Archive for the ‘ereaders’ tag
The Curious Case of the Kindle 3 Microphone; Wi-Fi Only vs Wi-Fi + 3G no comments
Ever since the revelation that the Kindle 3 ereader has a built-in microphone there has been speculation as to what it might mean. One bandied-about theory has been that the Kindle 3 might turn into a mobile phone.
The microphone is described on page 29 of the Kindle 3 User Guide as being “not currently enabled but is provided for future use.”
To my mind there is no way the Kindle 3 will work as a substitute for a dedicated cell phone. Not many people will be trading in their cell phones to get cellular service on their ebook reader. Not only are ereaders much less portable than mobile phones due to their size, they are much less durable. The feature set is also much different.
The microphone is on the bottom edge – not the ideal position if it was intended for telephony, but it could work. And if God had intended the Kindle 3 to be used as a phone surely he would have included a numerical keypad.
The only way I see the Kindle 3 being used as a cell phone is if Google Voice or maybe Skype could be integrated to use the Wi-Fi connection. Using Wi-Fi would mean that Amazon would not be paying for your call time. Being able to use Google Voice on the Kindle 3 might be an interesting feature – you could temporarily transfer your calls to your Kindle if you wanted to go read on the patio and did not want to carry your phone with you. . . . OK, I’m reaching here.
There are much more plausible uses for the microphone:
- Voice recording and note taking: This is a very obvious and useful application of the microphone – especially if voice notes could be linked to annotations and bookmarks.
- Voice controlled menus and navigation: This would be big for those with vision impairments. The NFB has already commended Amazon for the improved accessibility of the Kindle 3. Being able to make menu choices and navigate by using voice only would be a killer accessibility feature.
- Future apps: The microphone gives app developers a bit more hardware to play with. We might see the microphone put to some interesting uses when the Kindle App Store launches.
We shall see.
Wi-Fi Only vs Wi-Fi + 3G
With both the Barnes & Noble NOOK and the Kindle 3 ereaders we now get to choose between Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi + 3G connectivity. At first glance the Wi-Fi + 3G makes more sense – 3G will cost you $50 more initially to buy the hardware, but after that the 3G connection is free and adds convenience when you are out and about or if you don’t have a Wi-Fi network at home.
In some cases the Wi-Fi only option may be enough for you:
- If you will primarily use your ereader at home and you have a Wi-Fi network there, or, if you have ready access to a Wi-Fi network when you are on the road.
- If you have one of the newer mobile phones that can generate a Wi-Fi hotspot and you are already paying for this feature for your other devices.
- If either of the above apply and you don’t get a good AT&T signal anyway. Believe it or not, there are actually people that don’t get a good AT&T signal
.
In general I try to get as many features as I can afford when buying a new device. I’d rather have features that I don’t use than find out later on that I’m missing a needed feature that was on a slightly higher priced model that I did not spring for. However, in the case of ereaders, 3G may not be needed by some users who have easy access to Wi-Fi connections.
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Kindle 3 Announced 2 comments
Apparently the 6-inch Kindle being out of stock 
for the last few days was in preparation for the introduction of a new Kindle, which Amazon has just announced. The new version is a “21 percent smaller and 15 percent lighter design, with 50 percent better contrast, 20 percent faster page turns, up to one month of battery life, double the storage, and more–only $189, and still with free 3G wireless.” Wi-Fi is also built in, and there will additionally be a Wi-Fi only Kindle for a lower price of $139, which is $10 lower than the price of the Wi-Fi only nook ereader.
The smaller size is achieved by slimming down the bezel and rearranging the buttons. The page turning buttons are thinner as well.
As expected, the new 6-inch Kindle will make use of the new Pearl e-ink display, just like the new DX graphite. As for the faster speed, it apparently does not come from the faster processors we’ve been hearing about over the last six months or so, but sounds more like it is the result of fine tuning and optimization:
Kindle’s all-new, high-contrast electronic ink display is further optimized with Amazon’s proprietary waveform and font technology to make pages turn faster and fonts sharper. Waveform is a series of electronic pulses that move black and white electronic ink particles to achieve a final gray level for an image or text. Amazon tuned the new Kindle’s waveform and controller mechanism to make page turning 20 percent faster. In addition, this waveform tuning combined with new hand-built, custom fonts and font-hinting make words and letters more crisp, clear, and natural-looking. Font hints are instructions, written as code, that control points on a font character’s line and improve legibility at small font sizes where few pixels are available. Hinting is a mix of aesthetic judgments and complicated technical strategies. Amazon designed its proprietary font-hinting to optimize specifically for the special characteristics of electronic ink.
Some other feature upgrades:
- More built-in storage: new model will store up to 3,500 books.
- Quieter page turning buttons. The older model makes a small clicking sound when you flip pages.
- New Web browser: The new Kindle uses a WebKit-based browser, which is faster and easier to navigate. The new browser also has an “article mode” feature, which condenses Web pages into the main textual content for easier reading.
- Better Accessibility: New Text-to-Speech (TTS) enabled menus enable navigation of menus without having to read menu options. All menu options, content listings on the home screen and item descriptions are TTS enabled.
The new Kindle 3G + Wi-Fi comes in both graphite or white, while the Wi-Fi only model is available in graphite only. I do like the graphite color better than the white myself – it adds to the perceived contrast. The Wi-Fi only model also weighs slightly less – 8.5 ounces vs 8.7 ounces for the Kindle 3G + Wi-Fi (and 10.2 ounces for the older model).
The new lighted leather cover for 
the Kindle 3 sounds kind of neato. It has a built-in retractable light that draws power from the Kindle’s battery via gold plated conductive hinges that also hold the Kindle 3 securely in the cover. The new lighted cover
Well, there is nothing really groundbreaking with this release, but the improvements are somewhat more substantive than the Kindle DX graphite’s improvements over its previous model. I really wish we could have gotten more durable plastic-based displays but, after the iPad’s release, pricing has become the primary focus. I’m hoping that the color Kindles, when they arrive, will have flexible screens.
The newest members of the Kindle family of ereaders will be shipping on August 27, 2010. Amazon is taking pre-orders
UPDATE: Amazon has put up a copy of the Kindle 3 User Guide – I’ve posted a link to it on my User Guides and Manuals page.
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Amazon Gets Exclusive eBooks from Author F. Paul Wilson; New Christopher Moore no comments
Amazon announced this morning that they have added another author to the list of those who have made their ebooks available exclusively in the Kindle Store for reading on the Kindle ereader and the various Kindle for (insert your device here) apps.
This time it is sci-fi and horror writer F. Paul Wilson, who will be adding the five books in his LaNague Federation series. The five books are:
- An Enemy of the State
- Wheels Within Wheels
- The Tery
- Dydeetown World
- Healer
Wilson has won the Stoker, Inkpot, Porgie and Prometheus awards and has written over 40 books.
Bite Me: A Love Story – New Christopher Moore Today
If you are a fan of Christopher Moore and his sick sense of humor then you probably are already aware that his newest book Bite Me goes on sale today. This is the third book of his campy vampire series. Bite Me is available for $9.99 in Kindle edition, 
or from the Sony Reader Store.
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Cooking With the Kindle no comments
The Kindle Store now has over 450,000 titles. Amazon seems to be adding somewhere around 10,000 titles per month. And as Amazon points out in their press release today there are also 1.8 million public domain titles available online for free for the Kindle (and other) ereaders.
Today Amazon announced the addition of several popular cookbooks. From the press release:
"Customers tell us they love to cook from recipes on their Kindles," said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Kindle Content. "Kindle for iPhone or Kindle for BlackBerry is a great way to keep ingredients lists with you when you go to the grocery store, and then pick up right at that recipe on your Kindle when you’re ready to cook. In the kitchen, Kindle doesn’t have pages that may close while you’re trying to reference a recipe. We hope that our customers who cook will take advantage of some of these great Kindle books."
The Kindle Store has thousands of great books for cooks. Some of the new and most popular books include:
- "How to Cook Everything, Completely Revised 10th Anniversary Edition: 2,000 Simple Recipes for Great Food" by Mark Bittman, published by Wiley
- "Rose’s Heavenly Cakes" by Rose Levy Berenbaum, published by Wiley
- "Kneadlessly Simple: Fabulous, Fuss-Free, No Knead Breads" by Nancy Baggett, published by Wiley
- "So Easy: Luscious, Healthy Recipes for Every Meal of the Week" by Ellie Krieger, published by Wiley
- "The Best Recipes in the World" by Mark Bittman, published by Broadway
- "Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes From a Lifetime of Cooking" by Julia Child, published by Knopf
Indeed, a search for cookbooks in the Kindle Store
The kitchen is one place that I can really see an ereader stand for your Kindle coming in handy. The M-Edge FlexStand 
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Kindle App For Android Coming? 1 comment
Engadget has posted some leaked internal Dell flyers showing the Android-based Dell Mini 5 and listing some of its features:
- Kindle “book reader” applications
- Amazon MP3
- Amazon Video Streams
- Amazon Store
This could mean that Kindle for Android is coming soon. Amazon has not announced anything, but with the number of Android-based devices coming to market it seems obvious that Amazon will want to make an Android reading app to go along with Kindle for PC, Kindle for Blackberry and the soon to come Kindle for Mac.
There is a Kindle blurb on the Dell flyer that claims over 300,000 books available in the Kindle store. That would have been correct about 4-5 months ago if memory serves; now there are over 420,000 books. So I’m guessing that the leaked docs are probably from about that time?
(Via jkOnTheRun)
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Samsung eReader to Connect with Barnes & Noble eBookstore no comments
In a press release today Samsung announced the “ imminent availability” of its first ereader for the US market. Samsung has partnered with Barnes & Noble which will provide the ebook storefront.
This would be Samsung’s E6 ereader. Some of the features include a 6-inch 
e-ink screen with a Wacom digitizer with note taking and annotating abilities. Productivity tools include a voice recorder as well as a journal and a calendar that can sync with Outlook.
Connectivity includes Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. EmoLink technology allows users of Samsung ereaders to share content. The E6 is also compatible with B&N’s LendMe feature, so sharing should work between this ereader and devices using B&N’s eReader software as well as the nook ereader.
The E6 ereader comes with 2GB of internal memory and has a Micro SD card slot.
One feature that will not be much of a crowd pleaser is the previously announced price tag of $399, although it is always possible that the price will be lower once the E6 hits the streets. I saw Samsung’s ereaders at CES and there was not much that would make me want to jump up and run out to buy one at $399. Update: The price on the E6 has reportedly dropped to $299.
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Asus DR-900 Ereader; KeyReader no comments
Here are a couple more new ereaders that have been announced recently.
Asus DR-900
The Asus DR-900 ereader has been on display at CeBit 2010 this week in Germany. This one has a 9-inch touchscreen SiPix display and comes with Wi-Fi and optional 3G. Battery life is said to be 10,000 page turns. Text-to-Speech is planned, though its availability will depend on the publishers allowing its use. The DR-900 will come with 2GB to 4GB internal storage and an SD card. So far details on availability are somewhat sketchy.
Charbax has a video of the DR-900 from CeBit.
KeyReader
The KeyReader is being marketed by iCell, which is a wireless network provider
in Singapore. This appears to be a rebranded Onyx Boox (like the Bebook Neo), and has the same features. One nice twist is that the KeyReader will be able to access over 900,000 free ebooks from the National Library Board. The price is said to be between $399 – $499 (Singapore dollars).
(Via Straits Times)
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New Freescale SoC Could Result in Cheaper and Faster Ereaders no comments
Freescale has announced a new Soc that integrates ARM Cortex A8 technology running at 800 MHz with a hardware-based e-Ink display controller. The 
i.MX508 processor is said to be twice as fast as previous ereader processors from Freescale. Other benefits include lower cost and better power management resulting in longer battery life.
From the press release:
AUSTIN, Texas – March 1, 2010 – Freescale Semiconductor is helping drive down the cost of next-generation eReaders with its i.MX508 applications processor, the first system-on-chip (SoC) to integrate advanced ARM Cortex™-A8 technology together with the newest hardware-based display controller from E Ink. Freescale’s highly integrated i.MX508 processor is designed to deliver the performance, energy efficiency and system cost savings necessary to help OEMs evolve and grow the dynamic eReader product category.
With the ARM core running at 800 MHz, the i.MX508 provides twice the rendering performance of Freescale’s previous eReader processors, resulting in faster page turns and snappy responsiveness for consumers. The increased processing capability also gives manufacturers the additional performance to add features like advanced touch solutions and the ability to run other value-added applications.
The i.MX508 is notable for its support of next-generation eReader panels, which are expected to feature larger dimensions, faster page turns and significantly better resolution. The processor supports panel resolutions up to 2048 x1536 pixels at 106 hertz. Leveraging the ARM Cortex™-A8 engine, the i.MX508 processor has the potential performance to quickly handle complex image manipulations and color processing. …
Longer battery life
The i.MX508 processor includes special power modes created for eReaders that allow the CPU and some peripherals to operate at full speed while rendering a page and then turn off to save power when they are not needed. As eReader panel resolution increases, the i.MX508 with its integrated display controller, offers lower power than software-based display controller solutions. …Availability and pricing
The i.MX508 applications processor is expected to be priced at less than $10 (USD) in quantities greater than 250K units. Freescale plans to begin providing samples to select customers early in the third quarter of 2010. The SABRE platform for eReaders based on the i.MX51 is available for purchase now from Freescale. The suggested resale price is $1,995 (USD). For more information, visit www.freescale.com/eReader.
Processors made by Freescale are used in many current ereaders including the Kindle. Marvell also recently announced a new SoC for ereader applications.
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Acer Suspending Ereader Plans no comments
The Taipei Times is reporting that Acer is suspending its plans to introduce an ereader, at least for now.
Acer chairman Wang Jeng-tang said that the ereader market is not big enough yet and has yet to come up with a proven business model.
Acer has prototypes of its planned ereader ready and was to launch the device this summer in European and Asian markets.
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Irex DR800SG Ereader Now Shipping From Best Buy 2 comments
The DR800SG is finally making its appearance about 3 1/2 months later
than originally announced, but better late than never.
Best Buy.com is now showing the Irex DR800SG ereader as shipping within one to two days if ordered from their website. The price is $399 plus tax and $6.99 for standard shipping. Store pickup is not available at this time. The package includes a USB charger and cable, sleeve, stylus and manual.
