Our valued member TaKir just told me that there is a review of the Hanlin V8 (Russian version) online now. You can find it here (http://doc.the-ebook.org/Jinke&v=fl5).

It's all in Russian, but maybe a babelfish translation or some friend from Russia can provide a translation for us English-speaking folks.

Babelfish has this to say:


Only minus (at present) – in files htm not will be preserved the type formulation (italics, fatty, different sizes it is type.)

So, it looks like LVD has only adapted the device for Cyrillic characters and Russian menu. Rendering functionality is not developed enough.

I still wonder what happens with special characters, like "ç", "ñ" or "ß". I asked LVD last week, but no answer so far.

Other interesting stuff:

Both a USB 2.0 Card Reader (cool, since the V8 is only 1.1) and 128 Mb SD card are included with the package.

Battery charging can be achieved also with the connection through USB.
The time of complete charging both from the usual rosette and from USB is approximately 3 hours
charger with Mini USB by joint

If I understood correctly, the battery can be recharged in 3 hours either by connecting the USB port on the V8 directly to the power outlet or to a USB port on the computer.

The website for the Russian V8 (http://www.lbook.com.ua/ru) does not have an English version (garbled text). The shop looks empty as of now. The V2 is also there, with a tentative launch date of 10-11/06 at 1855 grn (Yahoo says that's 294 €).

I'm considering the Jinke as an alternative to the Sony Reader. Most of what I've seen of it, including this review, fits my needs. I am only curious which one comes out first... the Sony is now expected for some time around August or September, right? And they only start in the US, but not in Europe. Does anyone know more details about when and how Jinke is going to distribute its E ink reader?

They're looking for third party retailers as far as I've been able to tell. LVD is going to be selling them in Russian and English versions at some point in the near future, but I don't think there's an actual shipping date that's been published yet.

I think the Sony e-reader is more likely to be September/October. My guess is closer to the end of October.

I haven't the time to read the whole thing, but what is clear is that it will not decipher drm-protected texts, and as far as my rapid go-through tells me, it reads txt doc and html only. And, as pointed out above, it will not preserve html formatting or typeface. And it is a reader only.