The latest Good E-Reader News has a South Australian Company named Ubiq Technologies Pty Ltd, ready to roll out a 10 year old open source e-reader called the QuokkaPad.
QuokkaPad is a wireless handheld computer and has been optimised for the mobile office worker, technician, and student including access to corporate applications, manuals, sales material, browsing the web, email and many other functions.
The QuokkaPad which goes on sale next month includes an 8-inch LCD 800 x 600 color touchscreen display and has a 400MHz MIPS processor, and usually runs Linux 2.6.24.3. The device is bundled with 256 MB of RAM and has 512 MB of Nand Flash with a SD Slot for expandable memory up to 32 GB. It comes included with 802.1 WI-FI and USB 2.0 Adapters so you can plug in dongles or other devices such as a camera. It even has optional biometric access for added security.
This e-reader differentiates itself from the market by being open system. Users will be able to install multiple operating systems as well such as Windows CE and Google Android.
The E-Reader aspect of this device is sparse and only reads PDF, Text, and HTML and does not come with integrated support for EPUB, or any other major E-Book format.
The QuokkaPad comes bundled with a slew of Applications such as an Internet Web Browser, Calculator, Touch Screen Sketchbook, Games and more! It also has support for Windows Media content, so you can listen to music, record voice memos and display photographs and pictures in JPG, BMP, and GIF.
Although with all of the tablets and E-Readers we have seen lately, this is only the second homegrown E-Reader from Australia to debut this year, in case your wondering the other one is called the Tega Tablet PC. Although the device is very unsexy, it might proove to be a combination E-Reader and PDA cross over system that might be able to find a viable market.
This tablet goes on sale in Australia next month and will have an entry level price of 400.00 AUS.
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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.
