Bebook and Mac

[mendicance]

So I bought the new Bebook ereader because it says that it's Mac compatible. You just hook it up via USB and it shows as an external drive.

However, I have just acquired my first DRM protected eBook via eBooks.com and it says the file is corrupted. Anyone have experience of this? Is there a step I'm missing?

Thanks for any help.

[rickp]

What format was the eBook? I'm a mac user and not having any problems with DRM-ed Mobipocket files. I just drag and drop them onto the drive that appears when I hook up the BeBook to my mac.

The only annoying issue is that the BeBook shows the 'metadata' files that the mac also creates. They start '._' and should be ignored. Hopefully the BeBook folks will fix that soon.

Rick

[BeBook Support]

Hi there,

- Try downloading the file again, it might have gone corrupt during download.
- Make sure to download the right file format.
- Ask the vendor to check the file. The original might be corrupt.

Rick : we're aware of the 4kb files and it's being worked on.

[orwell2k]

Hi there,

Glad to hear DRM Mobi books work OK, as I haven't tried any yet but will shortly.

I also use a Mac and the mobileread.com forum had some info on cleaning up the meta data (i.e. all the "._" files) yourself:

(1) you can reveal the hidden system files in Finder as follows by opening a Terminal and type the following command:

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

Then restart Finder by holding the Option (alt) key and click and hold the Finder icon in the dock until the context menu appears, then choose "Relaunch" (you can also type "killall Finder" in the Terminal to relaunch). After that, all the hidden files/folders will appear and you can remove them from your BeBook device or SD card.

To switch off the feature, repeat the above using FALSE instead of TRUE, and relaunch Finder.

(** I created two aliases in my ~/.profile to speed this up, as follows:
alias show='defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE'
alias hide='defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE'
So by typing "hide" or "show" in the terminal, then restarting Finder, I can quickly swith between showing all files or hiding the meta files **)

(2) There is a little app called Hidden Cleaner 1.2.1 (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/27 ... en-cleaner) that allows you to drag and drop a disk onto its dock icon and it will "clean" all the apple meta files off and eject the drive (I guess to prevent other meta data being written?). So basically you copy all data you want on the external device, then dump it on this icon to clean and eject it. Seems to work OK.

Eject problem:

This leads me onto another problem with the Mac - when I connect the BeBook to the Mac and choose OK when it asks if I want to connect to the computer, I see two disks mounted (one for the BeBook internal memory and one for the SD-card). Copying/deleting files onto the card is no problem (although the USB link can be a little slow, but books are not too big so it is only noticeable when you first dump your library on the card, or if you re-copy it later).

But once done, when I try to eject the SD-card and/or the BeBook USB devices from the Mac, there is quite a delay of inactivity, then they devices either don't eject, or they eject and immediately re-mount. In the end I just have to "pull the plug" and disconnect the USB cable, which leads to an error message on the Mac saying the disk wasn't properly ejected and daya may be lost. No data is lost, but the error message is annoying.

Any helpful info on ejecting/unmounting the device under Mac OS X (I'm using Leopard 10.5.5). Thanks.

Another BeBook fan!

[BeBook Support]

Hi Orwell2k,

Thanks for your great and extensive contribution, it's greatly appreciated!

[AVH]

This leads me onto another problem with the Mac - when I connect the BeBook to the Mac and choose OK when it asks if I want to connect to the computer, I see two disks mounted (one for the BeBook internal memory and one for the SD-card). Copying/deleting files onto the card is no problem (although the USB link can be a little slow, but books are not too big so it is only noticeable when you first dump your library on the card, or if you re-copy it later).

But once done, when I try to eject the SD-card and/or the BeBook USB devices from the Mac, there is quite a delay of inactivity, then they devices either don't eject, or they eject and immediately re-mount. In the end I just have to "pull the plug" and disconnect the USB cable, which leads to an error message on the Mac saying the disk wasn't properly ejected and daya may be lost. No data is lost, but the error message is annoying.

I've the exact same problem on my Mac. My solution is not to connect the BeBook, but to use an SD-card reader instead – the transfer rate is faster that way as well (since you're not dependent on BeBook's USB 1.1 connection).

[orwell2k]

I've the exact same problem on my Mac. My solution is not to connect the BeBook, but to use an SD-card reader instead – the transfer rate is faster that way as well (since you're not dependent on BeBook's USB 1.1 connection).

AVH,

Yes, I do the same thing. Then I can also use the Hidden Cleaner app to eject the SD card from the reader, knowing all those little meta files will be gone.

The USB 1.1 connection is a real pain, and a little hard to understand in this day and age of everything being USB 2.0 - maybe old hardware design? Or possibly firmware related?

Cheers!

[marina]

Hello,

I'm not alone, I also have Mac and I have the same problem with ejecting the BeBook USB devices from my computer. Your solution is very logical but the problem is that I haven't SD-card...and I must to connect the BeBook directly.

Do you have other solution in that case?

Just I don't like to eject my BeBook in that unsafety way.

[smirnoff01]

I have just got my BB1 and own a Mac, I have found that if you eject the BeBook from your Mac you need to unplug the USB cable when the BeBook icon disappears from your desktop. The icon will re-appear with in 3 seconds if you do not remove the USB in time! Hope this helps?

[AVH]

Unmounting the BeBook with Disk Utility prevents this from happening; it works better than ejecting.