This won't hurt much…

The eSlick

The free PDF reader market had to be a lead-in to something else. Foxit has been in the business of PDF based readers and editors for awhile. I am a long time fan of their bare bones editor and their reader is the fastest I have ever seen. Now they are entering the eReader Wars with the new eSlick, but without Steve Jobs and a name worse than the iPad. I simply received an email otherwise this might not have ever come to my attention.

Hardware wise it looks like they use the same E-ink screens as the Kindle, which is a positive. They also put in an easily accessible SD card adapter which many Kindle owners bemoan the loss of in the newer Kindle models. I did not see anything about the battery being replaceable. The device specs suggest it is fairly thin and light weight too.

It looks like the embedded Linux OS is open source so it’s likely to be customizable. It also supports EPUB/PDB (as well as the usual TXT/PDF, etc) which almost all readers (including Kindle Docs) can be converted to with free utilities. If memory serves me Kindle docs can be turned into Mobi files by simply changing the name, and once done they can be converted to PDF via any number of applications, including a Foxit application. Fictionwise, which is a part of Barnes and Noble,  is running their book site which only boasts about 60,000 books at this time.

I think they are making a mistake on matching the Kindle prices though. They should really try to undercut their market instead of competing head on, especially since they are not offering wireless delivery and a ready available library of millions of books.

Book 8?

But it says something about their market if this is a featured book. Book 8? This probably didn’t need to be done once. I am also a little confused about the Evanesence tie in on the marketing videos, but what do I know.

I am curious to see if this device actually takes off and gains some market share. They need to send me one to evaluate!