booktwo.org

Following our extended coverage of the Sony eReader, I thought we should point towards a few other ways to read eBooks – chosen, it must be said, pretty much at random, but no less illustrative for that.

• Engadget on Panasonic’s Word Gear. This looks nice, and is competitively priced against the Sony. Unlike the Sony, it’s a fully-featured, colour screen, which means vastly reduced battery life, but the chance to view movies, photos, and, in the example given, scantily-clad Japanese girls.
• Symbian explain all about eBooks, and how to read them on their OS Phone. As Apple endlessly prevaricate over the appearances of an iPhone, it seems likely more PDA/Phone producers will integrate eBooks into the mix.
• MobileRead take a look at the Chinese STAReBOOK e-book reader. Pricier, but clean-looking.
• Engadget (again) on this quite beautiful Fujitsu 4096-colour e-ink reader. Only a concept so far, but… See? See?
• And finally, the Turnover: designer Timothy Yeoh’s concept for “two pages with infinite possibilities…”

Of all these, it is the most distant – the Turnover (above) – which is the closest to being the real breakthrough in this technology – precisely because it so closely resembles a real book (including the physical turning of the pages, and dogearing the pages to bookmark). The true successor kills by mimicry – and then evolves.