World traveller Martin Pettersson's second BeBook-blog entry. His BeBook arrived, but did he find a new travelling companion? 

Note from BeBook:

When "adopting" Martin as our testdriver we had think of a way we could cooperate. (Martin on his sunny beaches, we at our office desks ...) We figured out a blog would be nice. We didn't want the blog to be a cheap commercial, no need for him to "just" write BeBook related stories.

We've got to know him as a great personality, with great stories and a unique point of view on life itself. 

We publish all his entries one on one. Needless to say we're very happy with his true "test drive" and review.

If you would like to get to know Martin a little better, dont forget to also visit his personal page: HERE.

Peter - BeBook

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First impressions

It's been one month since I picked up my Bebook at the customs office in Colombo, capital of Sri Lanka. Fortunately they let it pass as a "book" which indeed it is, and as in most countries they tax books less than electronics here. The Bebook is stylish and looks great! Slimmer than I had imagined with a design that could best be described as classically futuristic. Setting it up was a real breeze, just plug in the USB cord to your computer and upload all the books you want. There's no heavy extra equipment to carry around, just the Bebook, case and cord, that's all you need.

Ergonomics

The main question I had before I got my Bebook was, "How will it compare to reading a book"? I read a lot on my computer but it simply isn't the same as reading a real book, and although not a laptop this is still an electronic device. The biggest problem with a computer is the screen that tires your eyes with prolonged reading. Also it's kind of cumbersome to bring your laptop to the café or out into nature when you want to read away from home. Ergonomically the Bebook is light and does a good job of mimicking the feel of a pocket book. I had some problems getting it to balance comfortably at first but after I took it out of the casing it felt right at home in my grip. The page turners are well placed and feel natural to use.

The screen

The screen can be described in one word "Paper". I have never seen anything digital that looks this close to printed text on paper. It is comfortable for the eyes and you can even choose what font you prefer. The page turning is easy and on par with, or faster than turning a book page since you don't need to shift the book and get it in place again. In general it responds quickly and there is no serious lagging when opening up books, except for large PDF files etc.

One month with my Bebook

It's been one month since I got my Bebook and I'm overall very satisfied with it. I am an avid reader and have had time to read 7 books as well as numerous articles & short stories from the web. I don't think I'll ever buy a paper book again. After about 5min of reading you forget that you're not holding a book in your hands. The flow of reading is exactly the same and I've compared my reading speed with ordinary pocket books; there is no difference. It's easy to carry with you, with the added benefit of always having a full library to choose from. Battery life is good so you should be able to finish several books before you need to recharge. One of the best uses I've found for the Bebook is to download articles as complete HTML pages with photos from the web. I frequently visit howstuffworks.com,Wikipedia.org and numerous pages with specific information on subjects of interest to me. It's so easy to download articles for reading offline; this is one of the best of the Bebook. Also I personally think that the HTML format is the best to work with on the reader. In general I redo PDFs to HTML to be able to choose fonts etc.

The paperless society

I remember almost 15 years ago when they started talking about "The paperless society" back in Sweden. Computers were supposed to decimate the amount of paper we use and paper companies were trembling with fear of the future. But the effects were quite the opposite. With the invention of cheap inkjet printers and ultra fast office laser printers the paper usage went through the roof! In 1990 it would be pretty darn difficult for the average person to use up 100 sheets of A4, but today one can do that in a matter of minutes. Then when you realize the margins were wrong you throw your first print away, and print another 100pages. Easy as slicing cheese. It might not sound like it makes a big difference, but every time you buy a book online instead of purchasing it in a bookstore you save a small tree, together with all the chemicals that would have been needed for bleaching / printing and all the oil that would have been used for transporting the book to your home. Also in the future it will be easier for smaller book publishers to break through and I'm sure we'll see more specialized books and new bestsellers that would not have been given the chance to be printed otherwise.

Should you get one?

If you read two or three books per year and rarely do any reading online. Well then there's no real benefit from getting one. But if you like reading and cover a couple of books each year you'll find this device indispensible. There are numerous free books available online and you can buy new ones from websites easily enough. Maybe books aren't your cup of tea, maybe you just do a lot of surfing and reading online? Again this is one of the best uses for the Bebook, you can read anything from technical reports to game guides and newspapers.  It's such a handy device to use together with a computer that it's only a matter of time before these become mainstream. Basically, if you like reading; get one, you won't regret it.

"Bebook on the beach of Sri Lanka doing what it does best"