Kindle gets competition with the Pixelar

January 30, 2009 by robotics
Filed under Entertainment

I’ve been a big e-book reader fan ever since I installed a handy e-book reader application on my trusty Nokia E61i. I experienced first hand how practical it is to bring your favourite books in an electronic format. It lessens the bulk on your bag, you don’t have to worry about misplacing your book, getting it wet or spilling something in it. You don’t even have to worry about propping it on something while reading at your favourite cafe. And you can bring more than one book if you want.

It’s this love for the e-book readers that made me want to get Amazon’s Kindle for myself. I think it will be a great reader for my needs. Unfortunately, the Kindle is not yet available for UK consumers (Amazon, you have to address this now!) so any hope of actually using a Kindle is not in the cards for the foreseeable future.

But fortunately, other companies have addressed Amazon’s oversight. Pixelar (http://www.pixelar.co.uk/ebookdetails.php?ID=1), for example, has released a new e-book reader. The Pixelar e-reader contains a relatively sufficient 512MB of internal flash memory that can hold up to 1,000 books. It emplos a 6 inch 600 x 800 resolution e-Ink technology display (similar to Kindles). The reader also has an SD card that effectively expands the memory to up to 4 GB. The Pixelar e-Reader is also quite svelte, measuring just 184 x 120 x 9.9mm and only ways 22 grams including the battery.

The Pixelar rates that the battery life will get up to 8,000 page turns. Of course, battery life will be much faster if you use the built in MP3 function. What I love about Pixelar’s reader is the sheer amount of formats that it can read. To whit, it can read the following: PDF, MOBI, DOC, WOLF, MP3, HTML, TXT, CHM, FB2, Djvu, PNG, TIF, GIF, BMP, JPG, PPT, EPUB, LIT and PRC.

The screen technology means that you won’t have any problems reading in direct sunlight. There’s also a multi language menue and three levels of font adjustments. You can even add bookmarks to a page or book. Priced at £219 with a free 1GB SD Card, travel charger, USB leade, earphons and a leather pouch.

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