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

[Walk Broad]

Originally Posted by Alisa

Considering the Kindle is only available in the US and there are people all over the world that read ebooks, it would seem silly to give up on Mobipocket just yet.

I'm not saying Amazon is giving up Mobipocket, and I think we are all in agreement on that.

The point that I was trying to make is Amazon doesn't bend over backwards to talk about it's Mobipocket ownership, especially to those new to e-books and new to the Kindle.

We're all agreed Amazon isn't going to get rid of Mobipocket, but they aren't going to shout it from the rooftops there is another option with the Kindle since they would rather have you buying for your Kindle from the Kindle store.

That's all I'm saying.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by radleyp

I have my doubts about the ereader software: ereader was designed to work on small screens, what will it look like on larger screens? Are you sure it will work well?

Why is there a PC and Mac version then? Those don't seem like "small screens".

BOb

[Jack B Nimble]

Originally Posted by radleyp

I have my doubts about the ereader software: ereader was designed to work on small screens, what will it look like on larger screens? Are you sure it will work well?

I read eReader files on my macbook air, which is not a small screen. Lots of customization offered, so you can choose the look you want. I usually use a two-page layout with a soft contrast background, and it looks great.

The title page graphics, however, often leave something to be desired. Not much of a concern for myself, though.

Jack

[Gester]

Originally Posted by RobertJSawyer

Looking at the photos of the 9.7-inch unit, and the specs on the Astak website, I see they're touting a non-glare screen, which, of course, is essential, but they've put the unit in a glossy black chassis -- which will reflect light back into the reader's eyes. The Amazon Kindle and the iRex iLiad both were sensibly designed with matte-finish housings; I hope Astak will rectify this before they go into production. Ergonomics are hugely important to the reading experience, after all.

(Plus, an ebook reader has to be handled a lot, and glossy finishes show fingerprints ...)

Both excellent points that I hadn't considered...caught up in the shiny biggness of it all, as I was.

I put together a book a few years ago that our for which our designer decided that a glossy black cover was in order. The damn thing showed of fingerprints like mad. Kind of gross, actually...like you could see the filthy hands of everyone who touched it. *shiver*

I've gone from excited to gullible to skeptical to excited...I'm just going to need to relax and wait until the reviews start pouring in.

In the least, I hope this leads to more competition among devices and lower costs to the rest of us.

[Walk Broad]

Originally Posted by radleyp

I have my doubts about the ereader software: ereader was designed to work on small screens, what will it look like on larger screens? Are you sure it will work well?

It works very well on my 12 inch Tablet pc screen with all of the options available for a pocket pc / windows mobile device.

Why do you think it wouldn't work well on a device with a 5, 6, or 9 inch screen?

[RobertJSawyer]

Originally Posted by radleyp

I have my doubts about the ereader software: ereader was designed to work on small screens, what will it look like on larger screens? Are you sure it will work well?

eReader is available for PCs, Radleyp, and works/looks just fine on my screen in 1280x1024 resolution. (And, gee whiz, Mobipocket was designed originally for small screens, too; why would you question one's applicability to larger-screen devices but not the other?)

----------------
ROBERT J. SAWYER, Science Fiction Writer
Hugo Award winner for HOMINIDS
http://www.sfwriter.com * sawyer@sfwriter.com
----------------

[radleyp]

Please, all, forgive my ignorance: I had never used ereader on anything but a pda and my Q. Frankly, however, I don't understand this great enthusiasm for ereader which does nothing more than other readers, and of course leads, as do the others, to a multiplication of formats. On my Q now, I have ereader, repligo, mobipocket, adobe, and word. I think it's a mess! Granted I now do all my reading on my Kindle, I would like to know why having ereader with its own proprietary format is such a great thing. Do you all have a lot of ereader books in your library? BTW, from what I can see, they are more expensive as a rule than the Kindle's and there are far less available.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by radleyp

Please, all, forgive my ignorance: I had never used ereader on anything but a pda and my Q. Frankly, however, I don't understand this great enthusiasm for ereader which does nothing more than other readers, and of course leads, as do the others, to a multiplication of formats. On my Q now, I have ereader, repligo, mobipocket, adobe, and word. I think it's a mess! Granted I now do all my reading on my Kindle, I would like to know why having ereader with its own proprietary format is such a great thing. Do you all have a lot of ereader books in your library? BTW, from what I can see, they are more expensive as a rule than the Kindle's and there are far less available.

eReader is one of the 4 main readers for eBooks on the planet. The others include Microsoft Reader (LIT), Acrobat Reader (PDF) and MobiPocket (PRC). (Amazon is catching up to these older readers but is really a MobiPocket reader with different DRM except its entirely new topaz format). Lots of people have books one of more of these popular 4 formats. In addition most MobiPocket readers and all eReader can read PalmDOC files which is the largest all free eBook format. eReader has the most flexible DRM of all the readers available as it is not tied to any hardware (it is tied to your name and credit card number). The worst offender in the format war is Kindle who created a new format within the last year and has two incompatible formats.

Lots of folks have eReader content as it has been around for many years like the other big formats I mentioned.

Dale

[Luigino]

So, you mean, DaleDe, when opening PDFs on a Nextronix or Astak with eReader it should behave as I am using Acrobat Reader?...

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Luigino

So, you mean, DaleDe, when opening PDFs on a Nextronix or Astak with eReader it should behave as I am using Acrobat Reader?...

I am not sure where that interpretation came from. PDF is a complex subject (see the wiki for details). eReader is not a PDF reader at all. It reads its own format which is documented in the wiki article on this site on eReader. Many reading devices do offer PDF reading capability on their devices. It is always a totally different set of code inside the reader to do this as it is a unique format. Some readers even use a separate application to read the PDF while others use the same wrapper application to read it. The second approach is usually preferable from a user perspective but may cause problems with user expectations since it typically won't behave exactly the same as documents in other formats.

I cannot speak for the manufacturers of unreleased products as to what and how their products may or may not work. However I know that getting the fictionwise code for eReader will not help at all in doing PDF. eReader reads its on PML format and PalmDOC (both documented in the wiki) but nothing else as it stands today.

PDF format is a released ISO standard so anyone can code from the specifications if they wish to.

Dale

[radleyp]

Dale, you are thus reinforcing my concern that we will continue to have a number of different reading applications and with all the drm restrictions around that not's a surprise. I don't prefer ereader though I have been a user for many years, and like you deplore Amazon's introduction of yet another drm, but since I like and use the Kindle I will have to live with it. With all the publishers out to protect their publications (understandably) uniform universal format is a mere pipedream.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by radleyp

Dale, you are thus reinforcing my concern that we will continue to have a number of different reading applications and with all the drm restrictions around that not's a surprise. I don't prefer ereader though I have been a user for many years, and like you deplore Amazon's introduction of yet another drm, but since I like and use the Kindle I will have to live with it. With all the publishers out to protect their publications (understandably) uniform universal format is a mere pipedream.

I hope for ePUB but I am not holding my breath. I think many companies will think it is too complicated. There are more than 40 formats documented in the wiki.

Dale

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

Ummm... There's always BookDesigner. Seriously, with Adobe Acrobat Professional, one "exports" to HTML, Word .doc, or RTF and then imports into BookDesigner to convert to Mobi. Not that big a problem. I do it once or twice a week.

Derek

Even Adobe Acrobat Pro screws up the convert of the text based PDF. Trust me, I've converted enough to know how poorly PDF is a an eBook format for simple type eBooks.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by radleyp

I have my doubts about the eReader software: eReader was designed to work on small screens, what will it look like on larger screens? Are you sure it will work well?

It will work, but it will look awful. I've seen eReader format eBooks on my computer and the way they are formatted are not nice at all. And other then Book Designer, you would be stuck with PML (Palm Markup Language). It's a bad choice for a DRM format on a device with a large screen.

[kacir]

Hello Robertb.

Today I was once again salivating and re-reading specifications for the 6" and 5" models and there is something that bothers me.

On 5" model page
http://www.astak.com/5Ebook_Reader.html
there is:
Resolution: 800 x 600 pixels, 170dpi, B&W, 4 grayscale

On the 6" model page
http://www.astak.com/6Ebook_Reader.html
I read EXACTLY the same dimensions
Resolution: 800 x 600 pixels, 170dpi, B&W, 4 grayscale


So I have started OOo Calc and I have played wit the numbers a little bit.
For the 6" display with 800x600 pixels the resolution is 166dpi, just like with all other readers.

What is unclear to me, what is the resolution or pixel size of the 5" model.
If we keep the same resolution 166dpi we get 664x498 pixels
or, if we keep pixel size 800x600 we get exactly 200dpi resolution.

So how is it with astak 5" model?
What is the real dpi?