14 DAY TRIAL // There are many electronics that Acer has recently unveiled, not the least of which is a certain 7-inch tablet running Android OS. There is, however, a certain other device that seems poised to enable the company to take advantage of the rapid growth in a certain other field. E-readers have grown in popularity a great deal, especially after CES 2010. Knowing the opportunities provided by this development, the Taiwanese PC supplier has come forth and revealed the existence of the LumiRead.
The LumiRead is an e-reader with support for the clear.fi technology, a solution meant to let electronics 'talk' to each other. Essentially a content supply platform, clear.fi lets users access and share data, in this case, e-books and audio books. Of course, such a capability would be wasted on just any e-reader, which is why Acer did its best to optimize the overall experience.
One asset of LumiRead is the fact that, in addition to WiFi, it also has a built-in 3G module. This will let users quickly download any of the many digitized books that Barnes and Noble has on sale (and has made accessible per its contract with the e-reader's maker). Germany-based Internet book retailer Libri.de has also provided its more than four million titles, and even China-based Founder has agreed to bring localized content in English, German and Chinese. Not only that, but a built-in ISBN scanner will actually let end-users create their own wish lists, or search for a certain book online.
As for actual specifications, the e-reader boasts a 6-inch e-paper display with full sunlight readability, 2GB of internal flash storage (upgradeable via a microSD card slot), and even a QWERTY keyboard. All of these features are somehow crammed inside a gadget only a few millimeters thick. Unfortunately, pricing is still a mystery, but it shouldn't stay hidden for too long considering that availability is slated for the third quarter.