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Sony EBR-1000EP LIBRIé
 | Sony EBR-1000EP LIBRIé Date: April 2004 — US$419 — Electronics Rating: |
Yesterday my Sony LIBRIé finally arrived!
Specifications
I'm not one to redo well-done work, so here's the link to the WikiPedia page.
Delivery
I had been staring nervously at the Tracking page, which currently still thinks the device is stuck at Schiphol Airport or something, but when I arrived home a strange looking thick white envelope was waiting for me.
YES! Once again, the guys at Japan-Direct came through!
This is twice I've ordered something from them. They respond well to you, they are friendly and nice, and:
"You may have noticed that the box in which your product was shipped
isn't new. That's because we support recycling and try be
environmentally conscious by re-using shipping materials."
Yeah... Thanks though! Never had a problem with customs because of it, which is nice considering the value.
I've given Dynamism a shot both times as well, but Dynamism never responded with a quote the first time, and responded badly the second time and the info they gave me regarding the adapter turned out to be completely incorrect.
LIBRIé's Adapter
It was supposedly not included and 120V. It actually ís included as it says @ Japan-Direct ànd it's just a matter of plugging in another plug format and it works, because it is 100-240V. Better yet, the output is 5.2V, which is so close to the USB specs that Deadsunrise has a manual on how to power LIBRIé over USB!
I've yet to try that out, but I assure you that I will!
Getting LIBRIé To Speak English
But first we had to learn it how to speak English, as it of course only speaks Japanese upon delivery by Japan-Direct. Dynamism does this for you for an extra $60,-, but all things considered it's just peanuts once you know what to do.
First off, I went to the LIBRIé Language Translation Project and got the English firmware, the How-To and the ZIPs for the tools (although the process demands the bsdiff program, I checked the md5sums with the other package as well. Don't want an expensive paperweight!), and the official firmware patch 1.0.00.06160.
Then I just followed the instructions in the How-To. Although everything went as smooth as a baby's bottom it wouldn't hurt to mention that the LIBRIé reboots a couple of times, and that it's a rather lengthy process. During the reboots it also looks like the progress bar is stuck, but it isn't. So: patience! Don't think it has failed too soon!
Of course the buttons are all in Japanese too, so I simply printed the first table from the Librie reference and glued it on the inside of the fold, which makes for an exact fit.
[Edit 01-09] I personally find that flap rather annoying when reading, I'll be looking out for a leather casing or something to put it in instead.[/edit]
LIBRIé Display
Of course the single most interesting thing about the LIBRIé is it's E-Ink display developed together with and produced by Philips. I've already seen one of these babys in prototype at CeBIT 2003, and back then it left a lasting impression on me (I fell for the "there's a sticker on it" feeling, until the display changed. Incredible WoW!-factor).
True enough: The display does what it promises to do. It reads like paper. No backlighting, no refresh rates, no viewing angle. If you're not truly amazed by what I've said now, don't buy one, and stop reading now ;-)
However, I do have a comment on the display, and that's that it clearly has some shadowing problems with menu's and pictures. Other than that it's just plainly baffling and amazing.
LIBRIé Standards Support
Sony is one of those companies who likes to think up proprietary interfaces, protocols and standards. They did so with MiniDisc and ATRAC3, they did so with Memory Stick, they did so with Super Audio-CD and now they're doing it again with the BroadBand eBook format, or BBeB for short.
This is the only format supported by LIBRIé. Besides that it has a Memory Stick (Pro) slot and a USB-plug with proprietary drivers for access through the software only, not standard Mass Storage or anything.
LIBRIé Sony And Other Official Software
The reason for my two-star deduction stems solely from the fact that Sony is fucking up badly here. They invented their own proprietary format, yet it's only available in Japan! By this time Sony finally released some tools of their own, downloadable from the LIBRIé site. The main software needed to communicate with the LIBRIé is downloadable there as well.
However, for all that stuff you'll need a Sony ID, acquiring one is rather tiresome, but here's help.
Optionally, the LIBRIé WiKi can be of assistance here, providing direct-download links and a short overview of the different tools out there.
Although difficult to dig up, there's a few details everyone should know about these programs: They are inefficïent at converting, for some the active USB-connection to the LIBRIé is mandatory, and they don't provide a full list of features. Using the Printer, for example, won't give any opportunity to format the header data, but what's worse, no indexes or even zoom features are available.
Though relatively handy as emergency tools, this just wouldn't do.
The best tool of them all seems as of yet to be the Canon Book Creator, for which a 365-day trial can be downloaded. However, after installing the MS Office XP Japanese Language Pack (for which Office XP isn't a requirement oddly enough) and adding support for Japanese and other East-Asian languages in Windows XP on a number of levels the trial still starts complaining about missing fonts (apparently there's supposed to be a 30MB file with fonts, it just isn't there and I take it that's where my problem is), so I can't get it to work yet, but I'll keep you posted.
[Edit 01-09:] In the readme of the English translation of this program, kindly provided by LibrieGuy, het outlines three solutions. It appears that the last one (setting Windows to treat all non-Unicode programs in Japanese) did the trick for me. However, this has some strange side-effects and occasionally just plainly crashes the program without an error at all. The Office XP Language Pack was a bad idea because I installed it after the Windows support for Asian languages, which is de facto almost the same and overwrites some stuff with older versions.[/edit]
To translate (a number) of these programs (partly) into English, the Yahoo Librié User Group proved to be extremely helpfull, along with linking a number of other programs which come in mighty handy.
3rd Party Free And Open (Mostly) Source Software
In the section "Content Generation" of the Yahoo LIBRIé group there are a number of tools and applications to be found. Don't get the topmost Java BBeB thingy unless you're a developer, it's not an application, it's a class, and I have absolutely no idea what to do with that without programmers knowledge.
Personally I think the MakeLRF GUI package is by far the most usefull, perhaps combined with the LIBRIé Text Assistant. A good explanation is on MakeZine by Phillip Torrone.
The problem with this package is however it's text-only. While it does allow for zoom functions and a crispy clear image on the LIBRIé, it doesn't begin to tap into it's possibilities.
Another program well on it's way to do some very good stuff is the Book Designer by the guys at The-eBook.org. It's a free download, and after applying the latest patch there is a beta update towards 5.0 with support for LIBRIé's formats. The GUI is butt-ugly, but the program is very functional and has a lot to offer. Besides, when you're doing this kind of stuff you shouldn't complain about something like a GUI.
Also the Xylog XML parsers which are referenced throughout the Yahoo group are basically the same mechanism as used by Book Creator. And Xylog XML files are just that: Plain XML. Using lsr2lrf might be the best option after all.
First Conclusion
Sony took a magnificent invention and did some pretty horrendous things with it. Fortunately they've come around a little, and, thanks to the communities, I'm now able to enjoy my LIBRIé. I'll have to do some extra work to make it all function yet, but I trust that's just a matter of time.
So, if you consider yourself a power user, which you will need to be, and you like to read, this thing is most definitely for you! It provides an insight in what's to come in the future.
Or not. Ever since CeBIT 2003 me and my girlfriend, a student in languages, have been battling over what's better: a good filled bookcase or a Memory Stick? Her mostly aestethic arguments at the very least prove that e-Ink won't substitute books in a long long time to come. I myself think that we will some day use it massively for "consumption books" like newspapers, Harlequin pockets, schoolbooks, reference libraries, administration guides, dictionairies and so on.
