Telecom Italia and Polymer Vision have announced the latest in e-Readers called the “Cellular-Book.” More details are expected next week at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, but for now we have pictures and general information to give you an idea of what to expect.
Initially, this “Cellular-Book” will only be available in the Italian market. What makes it unique is that it features a roll-able, foldable display. The reader can extend all the way to five inches for easy reading and viewing, yet folds up to a small device around the size of a cell phone.
With the rollable display you can read newspapers, electronic books, RSS feeds, even your email. There are 16-levels of gray which makes reading the content easy on the eyes. Later versions of the product are expected to incorporate color. Additionally, it has the ability to download and play music, audiobooks, and podcasts. It takes only one hand to navigate and control your device, and even more impressive is that you can use the device for around 10 days of average use between charges.
Using a mini-USB slot, you can connect to a PC so that you can enable wireless broadband data connections. In order to download maps, email, and music, it connects to a GSM data network. Storing e-books and other content isn’t a problem with 4GB (and up) of built-in storage space. Unfortunately, like other electronic readers, the Cellular-Book does not have a back-light which means you need to have good lighting conditions to be able to read the content on the screen. This of course, is one of the reasons it has an impressive battery life.
There’s no word on what the pricing is going to be, and of course it’s limited availability for now will keep most of you from getting your hands on one. It’s due out later this year in Italy, and will hopefully make it’s way to the States.
Source: Thanks for the tip OldManDeath!
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This is just one example of the neat devices to come in the near future.
I am still looking forward (hoping) for the small computers for email, video, internet, like you always see the actors on Star Trek: The Next Generation carrying around.
You know, speaking of Star Trek, I’ve NEVER seen it. I hate to admit it, but it’s true.
If it was on Star Trek it would probably be a little thinner…about the size of a piece of paper.
i believe in star trek TNG the device was a rigid plastic tablet, more like a very flat lcd or something.
“true ” e-paper, which resembled a big slide (maybe not foldable, but definitely rollable), was shown on Babylon 5. but with limited budget, it always showed the same colored text.
as for back-light, i dont tend to see tv or read from the computer screen at total darkness anyway, so i wouldn’t might it much. and just thinking of the a mount of paper i will save on printing articles for uni to read them on the bus (since i do not have a laptop) makes me very happy.
i wonder if it has highlight and tiling option, so u can view multiple documents or different parts of documents at same time. that would be very cool.
It doesn’t look to be that big though, so being able to tile documents probably would leave them unreadable. Highlighting would be nice but only if the device was touch screen, otherwise it might be a little clunky trying to get the text highlighted. I don’t recall seeing any information on it being touchscreen though.
A guy can dream, no?
but even without all this, just maybe a simple bookmark option (per page or line) would be much better then everything else that is around. or at least smaller then anything around.