Astak Mentor e-Book EZ Reader Due To Ship in November [e-Ink, e-Paper Based e-Reader]

Astak have confirmed that their new e-Book reader, the Astak Mentor EZ Reader, which utilises e-Ink and e-Paper technology and, in measuring in at from just 7.2″x4.7″x0.4″ (or 10″x7.68″x0.55″ in the case of the larger Pro Mentor) is billed as being the thinnest, lightest and most compact e-Book reader to be made available, will begin shipping as of November at which point it will compete directly with Amazon’s much (over) hyped Kindle.

Due to be made available in three distinct sizes  – 5”, 6” and 9.7” (in the case of the Pro Mentor) – and offering 800×600 resolution touch screen displays (5” & 6” models) or a 1200×825 resolution touch screen display (in the case of the Pro Mentor), the Win CE powered Astak Mentor will offer English, Spanish, Deutsch, French, Japanese, Korean and Portuguese out of the box language support as well as support for TXT, PDF, RTF, HTML/CHM e-Book formats supplemented by BMP, JPG, GIF image file format support and MP3 audio capabilities, with the Pro Mentor (specifically) coming with 4GB NAND flash memory and 64MB SDRAM which can be further supplemented courtesy of SD memory support.

Astak Mentor e-Book EZ Reader Key Features:

• Turn page: Forward/Backward/Auto
• Jump to page
• Progress bar: Display position in the book
• Font increasing: increase font size
• Bookmark: Add bookmark to a page
• Zoom: Zoom in/out page
• Slideshow: Start/Stop slideshow image files
• 802.11b/g Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth
• Supports 2 USB 2.0 ports (one port with power charge function)
• Supports 2 sliders
• Touch Screen (only support stylus)
• Auto shut-off: on/off
• Play MP3: playback MP3 files

Billed as offering enough single charge endurance to offer up to 8000 page views (interestingly, the device is touted as requiring no power whatsoever whilst a page is being read), a Plus version offering Wi-Fi connectivity but, as I understand it, sans touch screen, is expected to surface in 09 (the smaller sized versions are expected to surface from November of this year, incidentally) with the aforementioned touch screen Pro version (also coming with Wi-Fi support) following soon after which is rumoured to retail for around $300.

Astak [via]