The Future Now: Panasonic Wordsgear
December 14, 2007
Here is a glimpse of the shape of things to come. Panasonic has introduced a full color 5.6 Inch Super VGA (1024×600 211 PixelsPerInch) PDF reader. Plays movies and music and Adobe PDF eBooks. You turn the pages using the rubber button on the side. Like the Sony eReader this thing can use SD cards. With all this multi-functionality and color too with the current Japanese price it would translate to a relatively cheap US $350.00.
Unlike the Sony eReader the screen can be reversed easily for ease of use by both right handed and left handed readers. The Wordsgear measures 105mm X 152mm X 28.4mm (4.1 x 6.0 x 1.1 in.) and weighs 325g (0.71 lb.)
Right now there is only one English web site carrying it since it is only out in Japan and who by the way use a unique form of DRM’d PDF. So if you do not read Japanese Manga please wait. But… when this comes out goodbye Sony and so long Kindle.
Look, pretty silver case, single black rubber button, color screen!!!
Shiny! Japan always has the coolest stuff first.
Even though Sharp were the leaders in sharp, small screen technology, they managed to fritter it away. I was only bitching about that to J, my DH, yesterday. If Sharp had stayed on the ball, we’d have sub-$200 ebook readers by now, I’m convinced of it.
So the next company I tend to watch is Panasonic. Sony, to my mind, has lost innovation and is too inflexible re: its rights managements. And Apple…don’t get me started on those thieves! So, for reliable, mass-market, I always look to Panasonic. Thinking of buying one of their ruggedi(s/z)ed laptops for J. Happy days!
Say, Teddy, you wouldn’t happen to know what o/s that cute little Panasonic e-reader is using? Must be a small-footprint Linux…?
[drools]
*That* might actually tempt me, especially if it’s something you can use as a PDA as well. Though Charlie Stross has been squeeing about the Asus Eee, which comes in at around the same price.
Oh Please! The ASUS Eee might be cool if you got the 8G which has enough memory to run XP decently so that you could have all the eBook Readers that support DRM.
The cheap models and that is why people like these only runs Linux well and Linux has none of the big DRM eBook Readers.
That’s the thing to remember and why I am interested in this Panasonic is it is built to read Adobe PDF so there is a good chance it will support that DRM.
Unlike say Sony with it own new special format that no one sells yet and Kindle that you can only buy eBooks from Amazon in again it’s special format.
I will take a look at the ASUS 8G though that is interesting to a gadget freak like me. For $500 dollars that is not bad.
There was another one floating around asia - it came in two sizes even. Can’t think who was the manufacturer is, though. I just remember one of the photos I’ve seen it was pink.
Now if only we can get everywhere else in the world to pick up some of the Asian products instead of insisting on devising their own. I’d just love for one gadget to do everything - but hubby thinks I’m nuts for saying that if he designed it he’d be a rich rich man.
Remember I’m a freak who is more interested in a word processer and web browser that can also read ebooks than the other way around. And if it’s DRM, I’m not buying the book anyway. But the eee looked to me like an easy way to play with a *nix system without giving up the Thinkpad loaded with WinXP Pro. (I was brought up on RTS and VMS, so I don’t have the automatic worship of Linux that some people do.)
I have been looking up more information Jules. Using nlite to create a stripped down XP build for installation on the ASUS Eee 8G might make this actually rock. The whole typing on this size keyboard may not do it for you though. I would wander over to Best Buy and give it a shot in person before plunking down the cash.
It’s not something I’m rushing out to buy, especially as I don’t really have a genuine need for a miniature laptop, and the UK price is a bit steep at the moment because the things have been so popular here. But I have quite small hands, and I can type on the Psion 5MX with reasonable ease. (The UK geek reaction to the Eee has been along the lines of “at last, a replacement for the Psion Netbook, only cheaper.”) So if I feel a desperate urge to play with a Linux box, the Eee looks like an interesting prospect. The OLPC would be another interesting geektoy option, but I saw one of those at Westercon earlier this year, and I wasn’t enamoured of the screen.
Well if you go this route get a old XP license and install from someone and lookup nlite and xplite. Both those will help you make a small XP install and then just add Microsoft Word and away you go.
Thanks for that suggestion — I can almost certainly get an XP licence off someone. Though it won’t be Word for me, as I’ve been using Lotus Smartsuite from way back when it was Ami Pro for the word processor. :-)
Say, Teddy, you wouldn’t happen to know what o/s that cute little Panasonic e-reader is using?
This thing is playing AAC and WMA files and the quirky Japanese DRM is called SD-ePublish.
I would say this is running Windows CE maybe.