The ToyBox
Andrew Nusca & Rachel KingCopia to launch $99 5-inch e-book reader this fall
Summary
Amazon might have lowered the price bar even further with the new version of the Kindle, but Copia is taking things further with a $99 e-book reader to launch this year.
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Andrew Nusca
Biography
Andrew Nusca
Associate Editor
Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet. As a journalist based in New York City, he has written for Popular Mechanics and Men's Vogue and his byline has appeared in New York magazine, The Huffington Post, New York Daily News, Editor & Publisher, New York Press and many others. He also writes The Editorialiste, a media criticism blog.
He is a New York University graduate and former news editor and columnist of the Washington Square News. He is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has been named "Howard Kurtz, Jr." by film critic John Lichman despite having no relation to him. A native of Philadelphia, he lives in New York with his fiancee and his cat, Spats.
Rachel King
Biography
Rachel King
Rachel King is a freelance journalist based in New York City and San Francisco. She has previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated. Currently, Rachel also blogs about travel industry news and trends for True/Slant.
Amazon might have lowered the price bar even further with the new version of the Kindle, but Copia is taking things further with a $99 e-book reader to launch this year.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the 5-inch Ocean Reader with a color touchscreen will be released this fall before the holiday season. Six- and nine-inch variants are expected to eventually launch with Wi-Fi and 3G support as well.
A big focus for Copia’s e-readers, which supports the ePub format, is social networking with direct feeds from Facebook and Twitter. Copia also describes itself as the “first social eReading experience.”
It’s refreshing to finally see e-book readers being marked with reasonable prices. But again, is it worth paying a hundred bucks or more for a device without multiple functions with the evolution of tablet computers? Yet, if all a particular consumer wants an e-reader for is actual reading, then a smaller and cheaper model like this one might have its place.
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Rachel King is a freelance journalist based in New York City and San Francisco.
Disclosure
Rachel King
Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.
Biography
Rachel King
Rachel King is a freelance journalist based in New York City and San Francisco. She has previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated. Currently, Rachel also blogs about travel industry news and trends for True/Slant.
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Did you know you can take part in these discussions with your ZDNet membership?Talkback Most Recent of 5 Talkback(s)
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RE: Copia to launch $99 5-inch e-book reader this fall
While Augen already is available at K-Mart with a 7" eReader for $99 and a 7" android tablet for $149. I have to admit the Copia in the picture looks better.
Scubajrr07/30/2010 07:39 AM -
RE: Copia to launch $99 5-inch e-book reader this fall
e-book readers with LCD screens are a waste of time.
What happened to Copia's 9" e-ink readers, promised last spring?
daedalus207/30/2010 01:14 PM -
e-ink, just for reading, is better...
If all one wants to do is read on a device, there is NO serious contender to E-Ink. While reading on my Sony PRS500 yesterday, I mused upon the fact that with e-ink, you really think you are holding a real-book in your hands.
And backlit screens, for reading, are such a no-no... but to each his own. The model in the picture, I admit, does look extremely good & well-designed...
grillomalta@...07/30/2010 11:28 PM -
RE: Copia to launch $99 5-inch e-book reader this fall
@grillomalta@...
e-Ink trades off refresh performance for power, but I find it annoyingly slow to refresh and I can do without several days between charges. For several years I have been reading eBooks on smartphones (Neo Freerunner and Nokia XpressMusic) and I find high resolution and back lighting to be more important than screen size, always being on, and multiday power. Color is nice to have but not critical since most books I want to read don?t have pictures anyway.
Why go with any single purpose device when a high end cell phone will give you a phone, eBook reader, video player, organizer, email reader, web browser, and often a GPS?
donaldrich08/01/2010 04:02 AM -
RE: Copia to launch $99 5-inch e-book reader this fall
I've had a 2nd-generation Kindle for about a year and a half and I love it. That said, I find myself downloading many books and stories from Feedbooks, so I'm certainly not locked into Amazon's catalogue. I may well end up purchasing a Copia for use with Feedbook offerings and using my Kindle for longer or more serious offerings that I might want to keep. The Kindle also lets me save personal documents, which is very important to me.
In short? I think there is room in the marketplace for both devices, and more power to them!
Rick F.07/31/2010 02:15 PM
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