eReader & Tablet News – 8/14/2010 no comments
Lots of things happening this week, I’ll recap here what I could not cover elsewhere.
The latest generation Kindle 3 is now shipping on September 10. The Kindle 3 continues to sell well and the ship date for new orders was pushed back two days. E Ink Holdings has said that it is increasing the production of EPDs to keep up with the demand.
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Kobo is running another contest. The prize in this one is a free ebook every month for one year. As is usual with Kobo’s contests, you are automatically entered when you buy a book. This contest is running from August 11 to August 17, 2010. You can read all of the fine print at Kobo.com.
In other Kobo news, guests at Fairmont Gold will have the use of a Kobo ereader during their stay. The eReader will come preloaded with a variety of Random House ebooks, and guests will also be given a $2 off coupon good for select Random House ebooks from Kobo.
This seems like a good idea, as it will no doubt get ereaders into the hands of some who would otherwise not have a chance to try one. It is easy to impress a traveler with the utility of an ereader – it is far easier to carry a load of books on an ebook reader than in your suitcase. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we see similar promotions at other hotels soon; also involving NOOKs and Kindles if Amazon and B&N get into the act.
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It’s a tablet. No, it’s a smartphone . . . No, it’s the Dell Streak!
Dell started taking orders for its Streak tablet/phone yesterday
, Friday the 13th (pre-sale registrants were able to order on the 12th, a day earlier). The Streak is $299.99 with a 2-year AT&T contract, or $549.99 without.
In addition to its other features, the Streak has a Gorilla glass screen, which is pretty much unbreakable. If we cannot get flexible screens for our ereaders I would certainly settle for this – I would even pay more for the assurance that my ereader’s screen was much more damage-resistant than current models.
Maximum PC has a pretty thorough review of the Dell Streak.
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According to Gartner (via Electronics Weekly), Android is the most popular smartphone OS in the US, and is in third place internationally behind RIM and Symbian.
Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Oracle has filed suit against Google, alleging that the Android OS infringes on its Java related copyrights and patents. Oracle acquired Java when it purchased Sun Microsystems in January of this year.
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Smashwords and and the Diesel eBook Store have signed a distribution agreement. Smashwords will distribute its Premium Catalog of over 11,000 ebooks through the Diesel beginning on August 25, 2010. Smashwords will also power the new Diesel Publishing Portal which caters to indie authors and publishers with fewer than 100 published titles.
Authors and publishers who utilize Smashwords to supply eBooks to the Diesel eBook Store will earn royalties of 60% of the retail price as set by the Smashwords author or publisher.
£149.00
£109
