12, Jan, 2025
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Franklin eBookMan

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When is a PalmPilot not a PalmPilot? When it’s a Franklin eBookMan. First impressions are misleading, as this unit has almost the same interface and styling as a regular Palm device. However, the eBookMan has a larger screen than most Palm units, which is important as its main role is storing and presenting ebooks.
APC looked at a preproduction eBookMan unit. We weren’t able to test the connectivity of the unit as no synchronisation software was available at the time of writing. APC was rather concerned by the manual, which seems to indicate that no CD will be included with the eBookMan: all software has to be downloaded. This won’t be a selling point for people with dodgy 56K connections.
The cradle is interesting as it connects to the PC and the eBookMan by USB. Why a cable isn’t used is unclear. The capacity to synchronise with Outlook databases is also promised with the finished unit, but could not be tested.
As a PDA, the eBookMan is adequate, but unexciting. There are the usual to-do list, notepad, calendar and address book options. It also supports MP3 playback, but because the basic unit only has 8M or 16M (8M in the unit APC looked at), there’s not a lot of room for your Sheena Easton rips. Multimedia cards are supported, so you can upgrade it to 64M if you don’t mind spending the money. Of course, without any synchronisation software, we could only listen to the stock music. It wasn’t unpleasant, but the built-in speaker is a little tinny, so you’d be better off with headphones.
Where the eBookMan does show some promise is in book reading. You can download the usual text files, as well as audio books through audible.com. The reader software uses Microsoft Reader, so any compatible books should be ‘readable’. The screen is large and clear, but the controls on the unit APC looked at beeped continually, no matter what we did. This might be a preproduction bug. The unit nearly went out the window when this
reviewer was threatened by frustrated workmates.
The eBookMan comes at three price levels. For $299,
you get a basic 8M unit. Add an extra $100 and you get a backlight and MP3 playback. Another $100 gets you a 16M unit. At those prices, the eBookMan constitutes a challenge to the
older Palm market, but it doesn’t seem to have the programmable flexibility of most Palms. Without the software, it’s hard to effecitively evaluate this unit.

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