Interead, makers of the Cool-er e-reader device, is arriving a bit late to the Google Books party. The company is announcing the addition of Google Books’ 1 million public domain titles to its e-book store – a puzzling move given that Google made these exact books available to all in an announcement just last week. For a device lacking wireless capabilities, the availability of Google Books via the Cool-er e-book store seems to offer little advantage. One can only presume this maneuver is in preparation for a rumoured wireless-capable Cool-er device.
Google, on the other hand, continues to tie up device makers in its bid to colonize the entirety of the e-book industry.
Devices such as Amazon.com’s Kindle and Sony’s PRS 505 feature drab grey-scale screens, and we almost thought that was going to change with the introduction of the Cool-er electronic book reader. Apparently, it featured color. Unfortunately, the color involved is the iPod-inspired colors of the device body itself, not the capability of the screen to display color.
Apparently, Cool-er’s bid to innovate stopped there. While the device is much lighter and cheaper than its competitors, it apparently cuts corners on the device’s functionality and quality according to Wired’s scathing review of the Cool-er device. Wired also took umbrage at the price of books featured in Cool-er’s online bookstore pricing, many of which weight in at nearly twice the price of the same title from Amazon or Sony. At $250, the device might be cheap to buy, but expensive to own. If anything, it may at least exert pressure on other device manufacturers to lower their device prices.