Iriver Story HD brings integrated Google Ebooks

HARDWARE FIRM Iriver's Story HD e-reader will tip up on 17 July and it will be the first to integrate Google Ebooks.

Google's Ebooks service has been around for over six months but the Iriver Story HD will be the first to incorporate the store straight out of the box.

On its blog Google said, "The iriver Story HD is the first e-reader integrated with the open Google eBooks platform, through which you can buy and read Google eBooks over Wi-Fi."

Google launched Ebooks in December of last year and now it offers hundreds of thousands of books to buy and over three million for free. The Story HD allows users to browse, buy and read books over a WiFi connection rather than over a wire hooked up to a PC.

The device will retail at $139.99 and come with a 6in e-ink screen with 768x1024 resolution and a full Qwerty keyboard. It will have an 800MHz processor, weigh 207g and be 9.3mm thick.

Iriver said the lithium polymer battery can see you through 14,000 page turns or six weeks on a single charge.

Google said, "You can also store your personal ebooks library in the cloud - picking up where you left off in any ebook you're reading as you move from laptop to smartphone to e-reader to tablet."

Google's Ebooks service is available on any device with an internet browser as well as under its Android operating system and Apple's IOS. Ebooks includes more than 250 independent bookstores and free books include titles from Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and Hans Christian Andersen.

The Iriver Story HD won't be the only e-reader to integrate Ebooks, as Google rounded off its blog post with, "Stay tuned for more Google eBooks-integrated devices to come." µ