ECTACO’s Jetbook Ebook Reader

ECTACO, Inc., a New York based company, has just announced its new ebook called Jetbook reader yesterday, to compete with the recent Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader. Slightly smaller and lighter than those two, Jetbook turns away from the increasingly-established e-ink display technology: it uses a high resolution monochrome TFT display for its 5″ display screen. This approach is yet to be tested as either a step forward or backward in ereader display technology. E-ink display has been the trend for other ebook reades especially due to its superior paper-like qualities and without any backlight which makes it readable under sunlight. E-ink technology also saves tremendous amount of energy as electricity is not required to hold text and images on screen.

As their selling points, Jetbook features extensive bilingual dictionaries between English, Russian, and Polish, a dedicated monolingual English dictionary, and supports ebook contents in multiple other languages. These are made handy from ECTACO’s experiences in developing handheld dictionaries, translation software and language management technologies. Other useful features include built-in MP3 player, bookmarks, automatic page-turning, screen rotation into landscape or portrait modes, and screen view ability up to 180°. Information on its battery capacity and memory/storage size is not yet known.

Judging from the image, the hottest feature on Jetbook must be its stunningly red color (that is if you like red). If this is what you fancy, it’s available for $349.95, or £209.95 in UK.

Jetbook Product Specification:

• Display: 5″ high-resolution monochrome TFT display
• Language support: Extensive bilingual Russian <-> English, Polish <-> English, and English monolingual dictionaries pre-loaded, with support for ebook contents in Russian, Polish, English, and Spanish.
• Features: Automatic page-turning, bookmarking, nearly 180° text viewability, adjustoble font and size, screen view in either portrait or landscape modes, built-in MP3 player.
• Memory: Additional storage from SD card slot.
• Battery: Internal Li-ion polymer battery.