Rating: 
Summary: save your money
Review: i very much looked forward to the release of the ebookman and have had nothing but disappointment. i'm on my 4th ebookman unit (it was released only a year ago) due to various malfunctions. the sound quality is so poor you need earphones or have to hold it next to your ear and even then at the loudest level you'd better be in a quiet room to hear anything. picture quality is poor. hard to see display in certain light. microsoft reader is now never going to be avaiable for ebookman so you're stuck reading second-rate authors in limited genres such as romance and science fiction. a few simple games have been released such as card games but that's all it have outlook synch capabilities but not for outlook express so that an additional cost. there are far better pdas out there for about the same price with far more function and capablities!
Rating: 
Summary: Stay away from e-bookman
Review: I bought the e-bookman because I did not want to shell out money for a pocket pc. I should have spent the extra money because the e-book man is a total waste of money. The other people that reviewed this item must work for Franklin.There are three main reasons why you should stay clear of the e-bookman. 1. I've had the device for two full days and already I've had two corrupt files. I just lost all that I wrote in the to do file. That is a weeks worth of to do's. The Date Book was also corrupted. Franklin's response is that there are errors in the Operating System. Why you would put out a program that is full of bugs is beyond me. 2. The e-bookman is sold with 8mb of memory. When I registered the device they sent me all this free software. The device could not carry the load of the free material. Why would you put out a product with so little memory. 3. There are no books for the e-bookman. Sure you can have books that were written 100 years ago but if you want a new release you are out of luck. They are not and I repeat, ARE NOT, going to come out with a version of MS Reader for the device. That means that you will not be able to buy books published by the main publishers. You will be stuck with writers you have never heard of. So why you might ask, did I rate this device a 2 instead of 1 star. The reason is because I love books. My BA is in English and Franklin did do a good job of putting out enough free books (Books whose copyright ran out.) to keep me busy. And the mobipocket program, which is not by Franklyn seems to be working with out becoming corrupted. If you love book you could tolerate the e-bookman. But if you ask me, get a pocket PC.
Rating:
Summary: Almost a great book reader, but ...
Review: I bought one of the first one of these -- and returned it. It's almost a great book reader, and with the sci-fi e-books at (...) I was looking forward to one of these, however the screen is just too reflective. It's hard to make out the words, and the backlighting is not near as good as on my palm. I liked it because of its screen size meant that it was a better choice for e-books than a traditional pda. I thought that it worked pretty well for its intended purpose. But in the end, the screen was just too hard to read under varying light conditions. If this is fixed, I'd be happy to go back to it. I would pay more for the same unit with an upgraded screen with good backlighting.
Rating:
Summary: REALLY ZERO STARS - SAVE YOUR MONEY
Review: Basically, this product is a ripoff on consumers. I am sticking with my Palm m505, which is much more versatile and a REAL PDA, not like this TOY, as well as a fine ebook device. Following is a copy of a note I sent on to Mobipocket, the eBookman ebook reader of choice now, and copied Franklin on. Too bad, because this was a great idea that had extremely poor execution. SAVE YOUR PRECIOUS DOLLARS, FOLKS................................. A NOTE TO MOBIPOCKET AND FRANKLIN:
Hi. This is just a note on my experience with an eBookman. Sad to say I owned an eBookman for all of 14 hours before returning it to an accommodating store that gladly took it back and said they would not carry it anymore. What a terrible product! Not only did I go through two sets of AA batteries in less than 5 hours, but also the responsiveness was so slow I waited nearly 20 to 30 seconds for your Reader to open a book from the SD card. And the backlight was less than useless! Worse, the selection of current books is virtually NIL. I love your Reader, but you should know that it works far better on the Palm than on this TOY device. I get a full refund, thank goodness, but had to tell you that I think you are hurting yourselves being associated with this product, which is basically a fraud on knowing consumers. I bought it for the larger screen, but nothing else about it is worth anywhere near what Franklin is charging, even at the reduced price. Frankly, I would not give this to my children, it would be an insult to their intelligence to have to fool around with the device. Take this for what it is worth, but I will see you on my Palm from now on! Thanks.
Rating: 
Summary: I love this thing, and I guess I'm one of the few who do
Review: ... Pure and simple: I bought ebookman 911 'cause it reads books. I have a whole pasel of 1930's pulp fiction stories in my pc and i don't like being stuck reading in front of it. Ebookman allows me to read in a comfortable environ. The screen is huge, the fonts r big and comfortable and now i can relax and read all those fun electronic books. This product is great because you don't have to sit there and buy ebooks, there is an application called franklin viewer that reads text and html files. The fun thing about that, is that there r tons of sites w/ loads of free books on them right for the taking. I mean why pay for an electronic copy of Dracula when you can get it free? I've downloaded a whole bunch of edgar allen poe stories. More cool ideas . . . write a report or whatever, copy and paste it in notepad or wordpad, save this copy as a text, shoot it to ebookman and now you can see your material on the go, whether its a list or a short story. The product features 16 meg memory, huge for books and its expandable, again, don't buy this for a mp3 player, if you want one of those, buy one of those w/ the right memory qualifications and features.
The bad, they say if you pull the battery, plunk, you lose your memory, mine didn't do it, and i tested it on purpose! Maybe that prob is fixed . . . but if it doesn't, well, try this, buy the adapter. I mean people whine and whine, but look at it this way, those pocket pcs w/ rechargeable batteries will lose all memory if you run them out; which is kinda like what happens when you yank out your batteries in the machine. If you have the adapter that plugs in the wall . . . you have an external power source, you can replace the batts and machine doesn't know. Don't say the adapter isn't a great idea, it is, especially if you do lots of reading at home. You're on the run, business, personal? If you can take the ebookman you can take the adapter; afterall guys, there r lots of outlets in the world! Take spare batteries w/ you, and be aware of the power already in the machine. There's a meter which tells you.
The only bad thing i have to say concerns the set up. The machine should be already set up for you, but it is not. If you turn it on, you get a demo, and the quick set up sheet should be thrown away as it is zero help. To help you out, go to franklins web site under setting up your ebookman, read it first. Download the files your pc needs, then hook up the cradle and your machine, then you have to download the operation file for the ebookman, I accidently did that; but knowing that, you're better off than i was. That was the only crummy thing, plus i had a problem w/ one of my drivers for it, but now that i have it up and running, its irreplaceable. Again, 'cause it bears repeating, ebookman mainly reads books, I don't use it as an organizer, 'cause I already have one, I don't use it for mp3, because I don't use them, I don't use it for digital voice messages, because i have one of those, I have it for books, books, and more books. Thats all i want it for. I love it, no matter what anybody else says.
Rating:
Summary: I love this thing, and I guess I'm one of the few who do
Review: Do you ever wonder what is in a persons mind when they buy something for the wrong reason, or expect a product to do things A+ in areas in which it doesn't specialize. This is ebookman, an ebook reading machine, that is its main function; its speciality. Its like doctors, there r specialists who hone in on one thing. People who rate this product as bad expecting it to be a wonderful pda organizer or mp3 are whacko. I love some of these reviews that explain and explain, taking up more room about the shortcomings of the things the machine doesn't specialize in. Pure and simple: I bought ebookman 911 'cause it reads books. I have a whole pasel of 1930's pulp fiction stories in my pc and i don't like being stuck reading in front of it. Ebookman allows me to read in a comfortable environ. The screen is huge, the fonts r big and comfortable and now i can relax and read all those fun electronic books. This product is great because you don't have to sit there and buy ebooks, there is an application called franklin viewer that reads text and html files. The fun thing about that, is that there r tons of sites w/ loads of free books on them right for the taking. I mean why pay for an electronic copy of Dracula when you can get it free? I've downloaded a whole bunch of edgar allen poe stories. More cool ideas . . . write a report or whatever, copy and paste it in notepad or wordpad, save this copy as a text, shoot it to ebookman and now you can see your material on the go, whether its a list or a short story. The product features 16 meg memory, huge for books and its expandable, again, don't buy this for a mp3 player, if you want one of those, buy one of those w/ the right memory qualifications and features.
The bad, they say if you pull the battery, plunk, you lose your memory, mine didn't do it, and i tested it on purpose! Maybe that prob is fixed . . . but if it doesn't, well, try this, buy the adapter. I mean people whine and whine, but look at it this way, those pocket pcs w/ rechargeable batteries will lose all memory if you run them out; which is kinda like what happens when you yank out your batteries in the machine. If you have the adapter that plugs in the wall . . . you have an external power source, you can replace the batts and machine doesn't know. Don't say the adapter isn't a great idea, it is, especially if you do lots of reading at home. You're on the run, business, personal? If you can take the ebookman you can take the adapter; afterall guys, there r lots of outlets in the world! Take spare batteries w/ you, and be aware of the power already in the machine. There's a meter which tells you.
The only bad thing i have to say concerns the set up. The machine should be already set up for you, but it is not. If you turn it on, you get a demo, and the quick set up sheet should be thrown away as it is zero help. To help you out, go to franklins web site under setting up your ebookman, read it first. Download the files your pc needs, then hook up the cradle and your machine, then you have to download the operation file for the ebookman, I accidently did that; but knowing that, you're better off than i was. That was the only crummy thing, plus i had a problem w/ one of my drivers for it, but now that i have it up and running, its irreplaceable. I love it, no matter what anybody else says
Rating: 
Summary: A great thing to have
Review: I am an avid book reader. I am always carrying around several books with me so that when I finish the current one I am reading, I have others to pick from for the next. I wish this had been around 10 years ago when I was going up to the mountains for a week vacation. Most of my packing would be of books. I've had this reader for several months and yes, I have gone thru the battery problem (Franklin replaced the ereader) and memory problem (have ordered the 64 mb MMC card). I have 84 books stored on the reader and its handy to keep in my pocketbook to pull out whenever I'm stuck somewhere and have some free time. There are a lot of websites out there (RFI WEST - one of the best) where you can download HTML books. There are some great authors out there that I would have missed if I hadn't bought the reader. The Franklin people have been wonderful in the time they have taken to help me with the problems in the beginning. By email, and by phone call - the tech took as much time that was needed to help me thru the problems. If I had a complaint about the reader it would be that the battery runs out too quickly, but it does give you a warning when you are getting very low and need to change it. At home I just use the adapter so I can save the batteries. At night, when my husband wants to sleep and I want to read, the backlight is a great feature. All in all - it was a lot of money to spend getting it all together with the memory card, adapter, etc. but I am very satisfied with this product and would highly recommend it. I would have rated this 5 stars, but Franklin has still not yet issued the Microsoft Reader software which I have been looking forward to and which they promised for 2001. When they do - this unit will be worth a 6!
Rating:
Summary: too much trouble for the price
Review: I bought the ebookman to use as a PDA and for easy access to the Physician Desk REference. Even when not in use the product goes thru batteries faster than I can recharge them. I have had it replaced once and still cannot replace the batteries without losing all the data. I certainly would not but another one.
Rating:
Summary: What's in a name?
Review: The ebookman is an excelent ebook reader although you might want to download the third party mobireader, publisher and news software to see it shine. As a PDA its basic but quite useable. As a reader it has a crisp, large screen, is reasonably quick and has loads of memory for content. Don't buy it as an MP3 player although it does handle sound, buy it as the best value for money ebook reader on the market and with its "open" software architecture you will end up with some cool PDA fuctionality in the near future.
Rating: 
Summary: Good for reading on crowded subways, but needs improvement
Review: I bought the E-bookman so that I could read books on the subway when there is no elbow room and I only have one hand free to hold the book-reader and turn pages. Except for the flip-top protective panel, which tends to flop down over the viewer instead of locking in the up-position, I am happy with the device as a book-reader for long commutes. Downloads of books are fast, even with a modem connection. Lots of classic Literature titles are free. However, setting the device up and loading the software was not as easy as it should have been. As a database administrator, I can usually solve installation problems on my own, but in this case I had to contact technical support. Telephone support is only available 9-5 on weekdays, a little inconvenient for customers who work away from home during the day. Franklin did respond to my emails; the advice was good, but wasn't enough for me to fix the problem. Through hours of trial and error, I finally got the device to stay connected to the computer long enough to load the software. Then I lost everything (operating system and book files) when I replaced the batteries a week later. I'm sure that I made some mistakes, but I believe that gadgets like these should be fool-proof and easy for both techies and non-techies to configure. Anyone considering purchasing this should also read the review of PDAs in Consumer Reports.
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