TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

$159 E Ink e-book gizmo with eReader and other formats on the way from Astak?

By David Rothman

Is a $159 E Ink reader, called the Astak Mentor, on the way from a San Jose-based seller of wireless security cameras?  Go to home page of Astak, Inc., and you won’t see a mention of E Ink machines—just of wireless cameras.

But someone identifying himself as an Astak guy has quietly posted to a Mobile Read forum saying that at the IDPF’s New York show on May 14, the company will unveil a five-inch E Ink machine that might sell for as little as $159. Six- and 9.7-inch screens will also be an option, as will 801.11g WiFi and touch screens. According to RobertB, the Astak Mentor with a six-inch screen will sell for less than $200, weigh seven ounces, measure 7.5 by 4.75 inches and offer an 800-by-600-res screen with with 170 dots per inch and four grayscales. Chip is to be a Samsung S3C2443 running at 400 MHz. A battery charge will last 8,000 pages, and SD memory expansion will go up to 4G. Stereo music will be among the goodies. OS is to be Win CE.

eBabel and Ama-greed  issues

“We know it will have eReader and books can easily be downloaded from Fictionwise,” RobertB said. “We are negotiating with Mobipocket/Amazon but they want exclusivity. It will, of course, also have TXT, PDF, RTF, HTML/CHM. Amazon seems to want to take over the world and we are trying to deal fairly but leave formats open.” Great, Robert B. Now about the IDPF’s .epub standard? Remember, Penguin in the U.K. will be offering books in it directly to consumers, Hachette is already distributing books in .epub, and other majors are expected to follow in time. Meanwhile Feedbooks offers a wealth of public domain books and some others in that format.

Ideally Astak and other E Ink reader companies can work with the open source community to develop killer reader apps that would be far, far superior to the Kindle’s. In fact, we recently ran an item on OpenInkpot, which I suspect would be thrilled to work with companies like Astak. But wait! Will the use of a proprietary OS like Win CE rule out cooperation with open source groups?

Bottom line: I find RobertB’s posts to be credible so far, especially since I see Astak listed among the IDPF exhibitors, even if that’s no guarantee.  At any rate, it’s about time for the prices of E Ink devices to head south in a big way. I’ll be very interested in knowing what Sony, Bookeen, Jinke and other rivals do in response. I doubt anything will happen immediately, but if you’re planning to buy an E Ink machine of any brand and can wait some months longer, then I wouldn’t rush in.

More details: RobertB says that the plan is for “working production samples” to be unveiled at the IDPF meeting. But that’s not necessarily the same as being able to order a Mentor at that time. Can’t wait for definite availability info: let’s hope mightily there isn’t a catch. Ahead, meanwhile, is one of the statements that RobertB has shared:

“Dear Community:

What we do know is that the Astak Mentor will have the following features: Turn Page, Jump to Page, Progress Bar, Font Increasing, Bookmark, Zoom In, Zoom out, Slideshow, Delete File. Your suggestions help!! That is why we are putting out the info in this manner. We have preliminary samples made and have already made changes to “americanize it” (it is being released throughout the world). WE only know that at IDPF on May 14 we have to have working production samples.

“The panel is the easy part. One of our partners is a panel manufacturer so getting panels is easy and they are committed.

“The advance projected sales price for the 9.7 inch version is about $299-$349. It will allow an 8.5″ by 11″ page to read true, will come with WiFi/Bluetooth and Touch integrated, 4GB Enbedded, 3.5 stereo headphone jack, SDcard expansion slot, 1200 x 825 pixels, four programmable functional buttons, and a lot of other bells and whistles and lights. The operating system will be Win CE with splash screen on boot; and it will support English, Spanish, German, French, Chinese (Big 5), and Japanese. The release date for this unit is projected for August. The Li-ion battery will last ten years but is likely not user-changeable. I will place this suggestion.

“I will find out for you about estimated cost for TouchScreen and the WiFi options on 5 inch and 6 inch! Will check on dictionary. Good suggestion!!

“Pictures are not so easy as changes are still being made. It is an awesome gloss black front bezel with orange sides and back… very attractive. I am afraid to put up pictures as they may change between now and release.

“We are trying to add to our website on these devices.”