The Txtr e-Book Reader is one of the newest additions into the world of e-readers. It has unique qualities that set it apart from other e-readers. Read about the German company that markets Textr, what services they have to offer, features of the Textr e-Reader, and how it compares to other e-readers already on the market.
Txtr GmbH, a German based company, was founded in 2008. It is an e-Reading company whose services include an online store for digital books and news, document storage and service, support for multi-devices, and the Txtr e-Reader. Their goal is to increase the way people use electronic content.
The Txtr e-Reader prototype was displayed at CeBit IT Fair in early 2009. The release of the e-Reader was scheduled for the German speaking part of Europe in October 2009. It was to be launched at the Frankfurt Book Fair but was postponed, apparently due to production difficulties in China. The company is currently taking pre-orders for the device. Videos of the Txtr e-Reader can be seen on You Tube.
Txtr has a six-inch high resolution e-ink display which is readable even in bright sunlight, a long battery life lasting for weeks, an integrated 3-D accelerometer which allows for automatic orientation between landscape and portrait mode, built in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, and an open system architecture. Wireless connectivity is provided by E-plus, a German network operator. 3G/GPRS connectivity is an option. Books can be purchased at the Txtr store which has a large assortment of German language e-content as well as English e-books.
The open-source software and Txtr's support for third party applications are among the things that set Txtr apart from other e-readers. The Txtr Reader uses Adobe Digital Rights Management (DRM). The Txtr store DRM books can be read on the Txtr Reader as well as Txtr applications on iPhones, and on Macs, PCs, and third party e-readers with Adobe Digital Editions. The built in vLan lets users set up a virtual Lan connecting them to other readers allowing them to easily share books or documents on up to six activated devices. A variety of file types are supported on the Txtr Reader including HTML, DOC, ePub and PDF formats. As it is noted in the article “An Introduction to Popular E-book File Formats”, PDF was created specially for storing and transferring portable, printable documents and it is estimated that more than 250 million PDF documents are in existence on the Web (Digital Book Readers).
Some other details are a 600x800 display, 64 MB SDRAM on-board, and an included 8GB micro-SD card. There is also an online platform where individuals can publish their own texts. The Txtr e-Reader does not have mp3 playback which is a feature present in a number of other e-readers.
The server infrastructure for Txtr's digital reading service is the Reaktor, which stores and processes documents. It provides a back end for running a digital reading network. Some of the uses for Reaktor include catalog access, e-book upload, management of access rights, and presentation. Reaktor has two parts, the remote procedure call (RPC) and delivery. The delivery part, which is accessed through HTTP requests, handles the upload and download of books, while the RPC part handles everything else. All functionality of Reaktor can be accessed from anywhere on the internet through public API.
Consumers will have a free connection to Txtr’s bookstore, but can also choose to have permanent mobile access to the free content parts of txtr.com through Txtr Pro. A Txtr Pro subscription gives access to RSS feeds, blogs, shared document groups, anything in an individual's online account, and the ability to synchronize between the online account and the Txtr Reader. The monthly cost for a three month subscription is 15 euros; a twelve month subscription would have a monthly rate of 12 euros.
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