Bookalicious

I have a Sony Pocket Reader and oh how I love thee. Let me count the ways, instant books a must have for the spontaneous reader like myself. I didn’t feel the need to pick up a Kindle due to the fact they are so big brother about their system. I have read horror stories of people returning other merchandise and their Amazon accounts being suspended and no longer being able to use the Kindle because it was linked to that account. Now how is that for customer satisfaction? Also my other problem with the Kindle is Amazon reserves the right to strip any book off your reader at any time. Now this brings me to the Nook, who wowed us all with their little color bar and the promise of lending books to your other Nook friends. Fantastic idea for us bloggers and avid readers. Sharing books with one another via digital copy. Except in the small print you figure out that you can’t lend a book unless the publisher has marked this book as lend-able. How many publishers do you know that are going to let you run your own little library with their hot new releases? Nod your head if you think the answer is nada.

Which brings me to the two most perfect readers in the world, both of which I cannot afford but they show us the future of these awesome technical devices. These features will be affordable sometime in the near future.

The iLiad by iRex, is the perfect reader.You too can own it for only $600. Mkay think I will be waiting a while.

Just as with normal paper, you’re able to make notes and annotate existing documents, but unlike paper your annotated documents and notes can easily be transferred to a PC or another iLiad. Your friends and colleagues can also add remarks or edit your notes and return them to you. The iLiad is not just about serious stuff, you can also do Sudoku and Crossword puzzles, read comics and sketch or draw on it.

What can you do with the iLiad?

* Anything you can print from your PC can be read on the iLiad. You can also download books and other information from the internet. You can even receive digital subscriptions to international newspapers on an iLiad.

* The iLiad has a wireless connection to automatically download content and updates over the Internet. You can also connect the iLiad directly to any PC with a USB cable. The iLiad Companion software enables you to easily transfer and manage the documents between your PC and the iLiad.

* The iLiad can hold dozens of books and documents. Memory capacity can be increased simply by inserting a Compact Flash or MMC card, just as with digital camera. You can even insert your USB-stick into the iLiad to quickly read content.

The FLEPia in Japan is being sold now to the Japanese readers. This thing is truly amazing but selling for around $1,000 and only using Japanese as the language I think I will wait for the price to come down.

1. Lightweight, thin and high-performance: 8-inch screen displays up to 260,000 colors in high-definition.

Weighing just 385 grams (385g) and only 12.5mm thick, FLEPia is lightweight and easily portable, while offering an easy-to-view 8-inch screen. Featuring world-leading color e-paper technologies, the mobile display terminal enables users to view a multitude of documents and images in high-definition at 768 dots x 1,014 dots (XGA), with up to 260,000 displayable colors (4,096-color and 64-color display is also possible, if desired).

2. Power-efficient color e-paper; enables up to 40-hour continuous battery operation.

As the color e-paper employed displays text or images by reflecting external light, FLEPia does not require power to maintain screen display, consuming power only during re-draw (power consumption is approximately just 1/50 that of standard notebook PCs under similar usage conditions). When fully-charged, FLEPia offers up to 40 hours of continuous battery operation (conditions: display of 2,400 pages at 1 page per minute with 64 colors).

3. Feature-rich external interface (Japan: Bluetooth, high-speed wireless LAN)

Equipped with Bluetooth in addition to high-speed wireless LAN, FLEPia offers dial-up connection via various Japanese mobile carriers, thus enabling easy download of content featuring images and text (excluding audio and video content) from nearly any desired location. Also included as standard features are a USB mini-B connector supporting USB2.0 (480Mbps) and a SD memory card slot. Stereo speakers (embedded) offer audio playback of e-books, including picture books.

4. User-friendly operation: touch screen, digital stylus, scroll key, function buttons

A touch screen featured on the 8-inch display screen, along with a digital stylus, enables easy operation of FLEPia. Also included are a scroll key and 6 function buttons, enabling users to freely and quickly implement commands on the screen in all 4 directions (up, down, left, right), as desired.

5. Two e-book viewers included as standard features (XMDF and .book formats)

Two popular e-book viewers widely used on PCs or mobile phones in Japan – “BunkoViewer” (XMDF format; “bunko” refers to “library” in Japanese) and “T-Time” (.book format) are included as standard features. These e-book viewers enable downloaded e-books to be easily read with FLEPia. The e-book viewers offer an enriched reading experience compared to conventional paper-based reading, enabling readers to jump from the table of contents to desired sections and freely enlarge or shrink text or images. A vast number of e-book sites are currently available on the Internet, and a wide range of approximately 20,000 Japanese e-books in either XMDF or .book format can be downloaded with FLEPia (see “Content Storage Capacity” under Specifications).

6. Equipped with Windows CE5.0 (Japanese version)

In addition to the content browser, Microsoft’s Windows CE5.0 (Japanese version) enables use of an internet browser, e-mail, and various software on FLEPia. Microsoft’s Office can also be used to generate text documents, spreadsheets, or presentations, making it possible to view a variety of documents – including e-mail file attachments – while in transit or in the field and away from an office environment, thus fully maximizing FLEPia’s multiple functions as a mobile information terminal. In terms of text input, a software keyboard and digital stylus make it possible to send e-mails and other text.

So the future is bright for readers, give me a touch screen, full on color, able to read any format, and no big brother stuff for $300 or less and you will be the leading e-reader giant. What do you want from a reader?