Digitimes, a standard for Asian hardware rumors and CE industry news, just posted a report indicating, well, like my headline states, Asus is prepping “an e-book reader with an 8-inch 64-grayscale TFT-LCD screen without backlight for own-brand sale at below US$599 in October 2010.” But that can’t be right. At least I hope it’s not right. $599?

The report goes on to detail that the company is trying to get some mobile telecoms on board with the device and the 64-grayscale screen uses some sort of process to improve reflection.

But $600? For a grayscale e-reader? Nuts to that. Hopefully this isn’t Asus’s answer to the iPad or even the Kindle DX. Either that or something was lost in translation and the price is supposed to be more like $199. Even if for some random reason the device had access to the Kindle Bookstore, the B&N bookstore, the Apple App Store, and PornHub.com, no one would spend 600 bones on a grayscale e-reader. Guess we’ll find out more in October.