01-07-2010, 08:48 PM | #1 |
Sir Penguin of Edinburgh
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Iview-600EB
Wiltronic sells a number of different products under the Iview brand: netbook, digital picture frame, a bunch of digital cameras, cellphone, and more. I only got to see the one ebook reader, but according to the website Wiltronic will soon be selling 3 different models.
The one I saw was a rebranded Oaxis, which is made by Gajah International. Since the hardware specs are well known, I won't list them here. It felt quite solid and performed reasonably well. I can confirm that the reading software is FBReader, and that it has both a landscape and portrait mode. It doesn't appear to have all of FBReader's abilities, but the menu options include bookmark, search, goto page, and font size. There are 2 page turn buttons on the left side of the screen, and on the right there are 12 buttons. When in landscape mode the two middle buttons can turn the page. I hope you can reassign some of the 12 buttons to turn the page while in portrait mode. Some users prefer one over the other. It has a retail of $299 and a release date of soon. I'm not too happy about the price, but I see no reason not to recommend this as one of the ebook readers one might consider. It should suit someone. |
01-08-2010, 01:24 AM | #2 |
book creator
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Looks nice, but is WAY too pricey!
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01-08-2010, 01:57 AM | #3 |
Now you lishen here...
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From all the buzz coming from CES, and other indications, twentyten is gonna have an explosion of ereaders. This is both good and bad. Competition is the good point, but I fear many people are going to not see the "nuances" of the various ereaders. There is going to be a lot of them w/o DRM capability, and thus limited ability to easily load the "bestsellers". And most people just getting into ebook readers are not going to have the awareness, or ability to deDRM or format shift.
This is going to sour, and p*ss-off many buyers! And, I think, push back acceptance of ebooks, at least for the short time. No one to blame really, but the publishers and the ereader manufacturers who are creating this scenario. Hopefully Mobileread will be able to educate enough of them (publishers, manufacturers, and READERS) to minimize this mess. Actually I think most manufacturers are just in it for the quick buck, and don't give a damn. |
01-08-2010, 04:01 AM | #4 |
Book Sniffer
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I got a version of this about a week ago, to supplement my Cybook Opus, through Alibaba.com.
Gajah International are an industrial design firm out of Singapore, and were commissioned to come up wiyth an eReader design for Oaxis, who then sub-licensed the manufacturing rights to several other Chinese companies, and now it and several other Gajah reader designs are floating around out there on the Chinese market for anyone to slap their Label on. ... or at least that's the story I've been told. (if you think the Western eReader market is becoming crowded, you have no idea of the cluster**** that is the Chinese eReader market right now. ...and those are just the legally licensed ones, to say nothing of the others) Mine came straight out of the factory at Show China Industrial Company in ShenZhen, ran for US$216, and is prosaically called the SCA-EB-01. Nice design, good solid, well made feel and very customizable. Once I've played around with it a bit more, I'll write up a full review and compare it with my Opus. Oh, and also how to go about ordering through Alibaba.com |
01-08-2010, 09:47 AM | #5 |
Wizard
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I had been trying to track down that whole string of whose designb it was for months. Ive seen at least 2 others besides Oaxis and all claimed it was theirs. Glad to have the whole story.
I really like this design and hope to add it to my store. Oaxis has been slow to send me a sample but ill be seeing it in Gajahs/Wiltronics booth tomorrow |
01-08-2010, 10:41 AM | #6 |
Sir Penguin of Edinburgh
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Gajah has their own booth, actually.
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01-09-2010, 04:45 AM | #7 | |
Book Sniffer
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Quote:
But the beauty of its symmetrical design and it's use of FBreader is that it can just as easily be used 'upside' down as 'up', if you want to switch the page turn buttons from left to right side. |
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01-09-2010, 06:10 AM | #8 |
Wizard
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Not sure I like the idea of doing 'full justif
ication' simply by chopping words in the m iddle... They need to hire someone who can make sure their product looks good for the show, though the problem probably lies with how they setup the FBreader software. Since none of these devices has anything in terms of new technology, they need to compete on implementation. It would be nice to get some info about the processors they're using and the general speed of the device. The Nook got hammered for its sluggish operation and there's certainly room for ereaders to get a bit snappier. |
01-30-2011, 03:49 AM | #9 |
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I got this eReader recently: IView 700EB
Excellent backup eReader. Good to learn. 1. Very bad for PDF 2. Not sure about how long battey will last and durability 3. Make own folder for different kinds of media. It can't recognize the differnt once like music etc., and just gives a long list. 4. CAN be used while charging 5. Haven't tested video on it yet. 6. Micro SD card is a pain, wish it took regular Memory cards. 7. Headphones that come in the package are poor quality. Features desired 1. mp4 and all other formats supported by Skytex 2. Colors for text 3. Change background to black and text to different colors 4. Where is reset button ? 5. Alarm feature 6. Synthetic Case instead of Leather 7. Can't delete files from the device directly. 8. Doesnt say when charging is complete 9 Sort of hard on eyes, so needs a protective screen |
01-30-2011, 08:20 AM | #10 | |
Sir Penguin of Edinburgh
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Quote:
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02-04-2011, 01:10 AM | #11 |
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I tested it very well. For every 5 hours charge it gave me like 28 pages of reading, said low power and then shut down. Max. it gave me was just 150 pages. Last time, I charged it for 5 hours and it gave me 5 pages of reading before shut down.
Got NO support from manufacturer. Returned it to store and Manager gladly took it back, was very happy with my feedback. Luckily I purchased this in person and would strongly advice all here to stay away from this product, specially NEVER buy this over mail. Also, stay away from all similar rebranded products. I lost two days with this product, time is also vital, it is better spent reading or even going for a walk rather than having to deal with poor devices. It is far better to get a good eReader with eink technology. If color is desired, please get a Netbook. |
02-06-2011, 03:33 AM | #12 |
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Here is my full experience with this device.
Model #: iView-700EB-T Battery Charge Time: First two times for two hours approx. Third time it was for five hours. Battery Power Problem The iView eReader holds power to read only about 100 pages or so. I charged it three times. First two times, I was only able to read 28 pages before it said low power and shutdown. This is a serious limitation for this eReader. Also, here are my complete comments on this eReader. 1. Very bad for PDF. 2. Not sure about how battery durability, specially if it is this bad now. 3. Had to make own folder for different kinds of media. It can't recognize the differnt once like music etc., and just gives a long list. 4. CAN be used while charging 5. Video seems to drain battery really fast. Features desired 1. mp4 and all other formats supported by Skytex 2. Colors for text (Mentioned in manual but doesn't show in the device) 3. Change background to black and text to different colors 4. Where is reset button ? Mentioned in manual but can't find it on the device. 5. Alarm feature (Would be nice if this was present.) 6. Synthetic Case instead of Leather 7. Can't delete files from the device directly. 8. Doesnt say when charging is complete. Would be nice if there was an indicator for this. 9 Hard on eyes, so needs a protective screen. 6. Micro SD card is a pain, wish it took regular Memory cards. 7. Headphones that come in the package are poor quality. |