Astak Mentor eBook readers with WiFi and Touchscreen (read-only)

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by ccccclark

I have been buying Mobi format books (*.PRC). Are these going to work after the Firmware upgrade?

The only MOBI support in previous "official" versions of the firmware was via MobiPocket software. So even DRM-free MOBIs will presumably fail to work. However, you can format shift DRM-free MOBI to FB2 or ePub which will work. You can also strip the DRM from MOBI ebooks, although the withdrawal of DRM support from a device is not an allowed "anti-circumvention exemption" to the DMCA.

Note that we are not required to update the firmware on our existing EZ Readers, and at least up until now all Hanlin V3 firmware versions work on all Hanlin V3's including EZ Readers. So we can use Jinke, or BeBook (say), firmware to continue to receive updated MOBI support. This might change in the future, since MobiPocket owns the copyright on the MOBI reader software and can place restrictions on how Jinke distributes it.

The OpenInkPot firmware supports DRM-free MOBI via FBReader, and it can be installed on the EZ Reader.

[phenomshel]

Thank you Wallcraft! Excellent explanation.

[ccccclark]

nm nm nm

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by ccccclark

This kind of sucks. I was told in a post that Mobipocket was the best format and now if I want a Firmware upgrade, I will have to go outside of the company I purchased the hardware from. I have not purchased a lot of books, but I'm glad I have found out about this now.

Switching formats mid-stream is just not an option and I really don't want to spend a bunch of time/effort converting formats, DRM-free or not.

I really like my EZ Reader, but I am becoming more than a little disillusioned with the entire industry. They really need to get their crap together. If I my e-library is going to become obsolete, I may as well either use the library or purchase paper books and at least sell them and recoup some of the cost.

Seriously.

My other complaints are general lack of quality with e-books. Many editing errors.

While it does sort of suck, as you put it - it's not the industry's fault. It's the folks with the proprietary formats that insist on making things difficult for everyone. I'm not Robert, and I don't have to be nice about it to avoid stepping on toes.
Unfortunately, after having done some looking around, only purchasing DRM free content is not going to be an option for me, because I like to read popular authors and their new releases. This leaves me with choices - A. buy a proprietary reader, aka Sony or Kindle and not be able to read what I already have that is DRM free; or B. Buy an open format reader such as the EZ Reader and end up converting/stripping DRM from whichever format I'm forced to buy to get the books I want. Neither is an option I'm real happy with; but to get the best of both worlds, I'd need two readers, one proprietary one not and that's simply NOT in my budget.
But again... I don't see this as the industry's fault. I see it as the curse of DRM and proprietary formats.

[ccccclark]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

While it does sort of suck, as you put it - it's not the industry's fault. It's the folks with the proprietary formats that insist on making things difficult for everyone. I'm not Robert, and I don't have to be nice about it to avoid stepping on toes.
Unfortunately, after having done some looking around, only purchasing DRM free content is not going to be an option for me, because I like to read popular authors and their new releases. This leaves me with choices - A. buy a proprietary reader, aka Sony or Kindle and not be able to read what I already have that is DRM free; or B. Buy an open format reader such as the EZ Reader and end up converting/stripping DRM from whichever format I'm forced to buy to get the books I want. Neither is an option I'm real happy with; but to get the best of both worlds, I'd need two readers, one proprietary one not and that's simply NOT in my budget.
But again... I don't see this as the industry's fault. I see it as the curse of DRM and proprietary formats.

But this is the entire industry's fault and I am not pointing fingers at Astak or Robert. It is not their fault becuase they are under the thumbs of the big players. But that doesn't make it any better, especially when paying a lot for the hardware.

If the entire industry ever wants to be viable, they really need to get it together. A few weeks ago I was the most rabid supporter of e-books. Today I am not so sure I would recommend them.

As of this moment, I don't intend to purchase anymore e-books until this whole thing gets straightened out (and I had a good list of about 15 books). I am not investing in a potential sinkhole. Like I said, there is always the library and used bookstores. The selecion of e-books is very limited anyway.

I will need to know whether to go the epub route or the mobi route before I make anymore purchases. Until that time, if it ever comes, I will read the classics.

I guess if I had known that the Mobibooks were not going to be supported on the EZ Reader in the future when I purchased it, I would be a little more polite. But I have already spent money on e-books and started down a path that is already old after about 4 weeks since I purchased my reader.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

buy a proprietary reader, aka Sony or Kindle and not be able to read what I already have that is DRM free

It is legal in the US to format shift DRM-free ebooks you own for personal use, so your existing ebooks are readable if you don't mind format shifting them (e.g. to MOBI for the Kindle or to LRF or ePub for the Sony). Calibre makes this very easy to do.

[TheJohnNewton]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

This leaves me with choices - A. buy a proprietary reader, aka Sony or Kindle and not be able to read what I already have that is DRM free...

If you have DRM free books why would you not be able to read them on a Kindle or Sony? Or was that a typo? They don't ONLY read DRM books. Heck I've had a Kindle for about a year and I've only purchased four books with DRM. There is so much out there drm free and/or dollar free (just look at this site) that I don't need to bother with the crippled drm junk.

[TheJohnNewton]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

It is legal in the US to format shift DRM-free ebooks you own for personal use.

Really? What is your source of this information? I've never heard that before. How does a particular vendors policies/user agreements come into play e.g. according to the Kindle user agreement you can only read your Kindle purchases from them on your Kindle.

Oh DOH!!!!! I totally missed the "DRM-Free" part of your post. Sorry.

[Xenophon]

Originally Posted by TheJohnNewton

Really? What is your source of this information? I've never heard that before. How does a particular vendors policies/user agreements come into play e.g. according to the Kindle user agreement you can only read your Kindle purchases from them on your Kindle.

Oh DOH!!!!! I totally missed the "DRM-Free" part of your post. Sorry.

It's also legal to strip DRM from a file for personal use only. Probably. See my post here for a longer discussion of the issues.

Xenophon

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by TheJohnNewton

If you have DRM free books why would you not be able to read them on a Kindle or Sony? Or was that a typo? They don't ONLY read DRM books. Heck I've had a Kindle for about a year and I've only purchased four books with DRM. There is so much out there drm free and/or dollar free (just look at this site) that I don't need to bother with the crippled drm junk.

Because I have about six formats going....rtf, .doc, .htm. .lit, and .pdf, plus a few for palm. I've picked them up here and there or friends have found out about me wanting ebooks and sent me huge zip files full they've picked up who knows where. If I converted all of these (and there's about six gigs worth of them at the moment) it would take me forEVER. No, thanks. And as for crippled DRM junk, while I am in TOTAL agreement with the anti-DRM stand, most of what I enjoy reading is only available DRM'd unless I want to keep haunting torrent forums and getting it illegally, which I'd really prefer not to do.
The idea behind an ebook reader for me is the portability. I had to leave a library's worth of precious books in Texas when I moved, because I didn't have the money to ship them, and my ex sure wasn't inclined to do it either. I don't know what happened to them, but it's my suspicion they're in pieces in a landfill somewhere. When I found ebook readers and ebooks, I decided if I went this route, I'd never, ever have to leave my books for not being able to ship them. Not to mention the allure of having anything I want to read readily available to me no matter WHERE I happen to be. Therefore, I want something that's the most versatile at reading the file formats I already have, without a ton of conversions, but also something that can keep up with what I buy in the future. That perfect device may not exist, but goshdarnit, I'm going to get as close as I can.

That's what I came here for, was advice about which one to buy to get as close as possible to that. I've gotten lots of ideas, lots of help, and lots of eye opening about what is truly out there and what is practical and what is not. However, it's still up to me to decide which device will work best for the purposes I (and only I) have decided I would like the device for.

Now... maybe I'm misunderstanding some posts somewhere, but I have gotten the distinct impression that while Sony and Kindle both do what they do VERY well, neither of them are really versatile about what formats they accept without a ton of conversion. If I'm wrong about that, I'm open minded and more than willing to be enlightened.

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

It is legal in the US to format shift DRM-free ebooks you own for personal use, so your existing ebooks are readable if you don't mind format shifting them (e.g. to MOBI for the Kindle or to LRF or ePub for the Sony). Calibre makes this very easy to do.

The key there is "if you don't mind format shifting them". It's not that I have anything against format shifting, but I don't want to have to do it for darn near everything I already have. Call me lazy.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

Because I have about six formats going....rtf, .doc, .htm. .lit, and .pdf, plus a few for palm. I've picked them up here and there or friends have found out about me wanting ebooks and sent me huge zip files full they've picked up who knows where. If I converted all of these (and there's about six gigs worth of them at the moment) it would take me forEVER. No, thanks. And as for crippled DRM junk, while I am in TOTAL agreement with the anti-DRM stand, most of what I enjoy reading is only available DRM'd unless I want to keep haunting torrent forums and getting it illegally, which I'd really prefer not to do.

Most of the formats can be converted by calibre, and the conversion process is largely automatic.

http://calibre.kovidgoyal.net/

[pkovak]

Few weeks ago I was converting 10 books from various formats to another one, so I can open them in one software. Simply selected them and let the convertion software work. Took about a minute of my time. More books does not increase that time much, you simply select them, order the convertion and read the result.

[DaleDe]

I believe the replacement firmware will have a copy of FBReader included so it will still be able to read all of the formats it used to be able to read except no DRM on MOBI. The eReader format will be in addition to those supported in FBReader. This is based on some private correspondence with Astak. You can read about FBReader in the wiki.

It is not clear is PDF will be supported in this initial release but I think it is likely that Jinke will provide this as well.

Dale

[TheJohnNewton]

Obviously this won't help your current situation but man does it point to the need for ONE standard format that works on all devices. Why do consumers need to even know about formats? Seems a failure of the ebook industry to me though granted it's a young industry.