Ideo Softbook scoops award

An electronic book created by Ideo, called Softbook, has won a German Design Innovations 99 award from the Design Zentrum Nordiheim.

The leather-bound Softbook holds 100 000 pages of content, including text and graphics which can be annotated on screen, linked together and bookmarked.

As with a book, users read a page at a time rather than scrolling through text, although unlike its traditional counterpart the Softbook is a thin wedge shape and comes with a built-in modem.