Bebook Neo Unboxing no comments
Imagine a tech company that not only gets its new gadget out by the
announced date but even manages to fill the preorders a week early. This is what Bebook has done with the Neo ereader, which I received a couple of days ago.
As you can see in the pic, the Neo comes with a USB cable and quick start guide. No sleeve or cover. In fact Bebook does not yet have covers for the Neo. I suspect that nook covers might fit the Neo as the two ereaders are almost the same size, but I have not been able to try that out yet.
I like the Neo, but I have had a couple of problems. First of all, I have not yet been able to make my wireless network available to it so I have so far been
unable to use the Wi-Fi. This is disappointing as one of the interesting features of the Neo is the ebook store portal. I also have a problem with Adobe Digital Editions and have not yet been able to read a book with ADE DRM. More on that later.
Some things I like so far:
- The ereader itself seems to be well built and feels very solid; comes with a 24 month guarantee.
- When you zoom in on PDF documents your zoom is maintained when you turn pages – you don’t have to zoom in again for each page as you do with some other ereaders. There is a panning function as well.
- The Wacom – based display gives you some of the benefits of a touchscreen without sacrificing display quality.
- Both Onyx – which manufacturers the hardware – and Bebook are working to add features. The latest firmware from Onyx has been successfully installed on the Neo, and presumably the Neo firmware from Bebook will also work on the Onyx Boox 60 when it is available for download. If you prefer one firmware over another you should be able to choose.
Everything on the Neo ereader does not work perfectly yet. Unlike the nook, which when released by Barnes & Noble felt barely functional to me, the Neo is quite usable and just feels like most of the foundations of the features are in place but some of them need to be fleshed out more or further refined. Some of the problem areas I’ve found so far:
- The dictionary function needs lots of work.
- Annotation feature is not yet fully implemented. You can highlight, and on PDF documents you can do freehand drawing and notes. There is also a notepad feature where you can draw and write.
There are also a couple of features that may not appeal to some:
- No page turning buttons on the sides of the ereader. The control ring at the bottom is used instead. It works fine for me, even when reading in bed while holding the Neo with one hand, but side buttons would add convenience if you want to change position. You can also use the stylus to do a page turning swipe.
- Some do not like using a stylus. For me the stylus is much better than the screen glare associated with other types of touchscreens.
Overall I like the Neo ereader so far and think that it will be a keeper for me. My biggest problem right now is getting Adobe Digital Editions to work.
When I connected the Neo to my computer ADE asked if I wanted to activate it. I clicked yes and the program seemed to do the activation. There were certainly no error messages telling me that the activation process had been unsuccessful. However, when I tried to open a book with DRM by ADE the Neo was unable to open it. So I reconnected and Adobe asked me again if I wanted to activate the ereader. I went through this process several times, tried deleting the book and reinstalling it with the same result. Then Adobe spit out the “too many activations” error. So I had to submit a service ticket to Adobe and am waiting for them to reset my counter so that I can try again.
When looking at Adobe’s DE forums I find a number of people there with the same problem with various brands of ereaders or with their computers. Many are irate because they are waiting a long time for Adobe to fix their problem by resetting their account and cannot access books they have paid for in the meantime. This is DRM hell of the worst possible kind. Adobe really needs to get this straightened out. One poster even asks if Adobe works for Amazon and gets rewarded for converting people into Kindle buyers.
