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Support for ebookman products  XML
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flanker2



Joined: 05/14/2011 15:52:30
Messages: 1
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Whilst I hadn't used my ebookman for several years, I was genuinely disappointed when I went to get it working again this week only to discover that I can no longer use it at all, because the ECTACO / franklin/ebookman website has ended all support for the download of the essential operating system files for these products. This seems really unfair, as because these products have no permanent memory, once the batteries go flat the device becomes useless, at least until it can connect to the server to download the a custom version of the firmware (which as I understand it is locked to the serial number of each ebookman). This means I can't even try and find someone else who has the software and get them to 'share' it with me - as it simply won't work in my device.

I do appreciate that maintaining support for 8-10 year old products is a waste of your time, and that simply keeping the server up to send out very occassional software downloads adds little value. However it is such a shame that you haven't been able to do something to provide access to the software on a continuing basis. Surely it would be quite easy just to point us at a file on rapidshare (or similar) where we could download the software needed to generate our own versions of the OS based on the serial number of our own devices.

Whilst the ebookman is clearly now 'long in the tooth', it is still a really historically important product. It is almost certainly one of the first dedicated e-readers ever produced and which sold in relatively large numbers. In the future collectors and computer historians will never have the chance to appreciate the elegance and sophistication of this product - as almost no one will have access to the software.

Honestly this is a real loss. Franklin produced a brilliant product in the ebookman, which was many years ahead of its time and to allow its significance to be forgotten, simply throgh the lack of placing some very old software in the public domain (albeit with whatever licence restrictions you want to tie to it ) is a real shame.

A sad ex-ebookman user.
Jerry



Joined: 06/28/2010 05:09:51
Messages: 908
Offline

flanker2 wrote:Whilst I hadn't used my ebookman for several years, I was genuinely disappointed when I went to get it working again this week only to discover that I can no longer use it at all, because the ECTACO / franklin/ebookman website has ended all support for the download of the essential operating system files for these products. This seems really unfair, as because these products have no permanent memory, once the batteries go flat the device becomes useless, at least until it can connect to the server to download the a custom version of the firmware (which as I understand it is locked to the serial number of each ebookman). This means I can't even try and find someone else who has the software and get them to 'share' it with me - as it simply won't work in my device.

I do appreciate that maintaining support for 8-10 year old products is a waste of your time, and that simply keeping the server up to send out very occassional software downloads adds little value. However it is such a shame that you haven't been able to do something to provide access to the software on a continuing basis. Surely it would be quite easy just to point us at a file on rapidshare (or similar) where we could download the software needed to generate our own versions of the OS based on the serial number of our own devices.

Whilst the ebookman is clearly now 'long in the tooth', it is still a really historically important product. It is almost certainly one of the first dedicated e-readers ever produced and which sold in relatively large numbers. In the future collectors and computer historians will never have the chance to appreciate the elegance and sophistication of this product - as almost no one will have access to the software.

Honestly this is a real loss. Franklin produced a brilliant product in the ebookman, which was many years ahead of its time and to allow its significance to be forgotten, simply throgh the lack of placing some very old software in the public domain (albeit with whatever licence restrictions you want to tie to it ) is a real shame.

A sad ex-ebookman user.


Hey,

Thanks for the question and sorry to hear about the difficulty with everything. Please contact our technical service directly with the product and hopefully they can help you with everything. The email is suport@ectaco.com

Hope this helps!

Jerry C,
Ectaco Inc
www.ectaco.com


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