HP looks to the past to predict the future with ebook concept

Still a concept even though you can buy Sony's for $350

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10 May 2007 6:10 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Caught in a time warp, HP has shown off a concept eBook reader suggesting it’s the future of reading books even though the "cutting edge" technology won't be available for a few years yet, even though Sony and other company's eBook products are already available on the market.

Introduced by Philip McKinney, whose title is longer than most press releases; Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Personal Systems Group; General Manager, Gaming Business Unit, said to a crowded press conference at the Making Connections event in Shanghai, that the company believes that the focus of gadgets in the future won't be convergence, but individual items that focus on doing specific tasks.

"I doubt we will see that one device in my lifetime", he said.

To prove a point, he showed off the company's prototype he size of an A4 sheet of paper, users will be able to pull book pages across by hand in a similar way to many flash-based book reading online software.

The eBook reader runs on Linux, with HP Labs specific software, and books are transferred via USB, although McKinney would like to see Wi-Fi built-in on future models.

Tied in with the company's photo sharing website, Snapfish, you'll also be able to show off your albums on hot swappable media, however shunning the PDF format due to readability issues, HP has developed its own media file format for the device.

Currently not in production, McKinney said that HP had built a number of units to test with company's and a small beta program.

No date has been given as to when we'll see an eBook reader from HP.

We will keep you posted.