Kindle Review – Kindle Fire Review, Kindle 4 Review

There are 5 companies bringing out new eReaders - some really unique new eReaders.

1Cross Tech and their eInk, LCD, qwerty hybrid eReader

1Cross Tech have a device that is best seen for yourself – it’s literally in book form with the left page an eInk screen and the right page split between a LCD and a qwerty keyboard. The key things -

1. 6″ eInk screen (600 by 800 resolution) on the left and 3.2″ TFT LCD (480 by 320 resolution) on the right with a resistive touchscreen.  
2. Below the LCD is a touch based keypad – the keypad and screen together form a 7″ touch surface.
3. It runs on Android 1.6.  
4. Usable as a phone – including with a Bluetooth headset or with the headphones (which have a microphone). And of course you can hold the entire thing like you would a cellphone .
5. There’s a front facing webcam with VGA resolution. Thanks to the webcam you can do conference calls and video calls.  
6. Powered by Marvell.
7. Lots of apps including a Calculator.
8. They’re not very clear on Battery life – they claim 20,000 to 30,000 page turns in eInk mode, and 2 to 3 days when using as a phone (6 hours of phone calling).
9. Much like the Alex you can transfer things from the LCD to the eInk.
10. It comes with 3G connectivity, WiFi (802.11 b/g), and Bluetooth.
11. There’s an accelerometer.
12. The hinge goes all the way around so you can fold the LCD behind the eInk or vica versa.
13. They say the Android API extends for the eInk screen too.
14. Available in black and white+red.
15. The video shows that there is an option for GPS and it’s supposed to have motion force feedback.
16. Micro USB slot, Micro SD slot, Stylus, and Microphone are included.
17. Dimensions are 120 mm by 153 mm by 17 mm.
18. It might be priced at 399 euros for the European market.
19. It’s called the ShuBook.

ARMDevices.net has a nifty video (found via MobileRead). The ShuBook certainly is interesting.

Runwei A50 Color eReader with Windows CE 

Google Translate says this is called Run for the Color eReader A50. The key details -

1. 5″ WVGA TFT touch screen with 800 by 480 resolution. 
2. Color Screen with anti-scratch mirror design.
3. Telechips TCC7901 Processor (500 Mhz, ARM 9) and Windows CE 5.0 operating system.
4. 64 MB SDRAM and 2 GB built-in NAND Flash memory.
5. Slot for T-Flash memory card.
6. Weighs about 200 grams.
7. eBook Formats supported are pdf, txt, html, ppt, doc, xls, zip, chm, umd.
8. Includes Text to Speech and screen rotation.
9. Supports mp3, wma, wav, and aac formats for music and rmvb, rm, avi, mp4, flv, wmv, 3gp, mpg, and asf for video.
10. Supports png, jpg, bmp, and gif.  Supports Flash.
11. Supports video decoding for H.264, DivX 4 and 5, MPEG 1/2/4, and RMVB-D1.
12. Has a microphone for recording meetings.
13. Comes with Panda reading software, Word and Excel editing software, and ‘Paint’ drawing software. It aso supports almost everything that runs on Windows CE.
14. There’s piano paint on the device body to prevent scratches.  

There’s also a translation of an article by Zol magazine on the Runwei A50 and a Ubergizmo article that points out the lack of WiFi and 3G.

Sagem Wireless Smart Reader

Sagem wireless are a French company that designs phones for lots of other companies like Vodafone and now they’re jumping into eReaders. Their new eReader is code-named Binder and has a great looking touch screen -

1. 6″ eInk screen with capacitive touch.
2. A very crisp looking screen – the touch doesn’t mess with readability at all.
3. Supports both finger touches and stylus.
4. Very compact as text input is via the screen.
5. It’s got interesting buttons on the side – Power, Home, Book, and News.
6. It’s code-named Binder and it has a back design very evocative of the Kindle 1′s back.
7. 3G and WiFi support.
8. There are Music, Internet and Images Applications.
9. It’s a bit on the thick side.
10. Sagem are a white label so the device might be taken up by multiple companies and branded differently by each.

Again, ARM Devices have a video that’s pretty good. Really like the screen of the Sagem Wireless binder. Hopefully some company licenses/buys their technology and brings it to market soon.

Gigabyte EB10 eReader that’s running Android on eInk

Just when you think you’ve seen it all Gigabyte get Android running on eInk and actually want to bring it to market -

1. An eInk screen (800 by 600 resolution, 6″) that runs Android. 
2. Epson S1D13521 display controller and 667 Mhz Samsung 6410 Processor. 
3. 128 MB NAND Flash and 128 MB SDRAM.
4. Wolfson WM8753 Audio Controller.
5. Choice of Windows CE 6.0 RC2 or Android or Linux 2.6.1.
6. With the Android version shown there are painful screen refreshes every time you scroll to a new icon or do any action. It’s really painful.
7. Overall, it seems rather unpolished.
8. Gigabyte might add touch, WiFi, and 3G - it’s a work in progress. They seem to be planning 3G, WiFi, and Bluetooth and also have an Aeroplane mode.

The Gigabyte EB10 is rather unpolished at the moment and it’s strong proof that running Android, or for that matter Windows CE, on eInk is not necessarily the best idea.

Million-E Culture Industrial Company show off their MReader

Yet again we have ARMDevices.net bringing us the brand new Million-E MReader.

1. 6″ eInk screen with resistive touch and 600 by 800 resolution.  
2. It’s literally shaped like a giant iPhone complete with the single Home button and the steel border and the rows of apps.
3. Page refreshes were a bit on the slow side.  
4. SD Card Slot.
5. It’s actually pretty good for one-handed reading.
6. Will be priced at $220 US.
7. WiFi Support. 3G Support.
8. There’s a Bookstore you can connect to.
9. Support for 16 formats – PDF, ePub, RTF, TCR, PDB, prc, mobi, opf, oeb, html, html, txt, chm, fb2, djvu, iw44, iw4, djv, png, tif, gif, bmp, jpeg, mp3. 
10. Dimensions are 178 mm by 128.4 mm by 9.9 mm and it weighs 229 grams.
11. Samsung Processor.  

There’s also a non-touch version for around $200 that supports 3G and WiFi. They also plan a 9″ eReader in the future.

Well, those are your 5 new eReaders entering an already crowded eReader market.

Filed under: eBook Reader Devices Tagged: | ereader reviews, new ereader