Rating: 
Summary: EBookman 911 --good reader, very poor support
Review: We have two ebookman(ebookmen?) around the house. My wife uses one as her PDA as well as for reading when caught waiting. The second I use for reading in bed. The hardware is generally good, the screen larger than most PDAs, and the software adequate though I greatly prefer my Palm for keeping my calendar. The ability to upgrade and swap memory on MMC cards is a real advantage. The screen has a nasty glare, which could be readily fixed by applying a screen protector, if only I could find one for the Ebookman. The Ebookman is light and easy to manipulate while reading. With free Mobibook software, you can quickly modify any of the vast number of free books available on line if not currently in .prc or .seb format.
Unless you subscribe to Audible.com, the Ebookman is a disappointment as an mp3 player for audiobooks. It supports only a few mp3 formats, and none of the lower resolutions that make mp3 audiobooks practical even with a 64k MMC installed.
Online support is minimal to non-existent. The cost of Franklin's ebooks is outrageous considering that you own nothing that can be shared, donated or given to a friend. Book selection is poor. Franklin seems obsessed with preventing the sharing of books. It is not possible, for example, to purchase a book and download it to both our readers. The ebook concept is sound, the 911 capable, but Franklin, a presumed leader, is dropping the ball through high pricing and poor support. A redux of Xerox's handling of the graphical user interface.
Rating: 
Summary: Most anoying device i ever owned
Review: I would never buy this thing again. It works on batteries, but if you really use it they run out in about two days. Result: the cap that covers the batteries broke in about two weeks of use. Furthermore, buying batteries is not very cheap so i use rechargebles, but they only allow 2 hours of reading. And of course when the batteries die you will loose the system if you don't have new ones within 2 minutes or so. which will mean you have to connect it to the internet again to reinstall. Try doing that when you're on vacation. It comes down to that you can only use the thing when it is connected to your pc, and then what's the point. Finally the service of Franklin is really crap, I wrote a couple of emails asking questions but didn't recieve any answer sofar, not even `we are sorry but don't have an answer'. If you're looking for an ebook, this is not it!! and don't even think about using it as an mp3 player. The sound is awful, and it drains batteries even faster. I will not even mention the todo book, calender, addressbook and so on.
Rating:
Summary: Beware Of Data Loss
Review: I have had my eBookman for over a year now and I have read all of the reviews on this site and others. The pros and cons seem to be pretty accurately stated by other reviewers so I will not waste anybody's time repeating what has already been said. However, there seems to be something which has been missed in other reviews. What I've noticed is that most other reviewers seem to be avid readers who use their eBookman's everyday. And for those users, the complaint that I have is probably simply a minor annoyance. But for users like myself who bought the eBookman for the occassional business trip or long flight, there is a ridiculously inconvenient feature that makes it almost impossible to use. That is, if you leave your eBookman off for any extended period of time, the batteries continue to drain until they are completely dead! Yes, you heard me. THIS UNIT USES UP THE BATTERIES EVEN WHEN IT IS OFF. For example, I would regularly put in a fresh set of batteries and within 3 weeks they would be completely dead (without ever having turned on the unit). At first, I thought there was something wrong with my unit. But a call to Franklin's technical support confirmed my worst fear: This is the way the units were designed! But, wait - I haven't even gotten to the punch line yet! When the batteries run out, all of the data is lost - INCLUDING THE OPERATING SYSTEM. This is because the unit has no internal battery back-up. It just uses a capacitor which only holds a smal charge for a few seconds (supposedly just long enough to change batteries when the battery indicator is running low). But if your batteries run out, it's BYE-BYE data! So, for the casual user, what that means is that you end up having to re-install the entire operating system and all of your titles every time you turn the unit on (assuming you do not use it an a VERY regular basis). This, by the way, is no short task (although, in fairness to Franklin, it is a simple process). For me, this problem renders the eBookman TOTALLY USELESS. Now, I'm sure there are avid readers or frequent travelers who would love to have what otherwise would be classified as a pretty decent reader for a very decent price. But, for me, it is just a paperweight. In summary, if you use the eBookman everyday, I guess you could find a use for it. But if you plan to let it rest - even for a relatively short period of time - I would look elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding product
Review: I have to make an addition to this review. I've had the ebookman 911 since May, and am still extremely satisfied. I find the display easy to read, and I never needed to have the unit replaced. I don't lose the memory contents when changing batteries. In October, Franklin released version 2.0 of the operating system and it is excellent. All files can be stored on the MMC card, and you also have the ability to backup the system to the MMC card. Now, should you have a problem and lose the contents of the memory, you don't need to go back to your PC to re-synch the ebookman. You can restore the system from the MMC card wherever you are. This is a great improvement over the more traditional PDAs. (...)If you take the time to get used to this device, you will really like it. I like it MUCH better than the Palms I have used. Granted, it may not have a color display, but in terms of usefulness it is great. I use Mobipocket to download the news every morning and then when I get to work I start the day off reading the morning news. I can't imagine using the small displays of a PDA to do that every morning. On a recent trip I loaded about 8 books on the ebookman and had plenty of reading material. I can't recommend this product highly enough. It is much improved from the time of it's initial release. ***** ORIGINAL REVIEW BELOW ****** I've had my EBM-911 Ebookman for about a month now, and am increasingly impressed with it. Battery life is not too long, but the AC adapter that is available is excellent and convenient. It is small, and has a 9 ft cord for plenty of flexibility. I've read books in the Franklin format as well as the Mobipocket reader with no problems. The latest OS release provides for voice memo capability. Issues of stability must have been addressed in the latest updates since I've had no problems whatsoever. The fact that you must download the OS may seem like a problem at first, but it is in fact a blessing in disguise since you can easily update the system. The PDA functions are more than adequate, and I find the handwriting recognition to be simple to use after a little practice. Unlike the Palm, it is not necessary to have special ways to write certain letters. I can write as I normally would, and have little trouble. In the month since I've had it, the Ebookman has become a device I use all of the time. The screen is easy to read, and while the backlighting does NOT look good when you are in an area light enough to read the screen without backlighting, it does provide a very comfortable level of lighting when in a darker room. Page navigation is simple using the side wheel, and the bookmarking features work well. It does take a bit of time to get used to using the ebook software, but it is not bad at all. The fact that the Ebookman is an open system, i.e. you can use several formats (Franklin, PRC (Palm), text, html, etc.) as well as even write your own software (or purchase from other vendors) ensures that the Ebookman will be a device that will expand into many different capabilities. This high level of flexibility further adds to the product's attractiveness. I would HIGHLY recommend this product. I have not regretted spending the money on it at all. I would also recommend buying the AC adapter since this would solve the problem of battery use.
Rating:
Summary: Cool device for reading books
Review: I've had my eBookman for 3 weeks now. I'm glad I didn't read the negative reviews here before I purchased or I would have missed out on a cool little eBook reader. Thanks to the MobiPocket reader software there's more and more content becoming available in compatible formats. Checkout Fictionwise. It's also easy enough to convert plain text or html files to the Mobipocket format. The display is quite good for daylight reading, the backlight is good enough to be useable for reading in total darkness, but not bright enough to be useful in dim room light. Before I got it, I was afraid the small screen size would be a problem, but it actually isn't. The battery life isn't great, especially when using the backlight, but I have a couple of pairs of NiMH batteries and frequently swap in a freshly charged set. I'm sure the next generation ebook devices will be better, but this is good enough for now.
Rating:
Summary: Great potential if used properly - even 3D-games!
Review: The device comes with high-quality Duracell batteries which will last a good while so YOu have plenty of time to experiment. The pre-installed programs of the device are pretty basic and good only for very simple use, but this device can do so much more - if You get (available for free!) sketchbook or painter applications You can use it as portable art tablet and converter software will turn Your work on it to bmp files and vice versa. The real surprise was that it is even possible to play 3D games on it - I was almost shocked seeing a framerate of abour 10fps playing a game with an engine better then Doom.
Still there is some things You should know - while connected to the PC the PDA will create lags every now and then so if You draw while it is connected or play realtime games it might not be very pleasant, but once its disconnected its perfectly fast (took me time to find out - especially for drawing its important not to mess up the lines). Also You should make sure that while the PDA is connected to the PC You see the lightling symbol on the lower left so the PC provides the power. Also every time the PDA shuts down while connected to the PC switching it back on costs battery power so get one of the many software tools on the net to stop auto-off while being connected to the PC.
I could say more but I dont want to flood You - I hope this review is useful and I strongly recommend this most flexible and powerful device that can easily compete with most devices that are twice as expensive :)b
Rating:
Summary: After some initial problems, a decent ebook reader
Review: If I had reviewed this product 7 months ago when I first got it, I would have given it a big fat 0 because all those thousands of free titles offered by Franklin Publishing's website did not download complete books using the Franklin Viewer. Also I had a great deal of trouble getting the OS to load. Eventually I solved the problem, something to do with a driver, but I gave up on it as a book reader because I wanted all those out of print titles that Franklin promised me! So it gathered dust for a few months until I decided to give it another try. This time when I downloaded the OS, MobiReader was included and I could get ALL of the book on my device. So I am now satisfied with my purchase. I don't have any use for those PDA features like address book, memo, to do book, so I just retired them to desktop manager's Library instead of Contents folder so I have more memory for books. The only negative thing I can say about it is there is a glare problem with the screen and I thought it came with backlight feature but that is my fault for picking the cheapest model. Otherwise I am very happy with it.
Rating:
Summary: I love this thing
Review: I love the ebookman 911. The screen is wider than my pda, it's also thinner and less bulky. Plus as an added bonus, it has a nice scroller on the side which makes it a lot easier to turn the page. I also like that you can change the batteries instead of having to wait forever to recharge the darn thing like my pda. My only problem and the reason I didn't give it 5 stars is b/c of the gray screen. It might not bother anyone else but the lack of color bothers me enormously and is the reason I bought my pda in the first place. So while I think the eBookman is great, I wish they would come out with a color version and I would get rid of everything else.
Rating:
Summary: Easy to read
Review: I bought my Ebookman 911 off of half.com for less than $50. I feel it was worth this amount of money, but not much more. The Mobipocket Reader is tricky to use, and isn't covered very fully in the user's manual. I bought it so I could read free ebooks off of ccel.org and from the Gutenberg Project. I didn't intend to buy any of the books for sale by Mobi Pocket or Franklin. I figure that having over 15,000 free ebooks on line is enough to keep me busy for years. What I have discovered is that the Ebookman will not allow you to read pdf documents (adobe acrobat)at all, which is a real bummer. According to the manual, it is supposed to allow you to read .html and .pdb (palm compatible) documents but I haven't successfully gotten it to do that yet. I intend to call their support number and get someone to walk me through it on Monday. The phone number isn't toll free but at least a support number is available. On the plus side plain vanilla text documents (.txt) are a snap to download, find and read. In addition, the Franklin ebooks and Mobipocket ebooks work flawlessly in this machine. I'm just not interested in spending the money on their books when I can get many of the same ones for free from public domain sources. As for the backlight, it works perfectly. I can read in bed or in a car at night to my heart's content. I like the Ebookman. I don't love it, but I do plan to get my money's worth out of it.
Rating:
Summary: A Terrific Bargain
Review: I've been using the eBookMan for almost 2 weeks now. This is the Swiss army knife of PDAs, and it is much better for some purposes than others. Pros - Nice looking item at a great price; Downloading and reading books and magazines (many free!) works very smoothly. Understanding how to manage files using the Desktop Manager takes a little study, and it is a little confusing to have two separate eBook programs to deal with, but the instruction booklet is very good; The handwriting recognition is surprisngly good, and there is also an optional on-screen keyboard; The various included software (plus the free downloads upon registration, including dictionaries) are worth the purchase price by themselves. Cons - The built in speaker is barely audible at full volume, although earphones (optional) will help with this; To record a voice memo you almost have to shout to have it loud enough to hear on playback; I originally rated the MP3 quality as poor, based on the sample included with the device. After loading in an MP3 of my own, I would rate the MP3 quality as acceptable. The volume is low even with headphones and set to the highest level, but it was not nearly as distorted as the awful sample they provided. I would still not recommend this unit if the primary reason for purchase is listening to music or taking voice memos; The only way to input adresses, to-do lists, etc. from your computer is from MS Outlook, unless you are willing to shell out nearly [dollar amount] for a utility program which expands this capability to a few more existing programs (such as Lotus Organizer). I would love to see a free or cheap dedicated PIM program for the PC end to allow input of contact info without having to shell out for Outlook (does not work with Outlook Express). Other points - Unit did lock up twice, but responded to a soft reset without loss of info; You should consider rechargable batteries to save money in the long run; Screen is fairly reflective, so angle of light source is important; Backlight is weak and is only useful in completely dark room; Keep in mind that unit must be activated online and is not functional without a PC and internet access.
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