Crystal clear
E-reader firm iriver has unveiled what it claims to be the world's highest resolution 6 inch e-reader at CES.
It says the iriver Story HD eBook has 63.8 percent more pixels and faster page turns than its competition. It is the first major announcement from the company for a while as the latter half of 2010 seemed to be dominated by Amazon's Kindle.
The new e-reader provides ‘outstanding legibility with crisp fonts, fast response and high performance' according to iriver which it attributes to the use of an i.MX508 e-reader applications processor from Freescale Semiconductor based on ARM Cortex technology.
The screen was born out of a joint venture by iriver and LG Display. iriver designed the product and developed the platform, while LG supplied the electronic paper displays.
Chulmin Lee, COO and president of iriver, said: "No other eBook features a higher resolution, and users will appreciate fast page-turn performance and the chic design that is the hallmark of iriver."
iriver's device will host an Easy Wi-Fi Network feature so users can access any open Wi-Fi hot spot without having to log-in. Users can find and choose from the thousands of hot spots, get connected, and personalize access, according to the company.
The e-reader itself is similar in design to iriver's earlier offerings and boasts a QWERTY keyboard, two tone colours and curved, easy-grip design.
Distinguishing itself from rival offerings, the Story HD has buttons situated from the side to the centre of the keypad, with an up/down layout instead of a right/left deign, which iriver thinks makes it more user friendly.
The iriver Story HD has a 3 week battery life and supports Adobe EPUB and PDF formats. It will be available in Q2 of this year. The price is yet to be confirmed but after Amazon has recently said the Kindle is its best selling product ever, iriver will most likely have a challenging time muscling in on e-reader sales.
Here's an image of the iriver Story HD.
