket support.
As well as text, the BEBOOK is capable of playing MP3s and audiobooks. Endless Ideas claim a battery life of 7,000 page-turns, though that’s obviously reduced if you listen to audio. The reflective screen is not backlit, but it is readable in sunlight.
The BEBOOK measures in at 184 x 120 x 10mm and weighs 220g. Included is a USB cable, leather case, earphones and, ironically, a printed user manual. It’s available now, priced at €329.95 ($509) with free international shipping.
[via MobileRead]
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I’ll say it again – the only way these e-readers will take off is if it has wifi and can browse the internet
Anyone know how good this thing is with pdf? say, compared to Sony 505?
Why? I can’t browse the internet with my paperback or magazine but that doesn’t stop me buying them!
WiFi would be nice as you could download daily newpaper subscriptions etc, but then again it would have a major affect on battery life of the device as would browsing the internet.
The price still seems to be the major issue right now.
Another nice feature would be some “smell technology” that gives off the odour of a printed book each time you change pages :)
The Netronix EB-300 9.7 inch seems better value than this.
The EB-300 has a 1200 x 825, 170 dpi, 4 grayscale screen, and measures a mere 14mm (0.55-inches) thick. There’s 4GB of NAND storage on board, along with 64MB of SDRAM and some SD card expansion. There’s also WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity for good measure. EB-300 runs Windows CE 5.0.
would buy one if it is waterproof too, makes for great bath reading
iRex’s original iLiad has WiFi, and apparently in some European countries newspapers are using it to deliver daily subscriptions rather than a printed copy. Since you’d only be using the wireless briefly to download that day’s issue, I don’t imagine battery life would take a massive hit.
Apart from newspapers, magizines, the other big potential application of ebook readers is in the education field where students could just carry around a single ebook reader containing all their books. (prices of ebooks should be less than printed copies)
Also when you enter a lecture theatre or classroom the lecture notes/tutorial/power point slides could be beamed straight to your ebook reader, allowing students to listen more and type/write less.
But it’s not a book- it’s a new experience, so why shouldn’t it offer other options?
Well, at this point in time wifi is NOT the determining factor. Price is the factor right now. Until the prices drop ebook readers are not going to take off. When price drops then Wifi / connectivity will then become a major issue.
No experience with the Sony, but just aquired a Bebook and it handles PDF’s like a charm.
“No experience with the Sony, but just aquired a Bebook and it handles PDF’s like a charm.”
Does it have a landscape view?
I have just published a review on the bebook with a video
http://pookey.co.uk/blog/archi.....eview.html
I hope it helps!
509 bucks? Not anymore, the price is now $350 off their website.
Save 25 euros:
Upon purchasing from http://www.mybebook.com enter in “sirdouglas@hotmail.com” in the discount coupon section and you’ll get 25 euros (35 bucks) off the thing. It’s as easy as that, don’t throw away money!
Doug
Hello,
if you want to save 25 euro, then enter this email address during checkout:
autoresponder@freemail.hu
I’ve just received my bebook and am thrilled with it. It arrived from Europe in a week and looks great in the leather case. Its really easy to use and it will be great for work and leisure reading. At such a great price and with great features and support why would you consider anything else! If you plan to buy one get a 25 euro discount using my email in the discount coupon section: buy from http://www.mybebook.com and upon purchasing enter in “ann.drummond@princehenrys.org” in the discount coupon section.
The BeBook is a great device. Reads heaps of formats, easy to use, great to read (almost like paper). The company is very responsive to user requests for help and support, and are doing a good job of improving their readers through regular free firmware updates (released on their site).
Here’s another discount code to use to get a €25 discount:
mybebook@hotmail.com
Just enter it during checkout if you order through their website (mybebook.com) – unlike Sony and others, they ship anywhere in the world! Enjoy!
I bought one recently and I am quiet happy with it. I has now MobiPocket DRM and RSS feed support. The BeBook will certainly beat Sony and Amazon. The big difference is openness. It not only supports almost any format natively like PDF, Mobipocket DRM and Djvu, it is also build on Linux. And Linux means openness. Bebook gives a free SDK for anybody that wants to develop software for the BeBook. The result is that there is already an alternative free firmware called OpenInkpot. It has lots of features I like but it just got released so it’s still a bit “rough”. Sony, like Amazon, makes you completely dependent from their ebook offerings and the prices they dictate. They will fail because of this. Open ebook readers will take over because nobody wants to get stuck with a collection of ebooks that only read on a specific device. I bought a BeBook and I’m very happy. It has the lowest price of the ebook readers with the excellent eInk display that are open ( unlike the Kindle or Sony… ) as far as I know. Yes, as the others have mentioned there are coupons of 25 Euro. You can use my coupon: bebook@michael.be ( to be honest, I get a kick back when you use my coupon, so please use it ). With the coupon you can buy it for 315 Euro including shipment. Please let me know if you do ( send to bebook@michael.be ). You can order at their site mybebook.com, they ship worldwide.