E-readers tend to get a lot of attention on this site for some reason - maybe it’s their large displays, or their thin, compact form factor. Maybe it’s the e-ink technology, which is supposed to be as clear as paper. Or maybe it’s the huge selection of those books we’ve always wanted to read but never got around to. Whatever the reason, it looks like they’re here to stay.

Jumping into the e-reader foray is the Cool-er, a package that’s smaller, lighter, and offers more e-books than Amazon’s Kindle. It’s clear that the Cool-er (cool e-reader?) was designed with the Kindle in mind, but perhaps more obvious is its clear mimicking of the iPod Nano. Seriously, look at it. It’s like a giant Nano, candy colors, white wheel and everything. But just as millions of would-be iPod users if not for iTunes and the restrictive nature, the Cool-er differs from the Kindle in one very important aspect - it uses the open source Epub format for its books as opposed to the Kindle’s proprietary azw format.

Granted, it’s lacking some big features that the Kindle touts - features like quick zoom on a pdf, wifi capability to download books, built-in dictionary, and a keyboard to make annotations, but that’s not really what the Cool-er is after - at $249 retail it’s far below the $349 for Amazon’s latest Kindle incarnate, and will likely be the favorite of many readers who just want a simple, fun, sporty looking e-reader to bring with them on their next vacation.

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