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

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by cbell

I'll be particularly interested to see the pricing for the different options for each size of Astak's eBooks reader (wifi, bluetooth, touchscreen).

yes, i would be interested in that too. hopefully we should have more info on that soon, since the release dates are getting very close.

[Luigino]

Originally Posted by squonk

and we could call it Magna Charta..................

No, we should call it Futura Charta since you'd use the e-paper .... :-D

[griffonwing]

I, for one, have been waiting for a large format reader that will read my 3 main file types. PDF, TXT and HTML. And for a decent price.

The iLiad would be perfect for me, but for the too-high pricepoint. Here's hoping the Mentor 9.7 will come close in its USD $350 target price.

[Charybdis]

Even the 6 inch model will be very thin and light. I am looking forward to this device, really interesting. I hope it will be availabe at a cheap price in Europe in late August...

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Mindy

Erm, so now the 6" will be released before the 5"? Anyone else find this a bit odd?
(not that I'm especially fussy now I have my Cybook [and, just to wade in, have found it brill & Bookeen helpful with my sole query to date] but still maintaining a healthy (?) curiousity)

I suspect the pages are out of sync. The 5" was updated and the 6" was not, nor was the 9.7" these are both old dates.

Dale

[texasnightowl]

According to teleread blog, Astak launch delayed

http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/07...ate-september/

The five-inch Astak E Ink reader, the first of the Mentor series, won’t hit the company’s Web store until late August or maybe late September. The company had been aiming for June, then July.

Retail sales—Astak has been wooing big outlets like Walmart and Costco—are to come later.

Six- and 9.7-inch models with more features are supposed to come out in late August and late November, respectively.

Also,

Price for the basic model is supposed to be less than $249. E-book formats include TXT, PDF, RTF and HTML/CHM. The word from Astaj is that "The Mobipocket format has been delayed for the time being. The problem is in porting the format onto the device. At this point, all new releases will be ported with eReader and .pdf."

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by texasnightowl

According to teleread blog, Astak launch delayed

The source for most of this information is actually post #676 of this thread.

[AJ Starr]

Robert,
First, thanks for being so involved in this forum and keeping us informed.

In some of the other forums there was concern about the vunerability of the screens on the ebook devices. From reading the posts from the people who have found their screens suddenly broken with no obvious damage, I am wondering if maybe the frame that the eink screen fits in is maybe cut tooooooo exact, not leaving room for heat and cold expansion. I, for one, keep my house pretty cold, and if the unit gets warm and there is no expansion room, this might (?????) cause stress on the eink screen. Since I do not have a device, I don't know if the screen is flexible enough to absorb this or is rigid enough that expansion would hurt it. Anyway, I'm posing this to you, since your product is not out yet, and you might want to double check the Mentors.

Second, in the same vein, has Astak developed their policy for returns for broken screens. The few posting I read seems to indicate Cybook's Bookeen charges for them if there is a possibility of user damage, but Kindle will replace at a lesser charge or free. (I didn't get that straight.)

Since there is EXTREME interest in Astak's Mentors, could you elaborate on your policy for unknown screen damage replacements?

Thank you.

[wallcraft]

The Adobe Digital Editions upgrade to the Sony PRS-505 is brand new, but it it provides "industry standard" ePub support (no ePub ebook is ready until it works with DE) and as a "bonus" excellent PDF support. An Astak Mentor with eReader and Digital Editions would be a very serious competitor to MOBI-based ebook reading devices. The addition of DE would also allow Library ebooks to be read on the Mentor. It is possible to try out the PRS-505 version of DE using Sony's Windows ebook Reader on ePub and PDF files. It provides a 600x800 reading pane in its standard view.

If PDF support is provided by DE, then the MOBI-only LiteBook won't have native PDF support, but neither does the Amazon Kindle. Like the Kindle, the LiteBook could provide DRM-free multi-format support by conversion to MOBI - but this would tie the LiteBook to a Windows Desktop for the conversion.

[Luigino]

Since I am looking for the ebook reader mainly for PDFs I SERIOUSLY HOPE also Astak will adopt DE on their 6" model... and I'll be the first to buy one at the astakshop! :-)

RobertB tell us Astak's will adopt DE! :-D

Ciao!
Luigi

[radleyp]

There is no support for any protected formats. This thing needs ereader or Mobipocket or something similar. Since, moreover, it has no wireless, I am limited by the public domain material I load on ahead of time. For me, that's a no-go.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Luigino

Since I am looking for the ebook reader mainly for PDFs I SERIOUSLY HOPE also Astak will adopt DE on their 6" model... and I'll be the first to buy one at the astakshop! :-)

RobertB tell us Astak's will adopt DE! :-D

Ciao!
Luigi

That is the plan. They told me that Adobe was late in getting the package to them but it is planned.

Dale

[Luigino]

I thought it was because some posts ago they said it was supposed Adobe Digital Edition would be released in October but the Sony's PRS-505 is gonna to support already Adobe since next month so I could hope for Astak adopting DE so it can be installed the Adobe DE to reflow PDFs..... this would be a really cool thing for me at least on 6" inch device.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by radleyp

There is no support for any protected formats. This thing needs ereader or Mobipocket or something similar. Since, moreover, it has no wireless, I am limited by the public domain material I load on ahead of time. For me, that's a no-go.

The netronix base that the Mentor is based on has no protected formats but the Astak Mentor will support eReader while a second version (due to Mobi licensing restrictions) will support Mobipocket. At least that is the plan.

Dale

[Luigino]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

The netronix base that the Mentor is based on has no protected formats but the Astak Mentor will support eReader while a second version (due to Mobi licensing restrictions) will support Mobipocket. At least that is the plan.

Dale

Dale, so do you think it could be possible to have DE in the eReader version to have the possibility to reflow PDFs? :-)