May 28, 2009, 8:07 AM — Some e-reader news out of the All Things Digital conference: Plastic Logic was there to show off their large format e-reader. This device is aimed at business users and will display PDF, Word, Excel, and Powerpoint files, "as well as newspapers, periodicals and books" (though format of the latter isn't specified).
Big news out of the conference is that it will include 3G as well as Wi-Fi, though no carrier (or pricing, either of the device or the service) was mentioned. Some kind of e-commerce service to allow users to buy books and subscribe to periodicals is in the works, but again no details.
Unlike its most obvious competitor, the Kindle DX, the Plastic Logic e-reader (it doesn't seem to have any other name yet) has a touch screen rather than a keyboard. You turn pages by swiping your finger and a tabbed interface lets you jump between documents easily, which makes a lot of sense for business users.
Interesting geek note: the company gets its name from the fact that the device uses transistors made out of plastic.
In addition to being at D7, Plastic Logic CEO Richard Archuleta appeared on Fox Business News to show off the device (embedded below). Although the device looks very slick, the one glaring issue you'll immediately notice is the lag between page updates. Kara Swisher asked about this during the conference demo and was assured this would improve (the device won't ship until sometime in early 2010).
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