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 7.2x4.7x0.4 (or 10x7.68x0.55 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 sizesย - 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