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All this can be yours for under $150
This new review of the Aluratek Libre eBook Reader Pro by The Gadgeteer does a great job of comparing the Libre against the Kindle in Nook and walks through the differences you’ll find with the cheaper eReader. They find the build quality very solid, like the plastic casing and the way that it feels in their hands. The Libre offers front-facing button sets: a dedicated page forward/back on the left, a menu system that includes menu, screen rotation, font resizing, selector and page turn, a spring-loaded slider that offers a third way for you to turn pages and finally 0-9 letter grouped keys along the right side for shortcut navigation.
The LiquavistaColor LCD 2.0 color display
Now a company called Liquavista has shown off their new LiquavistaColor display — which they’re dubbing LCD 2.0 — that can provide low-power reflective color screens. The major argument with eReader fans revolves around the “eye strain” concept and the reflective nature of E-Ink screens. Many say that the reflective ePaper allows a reader for feel more comfortable while staring at a screen for long periods of time. Others don’t mind emmitive LCD screens or even grayscale screens like those found on the JetBook Lite and Aluratek Libre. To have a color reflective screen that uses the same power consumption as a traditional E-Ink screen is the holy grail of eReader displays. And it’s well on its way.
The LiquavistaColor is practically a LCD screen. It shares more than 90% of the same tech and manufacturing as traditional LCD except for two distinct differences: it is sunlight readable and uses new algorithms to decrease power consumption. That could pave the way for new color eReader screens that can be made real cheap, real fast. In addition to being color, the Liquavista screen can fully render video and has none of the annoying screen flashes inherent in E-Ink technology.
See the full press release after the break and a video that compares the new screen to a Sony Touch Edition Reader.
The Owen E1 eReader - coming to China soon
Owen is used to making PMPs for the Asian market, so we’re interested to see how their new foray into eReaders goes. Instead of typical resolution, the E1 lists that it can display 20 lines of text with 30 characters per line. The smaller screen size also allows for a more diminutive eReader with the E1 being 6.7 x 4.7 x 0.45 in size. It has a SD card slot, USB port and a battery rated for 25 days or 10,000 page flips. In addition to being an eReader, the Owen E1 can also play MP3, OGG and MWA audio files as well as display JPG and PNG files. The black, plastic molding is curved along the edges and provides a keyset similar to that of a modified JetBook Lite or Aluratek Libre. We could see people going either way with the design — either liking its curved look or hating its cheaper looking plastic casing.
No word on price or if it will be a China-only product. Although with CES coming so near will people even be interested in traditional E-Ink eReaders in two weeks? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Source: PMP Today via CrunchGear
It’s time to finalize our eReader Holiday Gift Guide ($300 and up) for 2009 with the heavyweight division: the Amazon Kindle DX, Sony Daily Edition Reader and iRex DR800GS. These big boys pack a large screen size and tons of extras to match their higher price tags.
See our previous eReader Holiday Gift Guide posts for:
Aluratek's Libre eBook Reader Pro
Joining the JetBook Lite, BeBook Mini and Sony Pocket Edition (PRS-300) Reader — see our eReader Holiday Gift Guide to see them compared — the Libre may look a little familiar to some. It uses a monochromatic LCD screen as the JetBook Lite and, at five inches, is the same size. It features a plastic casting with numbered page buttons down the right side, a directional menu selector on the bottom right and a left/right click on the left side — also the same as the JetBook Lite. It also has a deeper battery housing on the back to make room for its use of traditional batteries… hey, wait a minute. This IS the JetBook Lite!
The Holiday season is fast approaching and, if the analysts are correct, eReaders will be the big gift item this year. But where to start? It seems that new eReaders have been popping up nearly every other day in the last couple of months. Who can keep track of this stuff? Best Tablet Review, that’s who.
In the coming days we’ll be laying out the Holiday eReader market in small bite-sized bits guaranteed to be easier to digest than your aunt’s fruitcake. We’re grouping eReaders into three categories: lightweight (those priced under $200), middleweight part 1 and part 2 (those priced $200-$300) and heavyweight ($300 and up). We’ll give you the breakdowns on each, their pros and cons and help you figure out what eReader will be the best gift for yourself or others. Also, for the purpose of this eReader roundup, we’ll only be talking about eReaders available in the U.S. market before the end of the year.
So let’s get this Holiday Gift Guide started. Now Kindle! Now iRex! Now Sony Reader and BeBook! On JetBook! On Astak! On COOL-ER and BeBook! From the top of the list, to the bargain bin eReader, we’ll talk about them all, so you can read by the heater!
Ectaco showed off their new jetBook Lite eBook at the Frankfurt Book Fair. As you can see from the above video it looks to be a very simple eReader with a five inch TFT monochromatic screen. It’s chock full of menu and selector buttons and instead of charging with a traditional internal battery, the jetBook Lite takes four AA batteries. Normally this would add some much-hated bulk to an eReader but Ectaco engineered it so that the added width for the battery compartment acts as a nice handhold for your left hand. In fact it looks like it’d be much more comfortable to hold than most slab tablet eReaders on the market.
Ectaco says they’re going to introduce the jetBook Lite to the American market shortly for a retail price of $149 which would make it the most affordable eBook on the market (beating out Sony’s Pocket Edition Reader and BeBook Mini). While it doesn’t use the traditional E-Ink screens of most eReaders, the TFT LCD means that page switching will be much faster and have none of the E-Ink’s notorious flashes between pages. Ectaco also says that four AA batteries will allow 23 hours of use.
Look for it to be sold on Newegg like Ectaco’s other jetBook eReader (currently for $179). Read the rest of the tip at Teleread.org or see the original scoop (in German) at Lesen.net.
Best Tablet Review is your go-to source for the latest tablet news, reviews and rumors on tablets. If it's flat and has a screen on it, we're talking about it. Check out our sections on the Apple Tablet, Tablet PC's (like HP, Dell, Toshiba, Archos, MSI and Pegatron), eReaders (like the Kindle, Nook and Sony Readers), PMPs, MIDs and Graphics Tablets like the Wacom series.
