Hi-tech Frontier

eRdr : Next Generation Media Reader by StudioQ eRdr is a next generation concept media that will allow to read books, magazines, and newspapers without the use of papers. This handy gadget is able to connect to the internet and will provide the latest news to the readers; even you can save a copy of these magazines or books in the device itself. Aside from that, you will be able to make favorites of your preferred pages, books or even a single column from a magazine. The main objective of this project is to raise the awareness of the global warming that is increasing day by day and take necessary action against its effects.

Elonex launches £189 6-inch eBook reader through Borders UK Elonex has been dabbling in small screen wares for quite some time now, so it's not a huge surprise to finally see it join the likes of BeBook, Sony and Amazon by introducing its very own eBook reader. Design wise, the 6-inch reader looks an awful lot like that played-out OEM model that everyone seems to start with, but hey, you won't find us kvetching about competition. The device is launching exclusively at Borders UK, and with that comes the new Borders eBook Download Store. With a 4GB expansion card, there's room for some 8,000 ebooks, and the 9 millimeter-thin frame ensures that this one won't bog you down too much. Interested consumers over in the UK can snap this one up right now for £189 ($311), and that price nets you 100 free ebooks, a charger, data cable and a great sense of pride.

Wooden e-book? A luddite's dream of the future? E-readers aren't for everyone, apparently. Clever hands fashioned this Kindle out of wood -- cutely called the Amazon Kindling -- using a laser cutter. You might only be able to read the same page of The Count of Monte Cristo so many times, but at least the battery will never punk out on you!

Amazon Kindle DX announced: $489 Just as with the Kindle 2, Amazon posted the Kindle DX product page while the launch event was underway. Specs-wise, there's not much here we didn't know: the big changes are a larger 9.7-inch screen that rotates to landscape display, a PDF reader, and more storage space at 3.3GB. The big news is actually the flat $489 price tag, which seems on the high-side of realistic to us -- although the subsidy-pricing rumors weren't totally inaccurate, as the New York Times, Washington Post, and Boston Globe will offer subsidized on-contract Kindles to customers who can't get at-home delivery when the DX ships this summer. (Yes, that's a pretty lame restriction.) Amazon's also announcing a wide range of textbook publishing partnerships, with tomes from Addison-Wesley, Wiley Higher Education, Longman & Prentice Hall and many others available -- and what's more, Arizona State, Case Western Reserve, Princeton, Reed, and Darden School ...

BeBook mini e-reader with 5-inch display makes pictorial debut It's not the BeBook 2, unfortunately, but Endless Ideas' official Twitter has released an image of a smaller variant of its current e-book reader, dubbed the BeBook mini. It's got a 5-inch e-ink display and reportedly all the same features as its older brother. Manufacturer Tianjin Jinke Electronics also happens to sell products under the Hanlin brand, and this looks to be the same device as the upcoming Hanlin v5, which according to Chinese site mobread would indicate SD card support and a May release window locally. As for elsewhere in the world, there's no indication of a release date, but BeBook Twitter feed did tease about staying under the $200 / €200 price barrier.

Pre-order The Fujitsu FLEPia E-Book Reader From Japan Trend Shop For Just $1,399 If black and white just seems too Gutenberg for your tastes, you’ll want to skip Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s eReaders for Fujitsu’s FLEPia eBook. Its biggest claim to fame is its ability to display “full color” images instead of just grayscale, with 64, 4,096 or 260,000 color modes. It’s impressive for sure, but you’ll want to keep in mind that running in the maximum color mode will result in page refreshes that take a whopping 8 seconds. ##CONTINUE##Other features include an 8-inch XGA or 768×1,024 dot touch screen display, Bluetooth, wi-fi, SD card slot and embedded stereo speakers. The FLEPia also runs Windows CE 5.0 which means you have access to additional software like a web browser, email client and even the ability to publish office-type documents right on the reader. At the moment the Japan Trend Shop currently has them available for pre-order for a buck under $1,400, but they won’t actually be in ...

Braille E-Book for Visually Challenged People Braille E-book is a conceptual design of a digital and portable e-book reader, developed by Korean industrial designers. This is quite certain that by seeing the design, everyone will admire that this gadget is really necessary for reading e-books. However, e-books of Braille compatible version are not much available in the market because of the higher price. EAP is the mother technology that can develop special patterns on the plastic surface by raising those elements with an electronic signal. This unique technology used by Braille E-Book can translate the content into Braille.

Braille e-reader concept can't be far from reality The technology's already here, we just need a venture capital firm and a determined entrepreneur to make it happen. A foursome of designers -- Seon-Keun Park, Byung-Min Woo, Sun-Hye Woo and Jin-Sun Park -- have banded together to create the above pictured concept, an e-reader for those with limited or no vision. Their Braille E-Book concept theoretically relies on electroactive polymers in order to change the surface's shape as pages are turned, and while we fully expect the battery life to suffer due to all the necessary commotion, it's definitely a start that needs to happen.

Kitchen-safe Demy recipe reader could revolutionize your cooking While we can only assume that "kitchen-safe" means that it won't melt when tossed accidentally in the oven nor be fazed by splattering hot grease, we'd still exercise a good deal of caution when reading off of the Demy digital recipe reader. Crafted by Key Ingredient, this here device packs a sealed 7-inch display, storage for up to 2,500 recipes and USB connectivity for syncing with your PC. Furthermore, it provides three kitchen timers, a measurement conversion calculator and an ingredient substitution dictionary to get cooks out of a pinch if they are one special ingredient short. Currently, the device is listed as "shipping soon" from Amazon, though we'd probably start scrounging up those three Benjamins if you hope to own one free and clear whenever "soon" turns to "now."

Foxit's eSlick e-reader It didn't quite make it out in January, but Foxit's eSlick is still about the cheapest way to get an e-reader in front of your retinas. Granted, only the earliest of pre-orderers are seeing their units ship, and if you try to jump in now, you'll be greeted with a note to not expect it for another fortnight or so. In fact, all three hues (black, grey and white) are currently sold out, with new batches expected to be ready by April 10th or so. Thankfully, the kind folks over at GearDiary have hosted up a few photos and have promised impressions in the not too distant future, so head on over if you're anxious to see just how far this thing is from being a Kindle.

Samsung Papyrus e-book reader Samsung had an early version of its Papyrus e-book reader on hand at CES, but it looks like a spruced up version of the device is now making the rounds in Europe, and the company has taken advantage of the opportunity to dish out a few new details. The biggest of those is word that the device will launch in Korea this June, after which Samsung will reportedly "aim" to see it released "eventually" in the US and the UK. As for the handheld itself, it's an A5-sized device, and packs a touchscreen that makes use of an included aluminum stylus, along with 512MB of internal memory (with no memory card option) and, of course, a stylish leatherette case. You won't get any Kindle-style cellular connectivity though, or apparently any WiFi either for that matter. On the upside, Samsung is apparently looking to keep this one under the $300 mark, although it's not quite ready to get official with a price just yet. Of course, all of that ...

Astak Mentor e-readers Ah, the lovely world of rebadged e-readers. If you'll recall, we saw a nice trio of Astak Mentor e-book readers way back in May of last year, and now we're seeing a smaller, more curvaceous version pictured alongside those very devices. Early assumptions were that this new 5-inch model would also belong to PocketBook, but those rumors have already been laid to rest. What we're left with is a few solid images, a Mentor label and a mind full of mystery. It's almost like reading a Danielle Steel novel, but only in the emotional sense.

Fujitsu melts faces and wallets with FLEPia, the first color e-book for general consumption After years of teasing -- FLEPia was first announced in April of 2007, and first proven in 2006 -- Fujitsu has at last released its color e-book (or e-paper mobile terminal, as they'd like you to call it) to the masses. Featuring an 8-inch XGA screen capable of displaying 260,000 colors, along with Bluetooth, WiFi and up to 4GB of storage via SD card, and measuring less than half an inch thick, FLEPia's not just getting by on color alone. Fujitsu promises 40 hours of continuos use, and the unit can be operated by its touchscreen or the assortment of function buttons. Naturally you can do the regular e-book thing, but the Japanese version of the device also includes full-on Windows CE 5.0, which would probably be a bit of a chore to use with the relatively slow screen refresh times of e-ink (1.8 seconds for a single wipe), but undeniably retrofuturistic. FLEPia ships on April 20th in Japa...

Pixelar e-Reader reviewed Slash Gear starts its hands-on review of Pixelar's e-book reader by stating the obvious: "this is no Amazon Kindle 2." And while there may be no integrated WiFi, no hardware keyboard, no Tom, and no Oprah, this device is not without its charms. It supports a generous helping of file types (including PDF, DOC, MP3, HTML, TXT, CHM, and at least a dozen others), comes with 512MB internal memory, supports USB and SD cards, and the reviewer found build quality to be "reasonable." The e-ink display shows some intermediate flicker, however, and the page turn speed "is just a little too long" for the reviewer's tastes. Probably the most off-putting thing about the device is its cost: in the UK (where the Kindle isn't available) it's going for a base price of £229.99 ($324), while Sony's Reader, for instance, is currently priced at £224 ($317).

Onyx International's Boox e-reader Onyx International may just be breaking into the e-reader world, but it's pretty confident that its Boox will be a hit when it ships (at least to the US) in three or so months. We spoke with representatives from the company that were on hand here at CeBIT, and while they wouldn't divulge a definite price, they were adamant that it would be cheaper than Sony's PRS-700 Reader (which is $400). The model they had on hand wasn't quite ready for shipping, as the final model will sport a slightly different chassis than the white shell used for display. The OS, on the other hand, seemed ready to go, and we were able to catch an Onyx employee as he walked through a number of the menus and options.

iriver Japan looking to brand its own e-reader? It's a touch early to truly understand what's going on here, but it looks as if iriver Japan (read: not the same iriver Korea you're used to) is hoping to make a splash in the burgeoning e-reader market by popping out a device of its own. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much innovation going on, as we're pretty certain this is simply a rebadged version of the Netronix reader we spotted about this time last year. Word has it that the unit will handle PDFs and feature a simple joystick control scheme, an SD card slot and compatibility with music files. We'll be keeping a close eye out for any developments, but our gut tells us this thing won't make it far outside of Japan's walls, anyway.

Onyx International Boox e-reader Look out, Amazon -- Onyx International has your number. Among the electronic bounty we'll be checking out at CeBIT will be the Boox e-reader . The device boasts a 6-inch e-ink touchscreen with 16 shades of gray, 512MB storage, WiFi, support for various formats (including EPUB / PDF / HTML / TXT / CHM / MOBI / JPG / BMP / PNG / GIF / TIFF / MP3), and text to speech (but sadly, no Tom). We don't have a price yet , so we're not entirely sure how threatened you should feel, but if we had to wager we'd probably bet on "not very."