iRiver Story e-Book Reader Available to Pre-Order [Story QWERTY e-Reader Asian Release Imminent]

Following up from the heads up we offered you yesterday concerning the release of the Bookeen Cybook Opus e-Reader, we can now confirm that iRiver’s new e-Book reader, namely the QWERTY keyboard touting iRiver Story, is now being offered as available to pre-order though, unfortunately, only in the Asian market.

We say unfortunately but, in actuality, it may not be all that unfortunate, however, as whilst the iRiver Story is certainly not undesirable its not all good news as, boast a QWERTY keyboard as it may just like the aforementioned Cybook Opus the Story comes sans touchscreen or inbuilt 3G or WiFi connectivity – we can forgive the former, but the lack of wireless connectivity is something that we simply cannot gloss over (as much as we’d like to).

Still, if you can live without wireless connectivity, the iRiver Story, which measures in at 127 x 203.5 x 9.4mm and weighs 284g, has a reasonable amount going for it making it a competent if not spectacularly exciting e-Book reader with product highlights including a 6” e-Ink 600 x 800 resolution display, 2GB of included storage capacity courtesy of a bundled SD memory card (the integration of an SD/SDHC slot allowing for a maximum of 32GB) and as well as supporting all the standard file formats (TXT, DOC, EPUB, PDF) also supports audio formats such as MP3, WMA and OGG (the latter gaining it extra brownie points from us).

Offering a menu offered in no less than 15 different languages, the iRiver Story e-Book Reader is set to release on October 16^th and can be ordered now in advance for the equivalent of around $280.