November 11, 2008

5 inch E Ink eBook from Hanvon

The Chinese manufacturer Hanvon has introduced what it claims is the first 5" E Ink eBook reader. See article here from the TechOn news blog.

Specs include

  • 11mm thick
  • Formats supported: TXT, HTML, PNG, JPG, PDF, XEB, CEB, MP3, MTXT
  • 167 PPI, SVGA (800 x 600 pixels) E-Paper display
  • 1GB SD card and a mini USB port.

So, not much new really.

Hanvon has experience in handwriting input and tablets and are a kind of Wacom cloner.I can't remember from the E Ink visit, if they are the provider of the digitizing tablet in the smaller sized E Ink development platform. Based on this announcement I suspect so.

The article hints at stylus input, but the specs don't clarify it much, and I couldn't find the product on either of their web sites ("Global" vs."US" ! Isn't the US part of the world?).

Does this proliferation of low-cost, "nothing new" eBook readers (shaping up similar to MP3 market) help the category and the adoption of eBook readign devices, or hinder it?

BTW: Am I the only one who hates it when you go to a company's web-page, and before being shown any information you are forced to chose a country or region?

A second gripe then is that they often mix location (for buying in retail I presume, although with web purchase possible this doesn't make a lot of sense) with language. Please don't do this.....

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