Creative whips out e-reader at AGM
More than a reader. Or a tablet
Creative Labs is hoping to grab a piece of the expanding e-reader pie with a net-enabled device it will also pitch as a social networking and general media tablet.
According to the Epizenter blog, Creative Labs unveiled the Mediabook at the Singapore firm's annual general meeting last week.
The device will feature a touchscreen and will be internet-enabled. It will also accept SD memory cards, and will feature text to speech. It will run on the ARM0-based Zii technology the vendor is rolling out across its technology range.
Creative is apparently in talks with publishers to ensure a steady stream of books and magazines for the device.
But according to Epizenter, while the device is squarely in the reader space, it will also act as a general purpose tablet, allowing users to access to surf the web and social network.
What the blog didn't mention was when the device would be likely to hit the market.
This Christmas is shaping to be an e-reader punchout, with Barnes and Noble's Nook e-reader joining the likes of Amazon's newly internationalised Kindle and Sony's established reader on the market. Next year will doubtless see more models hit the market, but by then front runners could be firmly established in the public consciousness.
However, Epizenter points out one advantage Creative has. The firm apparently has a strong base in the country's educational establishment, raising the possibility that the youth of Singapore could soon find themselves doing their learning in partnership with the Mediabook. ®
COMMENTS
he e-book readers so far have been rather a boring bunch
I have been using Creative products for years and overall like their design and features, glad to see them on the ball again with the e-book reader. The e-book readers so far have been rather a boring bunch but with proper hardware it might be the ultimate convergence media for what we know now as books, magazines, music stores and social networking sites.
Finally
A more useful tablet - now, can I hook it up to my machine as a spare text terminal?
If it's like their other kit
it'll take them 2 years and the drivers will still be useless. Creative? Only in how badly they can write software for their own hardware.
