The first generation eOneBook had a dual screen and came with every volume of Fist of the North Star when it was released last year. Good e-Reader reviewed it and was impressed by the industrial design. Progress Technologies released the second generation model earlier this year and the company was lobbying manga companies to get access to more digital content. The second gen eOneBook is now available on Kickstarter and this one has an SD card, to load in additional manga. It also comes with every single volume of Naruto, one of the most successful manga ever made.
The device is available as a pre-order from Kickstarter for around $460 USD, and the price includes all 72 volumes of Naruto, which come preloaded on the device. Early bird shipments are expected to go out starting in December.
Here is the deal with the SD card, you cannot load in your own manga. The digital content is in a proprietary format and is in high-definition, basically as the manga artists intended. You are not getting scanlations or crappy web quality. All of the Naruto volumes are housed entirely on the SD card. If you want to buy more manga, Progress will soon sell SD cards with more manga series on it.
The second generation eOneBook has dual 7.8 inch E ink displays, that opens and closes like a real book. The product was designed with manga cover art on the outside and on the spine, so you can put it on your shelf, and it looks like a real book. It is powered by 4 AAA batteries and are good for around 11,000 page turns. It weighs a paltry 1.1 pounds and is easily portable.
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.