A new e-reader is about the hit the ground running. The Cool-er is pitching itself as cheaper, lighter and more open than Amazon’s Kindle or Sony’s Reader and it claims to have a larger selection of titles. Neil Jones had an idea and ran with it.
The result is the Cool-er and Coolerbooks.com, the online store for the US with 260,000 paid-for titles at launch from all the major publishers, compared to around 250,000 on Amazon. Also around 60,000 titles will be available in the UK and Europe at launch with more to come at a later date.
The Cool-er’s price is said to be $249 in the US, or about $110 less then Kindle and over $200 less then the Kindle DX. Also at 5.65 ounces the Cool-er is 40% lighter than the Kindle and the Sony.

A possible down side of the Cool-er is that it does not offer wireless connectivity. It connects to a PC or a Mac using a standard USB cable and also charges via the computer’s USB port . Users have to download books via the website. The device will also support books in the ePub, Txt, JPEG and PDF format. Cool-er users will be able to listen to music and audio books and choose fromg red, blue, hot pink, violet, light pink, green, black and silver colors.
Cool-er supports eight languages including English, German, Portugese, Russian French and Chinese. Though many users would have preferred to have over-the-air wireless capability a la the Kindle, the tethering to the computer allows Cool-er to be used in any country, unlike the Kindle.
Will the Cool-er kill the Kindle? My guess is no, i do however believe that the Cool-er will give the Kindle a run for its money.
Filed under: kindle 2 , books, cool-er, e-reader, kindle, reader, tech