Sure, Intel is primarily a chip maker, but every once and a while they throw us a product curve ball.  The Reader (yup, that’s what it’s called) is a handheld device that can literally read aloud the text of a physical book.  It’s intended use is for the physically blind or those who are challenged by a learning disability, but it could also serve as an archiving system.

It works by using OCR, or optical character recognition, and captures the text through a small built-in 5 megapixel camera.  I’m skeptical as to how much text it can read and convert in one given snap shot, but Intel says that “conversions [are] fast”.

Total on board storage of the device is 4GB (solid state) and a USB port helps to transfer any stored data to your personal computer.  The battery should be good for about 4 hour of audio playback and the reader is also compatible with a variety of file formats (DAISY 2.02* (DAISY), NISO 2002* (z2002 or DAISY 3*), NISO 2005* (z2005 or DAISY 3), NIMAS 1.0/1.1*, MP3, WAV, ASCII text) and contains a 3.5mm headphone jack for greater privacy.

The Intel Reader is said to ship sometime in the next few weeks and cost about $1,500.

Video after the ‘leap’

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You’ve got to hand it to the folks at Samsung.  Just yesterday, Sony pops up with its X series line of laptops.  Today, it’s Samsung’s turn to exhibit an X series line of laptops.

If you were to say that Samsung’s playing a serious round of copycat with their X series, you probably wouldn’t be too far off.  Though not as light or as visually attractive as the Sony X series, Samsung’s will offer plenty of value.  They’re about four pounds, will offer screen sizes anywhere between eleven and fifteen inches, and have an expected battery life of about eight hours, which is a definite step up; my poor old kludge only gets about six.

There’s no word yet on what processors will be used in Samsung’s line, though stirrings exist that say it might be the new line of ultra low voltage dual cores from Intel.  Also included is a kind of facial recognition software called Failsafe that basically won’t let you boot up unless you’re in front of a camera so the system can tell it’s you, and yes, they’re preloading Windows 7 with these–guess you can stick a fork in Windows Vista, huh?

They’re expected to cost about a thousand bucks a unit, however, so the chance of getting super-new chips from Intel in these bad boys is pretty much long odds.  However, it doesn’t look like value’s going to be a problem as they’re really putting quite a bit in these systems.  I think we can all live without the super-new chipsets for a good quality low four-figure laptop.

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