iriver’s Cover Story (aka the iriver Story Touch Edition) has a tough slog ahead of it. On the plus side there’s the resistive touchscreen over the 6-inch E Ink display, all in a relatively compact body that our hands-on at IFA 2010 found to be pleasantly thin and light; on the downside, it’s set to cost more than €200 ($258) when it arrives in Europe and Asia, a fair chunk more than a Kindle yet lacking either 3G or WiFi connectivity.
What you do get is a note-taking app that works with the thin pull-out stylus in the top right hand side, a straightforward four-way navigation control (suited to left- or right-handed users, since the Cover Story has an accelerometer for page rotation) and a fast enough processor to make sure the only lag involved is the e-ink’s inherent pauses. There’s the usual, slightly cutesy UI too, with the added bonus of some swipes and taps thanks to the touchscreen.
iriver does have a WiFi model coming, which will apparently get basic browsing functionality (though probably not the same sort of Webkit browser as the third-gen Kindle totes) though there’s no mention of pricing for that. It seems they’re looking more at Sony as their rivals: the 6-inch Cover Story lines up against the similarly wireless-free PRS-650, which is €229. It’s nice enough, but unlikely to lure Amazon users away from the more well-rounded Kindle.
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Remember that iriver Story Touch Edition e-reader we spied last month? Well, iriver is showing it off at IFA this week, with plans to release the little 6-inch touchscreen device in Europe and Korea in the next week or so. We played around with it a bit, and while the 800 x 600 E Ink screen resolution is a little disappointing, and the resistive touchscreen layer impacts readability in a small but noticeable way, the software is certainly pleasant, and iriver is up to its usual standard in hardware design. There’s a small included stylus that slots in at the top of the screen (or the bottom, the screen auto-flips vertically based on how you hold the device) but while the stylus is fun for drawing notes, all you really need is a light tap or swipe with your fingers to operate the device. With 2GB of storage, a €229-ish pricetag for the WiFi-free version (there’s another WiFi version coming with an email app and a lightweight browser), and that low resolution screen, iriver probably wouldn’t have much luck going up against the Kindle and its ilk in the US, but they’re hoping to carve out a niche in Europe and Asia, and we can’t begrudge them that.
iriver Story Touch Edition preview originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Sep 2010 09:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Categories: Techno Freak Tags: e-book, e-books, e-reader, e-readers, ifa, IFA 2010, Ifa2010, impressions, iriver, iriver story touch edition, IriverStoryTouchEdition, preview, story touch, story touch edition, StoryTouch, StoryTouchEdition, touch
iriver’s original Story ereader actually managed to make it out of Korea and to the western markets, which is why our ears are perking up at the talk of its successor. According to the Chinese iriverFans forum, the iriver Story Touch Edition will ditch the first model’s hardware QWERTY keyboard and replace it with a touchscreen layer for the 6-inch E Ink display.
There’s also 2GB of onboard storage, an SDHC card slot, stereo speakers and a microphone, together with an accelerometer for automatic screen rotation and a stylus for touchscreen control. Compatible formats include Epub, PDF,CBZ and DJVU for ebooks, MP3 OGG and WMA for music, and DOC, DOCX, PPT, XLS and XLXS Office files.
No sign of any integrated wireless, which is a shame, and neither is there mention of a price or when we might expect to see the Story Touch Edition launch. It’s yet to get a mention on the iriver site.
[via The Digital Reader]
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