E-book readers may have been around for a while, but none of them have been
able to offer features beyond that of being a paper replacement until now. Enter
the Readius; a Windows CE powered e-book reader that goes beyond being just an
e-book reader. The Readius comes from Polymer Vision, the inventor of rollable
displays.
What makes the Readius such a powerful device is that it’s not just an e-book
reader; it’s a mobile phone, a productivity tool, an entertainment device, and a
portal that connects the user to the vast information found on the internet.
Polymer Vision announced that the Readius will be ready for commercial launch
by mid 2008. The new Readius will feature the versatility of rollable displays
to merge the ‘reading friendly’ strengths of e-readers with the ‘high mobility’
features of mobile phones. Together with the Readius internet portal, designed
for personalization and content selection, the company offers a whole new mobile
phone category.
The Readius is a 3G/3.5G (HSDPA) tri-band phone designed to work with GSM
networks around the world. The high speed connectivity feature allows for
instant updates from personally selected news sources, special services and
email. The Readius also features audio capabilities (such as MP3) for podcasts,
audio books and music. It comes with a Micro SD High Capacity storage slot which
accepts Micro SDHC cards of up to 8GB in capacity – that’s a lot of e-books and
audio books to keep you entertained for a long time.
The Readius features a 5-inch QVGA (320x240 pixels) rollable display. While
the current design is limited to 16 shades of grey, Polymer Vision says that an
8-inch colored version is in the works and will be available in about 5-years
time.
The Readius is powered by a 400MHz ARM11 processor backed with 128MB of RAM
and 256MB of internal storage. Running on the robust Windows CE platform, it
aims to offer a plethora of features never before experienced from an e-book
reader.
Designed around ease of use and mobility, the Readius features a unique
8-button interface which Polymer Vision calls Simple Touch buttons. It has a
battery life of 30 hours for continuous active reading, and comes works on a USB
2,0 connection for PC or Mac connectivity. It also comes with Bluetooth 2.0 EDR
for connecting the Readius to Bluetooth headsets and keyboards. Other
communications features include standard POP3 and IMAP mail which also supports
others email such as Yahoo! Mail, Gmail and Microsoft Exchange.
- Weight: One third the average weight of e-readers (115g)
- Display size: Twice the surface area of current largest phone display
(5” diagonal, 16 greyscales)
- Device size: Equal to an average mobile phone when closed (115 x 57 x
21mm)
- Battery life: Up to six times longer than on mobile phones (30 hours
continuous reading)
- Connectivity: Greatest coverage of any e-reader (Tri Band/3G HSDPA)
Supporting ActiveSync and USB mass storage (USB 2.0) Communication with
accessories and other devices (Bluetooth 2.0)
- Processor: Powerful processing engine (ARM11 400MHz)
- Storage: Flexible, today commercially available up to 8GB (High Capacity
Micro SD)
- User Interface: Just 8 buttons (SimpleTouch Buttons)
While Polymer Vision seems to be certain that the Readius will be released in the middle of 2008 in Italy under Telecom Italia, no price has been announced yet.
