jetbook color

The market for large-screen ereaders may have been supplanted by tablets but that hasn’t discouraged Hanvon. This Chinese ereader maker launched a new 9.7″ model this summer which combines a frontlight, stylus, and Android.

Details are still sketchy (several sites are offering contradictory specs and prices), but what we do know is that the E930 runs Android on a 1GHZ CPU with 4GB internal storage and a micro SD card slot.

The 9.7″ E-ink display has a screen resolution of 1,200 x 825. It does have a frontlight, and one retail site also mentions that the touchscreen is fingertip friendly. That is a stylus you see in the slot on the left, but it’s optional.

It’s not clear whether users can install Android apps, but I do know that the E930 supports TTS and has a rear-facing speaker. The E930 also supports a wide variety of file formats: MP3, wav, and arm for audio, and Heb, Epub, PDF, FB2, Mobi, doc, html, chm, and txt for ebooks.

At this point there is literally almost no English language coverage of the E930; I can’t find anything aside from a mention at MobileRead Forums. But many Chinese retail sites do list the E930, including Amazon. They’re showing that the E930 costs 2675 yuan, or about $435.

It’s been on the market in China since August and garnered mixed reviews from users. Many complain about the slowness and disappointing screen resolution. There is also criticism of the frontpanel, which several users described as shiny.

The hands on video I found would seem to confirm that detail.

Hanvon was at one time (2009 – 2011) a leading OEM of ereaders, but I have not seen much from them in a couple years now. They last crossed my desk in 2012 when they announced that the C920, a 9.7″ ereader with a color E-ink screen, would be licensed to Ectaco and sold in Europe, Russia, and the US as the Jetbook Color.

Thanks, M Singh!

Here’s an interesting historical footnote.

Ectaco customer service recently revealed to one Jetbook Color owner that the device was no longer supported, and that the project had been discontinued.

Announced in the summer of 2011 and launched in 2012, the Jetbook Color was the first ebook reader to feature a color E-ink screen. The device came with a 9.7″ screen and cost $500, and was targeted primarily at the educational market.

Given that this was a two year old ereader, it is not unexpected that it is no longer supported. But this still disappointed one Jetbook Color owner, who had recently asked Ectaco about the possibility of a firmware update. He posted their response over at MobileRead:

Thank you for your email. No, there is no any chance. The project is
discontinued.

The original Jetbook Color was a disappointment when it shipped, and even the two updates from Ectaco improved it slightly. My unit had a gray screen and was never very fast at turning the page.

What’s more, it was never able to match the colors or features shown in Ectaco’s promo images:

The high price and limited features probably encouraged many to instead invest in an iPad, but in spite of the cool market reception Ectaco pushed ahead, and released an updated model in early 2013. The $500 Jetbook Color 2 had a newer (but still gray) Triton 2 color E-ink screen and otherwise identical hardware, so it is not unreasonable to think that Ectaco could have supported both models.

According to their website, Ectaco is still selling the Jetbook Color 2. It’s not clear whether the later model is still being updated, but I doubt there are enough sales to justify it. This thing costs more than an iPad and does considerably less, and that simple fact will discourage many potential buyers.

When Ectaco announced last Fall that they were releasing a new Jetbook Color 2 ereader this Spring, I was excited to read that it would have a new and improved screen, the Triton 2.

Sadly, my Jetbook Color 2 arrived yesterday and the new screen for the most part is not visibly different from the screen on the original Jetbook Color.

Sure, the blacks are darker, and the colors are a little brighter, but unfortunately E-ink’s second-gen color E-ink screen has the same gray base color as the previous screen. It is a gray that is so dark that the original Kindle actually has a whiter screen.

To put it simply, E-ink has once again made a color screen that can show you any color except white. I find that incredibly disappointing.

Here is the old and new Jetbook Color side by side. Guess which is the new screen:

Just to be clear, one of the ereaders above is indeed the Jetbook Color and the other is the Jetbook Color 2.

But if I didn’t tell you that the new screen was on the left, would you have been able to tell? I couldn’t, and I had to confirm by email that I had a Jetbook Color 2.

Take a good look, folks, because the above photo explains why no major ereader maker, not Amazon, B&N, Kobo, or anyone else, bought E-ink’s screen and released a color ereader. It’s a pretty simple explanation: the screen is too gray.

In spite of all the hype, and in spite of however we might wish it weren’t the case, E-ink simply cannot yet make a color screen that doesn’t look gray. This company has now released 2 different screens and sold them to device makers, and both screens are an unacceptable gray.

It’s my belief that the problem is the color filter that is on top the E-ink screen. I think it turns an otherwise white screen into a gray screen.

The image at right shows a basic diagram of the filter and the underlying E-ink screen. The red, green, blue, and white squares represents the filter, and the bubbles beneath the squares represent the E-ink screen.

The E-ink screen that is under the color filter is the same basic screen as on pretty much any ereader (except the newer HD screens). It works exactly the same as the E-ink screen on any other ereader, only thanks to the color filter you see RGBW instead of black and white.

Only it cannot show you white.

As I understand it, the problem is that when the screen tries to show the color white, it still has to work through red, green, and blue filters. The reason you cannot see the white color is that your eye mixes the tiny, tiny RGB filters into a single color:

Gray.

Let this post stand as my formal notice that I am giving up on color E-ink. Unless someone comes up with an amazing breakthrough, I don’t see how an E-ink screen will ever come close to replicating the quality of color we expect  to see on a screen, much less paper.

When Amazon killed off the Kindle DX earlier this year I took it as a sign that large screen ereaders were on the way out. I didn’t think they were worth the expense when compared to Android tablets or the iPad.

It seems that Ectaco never got that memo. They’ve just unveiled the Jetbook 2 ereader in Russia, and they plan to have it on the market by March 2013 (I don’t have news yet on plans for other markets).

The Jetbook 2 looks to have an updated screen but otherwise is identical to the current model. It has the same general design, ports, card slot, and CPU as the current model, and from what I can tell unfortunately it even has the same Wacom touchscreen (more on that later).

The one major change with this new model is reportedly the Triton 2 screen. I’m still waiting to hear back from E-ink for more technical details on the screen, but according to the Russian language ebook blog who scooped me on the story this screen has better contrast and is noticeably less gray than the screen on the current Jetbook model.

You’re supposed to be able to see the differences in this photo, but I’m not sure whether the bezel might be influencing our perceptions.

For example, look at the black segments next to the black bezel and white bezel. Do you notice how the segment seems darker when set next to the white bezel that when it is next to the black bezel? That is a result of your eye tricking you into thinking perceiving the black as being darker.

 

The new screen is still 9.7″ in size, and the resolution remains unchanged, but just making the screen less gray is a great improvement. My Jetbook Color had a screen so gray in color that it was darker than any of my other ereaders, including the original Kindle. It was so gray, in fact, that I took to calling it Dorian (it didn’t have 50 shades so I could not call it Christian).

With luck this new ereader will be on display at CES 2013 next month. And with even more luck (bad, this time) some unfortunate students will be stuck with using it in the classroom instead of some more capable device like the iPad, laptops, or Android tablets.

source

 

The Jetbook Color, Ectaco’s 9.7″ color E-ink ereader, will never be my favorite device. The screen is disappointingly gray, the JBC is expensive, and it is both slower and less capable than the similarly priced iPad. But today I was reminded in particular why i don’t like this ereader: Ectaco shipped it with a far from complete firmware.

Actually, that’s not so bad; the real issue is the update process. I know it’s common now for everyone to ship an incomplete device with the goal of pushing out a firmware update, but Ectaco takes the cake.

Ectaco doesn’t send out little updates that replace a file here and there; no, the updates come out as a single BIN file that contains all the apps running on the Jetbook Color.

I’m not talking about a file that is 100MB or 200MB; the latest update is 1.5 GB, and no that is not a typo.

Apparently Ectaco’s development process doesn’t allow for partial updates, so instead they have to send out a complete set of files each time they offer an update. And since I don’t have the fastest internet connection at home, it can take me an hour or more to download.

Now I remember why I left the JBC in the closet for the past several months rather than write about the changes; it’s not worth the aggravation. It’s almost like I’m being punished for being an early adopter. Not only do I get stuck with a marginally functional device; I also have to waste my time doing the job of Ectaco’s techs each time I install the update.

And to add insult to injury, Ectaco has been rolling out monthly updates ever since the JBC launched. Not all were the size of the current update, but I recall that at least one other early update was over a GB in size.

If anything, I suppose I’ve been spoiled by Android tablets and the iPad. With the former, I never expected to get an update so I am grateful for whatever I can get. And with the latter, Apple has always made sure to send out a polished device and keep updates to a minimum.

Then again, I don’t see why i shouldn’t be bothered by an incomplete device; it’s not like I’m buying it on the installment plan, or even paying for optional upgrades. I’m paying for a finished product, and I really would expect it to be finished before it comes out of the factory.

Or am I wrong?

Ectaco rolled out another in their series of monthly updates on Monday (download it here). While the update does add a few minor improvements, the Jetbook Color is still not worth buying.

It’s been just over a month and a half since I last covered the Jetbook Color, which means I missed an update. It was still on loan at the time, and I just got it back a few days ago.

So, the update adds a faster page turns, several new workbook templates, and optional delayed refresh on page turns (3rd or 5th turns). Text to speech is finally working, and it sounds nice. Of course, this is one of Ectaco’s expertise, so I’m not surprised. The Jetbook Color is also supposed to gain speech recognition in this update, but I don’t see a way to enable it. And just to confirm, the page turns are faster, this is true. But they’re still slower than on the Kindle DX.

Those are some nice features, but they don’t amount much when you consider what this device cannot do. For a quick summary you can look at the front of the box. This device cannot do anything pictured there, not the highlighting, attached notes, underlining – nothing. Oh, and the screen image is a lie. The actual screen is far grayer than pictured.

Wifi was enabled a couple months back, but it doesn’t like my network. Also, Ectaco still hasn’t enabled the web browser so even if the Wifi worked I still wouldn’t be able to do anything with it.  There’s still no sleep mode, so I consider myself lucky that Ectaco boasts about the battery life.

All in all, the Jetbook Color is not worth getting on 3 May 2012. This may change as more updates are released, but my opinion right now is that the iPad is the better buy.

My Jetbook Color arrived just over 2 weeks ago, and I was hoping to have the review of the my new favorite toy posted by now. Unfortunately, it is missing so many features that I don’t think I can review it fairly.

The Jetbook Color got a lot of attention at CES a few weeks ago, and well it should. This is the first ereader to hit the market (in Russia) that is using the 9.7″ Triton E-ink screen. I’ve been lusting after it ever since I saw it for the first time at CES, where Hanvon (they originally developed the hardware) had it on display.

The idea of having  color E-ink screen has tempted me, but the unit sitting on my desk just doesn’t live up to my expectations.

First and foremost, this is not a review. I do not plan to post a review until there is actually something positive to say about it. This post is intended to give teachers and schools a better idea of the JBC’s current state.

The JBC is missing so many of the features promised on the product pages that you would be better to define it by what it can do. It can display EPub. The touchscreen works. And a lot of the educational add-ons are present (calculators, translation, reference guides, and  lot more).

• For a complete list of current features, click here.
• If you want a better idea of what it is supposed to do, click here.

But as an ereader, it is woefully incomplete. The Wifi and browser are coming in the second update, along with USB host. Handwriting recognition and annotations will be coming in both the first and second updates. TTS is also due to show up in the first update.

It’s missing so many features that at this point you would be clearly better off with the iPad. Even if you had to shell out for educational add-ons it would still be a better buy.

But I will note that the JBC has weeks and weeks of battery life. I know this because there is no sleep mode. I’ve had to leave it running for all this time (unless I want to turn it off).  This being 2012, can you believe that someone shipped an ereader without the ability to put it to sleep?

But that’s just the software. Guess what I think of the hardware?

First, the screen is gray. It’s so gray that I plan to call this ereader Dorian.

It’s not the pale gray that you might see on the Nook, Kindle, or other ereader. No, the JC screen is so gray that I think it is darker than the screen on the original Kindle.  It is certainly darker than the screen on my Kindle DX. BTW, a small part of the problem is the white bezel. Ectaco really should have gone with  black shell; that would have made the screen seem at least a little lighter than it is.

Next, the screen refresh rate is slow. It’s not just slower than any of my 6″ ereaders; it’s also slower than my Kindle DX (the 2010 model). The KDX can refresh the screen at nearly twice the speed of the Jetbook Color. I have no word on when this will improve, but I hope it will be addressed in an update.

Finally, yes, the JBC does have a color E-ink screen. Unfortunately, the dominant color is gray. No other color is nearly as strong.

—

Given its incomplete state, if you need a textbook platform right now (February 2012) I think you should get an iPad instead. Of course, that might change in the next few months,  but today the iPad is the better deal. (Android is also good, but at this point you can get more work done with the iPad.)

So I’m back home from NYC, and that was an eventful trip. I met with  bunchaton of people, sat in a few interesting sessions, and coughed  lot (the only times when I don’t get sick on trips is when I bring it with me from home).

The petting zoo was on the last day, and it was a mixed success. I didn’t get the press attention I was hoping for, but the conference  attendees loved it. A lot of people came by and played with the tablets and ereaders on display.

Ectaco showed up to demo the new Jetbook Color (my review is coming). Qualcomm sent someone to show off the Kyobo Mirasol eReader. The jerks at Inkling also sent someone to show off their iPad app. I was almost tempted to boot him from the event; if Inkling doesn’t want to include me in their media events then I don’t want them in mine. But I didn’t because I figured people would be interested in the app.

From my viewpoint, there wasn’t that much of interest. I own one of almost everything on display, so if I wanted to play with one I could just go get it out of the box.

Still, it was neat to see people interested in the Skytex and E-Fun tablets. There was also a lot of interest in the lesser known devices like the Samsung E6 and Onyx Boox ereaders. And the antiques drew a lot of attention. People kept picking up these 8 and 9 year old devices while marveling that they still worked and offered features nearly as good as the current top of the line ereaders.

And then there’s this beauty at left.  That is one of Nick Chen’s multi-screen cooperative wireless ereaders. They’ve been blogged about extensively, but I had always wanted to see them in person. I got to play with them for a while, and that really made my day.

These were research units, not production models, so they were rather flimsy and kludged together from other devices. They’re based on 9.7″ E-ink screens, but the Wacom touch screen component was salvaged from some Toshiba laptops.

The controls on the ereaders look complex, but the functions were kept simple for the exhibit (so as not to confuse people).  It was fun to see Nick use one screen to select a document and have it open on the ereader I was using. We could also share single pages and annotations. Recently, Nick has also enabled the ereaders to backup the annotations to Dropbox, thus giving everyone a new way to collaborate.

All in all, that was a good event, and I am looking forward to the next one. Details are still up in the air, but I plan to partner with someone and hold the next Zoo at the same time as Book Expo America (early June). Assuming that one goes well, I’m also considering having a digital comics oriented digital petting zoo at the NY Comicon.

Well, it looks like Ectaco wasn’t able to make the promised ship date for their new 9.7″ ereader – not by  long shot. My order, which was supposed to ship last Sunday, is still trapped in limbo.

The Jetbook Color is the first ereader to use new color Triton E-ink screen. This screen first showed up at CES 2010, and ever since then I have been dying to get my hands on one.

Now, the Jetbook Color debuted in May at BEA 2011, but it is actually based on the demo model that Hanvon showed off at CES 2011. Ectaco originally planned to ship it last fall. That ship date slipped to December, and then it slipped again to January. It was supposed to ship last week. It hasn’t.

Yes, I am  little perturbed at this point. I have asked Ectaco and I cannot get  simple answer on when they will ship my ereader. And I know that they already have my money; I was charged over a week ago.

I’ve really been looking forward to this device. Ectaco has been teasing me with promises of wonderful features, but to be honest I’ve been wanting to spend some quality time with the screen. To heck with the software; I want to see what the screen is really like. I was also planning to reshoot all the side by side shots that I took at CES. They’re okay, but I can do better.

Grrr.

There’s been a lot of clamoring this week among my readers, and today their curiosity will be satisfied.

I’m sure you know that I have a Kyobo eReader, the first device to ship with a Mirasol screen. Since I was the only person at CES who owned one, I got a number of requests to compare this color epaper screen with color E-ink. So on Wednesday I went back to the Ectaco booth and took a bunch of photos and shot a couple videos.

Ectaco had a couple Jetbook Colors on display. These are academic ereaders based on the 9." color Triton E-ink display, and they recently shipped in Russia. They’re production models, not engineering samples, so I got the chance actual products – not devices still under development.

I hope you can see the different in the photos, because I won’t have a chance to take more. My Kyobo eReader is deadish, and attempts to revive it have failed. I had planned to look at the photos and shoot a second set if these didn’t work. But I cannot, sorry.

Update:  It’s Not Dead! Yay! But I cannot take anymore photos because CES is long past (dammit). Don’t worry, I’m planning to update this post when I get my Jetbook Color review unit. If I have to I’ll take both devices to a pro photographer.

I think you can get something from the video, which is embedded at the end of the post. I shot it in 720p, and if you watch it in full res then you should be able to see how the colors on the E-ink screen don’t shift.

The cover visible on the Kyobo eReader is from the book ButcherBird. I thought it offered a reasonably rich example that would show the changes quickly.

As for me, I could clearly see a difference when I had both screens in front of me.The Mirasol screen had better color quality – but only in the narrow 20% viewing angle. In that small region, Mirasol showed colors that were both stronger and sharper, while the E-ink screen looked distinctly washed out in comparison. But outside that region the color E-ink screen had better color. And of course neither compares well to LCD, but of course we expected that.

The E-ink screen displayed consistent color across its entire viewing area, while the colors on the Mirasol screen shifted quickly once you got out of the 20% region directly in front of the screen.

I’m attaching the photos I took, but only because I cannot get anything better due to the dead device.  Feel free to point out the best photos so other readers can find them faster.

 

 

Some time back I told you that Ectaco was launching the Jetbook Color in Russian schools. One detail I didn’t know at the time was that it was going to be part of a pilot progra which would test its effectiveness in the classroom.

Would you be surprised to find out that there are actually 4 pilot programs going on right now?

I’m still looking for more info on competing programs, but a couple days ago Ectaco psoted a set of promotional photos showing their device in a Russian school. It was too good not to share, and that give me a good chance to talk about the programs in general.

The Russian Federation has a centralized school system, and it’s organized on the national level.  While this might seem overly large and unwieldy from an American viewpoint, it does have certain benefits. For example, it has the funds to try the 4 different pilots at once; the only educational systems that could afford that in the US would have to organize it on the state level (Maine, for example, and their 1:1 laptop program).

So the 4 pilot programs going on right now are using 4 different devices from 4 companies:

• Ectaco Jetbook Color
• PlasticLogic 100
• Pocketbook Education (based on their 902 ereader)
• Aquarius NE410 (an Intel Classmate model)

I’ve posted before on the PlasticLogic 100, and I even posted a hands on video. Compared to the one which didn’t ship last year, it’s a pared down device with few hardware features, and it’s using PL’s own screen tech.

I’ve also posted in the past on the Ectaco Jetbook Color and its launch in Russia, as well as a demo video.  This ereader is using hardware originally designed by Hanvon with software written by Ectaco. It’s the one shown in the photo above.

I haven’t mentioned Pocketbook Education since last year. At that time it was based on the same hardware as the Pocketbook 902, with a 9.7″ E-ink screen, Wifi, Bluetooth, a microSD card slot, 2GB Flash, but I don’t think it has a touchscreen. It’s also running a custom firmware with 6 translation dictionaries, note taking, search, ebook reading (of course), and other apps for students.

Note that they had been in a pilot last fall, so at this point they’ve probably expanded the software to include more features. But I’ve heard that last year’s pilot may have faced some difficulties because publishers wouldn’t support the pilot with the needed textbooks. I’m planning to ask about it at CES 2011.

And then there is the Aquarius NE410. So far as I can tell it is the same laptop convertible running Windows 7 as the Peewee Pivot I posted yesterday. The specs are similar and the hardware looks identical.

The pilot programs were just getting started in November, so it’s no surprise that there’s no news yet. But I do know that this is a pretty big program. 25 schools are taking part, and they are spread across 7 different regions.  The device that comes out best in the pilot is planned to be adopted in schools across Russia. That’s a few million units sold a year, at a minimum.

As you can imagine, there’s an awful lot of money at stake here.

Which would you think is best? I lean towards the laptop, but that’s mainly because of the keyboard.

Hey folks. I’m going to be going to NYC tonight for the Amazon event tomorrow, and that means my posting schedule will likely be erratic. So here’s a video to tide you over until things get back to normal.

The Jetbook Color is a new 9.7″ ebook reader from Ectaco. It’s the first ebook reader to use the new color E-ink screen. It’s not going to hit the US market until December, but when it does the retail will be about $350 ($30 less than the KDX).  It has Wifi, SD card slot, stylus equipped touchscreen (similar to Wacom)

. Ectaco are currently developing the Jetbook Color for the Russian, US, and other markets. It’s going to be a digital textbook platform, and in fact that’s how it is being used right now in Russia. I’ve had my hands on it, but that one wasn’t a working model.

The Moscow International Book Fair will be opening Wednesday morning, and Ectaco will be there. They’ll be showing off all their ebook readers, translators, and other gadgets, but most importantly they will have the Jetbook Color on display.

This is the same basic device that I mentioned a few weeks back, only this one has been localized for the Russian educational market. Like the US version, it has a number of educational apps that were developed in partnership with Russian schools.

Ectaco have designed the Jetbook Color to be the only device a student will need. It comes with a schedule guide, a test-taking app, training manuals for each grade, graphic, accounting, and scientific calculators, and a pronunciation dictionary.It also has an illustrated dictionaries for 36 languages and a translator for 180 languages.

The Jetbook Color is based on the newly available color E-ink screen, which was first shown off at CES 2011 (specs). It’s using a 9.7″ screen, to be exact, and it’s the same size screen as the Kindle DX. The Jetbook Color also has a Wacom touchscreen, Wifi, a microSD card slot, and optional 3G. It’s running on an 800MHz CPU and weighs about 550 grams.

It’s selling in Russia right now and the retail price is 15,000 rubles (~$506 USD). That’s around $150 more than the US price. You should be glad that there’s so much competition here, otherwise the US price would also be that high.

The US model won’t be shipping until December.

via Ectaco

—
To get more ebook news, subscribe to the RSS feed or the daily email newsletter.

I’ve just been told by Ectaco that they will be shipping their newest ebook reader to the US in December. And yes, they plan to sell it for $30 less than the Kindle DX.

This is the first color epaper ereader to hit the market anywhere, and it’s based on a 9.7″ color E-ink screen, with a SD card slot, Wifi, and a Wacom touchscreen.The rest of the specs are not finalized just yet.

I’m not sure that ebook reader is actually a good term for this device; it’s not targeted at the same market as the Kindle DX. The Jetbook Color is an academic product. It’s running a lot of customized software that you don’t find on your usual ebook reader, including test-taking, scheduling, reference sheets, and other apps that schools have requested. It will also have TTS courtesy of SVOX, a specialist.

According to Ectaco, this model has been under development in Russia since May. Ectaco has a deal signed with the Russian government to customize the software for Russian schools.

The screen resolution is going to be rather low when displaying (800×600), and screen refresh isn’t very fast, but then again it’s going to cost less than the Kindle DX and come with a color screen. That alone will give the Jetbook Color a shot in the retail market,

—
For more ebook news, subscribe to the RSS feed or the daily email newsletter. Or you can follow me on Twitter: @thDigitalReader or find me on FaceBook.

Do you recall the Ectaco Jetbook Color i showed you on Tuesday? When i saw it I was told that it was only going to be available in Russia and the Ukraine, and apparently that was wrong.

I just got the press release today and Ectaco will be selling it in the academic market in the US, China and Eastern Europe for the 2011-2012 school year.  The hardware is by Hanvon, but Ectaco will be customizing the software to fit the various markets.

Folks, this could be the first color epaper screen to hit the US market (or any market, actually). It’s a pity they screwed up the announcement; today’s the last day of the trade show.

I’m going to get more pictures and a better video.