BeBook eBook Reader

I had been reading some very interesting things about the BeBook eBook Reader, so when it arrived in the mail, I was not disappointed. On the surface this reader from Endless Ideas BV is pretty much the same as any other. However, once you start to get a little more involved you soon realise that this is a pretty cool device with some great features that make it stand out from the rest.

As with most E-Ink readers the BeBook also uses the newer Vizplex screen technology, which gives a much brighter and faster screen. To help in displaying your books it comes bundled with its own font which gives a very solid text.

There are the normal three sizes of fonts available, although this device implements them in a slightly different way to others. At the maximum zoom setting the display switches to landscape view – this actually makes sense. If you really need the maximum font size then viewing in landscape mode will actually give a more satisfying reading experience, very clever – and particularly useful for those technical PDF documents.

One of the most common issues people have when buying a dedicated reader is regarding eBook formats and whether they will still be able to read their purchases if they change devices in the future. Well, to help relieve these concerns Endless Ideas BV have not only enabled the BeBook to view MobiPocket [DRM protected] eBooks, but also EPUB, PDF, Microsoft LIT, CHM, HTML and a plethora of other formats. Giving you more choice in where you buy your books from.

To help you organize your eBooks the reader incorporates a directory style catalogue system. This means you can organise your books in folders and subfolders, both on the device itself, or on the external SD memory card – very good if you like to carry hundreds of books around with you.

Key Features – The BeBook at a Glance

Here’s a quick rundown of the specifications;

• Connects to any computer that has USB support. This includes all modern computers, including PC’s running Windows or Linux and also the Apple Mac.
• User Changeable Battery.
• E-Ink (Vizplex) for a brighter and faster display.
• Replaceable Font – If you don’t like the inbuilt fonts then you can use your own TrueType font. The included ibook.ttf is probably good enough for most users though.
• 512 MB Internal Memory (1000+ eBooks) and SD memory card Slot (up to 4GB).
• A super light reader weighing just 7.76 ounces / 220 gram (with battery).
• 23 supported file formats: PDF, MOBI, PRC, ePub, LIT, TXT, FB2, DOC, HTML, RFT, DJVU, WOL, PPT, MBP, CHM, BMP, JPG, PNG, GIF, TIF, RAR, ZIP, MP3.
• Built-in language support for English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Chinese, Russian, Greek, Ukraine, Turkish, Japanese, Korean, Bulgarian, Estonian and Polish.
• Folder based file system, perfect for those users with a large catalogue of documents.
• Super long battery life – 7,000 pages turns.

Available eBook Formats for the BeBook

These days most electronic book readers use their own propriety eBook format, if they do support other formats it’s usually only a handful. If however you're the kind of user who has lots of eBooks/documents in varying formats then you’ll be more than happy with the BeBook. With support for 23, yes, that’s twenty-three different file formats you should be pretty much covered. Included are 15 different document formats, 5 image formats (JPG, GIF, PND, BMP, TIF), RAR, ZIP and MP3.

The biggest surprise was that they support the Windows Help file (.CHM), Microsoft Reader (.LIT) and the ePub (non DRM) formats.

At present the support on some of these formats is not perfect. For example; when trying to view one of the Microsoft .LIT dictionaries the reader did not see all the pages and was in general unhappy. But for regular books, it works perfectly.

MobiPocket eBook Format

Mobipocket is probably the largest retailer of eBooks and many people have already purchased numerous books from them. As a result Mobipocket support was recently added to the BeBook reader. This is a great addition.

Some years back I had purchased a couple of books from Mobipocket. I added the BeBook as one of my devices and downloaded The Dark Tower VII by Stephen King from my account, this worked great!

PDF eBook Format

The BeBooks PDF viewing abilities are very impressive. Most PDF documents are formatted to the A4 paper size, so when viewing on a typical E-Ink screen the text is often too small to read. The zooming feature on the BeBook however, is very good. I tested several different PDF documents, from various sources, and all of them display very well.

Last year I had downloaded some titles from WOWIO but have never read them because they did not display very well on my Sony Reader. Using a zoom level of 2 or 3 makes these eBooks more than readable – finally I can read that Isaac Newton: Lives and Legacies biography.

Transferring eBooks to the BeBook

Transferring files is a very simple and straight forward task. If you’ve ever copied pictures from a CD or USB memory stick, then you’ll have absolutely no trouble sending eBooks to the BeBook.

Important! Switch on your BeBook before connecting the USB cable.

When I connect before switching on, Windows does not recognise it as a USB device, so if you have the same problem; disconnect, switch the reader off, switch on again and then reconnect to the USB cable.

Once you’ve connected successfully, open up the file-browser on your computer and navigate to where the BeBook is located. Now you can create folders/sub folders and then drag and drop your files to where you want them. Unplug from the USB and start reading.

Transferring Mobipocket eBooks to the BeBook

If you have an account at Mobipocket then you will need to add your BeBook to the ‘My Device List’. Before you can do this you will need to get the PID number; on your BeBook press the buttons OK, 6. Settings, 4. About.

At the bottom of the About page you’ll see the MobiPocket PID number; enter this in the device settings of your Mobipocket account. Once done you can then download any books you’ve purchased and copy onto your reader.

Catalogue / Navigation

Navigating through your book collection on the BeBook is a breeze due to its directory structure system. As it uses a folder structure you can organise your books in any manner you like. You can also have subfolders, giving you even greater flexibility.

Files and Folders are shown in groups of eight and selecting them corresponds to the numbers on the keypad. There are two sets of Forward/Back page turn buttons. Two on the left-hand side and two on the keypad (numbers 9 and 0). As like other readers, holding down a page turn button down for a few seconds moves the listings along in groups of ten.

To read books from the SD card you just need to flip the BeBook to the memory card. Press the OK button and then the number 5 on the keypad.

Reading Project Gutenberg eBooks on the BeBook

Although there are many different file formats available, it is safe to presume that most books at gutenberg.org come in one of two main file types; Plain TXT and HTML, although you will also find a good number in PDF and even a few in RTF.

I tested out several titles in PDF, TXT and RTF and all these worked and looked well – the RTF was particularly nice as you get 5 different font sizes.

The HTML format from Project Gutenberg is particularly interesting. If you find a book you like that has images then download the HTML zip file and extract the contents to an empty folder on your BeBook – make sure the images folder is in the same directory as the .html file.

When you read the book you will also get to see all those images!

The Reading Experience / Conclusion

As the BeBook uses the super bright Vizplex E-Ink screen, the reading experience is naturally very good. When I place it next to my PRS-500, the screen brightness/contrast is like night and day. Navigation is very straight forward and the folder/sub folder catalogue system makes storing and navigating through many books very easy.

I’m still amazed at how many file formats are supported. Being able to load up a Windows .CHM help file is very cool and MOBI support will be a huge plus to many users who have already spent considerable money on eBooks already. The usability and support of PDF is very good, which is especially useful if you, like me, download a lot of those PDF manuals from the internet – Now I can read those TEI Guidelines without having to convert.

The BeBook is by no means perfect. Support for some of the eBook formats is not yet complete. For example; ePub books are supported but at this time they don’t seem to implement any CSS formatting. Not a real problem and hopefully they will implement more of the ePub specifications soon.

On the whole I am very impressed with the BeBook. Support for Mobipocket DRM and a multitude of other files format will make this a great option for many people.