E-readers will dominate Vegas consumer show

E-readers and tablets — portable devices that allow readers to access information digitally without lugging around laptops — are shaping up to be one of the technologies to watch on the eve of this year's Consumer Electronics Show.

Amazon's e-reader device, the Kindle, was released in Canada just before the holidays and the company says it was one of the most popular items purchased through its online store during the month. The only major competitors for the Kindle to date have been the Barnes & Noble Nook and the Sony Reader.

That could change this week: This year's CES in Las Vegas will see the introduction of many new e-reader devices as companies bid for a piece of the new market.

Futurist Ray Kurzweil told Wired Magazine he will launch a colour e-reader interface called Blio at CES. The software is expected to work on a number of devices, from e-readers to tablets and phones.

Hearst and Sprint Corp. will be releasing the Skiff Reader, an e-reader that's thinner and has a larger display than anything currently available. The companies will be previewing the Skiff Reader, which features an 11.5-inch touch-screen display (1,200 by 1,600 pixels) that's just over a quarter of an inch thick and is designed for reading newspaper and magazine content along with e-books and personal documents.

One company that will not be at CES to introduce its new device, though still getting buzz, is Apple. Its iSlate tablet device is the subject of much rumour, and some expect it to bridge the gap between e-reader and computer.