Panasonic has officially announced its
5.6-inch Words Gear e-book / media player. It can give you your eBook fix,
along with your JPEG and MPEG-4 fix as well. Audio capability is AAC, which is a
plus. The resolution is OK, at 600x1024, although your eyes might get tired
after staring at the screen for the 6 hours that the company says its lithium
ion battery can last before it needs recharging.
The Words Gear, which bows in Japan on December 20, is moderately priced, at
US$355, which is good because you'll need to keep buying SD cards if you want to
keep a lot of those eBooks and videos you'll be downloading. One word of
warning: This device accepts SD cards of a maximum of 2GB. That's probably just
fine for most eBooks.
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