November 24, 2009 –2009 is “The Year of The Ebook”. Astak is offering the 5-inch EZ Reader Pocket PRO special edition: “A Christmas Carol Gift Pack” on www.astak.com/charity! In addition, they are donating $15 from every Gift Pack sold to Second Harvest Food Bank to buy food at the most critical time of year for those less fortunate!

San Jose, California- November 24, 2009 –Astak announced that this holiday season, the company is offering the 5-inch Pocket PRO special edition “A Christmas Carol” on www.astak.com/charity. Astak will donate $15 of the proceeds from each gift basket to the Second Harvest Food Bank. Consumers have the opportunity to give something to help those less fortunate while also giving a basket of joy that will help the receiving person “Keep Christmas in Their Hearts All Year Round”!

The Pocket PRO is lighter (under 6 ounces), faster (Epson controller with 400MHz processor), more convenient (5 inch), and more full-featured (20 formats, user-replaceable rechargeable battery, Text-To-Speech, leather case, memory expansion to hold 8,000 eBooks and MP3 music) eBook Reader and packaged it in a keepsake basket with: Mighty Bright eBook Reader light, 2GB card pre-loaded with 230 Holiday Classics (everything from the immortal “A Christmas Carol, thru 150 Christmas stories for the entire family, to old time holiday recipes). Astak added a full TIN of Starbucks Mints, a three-pack of Starbucks VIA coffee, a coupon for 50% rewards dollars on the first ten eBooks purchased from Books On Board (our partner), all the holiday wrappings and packaging, and a personalized Holiday Card that holds the buyer’s 50 word personal message! What a way to give something that will be treasured all year by the recipient!!

But, Astak has remembered the real message of A Christmas Carol. They are donating $15 from every Gift Pack sold to Second Harvest Food Bank to buy food at the most critical time of year for those less fortunate!! Jacob Marley’s spirit said: “Kindness, mercy, benevolence… THAT was my business” There has never been a more dire time for feeding those in need!! Astak welcomes other eBook Reader manufacturers to please join us!! Astak hope to contribute $4,500!!

Robert Barry, Astak’s Director of Business Development said: “Astak received so many requests to make the Pocket PRO easy to gift and include eBooks and a light and much more. At the same time, we were planning to raise funds for Second Harvest Food Bank. We talked with our partners (Books On Board and Mighty Bright) and they had some great ideas too. Then the local Starbucks Coffee wanted to help. Our staff pulled everything together in the spirit of giving and came up with quite a great way to help others.”

This special and festive gift pack will end December 11 (to allow time to ship). Everyone can do good for those less fortunate and “Keep Christmas in your Heart all Year Around” by visiting www.astak.com/charity and purchasing “A Christmas Carol Pack” for $239.
 

August 7, 2009 –Astak Inc.’s new 5-inch Pocket PRO eBook reader collaborates with Adobe Digital Editions to provide a strong contender that will give Amazon’s Kindle a run for its money. By supporting 20+ open file formats, and now with its Adobe firmware that adds support for Digital Rights Management PDF files, users can read both publicdomain titles as well as copy-protected PDF documents on the Pocket PRO.

San Jose, California (August 7, 2009) – Astak Inc.’s new 5-inch Pocket PRO eBook reader collaborated with Adobe Digital Editions to provide a strong contender against Amazon’s Kindle.

On July 30th, Astak officially announced that they acquired permission from Adobe Systems to install the Adobe Digital Editions firmware on their 5-inch and 6-inch devices. This new firmware will enable users to purchase and read copyright-protected eBooks in PDF format from major eBook stores such as Powell’s Books (www.powells.com) and Books on Board (www.booksonboard.com). Astak Inc. is only the second company to have obtained this firmware besides Sony.

Just like its 6-inch EZ Reader sibling, the 5-inch Pocket PRO’s greatest strength is that it natively supports more than 20 DRM-free formats. This feature allows users to read any non-copyrighted eBook available on the Internet, such as public domain titles from Gutenberg, which gives the user freedom to choose from hundreds of different eBook websites. With the wide range of supported file formats, users do not need to worry about compatibility issues between their documents and their eBook reader.

“We are very excited because the Pocket PRO will give customers greatest freedom of choice. Whether it’s classic titles or new releases, the customer can finally read it all on one device,” said Walter Shan, project director of Astak’s eBook Reader Department.

Other notable features of the Pocket PRO include PDF reflow which improves the readability of documents, and a text-to-speech function that reads documents aloud. It comes in six different colors, and has three or more font sizes to accommodate readers who like to read bigger text.

It is designed to be compact, sporting a 5-inch screen and weighing 6 ounces. The 8-level grayscale E-ink screen approximates the experience of reading printed text, so that users will not suffer from eyestrain after hours of reading. The internal Epson controller and a 400 MHz processor speeds up page turns.

The Pocket PRO comes with 512MB of memory, plus a SD card slot for additional storage capacity up to 16GB. It has a replaceable battery that lasts up to 8,000 page turns on one full charge. Plus, it can play MP3 music files while users read eBooks.

The 5-inch Pocket PRO reader will sell at a promotional price of $199, and is now available for preorders online at www.theEZReader.com and www.astak.com. The new devices are predicted to ship out by the end of August.