Pi - The Official Indian Ebook-Reader!

[shazwagon]

Hello friends!

I visited the World Book Fair at Delhi, India last month and came across this e-book reader. I had no idea that this was under development.

Pi is being touted as India's first eBook reader. Though, design wise it is nothing revolutionary, it could prove a good buy for people on the lookout for a 'budget' reader (approximately $220 USD or 146 GBP). It has almost all the basic functions.

Here are the main specs:

1. 6" Vizplex e Ink screen, b&w 8 Grayscale
2. Supports almost all major formats: PDF, EPUB, HTML, TXT, MOBI, DOC
3. Internal Memory - 512 MB. Extendable up to 4 GB through SanDisk SDHC.
4. MP3 player.
5. The battery supposed to last for "7 days", which is a pretty vague description.
6. Progress bar to display position in the book.
7. Search inside a book or document.
8. Sort documents (Date, filename, Catalog).
9. Game Play by Function Key & Navigation for Soduku.
10. Increase font size and reflow text automatically.
11. Add bookmarks.
12. Screen Rotate for landscape / portrait views.
14. For those interested, it also supports local languages or vernacular like Hindi, Marathi etc.

Luckily, I was carrying my Sony PRS-505 so was able to compare.

Even though PRS-505 has a 16 Grayscale screen, this holds up pretty well. I found the screen to be surprisingly sharp and crisp. Another thing which caught me off-guard was how fast the page turns are. Maybe, I felt this because my PRS-505 is stuffed with around 600 books and this one had a few, but there was a noticeable difference. The music, as expected, does not sound great.

Also, these guys have a dedicated website to download books from. All DRM'd, of course. I felt left out when Sony website did not let me download any books but these guys have a pretty good collection too. I have since bought close to 15 books from them.

Frankly, I am not considering buying the device cause I'm happy with what I have I just thought this information should be here. I also wanted to put this under E-Book Devices Forums, but somehow couldn't figure out how to. I hope this was helpful in some manner, though.

Here are some pics from their website:





http://www.infibeam.com/Pi#specsAnchor

[Graham]

That looks awfully like a rebadged Netronix machine like the Cybook Gen 3. But then, I'm very fond of my Cybook, so that's no bad thing.

Graham

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by Graham

That looks awfully like a rebadged Netronix machine like the Cybook Gen 3.

Yes. The 8 grey scales suggests it has the updated Epson Broadsheet controller (like the Gen 3 Gold). The supported formats suggest it is based on the standard Netronix firmware, like the Cool-er (and not like the custom firmware on the Cybook).

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by Graham

That looks awfully like a rebadged Netronix machine like the Cybook Gen 3. But then, I'm very fond of my Cybook, so that's no bad thing.

Graham

it does look like a white Gen3 ..... (cheaper too!)

[Ujjaini]

I think with 64 mb the processor ought to be slow ....lot of flicker and 3 mm music jack sucks really.
I am planning to buy the same.....since noone other available in India, i would prefer BEbook anyday that PI.

[Dulin's Books]

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...ighlight=india

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...light=infibeam

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...light=infibeam

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...ighlight=india

previous threads about Infibeam and the Pi reader