It seemed like the CES and Computex was just yesterday! We got to get our hands on the upcoming Acer Lumiread 600 E-reader and today it was FCC approved for US distribution.
So this is great news! Now that the FCC in the USA has approved of this new E-Reader, it will not be too long until it hits retail settings. Although no official launch date has been made available. We can surmise that it will be on sale around November at the latest.
The Lumiread packs a 6 inch screen that boasts of a monochrome E Ink display. Yes, the display is black and white to put it in simple terms and comes at a time when perhaps everybody is awaiting a dash of color on their e-reader screens. LumiRead also features a QWERTY keyboard a la Kindle DX which again has left many in double minds whether it’s a step in the right direction. This since the emphasis seems to be turning towards touchscreen devices with embedded on screen keyboards coming to replace real keyboards.
The rest of the specs are impressive though. Like, it’s got a 2GB flash memory that is big enough to hold 1,500 e-books. And if you think that is not big enough than there’s also a microSD card slot that will ensure the memory figure will go up a bit more. Out of the box, LumiRead will be WiFi ready and will incorporate 3G features as well though in a future model. Apart from these, there is also a built in browser.
A unique aspect with the LumiRead is its ability to scan in ISBN number from real books . The numbers can then be used to create a wish list of the future titles that you will like to have in your e-reader. In fact, the ISBN numbers can also be used to search online for the specific title.
Now let’s talk E-Reader formats! Having a versatile array of compatible e-books is a large factor in deciding what e-reader is right for you! The Acer L600 reads PDF, ePub, TXT, HTML, MOBI, RTF, and Doc files. Which means you can not only use converted Kindle Books on this device, but you can read any online format, as well as the industry standard ePub.
As for content, Acer has got into strategic partnerships with several online bookstores. Like it has inked a deal with Barnes & Noble in the US, Libri.de in Germany and leading digital publishing player Founder for its Chinese operations. There are over a million titles on offer from Barnes & Noble while a whopping four million titles can be availed of from Libri.de. Similarly, Founder will make available e-books for LumiRead in Chinese.
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.
