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

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Dear JS:

I agree. That is why a month ago I emailed to the factory and brought this up. I stressed how having the same features on the 6 inch would give it a whole new life.

They said that it is not as simple as I thought. You cannot just unsolder one controller and put in another. It takes a whole new PCB and that means a whole new GUI and re-engineering and by that time the new 6 inch will be out!

But would not the PCB and stuff from the 5" work fine with a 6" screen?

[robvarga]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But would not the PCB and stuff from the 5" work fine with a 6" screen?

I would think that nowadays, these devices are not wired up by actual dangling wires, rather everything (or most everything, with the exception of the screen itself) goes on the PCB.

Buttons placed around the 5" screen most probably overlap with the 6" screen, so the buttons would have to be replaced so that they don't stick out of the screen itself, and that means that their wiring has to be rerouted on the PCB.

Also, I don't know how much heat is generated by the internal of the device but in case it is causing a problem, then a 6" device would have to have its internal redesigned (or at least revalidated) to ensure that passive ventillation that was sufficient in the 5" house is still sufficient in the 6" house (air is a bad thermal conductor, and heat would possibly have to travel farther from the heat source to be dissipated via the case), too. E.g. many Fujitsu Siemens N560 PDAs died of heat due to lack of sufficient ventillation.

Just my 2 cents, of course...

Best regards,

Robert

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But would not the PCB and stuff from the 5" work fine with a 6" screen?

Not likely. The buttons are mounted on the board and would not line up. The SD slot is in a different place, the power is in a different place, etc. etc. It would be possible to design a case that would accept both sizes but the board would have to be designed specifically to make this work. It would be easier to just relayout the PCB etching and make a new board. Not a really big job but not trivial either.

Dale

[lamaz]

I would like to know, how does the text-to-spech work? It will be good for a french user like me or it will be only aviable for the english books?

[CharlieBird]

I hesitate to ask this question but I do not want to go looking through 3,000+ posts for an answer and EZReader's website did not have the answer...or maybe it did but it's not what I remember.
Does the Pocket PRO support eReader pdb encrypted books? I thought I read a month or so ago that it did. Or would soon. And then I have in mind some necessity to make a choice between eReader and Mobipocket DRM.
I've been reading so many different specs the last couple of weeks that my mind is a muddle.
Also, has dictionary support been discussed?
Thx, d

[slayda]

You might check out the WIKI Matrix of ebook readers. The Pocket Pro is essentially the same as the Hanlin V5. It will read DRM EPUB & PDF via the Adobe Digital Editions reader software.

[Musicman]

Originally Posted by CharlieBird

I hesitate to ask this question but I do not want to go looking through 3,000+ posts for an answer and EZReader's website did not have the answer...or maybe it did but it's not what I remember.
Does the Pocket PRO support eReader pdb encrypted books? I thought I read a month or so ago that it did. Or would soon. And then I have in mind some necessity to make a choice between eReader and Mobipocket DRM.
I've been reading so many different specs the last couple of weeks that my mind is a muddle.
Also, has dictionary support been discussed?
Thx, d

The Pocket Pro will be supporting Ereader DRM in about 4 weeks or so. Presently it supports Adobe Digital Editions DRM.

This is the reason I went with the EZ-Reader and also ordered a Pocket Pro. The new firmware added the Adobe Digtial Edition DRM to my EZ-Reader and I am now able to read library books, and they will shortly be support Ereader. I have been using Ereader for a long time and have many books in that format and this is the ONLY Ereader supporting both formats.

[AJ Starr]

Hey, moderators ----

How come Sony's proposed and rumored readers get front page status, twice over,

And Astak's EZ Reader and EZ Reader Pocket Pro, which are available, don't even get a mention.

Put the Astak's announce on the front page along with the Sony and Kindle, and Cooler, and all the other ones.

Let's be fair!!!!!!!

[Musicman]

Originally Posted by AJ Starr

Hey, moderators ----

How come Sony's proposed and rumored readers get front page status, twice over,

And Astak's EZ Reader and EZ Reader Pocket Pro, which are available, don't even get a mention.

Put the Astak's announce on the front page along with the Sony and Kindle, and Cooler, and all the other ones.

Let's be fair!!!!!!!

I was wondering the same thing!!!!

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by AJ Starr

How come Sony's proposed and rumored readers get front page status, twice over,

Sony is the 2nd largest vendor of Readers in the US, with a big presence in Europe. So the new Sony's need to go on the home page.

I like the EZ Reader line, but the EZ Reader is not new (although mobile ADE is new for the Hanlin V3) and the EZ Reader Pocket Pro has not yet been formally announced. I agree that the Pocket Pro should go on the home page, either today or on Wednesday when Astak makes the formal announcement.

Note that the EZ Reader web pages without the annoying intro are at http://www.theezreader.com/html/.

[emellaich]

Still trying to straighten my mind out regarding mobipocket support on the pocket pro. I believe it will support non-DRM prc. What about non-DRM .mobi?

I know that some folks will enable a choice of DRM mobi or ADE based on the download of alternate firmware. However, I believe that the pocketpro plans are not to support DRM mobi. Is that correct?

Thanks

[emellaich]

RobertB,

Your website does not actually say what is included in the PocketPro bundle. I assume its the PocketPro, some pre-loaded classics, a USB cable, and a leather case. Anything else?

Thanks

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by emellaich

Still trying to straighten my mind out regarding mobipocket support on the pocket pro. I believe it will support non-DRM prc. What about non-DRM .mobi?

I know that some folks will enable a choice of DRM mobi or ADE based on the download of alternate firmware. However, I believe that the pocketpro plans are not to support DRM mobi. Is that correct?

MobiPocket uses the extensions .prc and .mobi interchangeably, so the Pocket Pro will support DRM-free MOBI. So far as I know, there will never be a Hanlin V5 firmware supporting MobiPocket DRM.

I have tried the DRM-free MOBI support in the latest EZ Reader firmware (the one with mobile ADE), and it works well with 3 font sizes and a choice of fonts (no landscape mode). The firmware for the Pocket Pro will presumably be very similar. In any case, once ebooks are DRM-free, they can be shifted to other formats using Calbre so you have the option of switching MOBI off-line to FB2 or ePub.

[AJ Starr]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

Sony is the 2nd largest vendor of Readers in the US, with a big presence in Europe. So the new Sony's need to go on the home page.

I like the EZ Reader line, but the EZ Reader is not new (although mobile ADE is new for the Hanlin V3) and the EZ Reader Pocket Pro has not yet been formally announced. I agree that the Pocket Pro should go on the home page, either today or on Wednesday when Astak makes the formal announcement.

Note that the EZ Reader web pages without the annoying intro are at http://www.theezreader.com/html/.

Whether or Sony is the second largest or not should not determine what other systems make the front page. Cooler's system made it and they are a relative unknown. Sony's rumor of a new system made it , but Astak's new product has not. We could probably go through the front page and find all the country unique products, the one in France, the one in Russia, etc. Why can't our own American version make the front page?

Are there any moderators listening?

[Musicman]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

Sony is the 2nd largest vendor of Readers in the US, with a big presence in Europe. So the new Sony's need to go on the home page.

I like the EZ Reader line, but the EZ Reader is not new (although mobile ADE is new for the Hanlin V3) and the EZ Reader Pocket Pro has not yet been formally announced. I agree that the Pocket Pro should go on the home page, either today or on Wednesday when Astak makes the formal announcement.

Note that the EZ Reader web pages without the annoying intro are at http://www.theezreader.com/html/.

How formal must it be?

You have the link to their web site and you can pre-order the Pocket Pro!

There is nothing new on Sony's two new models - they are just replacing their old ones with the same features except in a 5" size.