I have been using my BeBook ebook reader for one month now, so I thought it was time for a first review. In this post I will write about the BeBook, what you can use it for, its features, possibilities, limitations and quirks and give you some advice before you buy an ebook reader. I have used a lot of its features, but not all of them and I also encountered some of the limitations and quirks. I will probably post an extra review in a couple of months when I had the time, the need or felt the desire to explore the rest of the features and possibilities. By the way, I love my BeBook.

I am not going to explain the technology of the ebook reader and I already explained why I chose the BeBook; see my ‘The quest for an ebook reader‘. I am also not going to explain on how to use the BeBook or upgrade the firmware, because this is explained in the user manual and on the BeBook site.

Use

customized PDF 1

I probably differ from the average ebook reader (person, not the device this time) because I want to use the BeBook to read technical ebooks, documents, manuals, courses, howto’s, … and not just novels.  This means that I am confronted with other formats like CHM and pagesizes in PDF books not optimized for ebook readers. In one review they used the term ‘power user’ and I must admit I like the sound of that . Some examples of what I read on my BeBook during the first month:

• ‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ by Arthur Conan Doyle, ‘The Art of War’ by Sun Tzu, … and other freely available ebooks optimized for reading on an ebook reader.
• converted some texts found on websites into customized PDF to study the differences in various translations and interpretations of the ‘Tao Te Ching’ by Lao Tzu
• Virtual Box manual
• started reading in the ‘Guide to programming with Zend Framework’
• browsed in the XenServer5 Reference Manual

The BeBook

Bookshelf

The BeBook comes with a leather case, battery, screw driver (for replacing battery if necessary), headphones, USB cable, user manual and wristband (doesn’t look very comfortable).

The experience of reading on an ebook reader is much closer to reading a book than reading on a computer screen.  Sometimes reading on the BeBook is even more convenient than reading a paper book like a small paperback. You can hold the BeBook in one hand and turn to the next or previous page using only one hand. An ebook reader is not backlit like a computer screen or cellphone, so you need an external lightsource like the sun or a lamp to read. With the leather case the BeBook is slightly larger than a single DVD-box, without it slightly smaller; just hold a DVD-box to get an idea of the size. On the picture you can see that the BeBook will easily fit on your bookshelf.

The leather case that comes with your BeBook is very useful; if it wasn’t included you would probably have to buy one. There are two ways to fit the device in the case depending on whether you are right or left handed.

BeBook

The website of BeBook claims that you can do 7000 pageturns without recharging the battery. Reading customized PDF (9 x 12 cm, 3.54 x 4.72 inches) ebooks I made it to 3000 pageturns and I have the impression that using a mix of non-customized PDF (had to use zoom level 3) and CHM ebooks I would be lucky to reach little over 2000 pageturns. I can imagine that displaying PDF or CHM ebooks is more demanding than TXT or RTF ebooks, so maybe it is possible to reach 7000 pageturns with other formats. Listening to music on your BeBook will decrease the number of available pageturns. It is said that the BeBook only needs energy for a pageturn, once a page is displayed it no longer needs power, so you can leave it turned on. I haven’t tested this.

There are several features that I haven’t tried yet: reading offline RSS feeds and webpages, changing default language, listening to audiobooks, adding bookmarks, …

On a more or less monthly basis a new firmware upgrade is released, so it might be nice to know that your BeBook will improve each month, although the December upgrade had a few bugs. The upgrade routine is one of the annoyances: you have to keep a 1 GB SD-card around for this. I use a 2 GB SD-card for storing the ebooks and use the 1 GB SD-card from my digital camera to upgrade when necessary.

Types of ebooks

This list of types is made up by me.

DRM: I have no experience with DRM’ed ebooks. See the BeBook forum for more information.

Free ebooks: There are lots and lots of freely available ebooks out there, enough to see you through several incarnations. Most of them are optimized for reading on an ebook reader. Here lies the true strength and worth of ebook readers. Some sites:

• My BeBook
  
• Food for the Mind
  
• Baen Free Library
  
• Project Gutenberg
• …

Technical ebooks: This covers ebooks about software, programming, operating systems, system administration, … in a wide variety of formats and pagesizes. I guess a majority (60-70%) is readable, varying from just readable to good readable, but it doesn’t come close to reading an ebook in the MOBI or customized PDF format. The other 30-40% won’t display, crash, freeze or are unreadable due to small print, colored text on a colored background or encoding. I will go into more detail when discussing the formats (see PDF and CHM). The digital version of magazines, lets just call them emagazines, are unreadable due to small print and colored text on a colored background.

Other: Saved webpages, texts, rich text format, Word-docs, customized PDFs … just create your own ebooks.

Operatings systems

Microsoft – Windows XP: I haven’t experienced any problems connecting and disconnecting or copying, removing and renaming ebooks via a desktop pc with MS Windows XP.

Linux – Ubuntu 8.04: I haven’t experienced any problems connecting and disconnecting or copying, removing and renaming ebooks via a desktop pc with Ubuntu 8.04 (linux).

Disk Utility

Mac OS X – Leopard: Unfortunately I have experienced some problems with Mac OS X. I have a MacBook with Max OS X Leopard and some of the problems I encountered were: problems connecting and disconnecting, copying files to the BeBook, creating and renaming folders. The last couple of days however, I had no more problems. I am a bit hesitant to claim that I found the solution, because all I did was renaming the internal and external (SD-card) memory, which were both labeled ‘NO NAME’, to ‘INTERNAL’ and ‘EXTERNAL’. I keep my fingers crossed though.
There are still some quirks left: you have to use the Hidden Cleaner application to remove hidden Mac OS X files that do not remain hidden once on the BeBook (annoying) and you need to use the Disk Utility application to unmount your BeBook instead of just using eject to disconnect.

Formats

I haven’t tried or encountered the following formats on my BeBook so far: PPT, WOLF, DOC, FB2, PRC, DJVU, TIFF, JPG, GIF, BMP, PNG, RAR, ZIP, … Maybe I will mention them in my 3 or 4 month review.

PDF tech 1

PDF: Most of the ebooks I have read so far are PDF. The customized freely available ebooks and the ebooks that I made myself were the most enjoyable reads.
To make your own ebooks import the document (Word, text, RTF) or copy the text (from a website) into OpenOffice Writer, adjust the pagesize to 3.54 x 4.72 inches (9 x 12 cm), decrease the margins to 0.1 or 0.05 inches, choose a font and fontsize, do some formatting, export as PDF and copy it to your BeBook. For reading on the BeBook I definitely prefer sans serif fonts (Arial, Verdana, Comic Sans MS) over serif fonts (Times New Roman, Georgia). Mostly I use Verdana or Comic Sans MS size 8 or 9 points. Comic Sans MS might seem an odd choice, but I kinda like it for fiction books.
The digital magazines to which I am subscribed, php|architect and Linux Magazine, are not readable on the BeBook due to small print and colored text on a colored background.

PDF tech 2

Next, one of the reasons I bought the BeBook for in the first place, namely reading technical ebooks. With technical ebooks I mean books, manuals, howtos, courses, … concerning software, programming, operating systems, system administration, … None of those ebooks that I tried are made to be read on an ebook reader, but are meant to be read on a computer screen. Yes, most of them are readable on zoom level 3, varying fom barely to good, but not for hours on end. On the other hand I have never gotten my hands on a technical book that would qualify as a pageturner. The problems that occur with this type of ebooks are: too small font size, refusing to display (seems to be a problem of encoding), closing after reading a few pages (WTF ?) and variable margins. The latter might need some explaining. It happened with an ebook with alternating margin widths: on even pages the left margin was wider than the right margin and on uneven pages it was vice verse. When you use zoom level 3, the BeBook zooms in on the text and removes all margins, but this is fixed for the rest of the ebook. So when you zoom in on a even page and then go to the next, uneven page, there will be some text missing on the left and some whitespace on the right. In order to read this ebook, you would have to zoom out and then zoom in again after each page turn.
When you have (to read) lots of technical ebooks the BeBook can be quite useful, because statistically the majority will be readable. If you only have a couple of technical ebooks or when all the technical ebooks are from the same publisher, it would be a good idea to ask someone if he or she can try them out for you on their BeBook.

CHM

CHM: Most of the CHM files I’ve tested were usable and readable. There are 3 zoom levels available, but the first level works fine for me. You can change the font by changing the system font. Reading is less enjoyable than reading MOBI, EPUB and good PDF ebooks.
There is this quirk or bug that makes that a table of contents of a CHM ebook only becomes usable after the compleet CHM file is loaded or re-indexed. When you open a CHM ebook and you press the ‘next page’ button you will notice that the total number of pages increases by dozens or hundreds for each pageturn. When this number doesn’t change anymore, then the table of contents becomes usable.
My BeBook did choke on the PHP Manual, but that was before I updated the firmware and I haven’t tried it again yet. I hope they improve the CHM reader in the near future, because there are some bugs and quirks left.

LIT: I have only tested 2 Microsoft LIT ebooks, one crashed and the other needed a lot of time for each pageturn. I haven’t bothered to continue testing, because there are no LIT ebooks on my reading list. For all I know the files might have been corrupt.

RTF

RTF: Is used for text files with some formatting. I haven’t really used it yet to read ebooks, I just tested it to see if it is usable. It is very readable, but I converted most of the ebooks I have in this format to customized PDF for better control over the layout.
As you can see on the photo, not all formatting is visible on the BeBook. Indentation, lists, bold and italic are, but outlined, shadowed, underlined and strikethrough are not. You have more control over the font and font size using this format, you can load your own fonts, but for example when you use Arial or Times New Roman bold and italic are usable, however this is not the case when using Verdana.
For this format there are 5 zoom levels available, but in a different way than for the rest of the formats. However, for me the smallest font size is large enough to read it comfortably. Via the menu you can also change the page orientation, the interline space, turn on or off footnotes, set the system time, inverse the display, whether to show or hide status bar with or without system time, … This is a very mature reader (referring to the software this time).

TXT

TXT: Is used for plain text files. See the photo for a sample of a text file at zoom level 1. There are 3 zoom levels available. I haven’t really used it yet, I just tested it to see if it is usable. It is very readable. You can change the font by changing the system font. I have come across some ebooks in this format, but I converted them to customized PDFs. But you can read ebooks in this format.
I think this format might be useful for reading howtos (will sound familiar for the linux users among you), RFC and configuration files (with lots of documentation) … or when I am to lazy to do some formatting and converting. I would like to be able to display a text file in a monospace font like Courier (New) with 80 columns per line, perhaps in landscape orientation without zooming like mentioned for RTF, this would be useful for code reviews for example.

MOBI

MOBI: I have only tested some freely available non-DRM’ed MobiPocket ebooks. They are among the best readable ebooks and there are tens of thousands of freely available ebooks in this format. There are three zoom levels available and even the third zoom level is displayed in portrait orientation. The table of contents is only for show; you cannot use it for jumping to a chapter. You can change the font, choosing between the system font IBOOKN and 2 user fonts, namely Times and Arial. I recommend using IBOOKN or Arial.

EPUB: I tested only one EPUB ebook, but the format has a good reputation as far as I know. There are 3 zoom levels available and I would recommend using zoom level 2 to read this type of ebook. The table of contents works and you can change the font through the system font. There are tens of thousands of freely available ebooks in this format.

EPUB (zoom 2)

Other: I have saved one of the posts on this blog for offline browsing and copied it to my BeBook. The text was good readable, but the pictures and backgrounds were missing. I remember reading somewhere that there is an easy trick to show the graphics, but I forgot how. Keep in mind that you will be able to read the text as on a static webpage, but forget the interaction and Flash animations from the real website. I also haven’t tested whether you can influence the layout via CSS (font, size, color, margins, …). Maybe for my next review.
FB2 seems to be a very popular format among the BeBook owners, but I haven’t come across an ebook in this format yet.
As for the viewers for PPT (MS Powerpoint) and DOC (MS Word) formats, I haven’t needed them so far.

Some advice before you buy

There are some things you should consider before you buy the BeBook or any other ebook reader for that matter. On occasion you’ll find some post on the forums of some (very) disappointed, angry or frustrated people. Mostly because of unrealistic expectations, which could have been avoided by doing some research.

• Availability: Are the books that you want to read available as ebooks ?
• Price: Some ebooks cost more than the paper version of the book. It is stupid economics (no paper, no printing, no shipping, no storing, no middleman and still more expensive), but it’s a reality. When you pay good money for an ebook reader and have to pay extra for reading ebooks this might be a turnoff. Most of my ebooks are from php|architect and the digital version of their books and magazine cost less than the paper version.
• DRM: If you want to read only or a lot of recent books, you will probably have to buy them. Most of those will have some form of Digital Rights Management (DRM). It’s a stupid idea that seriously hampers your users’ rights and it’s stupidly implemented. Most ebook readers can display only one DRM’ed format, because when the manufacturer gets a license for that DRM’ed format, they are not allowed to add support for another DRM’ed format; it’s an exclusive deal. You cannot blame BeBook for this, blame the publishers. Basically it comes down to this: if you want to read DRM’ed MobiPockets buy a BeBook, if you want to read DRM’ed Adobe Digital Editions buy a Sony PRS-505 or PRS-700 for example. For more information: Ebook Reader Matrix. I wonder if that is even legal: suppose that I buy a music CD produced by Sony Music and that I cannot play it on my Pioneer CD -player, but I will have to buy an Sony CD-player. I know for sure that this practice is hampering the adoption of ebooks and ebook readers. Apparently some online bookshops don’t even mention the DRM’ed format they use when you buy an ebook, so you might end up with a legally bought ebook and be unable to read it on your ebook reader. php|architect has a more creative approach to protecting their economic interests, their ebooks are not crippled by DRM, but my name, email address and client number are displayed on every page (PDF). Actually I find this very neat, ‘Look this is my book. See, I can prove it, my name is on every page’ .
• Ask. When in doubt whether the ebooks or documents that you have, want to read or want to buy will be displayed properly on the ebook reader of your choice … ask. There are plenty of friendly and helpful people out there on the forums of BeBook and MobileRead. I did this too; asked a lot of questions, uploaded some different types and formats of ebooks, asked for someone who was willing to try them out and send me some photos as proof.

The BeBook doesn’t have a touchscreen or WiFi and you cannot use it to scribble notes, take pictures, watch movies or phone home. If you want a bigger screen, touchscreen, scribble notes and WiFi an iRex might be what you need, but you will pay (at least) twice as much. The BeBook ebook reader is very good at what it is supposed to do, namely to display ebooks and that is good enough for me … and you can listen to music too.

Conclusion

The BeBook will never completely replace reading paper books for me and I will still (have to) read ebooks on a computer screen. But the amount of freely available ebooks out there is intoxicating, it really opens your mind for other genres and the ability to do some necessary reading of ebooks away from a computerscreen is a treat for sour eyes. I thought I would be using my BeBook mainly for reading technical ebooks and while I do use it for that purpose, I find myself irresistibly drawn to the abundance of free non-technical ebooks. I have included some links to websites that offer tens of thousands of free ebooks, browse through their catalog and say that you are not tempted to buy an ebook reader. For the IT’ers among you, even if the BeBook reduces eye strain, the display of the IT books (PDF and CHM mostly) pales in comparison to customized PDF, MOBI and even EPUB ebooks, but it is usable. Is the BeBook worth the 300 something EURO ? For myself, the answer is ‘YES’.

Reasons for buying a BeBook:

• you are a bibliophile
• you are running out of shelf space
• you have to read lots of ebooks or other digital documents
• you want to carry a lot of books with you (for a vacation) without the bulk or weight
• you want to reduce eye strain
• you want to read ebooks in more comfortable positions (bed, comfy chair, beach, park, …)
• you want an ebook reader and good value for your money

Want to buy a BeBook ?

Then I have some very good news for you: by using the following email address as a coupon you will get a 25 EURO reduction when buying at BeBook:

bebook4johan@gmail.com

I am not employed by BeBook or Endless Ideas BV in anyway, but I admit there is something in it for me as well. As it is a win-win situation for all parties I am okay with it and I also believe that my review is fair and balanced.

During a conversation about SF & Fantasy books with a librarian he mentioned that he uses an ebook reader, because, like me, at home he hasn’t got enough shelf-space for all the books he owns, let alone for all the books he would like to buy. He also demonstrated his iLiad ebook reader and I immediately loved it.

What is an ebook reader ?

An e-book  reader is a device used to display ebooks (in a wide variety of formats: pdf, txt, doc, rtf, mobi, chm, html, …). It may be a device specifically designed for that purpose, or one intended for other purposes as well. The term is restricted to hardware devices, not software programs. The main advantages of these devices are: comfortable reading, perfect under sunlight, weeks of battery life and lightness.

What do you need an ebook reader for ?

• Shelf-space. I have over 300 books and this means that a lot of them are stored in boxes in the attic. Whenever I want to buy a book, I not only have to consider if it’s worth the money, but also if it’s worth the shelf-space, because another book will have to move to a box in the attic. Regardless of whether I buy an ebook reader or not, I will still buy the paper version of the books by my favorite authors like Terry Pratchett and Raymond Feist, on some things you do not compromise.
• Save your eyes. As a webdeveloper I spend a lot of time in front of a computer screen. Also in my spare time I spend some of it in front of a computer. I already own several ebooks and am subscribed to 2 emagazines, but I find myself struggling to keep up, because there is only so much time that I can and am willing to spend in front of a computer screen. The main reason for this is eye strain and ebook readers have the reputation that it’s like reading a paper book.
• Save money. Ebooks tend to be cheaper than paper books. An ebook reader on the other hand costs a lot of money, so you have to buy a lot of books to break even. On the bright side however there are tens of thousands of ebooks available for free (legally) on the internet. No to mention the manuals, texts on websites that can be converted into an ebook, …
• Save the trees.

What would I use an ebook reader for ?

I would use it mainly to read technical ebooks (programming, web, linux), manuals (dito), RSS feeds (offline) and emagazines (computer stuff again) as a better alternative to reading them on a computer screen. Reducing eye strain is worth some money to me. Shelf-space is another good reason. The availability of tens of thousands of free ebooks from authors like Darwin, Doyle,  Kafka, Nietsche, Shakespeare, Verne, Twain, Austen, Poe, Lovecraft, … is a very nice bonus.

The search for an ebook reader

Deciding I am interested in buying an ebook reader and the actual act of buying are two different things. First I had to double my initial budget of 150€ to 300€. Even this increase limits my choice severely, but I decided that I do not want an ebook reader the size of A4 or letter, that I do not need wireless, touch screen or the ability to take notes … just a reader.
So no iLiad, Plastic Logic (available spring 2009) or CyBook and living in Europe also means no Sony or Kindle ebook readers.

But I wanted to see some more ebook readers before making a decision. This proved to be a lot easier said than done.

• FNAC (Bruges, 17/11/2008): the hardware guy send me to the book department and they referred me back to the hardware department. The guy admitted he didn’t had a clue what I was talking about and had done a quick search on Google after he’d send me to the book department. They do not sell ebook readers, not now and not in the near future. When I mentioned that I’ve found several online shops in the Netherlands, he said that Belgium is always a couple of years behind the times compared to the Netherlands. Great. Not that I am patriotic and it isn’t for the first time that I hear this, but it does sting a bit.
• Media Markt, the largest European chain specialized in electro, cd and dvd, … or so they claim (Ostend, 17/11/2008): I asked the persons responsible for mp3-players & portable dvd-players and pc & laptop. Their reaction can be summarized as follows: ‘E-book readers … yeah’, an uneasy silence, ‘What is an e-book reader and what do you use it for ?’ , sigh. After I explained it, they made a phone call to their supervisor and got back to me saying that they do not sell ebook readers, not now and not in the near future.

So I would have to buy a device that I’ve never seen or touched before! Luckily there are a lot of very active forums and blogs about ebook readers, even with photos and homemade movies (see links below). I uploaded a couple of ebooks and emagazines and found some people who were willing to try them out on their ebook reader and send me some pictures. It quickly became clear that the emagazines would probably be unreadable on a small ebook reader, but the ebooks were readable. I decided to continue my search.

The ebook readers

Living in Europe and the budget limits my choice for an ebook reader. In fact there is only one real ebook reader that qualifies, but I included devices that can be used as an ebook reader in the list. They all cost 300€ more or less.

• iPod Touch. Small, light, very nice, lots of features, very tempting, but while you can use it to read ebooks, it is not an ebook reader: it doesn’t use an eInk technology, it isn’t less straining for the eyes than a computerscreen, the screen is very small for long time reading …
• Asus eee pc. Small notebook, but to heavy to use as an ebook reader and it is not really an ebook reader: see remarks for the iPod Touch. I already own a MacBook, so I don’t need another notebook.
• BeBook v3 (or Hanlin v3). Small, light, long battery life, probably the ebook reader with the most supported formats (very important), active development (new firmware on a regularly basis), active community, very good reviews.
• CyBook Gen3 (update, already ordered my BeBook, but due to a price drop I also have to mention it here). Similar to BeBook: same screen resolution, but less supported formats and currently not available.

Decision

Even with a bigger budget the BeBook would probably be the best buy, the most value for money. So I ordered my ebook reader at  BeBook (http://mybebook.com) from Endless Ideas BV. Why did I buy my ebook reader there  ?

• good price
• very active and helpful user community
• they are actively participating in the firmware upgrades
• when you bring on a number of new clients, you can get an BeBook for free

I already have my BeBook and it is indeed very useful and addictive. I will try to post an extensive review with photos before the end of the year.

Some links:

• http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_Reader_Matrix
• http://pookey.co.uk/blog/archives/61-BeBook-review.html
• http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30913
• http://mybebook.com/
• http://www.jinke.com.cn/Compagesql/English/index.asp

Want to buy a BeBook ?

Then I have some very good news for you: by using the following email address as a coupon you will get a 25 EURO reduction when buying at BeBook:

bebook4johan@gmail.com

I am not employed by BeBook or Endless Ideas BV in anyway, but I admit there is something in it for me as well. As it is a win-win situation for all parties I am ok with it and I believe that my review is fair and balanced.