http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/ Engadget Comments for Panasonic's Word Gear e-book reader in the wild http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/
Last week I was sitting in the park in full sunlight, reading Henry Carey's "Letters on International Copyright" (Gutenberg e-etext #14295) on my Palm Zire. I felt the sun on my skin, which reminded me that allegedly some very few people cannot read from LCD screens when sitting outdoors. So I tried to hold my Zire at an angle that would make the text unreadable. I could not.

The only way to make the screen unreadable was to reflect the sun directly on the plastic protective screen of the Zire. But of course any E-ink device will have the same problem. E-ink can be damaged by contact with water, so it needs a plastic or glass screen on top of the e-paper layer.
]]>Oct 3rd 2006 3:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/
Ugh. ]]>Oct 3rd 2006 2:16PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/Oct 3rd 2006 10:55AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/Oct 3rd 2006 11:00AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/Oct 3rd 2006 11:10AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/
Could this be another case of adult content fueling technological progress???

;)]]>Oct 3rd 2006 2:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/
any device with scantily clad women is more appealing than a device with a mac mini, ipod or cellphone pic in it.]]>Oct 3rd 2006 12:08PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/Oct 3rd 2006 12:24PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/
And the world is just.. too smart for its own good. keep on inventing on the smallest unecessary things. ]]>Oct 3rd 2006 1:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/Oct 3rd 2006 1:49PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/
One question: Formats? Will it read PDFs? DJVU files? CHM? What? Guess I'll have to do all the research myself.]]>Oct 3rd 2006 3:39PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/http://saidoku.com/] won't easily translate in babel fish (embedded text in images) but it does mention it plays AAC audio and MPEG4 video, but avoids any extensions when it comes to other file formats.]]>Oct 3rd 2006 4:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/Oct 3rd 2006 6:15PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/Oct 3rd 2006 6:55PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/
For those of your ignorant of Japan, the book with the bikini gal is an idol photo book. Usually no nudity, just a lot of semi-nude pose. Perfectly legal for anyone under age of 13. Oh yeah, the Japanese aren't prudes like Engadget; no one cares if there's a little skin here and there. Nn hentai porn for the sexually-confused commenters here; sorry.

Going to the official site you can see that they've listed the Kiminozo light novel as an launch title... very nice. This will definately get the gadget otaku buying the device. Just that one title will gaurantee buzz for the device. The rest are okay.. mostly Otaku manga titles and Japanese prose best sellers. They need a killer-app for this device, and it's probably going to be some major language studying title; the Japanese love to spend their free time on useful things like learning. But from the zashinhon and light novel titles, they are gearing this thing squarely at the Otakus. Might as well have that girl on the cover wear a maid uniform.]]>Oct 3rd 2006 8:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/panasonics-word-gear-e-book-reader-in-the-wild/
haha gotto love these kinda dudes, can write a whole para with no meaningful point in it. ]]>Oct 3rd 2006 9:33PM