Want to see a whole lot of print on a single page of your tablet or eReader? You might want to wait for Kno. Tablet textbook maker Kno unveiled a single-screen version of its tablet textbook this week at the TechCrunch Disrupt Conference in San Francisco. Both the single screen and dual screen versions of the device will ship by the end of this year. Pricing hasn’t been announced, but executives say the device will pay for itself in 13 months.
Described by the company as a “groundbreaking tablet textbook and dynamic learning platform,” the single screen version extends the functionality of the dual-screen version announced in June, according to the company.
“Kno fundamentally improves the way students learn,” said Osman Rashid, CEO and co-founder of Kno, Inc. “We are driven to innovate in a category that has been static for too long. Even though the Kno pays for itself in 13 months, the smaller up front investment of the single screen version will allow more students to use our learning platform.”
Kno’s tablet includes a touch-screen, digital textbooks, course materials, note-taking, web access, educational applications, digital media, and sharing.
“From day one, we designed the Kno with flexibility in mind,” said Babur Habib, CTO and co-founder. “We developed the product to have multiple configurations and meet different student needs. The single screen maintains the elegance of our fluid, intuitive interface while capturing the richness and ‘page fidelity’ of the original textbook.”
The company plans to ship both the single and two-screen tablet textbooks to consumers by the end of 2010. Pricing and pre-order announcements will be made in the coming months.
Kno’s management team includes members from Apple, Cisco, HP, Intel, TiVo, Chegg and Palm. The company has received funding from Andreessen Horowitz, First Round Capital, Floodgate, Ron Conway, Silicon Valley Bank and TriplePoint Capital and is based in Santa Clara, Calif.
