Franklin EBM-901 eBookman (Metallic Black)

I had purchased this mainly because of the price and the fact that Franklin promised the ability to read Microsoft Reader format would be made available. A promise that was not kept. Mobipocket format and html formats could be read only and at that time there were not many books by known authors being brought out in those two formats. The battery life was very low and when the battery ran down you lost all of your content which meant you had to go thru the irritating process of downloading the operating system and contents all over again - which got very old very quickly. Installing batteries was not easy because if you didn't do it quickly enough, the device was wiped clean and you had to go thru the downloading of the operating system AGAIN. There were too many times that I was in the middle of reading a book and had to change the batteries only to have the device wiped clean - which meant I had to wait until I got back home in order to reload the operating system. The device was very small and the print was hard to read. If you used the backlight it ran the battery down faster - which from what I stated above you definitely didn't want to have happen. Within a short period the wheel used to page up or down broke and I had to order another device which entailed reloading the operating system and content. Franklin website does not even offer the ebookman anymore and refers you to another online company. Tech support was absolutely non-existant for this product and since Franklin is not selling it directly I have a feeling tech support would be completely non-existant now. This product is something I would not recommend to anyone. If you wish to have something that is user friendly, reliable and great to just read ebooks - I would highly recommend the ebookwise reader.

I preordered this from Amazon back in early December and finally received it last week. After playing with the EBM-911 for a week, this is my impression of it.The Good: Big screen size compared to other PDA's. The ability to listen to music and audio books as well as basic PDA functions. The main reason I bought this thing was for its ebook capabilities. I had my doubts but reading on the eBookman is not bad at all, the text is very sharp and clear. I just hope Microsoft releases the MS Reader soon so I can actually start downloading stuff I actually want to read since there is not that many titles available in the Franklin reader format.The Bad: If anyone is thinking of buying this primarily for its mp3 capabilities, don't. You would be happier getting a dedicated MP3 player. The eBookman doesn't play mp3's; you'll need to convert your mp3's to Franklin's proprietary compression format. I can live with that but wish the sound quality was a tad better. The two songs I transferred sounded a bit worse than FM quality. Also, on my unit there was a high-pitched humming noise that was emitting from the tiny speaker. It's not noticeable at all unless it is totally quiet in the room, very annoying if you are trying to read in bed. The eBookman is not easy to setup, you'll need to download the manual from Franklin since the quick start guide included in the box is useless. Buggy software.The Ugly: I just changed the battery the other day and everything was gone when I turned the unit back on. I had to transfer the OS and applications all over again! I removed the battery two more times to see if it would happen again and it did. Imagine that you are on a trip and do not have access to the computer that syncs with your eBookman and your battery runs out...can you say screwed big time? I understand now why they sell the power adapter accessory for the eBookman.I like the features that the eBookman has, it is everything that I would want or use in a PDA but I don't know if I would have purchased it if I had known about the issue with the battery. Losing all of its memory every time you change the batteries is a big problem.

I am very happy with my ebookman-901, there are one or two things that I am not too pleased about. Number one being the MMC , once you load one that you have stored books on, back into your ebookman to read later on, is that its takes forever for it to bring the books up to read, also its makes up the ebookman infor., you end up having to download the os applications again or it won't sync. The second thing is its hard finding places that you can find to download music from onto your ebookman. But since I mainly use mine to for ebooks that's is great by me. Thanks again for this product I can carry so my books with me now to choose to read from now.

I love my ebookman. I can take it anywhere and I have never had a problem with it. Most people are curious and ask what it is...they roll there eyes at me because i am a book-a-holic. This is not for me as bulky as the Kindle looks like...you can put a code in to keep people out. It gives you a calculator...to do list...voice recorder...just handy things to use.

Everything you read in the other reviews is correct. The product is buggy and does not work anywhere near as advertised. PDA users seem satisfied with it, but I bought it as an eBook -- BIG MISTAKE. Even if they had decent software to load your text into Franklin format (their "tools" run under a Unix emulator on Windows, badly) and even if it read HTML files (you can download it quick enough, but you'll wait TWENTY MINUTES after you click the button to see the text), the screen is too small and battery life too short. Just say no. This is not an eBook.