8.5 x 11-inch e-reader runs Windows CE

By Jonathan Angel
2009-10-19

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Plastic Logic announced a new name and release date for its forthcoming, Windows CE-based e-reader. The 8.5 x 11-inch "Que" will be released at January's CES (Consumer Electronics Show), feature both WiFi and cellular connectivity, and download content from Barnes & Noble's online store, the company says.

In today's announcement, Plastic Logic provided few details of its e-reader's hardware, except to say that the device "weighs less than many periodicals" and is the size of an 8.5 x 11-inch piece of paper. Said to be aimed at business professionals, the Que will display newspapers, books and periodicals, and will be capable of downloading content either via WiFi or via a cellular modem designed to operate with AT&T's 3G network, the company says.

Plastic Logic's Que (on top of stack)
(Click to enlarge)

Plastic Logic claims its online store, "powered by Barnes & Noble," will offer "the most significant collection of business reading available on any e-reader." The Que will also support viewing of documents in PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel formats, the company adds.

Like Amazon's market-leading Kindle, the Que uses an electrophorescent monochrome display sourced from E Ink Corporation. Electronic paper offers a bright, high-contrast, thin, lightweight display technology that remains legible under "any lighting condition" -- much like newsprint. Once an image has been "printed," no power is needed to hold it, reducing energy requirements by 99 percent compared to LCDs, E Ink claims.

E Ink's electronic paper requires no power to hold images
Source: E Ink Corporation

Unlike the Kindle and a variety of existing Windows-based e-readers, the Que has an 8.5 x 11-inch form factor. While it provided no new hardware information today, Plastic Logic said earlier this year that its device would be less than 0.27 inches thick, weigh under 16 ounces, and have a battery life "measured in days." The e-reader has a touchscreen display, customized user interface with a Windows CE core operating system, and can read documents in PDF, DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PPTX, text, RTF, HTML, JPEG, PNG, BMP, ePub, and eReader formats, the company says.

Detroit Free Press CEO David Hunke holds Plastic Logic's Que
Source: Detroit Free Press

Plastic Logic previously announced an agreement with the Detroit Media Partnership via which the e-reader will be offered as a replacement for home newspaper delivery. In April, the publisher ended home delivery of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday editions of the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News, and said it would offer the Que to subscribers for purchase or lease during 2010.

Further information

Plastic Logic said full product specifications, availability, and pricing for the Que will be announced on Jan. 7, 2010, at CES.

Further information on the Que may be found on the company's web site, here.

Another report on the device's announcement, adding details of a newly announced e-reader running Google's Android operating system, may be found on eWEEK.com, here.

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