Comments on: $199 E Ink machine from BE Book—with optional $30 wireless card on the way

By: Tjeerd

Tjeerd — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:15:34 +0000

Can’t wait for the new model.
I have my Bebook for a few months now. Bought in Australia on http://www.bebook.net.au and there they do not mention the new one yet. Hope it comes soon.

By: Don Brubaker

Don Brubaker — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:20:41 +0000

Bebook twittered this a few days ago:

bebook
10:16 AM Jul 21, 2009 from web
Finalizing ‘BeBook Mini’ touch up. Still keeping the actual launch date quiet, but easily under 4 weeks.

Hope this helps… for me the dropping of Mobi DRM has been a big issue…

By: RickD

RickD — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:02:59 +0000

Wondering if there are any rumored release dates yet, or price for the BeBook 2. I’ve been waiting patiently, but getting to the point where patience is wearing thin. I’ve asked them directly and they will only say Q3 2009.

I’m afraid that time is wearing thin. August is here in two days and it has 31 days – I would honestly like to have one in my hands before the end of August, and I’m re-considering the Kindle now. (And of course, the Iliad as well, even if it is too damned expensive).

By: Peter Olsen

Peter Olsen — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 09:23:54 +0000

To Marcel

I would not advise you to buy a normal Bebook (or any other standard 6″ reader to read PDF-files on. The PDF is AFAIK not intended for resizing onto whatever screensize you might have and if you want to use it for your studies… ie. reading articles and academic books, the PDF’s of these are normally in something like A4 format. They would look way too small on a 6″ screen and panning around the screen to watch the whole article is a pain. Do as I intend to do. Buy a 5-6″ for reading novels and (maybe when they have fallen in price) buy a e-reader like the Irex Digital reader. With its 10.2″ display it is just a tiny bit smaller than standard A4.

Best regards

Peter

By: Joseph Gray

Joseph Gray — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:05:36 +0000

Since the topic has been mentioned here before, I go out on a limb and bring it up again for Don’s benefit. There are means to strip the DRM from all those legally purchased mobi ebooks. See the discussion on MobileRead. I won’t get into the right/wrong of this, as the laws vary with country and some people feel that this is fair use in any case.

Once you have a DRM-free mobi file, you can use one of several tools to convert it to epub. Again, this is discussed at MobileRead.

David knows that he and I agree on the need for DRM to disappear. It only really hampers legitimate users like yourself, Don. It also forces the unknowing to spend money buying the same thing they already bought, to the publisher’s benefit.

By: Don Brubaker

Don Brubaker — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:59:25 +0000

Most of my purchases have been from Fictionwise, and I’ve always been very happy with them. I have also purchased a couple of books from Books on Board. My fictionwise bookshelf indicates that I have purchased a total of 268 books.

To give you a sense of the types of books, here are a few of the authors for which I have multiple titles: Michael Connelly, Jim Butcher, Tom Clancy, Dean Koontz, John Sandford, Brad Thor, Nelson DeMille, David Baldacci, Catherine Coulter, Ted Bell, Daniel Silva, Dan Brown, and Vince Flynn. I could provide more info if you’d like.

I’m not sure I’m wanting to jump to ePub… but what I’ve noticed is that the few dedicated ereader devices supporting Mobi-DRM aren’t supporting Mobi-DRM in their next generation of devices.

By: David Rothman

David Rothman — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:38:23 +0000

My sympathies, Don. ePub is supposed to be a permanent standard even though it’ll be evolving. That said, your situation is exactly why I’d prefer that even ePub not be DRMed. You can’t own DRMed books for real. Before you act, I would suggest checking with the stores from which you bought those several hundred books. Will they let you substitute ePub versions, even if they, too, are DRMed? I’m skeptical, but give it a shot. Otherwise, to access your previous buys, yes, you’ll have to stick to a reader that can handle DRMed Mobi. Such are the fruits of DRM. Just wait until people want to move on from the Kindle.

Best of luck! Keep us posted! I am curious, by the way, about the size of your investment in the library, if you care to share it? And what kinds of books? This is a classical DRM/eBabel story I can use in my battles. I just hope publishers will wake up. There are plenty of stores, such as Fictionwise, that would prefer NOT to sell you DRMed books but are forced to.

David

By: Don Brubaker

Don Brubaker — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:52:18 +0000

Well, it’s been awhile, but I just got an email from Bebook and here’s what they say about the DRM support for the Bebook Mini and the Bebook 2:

Both Models only support Adobe DRM (ePub and PDF)

This is interesting in that there seems to be a shift from Mobi-DRM in the marketplace. I have a heavy investment in Mobi-DRMed books (several hundred) and was going to pick up a second reader. I currently own the Cybook Gen3. But I have noticed that the new Cybook that’s coming out and all of the new readers are moving to ePub. I can transition to ePub, but I don’t really want to buy ePub books because I don’t want to be stuck in that format… and when devices move on to the next format, my library will be history. Is this an issue for anyone else? Should I just pick up an original Bebook at the reduced price? Or should I go with one of the new readers and convert my mobi to ePub? Thoughts?

By: Felix Torres

Felix Torres — Sat, 30 May 2009 12:46:08 +0000

Marcel:
BeBook already sells a 6″ model without touchscreen; its the one I have. Based on the Jinke Hanlin V3ext, it is available from other vendors the world over by a half-dozen different names. The BeBook mini is, similarly, based on the Hanlin V5. The BeBook 2, however, appears to be exclusive to Endless Ideas at this point.
As for the kind of pdf support you want, I would suggest you look in an entirely different direction: no dedicated ebook reader running an ARM processor (and that’s all of them) will let you dothat.
Given the pricing for the touch screen-enabled readers, I would suggest you look into a netbook TabletPC, like the Asus T91 currently in FCC testing.
It should retail for around US$500-600 and it will let you run full PC Acrobat. There are several equivalent products in the same price range at Dynamism.com. Check’em out.
Battery life will be hours vs days but you get color, animation and 100% guranteed support for pretend-paper formats.

By: Alan Wallcraft

Alan Wallcraft — Sat, 30 May 2009 12:16:39 +0000

Marcel: What you are describing for PDFs is the Sony PRS-700. If the BeBook2 continues to have DRMed MOBI support, then it won’t be using mobile Adobe Digital Editions (which is what Sony uses for ePub and PDF). The existing, BeBook1, DRM-free ePub and PDF support is very basic. For examples of a PDF on an EZ Reader (same software and hardware as the BeBook1) see http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=414217&postcount=3

By: Marcel

Marcel — Sat, 30 May 2009 11:28:10 +0000

Looking forward to the Bebook 2 – although I do wonder if they’re not missing a model – they’ll have the 5″ cheap bebook, and the 6″ with touchscreen at €350-400.
why not a 6″ version without touchscreen as well?
Okay, that’s what the bebook 1 is, but that will be pretty much obsolete when the 2 comes out. Pity we have to wait until september…
I will likely go for the 6″ Bebook2, but I do wonder how pdf will behave. I will use it mainly for my studies, which involves a lot of reading, and I expect to have to use to annotation-function a lot – so I hope it’s more than just a token-feature, it should be fast and user-friendly. I don’t necessarily need to be able to writee in the document, but easy highlighting is a must. Also – I will need to be able to go to a particular page in the *original* document, before any reflowing of content… I wonder if that will be possible.

By: Felix Torres

Felix Torres — Fri, 29 May 2009 12:29:22 +0000

Alan Wallcraft:
A video making the rounds since mid-may shows the BeBook 2 and BeBook Mini in action.
http://www.slashgear.com/bebook-mini-bebook-2-with-3g-get-video-demo-1443826/
Its in Dutch but the word quoted from it is that BeBook 2 comes with a user-accessible GSM SIM card and WiFi compatibility. There is talk of Kindle-like free wireless over cellular in *some* territories with the WiFi being the free route in others. At this point its not clear if the WiFi is built-in or via bundled SDIO card. At the suggested pricing it may be built-in; the thing is likely going to be priced closer to the Sony 700 than to the current BeBook because of the touchscreen.
That’s one reason I’m more excited by the Mini than the BeBook 2.
Plus the Mini has a jog dial! Yay!

By: Alan Wallcraft

Alan Wallcraft — Fri, 29 May 2009 11:15:08 +0000

Does the BeBook 2 have WiFi as well as 3G wireless? If not, what does “wireless that will work anywhere in the world” mean? Where in the world will their free downloads work from?

A direct comparison of the BeBook and BeBook 2 screens side by side would also indicate how the touch screen effects the display.

By: A. Buck

A. Buck — Fri, 29 May 2009 09:02:50 +0000

Nice scoop. Thank you for the info and great pics!
I would really like to have a closer look at the BE book 2, being an owner of the Hanlin V3 (= bebook) already.

By: Spencer

Spencer — Fri, 29 May 2009 04:49:09 +0000

I love that more players are getting their readers out their so that Kindle does not become synonymous with Ereader as the Ipod has with Mp3 Players. The new models have so much more to offer without the restrictions.

This is exciting news. And the price point is finally within budget range for me. Yay!