The Skiff
The Skiff.
Are you old enough to remember those "It's a breath mint! It's a candy mint," commercials in which the product's manufacturer tried to present its mint as having multiple personalities? That may be the same problem you'll encounter with the Skiff Reader. Apparently it's both a software environment as well as a chunk of hardware containing said software environment.
Administrator's Note: Since this review was published, Hearst the owner and creator of Skiff was acquired by News Corp. They also acquired the Skiff software platform - but not, it seems, the Skiff device itself. thus it's future now looks in doubt.
The software is probably what you'd expect an e-reader to have. The hardware is very interesting.
According to the folk at Skiff, their reader is the largest one currently available. Normally that would not be much of a brag except that its 11.5" screen is wrapped in an 9"x11" enclosure. That's slightly larger than a piece of paper --which isn't really that big in the real world but, among e-readers, it really doesn't take much. At almost 18 ounces it's not very heavy either.
The display itself gets praise for its 1600x1200 resolution but it's not your typical glass plate. Instead, it's silicon thin film transistors (TFT) on a flexible stainless-steel substrate. It's shatterproof and crack-proof, which is a good thing for a device that has a full-screen touchscreen.
Skiff classifies its reader's operating time as lasting a week with average use -- which it defines as "thousands of page turns with periodic wireless use." That's at least somewhat more realistic than what most ratings are based upon. Recharge time is 3 to 4 hours.
It would be nice if Skiff rated its device in terms of books or pages but it doesn't. Instead, it notes that the reader contains 4 GB of memory with a little more than 3 GB available for content and it has an SDHC card slot for adding more as needed. What content will be available for it? The parent company is the Hearst Corporation and it has a rather large library on hand.
Specs: Skiff Display 11.5", 1200x1600 Size 9"x11"x0.268" Storage 4GB + SDHC memory card slot Connectivity Wi-Fi + 3G Wireless Coverage Global Rotating Display No Price Not Available at this time.
Review by Information Week - April 2010