book reviews and ebooks http://thebooxreview.com All about books and ebook reviews Tue, 08 Jun 2010 15:16:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Sony Ebook Reader Review (PRS 600) http://thebooxreview.com/sony-ebook-reader-review-prs-600 http://thebooxreview.com/sony-ebook-reader-review-prs-600#comments Tue, 08 Jun 2010 15:10:32 +0000 admin http://thebooxreview.com/?p=59 Sony Ebook Reader – the good and the bad

The new PRS-600, available in Silver or Black is the latest and updated version of last years Sony ebook reader, the 1st thing that’s noticeable straight off the bat is the screen is way way more responsive than all of its predecessors.

The user interface is ergonomically much more pleasing on the eye and this goes hand in hand with the ease of use that comes with using it. The battery life is pretty good and the storage capacity can handle tens of thousands of digital books. Sony has implemented to storage capacity formats with the Sony PRS-600, obviously the usual Mem Stick Pro slot but also an SD slot is also included.

Utilizing 5 different font styles the ebook reader can display in PDF and Word format with zoom functional on both. It can easily double as an MP3 player aswell as an AAC playback device thanks to the onboard decoder. All of Sonys ebook libray is Mac as well as Windows compatible and will display most common image file formats.

The Sony Ebook Reader allos the user to browse through many free classic Google Books aswell as being able to tap into the local libraries vast lists of loaner files.

In this day and age Sony has neglected to include a wireless chip in the device meaning it’s cut off from the outside world and yes The Internet too. So forget about surfing the net or downloading ebooks or digital books straight to the device, you’ll need to hook it up to your PC to transfer all files. The screen is as you’d expect from a Sony device very crisp and focused but thanks to its shiny sheen coating the screen surface it does leave it open to awkard glare-backs.

USB charging will only operate when plugged into a PC, so no portable charging from an AC/DC to USB converter and forget about replacing the battery because it’s moulded into the device.

On the whole it’s an excellent ebook reader, but that is all it ever will be with it’s limited other functions and zero internet ability.

]]> http://thebooxreview.com/sony-ebook-reader-review-prs-600/feed 3 fantabulous ebooks for download http://thebooxreview.com/fantabulous-ebooks-for-download http://thebooxreview.com/fantabulous-ebooks-for-download#comments Thu, 27 May 2010 12:20:37 +0000 admin http://thebooxreview.com/?p=24 Great ebook and digital book library for your perusal

]]> http://thebooxreview.com/fantabulous-ebooks-for-download/feed 0 The aptly named Onyx Boox reader review http://thebooxreview.com/the-aptly-named-onyx-boox-reader-review http://thebooxreview.com/the-aptly-named-onyx-boox-reader-review#comments Thu, 27 May 2010 11:46:43 +0000 admin http://thebooxreview.com/?p=10

The Onyx Ebook Reader Review

Surprisingly or not the Onyx Boox ebook reader has only been released in China, I say surprisingly because it may be that their marketing strategy dictated such. The Onyx Boox does a have a few positives at first glance.

Fairly standardly these days the Boox features web browsing ability, photo viewer, music and mp3 playback, note the Wifi built in is not N series.

The battery life isn’t bad on this puppy and should give between 7 and 9 thousand page flips, generally you’ll get a good months usage from the battery if your just using it as a book reader. You’ll find an SD card reader port on the side so you can storage capacity as necessary.

The Onyx Boox readers user interface is not your typical one – it has a very similar layout to the apple ipods, looks almost identical and has a very short thumbcontroller as the center navigator with 4 rounded buttons surrounding it, this can be used simultaneously with the touch-screen.

There are a multitude of languages it supports as you’d expect and the touch screen is very accurate which you’d have to expect since it’s affiliate ties are with Wacom who make graphic tablets.

The ebook reader supports all the traditional ebook formats such as PDF and .txt (see spec list for full details) and allows upto 400% zoom. Ability to adjust the width and height of the reading area and interchanging fonts relatively easily make the device quite versatile for reading books. Annotation if required via the provided stylus is easily incorporable.

Overall it’s OK but no more than that – especially given the price, that’s probably the main reason they chose to neglect the Western markets due to competition – the price for what you get just wouldn’t stack up in the minds of an average consumer. With the Sony offerings and to be honest simply taking the Apple Iphone as a competitior the Onyx Boox doesn’t stand a chance – the Iphone can do a bazillion times more than this thing and it’s in the same price bracket.

The Onyx Boox is about 3 years to late with it’s offerings, there just isn’t a viable market for this thing as I see it.

The boox reader 60 specifications.

General

  • E Ink
  • Monochrome (16 grayscale levels)
  • 6 inches
  • 600 x 800
  • Yes
  • 166 ppi

Reading / content

  • EPUB, Adobe PDF (pdf), Plain text (txt), HTML pages (html), Mobipocket (mobi, prc), eReader (pdb)

Additional specs

Media

  • Yes
  • MP3
  • Yes
  • BMP, JPEG, PNG, TIFF

Software / platform

  • Linux
  • Yes

Connectivity

  • Yes
  • 2.0 (USB On-The-Go [host])

Storage

  • 512 MB
  • Yes
  • SD (SDHC)

Size and weight

  • 7.72 inches (h)
    4.76 inches (w)
    0.41 inches (d)
  • 10.51 ounces

Availability

  • Available
  • $349 USD

Additional specs

Power

  • Li-polymer (Removable, 1600 mAh capacity)
  • 8000
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