The new COOL-ER e-reader will be available in a
variety of colors.
If you’ve been thinking about buying an e-reader, but have been immediately turned off by the $350 and up price tags associated with some of the more feature-packed models like the Amazon Kindle, the COOL-ER may be right up your alley.
The COOL-ER, scheduled for official launch at the end of May, offers many of the same features as higher priced e-readers, but has been listed at an initial cost of $249 – that’s about $110 less than the Kindle 2.
The COOL-ER may not have the built-in wireless capabilities found in the various versions of the Kindle, but it does offer an alternative advantage. Unlike the Kindle that is geared toward U.S. residents, the COOL-ER can be purchased worldwide.
Here are some of the features found in the soon-to-be-released COOL-ER.
- 6 inch E ink Vizplex display (just like the Kindle 2)
- Ability to change size of text
- Compatible with both PC and Mac, supporting JPEG, PDF, EPUB, and TXT formats
- Support of eight languages – English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese
- Available in a wide variety of colors (see photo)
- Includes 1GB of built-in storage and has an SD card slot to support additional storage space
- Only weighs 6.3 ounces – As a comparison, the Kindle 2 weighs 10.2 ounces.
- Battery is only used when turning pages – A 3-hour charge lasts for 8,000 page-turns.
- Over 750,000 e-books available at Coolerbooks.com – Here’s something that might really perk up some interest from people. Users can actually share books from Coolerbooks.com with as many as five other readers.
- Built-in MP3 player – With this feature, you can also listen to audio books. Additionally, Coolerbooks.com plans to release over 40 language courses that will take advantage of this capability.
The main features found in the Kindle 2 that are not present in the COOL-ER are the built-in wireless connectivity that lets you order and download books from Amazon.com without connecting to a computer, text-to-speech capabilities, and a keyboard. However, there are a lot of people out there who would gladly forego those features to take advantage of the COOL-ER’s much cheaper price and the option to share purchased e-books with a few friends.
Another thing that should be factored into the buying decision is the price of e-books. Although the COOL-ER supports non-proprietary formats, it’s clear that the manufacturer is hoping that most will purchase titles through Coolerbooks.com. Tomorrow, we’ll take a closer look at that marketplace and see what it has to offer, including how competitive it is with Amazon.com’s Kindle e-book store.
For more information about the COOL-ER, you can check out the product web site for the e-reader.
Comments
I've looked at virtually all the e-readers, and, to my mind, they ALL miss the boat completely. Here is my take on the ideal e-reader. It should be available in two sizes--the first the same as a mass market paperback, and the second the same as the larger trade paperback. It should "open in the middle" along the "spine". When open, there should be TWO (not one) screens, one on each side of the "spine". As an e-reader, both screens display text. Rotate the reader so the "spine" is horizontal, the left-hand page becomes a QWERTY touchscreen keyboard, and the right-hand page becomes a screen for all those "other" computer functions.
That's an interesting design concept, Duane. When I first read it, my initial reaction was that such an e-reader might be a bit "unwieldy" to a lot of people. Then I started thinking more about it and how nice the dual-screen feature would be for those doing research. That is, you could have your main text open on the side with the keyboard (so you could enter notes if you wanted) and use the other screen to browse through reference material. It may not be a design that would appeal to everyone (just like anything else in this world), but I bet it could win some fans in academic and research circles.
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