Whether that's gospel truth or just marketing hype, DigiTimes reports (http://www.digitimes.com/displays/a20061214PD207.html) that the STAReBOOK e-reader - the Chinese equivalent to the Sony Reader - is now available in Taiwan. The reason for me being suspicious is that nobody of us here has actually seen the STAReBOOK in real life, despite the fact that, according to some earlier statement (http://www.stareread.com/en/shownews.php?nid=73) by eREAD, the first batch of the STAReBOOK was already sold out in Taiwan last month.

So we are still desperately waiting to get our hands on this one for a closer look.

I am in Taiwan. I will find where the STAReBOOK is being sold. :)
If you can read Chinese, there is a detail preview of the STAReBOOK.
http://www.baizhan.com.cn/index.php?showtopic=63546&hl=

cool!

Let us know if you find anything!

I am in Taiwan. I will find where the STAReBOOK is being sold. :)
If you can read Chinese, here is a detail preview of the STAReBOOK.
http://www.baizhan.com.cn/index.php?showtopic=63546&hl=
Thanks for the link, segatang!

And when you find one, how about sending one south ... ? ;)

You get headphones!!!!!!!!

info from this thread:
http://i-library.kolin.com.tw/bbs/topic.asp?topic_id=743&forum_id=13&cat_id=4

STAReBOOK store in Taipei:
manager: Ms.Karen
Tel: +886-2-2627-1155 +886-932-157-717

online store in Yahoo Taiwan:
http://buy.yahoo.com.tw/gdsale/gdsale.asp?gdid=417471
NTD 12900 (about USD 400)
STAReBOOK
plus 512MB and two round-trip airplane tickets from Taiwan to Thailand.

Wow! Dose the company wish us read the STAReBOOK during travel? :D

The question is...does anyone there actually have the device?

I went to the shop and tested the STAReBOOK.
It is really light and thin.
Beside TXT files, recently all documents should be converted to jpeg then to STK.

The photo is the best reading effect of my i-library and the STAReBOOK.

It does look pretty nice. Is it just the picture, or is the background much whiter than other readers have been?

well...it doesn't look like it's whiter to my eyes...looks like standard eink greyness...^^

Because the e-ink panel of the STAReBOOK is standard 800*600 4-greyscale,
I think it is no difference with the sony reader.
Although the actual reading experience is alomost as same as reading paper,
the background of the sample changes with different view angle.

could you find out anything else segatang? Does it read only .stk files or can it handle native .txt files as well and how well does it format those? Do you think it might have problems handling european/american text?

Hi, the STAReBOOK only reads the *.stk format.
Any file type should be converted to *.stk format.
The device supports tranditional and simplified Chinese and English.
I don't know other asian or european fonts is supported well or not.
No details about above issue, but I will try to find it out.

hiya,

where in Taipei is the STAReBOOK shop? I'm heading there next week and wouldn't mind checking one out in the flesh. And 2 tickets to thailand would have been rather useful, espec as i'm heading to thailand after taipei. Oh well.

Thanks

micro

I used to be iRex iLiad user. I just brought one of STAReBOOK in Hong Kong. I already like it very much particularlly its power management. I beats my ilad book for sure. I don't like the file fomrate it supported since I read pdf most of time.
Ivan

hiya,

where in Taipei is the STAReBOOK shop? I'm heading there next week and wouldn't mind checking one out in the flesh. And 2 tickets to thailand would have been rather useful, espec as i'm heading to thailand after taipei. Oh well.

Thanks

micro

I help this reply will not be too late.

You can go to:

No.9, Lane 11, Guangfu N. Rd., Songshan District, Taipei City 105, Taiwan (R.O.C.)

（北市光復北路11巷99-1號）

The shop is near the "Living Mall"
（京華城購物中心）

I help this reply will not be too late.

You can go to:

No.9, Lane 11, Guangfu N. Rd., Songshan District, Taipei City 105, Taiwan (R.O.C.)

（北市光復北路11巷99-1號）

The shop is near the "Living Mall"
（京華城購物中心）

I'm in Taipei just now (as of January '08), and I dropped by the above address and found the shop had been gone - according to a local proprietor - for quite a while.

Yes, it appears the whole company just vanished...only the hardware ist still around as nuutbook and Cybook Gen3