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

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Robertb

SO, to answer your question, I am advising they will be ready in late August or early September if all goes according to plan. You will be able to buy them from us first. As we get close I will post info on what website is set up to sell them.

I know what I am asking santa for this year. But, any 9.7 device I buy MUST have excellent PDF support including searching and annotations and file/library management.

BOb

[robvarga]

Originally Posted by kacir

The question is very complicated.

Seriously. How many hours in your life you spent reading a [dead tree] book in the bathtub or in sauna?

Lots :-) Honestly.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Robertb

...

One thing we are VERY conscious of is what I call "misfires" where just by holding it you can accidently make a page jump. Harper-Collins first showed me this problem on the old Kindle. The EZ Reader does not have this problem and my new EZ Reader PRO also has avoided this problem. I promise we will not make this mistake if I can help it!

...

Please do not go overboard on this "feature". I would rather have a reader that is too easy to turn the page, then too hard.

Why not make it configurable.

[giddion]

Originally Posted by John F

Please do not go overboard on this "feature". I would rather have a reader that is too easy to turn the page, then too hard.

Why not make it configurable.

On the topic of Configuration and page turning, I saw a suggestion on an Omnia forum that with the motion sensor in the device it might be more comforting to some people to have the page turn by turning the device past a 45 degree angle, basically simulating a page turn in a physical book. Direction of the tilt determines the direction of page turn.

[Xenophon]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Dear Xenophon:

As mentioned, using the added thickness with an optional spare extended life battery is a really great suggestion and a winner. I am going to try on this!

One thing we are VERY conscious of is what I call "misfires" where just by holding it you can accidently make a page jump. Harper-Collins first showed me this problem on the old Kindle. The EZ Reader does not have this problem and my new EZ Reader PRO also has avoided this problem. I promise we will not make this mistake if I can help it!

Thank you,

Robert B

Misfires are actually less of an issue than supporting convenient rotation of the device to have any of its four sides as the top. Add to that button placement that allows convenient (and symmetric!) right- or left-handed use.

With the REB-1100, for example, if you held the device with your hand on the long edge at the balance point, the "next page" button fell directly beneath the thumb of the hand that was holding it. And this was true whether you held it right-handed or left-handed... in spite of the 180-degree rotation! You know this, of course, because you tried one out! It's an important feature because it allows users to hold the reader with either hand with equivalent ergonomics. It's also the kind of thing I meant by "get this right..." Rotational symmetry turns out to be a big deal!

By the way, it's not just an issue for lefties! It also matters for those of us who read for hours at a time (can you say "core target market"?). It's great to be able to switch hands to reduce RSI problems.

Xenophon

[theDwarf]

Originally Posted by Thales

1) hand written annotations via a stylus(I am a Physicist so my notes in the margins involve a lot of math symbols)
2) multi-level catagorizing of books
3) Open formats: epub, pdf, etc... (I understand you guys intend to implement this)
4) an open source operating system- linux for example
5) fast refresh rate and easy switching between books (I use my current reader for reference purposes and look up things across multiple books at once)
6) Dictionary look-up across multiple dictionaries- specifically technical dictionaries
7) Highlighting would be nice but underlining via handwritten annotations would be fine

I know what you mean. Real Estate Appraiser here.

I think there are a growing number of professionals looking for hand-held devices they can use in the field for both reference and the taking of notes so that they can do away with clipboards with paper in them. Maybe it is oe device with all the features or a combination of an e-Ink screen above for displaying documents with a more traditional (smaller & cheaper?) screen below for taking notes that will handle notes. I could see uses for both, but being able to make drawings in the field in the rain would be great

[theDwarf]

Originally Posted by kacir

(Seriously. How many hours in your life you spent reading a [dead tree] book in the bathtub or in sauna?)

3+ hours per week.

Seriously, I see no reason to just waste time I have to spend soaking my back (due to scoliosis) so I read paperbacks or gaming material (my hobby of playing pen & paper RPGs is becoming less of a "hobby" in some ways as I am writing my own RPG currently ).

Also, it is again time away from a computer screen. Reading research materials (old public domain fairy tales and other public domain books) and taking notes is nother of my planned usages for an e-paper device and again a reason I would prefer a split device (display screen and e-note pad able to tie footnotes to a document page).

-Dwarf

[arioste]

Hello...I am new here and french and great user of Sony Prs 505 and journalist here in Paris...So forget my english please....

First I must tell you that I appreciate the technical precision of your mesg.
Well...Now tell me some more about the impact of this product

For exam : What do you think about the future of the EBooks ?
Do you have a tremendous start in the US or not?
What does the analysts think of the market ?
Have we some figures...Poll...etc ?
Where can I find such informations ?

[Justy]

Originally Posted by kacir

I have seen countless articles and discussions ranting about how you can take the book and read it in the bathtub, or on a beach, how you can just toss the book in your backpack. (Seriously. How many hours in your life you spent reading a [dead tree] book in the bathtub or in sauna?)

Hehehe, I recently spent a week in Mexico where I used my Cybook on the beach everyday, making sure only to have clean dry hands before using. I sit in the bath with my Cybook for a couple hours at a time several times a week. This is normal usage for me, if I couldn't do this I would miss out on way too much reading time. So far my Cybook hasn't had any troubles with my usage and hasn't gone "swimming" either. Slight splashes don't seem to bother it at all.

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by theDwarf

I know what you mean. Real Estate Appraiser here.

I think there are a growing number of professionals looking for hand-held devices they can use in the field for both reference and the taking of notes so that they can do away with clipboards with paper in them. Maybe it is oe device with all the features or a combination of an e-Ink screen above for displaying documents with a more traditional (smaller & cheaper?) screen below for taking notes that will handle notes. I could see uses for both, but being able to make drawings in the field in the rain would be great

google "slate pc" or just visit somewhere like http://www.tabletkiosk.com or any of the other mfg's of slate style PC's. Miind that these are not the same as a "tablet pc"....but there are many options in the form factor.

BTW, I mention a regular PC because it is going to be a while before you get the display speeds you might want for your area of work. I am sure it would be nice to show your client pictures of a home right then and there...not gonna happen for a while on eink...

[cobalt8]

It looks like Frys went back up to the $299.00 price from the $269.00 introductory price.

[arioste]

Hello Robert !

As a new visitor here, french...liking very very much books..everything related to reading....a fortiori Ebooks...
And being a journalist living in Paris, I am deeply interested by your msg.
Could you please tell me what is the market for this device in the US ? Can I have some figure or to whom may I ask ? Can you observe a significant growing of the sales ? Are we at the beginning of a phenomen as for the sales of the celllular phones etc....

Thanks for every onformation
JD

[stive]

Hi Everyone,

First, thanks to everyone on this thread for a valuable and entertaining education on ebooks, ebook technologies and value, and Astak products, not to mention on product management and innovation management I *love* this thread.

I just received my EZ Reader from Frys (@ the $269 price), my first ebook, and look forward to sharing my experience and posting a review on the board. But first, I'm off to a slow start - the EZ Reader will not open any of pdfs I've downloaded from Google books - an absolute show-stopper for me. There doesn't seem to be a user or help forum on the Mobiebook site ("Forum" link is broken), and the manual gives an email and phone # that seems to be for RMA - not sure I need to return it yet. Can anyone help?

--There is no problem opening and reading the manual pdf or a couple of pdfs from a certification study guide I've loaded. So it does work for some pdfs.
--I cannot open any of about 30 Google Books I've initially downloaded onto the reader. Not small 1.5 or 3 MB books, not large 14 MB books.
--When I try to open a Google book pdf, an hourglass briefly appears next to the numbered tab on the left, a couple of arrows forming a circle pops up on the screen and then promptly freezes, while the pinpoint light on the upper left of the device goes red.
--Then either one of two things happens: a) the screen simply goes to my SD card bookshelf (whether I was opening from the hard drive or the card); b) or more often, the screen goes dark for a moment, then the bookshelf screen reappears very faded, looking like a watermark, followed by a splashscreen with "Your EZ Reader, Your Library, ASTAK" on it.
--This happens whether I try to open the Google books from the hard drive or the SD card
--I've powered on/off, I've reset, I've deleted and re-loaded the pdf Google books. There is plenty of juice in the battery

I was on the fence getting this, since I felt the generally less expensive Mentor line with the more powerful controller would be the better value. But at $269 with the 2 gig card, decent leather case, and free shipping, this met my price point and I figured it would be a good starter device for me to cut my teeth on until the large-screened devices come out. Plus, I thought my risk would be small since Hanlin was considered a mature product (implies not buggy) and Robertb's active ear listening in.

Any suggestions, or pointers to an Astak or Hanlin support site or forum would be appreciated, I didn't find one. Again, I'm brand new to this technology - once I get my feet under me with this, I hope to contribute in the spirit of the thread's enhancement ideas, not possible bugs.

Thanks,
Stive

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by stive

the EZ Reader will not open any of pdfs I've downloaded from Google books - an absolute show-stopper for me.

This is a common problem on ebook devices. The best thread on the subject is probably problem opening pdf files from books.google.com. Post #11 recommends PDF995 to convert Google PDFs into old-style PDFs.

This isn't the only option. Another possibility is PDFRead, which converts all PDFs to multiple images per page, use prc-mobi or prc-mobi-p profiles on the EZ Reader.

[stive]

Thanks wallcraft. ThePDF995 option was successful on a few Google PDFs I tested - I can live with this workaround. It is tedious, so l think I'll try your PDFRead idea later on.