Hands-On Demo Shows Asus E-Reader Tablet In Action 108
MojoKid writes "Mobile computing is making its mark at Computex 2010, with tablet PCs and e-readers of all sorts coming out for the first time as rivals to Apple's iPad. After announcing its Eee Pad tablet PC, Asus offered some hands-on time with its new e-Reader/e-Writer, designed for students and mobile business professionals. The little slate's features include 10-hour battery life, 2,450 dpi resolution touch screen, pen writing and input controls, 2MP camera, USB port, and a MicroSD slot. In addition, Asus also has strong ties with Amazon, so it wouldn't be a reach to see some sort of partnership between Asus and Amazon with the Kindle bookstore as a content provider."
Clarification: (Score:5, Informative)
The screen does *not* have a 2450dpi resolution (which would be ridiculous). The dpi metric refers to the input sensitivity. The screen is a 8" 1024x600 panel.
The panel is obviously not e-ink...is this old school monochrome LCD, then? If the viewing angles are OK, I don't see why not.
2450 dpi PEN resolution (Score:2, Informative)
The digitizer has 2450 dpi resolution. The screen is 1024x786 with 64 grey levels.
It look like a concept I could use. For lab journals etc - snap an image, write a note.
Re:Clarification: (Score:5, Informative)
There are some LCDs that are non-backlit, but are very contrasty with very nice viewing angles available. The Aluratek Librie e-reader's a cheap ($120-ish) version of that whose screen is almost like e-Ink, and very, very nice. Probably active-matrix panels to avoid all the nasty ghosting monochrome panels of old are. I used one and I didn't realize it was LCD - I just thought it was quite responsive, then saw it was actually an LCD.
Alas, it's major setback is the cheap plasticky feel, the sharp "I'm high tech" edges and ridges, and positively lousy looking and feeling firmware. (And that's a major setback of all these devices is crappy-ass firmware...).
Re:Is it just me? (Score:3, Informative)
No, we're all missing the incredible technological leap in battery density and/or screen power consumption. Color screens take too much power or cost too much. Ever held an iPad? It's HEAVY. But hope is not dead: Qualcomm says they will ship a full-color, video-capable e-ink device this year [slashgear.com].
By the way, my brother is an absolute eReader fanatic and has specs of almost every eReader imaginable: http://ereaders.bsgprogrammers.com/ [bsgprogrammers.com]
Re:Clarification: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Wishlist (Score:3, Informative)
Have you considered transcribing or digitizing those hundred-year-old books for Project Gutenberg, so that we can read them too? I haven't looked up what formats they're interested in, and I don't know how you'd do it without either being labor-intensive or destructive, but if you were willing, I bet the Project would benefit from it.
Re:Digicam? (Score:3, Informative)
I do IT support in public schools in a major U.S. city. We have neither white nor black boards these days. All teachers now are using LCD projectors to display content that comes either from a PC or from a "document camera" -- a video camera aimed at a plain piece of paper. In addition, many teachers are using interactive whiteboards which digitize content as you write it on the board
So there is little reason for a student to take a snapshot in class -- everything is already digitized as it is displayed by the teacher, and the teacher can easily post all content on a website after class.
Re:color? (Score:2, Informative)
He says in the video it's a TFT-LCD. Just grayscale and not backlit. Hence the 10 hour life.
Not eInk. No interest from me in using it as a reader, or much of anything else I guess.
Re:Excuse me?! (Score:2, Informative)
Have you ever tried to sync the Newton in a Win95 Virtual Machine? I use VMs a lot for old hardware (cameras, scanners, phones, music players) and in 90% of the cases it works.