14 DAY TRIAL // It appears that yet another so-called hybrid has emerged on the IT industry, one that might or might not act as a foil for the B&N Nook when it actually starts roaming the Japanese market.
The way things are going on the IT market right now, hybrid devices are cropping up more and more frequently.
This goes for pretty much every individual segment, particularly the storage industry and the PC maker as a whole.
Another concept that actually spawned a certain, fairly successful device is that of an e-reader with features similar to those of a tablet.
This once, however, it is not the Nook Color that is making the news, but an electronic invented by Panasonic and caught on video by the folks over at DigInfo.
Dubbed UT-PB1, it is a device that should show up in Japan sooner or later and has a 7-inch display with a native resolution of 1,024 x 600 pixels.
A dual-core processors lies at the heart of the product, but exactly what chip that is has not been outright stated as of yet.
The report also mentions that a micro SD card slot is present, meaning that one shouldn't have any trouble adding some extra flash storage if the built-in amount is not enough, however much it is.
Exactly when and for how much the Panasonic device will start selling is unknown, but it was said that support for the Rakuten e-book store (set to launch in August) will be available. The tablet will even come with 600 previewable titles.
"This tablet mainly handles e-books for the Japanese market. What's distinctive about it is the software, rather than the hardware. It has an API that can receive information from Rakuten and show it on screen. We'll be offering a service where all you need is a Wi-Fi connection to get book information and rankings in real time," the company reportedly said.
"This e-book tablet is aimed mainly at people in their 30s and 40s, who tend to read a lot, as well as older age groups."