Copyright © 2007 Gigi Reynard

When I got my Cybook . I made a very adult decision to wait until the weekend to actually play with it. I was planning to take Friday off so I figured that I woulld have some extra time to get the thing to work. But then I made three big mistakes:

Mistake 1: I had to at least open the box and plug it in. After all, it does take three hours to charge.

Mistake 2: I picked it up -- you know, just to move it. I knew it was light but I struck with how light 6.3 oz. really is!

Mistake 3: Since it was in my hand, it seem logical to turn it on -- just to see if it really works. I am happy to report that it works.

The system came up quickly and all of the sudden I was in the Library -- thirty six preloaded files. The view was wonderful: clean, crisp and easy to read. Made me remember why eInk is such a big deal even if it isn't backlit.

And that was it. . .

I started playing. First, the big button on the front. It acts as a combine directional navigation and "Enter" key. Pretty miminalistic but effective. I found six small buttons on the sides (4 on the left and 2 on the right) with tiny unreadable (to these old eyes) symbols on them. I am quite intrigued by them especially, since they remain the "mystery" buttons on the device.

The half page quick start guide made a point of telling me that all would be clear if I read the User's guide. Despite my basic notion that anything that requires a manual is badly designed, I was actually willing to give it a whirl. So I scrolled around the Library looking for it.

Found music files, book files and picture files including one entitled "How eInk Works". No user guide! I went back through the titles 3 times, just in case I missed it.

Took a quick detour to email Bookeen asking about the User Guide. Got a very quick response (impressive) telling me that they would be sending it out to me today in eBook form.

Back to the eBook. Figured I would just start pushing the buttons and find out what happens. So this is what I found out:

one button takes you to the Library; one button allows you to navigate in a book (start, find page, change layout, change font and add bookmarks); one seems to control music. The other three? Who knows? Guess I will have to wait for the user guide.

The device does not have a touch screen or stylus and I found that I actually miss them. I am in such a habit of poking and sliding around a screen that it felt strange not to be able to.

Very disconcerting to me (a creature of habit).

I dipped into all the files on the device. . . pretty cool stuff. The thing that impressed me the most is that the page change is fast and smooth. No waiting, no ghosting and no jumpiness.

I had to buy at least one book. At this point you don't really think I would be able to wait until the weekend to download a book, do you? Of course not!

The entire process (including looking for books) took less than five minutes. It was the absolute easiest time I have ever had putting an eBook on a new device! Bottom line, I feel like I'm in a Staples ad: That was easy!

All my pushing buttons in an effort to figure things out was actually worthwhile when I went to download a book.

On your Mark: One of the things I discovered, sort of by accident, was the Mobipocket PID for the device. In case you are wondering here is what you do to find it: open any Mobipocket demo book; push the 2nd button on the left; scroll down the table to the Advanced tab; then scroll down to the About tab. Voilà (had to get at least one French word in here)!

Get Ready: Connected the USB cord to my laptop, plugged the other end into the device and switched the Cybook on. Before long I was notified that I had new hardware ' Cybook Gen 3. Just to check, I pulled up the file manager and it there it was ' drive G on my machine. So far so good!

Go: Clicked on my handy eBooks About Everything icon, browsed the new releases put two Books -- Never Enough by Joe McGinniss and Telling Secrets by Frederick Buechner-- in my shopping cart and checked out. They showed very quickly on my bookshelf and I was ready to download them into the My eBooks file. Next, I fired up the Mobipocket reader and it found and registered the Cybook device in seconds. After that, it was a simple matter of importing the files into the reader and finally, storing them on the device.

As I started to read, using the big button on the right side of the device to change pages took a little "getting used to." My habit is to turn the page on the left side or by using a button in the middle of the device. But getting used to this new method didn't take as long as I would have thought.

I experimented with font size, type family, page layout and lookup mode. I also figured out that once in a book, the center of the big button would take me to the eBook menu so I didn't have to fumble around with those little buttons on the side.

All in all this has been a good experience and I am a happy customer. Sure there are a few changes and/or improvements I would like to see, but they are relatively minor and do not impact my overall satisfaction.

Thumbs up! Good job, Bookeen!

Gigi Reynard is CEO of eBooks About with fifty-seven eBook outlets including eBooks About Everything. She turned bookseller after a 25-year career in computer software development and electronic publishing. She also like to add that she has over 50 years as a avid reader. Gigi lives in Southern California with her writer husband, Henri, their cat, computers, electronic gadgets and thousands of (paper) books.