Upstart company Interead is looking to jump into the ever-expanding library of
e-book readers with its debut, the COOL-ER. Company founder Neil Jones describes it as the "iPod moment that e-readers have been waiting for," calling the device the first of its kind to be designed specifically for the non-technologically inclined reader in mind. Indeed, the aesthetics seems to borrow liberally from the iPod nano, and features eight different color options. It weighs in at 6.3 ounces, or a little less than half of the Kindle 2, with the same 6-inch e-ink screen, and is small enough to fit comfortably in your jacket pocket, he says. It's got 1GB internal memory and a SD card slot, as well as a 2.5mm headphone jack with a 3.5mm converter bundled with every device. The feature set is pretty barebones, with no keyboard, text-to-speech, WiFi, or
Whispernet equivalent -- all files have to be loaded via USB or SD card -- but in its place is a more attractive $250 MSRP, and Jones assures us at that price the company'll be making a profit on each unit sold. Format support includes EPUB, TXT, JPEG, any kind of PDF, MP3 for audio, and eight languages including Russian and traditional / simplified Chinese. The company's also launching an e-book store and offering an extra discount for customers who register their COOL-ER. It'll go on sale May 29th for US and Europe via its website, with retail distribution partner expected to be announced closer to the launch date. We're gonna wait until we get a few chapters into
Alice in Wonderland before giving a final verdict, but in the meantime, check out our initial hands-on in the gallery below.
Read - Product page
Read - Online store
posted May 14th 2009 9:22AM
just because you make it with colorful metal, and slap a circular wheel, doesn't make you Cool....er
At least the "Power" icon inside the screen looks like a sperm :-P....maybe that makes them cooler :-P.
Whoops, click on the picture to enlarge reveals what looks like a "tail" to be actually tiny text that says "off".
Add WiFi and a touchscreen, sell it for $199 and watch em fly off the shelves.
@sweet greggo
Add wifi, touchscreen and the price will already skyrocket. Or the company will not receive profit and will go bankrupt, leaving you with no service.
If its as contrasty as it looks on the pictures and as cheap as $250, its going to be my first e-book! These are the only two things that stopped me from getting one.
Jeez. I don't *want* a touchscreen on my e-reader!
I have an iPod touch, and an Amazon Kindle 2. While touch-screen is handy for what the iPod does, it would be annoying on the Kindle because it would end up getting smudges and fingerprints on the display. I'm trying to READ on my e-reader, and it would drive me absolutely nuts to have smudges on the display. The whole point of the Kindle is to have the book NOT seem like it's on a screen... And it succeeds at that.
To make it a touchscreen, you have to make it glossy (actually cover the e-ink with a glossy screen) and that would simply suck. There are already plenty of people complaining that they got the touchscreen Sony instead of the older model, because it's NOT GOOD FOR READING.
I have yet to come across a decent novel that requires colored ink.
People who want a touch screen, color, and a ton of other capabilities don't want an e-reader; They want a tablet PC. Those already exist! Go get one. Go read your manga on something that is better suited to it.
You can buy wifi dongles for 10 bux now, so how hard can it be to add wifi without making it that more expensive heh, so I agree, add wifi
The only issue is the software though, damn hard to find a decent coder to add the wifi driver/firmware and have it be useful, no idea why it's so hard, but we all know it must be seeing how often stuff is poorly done due to software shortcomings.
@ZeroCorpse
I completely agree! I currently have a KIndle 1 (didn't see any reason to upgrade) and the thing is damn near perfect for what I want to do with it, read books. What about having a touch screen would make it any easier to navigate? Is it really that hard to use the scroll wheel? Ever since the iPhone/iPod Touch came out everybody wants EVERYTHING to be touch this and touch that when in reality it makes very little sense to add touch capabilities to many things. That's not a rag on any touch phone, btw as I do think the technology is wonderful in a phone environment. In an e-book reader however, it just seems pointless.
As for color, I can understand why some would want it for newpapers, but really is there anything else that people would want colored e-ink for? Everything I read on my Kindle is a book and that requires no color at all. Maybe if they get a decent RSS feed reader for reanding Engadget via my kindle I can understand the desire for color e-ink.
On topic: I think these e-books look pretty good. Maybe Amazon should start taking notes because, while I love my Kindle, the thing isn't the prettiest girl at the prom and I definitely would have preferred a black Kindle as opposed to my current white one.
Nice. They should have been building these things years ago for reading books and newspapers.
@ZeroCorpse: I completely agree with you.
Just the other day I was just thinking how I'd really like to get one of these e-book readers but they may still be a bit too expensive for me. Not to mention that I'd also love to have some kind of similar light device that's not a full blown tablet laptop (i.e. it has no keyboard, device is just in one piece... there was some prototype in the news recently however I can't remember it's name...) but allows me, in a similar form factor to use it for light browsing and other light computing needs. That device would need to have WiFi and a color touch screen. At this moment, when e-ink technology is not so widespread getting both devices would simply be too expensive so I'd probably go with a tablet-like one which I'd use even for reading. Too bad because I'd really enjoy having an e-book reader like this one.
I like it. If they could get it to £100, I would buy it.
It will more likely cost about £200 including VAT.
I think it's tempting at the current price. I only wish they didn't try so hard and fail at being cool (I mean they call their colors "Vivid Violet, Cool Pink, Racing Green" and so on). Also does anyone know how fast the refresh rate is?
Why a 2.5mm jack? What possible reason could you have for plugging in a mobile phone headset in there? I'm not terribly hurt at the loss of audio on an ebook reader, but I want to see the 2.5mm jack killed for good.
Yes! There are uses for 2.5mm headsets, I guess, but for the vast, vast, vast majority of cases, and pretty much anything consumer oriented, why oh why wouldn't you use 3.5mm?
What iPod moment?
I doubt that iPods made a market. They just take part in an existing market.
The iPod moment likely refers to the introduction of the iPod to the small and young mp3 player market. Before the iPod, the only large-capacity player was the Creative Nomad. Apple came in with a simple and pretty device at just the right time and it was huge. Some would even argue that it saved the company.
And no, I'm not some Apple fanboy. I actually disliked the only iPod that I ever bothered owning. But that doesn't mean I don't appreciate what the iPod did for the mp3 player market.
I would hardly consider that a moment, but I think you are right. about the reference.
I think he meant that when you first see it, you spend a moment thinking 'What the heck is this? Some kind of bloated iPod?'
Although this price is nicer, it's still about same as 20 expensive books. When I can buy one for the price of 5 books, I'll give it some serious though.
Thats a ridiculous comment. I think you'd have to be socially numb to have totally missed the cultural significance of the creation of the iPod. An entire generation are more bothered about getting an iPod than any other MP3 player. Whatever anti-establishment view you may have is fair enough, and it doesn't HAVE to be your favorite brand, but to deny the fact that it is probably the most significant musical invention of the 21st century is plain ignorant.
... never mind the fact that you've got an icon ripped from the style of an iPod ad....
@Watchface
Mostly because they don't know of the existence of any other mp3 players, Apple may have brought the mp3 player to the mass market but now the majority of their lineup is under performing, over priced with a sub-par feature list. However what they lack in features/quality/price they make up for in advertising, they're probably one of the few/only mp3 makers to actually produce TV ads whereas most other makers either don't or only do tiny amounts of advertising around poster campaigns or something.
Add on top of that, that most people have bought a few songs from iTunes and don't wish to lose their music to switch to another player and you have a generation with the mindset that "This is the only player that exists, and all my music is specifically for this player so I won't bother looking for the hundreds of better alternatives", a pretty good business model (if a little anti-competitive).
@Watchface
I have an iPod Touch. It's an awesome player, but its not revolutionary in any way. My point is that I don't think that the iPod has revolutionized the market and I think that the pocket digital audioplayer would be just as widely spread now even if there was no iPod. All former walkman and discman owners would switch anyway.
Finally!! Now how do I load Crysis on it?
Convert to .doc and copy to SD?
You'll never hear from these guys again. They're still way too expensive to be attractive to anyone but the most extreme reading enthusiasts, and it most definitely is NOT easier to use than the Kindle because you have to download your own files and load them on through USB. How is that easier than typing the name of an author on your device and clicking on Buy?
Also, these look more like the iPod Mini than the iPod Nano to me.
Most people load music and movies via USB, is a text document really that much of a pain?
These look more like iPod Giga to me...
I think Wifi and 3g on a book reader is overrated (and so are the monthly fees). The complexity of the model is based on the fact that amazon wants to charge you fees for every single "service" they provide.
I'd much rather connect it to my computer, and put my own files on it the way I like it (without the $0.10 fee for a file attachments, screw you amazon).
If these prove to be functional and durable they might be an excellent choice for feild service techs and the like that need to carry around a set of service manuals, diagrams and schematics. A lot cheaper and smaller than a notebook, and hopefully easy to read.
Maybe so in US. But what about the rest of the world? Last time I checked Kindle wasn't available where I live and I'll be perfectly fine without WiFi on my e-book reader. I like the simplicity of this device and if I can easily connect it to my Linux as a USB storage and add files, that would be enough for me.
winner
Fail. I hope Apple sues them and gets nothing out of it.
I really hope those are just mockup screens on there. If the company can't even spell-check their product shots, that doesn't bode well for the overall quality of the product.
"RENDOM"
"MULTI-MEDIA" (I don't think anyone has hyphenated multimedia since 1993)
And i hope the justified text in the e-book is not the device's default way of displaying text. Flush-left, rag-right is much easier to read.
For the "non technology minded" but you need to plug it into a computer to get the ebooks into it. I think the Kindle is actually made for non technology minded individuals as its easier to load books into it.
I really hate to admit that any idea was stolen from Apple, but this thing?
I'd be embarrassed to show it in public. It looks like a KIRF iPod with a glandular disorder.
i really wish consumers and companies focused more on fundtion then form..Id much rather have a device that works perfectly. with these dives your not paying for looks. Its a low rez screen for plain text. how different can it look?
Seriously what the hell should any of you care?
You get to use any text format that you could want, plus the ability to expand the memory as far as you want.
But you dont want one because some douche will think it looks too much like an iPod?
Really?????
Jesus, some of you have just gone off the deep end. You are the frigging consumer! Not the tech fashion police.
Bring it here, I'll buy the damn thing. I'm way too old to give a damn about what the other "kids" think of my purchases.
@Look_Around_You
You perhaps make a valid point; if you don't care what anyone else thinks, you should go ahead and buy it.
However, in my experience, a poorly copied design belies a poorly written interface, which I care about a great deal more.
Also, I think you *do* care what we think. Otherwise, why are you reading (and responding to) these comments?
Finally, it's an interesting belittlement, but I seriously doubt any of us reading this are 'kids'. The people whose opinions concern me are my peers; if they don't respect my technology purchasing decisions, they may not respect me. I know I think less of a fellow geek who buys the bottom-of-the-barrel technology. When you have few factors on which to evaluate a person's competence, you must make use of the visible attributes.
Or maybe I'm just not "too old to give a damn" like you.
"The people whose opinions concern me are my peers; if they don't respect my technology purchasing decisions, they may not respect me. I know I think less of a fellow geek who buys the bottom-of-the-barrel technology. When you have few factors on which to evaluate a person's competence, you must make use of the visible attributes.
Or maybe I'm just not "too old to give a damn" like you."
That is what is known as a child. And if this is how you behave in life, then yes, you are a child in every aspect of the word, as well as your "friends".
Any tool that uses a persons tech purchases as a barometer of their worth is a complete and utter idiot. There is NO gray area with this at all.
I know a man that works as an aerospace engineer. He still uses an old CD player for his music. Now let me compare that to you the gadget master. Self-centered, pompous boy who judges people based on some toy they picked up.
Gee I wonder who is the better person?
You are NO geek.
@Look_Around_You
Whoa, tiger! That's some very angry wording and personal attacks for what was meant to be a relatively placative comment. I'm sorry if I touched a nerve, but I really don't know why this raised your ire so much, it's just a variation on the old "maybe you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but you can't read every book in the store" argument.
In truth, I would be tempted to buy this device as well. I've been looking for a inexpensive, feature-simple eReader myself. But one look at this device tells me some very revealing things:
- They can't afford, or don't wish, to create a new, innovative design. They would rather copy. (nothing inherently wrong with that, but...)
- If they aren't willing to invest in physical design, it's unlikely they're investing in reliability and usability.
- I think it safe to assume they're counting on sales from people attracted to a familiar design, implying they don't trust the device to sell on its own merits.
- Some, if not all, consumers may buy this device for just that reason: it looks like something popular that they know.
None of this is absolute, of course. It's all speculation based on looks. But without buying and testing every device manufactured, I must base my decisions on what I know, and often, that is only how it looks. But looks can speak volumes, if carefully considered.
Consider your friend with his CD player - it has obviously passed the tests of time and usability, and that's very admirable. CD's also provide very high fidelity, and his constancy shows a respect for using what works best rather than jumping on the next-best-thing bandwagon. These are all very, very different from the conclusions about someone who buys the device in this article. Consider, for example, if he was using a brand new Hello Kitty MP3 player which provided abysmal sound and was fragile and difficult to use. Would it be legitimate to draw conclusions about his technical prowess from such a choice? Maybe, maybe not. But if it's all you had to go on...
Anyway, it's an interesting discussion, don't you think? Let me know if you'd like to continue it in email. We've cluttered up this article enough, methinks.
jesus fucking christ look_around_you you need to cool off there buddy.
lay off the teen angst.
i like the design of these much more then the Kindle. And the diff colors are pretty cool. I might buy one of these for my mom. her current e-reader is pretty old and clunky.. More products in the market are great.
Being in the UK the Kindle has never really interested me so I could easily live without 3G syncing and I'm not to fussed about WiFi. Would have been nice to have a touchscreen but otherwise I might acctually get this as my 1st e-reader!
If this had wifi and not such a painfully kirf-tastic navigation control I'd probably buy one. I bought a Kindle for my girlfriend and we both love it, but I'm not going to spend that much money on another one. Wifi would allow me to order/download books easily but should keep cost low enough.
If this had wifi and not such a painfully kirf-tastic navigation
control I'd probably buy one. I bought a Kindle for my girlfriend and
we both love it, but I'm not going to spend that much money on another
one. Wifi would allow me to order/download books easily but should
keep cost low enough.
this device seems great except it copies the ipod nano way to much. it does look like a giant spoof one.
this is to replace a book, do books have wifi and whisper net? no. do i need wifi on a black and white screen when i could use my phone or laptop? no. do i need to read the paper on it? no. Can i read a book on it? yes. can i easily transfer books to it? yes.
seems good to me, if i was getting an ebook reader i want to read books and pdfs on it i don't want whisper net so amazon can charge me to send my own files to my own device. usb works for everything else so it can work for my ebooks.
if the price is £150 or below i might actually get one, other ebooks are way to expensive.
"iPod moment..."
I guess it is just easier to steal another company's design then pay to have an original one.
Hey, if it aint broke...
The SD card support and landscape mode are nice. I hope that includes SDHC.
Unfortunately, their web site is all flash and no substance. No search, though? Sad panda.
Too bad the thing looks so damn gawdy.
I for one think it is darn sexy. Its always nice to see a device that combines aesthetic value and function. The kindle looks cheap and it has too many features (I dont want to annotate my books), and why would I want a keyboard on an e-book reader? I personally would rather just download books to my SD cards. That way I could easily share them with my wife without having to actually trade readers. Plus we cant get the kindle in Canada anyway. I really cant get over how cheap the kindle looks though (the keyboard doesn't help). This may not be "the product" but it is a step in the right direction.
But, can it reflow PDF? That's the one gripe I have about my PRS-500.... And no way to I want to deal with Amazon's draconian policies.
@seveng "And no way to I want to deal with Amazon's draconian policies."
Which draconian policies?
Letting you transfer books to your Kindle via USB for free?
Offering an optional conversion and wireless transfer service for 15 cents per megabyte (books are typically 200-400K)
Directly reading AZW, MOBI, PRC, TXT, JPEG, GIF files.
Offering free conversion services for DOC, RTF, HTM, & PDF files (in case you don't want to do it yourself with free tools like Mobipocket & Calibre).
Letting you get books from a large number of non-Amazon bookstores?
Shocking!
What I think he's saying is that he's afraid to send the PDF e-books he pirated off of torrent to Amazon's conversion service, because their "draconian" policy of supporting their customers (consumers, publishers, and authors) might lead him to getting caught with something he didn't pay for.
Never fear, though. Calibre is free and will convert your PDF or LIT books to MOBI no matter where you acquired them. You need not subject yourself to Amazon's free service if you don't want to.
I love my Kindle... But then, I'm a reader. I get the feeling that half of the guys complaining about it here are just looking for something to read downloaded manga on, and they're just not the target audience.
If they can get this in stores like Wally Marts and get the price to $199, Kindle will be gone..
I would say this is the first e-reader I would actually consider buying. I mean, I considered the Kindle until I saw the price tag, but for this, I considered it, then saw the price tag, then sort-of considered it again.
If it were under $175 I would probably pull the trigger right away, but we'll see.
Wow.
The first ACTUAL iPod ripoff, and not one "IPOD RIPOFF" post?
Are the Apple fanboys asleep this morning?
so if someone says that thing looks like an ipod, they are immediately an apple fanboy???
i think it looks like a kindle... IM A KINDLE FAN BOY
If it is the iPod moment for e-readers, why does it have a very old scroll wheel? And what you you need a scroll wheel on such a unit for? Seems its placed in a pretty bad spot. Your palm will be scrolling that thing all over the place.
And without a cellular connection it still costs that much?
I'll wait for the REAL iPod moment in eBook readers when Apple releases something with REAL innovative features. Nobody else gives a hoot about industrial design. And that's the key to Apple's success. It's not that they do have good industrial design, it's because nobody else does on the same level of dedication, and attention to detail. Why? Two words. Bean counters.
Byebye COOL-ER.
1. Not cheap enough
2. Not qualitative enough (made out of plastic, despite the aluminium like finish)
3. Does not have any new and interesting concepts.
4. Terrible name choice.
Whatever this company thought made the iPod so popular, they have failed.
I can't wait for an actually decent one though.
The thing that is keeping me out of the market right now, other than what I percive as a farily high price for readers, is the limited sources of ebooks. I'm not too keen on giving amazon $10 a book. There are lots of free out of copyright books and that's good, but what I really want is to be able to get ebooks from my library. There are some services like that out there now, but they are still a little young. I wouldn't mind seeing a all you can eat subscription package either. If I could checkout as many books as I wanted to read for about $10 a month per reader I would go out and buy two of these things right away. Hopefully, we'll see more and more books coming out in digital format, that too will help.
A tiered subscription service would also be a good option, say $5/month for two books, $10/month for 5 books, and $15/month for all you can eat. Produce two ereaders to go with this. An inexpensive one, say $150-200, that has few bells and whistels. (e.g. no touch screen, no keyboard) but give it WiFi for book downloads and SD/microSD/USB support for sideloading and desktop support. Make a more expensive one that adds 3G for on the go downloading. Frankly, however, I don't think 3G is essential. the Kindle has created that paradigm but and caught the attention of the masses but I still don't think its nessecary. If the new ereader can be equated more with an ipod people can realate to it. People are used to loading songs onto their ipod from itunes, my mother can do that.
In the end, for me, the cost of ebooks has to be price competitive with the cost of used books. Say $2-5. I think it needs to be competitive because I'm not sure people are willing to pay a premium for the utility of an ebook. Rather the publisher needs to pay the buyer a premium to compensate for the intangability of ebooks. That's why I think that a subscription model is a good option.
I don't know about yours, but my local library does lend e-books.
Check into it. If they don't do it, then propose it.
Not the least of which it looks a lot like an iPod!
Love how these companies that scream how new and innovative their products are - still end up copying someone else.
omg! it looks like an i- ... oh shit, im going to get lowranked..
fire your photographer. take a picture of the thing without it running off the screen
Price is too high. Someone will do OK in this market if they can come out with something under $200. Also, if it handles pdf files but can't reflow them then it is worthless for pdf files. The text would be way too small to read.
Already, the sony PRS 505 seems "old" due to its lack of any wireless support. This device is too far behind where the market is.
Prices won't drop for a while because e-ink is still relatively new, relatively hard to produce, and still being perfected. When e-ink becomes common and easy to produce, you'll see a sharp drop in e-reader prices.
Yeah they keep saying that but now that they sold like 600,000 knidles easy you'd think that the low volume argument would start to be silly, I'll buy the newness of the tech, I don't buy the amount you can sell of it being too low anymore.
This thing looks absolutely wicked, I would go and get one right now after work if they were availiable yet. You could fill a card with all the books you'd ever want to read and not even worry about wifi and 3g and stuff. I mean, when do you ever decide, cripes, I really need to have that latest book right this instant?
Isn't this what we wanted Apple to bring out in June? Plus e-ink display, which Apple will not provide.
As for me, I don't want a wireless connection. I don't want a 3G book store. Such things are well and good, and someday I shall have them.
But I have thousands of e-books in .txt, .pdf, .lit, .rtf, and .html format which I've been saving for years, waiting for a decent ebook reader that looks like an iphone, only larger. No keyboard, just a control button. Touchscreen would be nice, but it isn't necessary. It should be cheap, easy to load, and *not provide* a detailed database of my reading and book purchasing habits to the company and the government. A simple USB cable for power and data. Tough enough not to shatter if your drop it, or crush easily in a backpack.
And they have a bookstore.
I'd like it for a hundred USD, but 200-250 is just doable. We're almost there. Don't spoil the good for the perfect.
"Company'll"? lol
I'm not going to be a hater on this... I actually think it looks "cool" and like the ipod style. However, I looked at the eStore and their pricing is all over the place... many books for about $20. C'mon...
Will you be able to buy books from amazon, or are kindle books protected only for the kindle reader?
If this thing supports Japanese, then I`m buying. That has been the biggest roadblock to picking up a Kindle. (That, and the high price, but I can deal with that for the coolness of owning a e-reader.)
I have far more things I would like to read that are not in English than things that are. Waiting for some sort of feasible but unannounced update to Kindle to allow it? Or buy something smaller, lighter, and that supports it from the box?
Not too difficult a choice, even if it does look like an iPod ripoff.
You have a legitimate gripe. It's not likely Kindle is going to support Japanese unless they work out a wireless distribution deal in Japan, and e-book deals with Japanese publishers and authors.
You have a solid reason for getting a different device. Frankly, I'm surprised there *aren't* any e-readers that support Japanese. I don't read Japanese, but I'd think there would be at least one out there that is made for the Japanese audience.
It wouldn`t be too much of a hassle to simply support Japanese fonts. It appears that it is merely a software limitation, which could be changed with an update patch.
Actually offering books in Japanese is another story, but I don`t see why they shouldn`t try for it. Amazon has a very strong presence in Japan and nearly everyone reads in some capacity (train commutes give most people ample time...)
Sony`s offering failed largely because of the very small number of books available, along with simply being ahead of it`s time.
The biggest problem is DISTRIBUTION.
I'm glad they kindly have copied the iPod design, but that's NOT what made iPod revolutionary (good design never hurts), the main revolution about iPod is the delivery system by the name of iTunes. Before iPod, people relied on encoding their own cd's, pirating them, etc. It was a ghetto process, that definitely didn't fit most people. Apple introduced a simple process to buy music (and yet it was open enough that if you wanted to put your own mp3's - YOU COULD). So these guys need to start a iBooks store. A device that looks like an iPod is not going to revolutionize the reading industry, device that comes with the distribution model like iPod MIGHT...
Amazon has done this, but they've done it in a such complex and closed manner that I think they've turned off many potential customers (ME, I'm not paying 10 cents/file to put my own files on my own device, AMAZON - THAT'S JUST IMMORAL).
What? It's free to transfer or convert&transfer any file to your Kindle.
It costs 10c only if you want Amazon to convert it and email it directly to your Kindle.
Actually, 15 cents per file, up to 1 megabyte (most books in straight text are about 700k).
But again, it's free if you just transfer a file over via USB cable, just as you do in the Sony (or in the Cool-er, which has no inline-dictionary, no search, no highlighting or notes and no wireless.
I do like the rotate on the true pdf though.
But $250 is too much for something that doesn't have all those basic features. I'd also like to see what their warranty is like.
I would be embarrassed to walk around with that.
Now this is what i've been looking for, I almost picked up a BeBook precisely because I wasn't interested in Amazon's lock-in program. And with Barnes & Noble relaunching their eBook store after snatching up Fictionwise it's a good time to be a bargain hunter. Not at the $99 eReader yet, but we are getting there.
I'd be interested in this if I didn't look like a moron with a gargantuan iPod carrying it around.
Why such low file format support? How about Doc and Lit and however many others there are? BeBook supports around 10-15 and costs the same.
I like it. I'm not much of a Kindle person, and I'm not gonna pay a million bucks for something that doesn't even do color. That said, I have hundreds of PDF books, files and layouts that I can't stand to read or view on a computer. This would also come in handy to store reference layouts and sizes that I would have to review during a vehicle lettering session. The design is nice and it has a modern look - not to mention it's cheaper. I don't need internet on a reader, so that doesn't bother me a bit.
thats a battery tester which looks nothing like it.
Perfect except that it has no integrated light. Give it some kind of edge lighting so I can read in the dark and I'll be all over this thing.
"no keyboard, text-to-speech, WiFi, or Whispernet equivalent"
Sounds perfect. I don't want to pay for junk I won't use, and I don't want too much propriety in my devices. Can someone do a side-by-side with Sony's 505?
But...
Will it blend?
That is the question...