iSlate Hacked

Plastic Logic debuted its Que proReader at the January 7, 2010, Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.  It was quite a spectacular hit with the software industry, and also gave hope to the declining newspaper industry.  It is getting ready to hit the market in April.

Plastic Logic’s, Chief Executive Richard Archuleta believes that “We haven’t seen anybody even come close to what we’re doing with our product.” “The QUE brand stands for a premium reading experience.”

The Que proReader has been designed specifically for executives and business travelers, the essential tool for busy professionals.  It is expected to lighten their workload, with access to content anywhere, anytime in the world.  The unique design and technology of this device certainly has placed it far ahead of anything currently on the market.  It will definitely give the user a competitive edge in the business world.

“Que” is more than just a standard E-Reader, it is being touted as the ultimate “paperless briefcase.”  The Que can hold “a file cabinet’s worth of documents and publications.”  This traveling device can hold everything you need including powerful tools for interacting with and managing the content while on the go.  It will be able to support business documents including PDF files, provide Power-Point for presentations, support for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint formats.  It can connect either over Wi-Fi or via AT&T’s 3G network, and has a battery life of days not hours, to wirelessly download books, newspapers, and magazines.  Microsoft Office documents, Adobe PDF files,  and other content can be transferred from BlackBerry smartphones, PCs and Mac computers.

The “Que” is a unique design of a slick, super-thin, lightweight, wireless e-reader, less than a 1/3 inch thick, about the same thickness of a pad of legal paper, also the largest touchscreen currently available. The soft capacitive touch screen was described as being “more responsive than any other tried.”  The software and graphics were described as “top notch.”  Plastic Logic has replaced the traditional glass backplane, with a super-thin, flexible, durable plastic. It uses plastic transistors instead of silicon, which enable it to build a smaller, lighter device.  Plastic Logic claims it should survive normal drops and bumps comparing it to a typical cell phone’s durability.  Plastic Logic’s Vice President, demonstrated on a tour at their fabrication facility last year, that the screen could even take a punch.

This device has a  lightweight, glass-free display screen, the size of an 8.5-by-11 inch piece of paper, and uses a touchscreen interface with E Ink Vizplex technology.  It  has a  screen large enough for reading a newspaper or magazine article and making it feel just right. The USB port, SD card slot, and speaker are located on the bottom and are the only ports on the otherwise sleek device. The button on the bottom left is for an online book store, on the home screen, users can access the features for favorite files, calendar, or access email.  This device blends software and technology for great graphics of images and documents.

The innovative technology of the “Que” is not only how much more productive it could be from the average professionals point of view,  but also the impact this could have on the declining newspaper and magazine industry.

At the CES in Las Vegas when the “Que” was unveiled, among the software industry reporters and key players, reporters and managers from news organizations were on hand to see if electronic readers could be the answer to help revive their industry.

USA TODAY, Publisher Dave Hunke said, The platform “delivers our content the way it’s supposed to look and feel.”  This is appealing to newspaper and magazine publishers who want to feature more than text.

Plastic Logic has introduced a template called truVue, enabled by the Adobe Reader Mobile SDK, providing the familiar look and feel of printed publications. The large, high-resolution screen helps provide this, giving it a richer reading experience.  At the top buttons lead to different sections of the headlines.

Plastic logic has already entered into agreements with Financial Times, USA Today, Libre Digital, Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, the San Jose Mercury News, the Contra Costa Times, the Oakland Tribune, the Huffington Post and The Sporting News Today, along with magazines from Barron’s, Fast Company and Forbes.

Plastic Logic was founded in 2000 by researchers out of the Cambridge University Cavendish Laboratory in England, after they developed ways to print transistors on plastic film, instead of silicon, using inkjets.

Plastic Logic’s mission has been to lead a revolution in the way people acquire, organize and consume information.  In 2007 Spectrum readers voted Plastic Logic the winning technology of the year.

WHAT PLASTIC LOGIC HAS TO SAY ABOUT THE “QUE”

Richard Archuleta, Plastic Logic CEO

Business travelers “can look forward to a paperless briefcase, a lighter load, and a better way to work.”

“The QUE brand stands for a premium reading experience,” “The QUE proReader enhances business performance and gives you a competitive edge. More than an E-Reader, QUE means business.”

Daren Benzi, Plastic Logic Vice President of Business Development

“Because of the size of our device, newspapers and magazines really are our core focus,” he stressed, “right away a newspaper company sees the greater opportunity to publish on an end user product that is much closer to the print version.”

Marketing Blog

“QUE™ was made for how busy professionals work. Thousands of documents and all of your favorite publications now at your fingertips.”

“Light, sleek and with the largest touchscreen available, the QUE proReader has a user interface as intuitive as paper and ink. More than an E-Reader, QUE means business.”

THE PRICE OF THE QUE

The name alone, “Que proReader” is an explanation in itself as to why this device will cost more than the average e-Reader.  It is aimed more for the professional field.

The 4GB of storage for documents, Wi-Fi, USB, and Bluetooth, but no 3G connectivity is $649.00.

The top-of-the-line model with double the storage and adds AT&T 3G wireless is $799.00

It is expected to go on sale in April, and will be released with Barnes & Noble as their retail partner.

Que will have its own online store powered by Barnes & Noble, which will include digital books from Barnes & Noble that use the ePub format, and will offer a more significant collection of business reading than is currently available on any eReader.

All in All, Plastic Logic’s Que proReader looks to be a device for the up and coming executive ready to make his/her mark in the world.