We caught up with Phil Wood, COOL-ER's Director to chat about the new models.
"The COOL-ER Compact shaves most of the size from last year's COOL-ER model, which we're now calling the COOL-ER Classic but retains the same 6-inch display." said Phil Wood.
Despite the full screen size, The Compact has a smaller form factor than Sony's Reader Pocket Edition (which only has a 5-inch display).
"We've also redesigned the interface" said Phil, "it now has larger icons instead of the list structure we used before". The COOL-ER Compact also has two new arrows button on the front to move pages without using the built-in circular click-button.
It also sports 2GB of onboard memory, which should be more than enough for the largest book library.
The COOL-ER Connect is a touch-screen unit with built-in WiFi. This enables you to sign in to WiFi hotspots and download books and publications when you're on the move. The COOL-ER Connect
One particularly nice touch of the COOL-ER Connect is that the display didn't seem to sport the reflective gloss that . Although the unit we tested was an early pre-production model.
COOL-ER has also managed to build one the largest bookstore, despite being a smaller company than Amazon or Sony. "There are now over two million books available in our US bookstore" said Phil Wood, "with about one and a half million available in the UK". The range includes all of Google books and many bestsellers. It uses the Adobe Digital Editions to enable purchased content that can be shared with up to five friends.
The company is also looking to provide subscription services to the latest newspapers with its COOL-ER Connect.
The COOL-ER Compact will be available in the UK in the next two months, with the COOL-ER Connect launched in the US soon and brought to the UK at a later date. The original COOL-ER ebook will be rebranded the COOL-ER Classic and phased out.