Particularly the line of tiny Eee PCs are very interesting. Considering that a new 2 GByte, 7 inch wide monitor ASUS Eee PC costs only $249, one has to consider this a real competitor to the various e-ink reading devices. Yes, it is heavier with 32 ounces (Sony PRS-505: 9 ounces, Ebookwise-1150: 18 ounces) and its battery life is only 3 hours, but it comes with all other standard features a computer has these days: color screen, USB, WiFi, ethernet connectivity, a keyboard, and an operating system with loads of software and applications to run on. And don't forget it is programmable! Additionally it boots up very quickly and can therefore be turned on and off frequently and rapidly. And its overall size is not larger than your standard 6 x 9 inch paper back. It is conceivable, with a bit of clever engineering, to turn such an Eee PC into a handy ebook reader. What if the screen could be folded all the way to the back to turn it into a tablet-type PC? What if the screen uses a bistable LCD technology like the earlier mentioned Bistable Nematic from Nemoptic? Then this Eee PC could be operated in reading mode where it needs very little power to run. And ultimately once an e-ink type screen becomes cheap why not add such a screen as secondary screen on the outside of the PC? Then one could use it as ebook reader in its closed state and once you need to type something or need the full power of a real computer you open it and are presented with a color screen and keyboard.
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