It might come as a shock to some readers, but Amazon is not the only manufacturer of ebook readers out there. Bookeen have a long history of producing reliable, if less popular devices. At MWC they are showing off a new case for their Cybook Ocean e-reader device. Of course, most users of e-ink devices don’t have battery life concerns because they tend to last weeks rather than hours, but even still Bookeen think they have the answer to your travel woes. The new case has clever built-in “invisible” solar panels, and just 1 hour’s worth of sunlight will provide enough charge for a day’s worth of reading. This might not sound very helpful on a grey, soggy UK day, but on a sunny summer holiday it means you can safely forget your charger and never have to worry about running out of battery.
Bookeen CEO, Michael Dahan, commented that “This new cover for the Cybook Ocean has an invisible charging mechanism making your product almost autonomous. The product recharges itself without you noticing it. We benefit from the very weak energy consumption of our e-books and of the SunPartner technology, for this world premiere”.
The case will be released this summer and the range will be expanded to fit other Bookeen e-readers too. No details of pricing yet but as soon as we know we’ll bring you details.