Hi all--

 

One quick note on the Rocket: If your power cord has gone out, call Fox International at 1-800-321-6993 for a replacement. If you're in the US it will cost about $33 including shipping. I don't know whether you can even get it outside the US. Don't try to go online to get it so you'll have a printout of the order; they'll just tell you to call the phone number.

 

Now to the eBookWise reader:

 

Judging from the info I have so far, its footprint is slightly larger than that of the Rocket, but it weighs less--about a pound, whereas Rocket weighs 22 oz. It's still slightly smaller than a trade paperback, though, and weighs considerably less. Some of its controls seem counterintuitive to me, but that may be just because I've used the Rocket so many years.

 

There are thousands (about 7,500 to be precise) of commercial books for those who can afford to buy them; they're at eBookWise.com, which is a subsidiary of FictionWise.com, and is presently engaged in converting all, or almost all, of its content into an eBookWise format. Some of them are new books, often bestsellers, and others are classics that are not yet out of copyright. If I had it to spend, I could spend a thousand dollars there in two shakes of a puppy-dog's tail. Alas, I don't have a thousand dollars.

 

Although loading your own content is right now rather clunky, involving upload to a server and then download through a telephone line, it is doable. You can keep your own bookshelf at the server, and download by telephone, so you don't have to take your computer on the road with you to change the books in your reader. They have their software engineers working on a direct USB download program, the kind Rocket has, but it isn't ready yet. This close to Christmas, they made the decision to make the device available now and fix the software later.

 

This is a quotation from eBookWise's propaganda sheet:

 

"In addition, the eBookwise-1150 can display your own personal content in the following file formats: plain text (.txt), rich text format (.rtf), Microsoft Word documents (.doc), HTML (.htm or .html), and Rocket eBook Editions (.rb)."

 

So that means that just about any free online book is readable on this reader, except that far under 1% that are available only in PDF. So--PG, PG Oz, Blackmask, http://www.sacred-texts.com , Phoenix-Library.com and umpteen dozen other sites are now your oyster, in a reader you can fit into any briefcase or backpack and most large-size handbags. (Phoenix-Library has good language-to-language dictionaries in a surprisingly large number of languages.)

 

It will hold only about 20 texts at a time, which was also normal for the Rocket unless you bought the extra large storage device when you ordered your Rocket. I did, and my Rocket holds about 50 texts. However, it has a slot for a SmartMedia card; I checked, and you can get SmartMedia cards holding anything from 4 mg up to half a gig. (The half-gig card costs about $250.)

 

It does not do much with illustrations, as it is grayscale only. However, it appears that at least some small illustrations can be put into it.

 

If you want one right now, go to eBookWise and create an account. Put $110 into your account. You can immediately order your machine, which will use 10 cents short of the entire $110, but it will then give you $20 in book credits. Wait to buy them until your device arrives, but you can go through and select them and put them into your cart now. Of course, you can deposit as much money as you want to into your account, and put the books into your shopping cart, to purchase when your device arrives.

 

This is not the best possible ebook reader, but it is the best presently available for anybody who is not content to read ebooks only on a computer or a PDA.

 

Anne