My BeBook

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I have finally managed to get my hands on an eBook reader that I believe works really well. It's called the BeBook from Dutch Manufacturer Endless Ideas.

For those of you that aren't aware of eBook readers (Ed: what rock have you been lying under?) then let me give you a brief rundown. Essentialy an eBook reader is a highly portable electronic device that allows you to store many documents or books in a variety of formats and read them as naturally as you would a paperback novel anytime, anywhere. The BeBook reader is slightly smaller than a trade paperback in size and weighs in at 220gr so it is really easy to hold and read.

Probably the most significant aspect of any eBook reader (including Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Reader) is it's use of the so-called 'e-paper' technology. Click on this link for a more technical explanation but in essence ePaper is not like an LCD that uses emitted light but rather it uses reflected light. This makes an eBook reader much more pleasant to read over a longer period and much more paper-like. It also makes it possible to read an eBook in full sunlight which you cannot do with LCD type readers. Of course this could be considered as a negative as like any normal paper you do need an external light-source such as a beside lamp to be able to read. An upcoming technology which is quite interesting is flexible ePaper and I have seen a new eReader that comes out with a roll up screen which makes for a really small device. Quite amazing what they can do with technology these days.

Like all eBook readers the BeBook comes with some integrated memory (512Mb in this case), however it also has support for an external SD card up to 4Gb. On 4Gb you could probably store about 6,000-8,000 average novels! The support for the SD card was one of the reasons I favoured the BeBook reader over the Amazon and Sony offerings. Probably the most significant must-have feature is that the BeBook doesn't tie you into any Digital Rights Managed (DRM) material and has full support for a large variety of document formats with support for .mobi which is possibly one of the largest eBook retailers out there. Sony absolutism dictates that you can only buy DRM eBooks from their web site and then of course you are restricted to the range that they have on offer. As I have access to a variety of PDF's off the web this seemed to me to be an illogical choice.

The current BeBook reader does not have wireless support and it would have been really great as I could then have simply downloaded a new novel onto the BeBook while I lay in bed. However truth be told that is probably overkill and the simplicity of plugging the BeBook into the USB port and downloading in that way cannot be overstated. Wireless support would have added to the overall cost of the device however BeBook indicate that their next model will support wireless. It is however a change in hardware and not a possible upgrade to existing devices unfortunately. One particular instance where wireless support would be very useful however is with RSS downloads. Many websites make their content available via RSS (Really Simple Syndication) which simply put is well-defined file-format standard that allows websites to publish content that can be interpreted by a variety of readers such as the BeBook. This allows you to keep up with new content that comes out regularly on the Web, such as a news or magazine site, blogs, stock information etc. The current BeBook has RSS support however you do need to download it via the USB connection.

So what is it like to read from the BeBook. Well in my experience so far; provided the book is properly formatted to fit the 800x600 screen display resolution and the font used is legible and not significantly anti-aliased (ie the edges are jagged) then it is an absolute pleasure to use. The text is crisp and clear, paging works really well and the reader remembers which books you were reading last and what page you were on. You can also bookmark certain pages if you wish to return there at a later stage. However when the book is not properly formatted you begin to run into viewing problems. Of course you are constrained by the size of the display so sometimes the text can appear rather small. There are two zoom levels in the BeBook to alleviate this problem with the 3rd zoom level reverting to a landscape view of the book at which point you must hold the reader sideways. This in itself is not a real problem but does feel a little clunky at first. I have experimented with 're-printing' some of my existing PDF's to another PDF that has the page size properly formatted to suit the BeBook dimensions and this does appear to help. It has been great to have finally been able to read some of the PDF books I have had on my computer for absolute ages. I have never been a big fan of trying to read off the computer screen as it always felt counter-intuitive, you suffered from eye-strain and excessive eye-movement. Truthfully when on the computer as well I'm often distracted by other open windows, in-coming emails etc. So just being able to lie in bed with my 'book' has worked out really well.

Browsing through a book quickly does not work so well however. For instance a technical reference manual in which you may wish just to skim through it looking for one solution or another certainly is a lot easier in a paper-based book. However holding a 1000-page reference manual in bed does not work quite so well? The BeBook allows you to page forward one page at a time or by holding down the button 10 pages at a time so this does help somewhat, however it is still not ideal.

The BeBook also has support for MP3's and you can listen to Audio-Books or music via the headphone socket. I haven't tried this out yet to be honest as I have a really good MP3 player with my Archos 605 however throwing a few audio-books onto the device and trying them out may not be a bad idea? MP3 support certainly wasn't a must-have feature for me though.

Overall I am really pleased with the device. It really is too expensive at 329,95 Euros but on a par with the other devices on the market so I guess that is the going rate. As a gadget freak this was right up my alley and I believe that I will get good use out of it.


What's Hot

• Support for many different file formats: pdf, mobi, prc, epub, lit, txt, fb2, doc, html, rtf, djvu, wol, ppt, mbp, chm, bmp, jpg, png, gif, tif, rar, zip, mp3
• SD Memory card support
• No DRM (Digital Rights Management) restrictions
• Great battery life

What's Not

• No Wireless support
• Rendering - The document needs to be formatted properly to appear correctly and crisply on the readers display otherwise it can appear too small or the fonts can appear pixelated.

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