Rating: 
Summary: Less than advertised
Review: I wish that I had waited to buy this item until a review was available. The eBookman 911 is not what I expected from the pre-release hype. The backlighting is very poor and the unit depletes batteries just laying on the desk. I keep mine plugged in all the time now so I do not lose data. That said, however, the size is perfect since I have carpal-tunnel and can't support a lot of weight with my hands. The PDA functions are comparable with my Palm IIIc and easy to use.If you are looking to buy this model, find some way to try it out first.
Rating: 
Summary: Not what I hoped it would be
Review: When I bought this item I was sure that I had finally solved my quandary of wanting a fully functional PDA combined in one unit with a versatile and easy to read Ebook. Unfortunately the Ebookman misses the mark. The unit fits in the hand very nicely and its rubberized grips make it a joy to handle. The unit is also very light which is usually the bane of electronic Ebook readers such as the Rocket Ebook or Gemstar devices. These are the pluses. The negatives soon became apparent. The downloadable OS is a nice idea but doesn't work consistently. The unit is prone to freezing and crashing making it necessary to reload the OS and setting the unit back up. You don't have to re-enter all your data but you do have to set it up for name and other specifics. Quite a pain. Another issue I have is the battery life. I realize that standard alkaline batteries are cheaper for the manufacturer but if you use this item as both a PDA and regular Ebook device you will need to replace both batteries several times a week. This is a little expensive and inconvenient in my book so I would have liked to see a rechargeable battery with the cradle being the charger. There were several other problems I had with the unit. I thought the device was very slow. I would press for actions and it would delay a half a second. This delay made games useless and data entry annoying. The display is larger than a palm but still is not quite as nice as the larger Hiebook device or Rocket ebook. The display is very difficult to read without the backlight, which exasperates its power issues. The unit does sync well with Outlook and hopefully the future versions of the OS will only improve the unit but for now I returned my unit. I also find it a bit unethical to make MS Reader one of the big selling points on the box and then only in small print read that they haven't figured out how to make it work yet. Overall a device that shows promise but doesn't deliver yet.
Rating: 
Summary: The greatest thing since sliced bread!
Review: I have had my eBookman about 3 months. I love to read. I read everyday without fail. I am also single. I like to eat out and have always carried a book with me when dining alone. My eBookman fits in my purse and is always available for reading. I can easily hold it in one hand while eating with the other. Books are in endless supply and all the classics are available for free. (See project Gutenburg on line.) I can read while waiting at a Doctor's office or while in line at DMV. It is backlit and I can even read in the dark. It's one drawback is the setup. It did not come with instructions or a user manual. I think Franklin could improve on this. The website is very helpful and I received timely replies to my few questions. It also has a few games that help pass the time. All in all, a great value for the money.
Rating: 
Summary: Not recommended
Review: I ordered this toy on before Christmas 2000 and received in Feb 2001. I was not looking for a color PDA nor another electronic organizer (My Palm III does the job well). I was looking for an E-book with large screen, MP3 player and microsoft reader. Sounds like the Ebookman. SO I tried. First I like the screen. MS reader was not available at the time. MP3 player was disappointing. One song took almost 5MB of memory. BE warned! It does not reader MP3! Everytime, you need to convert the MP3 to the Ebookman music format with the included software. And it is really time consuming. Not to mention the Audio book from Audible.com. It takes uo too much space. You will need to buy an additional memory for sure to solve the problem. I thought it will be OK. But when I download an e-book and tried to view it. The Ebookman took forever to load the book. I am using Adobe Acrobat Reader for Palm to read my PDF files. It does not take as much time as Ebookman. Pocket PC (Casio E-115 131 Mhz) does a faster job plus you get better audio quality. At this point, I think I could not solve the problem so I decided to return the product to the store.
Rating:
Summary: A truly wonderful product
Review: I've had my ebm-911 for about a week and a half now and I won't go anywhere without it. With the exception of the setup process and some problems with Mobipocket reader, which is still listed as beta software, I have had very few problems with mine. The setup was somewhat frustrating. You have to go out to the Franklin Electronics website and download the software and nowhere in the book did it say how to go about doing this. I think somehow the ebookman or your computer are supposed to tell you this but that doesn't work real well without an usb device driver installed in Windows. However if you go out to the Franklin site and click on ebookman you will find the downloading instructions. There is a nice red button to the right of the middle of the page and if you click on it it leads to very detailed instructions. There are actually two downloads involved one to download the desktop software and the other to download the OS for the device itself. The rest of the instructions are pretty self-explanatory but be sure and take note of the readme instructions after installing the desktop software as they give you instructions on installing the device driver. The final note that I have on setup is that the mobipocket reader software installs separately and you have to go to another link found on the same page as the red button. From here on out it's just a matter of exploring the software. I actually bought mine for the rather unusual reason that I love fan fiction and was bankrupting myself using up ink cartridges trying to print it out so I could take the stuff with me. This is a wonderful device for reading fan fiction. I have read html and txt files in Franklin viewer with no problems. It even nicely saves my spot when I have to walk away for a bit and will be sitting right where I left it when I turn it back on. I have also read a book in Mobipocket reader format which isn't bad but for some reason if I didn't properly exit it would take me back to page 70 instead of the page I was supposed to be on when I went back to it. Still once I learned to exit properly everything went smooth and I was able to relax and enjoy the book. Hopefully this slight problem will be addressed in the final version of the software. For the rest I am really enjoying the pda functions which for me were an unexpected side benefit and the games that you can obtain are wonderful ways to occupy your time when you are forced to wait somewhere for a few minutes. All and all outside of setup I really love this new device and my only regret is that I didn't buy it when I first found out it was on the market.
Rating:
Summary: Adequate reader, still waiting for some advertised features
Review: I have the 901 model and generally like it but have grown more frustrated with it since I received in late February. I haven't had some of the problems other mentioned, but still get frustrated with cryptic error messages that are only fixed by reset or downloading OS again. Franklin support is responsive but their standard answer is 'change the batteries' or 'download the OS', which are not adequate. I realize the unit is new and know they are working on improvements, but it's too bad marketing was allowed to advertise features that aren't available (like voice recording, storing books on the MMC, etc.) but then again that's standard marketing hype. I disagree with those users complaining about its PDA features since it's meant to be a reader first, and PDA second (plus it's cheaper) so I am not going to spend time criticizing it on these features. I find the handwriting recognition hard to use and frustrating so I use the keyboard on those rare cases when I enter data (I rather use the Outlook sync than try and enter stuff by hand). 90% of the time I use it as a reader so I don't care about the other stuff. For the price, it does this adequately (I've been an avid audio-book listener for a few years so that's the attraction), so don't compare it with $400 PDAs. Franklin's web site is awful and not nearly as easy to use as it could be (I wrote suggestions to the webmaster but he just responded with a 'thank you' and no changes were made.) Most of my books come from Audible.com and their file manager has some problems when talking to the eBookman. You have to upgrade the Audible manager to make it useful (but it still has problems). I've come close to throwing mine off a tall building more than once. I'm waiting to see what improvements will come in the next 12 months. I have no need for a full fledged PDA so for the money, and the fact that I like listening to books, this was a natural next step, it's serving its purpose. One thing I don't like about the eBookman file manager is that they use their own file names for the books (.seb) and so I can't tell what file goes with what book and I accidently delete a book I want since the file name has nothing to do with the book title. This is a small example of engineering designing for engineers and not the end user.
Rating: 
Summary: ebookman 911
Review: Good for reading electronic texts. General OS and PIM apps seem to be a little on the slow side, as well as some of the games. I only say some of the games because others seem to be incredibly speedy v. other apps. Application size is, currently, a little on the large size, and the OS/apps are, definitely, a work in progress. Pros: Best device that I have seen for reading etexts, font size v. whtat is/can be displayed. 16M plenty of room for a wide variety of texts. Franklin viewer supports Palm Apportis doc files, as well as, HTML and ASCII. Mobireader. M$ reader if it ever makes it, will go a long way towards making this the ultimate ebook reading machine. Price/resources are in good balance, and, currently, difficult to beat. (Good base memory, good screen size/quality, etc.) Decent PIM apps. (from Iambic. they do some good work...) Decent case. Seems solid and relatively rugged. CONS: Sluggish apps/processor. (Although from some game performance, I think that it may be an OS issue...) Battery compartment springs in Palm style rather than standard spring always on - terminal... Lack of content & applications. (The content part is only partly true as Palm Apportis doc format and mobireader are supported... native fub books look like they should grow to a decent level given Franklin's background. M$ reader will guarantee access to all that monopoly money can buy... ...
Rating:
Summary: EBOOKMAN911
Review: Most PDA's, on the market, have a main function of making appointments and storing contacts. Their side funtion is as an E-book reader. The Ebookmans primary funtion is as an E-book reader, that has side funtions to store contacts and appointments. E-book sellers are slowly starting to warm to the Ebookman. As mentioned in another post, Blackmask is formating for the ebookman as well as fictionwise. Since I purchased the 911 there has been a software update at Franklin's web page. The cradle now supplies a power source, so you don't waste batteries while synching. Currently the MMC can only store MP3 files, but Franklin is working on another sofware upgrade to change that. I have seen it mentioned here that some people could not get their ebookman to recognize their MMC card. Once the card is installed all you have to do is a hard reset by pressing a button on the back of the unit. This will not cause a loss of information and will get the unit to recognize the card. I have changed the batteries in my ebookman twice and have not lost any information. Franklin has received calls about this, and are extremely receptive about addressing it. So far the cases of this happening are rare. The datebook and contack list are adequate. One bonus is that I own a Cassiopeia that I synch with Microsoft Outlook. All I had to do was perform one synch and all of my contacts were on my ebookman. This can be done with palm devices as well. One of the main benefits of the ebookman is that it's operating system is not in it's ROM. The software is downloaded into RAM, which makes upgrading the ebookmans OS extremely easy. One should note that the unit ships without an OS, which is downloaded at Franklins Web page. I have a DSL connection, but this could be inconveiniant to people with modem access. The biggest selling point of the ebookman is the price. The highest end model, the 911, is only $229. This is lower than most PDA's that have less functionability. The device I bought came with a great leather case, which I think is a promotional item from Amazon. All in all, if you are looking for an Ebook reader that also functions as a PDA and not the other way around, I highly recommend the ebookman.
Rating:
Summary: There Is Nothing New Under The Sun...not here anyway...
Review: I'd like to say, "Nice try" but it wasn't. This thing is more than a little disappointing. I'm a gadget lover and this is about as much a gadget as my blender. If you want something that does the important (and even some of the not-so-important) things the ebookman does, then buy a good product like a Palm Pilot or spend a few more bucks and go with a Palm PC. The backlight is an unfortunate attempt at illumination that would be like trying to find your way through the dark in a huricane with a candle (with a very short wick). The OS isn't even loaded on the device out of the box and thus you must endure a tedious process just to get to square one--seeing something worth seeing on the screen. The text is weak, the contrast control is lacking (that's a compliment) and there is no brightness control--though what that control would effect is a mystery to me. Bottom line...save your money...MS Reader will be available on other much more worthy devices. Want a "Real" eBook? Buy the RCA REB1200 color model...not cheap, but WOW it is what it claims to be, instead of being a "wanna be." Just my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: Not ready for prime time ... beta software.
Review: This unit is ok to use as an ebook reader maybe but not as an PIM device. The screen is larger and the backlight is much better than the Palms. There is no shipping software or manual. The Mp3 music is really hard to hear using the build in speaker. The voice recorder software is not out yet. Worst yet once you remove/replace the batteries, the operating system is gone. You have to resync it with your pc cradle. The pc cradle is not well designed. You need to use both hands to operate it. The software is very buggy. Mine freezed up quite a few times. May be they can fix this in the near future. But I returned mine and continue to use my Palm IIIxe.
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