Amazon and Sony have their eBook readers. Now Asus wants a piece of the action with their cool looking device (from the Times Online – UK):
Tech news: For the smarter kind of bookworm
Asus, inventors of the netbook, is about to shake up the ebook world with the arrival of the world’s cheapest digital readerBy ALEX PELL
The world of ebooks is about to start a new chapter with the arrival of the cheapest digital reader on the market. Asus, one of the world’s biggest consumer electronics businesses, confirmed last week that it is planning to shake up the market in the same way it did when it launched the first netbook — the low-cost alternative to the laptop.
Asus claims its ebook reader will be cleverer and more versatile than the current crop available from companies such as Sony and Amazon. It aims to unveil the device before the end of the year, according to Jerry Shen, the company’s president — and it may not be just one device, either.
The company is looking at a budget and a premium version, according to a spokesman for Asus in the UK. Details are scarce but the more expensive device is expected to follow closely a prototype dreamt up by the firm’s research and development team earlier this year.
Unlike current ebook readers, which take the form of a single flat screen, the Asus device has a hinged spine, like a printed book. This, in theory, enables its owner to read an ebook much like a normal book, using the touchscreen to “turn” the pages from one screen to the next. It also gives the user the option of seeing the text on one screen while browsing a web page on the other. One of the screens could also act as a virtual keypad for the device to be used like a laptop. Whereas current ebook readers have monochrome screens, the Asus would be full colour. The maker says it may also feature “speakers, a webcam and a mic for Skype”, allowing cheap phone calls over the internet.
Speakers? Webcam?? Skype??? Let me calm myself down before I die and head to geek heaven. My wife and I each have the Sony Reader (which we dearly love since we a eBook nuts). But I have to say, Asus seems to have created a hybrid eBook reader/netbook. And that my friends is a nice convergence of technologies. We’ll see if the functionality matches what Asus is “sell saying”. But either way, this bodes well for consumers that are into the world of eBooks (and those thinking about it).
I’m not complex. Don’t have time for all that. And all that complex stuff bad for the stomach. Just color me simple and plain with a twist.