Cool-er: light, trendy, inexpensive e-book reader

[rrburton]

Originally Posted by kelly1010

Well I just watched the video...and I'm sold! if I didn't already have my 505, I'd probably eagerly await May 29th when I could get my hands on one of these. And if it were closer to $150 I would consider buying it to use in addition to my 505. And I will definitely recommend this to people looking for an e-reader. I'll be very interested to hear from people who end up buying these.

I LOVE all the cute colors. I sure wish Sony would've come out with a pink or purple 505!

You know, I was all hyped about these then watched the video. Only one problem that slowed me down a little - the clicking of the buttons for page turn, etc. Someone else mentioned it and in the video it is pretty clear that it requires a firm pinch to click the page turn. It stalled me out and I'm back to thinking 505 maybe...

[kelly1010]

505 would be good too!!! I love mine.

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by tompe

With "flat" tags you cannot have things like sub-sub-sub-folders. So the standard tag implementation is not a superset to folders with respect to representational power.

yeah, I see the benefit of being able to create the proper solution space for your documents using folders. I suspect the something simpler can be creates with the cloud & tag concept. Simply allow the creation of sub-tags. Just considering it quickly, tags would seem to be easier in that all you are doing is building the look-up tables and indexes. We actually have that after a fashion with the shortcut links in Windows. It's a way to keep a file accessible in multiple folders as would be needed. The problem is, creating links and adding them to each folder is problematic w/o a mouse of some sort. A tag hierarchy could be similar but would allow a bit quicker linking when the content is added to the system, especially given the state of HID for data input on readers. Of course books properly tagged by publishers and authors to begin with would make everything a lot easier as we build out libraries. I see Calibre as a huge step in that direction.

You know a lot of books belong in multiple areas...but I might now see a bit of a circular argument here. Not sure, but I am basically considering what is easier for the hardware to manage quickly. I just have an intuition it is tags/sub-tags with a proper index and database system which might be faster. Even if the folders are built in assembly. I sense the tags would be easier for people to grasp and retain over time. I know people tend to lose track of folder structures they create.

[sassanik]

I found some more pictures of the device on wired.com

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/...s-up-the-heat/

Amy

[Sydney's Mom]

Now that Amazon has apparently started charging for emailing documents, I don't think Wispernet is that big of a deal. I get most of my books and all of my newspapers from vendors other than Amazon.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

Now that Amazon has apparently started charging for emailing documents, I don't think Wispernet is that big of a deal. I get most of my books and all of my newspapers from vendors other than Amazon.

Amazon has always charged for mailing your personal documents via Whispernet. They will email to you computer using a free account.

Dale

[jessTay]

i'm thinking of pickin one of these up once they are able to be ordered for Canadians...

anyone know what the protective cases look like?
are they around the same as the bookeen, sony, and kindle cases?

[sassanik]

Originally Posted by jessTay

i'm thinking of pickin one of these up once they are able to be ordered for Canadians...

anyone know what the protective cases look like?
are they around the same as the bookeen, sony, and kindle cases?

I have not seen any examples of protective cases yet. I am not sure that any are available currently?

Hopefully they will soon, but since they are not on the shelves yet, its not entirely surprising that we have not seen cases yet.

Amy

[jessTay]

awww that's what i figured but still

i don't want to order one if the protective case ends up being too thin or tacky looking... or plasticy...

I sent a message to support today to ask about the cases and also about a release date and shipping prices for Canada (since pre-orders have been available there's been a notice that for countries outside the US and UK prices and shipping will be up soon). No word so far...

[Renaldo]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Amazon has always charged for mailing your personal documents via Whispernet. They will email to you computer using a free account.

Dale

I believe Amazon has always said they charged a fee for mailing documents via Whispernet, but they never actually started charging that fee until recently.

[Pandora Moon]

I really like the colours options of this. although the only question I have is what are the costs of the e-books in the UK? as I can't see anyway of finding that out and I'm not good at maths :P

[mtravellerh]

Originally Posted by Pandora Moon

I really like the colours options of this. although the only question I have is what are the costs of the e-books in the UK? as I can't see anyway of finding that out and I'm not good at maths :P

The good news: most books can be bought directly from US-ebookshops (except for Amazon). There are some regional restrictions, but they are not very frequent yet. The UK books are slightly more expensive than their american counterparts.

[sassanik]

Originally Posted by Pandora Moon

I really like the colours options of this. although the only question I have is what are the costs of the e-books in the UK? as I can't see anyway of finding that out and I'm not good at maths :P

Fictionwise and Books on Board both sell ebooks that should be readable on the cool-er.

There are also other vendors. Occasionally there seems to be regional restrictions, but making the purchases through PayPal seems to bypass that problem.

Amy

[Pandora Moon]

Thanks for the replys. I wasn't expecting them to come so quick

One place I've noticed regional restrictions was on the UK Iliad website here's a link for example http://www.iliadreader.co.uk/book.3561.htm

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by mobelby

I agree with porkupan that RobertB should not be knocking any competitor's products without hard facts.

I have always been grateful to RobertB for his willingness to share information about upcoming Astak products but in my opinion making disparaging allegations about your competitors' products that are about to beat you to market is not a way to win friends and influence people.

I'm sure we will get a hands on review of both the cool-er product and the Mentor lite product within the next month so consumers can make their buying decision based on true specifications and factual experience.

Dear Mobelby:

Somewhere on this thread I did profoundly aplogize. This caught me as a real shock. Kind of like my own factory stabbing me in the back. To say I was surprised is an understatement. Again, I do apologize for being out-of-line. You hopefully can realize that Astak works very hard to put out a quality device... our products have been rock solid. I do not mind the competition... I was more worried about how I am going to explain the differences to people between the Cool-er and the Mentor Lite. It looks so much the same but the guts, I have been told, are very different. I will let it go at that.

I do know that PC Magazine is doing a review on the Cool-er right now and that will be out soon enough.

Please, all, understand that even I can wake up and speak wrongly. As a Sagittarius we are prone to "foot in mouth" disease. I occasionally choose the wrong time to speak out. I am sorry!