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Old 12-30-2006, 05:28 PM   #1
nekokami
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eBookTechnologies (ETI) may be working on an E Ink device

Hi folks,

I just got an eBookwise reader for my birthday. (I'd like an iLiad, but the price is out of reach for me, and the eBookwise unit does most of what I want for a fraction of the cost of the iLiad.) I sent ETI a note this evening asking if they were planning an E Ink device, and assumed I'd hear nothing for weeks, if ever. To my surprise, within the hour, I received this:

Quote:
From: Garth Conboy
Subject: Re: E ink model?
Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2006 13:46:15 -0800

We're working on next generation products. Stay tuned! :-)

Best,
Garth
Just thought I'd share,

Last edited by nekokami; 01-02-2007 at 07:51 PM. Reason: removed email address which I had carelessly included (hopefully it hadn't been harvested yet)
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Old 12-30-2006, 09:21 PM   #2
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That is good news since no ebook reader in my experience is better designed than Ebk1150. A modern device without Ebk1150's limitations (pixel size and dead so expensive and limited at 128 Mb memory), but with all its benefits like fast navigation, fast access, long battery, fast search, screen rotation, good ergonomics, integrated lighting, bookmarks/notes... even with a decent lcd screen not a eink one, maybe one of new less reflective ones, and reasonably priced could be a hit.
Even today and with all its limitations I probably still would take Ebk1150 over Sony, due to price, speed and integrated light.

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Old 12-31-2006, 08:21 PM   #3
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I agree. I loaded a number of books I have in text format onto the 1150 and I've been very happy reading them. The screen is quite good, and battery life is excellent so far.

I do wish there was a way to search for text using the on-screen keyboard, though. I haven't found one yet, if there is. The ability to search across multiple documents, with an option to only search markups (e.g. highlighted text) would also be useful to me. Other improvements I'd like to see if a new model is being developed include the ability to expand and collapse categories, support for subcategories, and alternate sorts based on category, title, author, or some kind of keywords. (It would be ok if the keywords were entered on the PC/Mac, but better if one could change them-- and other metadata-- on the 1150 using the on-screen computer.) Also, it would be nice to be able to see a list of "markups" (highlights or written notes) with the highlighted text (if applicable), and maybe the ability to add a bit of text to a written note using an on-screen keyboard, just so the markup entry for the written note would have some description in the list. But I suppose all that is dreaming... and really, the unit is quite usable even as it is.
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Old 01-01-2007, 03:23 PM   #4
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On Ebk1150 you can search for text using the find button from settings (the keyboard pops up, and you can type with your fingers or with the pen), and it displays very fast the pages it's searching through. It works only on the current book so you need to have a book open to use it, but it's useful for me especially for short story collections which have no clickable table of contents.

Also you can sort your books, on title, size, recent download, recent read, author, and include or not categories as you wish (click on the line of books above your eBookshelf and choose as appropriate, then restart). If you use the librarian software you can edit the metadata very easily, so you can create subcollections as you wish.

Outside of the small pixel size (448x318 - unless you get rid of automatic margins which seems to be possible but I do not know how, and make it full 460x320), my main problem is the 128Mb format limitation. If it would take 1Gb or higher cards even with the relatively small screen it would be perfect since after all nonreflowable books can be cut in half or third, the size of the corresponding pictures being the limitation. Right now I find myself adding and deleting books too much on my main cards.

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Old 01-01-2007, 09:43 PM   #5
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Thanks for the tips! I hadn't been able to figure out how to get the keyboard to open in the "find" window, and the whole method of clicking on the bookshelf is new to me. These are very helpful.

I agree about the cards. Hopefully the "next generation," whatever it is, will support some form of storage with more memory.
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Old 01-02-2007, 01:38 PM   #6
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Do you think that being eink, the next generation will be as quick as the present LCD offering?
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Old 01-02-2007, 06:31 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by yvanleterrible
Do you think that being eink, the next generation will be as quick as the present LCD offering?
The E Ink display takes longer to alter than LCD, no question, but I think we are seeing with the other vendors (i.e. iRex) that inefficient coding is causing most of the slowness. I would think the page turn would be at least as good as the Sony Reader, but probably not much better (if at all better). A lot may depend on whether they try to offer PDF support. PDF is popular as a document format, but horribly bloated and slow to render (besides the other problems of being a fixed page layout format). If ETI emphasizes their current IMP format and continues to support import of various filetypes like txt, rtf, doc, etc., performance should stay good.

The main thing for ETI will be to keep the cost low. Hopefully they'll be able to re-use some of the engineering and even manufacturing they have already done for the 1150. I'm sure they'll need to charge more than they do for the 1150, but if they can come in under the price of the Sony Reader, I think they'll do very well, even if their system is still relatively closed. They have the established relationship with Fictionwise/eBookwise to leverage (though that may limit their DRM support to eBw -- no flames about DRM, please, we all know where we stand on this).
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Old 01-02-2007, 07:48 PM   #8
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Further update....

I got another reply from ETI with these comments. I have been authorized to share them with the caveat that these are comments only, not product commitments.

My suggestions are the lines prefixed by > -
Quote:
> - Search across multiple documents, with an option to only search markups (e.g. highlighted text) or document keywords

Yes, clearly a good idea for a future version of software.

> - View a list of "markups" (highlights or written notes) with the highlighted text (if applicable)
> - Add text to a written note using an on-screen keyboard, so the note would be searchable and the markup entry for the written note would have some description in the list (if a list were implemented)

Another good idea.

> - Mount device as external drive via USB, to make moving files easier

Very likely in future devices.
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Old 01-02-2007, 08:25 PM   #9
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I wonder if he means 'future' as in this device they're working on now, or 'future' as in a device they might decide to build at some future point.
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Old 01-03-2007, 08:32 AM   #10
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I got the impression they're working on devices right now. Nothing firm, though.
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Old 01-03-2007, 11:07 AM   #11
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