the owner of that online store is the only one in China can root dpt-s1 including the new v1.5 firmware, after root the Android version is 2.2.1 and can install those compatible apps, according to him it's software + hardware root, so the users in China need to send the reader to him.
Some discussion about rooting here:
http://www.hi-pda.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=1714825
Some screenshots here:
http://tieba.baidu.com/p/3360292618