When my wife convinced me that we were going on a seven day cruise this June, I decided that my present etext reading solution, my trusty Palm V would not cut it.  The Palm V's size is both a curse and a blessing, easy to carry, difficult to use for any length of time as a book.  I looked at the alternatives, such as a a Pocket PC with Microsoft Reader, but my experience with an earlier Windows CE Powered device made me leery due to poor battery life.  In addition, I read outdoors, so few color based systems would due (such as the Compaq Ipaq).

     I had seen the original Rocketbook a year ago, but the initial $499.00 price and lack of expandability were huge drawbacks.

     The RCA version of the Rocketbook was cheaper, lighter, had more base memory, a smart media slot for expansion and big company support (this can be a plus or minus).  These changes (plus a 30 day refund policy) led me to try the REB 1100, and I am now hooked.

     The eBook will likely attract two types of users, Palm carrying technical types that will read anything, old or new, or non-technical serious readers who travel a lot and want the latest books in one easy to use device.

     As the first type, I was well aware of the world of etext.  I had downloaded the Rocket Librarian even before buying the eBook.  If the ability to create books did not exist I would have refused to buy the eBook.  RCA should take note and include this feature in its included software instead of forcing users to use Rocket Librarian, Nuvomedia's original software for the RocketBook.

     Given that I like to read many things at once, I immediately invested in a 32 meg smart media card.  Prices vary widely on these memory cards, but I found a 32 meg card at Compusa for only $49.00.  Wolf Camera is offering a 64 meg card for only $99.00.

     I then starting download books from the Rocket-Library.  I also converted many etext and palm pdb books to use with my eBook.  To convert palm documents, I used the windows program Docreader, a freeware palm doc reader. It was simple to move the text from Docreader to Word, clean up the text using autoformat and the replace command, then export html to the Rocket Librarian for creation of the eBook file format.

     Once stuffed with the information and books that I wanted, I started carrying the eBook everywhere to see if it would meet my needs.  To my surprise, the screen was very easy to use, both outdoors in bright sun and at home in bed.  The reading experience was far superior to my Palm, and I could easily see reading a whole book without any problems.  I also installed a different font and I am experimenting with these to see if any are particularly well suited for reading.  I use Arrus BT at 12 point at present, and Georgia seems a popular choice.

     However, there are a few issues that concern me.  First, the system crashes about once a week, requiring a reset.  No data has been lost but it is a concern.  The screen smudges easily and does not want to clean without extra effort.  The dictionary look-up feature is great but it great, but covers the bottom two lines of text.

     I have not purchased any ebooks yet, and none of the three books I wanted was available in ebook form (two were old works, but the third, Crypto : How the Code Rebels Beat the Government is  new and should be released in ebook format).  While I can be happy with mostly out of copyright works, many readers will be disappointed in the lack of available titles [many more fiction works are available than non-fiction items].  This chicken and egg syndrome is common, and when you add in competing formats (adobe books, Franklin Bookman, MS Reader lit format, etc.) the confusion will likely continue. Until then, sit back, poor a tall drink and realize that most of the great literature was written 100 or more years ago and enjoy. 

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