Basically the race is on for e-book readers and I don’t expect the announced releases of “slates” from Microsoft and Apple will diminish this race, neither does Skiff. Together with Sprint they will be releasing a new generation of e-book reader featuring the “Metal Foil” e-Paper technology developed by LG Display.

The Skiff Reader will compete with the Amazon DX on size and thickness, featuring a display of 11.5 inches and a resolution of 1200 x 1600 pixels with 174 ppi. It will be full multi-touch screen and with stylus operation. Thanks to the Metal Foil technique and silicon build you’ll be able to bend the reader without cracking or shattering the screen.

As for the internal details it will feature a Marvell CPU, one week of average battery life, 3G enabled, short-range WiFi, USB 2 port, 4GB internal memory and a SD-card slot.

The Skiff Reader will be previewed at CES, no release date or price has been set yet.

I’m seriously considering purchasing an e-book reader this first quarter but even though I want to go with the hottest technology, the deciding factor will be if their service delivers content in Europe and what kind of files can be handled by the e-book reader.

Skiff Reader

Dubbed The Edge – official name enTourage eDGe – this new “toy” is actually a dual screen gadget. Obviously, one screen is meant for the usual netbook activities that you engage in, while the other screen is in grayscale for reading e-books. One screen is a 10-inch LCD and the other is a 9.7-inch e-ink display. The former screen’s resolution in 1024 x 600 and is touch screen! You may opt to use the stylus or, if you have clean fingers, your bare hands will do the trick as well. The latter screen has a resolution of 1200 x 825 and only responds to the stylus.

What other features does The Edge have? Take a look at this:

• 3 GB of built-in storage
• Bluetooth 2.1
• A slot for an SD card
• 2 USB ports
• Headphone and microphone jacks (standard size)
• Stereo speakers (built-in)
• Battery that can run for 6 hours (both displays) or 16 hours (e-ink display)

I am pretty impressed with those specs! For $490, it just might be my next toy!

Hold your horses still as this is not yet available at the moment, and there are rumors that when it is… it just may be a much improved version than the features currently listed here.

You just got to admire though the minimalist look of the Iriver Libre.  If you place this side by side with the Kindle 2.0, you’d quickly see which of them would “probably” be easy to use. The lesser the buttons, the better it is for some.  I just hope that the screen is “at most” touch-screen.  Maybe it will and thus become really, really cool!

I’ve used my trusty Asus EEE PC for reading e-books up until a few days ago. It was a very good gadget for a reader especially if you use a small app that would turn the screen from landscape to portrait, you then have to turn the book to its side, much like a book. But I had to sell my EEE because of my plans to upgrade to a new model next year.

Nintendo is also planning on tapping the market for e-books with its new partnership with HarperCollins. The company is releasing the 100 Classic Book Collection, a software that includes works from such celebrated authors as Shakespeare, Dickens and Austen. The software turns the DS into a virtual book where you can turn pages by touching the DS screen.

With a price tage of £20 or $30 and initially available in Great Britain, this is very good price point for a very cool use of the DS. I hope that the software will also allow for the addition of new books. Of course, an alternative is to use some of the homebrew e-readers that can be used on the DS.