Whenever I look at the current crop of eBook readers I just think they’re all a bit small for what I want to do with them. OK, the Kindle DX goes some way towards ‘big enough’ but it’s not till I saw the Skiff reader that I thought, yes, that’s what I need.

Reading books, novels and small format magazines is only half the story, what about journals, magazines and newspapers? At just over 6mm thick and packing an 11.5-inch (1600 x 1200) “Metal Foil” touchscreen display, I might finally get what I need in an eReader and can stop printing all the journal articles from the likes of Nature, PLOS and Science. If it comes with some way to make notes efficiently on the screen then this might be the product that every academic jumps on. It even looks the business. Still it’s a bit speculative (2010 release apparently) and comes bundled with Sprint 3G, so it’ll probably never make it over the pond, but one can hope eh?

[Full details and press release over at Gizmodo]

Amazon, just before its press event in New York, has leased the details and pre-order onto its US website. Sporting a 9.7″ diagonal e-ink screen (1200 x 824 res at 150 ppi, 16-level gray scale), auto-rotating screen and a built-in PDF reader over the original Kindle plus boosted storage to 4Gb onboard. The rest of the details remain similar to its smaller brother with this one clearly aimed at reading news papers, magazines and text books. I don’t know about you but I think this one would be fantastic for reading journal articles. Why can’t you launch this in the UK Amazon?!

Slim and sexy

With the current Kindle selling well, especially to the over 50s age group Amazon might have a hit on their hands if they can convince users to switch their news paper subscriptions over to the digital format. If you’re in the market for one, head on over to Amazon to get your pre-order in. Just like last time, pre-orders will be filled on a first come first serve basis so if you’re keen on it even though it’s got a heafty $489.00 price tag you best get your card out.

If you’re unfamiliar with the eBook reader, here’s a video: