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Panasonic Word Gear e-book-reader: Text said to be pretty, too!
October 3, 2006 | 12:53 pm
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By David Rothman
“We first spotted Panasonic’s so-called ‘Word Gear’ reader last week, and at $350, it’s priced comparably to Sony’s offering—though you’re not getting any of that sweet e-ink nor the massive battery life that goes with it. Still, these ‘in the wild’ shots from CEATEC prove that the 1,024 x 600 Word Gear is definitely quite readable, and the multimedia functionality makes it a great alternative to DAPs or portable DVD players.” – More from Engadget (more sedate photo available, too). Let’s hope that this one shows up in the States ahead of time. It’s supposed to debut first in Japan. TeleBlog update, 3:05 p.m., Washington, D.C., time: Here.
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Comments:
it’s not e-ink, so i’m sort of less inclined to it, but does anyone know any specs on this? what format(s) does it support? can i sync it with a mac as well as a pc? if it supports PDF in a decent way, and i can sync with my mac, i might be willing to overlook the lack of e-ink…
Excellent questions. Info is sketchy, but size is 105×18-28.4x152mm. Weight: 325g. Just ran across more at Tech Japan:
Notice? Unlike the Sony Reader, this one has a stylus, suggesting that perhaps users be able to do advanced things such as search for words (sarcasm alert). The iLiad, too, has a stylus.
As for formats, I have no answer to the PDF issue or Mac compatibility, although I wouldn’t bet on it. Big thing to remember is that, at least at least, the Panasonic will be sold only in Japan.
No E Ink, but if you want to read in dim light or the dark, this one will be better.
Let us know if you find more info!
Thanks, and good luck finding an e-reader meeting your needs!
David
thanks for the info, david. yeah, yeah — i’m a broken record when it comes to ebooks: mac, pdf, mac, pdf. i just have SO MANY pdf files, and i personally don’t have any issue with them (so far!), so i’d love to have a reader that just displays them in a readable size.
i’m going to keep my eyes and ears open for more on this one, since the new sony reader has fallen off my “maybe” list.
Hi, Frank. Just some followup. Perhaps the Panasonic will read PDF, but I don’t think there’ll be magic solution to these size problems. If Panasonic were really clever, maybe it could use a reader with reflowability (see today’s item on PalmPDF) and a size adjustment. Still, I won’t hold my breath. And again, Mac compatibility is far from certain. Best of luck. David
PDF is a defacto standard (although sadly proprietary) – it is everywhere and yet all the portable e-reader implementations I’ve seen so far seem to treat it like a poor relation. Difficult to read, requiring mega-tweaking, panning, sometimes un-searchable etc. Does it have to be this hard to access and view PDF’s?
If Adobe was on the ball, they would partner with a hardware firm to design an e-reader from the ground up that displays PDF’s perfectly, and implements other features of Acrobat (like great search capabilities). There would be a big demand for such a device in business and education. A well-designed and displayed PDF is a thing of beauty. I’ve never credited Adobe with much vision, but one hopes they wake up and smell the coffee on this opportunity.
i’ll second what jake said: HELLO, adobe?? wake up and smell the opportunity, here!
and reflowability is a must, i say! death before side-scrolling!!
Yep, Jake and Franko, here’s boring but heartfelt “me too.” You’re right on! Jake, I sure wish the library world would take e-book standards more seriously–especially now that the Sony is grabbing so much attention. The Sony does BBeB, which is reflowable; but as I’ve shown, the device comes with rather severe limitations from a library perspective. Thanks. David
What make you think it has a stylus? I’d guess the opposite, given the description of the “E Sensor”.
“You’ll be able to control the Panasonic book reader by using the E Sensor, a touch sensitive controller and there’s even a stylus with a battery life of about 6 hours.” – Unbeatable.co.uk.
Hmm. We’ll see about a “stylus with a battery life of six hours” (someone missing a comma or dash?), but at any rate, it would be shame for that touch-sensitive screen not to use one. Whatever happens, let’s hope the Word Gear somehow has a word-based search feature.
Thanks,
David
Well, it’s an intriguing citation, but I suspect you’ll find that it’s wrong, and that the device is stylus-free (or that the stylus works only on the grip
.
It’s interesting to compare this to the OLPC display. They are both high-res, and they both use heavy slabs of glass. However, the OLPC has this nifty dual-mode system, which apparently will effectively give it a 20-hour battery life instead of the 6 hours (still pretty good) claimed for the Panasonic device, which needs a full-time backlight. On the other hand, the Panasonic device probably has a better color display than the OLPC display.
The OLPC device also has Wi-Fi, which I think is going to be a critical competitive differentiator. Without Wi-Fi and a good Web browser, these things are just not going to fly.