Netronix preps Cookie, Grace and Swiftie ebook readers

With 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

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16 October 2009 10:48 GMT / By Lars-Göran Nilsson

A Taiwanese company called Netronix has a few new ebook reader models coming that might just appeal to those that want more than the ablility to read books on their ebook reader.

The EB600 Cookie (we have no idea why it's called that) has a 6-inch touch screen e-ink display which can display eight grey levels and boasts no less than 16,000 turns of ebook pages on a single charge.

For those interested in more technical details, it has a 400MHz processor, microSD card slot, runs Linux and incorporates 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.

It also has a built in rotation sensor that will automatically switch the screen between landscape and portrait mode.

The next model up, the EB600 Grace adds support for hand written notes and annotations, but this seems to be the only major difference between it and the Cookie.

These two models are set to be superseded by the EB600 Swiftie which offers an improved e-ink display that manages to produce 16 grey levels. It also gets a faster 600MHz processor.

Early next year we should see a 9.7-inch model that may or may not get a colour e-ink display, something Plastic Logic has also been linked with recently.

Hopefully someone will pick up the Netronix devices, add their own branding to them and sell them for cheap, as the features are definitely there as far as mass-market ebook readers go.