Very interesting reader and note taking device. Funny how NOBODY picked up on the fact this is one of the first devices to include Evernote (similar to MS OneNote but quite different in many ways). All of you monolithic reading only people need to pull your collective heads out, or stop commenting on devices before you actually read anything about them. This is NOT designed for exclusive book reading but as a tool to aid in other work or research related needs.
The tablet is Linux based so FBReader should be portable to the device and maybe a couple others though it would be really nice if the failure to indicate ebook format compatibility is still not firmed up at this time. ADE would be good for Epub but all they mention is ePub and PDF nothing about DRMed content.
Since it does support DJVU then a lot of academic materials will be accessible which is nice. Here is a summary of the DJVU format for those who never heard of it before:
http://djvu.org/resources/whatisdjvu.php
One of it's strengths is the ability to compress files a great deal.
Also based on battery life alone it is NOT an epaper display such as eink. Also given the greyscale level of 64-greyscale is a clue it's not EPD epaper such as eink brand displays.
Great feature for the device is it does have a Wacom digitizer which is HUGE for the intended uses of this device. This could be a very nice device for people who do research, attend meetings or orther placed where note taking is important. Unfortunately for me Evernote has moved to an online application as well as bifurcated into two quite distinct versions. Here are the limits, or features however you choose to call them:
http://www.evernote.com/about/premium/
At $45/yr or just $5/mo it is not a bad price but it is subscription based. I also have long preferred MS OneNote over Evernote and I was one of the very early users of Evernote and used it a lot prior to moving to the one time cost of OneNote. Evernote is not a bad program at all but I don't like having to keep my data on their servers or cloud. I understand the purpose but many of my notes fall under NDA's and, thus, I would be exposing myself to liability using Evernote to save and manage my information. So to use Evernote and protect myself from liability problems I would need to not use some of the major features of Evernote. Though it seems that saving to an SD card is an option, however unless you have a laptop handy getting at all your notes or other info gathered using Evernote will require being able to access the web.
If you do use the Evernote cloud storage or need to access past research, given the lack of 3G on the device, you must be near a wifi network in order to access your notes saved to the Evernote servers/cloud. Just an observation not a knock against the product.
It also includes crippled versions of Word & Excel which apparently can be upgraded to full or more complete versions. Given the inclusion of Word & Excel it's a shame they were not able to shoehorn OneNote onto the device over Evernote. But Evernote does have that cloud/server based storage which, can also be significant just not as significant without a 3G option.
But this is a nice device and definitely a move in the directions where I felt ereader devices were heading from day one. iRex had the right idea, just under capitalized. I could see this as a wonderful student device. It is the sort of device I have been after for a long time now. It will be interesting to see where this heads. I know I would not mind carrying this and a laptop at the same time. Then again there is also the new Pocket Edge even if it has a smaller eink screen (only 6" vs. 8" on the new Eee device).