I've been following the
Astak info thread with great interest, but some of the tech stuff is a bit over my head and I would like to try to understand it better so I can make a 'good' decision about what device I buy (whether it's Astak, Cybook or something else entirely). So, I'm going to outlay my understanding and hopefully you kind bods will correct me if I'm wrong and fill in the gap.
I've seen a lot of the threads around proprietary formats and I can understand that; you want to be able to read all your books/documents and not just the ones that are the right 'type'. Because Mobipocket have got a bit sniffy, Astak are going to produce one device - the Litebook - that will read Mobipocket books (only Mobipocket books?) and another, the Mentor, that will be 'open format' (?) and therefore read other types of format like ePub (?) (but, presumably, not Mobipocket). I'm not sure where .pdf's sit in this - only on the Mentor, or on both? (I know there are issues about DRM and about viewability of pdf's, but am treating those as separate issues) What about .txt or RTF files?
Whereas the Cybook can handle a variety of formats already - correct?
And, from a practical point of view, which is going to be the 'best' (and I use the term very loosely) option? Will a device that only reads Mobipocket be too limiting? Will a device that doesn't read it at all be too limiting? Obviously all info to date on the Astak is subject to change, but I'm very interested to hear what peoples opinions on this aspect are at present.
At this rate I could be an expert by the time I actually get round to buying a device!
P.S. We need to
mozzle something for tech-related confusion. I'm nominating techombobbled (mutation of technical + discombobulated)