The eBookwise eBook Reading Device

I once owned a RocketBook, a great eBook reader. Unfortunately, it did not pass the patented Francesco Drop Test, and I pined for it. There are many other eBook devices, but they either had features I didn't need or want, and therefore cost too much (for me), or they were missing features I wanted. So I was delighted to discover the eBookwise eBook Reading Device (a faintly silly name for a great product).

The device itself is about the size of a paperback book (5" x 7.5" x 1.5"), weighs just over a pound, and the front is a back-lit 5.5" diagonal 4-bit grayscale LCD touch screen. There are only a couple of buttons, and a few touch-screen hot-spot "buttons", but, along with the stylus, they're all that's necessary. There are also a modem and a USB port, but I don't use either, so I can't really talk about them. The first thing I did was go out and get a 128M SmartMedia card, so that I can load the books right from the PC software into the card. The device itself has a non-slip coating in the places your hands would naturally grasp it - I really like that touch (see the second sentence in the first paragraph above).

There are some really nifty things about this eReader. I can keep hundreds of full books in the eReader, and pick and choose which I want to read. I keep the screen backlight fairly low, so I can get about 15 hours out of a charge. I read a lot, so a good, long battery life and a plethora of books from which to choose is A Good Thing™. I can even have two books open at once, switching back and forth between them.

There are some inspired touches in this software. I can actually dog-ear a page to set a bookmark! I can highlight text. I can circle stuff, or scribble in the margin. And, of course, I can search for all that stuff, and jump right to it. This is all particularly wonderful when I'm reading a textbook.

At this point, you're probably asking yourself "Where does he get his books?" Several places. I buy them online (from the eBookwise Web site among others), and I download them for free (legally) from places like The Gutenberg Project. Since the eBookwise reader can accept plain text (.txt), rich text format (.rtf), Microsoft Word documents (.doc), HTML (.htm or .html), and Rocket eBook Editions (.rb), I have a lot of choices!

There are a few small things I'd change in the software if I had my druthers. First and foremost, I'd have an on-screen clock. For those of us who do a lot of reading, it would be nice to have a quick way of checking the time. Along with that, I'd add an alarm. Also, the PC software is a tad clumsy; somebody with a grounding in usability theory ought to have a quick look at it.

In the long run, this is the form factor I'd like to have for an all-in-one eBook, PDA, music player, pocket computer thingy. With, of course, wireless and Ethernet and everything else. For not much more than the eBookwise device costs now. Sound far-fetched? So did a $500 very powerful computer in a box not much bigger than a box of CDs, but Apple managed that pretty handily, didn't they?

This is an incredibly cool toy, and if you're any sort of a reader, you owe it to yourself to get one! You can read more about it and even pick one up at the eBookwise Web site.

Back to Nick's Reviews