This is a good concept, yet the instructions and help that accompany the product and you find online are not complete. It is pretty straightforward in telling you how to record on the device, but they fail to tell you that you cannot move the recording from the device to the computer/bookcase unless the device is connected by the USB cable to the computer. You have to have access to the computer to be able to "share" the book you recorded with others.Recording a book on the device takes about 8 to 10 steps: Get the book, get the magnetic stickers, put the stickers in order on the pages, turn on the device, go into the record mode, touch the magnetic sticker, press the record button, wait until it beeps 4 times, record directly into the microphone about 3 inches from your mouth, read the page/add your comments/sing a song, release the record button. Then you touch the next magnetic sticker on the next page, press the record button, wait for 4 beeps, record your reading the page/etc., and then release the button.
However, if you want to record the book into the computer for sharing and retrieval later, there are several preparatory steps you have to take. You must connect the USB cable to your computer, connect your device to the cable, (first time... install the Anybook Case software), register you device, register a login to the Anybook Case Server (to share, have an offsite retrieval place, etc.), select a "New Book", do all the info about it, decide if you want automatic numbering of the labels or put in the range you place (the labels have numbers on them),.... then you do the recording steps. This means that you have to do this sitting at your computer... if you want to archive them as "books" and share/access them at a later time.
I bought this so that I could buy my grandchildren who live overseas books here, record my reading them, ship the books and one device to them, have the parents install the Anybook Case software, login to my account, and download new books that I recorded and sent them. Then at a later date, record with my device, save them to my server account, ship the stickered books that I recorded, and let them download the recordings to their device overseas and let my grandkids hear me read the books/making funny comments/ making conversation.
Sounded like a good idea until I tried putting into practice this idea. Perhaps when I get into the "groove" and do it a few times it will be easier. The thoughts of recording in my recliner and then downloading the books have vanished however.
To tell the truth, I am a network/computer advanced person and there is nothing "intuitive" about this reader and setup. I called Franklin's help line and the guy that is familiar with this product was not in that day. I'll have to wait over the weekend to get a callback from Mr. Applebee. I am guessing that this is so new that very few have experience with.it.
The quality of the recording as heard from the tiny speaker is typical of tiny speaker quality.... not very good. But your voice is recognizable and understandable if you record loud and close enough.
Let me hand this to my 2 year old and see how easy it is for him to learn it... wait a minute.Okay, after a few times to show him how to touch the stickers and not touch all the pictures, he did pretty good. Turned the pages and touched the stickers. Liked the prerecorded thunder and chickens.
It is not the same as being there, but they get to hear their PawPaw reading and commenting!! I could sing a song if I wanted to... Ha!
I take one star away because the directions and software either are not up to date or malfunctioning.
I will probably still try what I intended with my overseas grandkids.
We tried out recording with the computer first. This method involved the Anybook Case software and Windows XP's recorder. I recorded each page & saved them in a folder. Then I opened up the software and brought in the recordings & added the sticker numbers manually. This was my favorite way to get the recordings to the pen.
Next we tried recording on the pen before bringing it into AnybookCase to back it up. Books cannot be transferred into the AnybookCase or the Reader without deleting the instance of the book which you want replaced. Before I could put our copy of the book from the Reader into the AnybookCase I had to delete its backup in the AnybookCase. We could bring in the individual stickers without deleting the backup, but I am not sure all of the recordings transferred this way worked as we have one sticker I thought I had transferred the recording of which is now blank. The command stickers make this method palatable but it was still tedious. I also prefer to have easily identified wav files hanging out in sorted folders on my computer and did not figure out how to get them out of the AnybookCase.
For the family far away, I think it will be best if they send me audio files & books and I setup the stickers in the books. This way they only have to deal with one software, their email and the post office.
The AnybookCase software is great in that you can back up your books now, it does work, but like any bookcase it takes a bit of organizing to get it ordered the way you want; no Dewey decimal system here. We chose to keep our sticker numbers in order with our pages but you could easily swap them around and forget which pages you recorded. I will have to tinker a bit and see if AnybookCase lets you label the pages with a name.
Overall a great product and we look forward to using it with all of our language books and a few in English. One last thought is that for books with less words per page we are using one sticker and saying turn the page now, rather than putting stickers on every page. Happy reading for multilingual family & friends near and far.With this model of the Any Book Reader, Franklin Electronics has heard what its customers wanted, and they have delivered.
This product can be used for more than reading books. Since I don't have any children, I have decided to use this as a voice labeler for CD's. I have some Shakespeare plays, and most have a good deal of supporting material. With the help of competent voice talents, I used the Any Book Reader to gain access to this material, so I could use it whether I was listening to one of the recordings or viewing a play live.
This shows that you can use this unit even if you don't have kids. If you need to make notes to yourself, take down a phone number, or just fool around, this unit really helps you do that.
One thing I like about this model is the command stickers that allow you to record long narrations without you having to hold down the recording button. Franklin must have heard enough customers say their thumb hurt from recording all those books. When I was working with my voice talents, those labels really came in handy.
I also like the headset connector; it makes this product great on the road.
This model also has much better sound than the earlier models in the series. I evaluated the DRP3000, which records 15 hours, and the sound was not all that great. With this model, I felt the sound was quite good. I had no trouble hearing the narrations delivered by my voice talents.
Another thing I like about this technology is that it really celebrates the human voice. Franklin acknowledges that in their description of this product, and I believe it. Face it, I like technology, but I think that in this age of high tech, we should not forget high touch. This pen brings that out.
Finally, I am pleased that you can back up the recordings to your PC. If your unit goes bad, you can still get the recordings back.
Bottom Line: Franklin is to be commended for releasing this model of the Any Book Reader.
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