The US Navy has worked alongside Findaway World, where the fruition of their partnership has resulted in a spanking new basic e-reader device. Known as the NeRD e-reader, the original was based on a hardware design which had been licensed from a Singapore-based OEM. NeRD stands for Navy eReader Device, where this particular 6″ e-book reader will be a whole lot more secure than your regular e-reader out there. Secure here translates to missing a touchscreen display, in addition to having no Wi-Fi connectivity, no USB port and the lack of external storage.
Expect NeRD to be distributed from this summer onward, where each of these units will arrive pre-loaded with 300 titles. The content itself will be a mix of the more recent bestsellers as well as public-domain classics, where the titles would include those from major publishers such as Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hachette and Penguin Random House.
As for the rest of the hardware specifications of the NeRD, it will be powered by Android 2.3 Gingerbread (oh, my!), runs on a 600MHz processor, has a resolution count of 600 x 800 pixels, and will feature 4GB of internal memory. 365 devices have been initially ordered and will be distributed later this summer by the Navy General Library Program, with no word of a formal mass consumer release date in sight. [Press Release]
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