Review: Astak 5" Easy Reader Pro

[Steven Lake]

http://www.raiden.net/articles/revie...asy_reader_pro

Thought you guys might be interested in this. I just posted this review today.

[QIbHom]

Originally Posted by Lord Raiden

Another nifty little feature of the device is the ability to listen to MP3's. Now that's obviously the *only* thing you can do when it's activated (ie, you can't listen to mp3's and read your books at the same time), but that's alright.

Erm...wrong. You can start listening to your mp3s, then start reading a book. There was a thread active on that just yesterday.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by Lord Raiden

http://www.raiden.net/articles/revie...asy_reader_pro

Thought you guys might be interested in this. I just posted this review today.

Dear Lord:

WOW!! Astak thanks you!! You are a hell of a great writer and I am a proof reader and find myself always looking for grammatical errors. You have a flare for writing and your review is staggering in the depth it goes!! I would recommend putting this as a STICKY with all haste!! The main benefit of this review is to those thinking about buying and those who just got it. SO... it is important to make it a STICKY to greet those people!!


Yes, you can play MP3 and read at the same time. Start the music first and then go to the main menu to choose your book to read! We just did a firmware upgrade for the Pocket PRO (www.theEZreader.com under "support") that turns the scroll wheel into a volume control when you play music and are reading!!

You did leave out that the Pocket PRO has a User-Replaceable Rechargeable battery and you can buy spare batteries on our website so you can always pop in a fresh spare on a long trip! I think we can all forgive the one slight thing missed!!

Please make this a STICKY!!

[Steven Lake]

Thanks for the info guys. Yeah, I fiddled all over the place trying to figure out how to play music and read a book at the same time, and for the life of me couldn't make it happen. But it's good to know that. And yes, I knew about the user replaceable battery, but figured that since 95% of people either won't replace it, or won't know how/care/etc, it wasn't a big deal to report it. The other 5% will figure out how to do it on their own anyways.

Oh, and RobertB, I try to be as in depth and detailed as I can on my reviews. The readers want and appreciate it, and if they're happy, I'm happy.

BTW, if you have any other ebook readers, mobile devices, or anything else Linux powered you want reviewed in the future, I'm always open to doing more reviews.

[DaleDe]

He also missed the fact that it automatically keeps track of the last page you were on so if you exit the book and then start it again it will be back where you were. He spent a lot of time talking about how to work around a feature that needs no work around.

Dale

[eGeezer]

Hmmmm. Interesting. I went back and checked diokdin's "My Review of Astak 5" Pocket Pro", and he sez it too. 512 internal memory? I plug it into my computer and it tells me my internal is 386mb, and tells me my 2g card is 1.97g.

If it were 512mb, I would expect it to read maybe 510, but I think 386 is a bit low for a 512 mb card.

Am I missing something here? Besides 128 mb? I looked in the book, and I looked at the box, and nowhere does it say how large my internal memory is supposed to be.

Btw, I love everything about my PPro. I just found this incongruity a little puzzling.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by eGeezer

Hmmmm. Interesting. I went back and checked diokdin's "My Review of Astak 5" Pocket Pro", and he sez it too. 512 internal memory? I plug it into my computer and it tells me my internal is 386mb, and tells me my 2g card is 1.97g.

If it were 512mb, I would expect it to read maybe 510, but I think 386 is a bit low for a 512 mb card.

Am I missing something here? Besides 128 mb? I looked in the book, and I looked at the box, and nowhere does it say how large my internal memory is supposed to be.

Btw, I love everything about my PPro. I just found this incongruity a little puzzling.

Some must belong to the Internal O/S. Another of those Marketing statements that are technicaly accurate, but not what you can use. Sort of like a 2"x4" board. The "cut" marks are at 2"x4", what you get is 1-5/8"x3-5/8" after the saw is done.
There was a time that 2x4 was 2"x4". The old part of my 1947 built home has real 2x4's and a whole lot of where they have to meet.
My folks first TV was 17". That was 17" across (Previous TV tubes were ROUND). Then some marketing guy figgured the diagonal gave a bigger number. Accurate. Legal.

[eGeezer]

Whew. Thanks for the clarification. I sort of suspected something along that line, but really expected the chip to just show up as 512mb showing 128 used.

All this talk about it being 512mb, I thot someone was actually SEEING 512mb available.

I can go back to reading my 500+ books, now. thanks.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by eGeezer

Whew. Thanks for the clarification. I sort of suspected something along that line, but really expected the chip to just show up as 512mb showing 128 used.

All this talk about it being 512mb, I thot someone was actually SEEING 512mb available.

I can go back to reading my 500+ books, now. thanks.

Yes, even a simple SD card has to have something in it to tell the controller what to do and for ID purposes and such. Many devices are password protected too... so a card needs to "tell" its reader what it is and what password it may have and other info.

All of this does take up room on the card.

Regarding internal memory on a device, there is a lot more. It is hogged up by the internal workings of the device and formats and other such things. All of that eats up memory. So, you will find that 512MB of internal memory is not all "writeable".

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by eGeezer

Whew. Thanks for the clarification. I sort of suspected something along that line, but really expected the chip to just show up as 512mb showing 128 used.

All this talk about it being 512mb, I thot someone was actually SEEING 512mb available.

I can go back to reading my 500+ books, now. thanks.

It is the same with your computer at home. Fire up the task manager and see how much free memory you have. What you see is free memory also known as available memory.

Dale

[theducks]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

It is the same with your computer at home. Fire up the task manager and see how much free memory you have. What you see is free memory also known as available memory.

Dale

Look at my picture. We are talking about "Total Capacity" = Used +Free(+ hidden)
But you might have shed some on the use. Cache for the working title and system.

[eGeezer]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

It is the same with your computer at home. Fire up the task manager and see how much free memory you have. What you see is free memory also known as available memory.

Dale

That's true, but when you go to your system page, it still tells you that the computer has 4g memory, or a 320g hd. It doesn't subtract system files in memory or on the hd from the total memory or hd capacity available. It may even steal half your memory for the video card use, but it still indicates your full 4g installed.

Naturally, since the internal memory also serves as its "hard drive", it is to be expected that it would be partitioned into "system" and "memory" sections. But, again, even a partitioned hd still shows up at multiple drives equating to the hd's full capacity.

And I still don't know where the 512m internal memory number that's being quoted is coming from. Neither the book, the box, or the system menu item on the device says anything more than internal = NAND.

So until I saw it in this review (I had read diokdin's review before choosing Astak), I had no idea of the internal memory's expected size.

Naturally, this changes Lord Raiden's estimate of 1000 books in internal memory, but he can't be held responsible for marketing's numbers manipulation.

While we are at it, I don't recall Lord R mentioning whether he had installed the latest firmware, so I believe perhaps some of his observations are no longer valid.

For instance, I cannot get to a bookmark my merely pressing the 1-5 keys. I need to press and hold the 6 key to bring up the bookmark page(s), and then press the key associated with the bookmark. However, the ability to create a bookmark by merely pressing the "6" key is great.

Also, there are 3, not 2, ways of page-turning. I don't think I've ever used the most obvious paging keys on the left of the screen (except for firmware updating), but depending on how I am holding the reader, I vary between the "wheel" on the right, and the 9/0 keys.

As for glare, which I have seen mentioned for many other devices as well, glare is usually from one source, and tilting the device has always worked for me.

I personally don't have a problem with E-ink page-turn time. I actually prefer the wiping/refresh because I actually know it has changed pages without having to read the first few words of the page and discover I haven't pressed the button hard enuff.

This one is a joke, so be warned -- how can a battery indicator that is barely 1/4" long ever be expected to move an inch? But, yes, I certainly agree. I have been using my PPro for 4 days and the indicator hasn't moved at all.

Nit-picking aside, it is indeed a very well-written review. I just thot it would be good to note these items (well, except for the battery indicator) on behalf of anyone unfamiliar with this great Astak device.

[Steven Lake]

eGeezer: Yes, you bring up a good point. It's my habit to review a product in its "out of the box" condition, since that's the experience most people will encounter. I really wish people would plug, update, tweak, etc upon receipt, but alas, the majority don't. So I try to write my reviews in a way that will give an honest assessment of the product from an "out of box" experience. Hence why I didn't bother to update the firmware before reviewing it.

Another rule of thumb is this. Just because you run a tech site doesn't mean your readership is a bunch of geeks who know their way around the web. (typically I've discovered that most of your readers are total newbies, hence why they're turning to you for advice and reviews) If everyone was a geek and did the right things, sites like mine wouldn't be needed. ^_^;;

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Lord Raiden

eGeezer: Yes, you bring up a good point. It's my habit to review a product in its "out of the box" condition, since that's the experience most people will encounter. I really wish people would plug, update, tweak, etc upon receipt, but alas, the majority don't. So I try to write my reviews in a way that will give an honest assessment of the product from an "out of box" experience. Hence why I didn't bother to update the firmware before reviewing it.

You make a great point about typical users never completing the initial setup steps. How many Stereos/VCR's have you see in peoples homes that still has the Advertising stickers or Protective film over the display.

IMHO the PEz needs a sticker on the Display film.
1 Charge me 12 hours or until the =D---- shows
We are improving all the time.
Your firmware will be out of date by the time you get this.
2. Download and Install the latest version from www.....

3. read the Astak forums at www.mobileread.com for more user tips.

[Solicitous]

Originally Posted by theducks

You make a great point about typical users never completing the initial setup steps. How many Stereos/VCR's have you see in peoples homes that still has the Advertising stickers or Protective film over the display.

IMHO the PEz needs a sticker on the Display film.
1 Charge me 12 hours or until the =D---- shows
We are improving all the time.
Your firmware will be out of date by the time you get this.
2. Download and Install the latest version from www.....

3. read the Astak forums at www.mobileread.com for more user tips.

I did love when I got my PP the sticker on the box saying "This is not a touch screen".

I agree with having charging information on the sticker.