Jinke's Hanlin eBook Model V2
By Evan Blass 
posted Oct 2nd 2005 3:48PM
posted Oct 2nd 2005 3:48PM
Little-known eBook manufacturer Jinke Electronics has been quietly toiling away at perfecting its Hanlin line for some time now, and they have recently introduced a model that may be able to compete with Sony's LIBRIe on features and performance. The Hanlin eBook Model V2, as its known, sports a 200 MHz Samsung ARM processor, 32MB SDRAM and 64MB NAND flash memory, 800 x 600 6-inch display, separate 254 x 96 "slave display," SD slot, and MP3 player. This device uses low-power electronic ink technology from E-Ink, is capable of reading native PDF and HTML files as well as converted DOC, TXT, and Excel documents, and from the looks of it doesn't incorporate any of that DRM nastiness the LIBRIe is famous for.
A-W-E-S-O-M-E
And it's going to go for $299! (in Q4?)
yeah right its going to be soooo expensive i'd rather buy the book than fu** up my eyes all day.
well it beats the LIBRIe becuase no drm and its got a better price 299 is still a bit pricy
For $300 I'll stick to a Nokia 770. I like the features though. How's battery life?
That sounds awesome, I really hate the fact that Sony loves to mangle every technology standard out there by putting out their own formats or blocking out uses with stuff like DRM. Sony has just started to embrace the common compact flash standards, maybe this will help them get moving.
This looks amazing, and I have to say that, as an avid reader, $299 is a great price to carry a library with you. Imagine having various textbooks and reference literature at your fingertips in a package that's actually easy to read and of a comfortable size, unlike a palm or other hand-held computer. I, personally, can't wait.
You know, the Nokia 770 will do the the same thing + so much more, for about the same price. What's the point here? It's like a device dedicated for Tetris.
topher,
You've missed the key point that this is E-ink technology. Read up on that and you'll see how this is a different class of device than the Nokia 770.
Topher - this is completely different to the Nokia 770, and far superior for reading.
topher...
dumbass.
This sounds great for students like me - if only I could get my textbooks on it. I don't think that's going to happen. I think $300 is too much for something like this, too. Yeah it's got a far better display, but you can still get an old black and white palm pilot with an SD slot for a lot (LOT) less than this, and read books, keep phone numbers, calendar, to do items...
Now if this was in the sub-$100 range, I could go for it.
I'm assuming people who want this alredy have a source for ebooks. Where do you get 'em?
topher,
a device dedicated to tetris would be great. Don't knock it.
Oh, and yes, I've read many books on my Dell Axim Pocket PC. But for that and the wifi, I'd probably pitch the thing.
rex stjames,
i can get alot of my textbooks on CD, and its not too hard to convert to html. i don't know if thats unusual, but it should be possible to get.
Wow, this is pretty sweet device here. For $299, and the ability to hold any book you want, with pictures and audio this is a steal.
I can't wait to replace all my school books with this guy!
I use my PDA to read eBooks, PDF files, etc but with a 3.7 inch screen, it's not something that I'd want to spend a lot of time doing. I do it to avoid carrying a bunch of books.
I can imagine this device being useful if I traveled more and wanted to read without lugging a bunch of books.
I can see this being ideal for students. I wonder what the impact is to your eyes versus print.
This looks to be the first real alternative to the centuries old standard. E-ink is a huge step in the right direction. Readibility goes way up (no more glare! Try reading your PDA in direct sunlight) and power consumption goes way down (think possibly 6~8hrs. E-ink makes it possible.)
At this point the only things left to make eBook readers a real successful would be: Perfecting UI/design/fuctionality, Proper adoption and distribution channels for ebooks, fair DRM schemes that people will accept.
I was just looking around the other day, wishing that Sony would release a 2nd version of the Librie, or someone else would trump them.
The only real downside I see over the Librie is that it weighs in at 190g, while these are 290g. Quite a bit chunkier.
The V2 doesn't list how many pages you can read to a charge. Their other models, which run on AAA batteries, get 10,000 to 14,000 pages per charge. Hopefully the V2 will be inline.
Unfortunately the slave display seems to be for footnotes or something of the sort, instead of a text input field. What a pity. My 'perfect eBook' is a device just like these, waterproof, and lets me jot notes. If we can get that far, people will buy them. Things like full multimedia support can come later on.
so you have to convert to another file format like on a Palm? Bummer, as this thing would be idea if it could just read native formats.
To clarify my comment, I know that the engadget article says it can read native files, but the website says it has to convert to "WOLF" file format for anything but PDF files.
Am I missing the part where they talk about the price?
#10 - if you actually look at the specs of this device, I think you'll find its a world away from your 'old black and white palm pilot with an SD slot'. The resolution on those devices is crud compared to this (800x600) - which is very important for comfortable reading without having to scroll every few seconds. Also, eInk is supposed to be much more viewable in bright light than LCD etc.
#16, your points were very good - the ability to add your own jot notes to your books (overlay them) would be a great feature - even better if they could improve eink somehow so they could make your notes a colour (red for example) - it would be so cool reading your ebook and seeing your little red jots in the margin.
One feature i'd like to see in this would be 2 reader screens - ie a clamshell that when you opened it, had 2 screens, just like a paperback has 2 pages when you open it.
I was just looking at that site and noticed this here: http://www.jinke.com.cn/english/v2/techinfo.asp
Technology Introduce
Main development project 1:Wolf OS 3.X embedded operation system and ebook reader development platform
Embedded operation system Development language:C,VC++
Development Type:OS software
Main Features:
1) Realize the hardware core of the smart copyright card（SIM card）,forming a embedded operation system with essential security character.
2) Multi ID crossing validate, realizing ID identification and various ways and form copyright and property right protection.
3) Life time monitor, realizing monitor, control and record for system creating state, operating state and disappearing state.
4) Authorization of process/limitation operation, preventing illegal attacking development.
5) Digital watermark copyright protection function based on electronic reader, supporting various paper-like display control system.
Does this sound like DRM to anyone else? As far as I can tell these devices are supposed to run this Wolf OS - meaning that the 'DRM nastiness' is here to. Nice way to devalue your product IMHO...
#16 The Librie weighs in at 190g without batteries and case, 300g with.. so 290g, battery included, isn't that bad.
Though, it isn't really clear what that touch panel is capable of. If it's able to accept notes, it would be nearly perfect.
It certainly looks like it has the libre beat in all departments apart from the fact it is from a small (compared to Sony) Chinese manufacturer. There are some great products from Chinese manufacturers but there are also some cruddy products. Until it is real, it looks like a pre-prototype mock-up, AND someone reviews it I won't be getting my hopes up too high.
In case anyone miss this out, this device uses e-ink screen, meaning it only uses power for refreshing changing the contents of the page. No need for constant power draw in refreshing the LCD screen. This translates to such devices' battery life being measured in terms of several thousand page refreshes rather than in terms of power-on hours.
A friend has the V1 or earlier model and it runs on 2 AAA battery (or AA) and is touted to run up to 10,000 page refreshes.
So this device, like any other devices that uses some variant of e-ink technology for display, is really optimized for ebook application and in terms of battery life / weight ratio, is way beyond any other existing devices that uses the "traditional" LCD displays.
This strength or specialization also means that it is not suitable for video or other multimedia ... at the moment. Not sure how the e-ink technology will evolve, but at the moment, it is tuned for extreme low-power consumption rather than fast refresh. Newer eink technology already supports colour but may take another year or so to reach the consumer space.
So, in short, comparing this device with PDAs like the Nokia 770 is not quite suited.
one probalm, no one reads e-books. Just go get the book for 5 bucks and save yourself the refreshing pixels and the torrment of charging. Maybe in ten years i'll get one, but deffinatly not now
Alex Quinn: and what exactly are you doing here at engadget? i thought most of us are early adopters who dream of stuff like this.
you on the other hand, could/should be happy with the local Bestbuy flyer.
For the rest, here's more info:
http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=3635
This thing rocks. EVERYone who got hands on a librie were blown away, except for the drm issues, and with a programmable linux os, man if eink does it right it'll be huge! way bigger than iPod!
It looks very nifty indeed. Just the thing to take on vacation.
Even though it's not quite out yet, where in the world would you go to buy such a thing? It doesn't seem like the typical thing for Bestbuy etc. to carry..
Anyone that hasn't viewed larger-format digital paper in-person can't understand the dramatic difference in readability. Comparing such an eBook device to similar functions on a LCD/OLED phone or PDA is like comparing apples to orange juice.
if i see this baby in a shop im grabbing it, no questions asked :)
#27) i highly suggest you go to a bookstore before you fire off agian. Standard paperback novels haven't cost 5USD for a number of years. Most are in the 7.99 to 9.99 range now. Hardbound books are weighing in at 27-30USD.
I personally own a Librie and can tell all those people comparing this to the 770, you don't know jack. The e-ink tech brings a reader device to a completely different level. Also as another user postd, they have developed color e-ink, though i say it is more like 2-3 years out, for the first gen consumer devices.
As for what to read? Putting aside all the obvious pirated uses it will get, there are thousands upon thousands of tech manuals out there in use every day by thousands of technicians. Most of those manuals are already available in PDF form. The problem is there is no SIMPLE and CONVENIENT way for a field technician to use a PDF file. These kind of people need nothing more than a simple specialized(and probably ruggedized) reader device that they can use.
The other major use has already been stated. Student textbooks. Even assuming they've got some kind of DRM to ensure each student has to buy their own, there is an entire generation of students consistantly grinding through the system lugging around way more crap than they need to because textbooks are the only way right now. I know i would have gladly accepted even a WOLF DRM (or Sony) read only memory card with my year's school books on it every year. My bach shows sympathy already.
Have you seen the address:
http://positron.org/projects/h2/
It's a great e-book prototype made by the Senior Engineering at e-ink. For me it's simply the best. Has a single board computer running Linux, 6" e-ink display and is really thin. A commercial product around this design would certainly be a winner.
I spotted one of these on sale in Dalian, mainland China last week. The lady in charge of the HanLin stall said that the device runs a proprietry OS, and books for the device can be bought from the manufacturer - unless you hack it, you won't be able to load ebooks downloaded from the Internet.
The display quality is good, but the amount of text that can be displayed at one time is less than with a paperback book. Battery life is 10 hours on 2 AAA batteries.
I was told that English versions of these devices are already available within China, although there are not yet many English ebooks available from the manufacturer. Price is approx 300 USD.
You can find a couple of pictures of the device at http://china.gurtlush.com/?p=16
You do realize you weren't looking at the V2 model, don't you? The V2 does suport text & html, in addition to the Wolf format. So you can get your documents and books from anywhere. Additionally the V8 model scheduled for the spring will ship on a linux core, and be capable of being reprogrammed.
Has a Librie owner i have to say that the DRM on this new device will probably follow the same path it did on the Librie.
There will be some problems but given enough time and fan support eventually someone will create hacks/tools to allow the use of all our favorite texts.
I only ordered my Librie when i was certain that i could read whatever i wanted, and if you take a look at my site you will see it ;)
The only downside in this new device is the screen size; it's quite good enough to read text, but when it comes to read comics, or a pdf to image, it is too small, i'd say 8 inch would be the very least it would need to allow a confortable reading :|
I'm refering to us/euro comics, if you're going to read original manga it does quite well, not so much with translated ones :P