'Kindle v 'txtrbeagle
A Real Competitor
The end of October 2012 sees the release of a real competitor in the field of eBook Readers
It will be priced at around £10 in the UK. Now this is a great saving on the cost of the lowest priced Kindle at £69. Other modestly priced eBook readers are the Kobo Mini at £59 and the Nook Simple Touch at £79.
Light and Small
Manufactured by German company ‘txtr, the ‘txtrbeagle is promoted as the lightest and smallest eReader. Weighing in at a modest 128 grams and a with a 5" display screen it really will fit comfortably in a pocket or handbag. It certainly is a lightweight in comparison to the Kindle, Kobo Mini and the Nook.
Pictures of the new device, a video of it in action and a full spec can be seen on the 'txtr website
Stocking Filler
Aimed at the Christmas stocking-filler market this will be a popular buy for strapped for cash Britons in these times of austerity.
Marketed not as a standalone eBook reader but rather as an add-on to your Smartphone its basic function is reading electronic books. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of the Kindle and comparative devices but is indeed a cleverly designed and highly functional phone accessory.
The ‘txtrbeagle does not have a charger or cable. It is powered instead by 2 AAA batteries which should last for around a year or 12-15 books. Impressive stuff at the side of the maximum of two months battery life on the better known Readers.
Getting books onto the Reader
This is where the Smartphone comes in. First you need to pair the beagle by Bluetooth with your phone. Next purchase the book from the ‘txtr store via the Android app – the iPhone version is coming soon. Once purchased, you send the book from your phone to the reader by Bluetooth.
All rather simple? There is a catch if you were hoping to be able to transfer all your existing Kindle titles from your phone’s Kindle app you won’t be able to as it seems the device only handles epub and pdf formats. The txtr store boasts somewhere between 400,000 & 700,000 titles so there should be something for everyone.
Simple?
Operating this compact eReader is simplicity itself. It has only 3 buttons; ON/OFF, FORWARD & BACK.
The beagle comes in 4 pleasant colours: Grapefruit, Jade, Turquoise and Purple. The display is E Ink 8-levels gray scale and 800 x 600 pixels resolution. It has a massive 4GB of memory, outclassing both the Kindle and the Nook but here comes the confusing part - It will only store around 5 books on the device as opposed to the 3,000+ on other eBook readers.
If the screen is all it boasts to be I can see that this will be a very popular buy in the run up to Christmas. I have a feeling I may buy one when the app for the iPhone is released as it will be perfect for taking on holiday and a lighter choice than the heftier Kindle for restricted luggage allowances.
