The folks over at Baen got together to develop their own e-book device.  So in March 2006  NAEB LLC was created.  Their mission statement is:

This is a reader by us for our own use and for any other book lover who just wants to read books without being trapped into anyone else’s business plan.

We will not lock you into any one format, or try to dictate your choice of download sites.  We don’t want anyone doing that to us and we’re not going to do it to you.

This is a bare bones reader. That means you can carry a small library with you and we don’t have to charge you the earth for it.  If you want something that does text messaging you’ve bought the wrong device.

No DRM and no hidden “gotchas” what you see is what you get.

We intend this reader to support as many formats as possible.

People interested in buying the e-book were allowed to sign up with no obligation to buy. Potential buyers could also voice their feature request on their forum.  I signed up quite some time ago and try to monitor the progress from time to time.  The device is going to be supplied by Bookeen.  That should have been my first clue that Bookeen would be coming out with a new reader.  At any rate, I just read on Derek Benner’s Blog that he has received a sample reader.  His comments (first review) will be posted soon on the Mobileread forum.  From the picture he posted, the screen on the new reader is much clearer.  I just wish that the text was the same size on both for a better comparison, but I’m sure he just wanted to give everyone a taste as soon as he could.  The picture I have here is small.  You can get a much better view by clicking on the photo on Derek’s blog.  I look forward to the review.