Required Reading

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Saturday, May 7, 2011

Augen eReader Lacks Technical Support


Attention Kmart Shoppers, Augen Electronics Support Stinks

 How is that for a start.   I have the Augen eBook.   I reviewed it last July.
Overall it is a good product for the money but you do get what you pay for.   In this case that is a non-existent technical support department.   The reader has not worked well with DRM books from the start.  DRM is digital rights management and it is a protection scheme by the powers who dictate that kind of thing.  If you google it you will find many articles on “cracks” for DRM.  It is obvious I am not the only one that finds DRM annoying and I am an author.   The problem is that DRM causes books to behave badly.  

In my case, DRM handling by Augen means periodically dropping lines of the story.   Since I review books on Pick of the Literate and Azure Dwarf’s Horde of SciFi and Fantasy I get a lot of books protected by DRM.   Dropping lines can have an impact on the plot and the enjoyment of the story.

I went to Augen Electronics website and found that they had a fix.  Sadly the fix does not work.   In fact the fix, locked up the eBook every time I tried to use it.   The Augen site claims to have online chat for tech issues but I have yet to see the icon indicate that anyone is there.   The readme files on the “Fix” are either a result of a horrendously bad translation program or someone whose first language is definitively not English and who has obviously been indulging in some mind altering substances prior to writing the information.   In other words, the “Fix” is useless.   I have emailed Augen multiple times for help and get an automated response that someone will get back to me.   Thank goodness I didn’t hold my breath or I would be long, long dead.

So as an amendment to my original review of the product,   it is still a fair value for the money however with the Kindle now at $139.00 and a color nook and tablets dropping in price, I would suggest saving your money and purchasing a product that actually works the way it is suppose to and that perhaps has technical support that exists.

Alas Augen Electronics the bloom is off the rose and Attention Kmart shoppers, don’t touch Augen products with a 10’ blue light special.

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