Copia

Sources:

• Engadget coverage at http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/06/copia-promises-to-blend-e-books-and-social-networking-into-set-o/
• Engadget at http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/07/copia-intros-ereader-devices-and-platform-video/

Here we have yet more Spanish-language-inspired naming, this time with a DRM-inspired name of: "Copy"!

I know someone will say it's news inspired (as in News-copy, Copy-writer, etc), but given the debate about content being (illegally) copied for viewing on these devices the name seems unfortunate.

They have in fact introduced an entire range of six somewhat dissimilar eReaders (three "Ocean" devices and three "Tidal" devices), and an eReading (find, buy, manage, library, etc) software platform. More reading is required to understand this and their "Open Platform" approach more.

If you can hear past the booming music in the video (why do they do that at trade-shows......allow us to talk and learn about products please!!!) they seem to be focusing on the social aspects of reading, and discovering content of possible interest to read with a combined "social networking / e-book store hybrid".

The design of the one shown in the photo above (a "Tidal" device) reminds me of the newer iRex  device's design, and they do talk about opening up the store/network to OEMs.

To see a range of photos of the devices courtesy of Engadget, go here.

I like the design of the Ocean range, with a metalic strip down the left side that reminds me of a spine, or binder, for a book, with the "pages" hanging off it on the right. If the space between the display and the edge of the device was even smaller this effect would be accentuated and the designs even more book-like in my mind. Although this one is not too bad!

If you've read this blog for a while, you'll know that I fixate on this "wasted" space around the display and that I want a device that is "all display" (in fact: "all content") with no wasted space.....so get used to it!