Fujitsu FLEPia e-book reader with colour
FLEPia is the world’s first color e-paper mobile terminal, made my Fujitsu. The term sounds complicated, but if you ever heard of Amazon Kindle before, FLEPia is ebook reader as well but one different. It got color. The 8-inch display screen can showing up to 260,000 colors in high-definition. Good enough to provide better reading experience.
For the time being it is only available in Japan market, but Japanese product tend to have higher possibility to be available in this region earlier, hopefully. Quick look on the spec it has.
- 8-inch display screen
- Weighing just 385 grams (385g) and only 12.5mm thick
- User-friendly operation: touch screen, digital stylus, scroll key, function buttons
- Connectivity : Bluetooth, high-speed wireless LAN
- 40 hours of continuous usage
- 4GB SD card capable of storing 5,000 conventional paper-based books with each book is 300 pages long at 600KB per book
- Run on Windows C.E 5.0
Although FLEPia is only released recently, it has been under research and development since 2007. This Youtube video which was posted at 2007, give closer looks on how FLEPia looks like as well as some of its functionality.
And another video showing the differences between the concept and actual product.
E-book reader it is relatively new product in our market. Amazon Kindle is popular on other region, but it is hardly can be seen on the local marketplace. The price of the device itself is much more expensive than what we’re willing to spent on books for 1 year period. And then we’re lack of local content provider that willing to invest on such things.
Although there is Kindle for iPhone app released month ago, it is not yet available here. For communities that does not develope high reading habit , the availability of such tools or devices is very much anticipated.
Thanks to Amazon for shipping my Kindle 2 early! Everyone’s doing a great job here talking about the improved features. I’m going to comment on how using the Kindle 2 feels. Amazon has done an amazing job of stripping away the technical annoyances with using electronic gadgets. When you look at it, if you don’t focus too hard, the little buttons and controls fade away and all you see is the text. You get such a sense of quiet and comfort from that. No screaming banner ads, no strobing backlit display and no sound! It’s really remarkable… both retro and high tech together! It feels very solid in your hand and does not feel flimsy, cheap or insubstantial. It’s like a rigid wafer that’s heavy enough, but would never be tiresome to hold a while.
The screen is lovely, with little glare. The fact that when you turn it off, it stays on takes getting used to. I absolutely love the graphics that come up when you turn it off and wonder if there’s a way to change them out with my own photos?
So what the Kindle 2 is - it’s a quiet unintrusive device that calls you to. It’s not a further distraction in your already distracting world, but it’s a calm oasis in your hand. Hmm. Sounds like what a book would be. But this does so much more.
The experimental web feature is very rough in terms of the elegant simplicity of the rest of the Kindle 2 features. Don’t buy this for web surfing!
In summary, if you like books, you’ll love Kindle 2. The technology is seamless and you won’t feel like you need technical expertise to use it. It feels like an extension of your hand very quickly. It doesn’t flash, scream, strobe, move, etc…. but it does what it does to extremely well. It’s quiet in your hand and a pleasure to use. People around you are drawn to it. When using it, you can’t help but wish that more of the products you use in your daily life were like this. It is the future. Thanks Amazon!