Customer Reviews

Franklin EBM-901 eBookman (Metallic Black)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

I preordered this from Amazon back in early December and finally received it last week. After playing with the EBM-911 for a week, this is my impression of it.

The Good: Big screen size compared to other PDA's. The ability to listen to music and audio books as well as basic PDA functions. The main reason I bought this thing was for its ebook capabilities. I had my doubts but reading on the eBookman is not bad at all, the text is very sharp and clear. I just hope Microsoft releases the MS Reader soon so I can actually start downloading stuff I actually want to read since there is not that many titles available in the Franklin reader format.

The Bad: If anyone is thinking of buying this primarily for its mp3 capabilities, don't. You would be happier getting a dedicated MP3 player. The eBookman doesn't play mp3's; you'll need to convert your mp3's to Franklin's proprietary compression format. I can live with that but wish the sound quality was a tad better. The two songs I transferred sounded a bit worse than FM quality. Also, on my unit there was a high-pitched humming noise that was emitting from the tiny speaker. It's not noticeable at all unless it is totally quiet in the room, very annoying if you are trying to read in bed. The eBookman is not easy to setup, you'll need to download the manual from Franklin since the quick start guide included in the box is useless. Buggy software.

The Ugly: I just changed the battery the other day and everything was gone when I turned the unit back on. I had to transfer the OS and applications all over again! I removed the battery two more times to see if it would happen again and it did. Imagine that you are on a trip and do not have access to the computer that syncs with your eBookman and your battery runs out...can you say screwed big time? I understand now why they sell the power adapter accessory for the eBookman.

I like the features that the eBookman has, it is everything that I would want or use in a PDA but I don't know if I would have purchased it if I had known about the issue with the battery. Losing all of its memory every time you change the batteries is a big problem.

I've read other reviews for this product that have people complaining about losing their data when the batteries are changed. THIS IS NOT TRUE if you're carefull. First of all, my ebookman came with a bright blue warning flier stating that your ebookman needs to be turned OFF when you change the batteries. Pretty simple, huh? Also, don't wait for your battery to completely die before you change it. The main menu screen has a battery meter in the bottom right hand corner, and I just switch out the batteries when the meter reaches 10%. I primarily use my ebookman to read ebooks and I love it!

I think Franklin has done good job in sensing the eBook readers have great potential in near future. The eBookMan seems to have arrived a bit earlier, though. The lack of documentation is really disappointing, especially this is eBook reader, after all: I expected that the manual will be in the device itself! Well, the good side is that it can at least easily be fixed in future releases. Here are few advices to other enthusiasts:

- Do not expect easy start; eBookMan will be probably great after another few months. Since it is mainly the software that needs improvement, you may consider purchasing the device now and playing with it;

- Publishers should wait for Microsoft's reader release; the Franklin viewer does not justify investments yet; then again, there is also a MobiPocket reader, so consider that as well.

- Consumers, buy from Amazon, not from Franklin's website: it's cheaper and arrives faster (I got mine from FEP, I know)

- Form factor is good for reading ebooks, screen is clear and if you don't mind the high pitch in quiet rooms it's OK

- Get the 911 model, the 901 does not have enough memory!

- There are still only few places you can get any additional info/software for the eBookMan: I highly recommend the Yahoo! egroup "eBookMan", which was created recently by eBookMan enthusiasts; they have growing list of resources for the device, eBook references and eBookMan third-party application sites

Conclusion: eBookMan has a lot to grow yet, but I think what matters is that the concept beyond it allows for it; it will come at no cost to Franklin and customers to continue upgrading the experience. At present, it is unclear whether Franklin will be able to hold to it, but it surely has a chance.

The eBookman is a nifty little package with a slim profile but a large screen so graphics and text are easily readable. It has the basic features of a PDA (address, to do, memo), an easy to learn and reliable natural handwriting recognition system, plus additional features (the best of which is that it can play MP3s). In spite of this, its irritating to find out that, after loading in all its applications, there is barely enough memory to load in additional content (eBooks, MP3s, AudioBooks). No wonder its memory is expandable ... for the right price. Plus, it uses as a power source 2 AAA batteries which, as Ive found out, lasts less than two weeks before you have to replace them. Worse of all, if you're unlucky enough to not replace the empty batteries within 1 minute, you'll lose everything loaded in the eBookman including the OS. When this happens, its back to square one for you and you'll just have to reload the OS, applications and backup data from your PC.

I bought the eBookMan for reading books, not for PDA functions or an mp3 player. If I wanted that stuff I would have bought a PDA or mp3 player. Having them in the EBM is just a bonus that I don't take advantage of.

That said, this is a great device for reading ebooks! I can see several common complaints so this device probably isn't for someone who isn't very tech-savvy. True, the documentation is sparse and you have to download the OS(what a bonus though, you get the latest OS and applications!) but it's not terribly difficult. Some people have problems losing everything when they change the batteries and I had this problem also. One call to Franklin support and they sent me a new eBookMan to replace my old one. The new one did not have the same problem. The battery life is fairly short but NiMH rechargables while on the go and using an AC adapter while at home keeps you from going through tons of batteries. The backlight is far from useless, it is absolutely perfect for night reading!

Content was an issue as well. Not for me personally, though, as I found tons of stuff to read between Project Gutenberg free etexts and little science fiction publishers. Now with the latest version of MobiPocket Reader you can buy and download secure MobiPocket eBooks. This should result in a lot more "mainstream" national best seller books being released under the Secure MobiPocket format. Don't forget I get daily news from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Onion and zdnet courtesy of MobiPocket. There are tons of news magazines/papers/online news that you can get.

I also recommend anyone who owns the EBM or is interesting in purchasing check out the eBookMan Yahoo group. You'll find lots of info as far as where to get ebooks and also cool applications that people have developed for it!

Don't buy this for a PDA. If you love reading and think you can handle a little futzing with the tech part of it I recommend this product!

I purchased the EBM-901 along with a 32MB MMC to be used primarily as an e-book reader and secondarily as an MP3 Player.

It was a thorough disappointment. It's far too small to be an effective e-book reader, the titles available limited and the text itself plain ASCII text. To be an e-book reader it should be at least twice the size (like RCA's reader). It's a glorified organizer with a purely ASCII text reader funtion.

As an MP3 player it was abysmal. The sound quality is terrible, it CANNOT directly play MP3s, it must convert them. Converting and loading the music files takes a long, long time.

At half the present price it would not be worth it.

I bought the Ebookman 901 without knowing anything about it, and I have been very pleasantly surprised at how versatile it is. Just add a 128 MB MMC card (which are now pretty reasonable on E-bay) and you can have 2 hours of music to go! I have another 64 MB MMC card in it on which I have all the books I have downloaded. A 64 MB card will hold almost 100 regular books! The MobiPocket Reader is great for casual reading, and the Franklin Reader has all the navigation features to make it great for references. I can read any book in HTML or TXT format, and there are thousands for free on the web. The Ebookman also has some nice accessories like a car stereo adaptor and an AC adaptor for home use. The PDA functions like Address Book and Memo Book and Date Book are very handy. There are some really fun games. I take this unit when I am traveling, and am never bored. I think if you read the manual and learn how to use it properly, you will love this device. And now you can find them on E-bay and Heartland America for less than 50 bucks. WOW!

The eBookman is a great little product. I use it everyday to and from my commute in the city. And I can't believe I've lived without it for so long.

A lot of complaints mentioned in the previous reviews have either been resolved, or can be resolved via operating system upgrades. As for having to download the OS, Franklin can also easily change their packaging of the product to include an install CD, etc. No big whoop.

As for installing the OS, nothing can be simpler. I put the EBM in its cradle, downloaded the OS and ran the exe. I exported all my data from my previous organizer to Outlook then synced. Easy as pie. Really ! And I am not a PC expert by any means. I'm more of a Unix person.

The current ebook reader software is quite good (Mobipocket Reader and Franklin Reader), there is a growing list of content provider links for the 2 reader formats. The MP3 player is quite good. Improvement in the compression algorithm is required (they convert mp3 to their own music file format), but that's just an OS upgrade as well. They can also improve the battery usage of the music player. Otherwise, battery life is adequate. Just buy a bunch of NIMH batteries.

I was one of the few EBM owners who experienced a battery problem. But Franklin has responded very well to this issue and provided a free exchange (shipping paid for returns). The key is to make them aware of problems, and be persistent. They are very concerned about making this product a success.

The only complaint I have has to do with the screen glare. In a brightly lit room, it can be difficult to see the text on the screen. I'm hoping that there is some kind of screen glare protection that might work adequately.

BTW, my new EBM has absolutely no hum.

BOTTOMLINE: Do yourself a favor and get this PDA. (I would recommend the 911 over the 901, since currently some files cannot be stored in the MMC, but that will change). It's a great little product (did I say that already?).

I bought it on clearance ... So far I love it. The screen is decent, could be better, but it is backlit for night use. I found a good version of the KJ bible, some other free books from the franklin site. I also found a nice little editor to create text files, a solitare game and a Majongg game. I even found a site that had an interpeter for the old infocom games. For what I want an EBook reader and simple PDA features (address book, Memos and calendar) it works great. Also the text editor I downloaded is nice. I do some freelance writing on the side and it's nice to be able to use the editor to take some notes, then pull those over to the PC and use them. I also found a Linux Synch program so it can be used on that OS as well. I was trying to stay in a budget, but if you can afford it I would recomend the 911 with 16 meg. The 901 is decent I have everything on it (I did delete the stalagmite game that came on it) plus a KJ bible both testaments, Tapwrite, Solitare, Majongg, Princess of Mars (ebook) and 6 or 7 text files I created myself. I have 1268K free. Both readers have thier good and bad points. Good thing is you can find e-books for both. 'Princess of Mars' is in Mobi format (Which can also read Palm Doc) and the bible is in Franklin. One nice thing about the Franklin reader is that you can tell it to use Landscape so you have wider screen to use for reading. The screen is bigger than your low end Palm Zires. For the money It can't be beat. I am going to get a card for it so I can move the books and some of the apps and free up memory, but even with 8 meg it handles all my basic needs. I haven't tried the audible books or MP3 player options, but I really did'nt buy it for that. The bonus pack is nice It has a cradle, 3 spare stylus a power adapter and other various things. For ... the original price, you MIGHT be better off with a 16 meg Zire, but if you can get it on sale it's more than worth the money.

One thing to be aware of is that when you change the batteries you need to have it connected to a PC or the AC adaptor, because there is no backup battery. If it is not connected to a powered device you will loose everything in memory once you take the
batteries out. I have been getting almost 2 weeks on a pair of batteries, depending on use.

If you're looking for a PDA with e-book capabilities, then you might want to consider a Palm/PocketPC/Zaurus- if you're looking for an e-book reader with some PDA features, this may be the one you're looking for. The PDA functions are adequate, but are a little primitive compared to other offerings and you don't get reminders, etc. which limits the usefulness of the PDA functions. It does, however, excel at e-books; Franklin and Mobipocket format books are supported and I've been taking advantage of Baen's free library offerings. This model gets four stars because it's a little limited once the OS and apps are loaded- only about 3Mb of usable ram is available. Get a Multimedia Card and/or get the EBM-911 with it's 16Mb of RAM if you're going to be serious about the use of this PDA/E-book reader.