Pioneer budget beater e-book reader

With the impending launch of the iPad, the e-book battle is about to warm up and, local company, Pioneer Computers, looks to be one of the first to the mat with a low-cost $149 reader.

The Pioneer DreamBook Colour eBook Reader W95 sports a 5 inch colour display and supports music, image, and video formats. At first glance, it’s relatively easy to see the Kindle as the primary design inspiration, but it employs a colour LCD screen rather than the Kindle’s power efficient e-ink technology. The DreamBook handles formats such as TXT, PDF and HTML, as well as the EPUB files to be supported by the forthcoming iPad (provided they’re not copy protected). This should make it good for use with the catalogue of material to be made available on the iBookstore, the literary equivalent to Apple’s iTunes store.

At the price, the DreamBook will certainly not be the equal of the more expensive and touchscreen Apple iPad. But for cash strapped literati or for those looking for a cheap way to digest the disposable electronic information of daily life, the DreamBook may just make the best seller list