Following last week's look at the iPad, JOHN HARRIS gives the once-over to an Australian-developed eBook which offers matronly efficiency rather than sex appeal.

Mike Ottoy is a South Australian eBook-lover.

Late last year, Ottoy reached the threshold of delivering his dream to launch a self-developed eBook (electronic book), patriotically dubbed the QuokkaPad, on the Australian market.

In January, he saw Apple’s magic man, Steve Jobs, steal his thunder by announcing plans to launch an eBook-like device, called the iPad.

Rather than lament Apple’s pre-emptive strike, Ottoy welcomed it as an endorsement of the eBook concept, which has germinated for more than a decade.

With the QuokkaPad launch still weeks away due to manufacturing delays, I borrowed a prototype to compare it with last week’s iPad review.

If the iPad is the glossy coffee table book of the eBook market, the QuokkaPad is the trusty textbook.

Powered by a version of Linux, the QuokkaPad is the size of a hardback (191.4 mm x 217 mm), weighing 900 grams. Although its eight-inch colour screen is a bit smaller than the 9.7-inch iPad, it comes with an included stylus, which makes using the touchscreen easier and more precise.

The QuokkaPad is a durable-looking unit aimed at the business market, where the lightweight iPad might seem at bit delicate. With built-in WiFi networking, the unit's built-in battery life ranges from 10 hours to 15 hours, giving it enough grunt to get through a day's work.

Unlike the iPad, the QuokkaPad offers flexible extensions including a USB port for a standard 3G SIM and an SDHC slot for extra external storage.

But what interested me most was its eBook reader, a personal obsession since my bookshelf ran out of space and I started evicting books I will never read again.

The QuokkaPad comes with access to a huge number of books, including out-of-copyright classics such as War and Peace, which I’ve committed this year to reading).

Finding titles is trickier than on the iPad, which has an easy search function. However, once I’d located and downloaded Tolstoy's doorstopper, the QuokkaPad came into it own.

An on-screen menu switches between portrait or landscape orientation and also selects font style while font size is adjusted by a toggle switch to the right of the screen.

A chunky form factor, with a conveniently grippable bulge on the left, makes the QuokkaPad comfortable to hold. The screen is clear and easy to read.

Unlike the iPad, where your finger activates an animated page turn, the QuokkaPad uses front-mounted buttons to quickly turn pages with no extra effort – a real couch potato bonus.

While its lacks the sizzling sex appeal of the iPad, the QuokkaPad’s matronly efficiency provides easy access to business documents from textbooks to case records for lawyers or technical manuals for engineers.

The QuokkaPad is expected to cost less than $500, which, combined with its flexibility, offers an interesting alternative to the all-singing all-dancing iPad. More details are at www.ubiqtechnologies.com/.

John Harris is managing director of Impress Media Australia, a public relations agency that has provided services for Mike Ottoy's company. Email jharris@impress.com.au.

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