Gadget manufacturer iRiver has launched a new e-book reader, iRiver Wi-Fi Story. It is already available in the UK at a retail price of £250. iRiver better known for its fabulous media players, will partner with WHSmith for the launch. The users will be able to download books from the WHSmith e-book store whenever they go online.

This eBook reader reminds one of the Amazon Kindle. It comes with a 6-inch, 4-bit grayscale screen that can show 800x600 pixels and is powered by Linux, with a Flow UI front end.

It has 2GB internal storage (that can be extended up to 32GB with a SD card reader). It can read the more popular eBook form factors on the market (EPub, PDF, TXT, FBU, and DJVU) as well as Microsoft Office and other picture files like JPEG, GIF and BMP.

One can also use it as a music player thanks to its compatibility with MP3, OGG and WMP files. The Wi-Fi Story has a battery life of 900 pages. Unlike some of its competitors it carries a QWERTY keyboard.

Other eBook readers cost way less than the iRiver Wi-Fi Story. The Kindle can be had for as less as £150.

As the thickness is less than 10mm, portability seems to be its keyword from the beginning.

However, as it renders e-books in 16 levels of grey, it could be acceptable ordinarily but this  makes the comic book viewer mode less than it could have been.