E-Readers are the hot new gadget this year, aimed at adults of all ages! With the advent of the new FisherPrice IXL E-Reader we wrote about a few months ago, things have been quiet on the E-Reader’s aimed specifically at children. This all changed at Computex this year, when two new E-Readers were announced, the PocketBook 901 and the new Aiptek’s Storybook InColor.
Story Book inColor is designed to help children improve their reading skills, with great audio playback of books to teach children word association in MP3 format. The device has an 8-inch TFT LCD display with 800 x 600 resolutions. It comes bundled with 1GB of internal memory is big enough to store up to 45 books, but capacity can be increased via SD/SDHC/MMC and MS Pro card or USB drive. The device itself comes with 20 children’s ebooks built-in, which are all narrated. Books are available in many different languages from English, and Chinese.
One of the great new features of this device is that every twenty minutes it displays a picture reminding children to take a break from the device and rest their eyes. Speaking of pictures, this color e-reader has the ability to play photo slideshows in JPG format, and can even be used as a digital picture frame.
This device is great for kids, but the battery life is rather lackluster with the 2600 mAh rechargeable battery, only giving the kids 2 hours of battery life before it needs to be recharged. Also the ebooks are all in proprietary format, which means you only can buy your books from the same company you bought the e-reader from.
Aiptek’s Story Book inColor will retail for $199 each, where individual Books cost $3-4. For more information check out the ebookincolor website for purchase and e-book information.
For the latest and greatest E-Reader and Slate PC news, subscribe to the Good E-Reader Magazine! Also for the latest E-Books check out our monthly e-book program, where you can download as many books as you want, for a low flat fee.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
