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

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by catsittingstill

It sounds like someone needs to light a fire under their chairs---metaphorically speaking, of course.

Dear Catsittingstill:

Never do metaphorically what you can do for real! A nice bed of hot embers under their chairs may help bring CNET to actual life!!

Thank you for a pleasant thought!!

[Musicman]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Is it possible that CNET has no living beings and just employs robots that do the reviews: "I---did---not---like---this---device---as---it---lacks---an---oil---can! Are they owned by Amazon? I have NEVER seen a review firm that is SO non-caring about doing reviews.

I also wonder if Amazon has them in their pocket.

This is an old story - if you only hear one side then no one knows that there are other options our there, which are better than the product they are pushing!

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by Robertb

$99.99 for an eBook Reader tells me that they are looking ONLY at price and nothing else.

I assumed this was a subsidized price, i.e. $99.99 if you sign up for X number of books. Books on Board, for example, sells the Sony PRS-505 for $99 if you buy a $500 ebook gift certificate.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by Musicman

I also wonder if Amazon has them in their pocket.

This is an old story - if you only hear one side then no one knows that there are other options our there, which are better than the product they are pushing!

Dear Musicman:

Yes, I know that in CNET's review of the Cool-er this week they panned it for using "drag-and-drop-book loading which is less convenient than Kindle's instant downloads". This MIGHT make a legitimate observation but they list it under "The Bad". I do not see why NOT being wireless is necessarily a bad thing. It is certainly nothing to grade down a device over. Some love wireless and some do NOT and they do not want to pay for it. It is a little like: "OK, let us compare every device to the Kindle and downgrade it if it is not exact". Is that fair? Does this mean that CNET likes the idea of being tied for all your eBook purchases to one site?? I find that disturbing. I like freedom to buy what I want to buy from who I want to buy from. I do not see that as a defect... I see it purely as a choice.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Yes, I know that in CNET's review of the Cool-er this week they panned it for using "drag-and-drop-book loading which is less convenient than Kindle's instant downloads". This MIGHT make a legitimate observation but they list it under "The Bad".

CNET only has good, bad, and bottom line as headings in their summary, and it would be unusual to count a missing feature as "good". I agree, though, that instant downloads come at a price premium and are not needed by everyone. This is overall a more detailed review that most I have seen.

CNET's review implies that the COOL-ER does not reflow PDFs, even though it is running mobile Adobe Digital Editions:

As for PDF viewing, there's no zoom button per se, but switching from vertical to horizontal mode crops sometimes enlarges the PDF, so it has a pseudo zoom feature.

Is this also the case for the Astak Mentor Lite? On the Sony PRS-505 (also using Adobe Digital Editions), PDFs are reflowed if you select the M or L "font" sizes.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Robertb

I
Let us hope that SFBC will at least do the courtesy of a reply.

$99.99 for an eBook Reader tells me that they are looking ONLY at price and nothing else. It would have to be 5 inch LCD with 6-8 hours of battery life and your eyes burn after ten minutes. That is NOT a good sign that they are serious in my mind.

Maybe they are looking at a subscription model where they subsidize the initial product and make it up with the eBooks. That could certainly be a serious business model.

Dale

[Musicman]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Dear Musicman:

Yes, I know that in CNET's review of the Cool-er this week they panned it for using "drag-and-drop-book loading which is less convenient than Kindle's instant downloads". This MIGHT make a legitimate observation but they list it under "The Bad". I do not see why NOT being wireless is necessarily a bad thing. It is certainly nothing to grade down a device over. Some love wireless and some do NOT and they do not want to pay for it. It is a little like: "OK, let us compare every device to the Kindle and downgrade it if it is not exact". Is that fair? Does this mean that CNET likes the idea of being tied for all your eBook purchases to one site?? I find that disturbing. I like freedom to buy what I want to buy from who I want to buy from. I do not see that as a defect... I see it purely as a choice.

I also do not see drag and drop as a negative - I see a wireless model that ties you to one source, for the most part, for you books as a negative. Also with the wireless on you drain the battery quicker.

Since I go back to the c:\ Prompt of the DOS days, I like to have full control of where I place things on my device, and ease of backing up my files.

Prior to getting the EZ-Reader, I never had less than five books on my device that I had not read yet. Now with my EZ-Reader, I must have 50 Books that I have not read yet on it. So, where is the importance of having wireless access???

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Dear ahammer, sweetpea, and many more:

I think I see the main point. Do not do away with the flash but slow it down and give the end user a chance to control it to some extent! Frankly, I like that.

Actually, do away with it. Flash is not needed here and will drive us to someone else's website for a reader/books.

You already have one website causing a loss in customers. Fry's website is losing you customers. As long as Fry's continues to not sell the EZ Reader online, people will go elsewhere and get a Sony or a Kindle.

[slayda]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Dear Musicman:

Yes, I know that in CNET's review of the Cool-er this week they panned it for using "drag-and-drop-book loading which is less convenient than Kindle's instant downloads". This MIGHT make a legitimate observation but they list it under "The Bad". I do not see why NOT being wireless is necessarily a bad thing. It is certainly nothing to grade down a device over. Some love wireless and some do NOT and they do not want to pay for it. It is a little like: "OK, let us compare every device to the Kindle and downgrade it if it is not exact". Is that fair? Does this mean that CNET likes the idea of being tied for all your eBook purchases to one site?? I find that disturbing. I like freedom to buy what I want to buy from who I want to buy from. I do not see that as a defect... I see it purely as a choice.

I have a Kindle 1 (picked up cheap on ebay) that lacks "instant downloads" since I taped the Whispernet switch in the off position. I feel safer that way.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by slayda

I have a Kindle 1 (picked up cheap on ebay) that lacks "instant downloads" since I taped the Whispernet switch in the off position. I feel safer that way.

Yes, I was just reading where Kindle wants to copyright inserting advertising into eBooks: "Marlowe turned when the twig snapped, and saw Gretchen with a McDonald's Grosso Sandwich. He could almost taste the 3,000 calories as he tried to get his huge legs to help him stand up. The Grosso was selling for $15.99, he knew, and made a mental note to run to McDonalds as soon as the firefight ended".

I remind everyone that Astak does not like the business model of Kindle where you are tied to one website. The Kindle is a good machine and so is the EZ Reader. The difference is FREEDOM! We still champion the idea of having our end users able to buy from our own werbsite or hundreds of others. This "advertising" idea by Amazon is just one more reason, in my opinion, to remain FREE to buy from whatever website you want to purchase from and read what YOU want to read.

[Robertb]

Dear All:

I am not very pleased with FRY's "sale" over the three day holiday. They took our $30 rebate, raised their normal selling price to $269, and sold at $239. I had hopes that they would give up a bit of their profit also to get the price down to the best price ever.

$239 for the EZ Reader was a great price... but we did not see the cooperation we had thought we would see to really make this a banner sale.

[Robertb]

Dear All:

After 20 emails and twelve phone calls to CNET I finally got the name David Carnoy as the guy that handles eBook Reader reviews. I will now start trying to get Mr. Carnoy's interest in doing a review on the EZ Reader Pocket PRO as soon as they are released.

At least we finally have some attention from them.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Yes, I was just reading where Kindle wants to copyright inserting advertising into eBooks:

They do not copyright it, they patented it.
It was not Kindle, it was Amazon.
And they did not say they plan to insert advertisements into books.

Companies patent unbelievable amount of things. They do not necessarily plan to do such horrible thing, they just want to have it in their arsenal for future. Even such things as doubleclick (with mouse button), submenu, use of != operator for comparing of two variables are patented.
EVERYTHING regarding computers is patented.

Your (Astak) e-shop violates at least a dozen of software and business methods patents. No. I am not exaggerating. See http://webshop.ffii.org/
and for more details www.nosoftwarepatents.com
The above examples talk about European software patents and it is impossible to patent software in Europe, pepole just find loopholes. Situation in USA is much, MUCH, worse.

Your only hope is that you (the Astak company) do not become too successful, because as soon as vultures smell you have enough money you get a letter from their legal counsel specializing in intellectual property. "I see you have a nice establishment here, it would be shame should something bad happen to it"

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by kacir

They do not copyright it, they patented it.
It was not Kindle, it was Amazon.
And they did not say they plan to insert advertisements into books.

Companies patent unbelievable amount of things. They do not necessarily plan to do such horrible thing, they just want to have it in their arsenal for future. Even such things as doubleclick (with mouse button), submenu, use of != operator for comparing of two variables are patented.
EVERYTHING regarding computers is patented.

Your (Astak) e-shop violates at least a dozen of software and business methods patents. No. I am not exaggerating. See http://webshop.ffii.org/
and for more details www.nosoftwarepatents.com
The above examples talk about European software patents and it is impossible to patent software in Europe, pepole just find loopholes. Situation in USA is much, MUCH, worse.

Your only hope is that you (the Astak company) do not become too successful, because as soon as vultures smell you have enough money you get a letter from their legal counsel specializing in intellectual property. "I see you have a nice establishment here, it would be shame should something bad happen to it"

Dear Kacir:

You could be right about "too successful". Staying "under the radar has some advantages" I suppose. You know your stuff!

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by kacir

They do not copyright it, they patented it.
It was not Kindle, it was Amazon.
And they did not say they plan to insert advertisements into books.

Companies patent unbelievable amount of things. They do not necessarily plan to do such horrible thing, they just want to have it in their arsenal for future. Even such things as doubleclick (with mouse button), submenu, use of != operator for comparing of two variables are patented.
EVERYTHING regarding computers is patented.

Actually they have applied for a patent. It has not been granted yet. Not everything is patented, for example microprocessors are not patented. There are lots of things that are not patented and many more that the patents have run out. However you are correct that some things are patented that should not be and are used to intimidate the competition like Microsoft is attempting to do to Linux.

Dale