eSlick Availability and other minor questions/comments

[cutterjohn]

1) Might want to turn on email validation/verification for forum registration. (I was shocked to find the first forum in something like 4+y that didn't require this.)

2) What is the real availability of eSlick IF I were say to order one tomorrow or wednesday? The order page states May, yet I see others, that seem to have ordered today or yesterday stating that they received indication of shipping late this week from sales. (Looking to buy something soon as my REB-1100 died, then I dropped my IIIx and managed to crack the screen, so it's down to the eSlick, Sony PRS-700 which I could pick up in 15m for c. $100 more, or a Hanlin v3 or re-badged although they seemed to have priced themselves right out of the market considering their feature lack(or overall regression from e.g. REB-1100) while Foxit is compensating on price to an extent ATM. Strongly tempted to just pickup an ebookwise and wait things out.)

3) I've looked through a few pages, but didn't want to waste more time, so I'll get to the point on this minor question wrt formats: Any plans to add HTML, XHTML, Palm DOC, Mobi, etc. format support?

4) Any plans for 3rd party SDK? (Mostly asking as the Hanlin v3 has a fairly active openinkpot replacement OS development going on, which is about the only thing going for hanlin (and re-badges) ATM.)

[EDIT]
Apparently going to be supported by OpenInkPot(work in progress), as it's a Netronix EB-100, which also happen to be a Bookeen Cybook Gen3, Explay TXT.books, Ganaxa Ger2, Orsio Orsio B721, Pocketbook Pocketbook 301/+ ...

Actually looking at the netronix site, it's more likely the EB600 model as the CPU spec matches v. 200MHz ARM in Cybook Gen3 and others... nice upgrade in Q2 w/WiFi and touchscreen(EB600 Cookie :ROFLMAO:).

Er, so why'd you guys ditch the support for other formats? Support format: txt, pdf, html, fb2, epub, prc, mobi, jpg and bmp (netronix)

http://www.netronixinc.com/product_e-book.htm
Q3/2009 looks even better for battery life.

5) Any chance that the next "batch" will give us a Cookie?

No flicker, anti-flare, comfortable for long time reading

:D
[/EDIT]

[dracodoc]

The website is not updated, you can subscribe to the newsletter for newest information. Last newsletter said next shipment will be on 4.17.
Foxit is famous for its pdf software, and there are many improvements can be done in current pdf reading experience on e ink reader. Basically most format can be converted to pdf easily, so I would rather foxit focus on pdf processing and make it perfect. You know some reader support lots of formats, but the reading experience are just mediocre.

Actually pdf is not perfect for e ink reader (fixed layout, difficult to change), but there are way too many documents and books in pdf format already, so good pdf support is essential. If you can get the book in editable format (like html, txt, doc etc), you can always convert them into pdf or other ebook format optimized for your reader. So I don't think a good reader need to support every format known, but several most important ones. Really, what do you need for jpg and bmp support? If jpg and bmp were supported, how about png, gif, and every other picture format? Before e ink reader screen get color or more gray scale depth, pdf rule them all...

Foxit do have plan to support epub in future, which is good because that is a format good for ebook and supported by many source and software.

Besides, touch screen is good(and expensive, I'll worry about writing on e ink screen too), but I think Wifi is useless. Unless you are getting ready to read ebook like kindle, most time you still need to convert or process them before reading, those tasks should be done on pc, not ebook reader.

[donl0001]

"The website is not updated, you can subscribe to the newsletter for newest information. Last newsletter said next shipment will be on 4.17."

In theory, I have had a newsletter subscription, but have not received anything recently. When were the last two newsletters sent?

Thanks, Don

[cutterjohn]

Actually the formats aren't too terribly important any longer as openinkpot looks to be going for netronix support as well, although it's currently an early alpha.

Still wishing that I had a fry's near me though... REAL good price on one of the readers there, almost my 'well it's still a little high, but I'll buy it right now anyways price...' but they're not offering shipping on them, in store pickup only. I'm probably just goign to hold off and see what the next couple of months bring, pickup a new LCD for my IIIx and use that and my ebookman for a while as I think prices will drop if they start bringing on the WiFi + touchscreen models as both netronix and jinke seem to have them in the pipeline.

[Erik_Bryant]

Cutterjohn,

1) I'll let the web developers know
2) If you purchase now, you will receive in late May. If you purchased before April 8th(I don't remember the exact day), then it will be shipped this week or next.
3) Foxit's plans: supporting eReader and epub. Maybe other file types later.
4) No plans for SDK yet
We stick to PDF because it's what we are, a PDF software company.
5) What do you mean "cookie"?

[Jack Volanty]

It's a futuristic name adopted by netronix

[Erik_Bryant]

Ok, got it. I doubt they can hit those, but we'll see.

As to Foxit plans, we have plans to do some sort of "cookie" design later this year. We're currently working on it now. We want a design with wireless, touch screen(if available at that time) and maybe some other cool features including more buttons.

[meandajerrygr]

I am planing to buy the elick ebook reader but i have one question.
I have a lot of ebooks on pdf format but they are like images.
can i read them at eslick?(i dont have problem to resize them)

[Erik_Bryant]

Sure, you can read PDF's that have images on eSlick. If you want to see what it looks like, send an e-mail to support of a sample.

[meandajerrygr]

Originally Posted by Erik_Bryant

Sure, you can read PDF's that have images on eSlick. If you want to see what it looks like, send an e-mail to support of a sample.

All the text is like an image