We’ve got to admit, having played with the mirasol ebook prototype earlier today, Sony’s pre-sale of their Reader Daily Edition is looking marginally less appealing. Priced at $399.99, the Sony Reader Daily Edition has a 7-inch monochrome e-ink display, integrated 3G connectivity, and weighs 12.75oz; wireless access to Sony’s ebook store is included in the sticker price.
Ebook readers are arguably coming of age, but don’t assume e-ink – and the push to produce color e-ink panels – have won the game quite yet. SlashGear met up with Qualcomm’s mirasol team today to discuss their latest display news, and while you might remember the technology from their early 1.1-inch single-color panels, they’re now showing off a 5.7-inch display capable of full color and video playback, with minimal impact on battery life. They’ve set themselves the target of having color ebook readers with mirasol panels on the market by the latter part of 2010, and are working with OEMs now to achieve that.
It looks like Dell is planning to release a mobile internet device, or a MID. The details are few and far between but the product—code-named Streak—looks like it packs Wi-Fi, 3G and Android 2.0 all into one. It is exactly what Intel has been calling a mobile internet device for the past few years: larger than a smartphone, primarily for accessing the Net, and featuring multimedia and even GPS functionality. The Archos 5 Internet Tablet and the leaked video of the Dell device gives us a better glimpse of what is to come and what it can do. Ironically (and you will see why later), when I watched the video I immediately thought: ah, so Dell wants to make an iPhone with a larger 5-inch screen!
Samsung’s latest AT&T cellphones, the Samsung Mythic and Samsung Flight announced last month, will both go on sale today. Each handset has a touchscreen and the Flight throws in a slide-out QWERTY keyboard; neither are going to cause as much excitement as a proper smartphone, though, and the Mythic’s support for Samsung’s TouchWiz UI will seem like little consolation when your friends are taunting you with Android.
When companies like ASUS are reasonably legitimately launching desktop supercomputers, describing your performance PC as a “personal supercomputer” seems like asking for trouble. Still, that’s how Maingear are referring to their latest desktop, the SHIFT, packing as it does a choice of Intel Core i7 processor, stacks of DDR3-1600 memory, Asetek liquid-cooling and a choice of up to six regular hard-drives or twelve SSDs.
The Archos 9 PCtablet has been somewhat overshadowed by its smaller, Android-based sibling, but the French company would like to remind you that, with the debut of Windows 7, the 9-inch touchscreen “future of netbooks” is now available to buy. £449.99 ($748) gets you a resistive touchscreen, Atom Z515 processor and integrated WiFi and Bluetooth, all in a device 800g and just 1.7cm thick.
Live Archos 9 hands-on gallery after the cut
If you eyed up the flexible spine of the Herman Miller Setu earlier this week and thought “nice, but I’d like more rotational combination of axial forwards, backwards and sideways movements” then you’re obviously bizarrely well-read on ergonomic seating and probably already know what we’re about to say. If, however, you know little about pivotal sections but would just like to sit for a few hours without ending up stiff, then Wilkhahn’s ON chair may be the answer. Unlike regular task chairs, which mainly permit forward/backward movement, ON has an artificial hip-joint with “two swing plates that are just as supple as thighs”.
Barnes and Noble have officially announced their ebook reader, the Barnes and Noble nook, complete with dual displays and free 3G and WiFi b/g wireless. The nook has a 6-inch E Ink Vizplex E Ink display up top and a 3.5-inch color touchscreen underneath, with the whole thing based on Android and measuring 7.7 x 4.9 x 0.5-inches while tipping the scales at 11.2oz. B&N have partnered with AT&T for the nook’s 3G access, and owners will be able to use the retailer’s in-store WiFi connections for free as well.
Acer have announced a new ultraportable, and if you’ve been tempted by the price and portability of a netbook but need something with a little more grunt then the Acer Aspire AS1410 might just take the top-spot on your shopping list. Based on Intel’s CULV platform, the AS1410 packs a Celeron SU2300 1.2GHz processor with 2GB of RAM, a 160GB hard-drive and Windows 7, along with GMa 4500MHD graphics, and all for $399.99.
It’s beginning to get a little ridiculous now: after Walt Mossberg reviews the BlackBerry Storm 2 ahead of any official confirmation by RIM themselves that the device actually exists, now Vodafone UK have announced that they’ll be the first network to offer the second-generation touchscreen smartphone. Available to preorder from today, and with deliveries set to begin on October 26th, the Vodafone Blackberry Storm 2 9520 is priced from free with a new plan costing £35/mo ($56) upwards.
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