Astak made a wise decision and did not ship the Mentor Lite in its first version. The old unit was slow and did not have DRM and had no MP3. We liked the idea of one-touch buttons to the main menu and to Sudoku, and we liked the cursor-style of making selections. But, slow is not what we want the Mentor Line to be known for. SO, we simply very quietly pulled back on marketing it and went back to the factory to get it improved.
Well, the improvement is really apparent! The revised Mentor Lite Version 2 has MP3, has Adobe Digital Editions, and has the famous Epson controller! It now has 8 levels of grey scale where it used to have only four. It comes now in : black, white, and a Metallic Pink.
The case is also new. The new case looks and smells like leather and is cut-out for the screen and controls. In other words, it continues to protect the Mentor Lite front even while you are using it... a very nice design.
The first thing you notice is that the device is now far faster with its page turns. It is a major improvement. The DRM works very well on the device and of course you have ADE reflow. Pictures have a much better image in 8 levels of grey scale and now you can really enjoy them.
There were some major items we loved about the old "Mentor Lite Version 1" and we kept those! It has 8 levels of font increase! It still has the user-replaceable rechargeable battery. It still has an SD card slot to 4GB for easy memory enhancing. The Sudoku still works flawlessly and is a lot of fun on a long airplane flight or a guiet evening in the bedroom. While some may not like the small buttons on the left side... one-touch is a great way to navigate around your device without clicking a bunch of icons and the buttons on the right increase and decrease the music volume! I enjoy music while reading and you might also.
So... where does this leave the Mentor Lite 6 inch? Version 2 is stronger, faster, and just as light as ever. For those who want a good, honest, dependable, and speedy basic eBook Reader that has DRM and handles a dozen formats... the Mentor Lite is going to be pretty hard to beat! A lot of people had wished the Astak EZ Reader Basic had the Epson and had 8 level grey scale. I think this could be just what you are looking to find and it weighs less than 7 ounces.
You know, some of us thinks "has no DRM" is a feature. Not only will I never, ever buy any DRM-encumbered content, I'm also very hesitant on giving any money to people that will use that money to support and spread DRM.
ReplyDeleteDRM is not going away anytime soon and having Adobe DRM enables you to read Library Books, which is a plus in my opinion. Hopefully Astak will implement Ereader DRM in the future also.
ReplyDeleteI think the open format design provides you will options that other readers lack.
Of course DRM is going away, sooner rather than later, just as it did with music. The only question is whether the publishers and ebook reader makers will alienate consumers with DRM (not only with the added hassle, uncertainty and costs, but also publisher-centric newspeak such as "protected" and "secured" for things that are only *restricted* from the consumer's point of view) until the public have gotten used to pirating books for free, or if they learn from what happened to the music industry and ditch DRM while there is still a chance that the public might get used to paying for books even in e.
ReplyDeleteI'll certainly use my money to support efforts to make people get used to paying for ebooks, and DRM is, IMNSHO, working against that goal. (Another thing working against that goal is the greed and shortsightedness of publishers when they aren't cooperating on 1 open format (or 2 or at most 3), free for anybody to use for any purpose what so ever.)
Any estimated timing on availability?
ReplyDeleteI do not like DRMed ebooks at all. I do believe in paying for what I get; I also believe that the authors and publishers should get a fair shake. But I am like most of you I dislike all the greed that I see.
ReplyDeleteI read a lot due to serveral reasons, one I love to read, and two it is the nature of my career, and third I am hard of hearing and and I have a hard time enjoying movies and TV.
ok where is this version 2. why is it better than the other ereader at 6 inch?
ReplyDeletecan you please explain what the mentor lite is? I see that Astak sells Mentor 5 inch, Mentor 6 inch, and will come out with Mentor 9 inch on its website... I cannot find the mentor lite anywhere. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteWhere can we buy an Astak Mentor lite version 2 ?
ReplyDeleteI can't find them anywhere.