Another day, another e-reader. Toady’s is the Plastic Logic Que, which is pronounced like the letter that falls between P and R. I, however, will henceforth pronounce it like the Portuguese word for “what,” and the European Portuguese pronunciation at that. (Sorta sounds like “quh.” It’s a movement!) Plastic Logic seems to be aiming it at the business market, which I don’t think we’ve really seen before.
What does it do? Well, Timmy, it e-reads all sorts of stuff, including Microsoft Office documents and books from Barnes & Noble. Note that you don’t need to use a stylus like that IREX reader.
The weird thing is that, yeah, Plastic Logic doesn’t seem to want to compete, so to speak, with the Amazon Kindle. The Que is for businesspeople, by businesspeople.
Other goodies:
• 8.5×11-inch touchscreen display
• 3G (provided by AT&T), Wi-Fi
• Ability to edit said Office documents on the device itself
There’s no price and there’s no release date yet. Plastic Logic will have more to say at CES in January, which means it won’t be out in time for the holidays.
Basically, Plastic Logic is just saying today, “Hey, we have an e-reader, too, Mr and Ms. Businessperson. Check back with us at CES and we’ll have more info!”
And no, there are no photos of the front of the Que, just that side angle nonsense. Plastic Logic is toying with us.
Here’s the full press release, if you’re interested in reading such things.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Plastic Logic revealed today its plans to unveil QUE™ (pronounced “Q”), the first proReader designed for business professionals. Premiering January 7, 2010 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (Central Hall of Las Vegas Convention Center at Booth 11840 anchoring the e-Book Techzone), QUE is an essential tool for busy professionals, providing access to a dynamic ecosystem of content.
With QUE, Plastic Logic is expanding the eReader category, which to date has focused on leisure reading devices and casual users. QUE is designed to simplify the multi-faceted lifestyle of the modern businessperson, and to quite literally lighten their workload. In addition to connecting its users with their business and professional newspapers, books and periodicals, QUE supports the document formats business users need (including PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents) and features powerful tools for interacting with and managing the content.
“The QUE brand stands for a premium reading experience,” said Richard Archuleta, CEO of Plastic Logic. “The QUE proReader enhances business performance and gives you a competitive edge. More than an eReader, QUE means business.”
Extra thin, lightweight and wireless-enabled, QUE is the size of an 8.5 x 11 inch pad of paper, less than a 1/3 inch thick, and weighs less than many periodicals. The innovative QUE proReader features the largest touchscreen in the industry, an intuitive touch screen user interface, and provides access to a file cabinet’s worth of documents, plus your favorite—and most necessary—publications.
QUE stands out in a crowd because it’s a business reader, but it’s also unique for its shatterproof plastic display. This exclusive technology from Plastic Logic, along with E Ink Vizplex® technology produces an outstanding reading experience. Its battery can last days, instead of hours.
QUE users will be able to connect to content and download wirelessly via Wi-Fi and AT&T’s 3G network, the nation’s fastest 3G mobile broadband network. The QUE store will offer the most significant collection of business reading available on any eReader. The store is powered by Barnes & Noble, the world’s largest eBookstore.
Full product specifications, availability and pricing of QUE will be announced on January 7, 2010 at CES.
The QUE for CES starts at http://www.QUEreader.com.