Unboxed: BeBook
While only 13% of you said you wanted an eBook reader (maybe we caught you on a bad day), that hasn't stopped more of the things hitting the digital bookshelf. Yesterday iRex announced new 10in additions to its iLiad range, and now another contender has arrived at Stuff Towers: the BeBook.
It may not be quite as attractive as Sony's camel-skinned Reader, but the BeBook is promising to be much more flexible. Rather than going the DRM route it's open and supports most of the formats out there: doc, txt, pdf, jpg, html, rtf and now mobipocket books, which can be downloaded from sites like WHSmith.
The BeBook has the same 6in screen as Sony's Reader, and about four times more internal storage at 512MB, which should be good for about 1,000 books. Battery life is also claimed to give you about 7,000 page turns and it's the only eBook Reader that lets you change the font of the text (handy if you're a bit OCD about Comic Sans).
The only downsides appear to be that it still suffers from the 'flash' you get when turning a page, and the price: at £230, it's £30 dearer than Sony's offering, though still cheaper than the iRex. We'll have a full review for you soon, but in the meantime check out our 7 things you need to know about eBooks.
Comments
andrew987williams
3 years ago
How about a review of the Cybook Gen3 eBook Reader, it looks the nicest and its also the cheapest ebook reader.
sirdouglas
3 years ago
BeBook is definitely the way to go. Unfortunately most people will never explore the world outside of the mainstream Sony and Kindle. The Cybook looks pretty promising but lacks the flexible open source system of the BeBook. The BeBook is constantly being improved by a team of developers responsive to what the users want in the firmware. They just released support for Mobipocket and RSS feeds last week. Just gets better!
The price seemed rather steep, but they ship worldwide and if you buy from www.mybebook.com you can save 25 euros on it with this discount coupon code: "sirdouglas@hotmail.com". Just type it in in the discount coupon section upon purchasing:)
Ebooks certainly look like the new way to read books. It's so practical! The only argument for sticking with the old fashioned book is that it has the "feel" of a real book. So it's the emotional attachment, while the rational side would certainly show that ebooks make more sense. Carry thousands of books everywhere in one device. It'll be interesting to see what the future holds for these devices.
Doug
PS> check out this quick youtube over viewing the BeBook to see it in action! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpxt__xqkBI