back to article An e-reader you HAVEN'T heard of: Cybook Ocean 8"

The e-reader market has not yet been conquered by the likes of Amazon and Kobo. There are still a number of less well known players out there making affordable or niche devices for the discerning shopper. French company Bookeen is focused on European territories with its book store, but that doesn’t mean the English-speaking …

  1. AndrueC Silver badge
    Meh

    I don't agree about the swipe action being a good thing. I much prefer to have a button under my thumbs that I can just press. That's why I've stuck with my 4th gen Kindle for so long.

  2. Cody

    Inkpad

    The comparison would be with the PocketBook Inkpad 8 inch, which seems to do far far better in direct comparison reviews. Higher res and faster. But about £150 and only available from Europe at the moment (Conrad UK used to have it but seems to be out).

    There are two 10 inch readers which seem to have their different merits, the M96, a pure Android reader, but lacking a high res screen, or the Hanvon WISEreader E920, which has high res screen but does not seem to be plain android. These are around £400 on Amazon.

    There is also the sony, but while its huge and has a high res display it is pdf only and very very expensive.

    What we need is a high res 10 inch screen, plain android, with a fast processor. Or maybe, with the new Intel stick computer, we would be OK with an e-ink monitor and run it off one of those?

    The problem with current ebook readers is not so much epub or mobi - the Kobo Aura HD seems to do fine with them. Its PDFs. Lots of stuff is only available in that form, and the Kobo 7 inch screen though very nice is just too small, and it simply will not display scanned PDFs properly at all. Well, if you are trying to carry around quite a few technical articles and manuals, this reduces you a conventional tablet. Which is fine, but its tiring to read and has short battery life, and its another thing to load down the travel bag.

    Maybe it is too small a market. Would have thought not. Large numbers of technical, legal and financial people need this.

    1. James 51

      Re: Inkpad

      My prs-t3 does a good job on pdfs. Screen is reasonable though the cover with the light is both fragile and expensive .

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Inkpad

      The big problem with the larger 9.7 to 10 inch screen units is their price. While I would love to equip all my tech people with something like the M96 rather than have them cart around stacks of paper service manuals the economics says it is a non starter.

      Price has always been the killer of larger e-readers and will remain so until the manufacturers get realistic and dump the idea that, because they are very good for technical people that need to read large PDF documents, they can charge inflated prices. Let's face it, the electronics for 6 to 10 inch devices is the same except for, maybe, the screen driver. The screens themselves are not much different in price to the manufacturer either so why the big price bump?

    3. msknight

      Re: Inkpad

      Well, the Kobo Aura H2O can't handle mobi. Chokes the thing every time, even on the ones I make myself from my own manuscripts.

      Add to that if you've got a long Wi-Fi password then the H2O can't handle it, seems to turn off wi-fi before you're finished typing.

      Also, you turn it off and when you turn it back on again, instead of going to the page you were reading ... it takes you back to the library! ... I mean, it's nice hardware and I'm loving the waterproofing, just a crying shame about the developers they hired. Wish I'd known another this reader here before I dropped the cash on the H2O.

      Oh, and the MAC address isn't on the unit, or displayed on the initial set up screen; and they don't make Linux management software, so it's "Shields Down, Mr Sulu" on your network wi-fi to find out what MAC address its broadcasting on, in order to put it in the exception list. ... because you absolutely HAVE to have an account set up, on something, in order to actually use the damn thing; and if you turn off the account ... that's your settings gone and you're back to the factory setting again, including wiping the wi-fi points you HAVE managed to configure. ... you can't just turn it on and start using it.

      And I'll stop there before steam comes out of my ears.

      1. James 51

        Re: Inkpad

        Calibre is free and does a good job of converting between mobi and epub.

  3. ChrisJakarta

    ePub version?

    "The Ocean reads ePub..."

    In such reviews, could you please indicate if you are referrring to ePub2 or ePub3? Or should we assume that you mean ePub2 unless you specify version 3?

    Thanks

    Chris

  4. Trollslayer

    Only decent 8" eReader I have seen

    I prefer an 8" display - closer to paperback size and this is the only decent one I have seen that is available.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Price: £145 RRP

    rotfl

  6. jason 7

    Erm...

    ...I'll stick with my Kindle Paperwhite thanks.

  7. Martin Summers Silver badge

    Missing a trick?

    Are these manufacturers of ebooks missing a trick? My partner and no doubt many others doesn't like using a device like this preferring to hold a real book. Why don't they make an ebook reader with 2 screens that you hold and can close up like a book. That way you can read on to the second 'page' without faffing around pressing buttons. Surely that might win people over who prefer books a bit more. Naturally they'd have to be fairly thin and light for this to work even if real books can be heavier!

    Disclaimer: I must admit I've posted this assuming no one has had a stab at making something like this.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Missing a trick?

      Martin there used to be something like that available in two sizes 6 inch and 10 inch. The only difference being that one screen was e-ink and the other LCD. Both screens had a Wacom digitiser built in to be used with a stylus.

      I got mine (enTourage Edge 10 inch) in 2010 and it is used almost every day at work since then. For some reason the manufacturer decided to sell the IP to Russia where it was, and presumably still is, being used in schools. I am now considering making my own replacement if only to be able to use a newer version of Android - Ermine being the last update available for it.

      1. Queasy Rider

        Re: Missing a trick?

        I had an 8" enTourage Edge. Thought it was a brilliant design, but was poorly implemented, lame wi-fi, lamer software. I hated using it and can see why they went belly up. Bought it on sale. Support disappeared about the same time. Said good riddance when hurricane Katrina destroyed it. Still wishing for a dual screen appliance though that's not a toy.

    2. Joe 35

      Re: Missing a trick?

      That way you can read on to the second 'page' without faffing around pressing buttons

      ========

      But not the third page, or the fifth. So, you'll just press buttons half as frequently.

      And for that, you probably pay double, get worse battery life, more weight, more inconvenient to read, and a mechanical hinge that inevitably will be far more fragile than not having a hinge at all.

      Other than that, it sounds like a great idea.

      1. Martin Summers Silver badge

        Re: Missing a trick?

        You don't have to turn the page after every single page read with a normal book and that's the point. Trying to make the electronic device better replicate the experience of what it is replacing. I take your point on being more expensive but anything new and outside the norm is until everyone buys it. That's just how things are so it's a moot point. We also have hinges on items like laptops and they don't fail frequently so I would say that's moot too.

        If some product designer got to work on it I'm sure they could overcome the things you mention. After all we have yet to see the foldable e-paper stuff being used in a product. I can imagine that would help.

        1. Cookieninja

          Re: Missing a trick?

          It's not necessary to re-create every aspect of something you're trying to replace. Books only show two pages at once because, otherwise every other page would be blank and twice as much paper would be used. Transit and storage of books in warehouses and shop would also be higher.

          The most realistic way to reduce page turning, for e-readers, is to have a larger one. For me, personally, larger sizes only really work if it's still possible to comfortably in one hand. I've not found one at a good price point, though. I've considered a kindle DX but the keyboard puts me off because I don't think I'd use it very often.

          One thing I would like, though, would be an Android E-Ink device that allowed me to install the apps for multiple book sellers. I'm considering a Nook that can be hacked to do just that.

    3. RNixon

      Re: Missing a trick?

      Well, there was the Entourage Pocket eDGe. Two 7" screens. Admittedly, one was e-ink and one LCD, for more tablet-y things. It worked well enough; I have one.

      It also seriously stunk up the marketplace and wound up being clearanced at less than cost, so apparently no one wanted one.

  8. Lexx

    Will be interesting to see what Mary Lou Jeppsen does for google as she's still working on screen technology.

    The black and white screen tech in onelaptop per child was very impressive and worked very well especially outdoors and in direct sunlight

    Did google buy pixelqi ?

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I have a Cybook Odyssey

    I have been using Cybook Odyssey for a few years, and love it. It's nice to have something that doesn't make you it's manufacturers bitch. I bought my girlfriend a Kobo before I bought that for myself and her's sometimes has trouble with some books if they've got anything odd about their contents structure. I've never had a problem with any on my Cybook.

    I also had a Booken for a wee while, but it broke quite quickly. Not necessarily it's fault - I think it got crushed by something. The Booken had noisy buttons and an awkward O/S that was fairly obvious Linux without much allowance for it's form factor.

  10. raving angry loony

    An idea gone bad

    Worst thing to ever happen to e-readers was the touch-screen. Sounds great, until you try to actually use it, at which point just moving your hand around to a more comfortable position jumps the page on you. Or you put it down (or pick it up) without first having carefully turned it off, and boom, lose your page. Or you want to read in the bath so you put it in a waterproof bag? Oh look, it doesn't bloody work at all. My wife has the Sony touch-screen. Soon as anything passes near the screen boom, lost page. Pile of shite.

    I like my bog-basic Kindle (no fucking touch screen. I hope the newer ones don't force the issue) with calibre book software. Buy books from where I like (rarely Amazon actually), read them how I like, and I can treat my e-reader like a book, but lighter and more convenient.

    1. AJ MacLeod

      Re: An idea gone bad

      I am a confirmed touch screen hater, but I have to admit that the one on my Nook (simple touch) is very good indeed, far better for me than any iPad or other tablet screen I've tried. Some of the newer Kindle screens seem to be about as good, in fact better than the horrible plasticky keyboards of the older ones. I regularly use the Nook for reading in the bath and it handles steam and water droplets no bother at all - no phantom page turns etc (though I generally use the (nicely sealed) hardware buttons for page turning in this situation.)

      1. raving angry loony

        Re: An idea gone bad

        I'm a klutz. If there's a way for me to drop something into the bath, I'll find it. Wrapping my reader in a waterproof cover (a.k.a. freezer bag with seal) is useful. To me.

        What I wouldn't mind is a touch-screen that I could turn on and off, so that I could use it only when I wanted to use it. I can think of a few uses, such as making annotations, where a touch-screen might be useful. But so far I've not seen one with a touch-screen that can be turned off.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Shopping around

    From what I've seen of them e-readers are much of a muchness and all seem to be okay for actually reading on.

    So it looks like a choice around which e-book shops you tie yourself to / cut yourself off from - is that about the size of it?

    I think I'd pay more for something that let me shop at Google, Amazon, Barnes & Noble or wherever and have all the things a buy on the same device. Is that possible?

  12. Mage Silver badge
    Headmaster

    PDFs?

    The Kindle DXG is a similar price and available internationally. I have one and it sounds like a better eReader for PDFs, it's slower than the newest Kindles (all small), but fast enough. PDFs can be slow. Often I 'reprint' a PDF using 'PDFCreator' as printer to resize, crop margins and make it faster. Or even work at all!

    Calibre sorts epub to Kindle, plug in needed for DRM content. The Adobe DRM seems to have been a load of cack on the Privacy front. I use USB to transfer to DXG and rarely use the 3G (60M per month 3rd party websites, as much as you can eat of Amazon of course, but strangely also Wikipedia, in most countries).

    Sony is sadly gone from eBooks, one of the pioneers. Frankly I was amazed to hear that any Cybook was still being produced.

    I prefer to buy "DRM free" from Smashwords, no I don't upload copies either. I also prefer real books, but use Kindle for Manuals, proof reading, very cheap eBooks and project Gutenberg.

  13. Lallabalalla

    What a turkey - somebody tell them Xmas is over.

    Lacklustre and grimy-sounding "reading experience". Virtually no content available (er - remind me again what the point of an ereader is). A bit large and slippery to be held comfortably. Also - HOW MUCH??

    Oh but it's 3mm thinner than a paperwhite. Pardon me for not rushing out to get one.

    No wonder nobody has heard of this turkey. And they never will.

  14. ppawel

    Don't buy this (yes, I bought Cybook Odyssey)

    1. If this one has a similar screen quality to Odyssey then it's extremely poor. I have Kobo Glo now and the difference is huge.

    2. There is pretty much no aftersales support from Bookeen - I used Odyssey for 2 years and there never was any software upgrade with bug fixes (and there are bugs).

    3. If you don't speak French then the book store they embed may just as well not exist - you won't find anything in English there except some public domain books that you can get anywhere for free and legally.

    In general I appreciate the efforts to offer an alternative to Amazon lock-in but this one is not worth the pain. On the other hand, I can recommend Kobo.

  15. fpassh2o

    Is it possible to download books to Pocketbook Inkbook 8 on a Mac? If so, how can books be purchased in the United States

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