First impression: It looks nice. The screen is beautiful. The UI shell is attractive, and rendering of .pdf files very good, most can be easily read with the device in sideways mode and fit to width. After showing it around a couple of my coworkers are already of thinking of getting their own for reading service manuals in the field.
The documentation sucks, and it is not at all obvious at first glance that the square button between the LEFT and RIGHT keys is actually a mini touchpad that you actuate by sliding instead of pressing; if you don't get this, there are some important functions that appear inaccessible, and this seems to be the basis for many of the negative comments at the walmart page.
All in all worth it if one or two of the functions, such as reading .pdf's or watching multimedia or even reading generic e-books are useful to you. I might get another for backup since the device is an orphan. Somebody's terrible miscalculation is a nice bit of gain.
Also, the accelerometer function to go into landscape mode is a function of the e-reader application, not the OS, so it only works when reading e-books. When reading .pdf's you can manually zoom into a mode that will put it in landscape mode. It does not appear possible to operate the web browser in portrait mode.
The web browser seems to render pretty well, but is slow and seems to lock up on some pages (probably out of memory).
If only there was a way to dock it with an external keyboard...
Right on all counts. In eBook or PDF mode, hit one of the two bottom right buttons (I forget which, unit is at home) to get a menu and select PRONOUNCE for text to speech. It reads the content of the current page, which varies by the zoom level.
I really wasn't going to bite at this, but localroger is wearing me down. The advert indicates that the device comes with 150 e-books already loaded. What sort of titles are they? Anything of intrigue or value? Joseph Conrad? Tenny L. Davis? Tadeusz Urbanski?
It's mostly Project Gutenberg stuff which is old enough to be in the public domain. It is eclectic; I remember seeing Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" in there. Also forgot to mention that it is refreshingly simple to transfer files to compared to other e-readers and especially iStuff; you can use the SD card, or connect it to your computer with a USB cable whereupon it looks like a USB disk drive and you can copy files by dragging and dropping with no special PC software at all.
... or connect it to your computer with a USB cable whereupon it looks like a USB disk drive and you can copy files by dragging and dropping with no special PC software at all.
But from my experience that was painfully slow with large AVI files, perhaps even USB 1.0. It was much faster to swap the SD card into my computer's reader and transfer files that way.
Also, I recall that Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" was included in the free eBooks. I'm all about the fricasee and ragout.
I loaded the internal memory up with every Startrek novel ever written. (Naturally, these weren't found on Gutenberg.) -- Around 200+ megabytes.
One of my goals in purchasing an e-reader is to learn how to enjoy reading again. Twenty years of "scan reading" large amounts of information quickly to find an answer really ruins reading for enjoyment.
Has anyone else noticed that this thing will play your music, including shuffled, while you read an ebook? That is pretty darn uptown. It has good sound and adequate volume with real speaker headphones, and not a jitter or glitch as I navigate and read the free ebooks. (Browsing the web, though, kills the music app. Don't have a PDF on this SD card to try that.) I have yet to plug it into the charger and if the indicator isn't lying it looks like battery life will probably be in the 10 hour range.
I did some GOOGing and found this exact device being introduced at USD$150, which is a lot more reasonable; I doubt you could get the LCD as a part in a box from China for $30. I am seriously considering ordering another so as to have a spare.
My stuffmart e-reader arrived today. I'm delighted with it! It is easily worth several times the purchase price. Good thing too...because my wife's hazel eyes turned a curious shade of green when the unit arrived. She may suffocate me in my sleep if I don't order her one.
BTW, I'm very happy with the books that came loaded. I'm already 20 pages into a Dickens work that I haven't read since 8th Grade.
The font selection and automatic orientation are great. Resolution and screen quality are excellent. User interface is easy and intuitive. Only one complaint: Why didn't they use a mini-SD socket?
User My mom saw mine I just got in less then 10 min ago .. she wants one too .. ... I kinda like the way it does the touch .. its not as horrid as say 4 buttons like a 80s gameboy . and its NOT touch so I can add a nice 1/8th inch Polycarb sheet over it and really ruggedize it for lab use .. Il make a 8 MM neoprene sleeve for it ..
See I would sell my left kidney years ago to have the entire NTE pinout databank at my fingertips .. I cant tell yoiu how much time I have waistd to get a bloddy pinout !
. its amazing what 30 dolla can get ya .. and the one that is X10 more is to me no more usefull.. and I really like the screen size ! Ipad is HUGE and a I pod touch is no more bigger then my Old palm phone I have used till now for PDF pinouts ect ..
I needed a FAST BOOT dedicated datasheet reader ! .. and man it does that well I mean heck 1.2 GB of user space is gonna hold a TON of pinouts ! . now if only it had the NTE X ref software on it ..
( NTE is really screwing up by not releasing a non PC desktop versions of there SW .. I mean my Newton could handle the SW if it would "run"
as for the box it came in ..
I could fit a body in that box ! Its like shipping a text book in a Shipping container ..
Meh not my loss .
PS I am a tad worried how dinky that power jack is .. I pray it can charge on USB ..
Lucky If no it 5V any ways and Il just hack that easy fix ...
the Plug is ok but i have wayyy to much experince with SMT small bore DC ports .. its not gonna last !
( same distain for micro USB as if Mini was not small enough ?)
Sorry * puts on grandpa voice * Kids back in my days we had thumbscrews !
ans Yes it was my Birth day today .. .. Old man 26 .. hehe..
Further reflections: The accelerometer feature for orienting text in reader mode is fantastic. Transferring files via USB seemed very convenient and quick, but I have yet to transfer an entire movie. The speech synthesis is uncommonly good - bordering on outstanding. Navigating through a large document may be its weakest link. All I've been able to do is 1) scroll one page at a time, 2) punch in a page number, or 3) use the bookmark feature. There is no way I've found, for example, to select a hypertext link or jump forward by ten pages instead of one.
@Peter: I kinda like the way they did the 'touch' too. It seems like the right way to implement touch on inexpensive tablets.
@erco: I've invested your twins $2 in a local stock. Huge dividends are guaranteed. They'll be worth millions by the time they go to college!
I would argue keep it full sized .. nothing is lost by a full slot .. ya can allwas get a reducer .
I did a BOLD thing and in True peter fashion I looked under the bonnet .
I am pretty sure that VUSB thing is the interface for the mini-touchpad. What we're looking for is the serial port, most likely 3v3 levels; even the mostly useless Android tablet had one.
The WikiReader has one and I broke mine out, whereupon it turns out you can hook up with a PropPlug and program it in Forth.
It is known that the Itomic runs Linux, if someone manages to root it I swear I will buy four of them.
Ooh! The infamous Ingenix processor that powered most of the $100 netbooks. I looked into this chip some time ago, but could not find any proper documentation. There are a few interesting tidbits in the limited documentation regarding the boot procedure:
3.4.3
BOOT
JZ4755 supports 3 different boot sources depending on BOOT_SEL1, PE25 and ADIN1 pins values.
Table 3-14 lists them:
BOOT_SEL1 ..... Other Condition (PE25’s internal pull up is disabled)......Boot From
1....................... PE25 is low or ADIN1 channel > 381........................... NAND flash
1........................PE25 is high and ADIN1 channel <= 381..................... USB2.0 device @EXCLK=24MHz
0........................PE25 is low or ADIN1 channel > 381........................... SD card: MSC0
0 .......................PE25 is high and ADIN1 channel <= 381 .....................USB2.0 device @EXCLK=24MHz
There is definitely a Linux kernel for this chip, but details are limited. I'm quite surprised it runs as good as you guys say, because everything I read regarding all other products using this chip have been quite the opposite. It may have something to do with MIPS getting more involved, as I suspect Ingenix was using their IP illegally (and probably poorly) until just recently announcing a partnership. At any rate, I'm still shocked anyone could make a device like this so cheap!
Worth every penny, too. Still, I wonder if any more will be coming from Walmart. Seems odd they'd have a one-shot deal like that. Seems odd they'd sell them for so insanely little.
Anyway, I can't say enough good about mine. I love it. I've got enough great books loaded on it to keep me busy for years. Most recently I finished the Foundation series. Before that, Winds of War and Anna Karenina.
Comments
First impression: It looks nice. The screen is beautiful. The UI shell is attractive, and rendering of .pdf files very good, most can be easily read with the device in sideways mode and fit to width. After showing it around a couple of my coworkers are already of thinking of getting their own for reading service manuals in the field.
The documentation sucks, and it is not at all obvious at first glance that the square button between the LEFT and RIGHT keys is actually a mini touchpad that you actuate by sliding instead of pressing; if you don't get this, there are some important functions that appear inaccessible, and this seems to be the basis for many of the negative comments at the walmart page.
All in all worth it if one or two of the functions, such as reading .pdf's or watching multimedia or even reading generic e-books are useful to you. I might get another for backup since the device is an orphan. Somebody's terrible miscalculation is a nice bit of gain.
Also, the accelerometer function to go into landscape mode is a function of the e-reader application, not the OS, so it only works when reading e-books. When reading .pdf's you can manually zoom into a mode that will put it in landscape mode. It does not appear possible to operate the web browser in portrait mode.
The web browser seems to render pretty well, but is slow and seems to lock up on some pages (probably out of memory).
If only there was a way to dock it with an external keyboard...
Right on all counts. In eBook or PDF mode, hit one of the two bottom right buttons (I forget which, unit is at home) to get a menu and select PRONOUNCE for text to speech. It reads the content of the current page, which varies by the zoom level.
Don't expect any new releases.
But from my experience that was painfully slow with large AVI files, perhaps even USB 1.0. It was much faster to swap the SD card into my computer's reader and transfer files that way.
Also, I recall that Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" was included in the free eBooks. I'm all about the fricasee and ragout.
One of my goals in purchasing an e-reader is to learn how to enjoy reading again. Twenty years of "scan reading" large amounts of information quickly to find an answer really ruins reading for enjoyment.
OBC
I did some GOOGing and found this exact device being introduced at USD$150, which is a lot more reasonable; I doubt you could get the LCD as a part in a box from China for $30. I am seriously considering ordering another so as to have a spare.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sharper-Image-Literati-Wireless-Reader-1636377-/271004511518/?_trksid=p1468660.m1883
BTW, I'm very happy with the books that came loaded. I'm already 20 pages into a Dickens work that I haven't read since 8th Grade.
The font selection and automatic orientation are great. Resolution and screen quality are excellent. User interface is easy and intuitive. Only one complaint: Why didn't they use a mini-SD socket?
See I would sell my left kidney years ago to have the entire NTE pinout databank at my fingertips .. I cant tell yoiu how much time I have waistd to get a bloddy pinout !
. its amazing what 30 dolla can get ya .. and the one that is X10 more is to me no more usefull.. and I really like the screen size ! Ipad is HUGE and a I pod touch is no more bigger then my Old palm phone I have used till now for PDF pinouts ect ..
I needed a FAST BOOT dedicated datasheet reader ! .. and man it does that well I mean heck 1.2 GB of user space is gonna hold a TON of pinouts ! . now if only it had the NTE X ref software on it ..
( NTE is really screwing up by not releasing a non PC desktop versions of there SW .. I mean my Newton could handle the SW if it would "run"
as for the box it came in ..
I could fit a body in that box ! Its like shipping a text book in a Shipping container ..
Meh not my loss .
PS I am a tad worried how dinky that power jack is .. I pray it can charge on USB ..
Lucky If no it 5V any ways and Il just hack that easy fix ...
the Plug is ok but i have wayyy to much experince with SMT small bore DC ports .. its not gonna last !
( same distain for micro USB as if Mini was not small enough ?)
Sorry * puts on grandpa voice * Kids back in my days we had thumbscrews !
ans Yes it was my Birth day today .. .. Old man 26 .. hehe..
Watching Disney videos is "King" in our house, and I ain't "Lion".
@Peter: I kinda like the way they did the 'touch' too. It seems like the right way to implement touch on inexpensive tablets.
@erco: I've invested your twins $2 in a local stock. Huge dividends are guaranteed. They'll be worth millions by the time they go to college!
I would argue keep it full sized .. nothing is lost by a full slot .. ya can allwas get a reducer .
I did a BOLD thing and in True peter fashion I looked under the bonnet .
Attachment not found.
Attachment not found.
Attachment not found.
Beat me to it. Just got the second one. Any chance of any potential connection points on the back?
OBC
Attachment not found.
odd i never added this one above ... ..
Enjoy!
Jeff I did see this section on the board for a VUSB thingy .
I would tinker more but I need this thing intact ,,,
The WikiReader has one and I broke mine out, whereupon it turns out you can hook up with a PropPlug and program it in Forth.
It is known that the Itomic runs Linux, if someone manages to root it I swear I will buy four of them.
3.4.3
BOOT
JZ4755 supports 3 different boot sources depending on BOOT_SEL1, PE25 and ADIN1 pins values.
Table 3-14 lists them:
BOOT_SEL1 ..... Other Condition (PE25’s internal pull up is disabled)......Boot From
1....................... PE25 is low or ADIN1 channel > 381........................... NAND flash
1........................PE25 is high and ADIN1 channel <= 381..................... USB2.0 device @EXCLK=24MHz
0........................PE25 is low or ADIN1 channel > 381........................... SD card: MSC0
0 .......................PE25 is high and ADIN1 channel <= 381 .....................USB2.0 device @EXCLK=24MHz
There is definitely a Linux kernel for this chip, but details are limited. I'm quite surprised it runs as good as you guys say, because everything I read regarding all other products using this chip have been quite the opposite. It may have something to do with MIPS getting more involved, as I suspect Ingenix was using their IP illegally (and probably poorly) until just recently announcing a partnership. At any rate, I'm still shocked anyone could make a device like this so cheap!
no you wont ill buy them all * has a evil laugh *
One VERY odd note.. it wont do JPGs ....... REALLY serious ! can do MP4 Vid and no JPGs .. lameeee.
Peter
Even uses the accelerometer to rotate the pics.
But I haven't found a slideshow feature yet.
There goes my cash flow...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/iTomic-IEBR7C-7-eBook-Reader-/280878499496?pt=US_Tablets&hash=item4165a9c6a8
also:
$58 7" resistive touchscreen Android tablet w/ camera:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-7-Touch-Screen-MID-Android-2-3-Tablet-PC-1GHz-4GB-WIFI-Flash-10-1-Camera-/120948707336?pt=US_Tablets&hash=item1c291ad008
Worth every penny, too. Still, I wonder if any more will be coming from Walmart. Seems odd they'd have a one-shot deal like that. Seems odd they'd sell them for so insanely little.
Anyway, I can't say enough good about mine. I love it. I've got enough great books loaded on it to keep me busy for years. Most recently I finished the Foundation series. Before that, Winds of War and Anna Karenina.