Plastic Logic's e-reader vs Amazon Kindle... fight! (updated with video)
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Sep 11th 2008 9:38AM
posted Sep 11th 2008 9:38AM
The kids at tgdaily have a hands-on video of Plastic Logic's biggie e-reader unveiled at DEMO earlier this week. With it, they've also nabbed a bit more information on this potential subscription-based, Kindle killer. The 7-mm thin reader connects via micro-USB to a PC to charge the unit or transfer documents. Documents can also be transferred over WiFi or Bluetooth (no cellular radio?) -- the reader can even communicate wirelessly with other readers to transfer documents. The 8.5- x 11-inch touchscreen allows for gesture control, as we heard, with the added bonus of quick and easy on-screen annotation of any supported media type such as Word docs, PowerPoint slides, or PDFs. Plastic Logic says they don't plan to compete with Kindle directly, instead, it's targeting business mobile professionals with "a lot of documents already," not those who will get all their content from the Amazon store.
Of course, a variety of leaks have already made it clear that Amazon's not exactly standing still with its Kindle reader with larger and more, eh hem, attractive models in the works. Sony, too, is planning a special Reader-based event next month. So... is 2009 shaping up to be the death of print? Oh hells no -- but it's certainly getting a lot more interesting.
Update: DEMO launch video showing a complete walkthough of a prototype device now posted after the break.
Of course, a variety of leaks have already made it clear that Amazon's not exactly standing still with its Kindle reader with larger and more, eh hem, attractive models in the works. Sony, too, is planning a special Reader-based event next month. So... is 2009 shaping up to be the death of print? Oh hells no -- but it's certainly getting a lot more interesting.
Update: DEMO launch video showing a complete walkthough of a prototype device now posted after the break.
Without a doubt and with all logic and honest human thinking, ANYTHING other than that fugly Kindle is a better device. I have never hated a designs in my life as much as I did for the Kindle.
So great job Logic, what a piece of art! Clean and a breath of fresh air AND super amazing features! I would pay anything for that thing. :)
Yeh, the WiFi and Bluetooth are particularly amazing. How do they pack all that into such a thin body?
It's because the actual screen part of the device is so ridiculously thin.
Have a look at this youtube video, linked off their site.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYc4dnVs4RM&feature=related
Thanks ahdok, that's a great video. I love the shoe-smashing comparison. It's reassuring to know that, if necessary, I can perform tribal rain-dances on top of my e-reader. It's something that's always irked me about laptops.
The hardware is attractive (and it admittedly looks amazing), but content is king as far as non-business use is concerned, and PL admit they have no near-term plans to provide content for this. I'd love to read a novel on this in some kind of portrait mode, but the fact is that the only novels you can get are either out of copywrite/public-domain books or the limited selection the torrent community has transcribed.
That shoe thing was so fake, they gently touch it with a shoe and it's OK, then they hammer a LCD and it's not OK, yeah thanks for that demonstration.
Great video! You *can* see a screen glitch at 0:10 when they lay it flat again. But that's expected.
THIS is the one for textbooks. The fugly Kindle and (beautiful) Reader simply have too small of screens. They're both great for paperbacks -- they're paperback sized! -- but this is textbook sized. And you can zoom all you want but "hassle" and "I need to see ALL the math equations on the page" pretty much kill that idea.
Looking forward to this. Still a year or two before it hits Universities I suspect. But hack your math book DRM and you've payed for your $700.00 device in two semesters!
-Pie
This is finally the product that students and academia have been waiting for.
8.5 X 11 is ideal for textbooks (although somewhat smallish for some textbooks) and it is also ideal for most research journals (although lack of color makes it less than ideal).
I really hope they allow some sort of stylus input rather than the crude finger tapping for simple annotating.
Micro-USB? Ah drat. That means I would have to pack another "unitasker" cable. (at least until micro-USB becomes as popular as it "Mini" counterpart)
Now the addition of WiFi sounds intriguing though. I wonder if the device will feature some sort of web browser? I suppose even if it didn't, the homebrew community wouldn't be far behind with a solution.
Micro USB is rapidly becoming the new cellphone connector standard. Didn't Engadget and/or Gizmodo cover an agreement by the various major cellphone makers that they would move to one common connector - micro USB? I know Motorola and LG have already started along this path.
D.
You could always pack a plug adapter instead of a separate cable. Or, just get more micro USB devices. They're all over the place.
There's only one way to find out.....FIGHT!
Harry Hill FTW!
so.. let's see when the first troll comes along, nagging for color screen and ability to play movies
LOL, I'm no troll, but a colour screen shouldn't be too far away. LG Philips were demonstrating colour e-paper more than a year ago.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/14/lg-philips-announces-a4-color-e-paper/
As to movies, probably not, as the refresh rate of e-paper is slow.
I believe they said color screens were 3-5 years away.
@Mario
Showing color eInk in a lab is one thing. Getting it to the mass production stage is a whole different matter. It took almost three decades to bring the Electrophoretic display (eInk) itself to the market. (Of course I doubt it'll take remotely as long for color)
"Plastic Logic says they don't plan to compete with Kindle directly..."
huh? if this thing priced on par with Kindle, they are not compete with Kindle directly... it's Kindle which compete with Plastic Logic directly.
But Kindle is mostly a novel reader. It's size makes it more convenient to carry around casually. The size of this device on the other hand makes it far more ideal as a document reader.
Also the kindle does the wireless tie-in with their shop, and unfortunately it has its own closed format, this company says it uses an open format for the files, and supports PDF without any travel through somebody's website.
So it makes sense, kindle for shopping for books and buying them remotely, this one for reading your previously aquired stuff.
I do wonder about the price though, factory in germany, target audience business people, it all sounds like it's not going to be cheap at all.
It certainly is much bigger than the Kindle. Downside is it's gonna be harder to take along with you. Either way, I still want one.
I guess if you can fit an A4-paper in your bag, you can fit this reader too.
Looks more like it's competing against the iliad due to it's screen size.
Yeah, that's true. Problem is, my bags are always so full of other crap I need to tote around already. I guess I'll have to rearrange some things. I'll definitely be getting one though, I want a good e-reader, and this looks to fit the bill.
It's the sort of thing I'd find a way to take with even if I already have a heavy-ass bag. This thing would be great for academic reading too-- and they cited one of the issues preventing others from functioning well directly: screen size. This has it covered. w00t!
I still want one of these...
I must know the price of this!
Me too, I want a price!
This is going to be very very expensive, particularly if they're aiming it as the business market.
Engadget, I'm surprised! I thought it would be Plastic Logic's E-Reader vs iPhone 3G... fight!
Dear Amazon,
Please release the Kindle in the UK.
Yours sincerely,
Me
Dear Amazon,
Please release a Kindle that isn't totally hideous.
Dear Amazon,
Please make available Plastic Logic's e-reader instead.
Thanks,
Me
Dear Amazon,
Please release a Plastic Logic e-reader in paperback size in Norway.
Yours sincerely,
Me
Dear Amazon,
I second the above comment from Isindil.
anticipating a positive answer,
Me
Ok I will be the one to say I would LIKE color support, and the ability to view jpg's in a compressed format (CBR support would be nice..yeah COMICS alright!)
Other than that I would like to see this thing come out under $400 so it can fully compete on price
I won't be buying one these until I'm able to read my comics in color.
Reading an ebook on the PDA is a pain, and who the phuck wants to walk around with the amazon brick aka Kindle? this is the kind of technology that people understand right away. Put this thing at price point of under $199 and I will never buy another paper book again..except for porn..sometimes you need a tactile response ;)
Not competing with Kindle + aimed at business professionals = ultra expensive
Do not expect this thing to launch at the same price as Kindle.
What I'm hearing is that the Plastic Logic Reader will be priced competitively with the Kindle...
The major missing peice in all these readers is waterproof, sand/dust and shock proofing until then a books the better option!
Ziplock baggies for the win!! Thats what I use with my Kindle. Its not like you can't turn the page through a ziplock bag or turn the switches in the back on and off.
Ugly or not, the Kindle is the greatest gadget I have owned, with my Iphone and my Kindle I never lack for entertainment.
I don't remember buying any books recently that were water-proof and I've personally never wrapped any of my electronics in Ziplock baggies, but I seem to do okay. Where the hell are you two doing all of your reading? In the shower?
The beach?
Yeh I know, what's a book worth if you can take it for a dive....
Skinny dippin' and knowledge go hand in hand.
The whole point of this device using a flexible display is to make it shock proof (or at least resistant). And as Tod mentioned, a regular old zipper bag will protect it from the sand and water.
Waterproof?? None of my paper books are waterproof, none of my mobiles are waterproof and none of my laptops are waterproof?? Do you really need to read while swimming!!!
For all those hoping this will be cheap can probably forget about it. Should be more in range with the Iliad pricing, which is ~$800 I think. ($600 for ebook edition and $700 for the 2.0 ver, just looked it up)
Sony and Amazon will remain the cheapest. I'm honestly holding out until one of these companies can hit the $150-$199 mark.
You don't know yet what it'll be, but as I said; with factories in germany and targeting business people I expect they expect it to be not so low either, now if the factory was in taiwan or poland or some other former east-block place then maybe, but seeing it's all such new technology for them it might be wise to start in a place where there's people with enough expertise so they can fix issues and once the bugs are ironed out expand with some factory in a country that are expert in cheap bulk.
On the other hand they ARE competing with the kindle on some level so they can't push the price up too much.
I`m waiting for the roll-up screen display ..
that picture of the "factory" in germany looks totally photoshopped (or is it "after effected" in video ??). The Plastic Logic sign looks like is coming off the page.
That thing is cool... and much nicer than Amazon's Kindle...
Plastic Logic's biggie e-reader. I need this right now! Transferring documents via my cell phone. The world would be at my door. Where can I get one?
Any ebook reader needs to have some type of way to write in the margin or right on the page. Books and Newspapers let you do this and are still cheaper.
I just hope that this accelerates the obsolescence of news print.......in 2008 it is so wasteful. The idea that a one-time usage would eat up so much in the way of resources, it's unacceptable and antiquated now.
http://chinesezodiacmarriagecombinations.com
This presenter reminded me why Apple is so successful these days. Although this seems to be a great product, the presenter doesn't seem very enthusiastic about it. And he tried to hide that little mishap when the item didn't respond to his touch. He said something like "touch it the right way." Guess what, I didn't see any buttons at all. Did he said anything about that? No. Why not? That's a great selling point for a lot of people. And, when he concludes, he says "well that's it." You never want to say that whenever you're trying to sell a product.
Why did I compare this presenter to Steve Jobs? Because love him or hate him, Jobs could sell you a cardboard box and you'd feel special about it. I'm not saying anything about Apple products. But, Jobs' selling skills are what has brought Apple from its stale deathbed it was lying in to very successful company. Suddenly the MP3 markets woke up, and so did the cellphone services. Again, you can love or hate Apple all you want, but you can't deny Jobs' ability and talent to sell you anything.
What will all the college bookstores do when students can download their textbooks? Those poor people at the book return, waiting to give you that $10 voucher for the $500 worth of books that you bought 4 months earlier.
How embarrassing that the one they show in the demo video has a series of blown-out scanlines...
It's a prototype - little glitches are more easily overlooked at this phase.
D.
We need a price for this!
It wold be fantastic if they added a Wacom digitizer to it, so we could draw on that thing. I love my tablet PC, but it has too much glare, is a bit heavy, and runs too warm. I've been dreaming of e-paper for 20 years now, I'm glad to see it coming true gradually. Just finish it by adding a pen to it already!
The iRex Iliad (http://www.irextechnologies.com/products) has a digitizer built-in. Smaller (A5 size), but this may be an advantage for some.
The problem with this thing is that there won't be content for it, it will be primarily aimed for corporate and educational use with materials generated for it along with the reading of .pdf and .word files.
As the HD format wars proved, content trumps quality. People want the ability to buy a cheap download book quickly and have it on the device ready to read in a matter of minutes.
Hopefully though Amazon will take the hint and come out with a Kindle (and soon) that doesn't look like a Coleco football game from the 1980's.
Remember to rumors of a new Kindle this fall, that Amazon squashed? Maybe, just maybe, Kindle 2 will be this! Plastic Logic may be focusing on the business world because they have a 1000 lb gorilla (Amazon) as a partner that will be targeting the retail world. PL stated that the product will be formally announced at the start of next year, which might be a good timeline match to Amazon's "no new Kindle this fall" comments.
D.
This is way too big to be a Kindle 2. As I mentioned in a reply to another post, the Kindle's size makes it more convenient to carry around. You can even stow it in a purse, glove box, etc.
welcome to the social
If these guys make a smaller version as well (which should be fairly easy) then lets say good bye to kindle
Since the demo only talks about business use, and Plastic logic doesn't talk about competing directly with the Kindle maybe this ereader will be priced really high.
LOL. The definition of "irony" at 1:35. Good one guy.
I quite liked 4:25 :)
The simple idea to read in a Slime Plastic Awesome Microdevice without Spam it's so cool...wait
price? dont care, sign me up for one. clean curves, thin, large screen, PDF support, I sooo want one.
I love it how he expects his device to be praised as if it was an ipod.
"Isn't this cool?........... (chuckle)"
lol!!
Hey Plastic Logic, throw in a stylus so I can scribble over stuff, along with a really good note taking app, and you won't be able to stop me from buying this.
Agreed... if it was reasonably priced and comes with some sort of "notebook" app (onenote-like app comes to mind) it would be neat. I also hope that we can write more neatly (with a stylus) that those broad strokes shown.
Amazon can simply buy this firm.
NICE!!! That was a really cool product!
Jason, HD wars? what are you talking about? Blueray came out the winner. Look at all the polls people wanted blueray and, by most, its considered a better product. Oh right and Microsoft is a big company too, and vista crashed on the first public showing.
At 5:55 he says "since we have a full touch screen I can just touch the display and markup." By the way did anyone notice the key word here ....open format, i cant wait to hack this thing, ill make my own keyboard if necessary, but i really think it already implemented by the time of release.
Thanks ahdok, that's a great video. I love the shoe-smashing comparison. It's reassuring to know that, if necessary, I can perform tribal rain-dances on top of my e-reader. It's something that's always irked me about laptops.http://www.discountgolfclubsnow.com,http://www.cheapshoesreview.com,http://www.worldhairproducts.com Reading an ebook on the PDA is a pain, and who the phuck wants to walk around with the amazon brick aka Kindle? this is the kind of technology that people understand right away. Put this thing at price point of under $199 and I will never buy another paper book again..except for porn..sometimes you need a tactile response ;)
Thanks ahdok, that's a great video. I love the shoe-smashing comparison. It's reassuring to know that, if necessary, I can perform tribal rain-dances on top of my e-reader. It's something that's always irked me about laptops.http://www.discountgolfclubsnow.com,http://www.cheapshoesreview.com,http://www.worldhairproducts.com Reading an ebook on the PDA is a pain, and who the phuck wants to walk around with the amazon brick aka Kindle? this is the kind of technology that people understand right away. Put this thing at price point of under $199 and I will never buy another paper book again..except for porn..sometimes you need a tactile response ;)