Astak's press release for the EZ Reader

[DaleDe]

Here is the long awaited press release from Astak. You saw it here first.

New EZ Reader by Astak

(A By-The- Numbers Approach to a Great eBook Reader)

Astak's first offering in eBook Readers will be the EZ Reader; and will be released in late November, 2008; while being introduced formally at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (January 7-10). There are a great number of other exciting eBook Readers by Astak being introduced during the first six months of 2009 including the Flexi-Screened 9.7 inch!

The EZ Reader is the lightest, smallest, and thinnest eBook Reader ever introduced to North America. It is a whole new way to read books and listen to stereo music. At 7.2 inch long and 4.7 inch wide and .4 inches thick, it feels right in your hand. Weighing 7.8 ounces, THIS is an eBook Reader that you can hold for long periods without getting tired or getting bloodshot eyes. The E-Ink, E-Paper screen makes for reading without eye strain and the screen uses NO power while you read. Only standby computer power is needed except when turning pages or listening to your stored stereo MP3 music. At 800 by 600 pixel, it has a Vizplex screen that is very high resolution and reads well in ambient light. It reads up to 8,000 pages of text on a single charge. either via the included USB cable and your computer or via the included power adapter.

Manufactured expressly for Astak by Jinke, Astak is the exclusive Sales Agent for all of North and South America. Furthermore, Astak will be incorporating improvements into their version. For the first time the units will be offered in bold metallic colors and all the service will be done by Astak and the warranty backed by Astak. We also want to get a T9 dictionary on our version. Other major improvements are planned as well.

The battery IS replaceable. Simply remove one screw and go online to
order a replacement battery. THIS has been a problem in the past with some other eBook Readers. This unit has been a total of 8 years in development. Our band of eBook Reader bashers tried hard to get this to "hang up" or show a glitch. and it is as error-free and solid as you will find!

This EZ Reader uses a "By-The-Numbers" approach. When you turn it on, it takes you directly to your book library. Choose the book you want, or your most recently started book, by hitting the appropriate numbered button. Advance or digress one page at the touch of a single button, or hold the button down to advance ten pages at a time. Of course it has bookmarks. The numbered keys take you anywhere you want to go with a minimum of delay (it is blazingly fast), and, if you make any mistake, it has a special button to take you back to the previous page.

The User Manual with the EZ Reader was written by an American for
Americans. It is clean and literate and easy to understand. You can be an expert within 20 minutes! The machine really is easy to learn
anyway; and you may not even need the User Manual except for more uncommon features. Most people can navigate within minutes just fine.

The device supports ALL of the most major languages. English, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, etc. It comes with free stereo ear buds and a nice "crush-resistant" vinyl/leather case. It takes a 3.5mm earphone jack. the most common on the market; and is ideal for Noise-canceling Headphones. Major colors are expected to be a beautiful Metallic Blue and Metallic Red! Yes, it has a choice of font sizes and can display both vertically and horizontally!

It comes with MOBIPOCKET support by Hanlin. Mobi allows the downloading of DRM and there are several Mobipocket formatted eBook sites. Stay tuned to our website for info on the new Astak website that will sell books and the device starting in late November.

It would seem that Astak has partnered with Jinke for this reader instead of Netronix. It is the first of 3 products planned in the EZ Reader line. A PLUS version is planned early next year with WiFi and a PRO will be following with both WiFi and Touchscreen. I suspect we may see a new model every couple of months for a while.

Rumor has it that this first unit will hit the streets at a bit over $300 US. Any comments? Robert has indicated that it will be available in 4 colors, Metallic Red, Electric Blue, Black and White.

[Skyblue]

Are there any pictures aroud of what the colours will look like? I know in an earlier post they were said to be like the ipod colours....

Also what kind of library format will it have..ie something like the irex iliad?

Will it also support .pdb file format?

Is astak.com still going to ship worldwide?

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Rumor has it that this first unit will hit the streets at a bit over $300 US. Any comments? Robert has indicated that it will be available in 4 colors, Metallic Red, Electric Blue, Black and White.

I'm curious... how is this any different than the V3 or the BeBook?

BOb

[Nate the great]

It's not.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Skyblue

Are there any pictures aroud of what the colours will look like? I know in an earlier post they were said to be like the ipod colours....

Also what kind of library format will it have..ie something like the irex iliad?

Will it also support .pdb file format?

Is astak.com still going to ship worldwide?

The Red one is attached to the post. The Blue one is on the news page. The standard black and white ones are the same as the other Jinke products.

Initially the eReader PDB format will not be supported. I understand that there is still ongoing talks with Fictionbooks on this. A directory structure is supported. I don't know what their shipping policy is but they will have a separate web site devoted to selling books and eBook readers.

Dale

[FizzyWater]

What happened to eReader format support?? It's the only reason I'd consider buying yet another eInk machine.

I also thought they had intended a file system that allowed folder access, instead of the 10-at-a-time menu selection...after the brighter screen, I think my favorite improvement when going from the PRS500 to PRS505 was the update made to the book selection pages (filtering further into groups by alphabet). It just takes too long to page through 10-at-a-time when you have 600 ebooks on a memory card!

EDITED: Obviously DaleDe was reading my mind while I was typing this reply and answered at least part of it before I could even hit send!

[hidari]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I'm curious... how is this any different than the V3 or the BeBook?

BOb

Kind of disappointing considering all the Anticipation that MR was expecting from Astak....

[Skyblue]

Another thing to notice is that the EZ reader hardware is looking like the bebook while on the astak homepage it looks more like the bookeen cybook

[kovidgoyal]

Hmm a 505 with mobi spport.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by hidari

Kind of disappointing considering all the Anticipation that MR was expecting from Astak....

I can't give details, but I can tell you that the collapse of the Astak-Netronix deal was the result of a Netronix screwup, not Astak. We have corroborating info from a second source.

Originally Posted by Skyblue

Another thing to notice is that the EZ reader hardware is looking like the bebook while on the astak homepage it looks more like the bookeen cybook

And if you'd read the Astak homepage, you'd see that it still says Mentor, not EZ Reader.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

I also thought they had intended a file system that allowed folder access, instead of the 10-at-a-time menu selection...

The Jinke device V3/BeBook does have a folder/file system. I would like to see it demoed though. But, well, how do you expect it to display if it is more than 10 items?

BOB

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

TInitially the eReader PDB format will not be supported. I understand that there is still ongoing talks with Fictionbooks on this.

From FictionWise initially on a different subject, (Changing PID on Fictionwise ..):

Please note that additional device support will be announced soon for eReader and by early 2009 it will have far broader platform coverage than Mobipocket

Assuming MobiPocket is still requiring DRM exclusivity on dedicated readers, the only work around I see is down loadable add-on reader software. This is apparently possible for iRex's DR1000, and has been done before on the V3/BeBook and on the iLiad (FBReader in both cases, not with DRM obviously but still an add-on reader).

It would be great if eReader came out with a Linux version of its Reader software, e.g. for MIDs and for Nokia tablets as well as Desktops and dedicated readers. There are other possible platforms (e.g. Android), but Linux seems necessary to get to "far broader platform coverage".

[neoaska]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Hmm a 505 with mobi spport.

hmm, i guess this shall be V3 with mobi support...

jinke just anounced its cooperation with MOBIPOCKET
http://www.jinke.com.cn/Compagesql/n...eflag=4&id=219

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by neoaska

hmm, i guess this shall be V3 with mobi support...

jinke just anounced its cooperation with MOBIPOCKET
http://www.jinke.com.cn/Compagesql/n...eflag=4&id=219

Here is what Babel Fish decided that it said.

Celebrates Tianjin Branch Company and MOBIPOCKET warmly cooperates successfully

http://www.jinke.com.cn 2008-09-24 09:01: 30


Tianjin branch academician electron microreader by the fine quality, the rich form support, the globalized language as well as the safe reliable copyright protection mechanism obtains the content provider's high approval. The other day Tianjin branch with subordinated carries on the cooperation in Amazon Corporation Europe and America area biggest content provider MOBIPOCKET, grafted successfully on the academician microreader based on Mobipocket the form DRM solution, served together the global particularly Europe and America reader.

The academician electron microreader user may purchase each kind of newest books, the magazine through WWW.MOBIPOCKET.COM, downloads to the microreader on the direct reading. So far MOBIPOCKET was the user provides hundreds of thousands of volume of books and the magazine, the electronic microreader therefore also had the more legal copy contents, could play the major role. This cooperation, has opened the broad world for the academician electron microreader and the partner in the market.

Dale

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by neoaska

hmm, i guess this shall be V3 with mobi support...

jinke just anounced its cooperation with MOBIPOCKET
http://www.jinke.com.cn/Compagesql/n...eflag=4&id=219

i was referring to the design, not the origins.