If you’ve been waiting for a cheap ebook reader, Newegg.com has 3 different models on sale for $99 each, the Cybook Opus, Astak Mentor, and Foxit eSlick.

The best of the bunch is the Cybook Opus. It has a 5-inch display and recently got a new firmware update. It comes with 1GB of internal memory and has a microSD card slot. Check our Cybook Opus review for more information about it.

If you’d prefer a larger 6-inch screen, the Astak Mentor is the better choice. Both it and the eSlick share the same hardware design, based on the Netronix EB600. The eSlick was just recently discontinued so don’t expect much from it. Both are outdated models. Newegg is probably trying to clear stock.

For most, spending an extra $40 more for a Kindle WiFi or $50 more for a Nook WiFi would be a much better deal in the long run, given the advanced features and better hardware, but it’s good to see ereaders breaking the $100 barrier nonetheless.

Filed under: Sales and Discounts | Tags: astak mentor, cybook opus, foxit eslick | No Comments »

Looking around the internet, there are a few different ebook readers currently on sale.

First, the Sony PRS-900 is selling for $249 from Amazon, Best Buy, and a few other electronics stores. That’s $50 less than it usually sells for and $150 less than its original price back in December.

The Cybook Opus is down to $168 at B&H Photo. Most other stores are selling it for $199. In the UK, Pixmania seems to have recently lowered the price for the Cybook Opus to £165. Last week it was listed at 7 pounds higher.

B&H Photo also appears to have the lowest price on the Sony PRS-300 at $138.99, about $10 less than other websites. The PRS-600 can found for as low as $152 at Amazon.

In the UK, the Sony ereaders are finally starting to drop in price slightly. The PRS-600 is selling for £187 from Amazon UK and regualry sells for £194 from Play.com. The PRS-300 is £127 on Amazon UK.

From Sony Style Canada, the Sony PRS-300 is marked down to $179 from $199 and the PRS-600 is down $20 as well to $229.

Lastly, if you are looking to get an Aluratek Libre, Borders now sells it for $119 at regular price, which is typically $10 – $50 less than anywhere else.

Filed under: Sales and Discounts | Tags: cybook opus, sony prs-300, sony prs-900 | No Comments »

Yesterday Bookeen released new firmware updates for the Cybook Opus, which comes in several different colors now, and the Cybook Gen3.

As usual with Bookeen’s ereaders, there two versions of firmware available, one for Adobe DRM ebooks and one for Mobipocket DRM ebooks (Mobipocket doesn’t allow Adobe support in conjunction with Mobi on a single device).

The updates include some new features, bug fixes, and expanded language support. The updates can be downloaded from Bookeen’s website. The page requires an account and login to view, so for everyone else here’s the complete list of feature improvements and updates for the new software:

Latest features (common to versions 1.6 & 2.1)

Instant Reading
Cybook can be switched on/off in 1 second, keeping last read page open.
Note 1: works on all 400 MHz Cybooks (Gen3 v3, Gen3 – Gold Edition and all Opus’).
Note 2: in this mode, device is actually in deep-sleep mode (very low power consumption).

Shutdown
“Shutdown” option now available from “Advanced…” menu.
On 400 MHz Cybooks, one can press the power off button for 2 seconds.
On 200 MHz Cybooks, power off button behaves as usual.
Note: when shut down, Cybook will display a blank screen with a “switched-off” icon.

9 new user interface languages for a total of 23 languages
New: Danish, Croatian, Hungarian, Portuguese, Romanian, Turkish, Slovak, Chinese simplified & Chinese traditional.
User interface is now available in a total of 23 languages: Czech, Danish, German, Greek, English, Spanish, Finnish, French, Croatian, Hungarian, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Slovak, Slovenian, Chinese simplified & Chinese traditional.
Note: to be able to select a Chinese user interface, a Chinese font must be present in the “Fonts” directory.

Chinese/Japanese/Korean and other international content in “Library”
Support for Chinese, Japanese & Korean (CJK) file names and metadata.
Non Latin/Greek/Cyrillic text will automatically be rendered using another user supplied font (“Fonts” directory).
Note: works for all left-to-right languages.

Accelerometer shortcut (Cybook Opus)
Accelerometer can be enabled/disabled with “Menu” + “Enter” shortcut.

Side buttons (Cybook Opus)
Side buttons can be flipped (“Advanced…” menu), allowing one hand page turns with thumb on lower button (portrait modes only).

Improvement (Cybook Gen3 Gold Edition)
Lower power consumption in suspend modes.
Faster pagination mode.

USB activity (400MHz Cybooks only)
LED now blinks during USB transfers.

Bug fix (Cybook Opus)
Under some circumstances, accelerometer would stay in suspend mode and would not unlock until deactivated and reactivated.

Localization fixes
Corrections in Finnish & Spanish user interface.

Latest features (version 2.1 only)

Table of Contents (ePub/PDF/FB2)
Complete TOC now displayed, including potential multi-levels.

Improvement (TXT)
New heuristics to process text.
Specifically, Gutenberg Project texts will now be rendered better and faster.
Also, now accepts any text encoding.

Improvement (FB2)
Hyperlinks & metadata support.

Fix (bug in version 2.0)
ePub & PDF metadata handling corrected in “Library”.

Fix (bug in version 2.0)
Lower memory consumption with large font files.

Latest features (version 1.6 only)

Mobipocket dictionaries
Faster accesses in “Lookup” mode.
Note: dictionaries must be located at the root of folder “eBooks”.

Source: Bookeen’s Blog and Bookeen

Filed under: Cybook, News | Tags: cybook opus, firmware update | 1 Comment »

1. The 6″ Astak Mentor is marked down to $129 at Newegg, the lowest priced E Ink ereader ever!
2. Sony Touch continues to remain on sale for $199 at Best Buy and Sony Style, and also comes with a free $30 cover for purchases through June 19th.
3. Amazon is offering free 2 day shipping on the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX in the US for Father’s Day. Amazon also has refurbished Kindles again: the Kindle 2 is $219 and the Kindle DX is $415.
4. Barnes and Noble is throwing in a free $50 gift certificate with all Nook purchases until July 3rd, and Best Buy is offering a $50 ebook card for B&N.
5. The Sony Daily Edition is still on sale for $299 at Amazon, Sony Style, and Best Buy..
6. The Aluratek Libre is selling for $119 at Newegg.
7. PocketBookReader.com is running a 4th of July promotion for free shipping for any ereader in the US.
8. The Cybook Opus is $173 at BH Photo.

Filed under: Sales and Discounts | Tags: cybook opus, libre, sony prs-600, sony reader | No Comments »

The 5-inch Cybook Opus is on sale at Amazon.com for $179. The list price is $249 but it usually hovers around $215-$225.

Bookeen recently added several color models and updated the firmware for the Cybook Opus that added improved battery life and a new sleep mode that goes from “zero to reading in 1 second”.

The price of the Cybook Opus has dropped in price in Europe at lot recently as well. It's now down in the £172 range at Pixmania and 190 at Amazon.de.

Filed under: Cybook, Sales and Discounts | Tags: cybook opus | No Comments »