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

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by Luigino

Maybe it could be installable from us... even at least as I see on the site, RobertB followed our suggest about keeping rechargeable battery at least on 6" device...

It appears that the 5" and 6" both use the same battery. However, the 9.7" uses a 2100mAH battery instead of the 1000mAH one used by the others.

Derek

[DixieGal]

Has this thing ever been seen yet?
Any idea when or if it is coming to market?

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

Has this thing ever been seen yet?
Any idea when or if it is coming to market?

Not as branded for Astak. And the 6" version is not going to be quite the same as the Netronix EB-100 (I've posted images of that one.). Instead, it will be the same as the EB-2xx series. But the case on the EB-2xx will be the same as the EB-100, and I believe the internal hardware will be the same - except for the touchscreen and the optional bluetooth and wifi support. Obviously with WinCE 5.0 being the OS of choice, the firmware will be quite different from that of the EB-100. So if you want the "appearance" of the new Astak 6", just look at the EB-100.

However, given the particular choice of "formats" listed, I'd say there's a good chance the Astaks will still offer the same Eread app that the old STAReBOOK used. I'd like to believe that these will use the Mobipocket or Ereader format, but until I can get one in my hands, I'm not going to state such an assumption.

And I must say that if they *are* using STAReBOOK's Eread app, get ready for some gnarly sessions converting your ebooks into plain text files so they can be converted by STK-Maker into .stk format.

Derek

[DixieGal]

Thanks!

[Nate the great]

Astak will be at the conference tomorrow, and they will demo the 5" reader. I'll add the format questions to my list.

And to answer the next question, no they don't have any samples ready yet.

[Jack B Nimble]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

Unless they've sunk lots of time and programming energy into this, they're offering the same Eread (file extension .stk) software that already comes on the Netronix EB-100 (and the STAReBOOK STK-101 as well as the ExPlay). And don't believe the listing. The Eread software only "supports" these other formats by requiring you to first convert to plain text (No, not rtf or html - plain text!) which you then drag-and-drop or browse and "open" into the STK-Maker app. Or so it appears on my EB-100. As my EB-100 is a new purchase and that's what it's "supported" formats were listed as, I'd be cautious about presuming the reader software is any more "feature-laden".

Derek

I appreciate your wait-and-see approach, but I was not talking about eRead from STAReBOOK, but rather the eReader format recently purchased by Fictionwise. RobertB referred to it early on, and several people discussed the suitability of the format. Also, Nate the Great quoted an email earlier in this thread: "The software issue is still being resolved. We have received a ton of help and cooperation from Fictionwise and will include their eReader."

Having said all that, there is no mention of it on the Astak web site, as far as I can see. So, anyone know if this is an actual change? Perhaps we'll find out tomorrow.

As I said before, the wait-and-see approach is a good thing.

Jack

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by Jack B Nimble

I appreciate your wait-and-see approach, but I was not talking about eRead from STAReBOOK, but rather the eReader format recently purchased by Fictionwise. RobertB referred to it early on, and several people discussed the suitability of the format. Also, Nate the Great quoted an email earlier in this thread: "The software issue is still being resolved. We have received a ton of help and cooperation from Fictionwise and will include their eReader."

Having said all that, there is no mention of it on the Astak web site, as far as I can see. So, anyone know if this is an actual change?

As I said before, the wait-and-see approach is a good thing.

Jack

Listen, if they come up with eReader Pro support, I'm buying one! I can get just about the same titles under eReader Pro as I can under Mobipocket.

Derek

[blunznwurscht]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Astak will be at the conference tomorrow, and they will demo the 5" reader. I'll add the format questions to my list.

And to answer the next question, no they don't have any samples ready yet.

Would do me a favour, please? Could you ask them, how good the PDF support is going to be? Better than iLiad? Worse? Same?

(Of course, I am talking about the 9.7'' reader :-) )

[Tectonic]

I am also curious as to the .pdf support of their larger device. I was tempted to buy an iLiad but the lack of a vizplex screen really puts me off. I want to read documents sitting outside under a tree or by the water so a screen that doesn't suffer from direct sun exposure is important. Any word on international availability would also be welcome.

[Gester]

I can't seem to remember, but has our good friend RobertB mentioned anything about what the touchscreen could be used for other than, say, selecting which book to read?

[aleks]

I do not believe that any mention was made beyond a touch screen.

[Tectonic]

Astak has updated their website with a full page of information for the Mentor. See it here: http://astak.com/e-book.html

To answer Gester's question, the 9.7" model is the only one which is described to have a touch screen that uses a stylus. The 6" lists the touch screen as optional but with no other information. As for the 5" model there is no touch screen option.



P.S. to whoever wrote this, it's "Parlez-vous français?"

Typographical errors aside I really do hope that the guys at Astak succeed and deliver on their promises. If the price for the 9.7" really is ~$350 you can sign me up for two. There's no way that I'll be sharing mine with my girlfriend

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by Tectonic

Astak has updated their website with a full page of information for the Mentor. See it here: http://astak.com/e-book.html

To answer Gester's question, the 9.7" model is the only one which is described to have a touch screen that uses a stylus. The 6" lists the touch screen as optional but with no other information. As for the 5" model there is no touch screen option.

**image snipped**

P.S. to whoever wrote this, it's "Parlez-vous français?"

Typographical errors aside I really do hope that the guys at Astak succeed and deliver on their promises. If the price for the 9.7" really is ~$350 you can sign me up for two. There's no way that I'll be sharing mine with my girlfriend

If they can deliver the 9.7" at that price, I'll buy one as well. I think a 9.7" display will be better for reading large-page PDF ebooks. As for the 6", I'd want one with touchscreen and wifi. Don't get me wrong, I *like* the Netronix EB-100 - hardware-wise - but I'm so looking forward to the port of OpenInkpot and FBReader to it. I have far too many mobi ebooks to want to convert them all - again!

Derek

[Martok]

This is excellent info. But they didn't include the 6" in the projected sales. :-(

Oh well, just going to have to get the 9.7". ;-)

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by Martok

This is excellent info. But they didn't include the 6" in the projected sales. :-(

Oh well, just going to have to get the 9.7". ;-)

Sure they did! It's gonna cost between $200 and $350! Part of the reason is they may have not figured out which versions to stock, no added features, touchscreen added, bluetooth added, wifi added, touchscreen and wifi added, touchscreen and bluetooth added, bluetooth and wifi added or all three added. I know that Netronix is charging different amounts for the different combinations.

The 5" is stock-plain. The 9.7" appears to have all three extra features. So the prices can be "guesstimated". Or so I assume.

Derek