Ectaco Jetbook E-Book Reader
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With all of the hullabaloo over the Amazon Kindle 2’s recent release, one might think that there were no other eBook readers on the market; not so! Those who eschew DRM protection and who can do without the convenience of an online content store (I’m thinking of Amazon’s and Sony’s, specifically) should pay particular attention to the Ectaco jetBook, a reading device capable of handling .txt, .pdf, .fb2, .jpg, .gif, .png, .bmp, and MP3 file formats.
The jetBook measures approximately 6″ tall x 4.3″ wide x 0.5″ thick, and it weighs about 7.5 ounces. It seems a little bit blocky, but it is better looking than the Kindle 1 was. The screen measures 5″ diagonally, and it dominates the front of the device. The jetBook is available in burgundy, gray or white;
The case is composed of plastic, and it is quite solid and rigid. The jetBook actually feels like a comfortably sized reader to hold for extended periods of time, as it is not so large as to be unwieldy, and not so heavy as to cause major wrist fatigue.
On the left side is a plastic sliding Page Up / Page Down bar. Although I was at first worried that it might snap off if something hooked it just right, I never had any issues during the testing period. I would eventually find the slider to be an incredibly unobtrusive way to navigate through pages; I like it better than using a D-Pad or clicking button.
On the left of the device is what reminded me at first of one of those paper address books with the lettered tabs on the side, but in this case the tabs are numbered 0 – 9, with letters and symbols on each. The first time I looked at this alpha-numeric keyboard, I couldn’t help but think of what a chore it would be actually entering data with this method; I was right.
On the bottom left of the jetBook is another Page Up / Page Down entry method, this one situated horizontally and using buttons. It seems a little bit redundant to have the buttons there, but I suppose they would come in handy if the slider on the left was ever accidentally broken.
On the bottom right is a cluster which includes (from top left going clockwise) Menu, Font Size / Zoom, Cancel and Rotate buttons; in the center is a four way D-pad with center select. The D-pad has other uses of course, but it is also yet another way to Page Up and Page Down.
The jetBook comes with a plethora of free classics pre-installed. You’ll find many favorites are already here, including titles by the following: Daniel Defoe, the Grimm Brothers, Herman Melville, James Matthew Barrie, Jonathan Swift, Lewis Carroll, Mark Twain, O. Henry, Rudyard Kipling, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Barr, Franz Kafka, Herbert Wells, Miguel de Cervantes, Oscar Wilde, Robert Stevenson, Edward Berens, Leonardo Da Vinci, Plato, Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, Charles Dickens, Fyordor Dostoyevsky, Jack London, James Cooper, James Joyce, Jane Austen, Jerome K. Jerome, John Galsworthy, Sidney Heath, Sun Tzu, Thomas Hardy, Victor Hugo, Walter Scott, William Shakespeare, and William Thackeray. There are also reference documents pre-installed, including the CIA World Book, Fodor’s Travel Guide, The King James Bible, The United States Constitution, the .pdf jeBook user manual, four websites for downloading free eBooks (in English), as well as others in Russian, Polish and (I think) Czechoslovakian, and almost inexplicably – the .pdf manual for getting a driver’s license in New York State.
This is really a great selection of reading material in and of itself – especially the classics, for those of us who have been meaning to take the time to enjoy them again; it is really handy to have such a great selection pre-loaded.
You can simply download the files you want to your desktop (Mac or PC) in a format that the jetBook accepts (.txt, .pdf, .fb2), and then drag and drop the file into the proper folder on the jetBook when it is connected to the computer via USB.
Now comes the tricky part: Not everyone is going to be satisfied with freely available classic eBooks. How can you get current bestsellers onto your jetBook? Right now, you can’t; not legally, anyway. And therein lies the rub.
Until Publishers and authors can figure out a way to merchandise their current bestsellers and past catalogs as DRM-FREE eBooks, or until Ectaco partners with a DRM-enabled eBook publisher, reading on the jetBook will be somewhat limited. But don’t let the phrase “somewhat limited” scare you – there are over 27,000 free books on the Gutenberg site and 23,000 on the ManyBooks site, alone. Even with some overlap, you should have enough reading material to last you the rest of your life.
The Ectaco jetBook is available directly from the manufacturer.
MSRP: $299.00
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Do you have any experiences with the JetBook? We would love to hear from you and get your opinion! Please see rating section below!
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Reviews (2)
JDF
October 21st, 2009 at 2:31 pm
I had previously owned 2 Irex Iliads ebook readers, but after both failed with broken screens decided to try something different. I didn’t want to buy the sony reader or the amazon kindle because of drm issues so I decided to give this a try.
At first I thought I had made a mistake, as out of the box the screen is disappointingly small. However, I have been using it for a week now, and I can say that the resolution is sufficiently good that the size of the screen is not really an issue. Mostly I can read in portrait mode, occasionally switching to landscape when I need to. There is an easily accessible button that allows me to do switch between the two very quickly. In fact, after lugging around a large Irex, I find the jetbook size very convenient. It almost fits into my pocket.
The build quality is very good: it is light and everything feels solid and reliable, with perhaps the exception of the usb and sd card cover. It is hinged on a piece of thin plastic that looks like it might break one day, though so far has been fine. The red colour is not so jarring as you might think and gives it a distinctive look.
There are many buttons on the face and sides, which means you have to be a bit careful how you hold it, but you can get used to it quickly. The buttons are well thought out, especially the numerical side buttons which make menu and page number selection a breeze. All in all, usage is pretty intuitive.
It comes with a fairly decent selection of texts included and fires up trouble free right out of the box. It can even play mp3s, although this is not something I am interested in.
The screen technology is different from the Iliad in that it uses a high resolution LCD display, rather than the electronic ink technology of the Iliad. The contrast is slightly less, but not significantly so and is certainly good enough. What is much better with the jetbook display is that page turning is much faster and there is no ghost image. It’s so much better flipping pages at this speed in a way that was not possible with the Iliad. Also, startup and shutdown is almost instantaneous, so it is easy to dip in and out of a book.
The jetbook takes an sd card up to 2 gigabytes. I had no trouble using one, connecting it to my pc using the included usb cable and downloading texts. It should be noted that the machine is limited to txt and pdf files, so you cannot view lit files unless you convert. However, this is more than sufficient for me.
In summary, the jetbook does a pretty decent job. Size and weight is good, resolution is sufficient to make reading comfortable, and the speed is impressive. I would say it is still a little expensive, but so far I have been happy with it.
hubertus
October 21st, 2009 at 2:32 pm
I am new to the ereader technology and hoped to find an easy-to-use, relatively inexpensive reader. I found this and a whole lot more with the Jetbook. This reader has a slightly smaller screen than some of the others I looked at; this makes it very comfortable and easy to hold and transport. Although it does not have backlight and does not use E-ink, I find it very easy to read even in dimmer light. Several font sizes are available, so I can enlarge the print. The menus are very easy to navigate and self explanatory. Jetbook has a great feature that allows you to file your books in category folders; you can even delete a book from the device menu. You can create and name your own folders. I really appreciate that the on/off button is very small and somewhat more difficult than the other buttons to get to—the device will not be accidently turned on by bumping!! Jetbook has a lot of buttons on the side that make navigation very simple-just pick the correponding number to the item you want on the menu. These buttons are on the front/side and are not easily bumped. Yhe forwards and back button is right at the thumb, making this simple. The device has an auto page turning option that I am not using right now. It also has bookmarks, several dictionaries and display controls.
The device takes a 2G SD card as well as having internal memory of its own. It comes with many nice classic books already installed, including the CHOICE of having a King James Bible pre-installed. It has a drop and drag technology for placing the downloaded books onto the card or reader, or you can do it by copying.
As delivered, the device does not accept Mobi and some other more popular formats but does have a beta firmware upgrade available on the website. I have not done this; I am going to wait on the final version. I have LOTS of books to read in the meantime!
The Ectaco website is running a special right now as I write that includes the reader, a decent carry pouch, USB cord, adapter, CD, instruction manual, earbuds and free shipping. (It will play MP3′s, which I have not done, but this is available) It not as expensive as the other main ereaders. It feels very sturdy and substantial in the hand; I expect it to hold up well under normal conditions.
I am excited about this ereader and plan on upgrading fhe firmware. The company responded promptly and courteously to all my pre-buying emails and seem very supporting. I don’t think you can go wrong with this one!
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