Touchscreen

Amazon were granted a patent (filed in 2006) on e-readers with secondary LCD displays. This is a surprise, and we're not sure whether it'll effect the Barnes&Noble Nook. Here's the patent description:

A handheld electronic device comprising: a housing; an electronic paper display disposed in the housing and having a first surface area; and a liquid crystal display (LCD) disposed in the housing proximate the electronic paper display, the LCD having a second surface area that is smaller than the first surface area of the electronic paper display.

Via Engadget

Delta electronics is showing their upcoming color e-reader, and they hope to release it in December 2010. It has a 13.1" color display, based on Bridgestone's e-paper technology. The e-reader supports pen input. Delta claims that the display's refresh rate is faster than in E Ink displays.

Delta magazine 13.1 color e-reader photo

via Slashgear

Samsung announced that their E60 and E61 e-readers will come to the UK in July. The E60 will cost £299.99 (around $450). The E60 is a slider e-reader with a touchscreen, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and hand-writing recognition software. The E61 is quite similar, but with a physical QWERTY keyboard instead of the touch display. Both readers have a 6" E Ink display.

Samsung E6

Via Engadget

Samsung announced that the E6 e-reader will soon be available in the US market. They have formed a partnership with Barnes & Noble for an e-book store. It'll cost $299 when launched.

Samsung E6

The Samsung SNE-60K is a slider e-reader (with some extra controls under the slide) with a 6" E Ink touchscreen (using a stylus), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and hand-writing recognition software.

Engadget managed to get a nice hands on with the upcoming ASUS DR-900. They say it's rather light, the Sipix display looks crisp, it seems to be as slow as an E Ink, but the touch experience was not so great.

Laptop has posted a review of the Sony Reader Daily edition. This is a 7" touch E Ink reader with free 3G (AT&T) costs $399. And they're not too happy...

The good things:

• Simple and clear interface
• Fast page turns

The bad things:

• Sluggish, sometimes it takes a few seconds between screen taps and a response. Sometimes there was simply no response to taps or swipes at all
• Display is a bit 'dull', because of the touch layer
• It's slow compared to the Kindle or the Nook
• More expensive than the competition
• no ePub support

Sagem Wireless was showing a new e-reader prototype at Mobile World Congress a few days ago. It has a 6" capacitive touch displays (we're not sure what kind of display) that supports fingers and stylus input. It also has 3G and Wi-Fi. Here's a video of the prototype: