Archive for the ‘Other eReaders’ Category
Kobo Unleashes eReader with Wi-Fi no comments
Kobo has introduced a new version of its ereader with upgraded hardware. Besides adding Wi-Fi, Kobo says that the new ereader is faster, has a more contrasty screen and longer battery life.
Some of the features of the new Kobo eReader:
- 6-inch Pearl e-ink screen. Update: Looks like I was being overoptimistic; this is apparently the older e-ink screen – the grayscales have just been upgraded to 16.
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
- Supported formats: ePub, PDF, Adobe DRM
- Can borrow ebooks from the library
- Built-in dictionary
- Three colors: Porcelain/Pearlized Lilac, Onyx, Porcelain/Metallic Silver
- 5 font sizes & 2 styles
- 1GB internal memory; SD card slot
- Battery life: up to 10,000 page turns
- Size 184mm x 120mm (7.24 x 4.72 inches); weight 221g ( 7.8 ounces)
- Comes preloaded with 100 public domain ebooks & poker game
The new Kobo eReader puts Kobo back in the race. After Amazon and B&N lowered the prices of their ereaders the older Kobo model seemed rather lacking in comparison.
Kobo, like other ereader makers that support ePub with Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) DRM, always stress the fact that their ereaders are “open” and do not lock you into purchasing content from only one provider. While it is true that you may be able to buy content from different ebookstores — which is nice, keep in mind that for most contemporary ebooks you will still be locked into the pool of available titles with DRM by ADE, which is smaller than the number of titles available at the Kindle Store. To a large extent this claim to openness is just hype in my opinion. You still have to choose which DRM system you will lock yourself into.
The new Kobo Wi-Fi eReader does look like a big improvement and if you were planning on purchasing Kobo’s reader I would definitely recommend the new model over the old, even if the older model can be had for a few bucks less.
The new Kobo eReader Wi-Fi is available at Kobo.comfor $139.99 USD. It will be available in Borders Stores by the end of October, and can be pre-ordered from the Borders website.
For a limited time, Kobo is offering two free ebooks from Random House of Canada with the purchase of the new ereader from either Kobo or Indigo Books & Music in Canada. The two ebooks are Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay and When My World Was Very Small by Ruth Rakoff. I’m not sure if this offer is extended to customers ordering the eReader for shipment outside of Canada.
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Sharp Announces Galapagos eReaders no comments
Back in July Sharp showed prototypes of a couple of new ereaders it said would be releasing later in the year. Today the company officially announced two ereaders designed for the Japanese market that it is calling Galapagos. A new ebookstore is planned for December, 2010 to provide content for the new ereaders.
Two sizes of Galapagos ereaders will be released, both with color LCD displays. The larger model sports a 10.8-inch display with a resolution of 1366 x 800 pixels, while the second ereader will have a 5.5-inch screen with 1024 x 600 pixels. The larger ereader will be capable of displaying magazines formatted with a two-page spread.
The smaller Galapagos ereader will come in either red or silver, while the larger model will only come in black. Both will have Wi-Fi and will have a web browser. The 5.5-incher has a trackball controller for navigation. Pricing and other specs will be announced closer to launch.
Sharp’s new ebookstore will offer periodicals as well as ebooks and will launch with around 30,000 titles. The format used
will be ever-eXtending Mobile Document Format (XMDF), which Sharp developed and which is optimized for use with the Japanese written language. XMDF is also multimedia friendly, allowing easy integration of audio and video content. This format has also been designed to allow the changing of font sizes without disturbing the publisher’s format.
There will be a PC application to go along with the ereaders, and it has been dubbed Galapagos Station. With it users will not only be able to organize their downloaded content, but can use the application to convert their own documents to XMDF.
If you are scratching your head over the name “Galapagos,” Sharp gives the following explanation:
“GALAPAGOS” was chosen as the name for Sharp’s cloud-based media service business, as a symbol of the “evolution” of services and terminal devices that constantly bring fresh, new experiences to the user. The name comes from the famous Galapagos Islands, which were visited by Charles Darwin (1809-1882), a British geologist and biologist. The observations he made while on the islands played a key role in the formulation of his “theory of evolution”.
The video below from Network World suggests that Sharp is negotiating with Verizon and that the Galapagos ereaders may come to the US next year. It also says that Sharp may add ePub support.
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Wink to Make New Smaller & Less Expensive eReaders for Indian Market 1 comment
Last month I wrote about the Wink ereaders — a new line of ebook readers to be sold in India by EC Media International. Currently two of the four planned models are available to purchase. The company also now plans to launch a less expensive and smaller ereader with a 5-inch display within a few months. The new ereader is expected to be priced at Rs 6000 ($130 USD).
The current Wink ereaders have 6-inch displays and are priced around Rs 11000 ($240 USD). New models with 6-inch screens priced around Rs 8000 ($175 USD) are also planned.
Pradeep Palazhi, CEO of EC Media, is quoted in an interview with CIOL as saying that the company’s products are being customized to meet their customer’s needs. Palazhi says that the company is working on lowering prices for both the ereader hardware and ebooks.
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Thalia OYO – Der eReader Für Alle no comments
The OYO is another ereader that surfaced at IFA 2010. From Thalia, Germany’s second largest bookseller, the OYO should be available in October for €139.
Some of the specs of the OYO:
- 6-inch SiPix capacitive touchscreen; 800 x 600 pixels; 16 grayscales.
- Formats supported: TXT, ePub, PDF, HTML image viewer, JPEG, PNG, BMP, MP3.
- Micro USB port.
- Dimensions: 154 x 124 x 11mm (6 x 4.9 x .43 inches); weighs 240g (8.5 ounces).
- 5 fonts; 6 font sizes.
- Wi-Fi connection.
- 2GB internal memory; MicroSD slot (up to 32GB).
- Battery life 8,000 pages.
- Compatible with both PC and Mac.
Medion is Thalia’s hardware partner for the OYO ereader.
The OYO will be supported by Thalia’s ebook store. An ereader with a touchscreen with a price tag in the Kindle 3’s ballpark — looks interesting. One feature that is notably missing is a dictionary. A 3G version is said to be in the works.
Lessen.net has uploaded a video of the OYO from IFA. It is in German.
(via lessen.net via ereaders.nl)
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IFA 2010 Videos no comments
A roundup of a few of the video reviews from IFA 2010 in Berlin.
Sony PRS-650 Touch Edition eReader
Charbax from ARMdevices.net has done an excellent video of the Sony PRS-650 ereader. The IR-based touchscreen is a major improvement from Sony, though they really should have included Wi-Fi.
Samsung Galaxy Tab
The Samsung Galaxy Tab looks like one of the nicest 7-inch tablets out there. It’s quite fast and responsive. This video is from CNETTV.
Toshiba Folio 100 Tablet
Toshiba’s Folio 100 tablet comes with a 10.1 inch touchscreen. It is powered by Android 2.2 and comes with Nvidia’s Tegra 2 chipset. This video is from Netbooknews.com.
ViewSonic Viewpad 7
Viewsonic’s 7-inch tablet runs on Android 2.2. The Viewpad 7 has cameras both front and back, and with its 3G connection could be used for video conferencing. The display resolution is 800 x 480, which is lower than the Samsung Galaxy Tab. This video is from Shinymedia. ViewSonic’s booth at IFA is very noisy.
iRiver Cover Story eReader
Another video from Charbax, this one of iRiver’s Cover Story ereader, which has a touchscreen. Not sure how well this one is going to do against the Kindle and the new Sony ereaders.
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Sharper Image Branded Literati eReader no comments
There is word of yet another
lower priced LCD ereader. This one is called the Literati and carries The Sharper Image branding while being supplied by MerchSource.
MerchSource is a California-based company that specializes in the design, development, and production of consumer products to companies such as The Sharper Image, JCPenney, CVS, Rite Aid and others. A lot of the company’s prior efforts seem to have been directed at toys and games,
The Literati has a 7-inch LCD screen with a resolution of 480 x 800 and is limited to reading books and other printed content. There is no web browser, no games or video. Input is via the keyboard at the bottom of the device – no touchscreen here. The ereading software is by Kobo, and you can use the Wi-Fi connection to buy books from Kobo.
The Literati comes with a cover and will cost $159. There will be two colors – white or a black model with silver keyboard. The Literati comes preloaded with 25 public domain titles and a coupon that will let you download another 125 pre-selected public domain titles free.
Beginning in October the new ereader will be sold in the usual places: Bed, Bath and Beyond, Kohl’s, Best Buy, etc. The press release says that the Literati will be available in 7,000 stores, so this one should be pretty easy to find.
"The majority of eReaders available today are either too expensive with too many features, or the manufacturer has slashed key functionality and overall device quality to lower the price," said Kirk McLean, co-founder of MerchSource, the company that designed and distributes the Literati under trademark license from The Sharper Image. "We designed the Literati from the inside out — starting with the bookstore — to give booklovers exactly what they wanted: a simple, dedicated device that lets them get right to the book."
I would say that the Literati is going to have a hard time at this price. It is being presented as an inexpensive and simple ereader that “bypasses high prices and feature bloat, offering instead an affordable, stylish and simple device for those who just want to read.” Yet it is more expensive than the Kindle 3 Wi-Fi, which has way more features and with its e-ink screen will be much better for those “who just want to read.”
Well, you say, but it has a color display. True, true – it does have a color screen. That should come in really handy for reading all of those color ebooks over at Kobo.
There are a number of other color LCD ereaders available at around the same price range; some for more, some for less. Most of them have at least a semblance of multifunctionality.
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Nuance Vocalizer – Helping Blio to Find its Voice 1 comment
Nuance Communications and K-NFB Reading Technology Inc. announced today that the Nuance Vocalizer text-to-speech (TTS) technology will be available as a downloadable accessory to the Blio eReader Software when it launches next month.
Readers will be able to choose from Nuance’s “Samantha” and “Tom” voices. Nuance’s TTS technology will also be available to manufacturers who are equipping their devices with the Blio software.
“We designed Blio to offer the eBook market a device that fully maintains the integrity of printed media by offering a rich and visually-compelling experience to consumers. However, we wanted to ensure that these visual elements could be enhanced through the power of today’s sophisticated speech technology,” said Ray Kurzweil, voice-recognition inventor and founder of K-NFB. “With Nuance’s speech technology, Blio can now bring words and characters to life in a way that makes the eReader experience even more enjoyable and accessible for book and magazine aficionados everywhere.”
Nuance Vocalizer supports more than 30 languages and is optimized for integration with a wide variety of platforms, creating an exciting potential for fully speech-enabled consumer electronics. Nuance’s speech technology is featured in the market’s most popular consumer devices, including personal navigation devices, smartphones, mp3 players and a variety of PC software applications, including Dragon NaturallySpeaking, and the “voice” behind the popular Ford SYNC. Nuance’s broad mobile portfolio of speech and predictive input solutions are changing the way consumers interact with their mobile devices, and ship on more than four billion devices – a result of its extensive relationships with every major mobile OEM and carriers around the world.
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Samsung Launches E60 eReader at WHSmith no comments
Samsung has launched its E60 ereader in the UK where it is currently being sold by WHSmith. The E60 is priced at £199.99 and for a limited time comes with 10 free ebooks (not public domain).
While the E60 does have a lot of features, including handwriting recognition and an organizer feature, it will be hard competing at that price with the Kindle 3 with 3G which is £149. The iRiver Story with Wi-Fi is also priced at £199 at WHSmith or at Amazon. Amazon also already has a number of iRiver Story covers and cases.
Techradar has a hands on review of the Samsung E60 ereader and finds it well built and serviceable, but also questions whether it can fly at that price.
Almost six months ago Samsung announced plans to sell the E60 in the US in partnership with Barnes & Noble. Samsung (probably wisely) backed out of the US ereader market just before the recent price cuts on the Kindle and NOOK ereaders.
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PocketBook to Introduce Five New eReaders at IFA 2010 no comments
Pocketbook has announced that it will be introducing five new ereaders at the IFA 2010, which takes place in Berlin September 3 to 8.
The PocketBook Pro 602 and Pro 902 share the same specs, with the exception of the 602 having a 6-inch screen and the 902 having a 10-inch screen. Both models have Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G; are Linux-based and have 2GB of internal memory.
The PocketBook Pro 603 and Pro 903 ereaders will add a Wacom-based touch screen. Battery life on all four of the above e-ink ereaders is said to be 7,000 page turns.
PocketBook will also release a 7-inch color LCD ereader/tablet dubbed the PocketBook IQ. This Android-based device will have a touchscreen, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and will be available in three colors.
Pictured below from left to right: Pro 602, Pro 903 and IQ.
Additional common features:
- PocketBook offers ebooks through its own Bookland.net store. A number of languages are supported.
- TTS is supported in 28 different languages. Four languages come preinstalled on the new PocketBooks.
- 16 formats are supported; DRM by Adobe.
- Integrated dictionaries in 20 languages.
- 2-year warranty.
The new models should be available in November.
Nate at The Digital Reader says that he has heard from sources that PocketBook is to be one of the initial Mirasol partners. I hope this is true and that we could actually see Mirasol displays in products on store shelves soon. I really don’t want to be a Mirasol skeptic as it is very cool technology and would be far more capable than first generation color displays from E Ink. Mirasol has been sending mixed signals lately about when its displays would actually be in production.
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Kindle DX Sold Out; Laser EB101 eReader Gets a Review no comments
Apparently the Kindle 3 is not the only member of Amazon’s ereader family that is selling well. The graphite Kindle DX is currently being shown at Amazon as expected to ship in two to three weeks.
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A few days ago I wrote about the Laser EB101 ereader which is a new device being launched in Australia. The Laser has been reviewed at Oz-E-Books (via iTWire) and seems to follow in the footsteps of the less than fully functional lower priced LCD ereaders that we have seen released lately in the US.
