Qisda ES900

Qisda ES900 is a discontinued electronic-book reader developed by Qisda Corporation and based on a Linux platform. The device is sold under various brand names worldwide.

Features
Qisda ES900 provides a 16 levels of grayscale SiPix touchscreen display for viewing digital content. Pages are turned using the buttons on the device or touchscreen. The ES900 connects to the internet through available Wi-Fi connections. Users can read books without a wireless connection. Disconnecting the wireless connection can prolong the battery life.

Specifications

 * CPU
 * Samsung 2416 ARM9 @ 400 MHz
 * OS
 * Linux 2.6.21
 * Memory
 * 128 MB (MDDR)
 * 2 GB (NAND)
 * External microSD/microSDHC (up to 16 GB)
 * Connectivity
 * Wi-Fi b/g Optional: 3.5G HSDPA
 * microUSB high speed
 * audio jack
 * Miscellaneous
 * 1530 mAh, 3.7 V
 * 487 gram (without Wi-Fi)
 * Reading mode
 * > 10.000 pages (Wi-Fi off)

Formats supported

 * Text
 * ePUB
 * HTML
 * PDF
 * RTF
 * TXT
 * Picture
 * BMP
 * JPEG
 * PNG
 * Audio
 * MP3

Sold as
The device is sold worldwide under various brand names.
 * Asia
 * Taiwan: Asus Eee Reader DR900 / TZ900


 * Europe
 * Asus Eee Reader DR900 / DR950
 * bq Avant XL

Modification
Being that the hardware utilizes Linux-based software it can be changed or improved to the owners content. The firmware is labeled as “QT Software” and varies from vendor to vendor. The upgrade contains multiple image files with the .img extension, along with other system files.

Flashing to upgrade the firmware can be taken advantage of as it does not seem to check if the version that is being installed is older. Due to this, using firmware made by the other vendors on the model each sold in particular is possible.

Dual-boot
The devices seem to contain a native dual-boot capability. When a device specific key combination is pressed during power-on any linux-kernel + ramdisk combination is booted from the sd-card.