Tolino Shine
The Tolino Shine (spelling: tolino shine) is an e-book reader that has been available in Germany, Austria, South Tyrol and Switzerland since March 2013 in cooperation between Deutsche Telekom and the booksellers Thalia , Weltbild , Hugendubel , the book wholesaler Libri and Osianderschen and the Mayersche Buchhandlung along with other Tolino branded devices . Deutsche Telekom is responsible for the technical implementation and also provides free access to the Telekom hotspots in Germany for the WLAN-enabled e-book reader. According to GfK, the first device from the Tolino brand achieved a market share of 35% in e-books one year after its market launch in German-speaking countries.
The Tolino Shine was designed for the first time as an "alternative for digital reading on the German market" and as an eReading solution for the German book trade. Part of this collaboration will certainly include the strong intervention in the book market by the American online retail giant Amazon and its closed platform Kindle .
The booksellers involved in the tolino alliance continue to compete with one another despite the joint distribution of the tolino brand. According to the Tolino Alliance, the Tolino e-book offer - distributed by tolino media - currently has around 1.8 million e-books available. Depending on the respective tolino dealer, e-books can be bought directly in a pre-installed shop on the tolino shine.
Access to the so-called Tolino Cloud is associated with the purchase of a Tolino Shine. This cloud storage can be used for additional z. B. to store e-books purchased elsewhere (maximum 25 GB) in the Tolino Cloud. The data stored in the Tolino Cloud can be accessed by up to five different end devices.
properties
service
In addition to the infrared touchscreen, the Tolino Shine has three hardware buttons for operation: an on / off switch (slide switch) with which the device can also be switched to standby mode, a switch for the integrated screen lighting and a "home" -Key that always leads back to the top menu level (start page). An additional reset button is located under the housing flap on the underside or back of the Tolino Shine.
E-books in the formats EPUB (including ACSM - copy-protected e-books), PDF and TXT can be purchased from e-book retailers and downloaded directly to the tolino shine via WLAN - however, the AZW or KFX formats from Amazon and Apple cannot be displayed without a separate conversion. Adobe DRM is supported for EPUB and PDF files. In addition to direct downloading, the Tolino Shine can also be filled with e-books using a USB cable or microSD card. You can only transfer your own e-books from the PC (or NAS / home network) via the micro-USB port; transfer using the built-in WLAN adapter is only possible using the web browser. The Tolino Shine can be used without registration. It is possible to access the public lending libraries via the integrated browser. In order to be able to buy e-books directly on the device, the user has to make three settings once:
- define a WLAN access
- set up an account with the bookseller. The dealer is predefined depending on where the device was purchased. Alternatively, the integrated web browser can be used to buy e-books in EPUB format from any online bookseller and download them directly to the device.
- an Adobe ID to register to DRM -protected e-books to open.
A micro-USB connection is used to charge the internal battery , as is now used in many mobile devices such as B. Cell phones or tablets is standard. The tolino shine comes with a micro-USB cable, but no power supply unit. According to the manufacturer, the battery life is up to seven weeks. The micro-USB connection is located together with the microSD card slot and the reset button under the housing flap at the lower end of the device.
The tolino shine software is based on the Android 2.3.4 operating system , whereby the user has a specially adapted interface for book and device management, but no access to the rest of the Android interface is possible. This can be changed with the help of root access, ie external applications can then be installed and used. However, rooting can void the warranty.
Technical specifications
| Dimensions | 175 mm × 116 mm × 9.7 mm |
| Weight | 183 grams |
| Screen technology | E-Ink (E-Paper) "Pearl HD Display" with infrared touchscreen and lighting |
| Screen diagonal | 15.2 cm (6.0 ″ ) |
| resolution | 1024 × 758 pixels, 213 dpi |
| Fonts | 6 fonts and 7 font sizes, E-Ink optimized |
| processor | ARMv7 rev 5 (Freescale MX50), 800 MHz |
| random access memory | 256 MB RAM |
| Storage | 4 GB internal MicroSD card, 2 GB of which can be used, expandable by up to 32 GB via an external MicroSD HC card slot |
| battery pack | 1500 mAh ("up to 7 weeks battery life") |
| Connectivity | MicroUSB, WLAN (802.11 b / g / n; only for web browser) |
| operating system | Android 2.3.4 |
| Current software version | 10.5.0 (from December 24, 2018) |
| supported file formats | EPUB (with and without DRM), PDF (with and without DRM), TXT |
| Manufacturer | Longshine ( Taiwan ) |
criticism
In the beginning, the Tolino Shine's limited functionality was often criticized. In the meantime, software updates have added functions such as collections, dictionaries, translations, a note and marking function and reading in landscape format.
The collections function is used to group e-books. This point is criticized by some users, as metadata (such as a book management software such as Caliber ) cannot be used, but users can only group the books that have just been loaded into the e-book reader.
Another point of criticism is the user interface that is often used by e-book reader manufacturers to place advertisements. Around a third of the tolino shine's homepage is used for advertising by the respective bookseller (e-book recommendations). The remaining two thirds are used for menu structures and the library. The advertising cannot be switched off and is visible even without registration.
The user can use a simple web browser via the WLAN function. In order to take over their own books from their own PC, the user must therefore operate a local web server or use the cable connection. Alternatively, the upload to the tolino cloud can also be used. FTP or Windows file sharing does not work with the Tolino Shine.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Interim balance : One year of Tolino / The number 1 in the e-book market Paroli / boersenblatt.net. In: www.boersenblatt.net. Retrieved February 9, 2016 .
- ↑ "We want to close the gap to Amazon". (No longer available online.) In: www.buchreport.de. Archived from the original on April 16, 2015 ; accessed on February 9, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Tolino Shine press release ( Memento of the original from March 18, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Weltbild.de, March 1, 2013, accessed on March 18, 2013
- ↑ tolino shine - tolino Germany. In: tolino Germany. Accessed February 9, 2016 (German).
- ↑ Tolino Shine: The Kindle competitor in the first check , Chip.de, March 7, 2013, accessed on March 9, 2013
- ↑ Khalid El-Heliebi: eBook formats. In: allesebook.de. Retrieved February 9, 2016 .
- ↑ tolino explanatory video from Deutsche Telekom: First steps with the tolino eBook reader - tolino-forum.de. (No longer available online.) In: www.tolino-forum.de. Archived from the original on February 9, 2016 ; accessed on February 9, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The German Kindle Challenger in the Test , Focus-online, March 6, 2013, accessed on March 11, 2013.
- ↑ tolino shine - tolino Germany. In: tolino Germany. Accessed February 9, 2016 (German).
- ↑ Instructions: Tolino Shine Root Access including Google Play - AllesEbook.de , accessed on July 4, 2013
- ↑ Tolino Shine at buch.de , accessed on March 9, 2013.
- ↑ Specification on Tolino website , accessed March 9, 2013
- ↑ Comparison table on the Hugendubel website , accessed on March 12, 2013
- ↑ In Focus.de: Does the Tolino e-book reader smile away from the competition?
- ^ In n24.de: E-Books: Tolino and Kindle are being upgraded
- ↑ In tolino.de: New reading functions - tolino eReader Update March 19, 2015
