Looks like everyone wants a slice of that steaming-hot
e-reader action these days. Right in front of us here is the Tianji -- or in our language, Phecda, a distant star -- iBook EB-605, which is purported to be launched by
Lenovo at some point this year (and we
first heard about such plan back in December). Features include a 6-inch electronic ink display, Samsung ARM 400MHz processor, newspaper subscription, music player, picture browser and support for a variety of digital book formats including EPUB (
hooray!) and MOBI.
ZOL also spotted the SIM card-like icon at the top, which might suggest a thing or two about its wireless capabilities, and estimates a price tag of under ¥2,000 ($293). No word on international release yet, but hey, the more the merrier either way!
Update: eagle-eyed reader charlied spotted this e-reader in
its no-frills form from Oaxis. The good news is that WiFi and SD card slot are featured as well, but no mention of a SIM card slot so
ZOL's probably wrong about that icon. Shame.
posted January 23rd 2010 12:24PM
It is not a SIM symbol, it is an SD-Card.
@ASKY Looks a bit narrow for an SD card, IMHO.
@Richard Lai
Are you saying the battery icon looks exactly like the actual battery used?
@ASKY
It looks like a SIM card. Its too narrow to be SD, and you can see contacts in the centre of the card.. like a SIM card.
@ASKY
Yea that's gotta be a SD card icon, like all other chinese made non-kindle eReaders.
I'm rather glad I didn't buy a Kindle when I had the chance.
EReaders are the future, and I'm looking forward to more e-ink models.
@CJ
It's actually kinda sad...
Sony seem to be the only company (Apart from DRM bound Amazon) that'll made an ebook reader that doesn't look like it'll fall apart in 5 minutes.
And their seriously ripping the ass out of it cost wise.
@geekthree And the Nook....
Is it just me or will this be something where Apple might calle'm up regarding the name ?
@Eastman With out a doubt. The moment one of these are sold in the U.S. Lenovo will be served. I almost forgot about the iBook. Thanks for the trip down memory lane Lenovo.
Wait, why do people need these hunks of B&W crap?
a) the people who can afford these already have the fancy smancy phones that tell them more than they need to know
b) the people who can afford these already have a computer that gives them access to more rich content than they can ever watch
c) this whole "wave of the future" is so new and so uncharted that to buy one of these mediocre devices would be extremely stupid. But I understand that a lot of geeks just have to have it all. The fact that Lenovo is in this is a testament to that. Their marketing teams know you don't need one but they'll tell you that you do and when next January comes around the iBook EB-605 will be replaced by something that is oh so much better.
Personally I like books folks. Call me old fashioned (I'm 19) but I like to bend them, write in them, lend them, and fold the pages in them. I've had to tape up the bindings of Salem's Lot, Skeleton Crew, and The Stand because of all the times I've read them and that makes me love them even more. Sure I can't carry 10,000 at once but since when can anybody read that fast.
@elijahhughes101
I for one would like the convinience of having all of my books in one place as opposed to having a few. But I do understand that the need for these are useless due to smartphones and laptops being able to do this and more. But there are also other who would just like a book reader.
If you've spent long hours reading a backlit LCD, you truly will appreciate the black and white E-ink.
I don't know about in the US, but here, a new-release novel may cost anywhere between 25 and 50 dollars. Having to use a nearly-paper electronic reader seems a fair tradoff for paying a tenth of the cost of a book in the Amazon store.
waiting for a *new* product.
Woot, iBooks are back! Thank you, Steve!
@onlymyrailgun
I miss my ibook.. so many fond memories..
I smell another lawsuit.
Another "me too" ebook reader. Hopefully, in the distant future, this silly copycat game will end, or at least move to a tolerable quality level. It's just pathetic right now...banks should give these things out as promotional gifts when you set up a checking account.
@BubbaJ Remember: such boost in volume would help lower the production cost of the panels.
@Richard Lai I'd rather that not happen, as it would make market entry more difficult for superior e-papers. I really have no interest in supporting EPD displays until they are good enough to display quality text (they're not yet), and are fast enough to support reading (they're not yet).
@BubbaJ Less support = slower development ;)
@BubbaJ
I wonder where Microsoft would be if the copy cat war was a fair fight ?
haha - around 04 I got to see the Apple Tablet patent during a little Mac Genius pow wow - back when the iPhone was a rumor - we were all mesmerized by the little drawing of a man holding a touch screen - cool stuff - I'm ready for my apple tablet !! - interactive magazine's books - video games video chat - im going to have to build a little holder next to my toilet.
It's unbelievable how many new e-book readers are emerging. The Lenova has a good look with the curved corners.
I think they are going to run into some trouble with that name.
One more new e-book reader and my head is gonna explode!
2010 - The year of tablet/slate touchscreen thingys and flying cars?
Lenovo is calling it the iBook ... seriously?
Gosh, I've never heard of that name before ...
http://www.apple.com/support/ibook/
... what could possibly go wrong.
A cloned KIRF e-reader for nearly $300 USD, WTF. I thought the Chinese were able to produce kirfy intellectual property rights stealing things like this for less significantly less $ since they have access to nearly regulation free manufacturing, ultra cheap labor, and dirty cheap coal power. And where is the $99 e-reader ? If the publishers had any sense at all they would subsidize the snot out of these things and then make a boon dongle worth of green on the content sales; think inkjet printer ink cartridges.....
@cosmicinglewood oops, my bad, I just realized this was a Lenovo dingle. I guess all of that symbol writing on the e-ink made me think of Kirf land... oh and I also agree with others that the name I-Book is just enough to get Apple's legal team up in a fritz over the copyright sauce.
name fail?
@comfypants
How so? 'Tjan jee' isn't so bad
@Wwhat
The name "iBook" is also used by a discontinued line of Apple laptops.
Although, the fact that they're discontinued may very well mean Lenovo doesn't get sued.
@meepmeep
It's china though not the US.
The whole point to the book readers are to read. Yes, phones can do and so can other things but its NOT the same. I love reading but HATE using my phone for it or computers. These things are a Godsend and I hope more keep getting cranked out. Not with MP3 players or browsers or any other crap but with faster page turns and better contrast.
My Sony Reader lasts 2 weeks without a recharge. They should keep that way.
@shinrasboy
Well yeah but it might be handy to be able to do some text messaging or send an edited document out once in a while, like twice a week or so? There's no need to overutilize a function, you could switch on the phone part on such rare occasions.
Although using it that way would require support for a pre-paid SIM instead of all those multi-years high data use plans.
And seeing you can buy $25 'throw away' phones with battery and screen and what not I'm guessing the actual phone transceiver part is pretty cheap for manufacturers.
But my description is probably imaginary and such subtlety is not appreciated by users or manufacturers.
I hope the editor realizes that ¥2,000 is really much closer to $20...
@kirbyatemytoothbrush They're referring to Chinese Renminbi Yuan, which is essentially same symbol as that for the Japanese Yen.
@BubbaJ oh sorry, my bad. they should just write out yuan for future reference...
@kirbyatemytoothbrush
You can call it the RMB for shorthand. (Eg. 5,000 RMB)
Yuan is written in Chinese, but looks awkward written phonetically (Hanyu Pinyin)
Mike
Shanghai
Big deal. It doesn't read PDFs. So, I'd rank this as a poor substitute to those e-readers that can read PDFs.
@blinky
Well true but from what I understand the pdf support in most all readers is abominable in that it doesn't support zoom at all (why the hell not though?)
So many eBook readers, so little interest.
Wow, this is cool!
Too bad all these things are gonna look awkward when Apple releases a color version.
But still ... wow. I would love to get this.
Wait... iBook? *facepalm
By the way, remember when Cisco wanted to release something called the iPhone and 'share' the name with Apple.
hahah, that was fun
Tianji means you got the God message.
@fansept Mess up the intonation and you have an edible frog. :D
Tian Ji was the minister and co-commander of Qi
Look for sun bin for reference
Engadget this is a re-branded Oaxis ereader produced by Gajah international. You guys were at CES too so you must have seen it?
http://myoaxis.com/
It's actually quite nice
@charlied Nice find! There's a chance this company will act as Lenovo's OEM for this e-reader.