eReader & tablet news – 11/18/2010 no comments
Delta Electronics has partnered with Bridgestone Corp. to bring Bridgestone’s color epaper technology to market.
Bridgestone’s Quick Response Liquid Powder Display (QR-LPD) is a bistable reflective display that uses airborne, electronically switchable powder particles of extremely high fluidity, resulting in an epaper display with fast response times and ultra-low power consumption.
The QR-LPD display will be marketed under the brand name “AeroBee.” Initially Delta will be focusing on the Chinese market, using the new color reflective display technology in ereaders and e-signage.
Color QR-LPD displays are achieved by adding color filters to a monochrome display. Bridgestone and Delta have shown demos of both black and white and color displays before, but this latest announcement does not indicate whether AeroBee will include both monochrome and color versions.
Digitimes reported recently that Delta is also partnering with Japanese publisher Kadokawa to introduce an ereader that will be intended for digital comics using Bridgestone’s QR-LPD display — obviously that will want to be color.
The video below is from Diginfonews and is about seven months old. If you watch older videos from 2009 you will notice that the screen refresh of the prototype displays has improved, but it still seems too slow for ereader page turns to me. Hopefully this has been improved on since this video was made.
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Black Friday seems to be a predominantly American thing, but Amazon is trying to infect the UK with the concept. From 22 Nov, Amazon UK will feature a variety of discounts and deals on various products. These offers will take the form of “Lightning Deals” with a limited quantity of the featured item being offered at a discount for a limited time.
Over the five days the Black Friday promotion takes place over 200 deals will be offered. Some of those mentioned include:
- Over 60% off Nintendo Wii Consoles
- Over 60% off Flip Mino High Definition Camcorders
- Over 60% off Microsoft Xbox consoles
- Canon PowerShot Cameras at less than half price
- Over 60% off Eternity Moment Eau de Parfum
- Over 70% off Pearl Necklaces
- Sony TVs at half price
- Coronation Street Golden Anniversary Collection DVD at less than half price
The percentage off is from the RRP or Amazon UK selling price. You can keep track of the deals at Amazon UK’s Black Friday page.
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It is looking like there is a good chance that Kindle 3 ereaders will be sold out by Christmas. Recently there was a limit of five Kindle 5 ereaders per order. Currently the limit is 3 Kindles per order, both at the Amazon US and the Amazon UK sites. This is for shipment within the US or the UK.
The international order page
If you want a Kindle 3 for Christmas and you live outside of the US or the UK, then best pick up one of the Wi-Fi + 3G models from the Amazon UK site before they are gone as well.
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The Copia social reading platform is out of beta. Copia went from listing six different ereaders it would launch down to just two LCD models announced about five months ago to none. At present there are no forthcoming ereaders promised at Copia’s site — you will read ebooks from the Copia ebookstore on your desktop, iPad or Win 7 phone. An Android app is also in the works.
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A couple of publishers have added their titles to the iBookstore recently:
Technology book publisher Peachpit has announced that hundreds of its titles, including Apple Training, Apple Pro Training series, Adobe Press and New Riders titles are now available in the iBookstore, with more to come.
Pearson, which specializes in publishing books for the home, office and technical professional communities, has announced that hundreds of its titles have been added to the iBookstore.
Pearson’s imprints include Addison-Wesley Professional and Prentice Hall Professional, Sams Publishing, IBM Press, Que Publishing, Cisco Press and Pearson IT Certification.
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Wine.com has launched a free app for the iPad. While this is primarily a shopping app that lets you buy wines from Wine.com, there is also a lot of information provided for each wine including critical acclaim and pedigree specifics, winery background, region, varietal and even an interactive geo-location "tour."
If you want a more comprehensive wine app there is Cor.kz Wine Info for $3.99. There is a version of this app for both the iPad and iPhone.
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Don Johnston Inc. is having a sale on the Intel Reader. Until Jan 30, 2011 the Intel Reader, which is designed for use by those with visual impairments, is $899, or $799 if two or more are purchased. If that seems expensive, keep in mind that the regular price is $1500.
