Interead is the startup company behind the fun-loving and simple Cool-er eBook reader. It it is no competition to the big wigs like the Sony readers, Kindle or even Nook but it is simple and relatively cheaper eBook reader that does the basic things.
The Cool-er hasn’t been all that popular and that is mainly because it is a first generation device and simply needed time to mature. The UI, the layout of the current model need changing but the menu system has been deemed alright by those who have used it. These things are still small compared to the lack of WiFi on the current model. This is exactly what is about to change on the Cool-er come 2010.
There were already rumors about a new Cool-er emerging early next year and the CEO had hinted at a color touchscreen enabled phone too. For now at least, the company has confirmed that there is a new Cool-er in the works and it will have 3G connectivity for wireless access to content wherever you are.
The company has apparently tied up with AT&T for this. Hopefully the device will also have improvements to the layout and the the UI as well. There have been no images of the new device in circulation, so we are unsure about all the cosmetic changes that the device will surely go through. Still, if Interead is serious about making the Cool-er the ‘iPod’ of the eBook Readers, it has to be a lot more user friendly.
This is just an upgrade to the Cool-er reader. The color touchscreen reader is probably still in the works.
I bought one and ended up returning it a month later, not because of the issues mentioned, but because 1) support wouldn’t answer emails for 2-3 weeks, and the PDF support (in the first release version) wasn’t working for my PDF files. Also, device would lock up once every couple days.
After I asked for an RMA to return it, ironically, support would return ALL my emails within a day or less. Probably growing pains more than anything. Their web site never once worked for me to buy books within the 1st 3 months of the item shipping (also reported many times to them).
The unit itself is the lightest among Sony and Kindle (I have both), and it was more fun to use it for reading than the other two. I liked the folder approach to organizing books, which meant I could use as many categories and subcategories as I wanted to. Kindle is the worst among these three in terms of organizing several hundred books on a device at the same time, Cooler was the best.