New photos and descriptions of a Barnes & Noble e-reader leaked Wednesday, whetting consumers’ appetite ahead of next week’s press conference promising a “historic” announcement. The e-reader supposedly combines features found in Amazon’s Kindle, as well as a touch-screen interface similar to Apple’s iPhone.
Gizmodo provided the details, describing the unnamed e-reader as combining a Kindle-like e-ink 6-inch main display but opting for a LCD touch-screen panel rather than physical buttons. The 480×144-pixel panel with 155dpi resolution will be used to flip through books similar to Apple’s “coverflow” technology allowing people to quickly review their music collection.
The combination of Kindle and iPhone technologies is viewed as a way of overcoming each products’ shortcomings. While e-ink technology saves battery lifespan, it fails when it comes to menus. In fact, the Kindle has had to resort to a physical keyboard for searches. LCD displays, such as those used by Sony’s e-reader, consume valuable screen real estate and is notoriously hard on eyes for activities such as reading books. Barnes & Nobles’ e-reader reportedly will use the LCD panel sparingly- appearing only for user input, then vanishing to devote more screen space for reading.
Although the bookseller’s device is expected to be just 50% of the Kindle, the e-reader will attempt to make up for the lower price through book sales, a revenue stream also used by Amazon. However, the B&N reader will let owners share excerpts or entire books via Facebook and Twitter, according to the report.
If true, the Barnes & Noble e-reader, rumored to be created by Plastic Logic, will beat Apple to the punch. The Cupertino, Calif. company will unveil its own tablet devices possibly with a number of publishers onboard in the first quarter of 2010, according to AppleInsider.
[Via Gizmodo and AppleInsider]
