Mentor-branded 5-inch e-reader surfaces alongside PocketBook collection

Ah, the lovely world of rebadged e-readers. If you'll recall, we saw a nice trio of Astak Mentor e-book readers way back in May of last year, and now we're seeing a smaller, more curvaceous version pictured alongside those very devices. Early assumptions were that this new 5-inch model would also belong to PocketBook, but those rumors have already been laid to rest. What we're left with is a few solid images, a Mentor label and a mind full of mystery. It's almost like reading a Danielle Steel novel, but only in the emotional sense.

[Via MobileRead, thanks Nate]

[ElCapitan Posted Mar 24th 2009 10:10AM]

Can anyone here read Cyrillics? I'm not so good with my Russian.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 24th 2009 10:22AM]

It's a folk story, starting something in the lines of "In the land far, far away..."

[holycow Posted Mar 24th 2009 11:07AM]

It starts with "In some empire, in some state lived a rich merchant, famous person. He had every type of richness...." and so on.. too lazy to translate it all..

[MrDiSante Posted Mar 24th 2009 12:11PM]

Either a) that's not Russian b) it's antiquated Russian, or c) the education system has gone down the drain since the collapse of the USSR - the first 2 sentences have 6 errors. Anyhow, it's a story about some merchant who was very rich and had three beautiful daughters whom he loved more than anything else in the world since he was a widower.

[javaduke Posted Mar 24th 2009 1:52PM]

This is actually a translation of Beauty and the Beast tale by Russian writer Aksakov.

[Pasha Posted Mar 24th 2009 7:10PM]

It's fairy tale in Ukrainian. If you click the image it will take you on page about presentation of this device in Kiev, Ukraine.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 24th 2009 10:28AM]

Does anyone care about these stupid devices? whether there Amazon or Mentor there still shit, i think i would rather a frkn pico projector then this trash.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 24th 2009 10:32AM]

@Dave Chappelle

Don't read much books do you? Oh wait, I see what you are saying, you would rather carry a backpack full of books, do you? Um, ok.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 24th 2009 10:48AM]

Yes, many people care about e-book readers. There are more free and legal books available on the Internet than one person could ever read. Add for-purchase books and illegally transcribed books and the choices are astounding. Many colleges now make their textbooks available as PDF files.

Many people don't like staring at a monitor to read, especially for pleasure. Many more don't want to print everything on paper. I love my Sony e-book Reader!

[csnoke Posted Mar 24th 2009 11:06AM]

I'd have purchased a Kindle by now if it weren't as expensive. I think ebooks are a great idea and beautiful to look at... but it still seems mighty bleeding edge. They seem to have the distribution system right, I'm just not willing to pay that much yet.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 24th 2009 10:59AM]

The source for the news is http://www.the-ebook.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10561. It is Russian ebook forum.
There are sellers of ebook in Kiev, Ukraine - they design and develop software and order hardware to be build in China. They are the guys behind LBook devices sold in Russian and Ukraine.
The device you see on photo - is the latest 5" screen prototype they are going to start producing. LBook developers presented new device for the eBook users community Kiev asking for suggestions until March 21st.
The device will be available after May. In June - it will be sold in Ukraine for the ~$250.

[BigD145 Posted Mar 24th 2009 2:04PM]

Too much money, there. I'd think about it for $150 or less. As is, I'd rather pick up an older used Sony.

[ryleyinstl Posted Mar 24th 2009 10:54AM]

Price is right, e-ink readability, size of a paperback, what is not to like here?

[Nate the great Posted Mar 24th 2009 11:13AM]

Everyone, please go over to MobileRead and read the first post. I got bad information from the source.

Nate the great

[Tohe Posted Mar 24th 2009 11:35AM]

I dig the design, it is minimalistic and seems functional (assuming that is a joystick and page turning buttons).

[Wwhat Posted Mar 24th 2009 12:02PM]

I'm of the opposite view, I think it's but-ugly and released to make the kindle look better and way more futuristic than we viewed it before.
There's no accounting for taste eh. Nor for big banks ;)

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 24th 2009 1:38PM]

e-books are great! I have had a Kindle for a year. Yes, it was expensive, but I mostly download free books that are in the public domain. I finally got through Moby Dick, and i read a lot of Latin/Roman writers (in translation), and Enlightenment period classics. I have over 250 books loaded up in my Kindle, now.

[vfx2k4 Posted Mar 24th 2009 12:05PM]

And count yet another nothing company that designs a better looking piece of gear than the Kindle.

[BaDZeD Posted Mar 24th 2009 1:03PM]

The errors in Russian in the book are probably due to poor OCR work (I am going to take a wild guess and assume that is NOT a book anyone purchased from an online store.

[Dinochicken Posted Mar 24th 2009 1:15PM]

Make it $100 or less and it would sell like hotcakes here in the USA, that's the magic pricepoint for widespread ebook adoption. Remember when DVD players hit their magic number and sales went wild?

That Crunchpad from the Techcrunch guys, aren't they shooting for $100?

[egress63 Posted Mar 24th 2009 1:18PM]

Now this looks much nicer. Sell it for less than a $100, and I am in! xD

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 24th 2009 1:28PM]

I don't find it particular attractive or unattractive, but it definitely looks functional, minimalistic, and well laid out which is what I am more concerned about.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 24th 2009 9:50PM]

Now that seems like a practical eReader to use. Nice and compact. Even if it doesn't have lots of bells and whistles. It would be nice if it could also do on-the-fly translations but I guess that's asking too much.