Franklin EB-500 Rocket eBook review

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Franklin EB-500 Rocket eBook:

The Rocket eBook fits in the palm of your hand and stores the equivalent of 10 novels. Why fuss with bulky paperbacks on your travels when you can download them through the Internet and then read them at your convenience?

Some electronics manufactures have sought to replace the paperback novel with an electronic reader. The concept is simple: Create a handled computing device that can store the text of several books and thus negate the need to buy the physical books.

The execution is not simple: Printed books are so perfectly well suited for their intended task that no battery-operated, LCD-sporting device can compete with them. Still, the Franklin Rocket eBook presents a worthy and fun alternative to the printed medium, if not a replacement.

You control the unit with three buttons and four icons on its touch-sensitive screen, which let you select a stored title, navigate the title's chapters and pages, and decide how you want to display them (horizontally or vertically or for left or right-handed holding).

The Rocket eBook comes with its owner's manual, the Random House Webster's Concise Dictionary, and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland built-in. To purchase more books, you must install the included RocketLibrarian software and register the Rocket eBook online.

In our tests, the process of acquainting ourselves with the device, installing the software, and registering the Rocket eBook online took about 45 minutes.

Using a provider of RocketEdition-compatible titles on the Internet, we located and purchased Daniel Brown's Digital Fortress in about five minutes, and we downloaded it in about two minutes. Transferring the book from our PC to the Rocket eBook took only 30 seconds.

For casual reading, even at only 22 ounces, the unit seems heavy after holding it for a few minutes--much heavier than a normal paperback. The unit's arrow keys let you page forward and backward, but not as rapidly as you can "thumb" through dozens of pages in a paperback.

Also, you have to "pan" to see graphic images that are too large to fit on the LCD screen. Overall, the Rocket eBook's reading experience is not as pleasant as we've come to expect from reading an ordinary paperback. Still, if you want to read your favorite books but don't want to carry them in stacks as you travel, the Rocket eBook offers a great alternative--the ability to store several titles in a convenient, compact, portable package. --Mike Brown

Pros:

Relatively lightweight
Large storage capacity

Cons:

Limited rapid scrolling (thumbing through pages)
Limited number of titles available

Description:

Electronic handheld reader. Downloads books and periodicals from the web to a pc then directly to this compact electronic book (5x8x1.5 inches).

Highly readable display, easy bookmarking and mark-up capabilities and navigation, touch screen control, search and find, adjustable page orientation plus automatic shutdown and preferance storage.

Features:

Ergonomic, ambidextrous design, about the size of a paperback
Weighs only 22 ounces
Stores about 4,000 pages--the equivalent of 10 novels
Speech-quality audio for documents published with audio content
Long battery life--17 to 33 hours per charge

Technical data:

Memory: 4 MB flash memory, 2 MB DRAM; holds up to 10 books or 4,000 pages of graphics and text
Display: High-resolution monochrome LCD touch screen with stylus (included) and built-in backlight, 4.5-by 3-inch active viewing area, 106-dpi resolution
Expandability: Internal socket for additional memory (potential option, not currently available)
Operating system: RocketEngine (proprietary, designed for electronic books)
Power: Internal, rechargeable nickel-metal hydride battery; AC adapter/recharger, 100 to 240 volts AC, 50 to 60 Hz, 0.5 amps, 15 watts (maximum)
Battery recharge time: 90 minutes (approximately)
Size: 5 by 7.5 by 1.5 inches
Weight: 1.4 pounds

First released: »June 1999