New York - Ectaco will ship one of the lowest priced e-readers to date at $149 later this month.

Called the jetBook-Lite it allows users to download books from the Barnes & Noble Web site and operates on four AA batteries, as well as rechargeable batteries - both new features for the Ectaco lineup.

The jetBook-Lite does not use the E Ink screen offered by several other brands. E Ink reportedly lowers power consumption and delivers clear text.

Ectaco's unit has a 5-inch screen and supports most e-Book formats. It runs for 23 hours on four batteries and has an SD card slot.

The jetBook-Lite supports English, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Chinese and other languages, and has a bi-directional dictionary for several languages.

The pocket sized, 9-ounce unit supports e-book formats including DRM, ePub, Mobi, PRC, RTF, TXT, PDF FB2, JPG, GIF, PNG and BMP.

Other features of the jetBook-Lite include automatic bookmarking, adjustable type fonts and the CIA World Factbook.