Ricoh eQuill ePaper business tablet hits the FCC
At first glance the Ricoh eQill looks like just another eReader with an E Ink display. But it’s actually an enterprise tablet designed to fit into a paperless (or at least paper-less) office. The idea is that the eQuill connects to your server over WiFi or 3G and lets you read and sign documents without wasting any paper.
It’s not a device that you’re likely to pick up to read the latest Dan Brown novel, but is instead aimed at health care, police, insurance, and other industries where mobile access to documents is important.
The device has a 9.7 inch, 1280 x 825 pixel E Ink display and 8GB of storage, which Ricoh says is enough storage space for about 25,000 pages worth of content. It gets up to 20 hours of battery life and includes a stylus for text input, a camera, and a voice recorder, as well as a software keyboard.
The device has a TI OMAP 3621 processor, 256MB of RAM, and a 5MP camra. It measures 7.4″ x 9.7″ x 0.4″ and weighs about 1.1 pounds.
Ricoh introduced the eQuill earlier this summer, promising it would launch soon with a starting price of $500 or less. While there’s still no word on the official launch date or price, the eQuill showed up at the FCC this week, which is a pretty good sign it’s inching closer to release.
