Video of the Hanvon 5" touchscreen E-Ink reader

Charbax · 03-13-2009, 10:47 PM

I did a video review of it at CeBIT 2009 that I posted here:

You can watch this video on Youtube in HD quality.

Please spread it around if you find this interesting!

It's a 5" stylus E-Ink touchscreen using Havon's alternative to wacom technology.

I think that this form factor could be pretty much perfect. The non-touchscreen version is said to be sold by Havon at $180, perhaps the touchscreen version with WiFi doesn't have to be much more expensive than that.

I think that they need to remove all the unecessary bezel around the screen, it should I think only have some buttons on the side of the device, not on the front of it. Cause I think that a 5" screen form factor is otherwise potentially perfect to put in the pocket using an appropriate thin synthetic or leather screen protector case.

Then of course, they need WiFi and HSDPA built-in for this to be usable to the level of being a Kindle alternative.

For software upgradabillity, I think that they need to load some type of Google Android on it. Then the community could build software for it to do interesting things with the stylus such as worldwide collaborative reading and annotations sharing and annotations filtering. Commentary around all texts. Posting of handwritten comments eventually with server-based handwriting recognition to blog posts. More advanced features to the stylus functions such as doing stuff to words when doing certain drawings on them, like crossing words out deletes them or makes them eventually change background color or something. Depending on which type of collaboration mode the user would be in.

Using Android I think would make it possible to have Google Reader, Google News, Google Books on this. And more. There should be a Chrome and Firefox plugins to easilly select web pages and articles from ones PC browser that should then be pushed to ones E-Reader device wirelessly for later reading.

Previously on this forum this company has been referred to with the name "Hanwang" somehow. But to me it looks pretty clear the company name now is Hanvon.

David Munch · 03-14-2009, 04:06 AM

Why Google Android and not OpenInkPot?

igorsk · 03-14-2009, 05:50 AM

Apparently it will be released in Ukraine and Russia under the name @AzBOOKa@ (sounds like the Russian word for "alphabet"). Preliminary date is end of April...

Spectrum · 03-14-2009, 10:05 AM

Great!
If Chinese are in ebook devices manufacturing, that means prices are headed to the floor.
Waiting for a 9 inch screens with touchscreen ability. This will really revolutionize class room adoption!

kacir · 03-14-2009, 11:38 AM

It looks like Hanvon manufactures tablets.

They have the reader on their site
http://www.hanvon.com/en/products/EP...ns/e-book.html

wallcraft · 03-14-2009, 12:03 PM

It is using an Ingenic JZ4740 processor, clocked at 336MHz. I had not come across this cpu before, but it is apparently MIPS-based.

The niche for 5" screens is presumably going to be low cost (and perhaps pocketability), but this does not look "cheap", which is good, and the only major issue I see is the lack of any real e-book formats.

delphidb96 · 03-15-2009, 02:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skipy

The price sound great.

WHAT price?!? I can't find a price listed anywhere on their site!

Derek

maggotb0y · 03-15-2009, 08:23 AM

Well, this looks like the device for me, and I found one on eBay for $250, so I've ordered it. Should arrive sometime next week, and I'll be sure to post some first impressions here.

Nate the great · 03-15-2009, 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maggotb0y

Well, this looks like the device for me, and I found one on eBay for $250, so I've ordered it. Should arrive sometime next week, and I'll be sure to post some first impressions here.

Where did you find it on Ebay?

Nate the great · 03-15-2009, 08:37 AM

I found it:
http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Hanvon-N510-...QQcmdZViewItem

It's the older model, the N510. The one demoed above is the N516, and has a touchscreen,

Steve Jordan · 03-15-2009, 09:23 AM

Ha! Charbax, you sound like a Google ad!

Seriously, though, it looks like a nice device for all kinds of uses. I especially like the note-taking feature, it ably demonstrates an ability to more writing and note-taking beyond paper, which is a good thing. Whether it is opened up to Google apps or not, I'd love to see third party apps available to jazz it up.

maggotb0y · 03-15-2009, 02:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I found it:
It's the older model, the N510. The one demoed above is the N516, and has a touchscreen,

The one I ordered is indeed a 510- the video is offline at the moment (youtube problems?), but IIRC it shows a stylus being used for input, although the description calls it a "touchscreen". They do go on for quite a bit about the screen technology being designed in house (my understanding was they are using something behind the screen rather than on top), but I don't remember anything in the video that suggests that the screen will accept touch input.

If the video becomes viewable later, I'll take a second look.

Nate the great · 03-15-2009, 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maggotb0y

The one I ordered is indeed a 510- the video is offline at the moment (youtube problems?), but IIRC it shows a stylus being used for input, although the description calls it a "touchscreen". They do go on for quite a bit about the screen technology being designed in house (my understanding was they are using something behind the screen rather than on top), but I don't remember anything in the video that suggests that the screen will accept touch input.

If the video becomes viewable later, I'll take a second look.

I thought they were demonstrating the N516. I've been talking with the manufacturer, and I thought they implied it was the N516.

I have the spec sheet. There's no mention of a touchscreen. Odd.

maggotb0y · 03-15-2009, 05:22 PM

The video is viewable again- they do mention the word "Touchscreen" many times, but the stylus appears to be required- like I said, I think that they are touting their proprietary tech. The only differences that I see on spec between the 510 and 516 are the higher 4 v. 8 color greyscale, the processor and the flash memory. So I would expect my experience with the 510 to be slower and not as crisp, but otherwise identical. I'll let everyone know when it arrives.

maggotb0y · 03-18-2009, 10:15 PM

Well, in spite of a mention of the "electromagnetic pen input" in the press release for the N510, there is actually no pen input whatsoever. Luckily the seller is refunding the money, because without that, it's just not worth it to me. I won't have time to post a detailed review before sending the unit back, but I will note a few things for anyone interested.
1) The size is actually pretty nice and the layout worked pretty well with one hand. There is a wheel type slider on the left that changes pages back and forth. I've been using a sony reader (500 then 505) for a few years now, and I was quite comfortable shifting to the Hanvon to look it over. The NAV buttons on the right side were a bit small, which might be annoying to some. But the device was small enough to slip into a front pocket on a pair of Jeans, which might come in handy.
2) The screen seemed to look really nice, but it was somewhat hard to tell because the fonts installed on the device were AWFUL. JPGs looked fine.
3) As HarryT predicted in the other thread on this device, the HTML display was HTML only, no inline graphics, or even really proper flow. That is something that is pretty inexcusable in a book reading device. Didn't have time to look at PDF display, can't imagine it would look good, especially if they are rendering pages down to fit on the small screen.
4) There didn't seem to be a bookmarking function, although this may have been because some of the UI was still in Chinese, so I didn't know what I was looking at.

Overall, not much of interest to the non-Chinese market, and probably not that much there either. So for now, it's back to the Sony 505 for me - if I had gotten the Hanvon 516, I probably would have kept it for when I need to mark up a document, but having seen the 510, I'll skip on the 516 and hope for a better device to come along (if only the Sony 700 had a better screen)

03-13-2009, 10:47 PM	#1
Charbax Groupie Posts: 174 Karma: 2121 Join Date: Mar 2007	Video of the Hanvon 5" touchscreen E-Ink reader I did a video review of it at CeBIT 2009 that I posted here: You can watch this video on Youtube in HD quality. Please spread it around if you find this interesting! It's a 5" stylus E-Ink touchscreen using Havon's alternative to wacom technology. I think that this form factor could be pretty much perfect. The non-touchscreen version is said to be sold by Havon at $180, perhaps the touchscreen version with WiFi doesn't have to be much more expensive than that. I think that they need to remove all the unecessary bezel around the screen, it should I think only have some buttons on the side of the device, not on the front of it. Cause I think that a 5" screen form factor is otherwise potentially perfect to put in the pocket using an appropriate thin synthetic or leather screen protector case. Then of course, they need WiFi and HSDPA built-in for this to be usable to the level of being a Kindle alternative. For software upgradabillity, I think that they need to load some type of Google Android on it. Then the community could build software for it to do interesting things with the stylus such as worldwide collaborative reading and annotations sharing and annotations filtering. Commentary around all texts. Posting of handwritten comments eventually with server-based handwriting recognition to blog posts. More advanced features to the stylus functions such as doing stuff to words when doing certain drawings on them, like crossing words out deletes them or makes them eventually change background color or something. Depending on which type of collaboration mode the user would be in. Using Android I think would make it possible to have Google Reader, Google News, Google Books on this. And more. There should be a Chrome and Firefox plugins to easilly select web pages and articles from ones PC browser that should then be pushed to ones E-Reader device wirelessly for later reading. Previously on this forum this company has been referred to with the name "Hanwang" somehow. But to me it looks pretty clear the company name now is Hanvon. Last edited by Charbax; 03-14-2009 at 01:32 AM.

03-14-2009, 05:50 AM	#3
igorsk Wizard Posts: 3,160 Karma: 18702 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Belgium Device: PRS-500/505/700, Kindle, Cybook Gen3, Words Gear	Apparently it will be released in Ukraine and Russia under the name @AzBOOKa@ (sounds like the Russian word for "alphabet"). Preliminary date is end of April... __________________ Yet another reverse engineering blog Like to chat? Join #mobileread

03-15-2009, 08:37 AM	#10
Nate the great Sir Penguin of Edinburgh Posts: 8,967 Karma: 67673 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: DC Metro area Device: Airpanel 100, Jornada 720, Kindle, Smart Q7, Zelda has Sony 600 & 700	I found it: http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Hanvon-N510-...QQcmdZViewItem It's the older model, the N510. The one demoed above is the N516, and has a touchscreen, __________________ The Digital Reader blog - www.the-digital-reader.com

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03-14-2009, 04:06 AM	#2
David Munch Scholar Posts: 198 Karma: 1510 Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Denmark Device: None :"(	Why Google Android and not OpenInkPot?

03-14-2009, 10:05 AM	#4
Spectrum Zealot Posts: 105 Karma: 570 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: SONY PRS-505 Dark Blue, IREX DR800SG	Great! If Chinese are in ebook devices manufacturing, that means prices are headed to the floor. Waiting for a 9 inch screens with touchscreen ability. This will really revolutionize class room adoption!

03-14-2009, 11:38 AM	#5
kacir Wizard Posts: 1,452 Karma: 9111 Join Date: May 2006 Device: PocketBook 360, before it was Sony Reader, cassiopeia A-20	It looks like Hanvon manufactures tablets. They have the reader on their site http://www.hanvon.com/en/products/EP...ns/e-book.html

03-14-2009, 12:03 PM	#6
wallcraft reader Posts: 5,759 Karma: 10704 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Mississippi, USA Device: iLiad, Kindle 1, EZ Reader Basic and Pocket Pro	It is using an Ingenic JZ4740 processor, clocked at 336MHz. I had not come across this cpu before, but it is apparently MIPS-based. The niche for 5" screens is presumably going to be low cost (and perhaps pocketability), but this does not look "cheap", which is good, and the only major issue I see is the lack of any real e-book formats.

03-15-2009, 08:23 AM	#8
maggotb0y Connoisseur Posts: 81 Karma: 1166 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: New Jersey, Outside of Philadelphia Device: Sony Reader	Well, this looks like the device for me, and I found one on eBay for $250, so I've ordered it. Should arrive sometime next week, and I'll be sure to post some first impressions here.

03-15-2009, 09:23 AM	#11
Steve Jordan . Posts: 6,220 Karma: 27701 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	Ha! Charbax, you sound like a Google ad! Seriously, though, it looks like a nice device for all kinds of uses. I especially like the note-taking feature, it ably demonstrates an ability to more writing and note-taking beyond paper, which is a good thing. Whether it is opened up to Google apps or not, I'd love to see third party apps available to jazz it up.

03-15-2009, 05:22 PM	#14
maggotb0y Connoisseur Posts: 81 Karma: 1166 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: New Jersey, Outside of Philadelphia Device: Sony Reader	The video is viewable again- they do mention the word "Touchscreen" many times, but the stylus appears to be required- like I said, I think that they are touting their proprietary tech. The only differences that I see on spec between the 510 and 516 are the higher 4 v. 8 color greyscale, the processor and the flash memory. So I would expect my experience with the 510 to be slower and not as crisp, but otherwise identical. I'll let everyone know when it arrives.

03-18-2009, 10:15 PM	#15
maggotb0y Connoisseur Posts: 81 Karma: 1166 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: New Jersey, Outside of Philadelphia Device: Sony Reader	Well, in spite of a mention of the "electromagnetic pen input" in the press release for the N510, there is actually no pen input whatsoever. Luckily the seller is refunding the money, because without that, it's just not worth it to me. I won't have time to post a detailed review before sending the unit back, but I will note a few things for anyone interested. 1) The size is actually pretty nice and the layout worked pretty well with one hand. There is a wheel type slider on the left that changes pages back and forth. I've been using a sony reader (500 then 505) for a few years now, and I was quite comfortable shifting to the Hanvon to look it over. The NAV buttons on the right side were a bit small, which might be annoying to some. But the device was small enough to slip into a front pocket on a pair of Jeans, which might come in handy. 2) The screen seemed to look really nice, but it was somewhat hard to tell because the fonts installed on the device were AWFUL. JPGs looked fine. 3) As HarryT predicted in the other thread on this device, the HTML display was HTML only, no inline graphics, or even really proper flow. That is something that is pretty inexcusable in a book reading device. Didn't have time to look at PDF display, can't imagine it would look good, especially if they are rendering pages down to fit on the small screen. 4) There didn't seem to be a bookmarking function, although this may have been because some of the UI was still in Chinese, so I didn't know what I was looking at. Overall, not much of interest to the non-Chinese market, and probably not that much there either. So for now, it's back to the Sony 505 for me - if I had gotten the Hanvon 516, I probably would have kept it for when I need to mark up a document, but having seen the 510, I'll skip on the 516 and hope for a better device to come along (if only the Sony 700 had a better screen)


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