Worth Reading?
+2 [2 votes]
Loading ...Netherlands company Endless Ideas have released a fresh eBook, the BEBOOK. Seemingly a rebrand of the Chinese Hanlin V3, the device uses a 6-inch 600 x 800 e-paper display and is capable of reading .doc, .txt, .pdf, .jpg, .htm and .rtf files. Onboard storage is 512MB, expandable via SD card, and file transfer is courtesy of a USB 1.1 connector. The company claims to be working on Mobipocket support.
As well as text, the BEBOOK is capable of playing MP3s and audiobooks. Endless Ideas claim a battery life of 7,000 page-turns, though that’s obviously reduced if you listen to audio. The reflective screen is not backlit, but it is readable in sunlight.
The BEBOOK measures in at 184 x 120 x 10mm and weighs 220g. Included is a USB cable, leather case, earphones and, ironically, a printed user manual. It’s available now, priced at €329.95 ($509) with free international shipping.
[via MobileRead]
I’ll say it again - the only way these e-readers will take off is if it has wifi and can browse the internet
Anyone know how good this thing is with pdf? say, compared to Sony 505?
Why? I can’t browse the internet with my paperback or magazine but that doesn’t stop me buying them!
WiFi would be nice as you could download daily newpaper subscriptions etc, but then again it would have a major affect on battery life of the device as would browsing the internet.
The price still seems to be the major issue right now.
Another nice feature would be some “smell technology” that gives off the odour of a printed book each time you change pages :)
The Netronix EB-300 9.7 inch seems better value than this.
The EB-300 has a 1200 x 825, 170 dpi, 4 grayscale screen, and measures a mere 14mm (0.55-inches) thick. There’s 4GB of NAND storage on board, along with 64MB of SDRAM and some SD card expansion. There’s also WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity for good measure. EB-300 runs Windows CE 5.0.
would buy one if it is waterproof too, makes for great bath reading
iRex’s original iLiad has WiFi, and apparently in some European countries newspapers are using it to deliver daily subscriptions rather than a printed copy. Since you’d only be using the wireless briefly to download that day’s issue, I don’t imagine battery life would take a massive hit.
Apart from newspapers, magizines, the other big potential application of ebook readers is in the education field where students could just carry around a single ebook reader containing all their books. (prices of ebooks should be less than printed copies)
Also when you enter a lecture theatre or classroom the lecture notes/tutorial/power point slides could be beamed straight to your ebook reader, allowing students to listen more and type/write less.