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Cybook Gen3 blog video shows Mobipocket dictionary feature and other wrinkles
September 25, 2007 | 8:03 am
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By David Rothman
iLiad developer iRex isn’t the only corporate blogger in the world of E Inkdom. On Monday Bookeen started a Blogspot blog on the Cybook Gen 3 and related topics such as “our analysis on the current market trends and some hints and explanations on the current and future technologies.”
Today’s featured attraction is a new video showing “a Vizplex screen and the books…in Mobipocket format. All the commands are done with the navigation button (except the library layout modifications). The images have not been specifically formatted for the screen : images are resized, converted to grey levels and dithered on the go.”
Cybook’s dictionary feature: Search capabilities on the way, too?
The feature that caught my eye was the dictionary feature for word lookups even without a stylus. Take a close look. Notice arrow at the start of the second line shown—and the cursored word? The dictionary will help make the Cybook a little more useful as a K-12 machine, an area where most E Ink machines have been especially weak. I’ll be curious what’s cooking, if anything, in the search area. Will Bookeen use similar tricks to create a virtual keyboard where you can spell out the words you’re looking for? Although a stylus and little keyboard would be much nicer for interactivity, it’s good to see Bookeen making progress. Hmm. If Vizplex is so fast, can a future model have a USB port for a plug-in keyboard?
Wider range of font styles and sizes than Sony Reader’s
Another scene in the video shows a wider choices of built-in font styles and sizes than the current Sony Reader offers. I wonder how Sony will respond. While the Bookeen at $350 costs about $50 more than the Sony Reader, it offers the popular Mobi format and presumably will be more friendly to common nonDRMed formats.
Competition in the E Ink area can only benefit consumers, and I hope that all three of the best know players, Sony, iRex and Bookeen, will hang in there and thrive. While general-purpose machine and LCD devices are nice, dedicated E Ink readers have an important role to play for those wanting them. The new Vizplex technology ideally will address the contrast and speed problems of most of the E Ink machines now on sale.
Related: Earlier Cybook-related video, as well as an iRex dealer’s wish list (thanks, Falk!). Also, Robert Nagle has just noted that you can add your own fonts! Terrific. So if you want bold for extra visibility in dim light, a solution might be at hand.
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Comments:
I really liked what i saw on the video. Stylus would make the cost jump up quite a bit and from what i have seen, it is working quite well without it. Dont forget that this device is supposed to be a reader, nothing much more. I will definately get one of those.
I would have liked to see more of a demonstration of image support within the ebook itself.
Also, I was unclear if the “library view” includes only mobipocket files or all ebook files (Cybook claims to support a variety of file types, right?)
I wonder if the “cover library view” will be used very much as people accumulate more ebooks.
Performance looks great. also, font control looks great as well.
Also, I would have liked to see a demonstration of how hyperlinks appear within a page of text.
look at the note at the bottom:
You can add your own fonts by yourself in the Cybook. You just need to copy them in the Font folder of the Cybook internal memory and they become available in the font family submenu for page layout.