It is meant to download and read any text and/or illustrations from the web or hard disk, in any format, with no proprietary format and no DRM. The technology of @folio was novel and simple. It is inspired from fax and tab file folders. The flash memory is "printed" like Gutenberg printed his books. The facsimile mode is readable as is for any content, from sheet music to mathematical or chemical formulas, with no conversion necessary, whether it is handwritten text, calligraphy, free hand drawing or non-alphabetical writing. All this is difficult if not impossible on a computer or ebook reader (in the late 1990s and early 2000s). The screen of the lightweight prototype takes 80% of the total surface and has low power consumption. It is surrounded by a translucent and flexible frame that folds to protect the screen when not in use. @folio could be sold for US $100 for the basic standard version, with various combinations of screen sizes and flash memory to fit different needs. Intuitive navigation allows to "turn" pages as easily as in a print book, and allows to sort out and search documents as easily as with a tab file folder, and choose one’s own preferences for margins, paragraphs, font selection and character size. There are no buttons, only a round trackball adorned with the world map in black and white. The trackball can be replaced with a long and narrow tactile pad on either side of the frame. The flash memory allows the downloading of thousands of hypertext pages, either previously linked before download or linked during the download. @folio provides an instant automatic reformatting of documents, for them to fit the size of the screen. For "text" files, no software is necessary. For "image" files, Pierre conceived a reformatting software called Mot@Mot (Word@Word in French) which could be used on any other device. This software received much attention from the French National Library (BNF: Bibliothèque Nationale de France), especially for its old books (published before 1812) and illustrated manuscripts. An international patent was filed in April 2001. The French startup iCodex was created in July 2002 to develop and promote the @folio project. To this day, @folio has stayed a prototype, because of lack of funding and because of the language barrier, with only two articles in English in 2007 -- one in Project Gutenberg News and one in TeleRead about Pierre Schweitzer’s dream -- for dozens of articles in French. Even the best researchers can’t do much with no support, no funding, and no interpreter (from French to English) to help them get through the language barrier. 1997 > MULTIMEDIA CONVERGENCE