Cybook Gen3 video: Bookeen founders show off fast Vizplex E Ink screen
Here’s an 18-minute Cybook Gen 3 video in French—featuring the founders of Bookeen, Laurent Picard and Michael Dahan. The contrast and speed of the Vizplex screen come through, and, yes, if I heard correctly, the Cybook can cope with at least nonencrypted PDF, as we all had been expecting. Video was posted by Jean-Michel Billaut, a well-known blogger in France. So, gang, what do you think of the details? Discuss them here.
Update on the exact PDF situation (7:11 a.m. Washington time, July 7): “There will be PDF, but we don’t think we’ll be able to release the PDF support in the first software version,” Michael Dahan has e-mailed me. “As the software will be upgradeable, we will add PDF support later. We have no plan to support DRM with PDF.” The Cybook’s Mobipocket, however, will support DRMed books; significantly, Mobi is much, much better for small-screened machines than PDF. I’ve also submitted to Bookeen questions about the interface.
July 29th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Well I’m interested. I like the size of this device, and the MobiPocket support makes it enticing. I suspect I’ll buy one in September to put it through its paces. Nice screen response based on what I see here.
July 30th, 2007 at 11:16 am
I have to disagree about their comments on PDF.
There’s nothing wrong with it. Actually I think it’s the mnost superior way to formatting content.
The ony catch is that PDF is a final format, so you need access to the source document in HTML, MS Word, OpenOffice or some other format
July 30th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
[...] of that 3rd generation e-book reader I mentioned Friday were interviewed by a French blogger. The interview is in French, but there are two points in the video you can appreciate whether or not you [...]
July 30th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
So, Tamas, you love the usual PDF on your Sony Reader? What about PDF from sources such as Wowio? We’re talking about reding, not printing. Hey, each to his own. Thanks for speaking up. David
July 30th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
Not the “usual” PDF.
The page size for a “usual” PDF is A4 or Letter.
I was talking about PDF with proper page size.
What’s wrong with reading it?
The options for the SONY Reader are
- LRF
pro: images, links
con: no good creation tools despite all the FOSS effort
-RTF
pro: can reflow
con: no images, no links
- PDF
pro: images, links, international fonts
con: no reflow
I think reflow capability is over-valued.
Just get the fontsize you want and that’s it. Reflowing does not need to happen on the device.
If you try to create a document with images, links maybe internation fonts and you don’t want it to look butt ugly then PDF is your best choice IMO
July 31st, 2007 at 4:23 pm
David, did we ever find out whether there is a stylus in the new Cybook?
August 1st, 2007 at 5:29 am
Paul G: No stylus, alas, as best I can determine. Sorry. It will be interesting to see how the new Cybook handles search and other functions that could benefit from a stylus. Without easy searching–however it’s achieved–this will be more of a device for recreational reading than work reading. And even for rec reading, search matters for me. That said, the Cybook has other interesting wrinkles, as the video shows, and I’m looking forward to the time when I can try one out. David
August 1st, 2007 at 11:32 pm
I agree with Tamas Simon about PDF: if the PDF is generated the right way, you get the best formatting out of it.
No reflow, but a better flow of the text with real justified text, hyphenation and advanced typesetting support.
I’ve tried LRF and Mobipocket files to compare them with what we’re trying to do on Feedbooks: lack of hyphenation, bad flowing of the text, no chapter headings and most of the files that I tried were even missing page breaks between chapters.
Reflow is nice if you need the same file for different devices: on a unique device, I don’t need to change the font size. I selected the right font and the right size once and for all.
I’d rather enjoy a text that look like a book but that won’t work on multiple devices than an ugly looking one that will work across multiple devices.
For public domain books, if you ever change your device, you can simply download those books again.
I’m working on an Epub output for Feedbooks right now: looks better than LRF/Mobipocket but I’m not sure that in the end it’ll look as good as a nicely formatted PDF file.
What we need here is choice. With services like Feedbooks, you can pretty much generate on the fly the right PDF for your device. I understand that for some people, good typesetting is less important than reflow: that’s why we’re working on supporting Epub and other XML formats in the future. But I’m sick of people saying that PDF is the worst format for e-books. Letter/A4 is the worst size for a reader that’s smaller than a paperback book but there’s nothing wrong with PDF.
Indeed, PDF is still the best looking format in the end.
August 2nd, 2007 at 7:13 am
Dahan didn’t need to email you… he said the same thing in the video, but you didn’t understand. You write:
“if I heard correctly, the Cybook can cope with at least nonencrypted PDF”
Well, you heard very incorrectly.
August 2nd, 2007 at 9:38 am
Joe: I used “if I heard correctly”—I am a native English-language speaker with just a smattering of French. We’re an international blog, and a little understanding will go a long way. For the same reason, I’m very patient with nonEnglish speakers when they make mistake in English usage. Here’s to diversity! Michael, in his tactful e-mail, understands that. If you’re a fluent French speaker, I’d welcome your voluntary translation services for occasions like this. Thanks. David
August 2nd, 2007 at 9:55 am
I’m french. I can help anytime you want for this kind of stuff, just e-mail me.
August 2nd, 2007 at 10:54 am
Hadrien: That would be wonderful. Merci! BTW, why don’t you email me a progress report about Feedbooks in terms of where you’re headed. A TeleBlog item on it is long overdue. Among your other services, I love the idea of turning newspapers into PDFs for us Sony Reader folks. Should be great for the Cybook users as well—when PDF reading is available. David
August 7th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
[...] det da fint, det virker lidt uklart om der f.eks. er PDF understøttelse. TeleRead henviser til en videopræsentation af dimsen (på fransk). Cybook Generation [...]
August 20th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
[...] competing device types. It’s also a preview of the future, as new devices are set to emerge from Cybook and perhaps even Amazon. I’ve only had the unit for a few days, so it’s too soon to talk [...]