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

[MaggieScratch]

Of course he is. There's no such thing as an 82-gun frigate. Sheesh.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Ok, admit it, you are making that up.

BOb

OK, no 82 cannon frigate. Would you believe we could borrow the Battleship New Jersey with 16 inch guns and shells as big as trees??

[AJ Starr]

Originally Posted by Robertb

OK, no 82 cannon frigate. Would you believe we could borrow the Battleship New Jersey with 16 inch guns and shells as big as trees??

There's always the Battleship of Texas birthed at San Jacinto State Park, outside of Houston.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by AJ Starr

There's always the Battleship of Texas birthed at San Jacinto State Park, outside of Houston.

Dear AJ:

The Battleship Texas was a great ship but I think it only had 12 inch main guns. That gave about 18 mile range. The Iowa class battleships (Missouri, Wisconsin, Iowa, and New Jersey) have 16 inch guns that can hurl a shell 32 miles.

You know that IF we are shooting at Griffonwing you need the extended range. HeeHee

Thank you!!

[griffonwing]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Dear Griffonwing:

I finally did get to plow thru the User Manual while rewriting it into good English.

For .pdf and epub documents you get FIVE (5) levels of font size adjustment. Other documents get three choices.

The Pocket PRO is much more robust on Font Type than the EZ Reader Basic. You get quite a number of good font choices already preloaded. Yes, you can easily add more.

The scroll wheel does more than just up or down page... you can push in on it and bring up the menu.

The USB plug, however, has been moved up to the top edge by the SD card. I like this and see it a better spot for it. Jinke removed that pain in the butt rubber cover off it.

The Music Zone has been redone and the volume control now has a graphic!!

I hope that this helps!!

Great news. Granted, they are not mind-blowing features, but still, minor tweaks go a long way between someone deciding on Product A and Product B.

I'm really looking forward to getting my grubby mitts on one.

Originally Posted by Robertb

Dear Griffonwing:

Did I mention that Astak has an 82 cannon frigate docked outside of Arkansas? We also use robotic parrots that can hunt down evals and drop dung on the heads of testers over the time limit!

You're friggin frigate don't scare me none, Barnacle Bob! I don't even know what a frigate is, and mama always told me what I don't know can't hurt me.

ok, so I DO know what a frigate is. we here in ARrrr call them "ice boxes" :P

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by griffonwing

Great news. Granted, they are not mind-blowing features, but still, minor tweaks go a long way between someone deciding on Product A and Product B.

I'm really looking forward to getting my grubby mitts on one.



You're friggin frigate don't scare me none, Barnacle Bob! I don't even know what a frigate is, and mama always told me what I don't know can't hurt me.

ok, so I DO know what a frigate is. we here in ARrrr call them "ice boxes" :P

Dear Griffonwing:

That is what I thought also. I copied my post and put it over on the "Astak Introduces 5 inch Pocket PRO" thread for those who have never joined our main thread!

Our General Manager is off to China to meet with Jinke next week so expect a lot to happen quickly next week.

Trying to keep the people who ONLY learned about Astak on the "Astak Introduces 5 inch Pocket PRO" thread interested while we wait to get the first shipment in is really hard.They were rabid for about 4 days and have fallen asleep now. I NEED news!!

There still is nothing to report on the CNET and eBook Reader Guide folks. I have left 20 messages with 16 different people at CNET and they will not return a phone call. I live 40 miles away. Maybe I will drive up and INSIST they meet with me.

How in hell can a major Tech Reviewer like CNET be so callous in checking out new leads and getting back to people?

[griffonwing]

Originally Posted by Robertb

How in hell can a major Tech Reviewer like CNET be so callous in checking out new leads and getting back to people?

With a name like "Astak", mayhaps they thought you sold epoxy that glues your seat to the chair (Ass-Tack)?

[catsittingstill]

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

[rrrlakin]

I'm not sure that this is the place to post this, but--
I seem to recall suggestions that Astak (RobertB) contact the Science Fiction Book Club about direct or subsidized sales of an ereader.
Somebody seems to have done this, or something similar.
SFBC is conducting a survey of (some of?) its members concerning ebooks and ereaders.
Specifically, they asked (me, at least--the survey is interactive, and I suspect not everyone gets the same questions) whether I would buy ebooks from them at a price of $7.99 and whether I would buy a dedicated ebook reader, "similar to Kindle or Sony PRS" for $99.99.
Is this a scent in the wind, or does it presage a real plan?
Does Astak have anything to do with it?

Bob Roberts

[John F]

Originally Posted by Robertb

...

You can adjust the contrast and brightness of .pdf documents readily.

...

How do "contrast and brightness" apply for E-Ink devices? Is it only limited to PDF documents and why?

Any videos of the Pocket Pro in action?

Thanks,
-John

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by John F

How do "contrast and brightness" apply for E-Ink devices? Is it only limited to PDF documents and why?

Any videos of the Pocket Pro in action?

Thanks,
-John

contrast and brightness are settings for images. The screen has full contrast and brightness but these items control the range of image data. The images viewer have always had these from Hanlin but now it has been added to the PDF documents as well. Perhaps ePUB would also as it should use the same reader from ADE I believe. Hopefully all formats will get this improvement.

Dale

[John F]

... The screen has full contrast and brightness but these items control the range of image data. ...

So your saying the contrast/brightness of the screen doesn't change, just that grayscale is played with to achieve an effect, for example, an image could be made "dimmer" by multplying all pixels (intensities) by 0.5?

I'm ignorant of EInk technology, so thanks for bearing with me.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by John F

So your saying the contrast/brightness of the screen doesn't change, just that grayscale is played with to achieve an effect, for example, an image could be made "dimmer" by multplying all pixels (intensities) by 0.5?

I'm ignorant of EInk technology, so thanks for bearing with me.

As far as I know, you don't change the brightness/contrast of the eInk screen itself, which is fixed; you just change the translation of images' colours to gray levels on the screen. Basically, it's like changing brightness/contrast in Photoshop (or whatever), not in the monitor knobs.

So yes, your description is right.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by rrrlakin

I'm not sure that this is the place to post this, but--
I seem to recall suggestions that Astak (RobertB) contact the Science Fiction Book Club about direct or subsidized sales of an ereader.
Somebody seems to have done this, or something similar.
SFBC is conducting a survey of (some of?) its members concerning ebooks and ereaders.
Specifically, they asked (me, at least--the survey is interactive, and I suspect not everyone gets the same questions) whether I would buy ebooks from them at a price of $7.99 and whether I would buy a dedicated ebook reader, "similar to Kindle or Sony PRS" for $99.99.
Is this a scent in the wind, or does it presage a real plan?
Does Astak have anything to do with it?

Bob Roberts

I have written to SFBC about Astak readers and I will keep on them. So far no response... but compared to CNET, a dead pomogranite shows more signs of life. Yesterday I sent 8 emails to 8 different editors... still waiting for any sign of life.

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.

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.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by John F

How do "contrast and brightness" apply for E-Ink devices? Is it only limited to PDF documents and why?

Any videos of the Pocket Pro in action?

Thanks,
-John

Dear John:

I promise I will try to do a video of the Pocket PRO and post on the net. I want you to see it... but the problem is that the two prototypes we have have Jinke in Chinese characters written on them. I would like to have it at least say EZ Reader on it.

The other problem is finding enough time. This is a small office and every time I try to do a video I have to pull two other people saway from what they are doing.

YES, you do need a video and you deserve one. I just would like to have the General Manager complete his trip to China next week, get the colored plastic halves saying "EZ Reader Pocket PRO", and then do at least a short video.