My favorite eReader coming out of CES 2010 was the Skiff, a large format device aimed at the newspaper and magazine audience. The reader is big (the screen is 11.5 inches diagonally with a 1200 x 1600 pixel display), but quite thin (just over 1/4 inch).  Its 17 9/16 ounces is a bit lighter than the smaller screened Kindle DX. It’s not small enough to put in your pocket, but it should be as easy to carry as a pad of letter-size paper. Best of all, the promotional images for the Skiff show it displaying a newspaper in the column layout arrangement with which we’re all familiar.  It seems like a perfect device to bring newspaper readers into the eReader world. But it may be arriving a year too late.

I think 2010 is going to be the year eReaders (and our expectations of them) change substantially. As much as I hate the cliche, I think the tablets that are bound to come out this year, from Apple, HP, and others, will be “game changers”. Or maybe market fragmenters. Once a good color tablet is available, there will still be a few reasons for some people to prefer the kind of e-ink displays that are found on all the readers currently on the market.  Monochrome e-ink readers will still have far better battery life than color displays, will be less likely to cause eye-strain, and may be less expensive. They will do a fine job of displaying text-only books and may start to actually duplicate the newspaper experience.  These large format readers are impressive to see now, and would have made a very big splash had they come out last year.  This year though, they’re going to be going up against full color tablets that will deliver a much broader eReading experience, and functionality beyond reading. The Skiff is not yet priced; the comparably sized Que is coming in two models priced at $649 and $799 (the more expensive adds 3G and doubles the storage).  That is pushing into the range where we can expect to find tablets with a color screen and full media playback abilities.

Price may protect the lower cost eReaders like the Kindle and the nook, but the Skiff and the Que are likely to take a serious competitive beating from comparably priced devices that deliver a better experience and a broader range of capabilities. It may be that 2010 will go down as the year the tablets killed the dedicated eReaders.

Whether in reaction to Apple’s anticipated month-end announcement, or just because the idea has reached an intersection of demand and technical capability, 2010 is looking like the year of the tablet computer.  I think that tablets, once they pass the hurdles of price and capability (see the history of notebooks for that) are going to be the portable computers of choice.  But that may be a few years off and what do you do to bridge the gap between the netbook world of today and tablet world of tomorrow? Lenovo has an answer at CES, and it looks to be a pretty good one.  The IdeaPad U1 Hybrid is a tablet computer running Lenovo’s Skylight Linux OS. It has an 11.6-inch multitouch screen backed by a Snapdragon processor and a 16GB sold state drive when used as a tablet.

The real charm of this device is the fact that it’s not only a tablet.  Slip the screen into its keyboard-equipped clamshell case, and the display smoothly transitions over to Windows 7, and the tablet becomes a netbook. Docked with the keyboard, the system switches to an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 128GB on SSD. Anticipated release month is June at a planned price of $999.

My highest anticipation remains focused on Apple’s tablet, but it’s good to know that should it underwhelm, there are going to be a lot of alternatives on the market this year.

Via Engadget

I’m guessing you already have ski gloves that control your iPod and a GPS to help you track your speed down the hill, but when you’re back at the lodge bragging about that spectacular jump you made with no witnesses, you need some tech to back up your outlandish claims. Luckily Liquid Image, the folks who brought you a dive mask with a built-in video camera, have your back on the slopes as well.

The Summit Series Snow Camera Goggles have a 5 MP camera mounted above the goggles’ visor that delivers 720×480 video at up to 30 frames per second. There’s a still mode as well, and LEDs inside the goggles indicate camera mode to the skier. Internal memory is 16 MB NAND Flash, with an option for a Micro SD card that can give you up to 16 GB of storage. Power is provided by a rechargeable lithium battery.  But don’t go looking for these goggles just yet – they aren’t scheduled to hit the market until late summer 2010, at a price currently estimated at $149.

Via CrunchGear

Astonish me, Mr. Jobs.