Orange Preps the First e-Newpaper Portable Readers

Paper is becoming a very valuable commodity these days, simply because there are fewer and fewer forests to cut down in order to obtain cellulose, the basic material in the paper manufacturing industry. The only foreseeable solution to this issue is the introduction of e-book readers and the release of all future books in electronic format. But how about newspapers, you might ask?

Well, it would seem that French telecom company Orange might have a solution to this issue as well, as the firm has just started experimenting with a device called Read&Go, which is touted to be the world's first portable, personal newspaper reader.

As some of you might expect, the future device will actually be an adapted version of an e-book reader, much like the iLiad from iRex, Sony's Reader, Bookeen's Cybook Gen 3 or Amazon's Kindle. This means that it will also be built using e-paper technology, and will be able to access the Internet via 3G and WiFi connections.

As mentioned earlier, Orange has started to experiment with this whole new device/service, and is currently looking for beta testers. The French company points out that all testers will be given one of these devices (spy-shots, anyone???), and over the course of the months will allow users to access some of the most famous French newspapers, including "Le Monde", "Le Parisien", "Les Echos", "L'Equipe.fr", "T?l?rama". Additionally, the testers will also be able to access various books in electronic format, as for examples literatures, practical guides, city guides and a lot more.

Since this is, at least for the time being, an experiment, there's absolutely no information on whether Orange intends to provide this thing as a service package (much like mobile phones), or has some other plans as well. Quite obviously, we'll find out in due time exactly how this thing will work and just how much it will cost, but for the time being, we're waiting for some input from the people who'll actually get to test these things.

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