What I want in an ebook reader
February 17, 2008
Hardware | News | iPhone

After a trip to the new Borders in Ann Arbor yesterday, and another disgruntled look at their Sony ebook reader, I've come up with a wishlist for the perfect ebook reader.

  1. It folds up, into something the size of the iphone or smaller.
  2. It unfolds into a wide screen e-paper style display. Maybe 12 or 15" wide by 10" tall.
  3. It is vanishingly thin.
  4. The display is in full color.
  5. It has wifi and wireless (cellphone) capabilities.
  6. It has all the other capabilities of an iphone with the addition of the ability to use a pen on it and either use the onscreen touch keyboard (like on the iphone) or use a small, extremely thin, and foldable bluetooth keyboard.
  7. It should function in some way as a phone and music player and perhaps for video even when folded up. In other words there is still some display when folded up.
  8. It should have at least 12 hour battery life with an on-board solar panel or maybe a crank for charging.
  9. The cabling and cords should not be a bigger object to carry than the gadget itself.
  10. It should be able to read any format, DRM or not.
  11. 40+Gigs storage, minimum.
  12. The browser should be a standard Firefox or Safari style browser with all the usual capabilities including flash, and preferably addons for debugging and other functions.
  13. You should be able to purchase books and other media instantly similar to the Kindle, AND select from free, out of copyright, non-DRM and competitive media vendors in the same interface.

Amazon, Apple, Sony, Borders: are you listening? I'd buy this thing instantly if you were selling it.



Update 2-25-08: The prototype Readius roll-away screen is getting very close to what I want in a screen size. At least the concept is right!



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Posted by ellen at February 17, 2008 01:28 PM


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