Skiff Reader Preview by eReaderGuide.info

The Skiff Reader is set to shake up the eReader market with a massive 11.5-inch e-paper bendable touchscreen display that looks like it's straight out of a futuristic movie. At least from the initial 4 January press shots, this looks like the eReader of the future we've been waiting for (well this along with the beautiful Plastic Logic reader debuting in April.) The Skiff was backed by publisher Hearst, telecoms giant Sprint, and manufacturer LG, and aims to be the first eReader optimized for newspaper and magazine content.

The Skiff Reader design is almost pure tablet, relying on the touchscreen for navigation, swiping to turn pages, using either a finger or stylus. The body is very sturdy, made of a magnesium housing. But what really sets it apart is the rugged metal foil e-paper display device which appears to be bendable as pictured below as well as supposedly "shatter and crack proof." At a mere .27 inches thick, it will be the thinnest eReader on the market. Also, despite having a screen two inches bigger than the Kindle DX, it will weigh slightly less--only 17.6 ounces.

The rechargeable Lithium ion battery is said to work for a week of reading (with periodic wireless use and "thousands" of page turns. This is a bit shorter than the two plus weeks for most eReaders, but then the touchscreen will use a fair bit of power. Most consumers accustomed to laptop charges measured in hours will still be wowed. The device will take 2-3 hours to recharge.

The Skiff will have a generous 4 GB of memory, of which 3 GB will be available for user content. The reader will take additional memory on a SDHC card. It will have a built in speaker as well as a standard 3.5mm audio jack.

The Skiff Reader should be available for purchase later this year in more than 1,000 Sprint retail locations across the US, as well as online.

The Skiff Reader will be previewed at the CES show on 7 January, so we should know more details then.

Connecting: The Skiff Reader will have both 3G internet and WiFi capabilities, and will also be able to use a USB 2.0 mini port to connect direct to a computer. Sprint will supply the reader's 3G connection to download books and subscriptions within the US, and Wi-Fi can be used outside Sprint's coverage or for international travel.

Hearst is being quite ambitious, as the Skiff Reader is only half the enterprise. The rest is the Skiff Store, as Hearst tries to monetize its wide publishing content and integrate advertising to ensure continued revenues as more readers shift from print to digital formats. The Skiff Store will offer customers a wide selection of newspapers, magazine, books, and blogs from which to choose, all to be wireless delivered to the Skiff or to Skiff-enabled eReaders and other devices including smartphones, tablets, notebooks, and PCs. We like the idea that several of these print newspapers will be able to be dynamically updated "perhaps several times a day, " so we can have the quality and feel of a newspaper, but keep up to date as befits a newspaper in the internet age. Of course in this content will be ads which can generate additional revenue. This content will apparently be specifically formatted for the Skiff to feature "visually appealing layouts, high-resolution graphics, rich typography and dynamic updates, supporting key design qualities that help publications differentiate themselves and attract subscribers and advertisers."

It's early days, but it sounds like Sprint will offer free access to this content (similar to Amazon Kindle's free Whispernet service which also uses Sprint). Still it sounds like there won't be a basic internet browser as with the Kindle, which means you'd have to live within the walled garden of the Skiff Store. That still may be very impressive as it develops, but lack of access to the broader web is one potential concern and limitation.

Accessories: Accessories for the Skiff are as yet unknown.

Price: This is the big question about the Skiff--with all these features and the ground-breaking metal foil screen technology, this is likely to be a very expensive eReader.