Plastic Logic's Pretty Cool Looking E-Reader

Today at DEMOfall 08, Plastic Logic revealed a pretty damn slick looking e-reader that could (in theory) end up competing with the Kindle—especially in terms of business users.

As you can see in this video the reader is a 8 1/2” x 11” full-sized reading touch-screen that’s about the size of a notebook. It’s much bigger and sleeker than the Kindle, and allows for easy transfer of all Office documents, PDFs, etc. You can even annotate documents by drawing with your fingers or using a pop-up keyboard. And when you do this, the file is automatically saved as a revised PDF or Word file or whatever . . .

For business functions, this actually seems pretty cool. Using Bluetooth someone at a meeting can provide everyone with a PowerPoint file or a different report. (Although there’s no word on whether this will help make PowerPoint demonstrations aesthetically palatable—probably not.)

In terms of regular readers though, this thing is miles away from supplanting the Kindle. Until it can wirelessly access hundreds of thousands of books, it’s actually a pretty awkward devise. Something that’s less convenient to carry than a book, that’s more difficult to read (at least in terms of fiction, because who really likes reading literature in a full-page format? Aside from slush pile reading interns, that is), and is primarily geared to only presenting your own files. . . .