The Digital Reader

I just came across the product page of the Dreambook W95, an ebook reader imported to Australia by Pioneer Computers. It has a 5″ LCD screen, costs $149 (AUS), and should support a broad variety of video, audio, and ebook formats including Epub and PDF. It’s currently available now.

The reason I used the word “should” is that I recognize this e-reader. It’s also going to be imported here in the US by Delstar under the name Smartbook, and Delstar also has a related model (called Openbook). The Openbook has been on the market for about a month, and it has  been plagued with problems. The current firmware for the Openbook is both buggy and less capable than promised, and I’ve heard a couple reports that the firmware update process itself is buggy.

I’m going to have to urge caution on the Dreambook W95. Neither Pioneer nor Delstar strike me as being capable of independently fixing the software problems, which leads me to think that they are dependent on the  Chinese manufacturer they’re buying from. The current problems with the Openbook suggest that whoever is currently working on the firmware isn’t very good.

The product page has been updated, and they changed the image. It’s not the same model as before. Here’s a video Pioneer shot: