MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Astak Mentor eBook readers with WiFi and Touchscreen (read-only)

SaraD · 12-06-2008, 01:09 AM

Hi Robert B,

As a side note, I was just perusing e-bay. I do so once in a while to see if there are any e-readers besides Kindles and Sony's out there yet. To my amazement I actually saw two entries for EZ Readers! The ad's pictures and text were taken straight from Mobiebook and Astak sites. For what it's worth they were selling for the $329 and $369 prices. I also saw several Jetbook entries and a few iRex devices for the first time.

I do have a couple of wish list items for the next generation of e-book readers. The are more of the same-old same-old, but...

1) Faster page changes, but the Epson controller may already solve that. Or as my husband called it after seeing the YouTube demo of the controller, the Harry Potter wizard newspaper thing. He works in IT and finds few consumer gadgets interesting. The demo actually got a "wow - that's cool". And he started taking my interest in these devices seriously for the first time. It went so far that he asked me questions about models and capabilities because such might interest his company. Sadly I had to explain that it would not be available until spring at best for the larger size screens and PDF is currently hit&miss.

2) A plastic screen that I would worry about less than I would the glass. If I leave a p-book on a table or chair my 17 lbs. boy cat will sometimes flop on it so I have to give him more attention than my book. I close my p-books so he can't damage the spines, but I'm not sure even the sturdy case would help an e-book reader very much. Sturdy is much more important to me as a pleasure-reader than a touch screen. Dusty can lay on my mp3 player without hurting anything (except my ears if I don't check the volume before using it) and the same in an e-book reader would be great.

3) A well-done retail store presence if at all reasonable. Borders does a nice job with their Sony display and it has a "what is that?" appeal. Target (at least in Spokane, WA, US) does a very sad job and it looks about to be dismantled with no information available. The Starbucks idea somebody posted a while ago was indeed a good one and a different approach.

For sticking with this project!

12-06-2008, 01:09 AM	#1119
SaraD Groupie Posts: 161 Karma: 2670 Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Mead, WA, USA Device: Sony 650, Basic Kindle 7th generation	Hi Robert B, As a side note, I was just perusing e-bay. I do so once in a while to see if there are any e-readers besides Kindles and Sony's out there yet. To my amazement I actually saw two entries for EZ Readers! The ad's pictures and text were taken straight from Mobiebook and Astak sites. For what it's worth they were selling for the $329 and $369 prices. I also saw several Jetbook entries and a few iRex devices for the first time. I do have a couple of wish list items for the next generation of e-book readers. The are more of the same-old same-old, but... 1) Faster page changes, but the Epson controller may already solve that. Or as my husband called it after seeing the YouTube demo of the controller, the Harry Potter wizard newspaper thing. He works in IT and finds few consumer gadgets interesting. The demo actually got a "wow - that's cool". And he started taking my interest in these devices seriously for the first time. It went so far that he asked me questions about models and capabilities because such might interest his company. Sadly I had to explain that it would not be available until spring at best for the larger size screens and PDF is currently hit&miss. 2) A plastic screen that I would worry about less than I would the glass. If I leave a p-book on a table or chair my 17 lbs. boy cat will sometimes flop on it so I have to give him more attention than my book. I close my p-books so he can't damage the spines, but I'm not sure even the sturdy case would help an e-book reader very much. Sturdy is much more important to me as a pleasure-reader than a touch screen. Dusty can lay on my mp3 player without hurting anything (except my ears if I don't check the volume before using it) and the same in an e-book reader would be great. 3) A well-done retail store presence if at all reasonable. Borders does a nice job with their Sony display and it has a "what is that?" appeal. Target (at least in Spokane, WA, US) does a very sad job and it looks about to be dismantled with no information available. The Starbucks idea somebody posted a while ago was indeed a good one and a different approach. For sticking with this project!