Archive for the ‘new’ tag
iPad 3 and related news no comments
Apple yesterday unveiled the third generation iPad. As pre-launch rumors had suggested the new iPad’s display will feature a much higher resolution display. Indeed, the iPad 3’s Retina display at 2048 x 1536 ppi boasts four times as many pixels as the iPad 2. 
Under the hood is a new A5X chipset whose quad-core graphics processor provides twice the graphics processing power of the A5 chip used in the iPad 2. The upgraded 5MP camera is capable of recording video at 1080p, which resolution the new iPad can now play. The camera will also come with an LED flash and image stabilization technology.
The dimensions of the new iPad remain almost the same as the iPad 2, although the new model is very slightly thicker and around 1.75 ounces heavier, depending on the model. Battery life remains the same 10 hours.
The new iPad will be available from March 16 and can be pre-ordered now. Prices for the Wi-Fi only models are $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB and $699 for the 64GB model. Adding 4G increases the price by $130. Pricing for the iPad 2 has been reduced to $399 for the 16GB Wi-Fi model and $529 for the 16GB version with 3G.
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Rumor also had Apple releasing a smaller format iPad this time, which did not happen — at least not yet. This omission was no doubt a big relief to Amazon, Barnes & Noble and the many other makers of smaller tablets. If Apple were to introduce a 7-8 inch iPad at a competitive price, say $299, it would seriously impact the sales of other smaller format tablets. Probably the key here is competitive pricing. Amazon can afford to sell the Kindle Fire as a loss leader as it makes its money from the sale of content and other products, while for Apple the sale of the hardware itself is more important. Still, I would not be surprised if Apple were to release a smaller version of the iPad at some point to compete in the 7-inch market.
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Apple also announced a new Apple TV that will support 1080p. Netflix announced that users are now able to subscribe to Netflix directly from Apple TV and pay through their iTunes account.
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The video below is an interesting iPad concept video from AatmaStudio that features a borderless display on iPads that can be connected together to create a larger display. Looks very good, but I guess we still have a few iPad generations to go yet before we are there. Too bad — I want a couple of these now.
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The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the US Department of Justice has warned Apple and five of the largest publishers in the land that it is preparing an antitrust lawsuit against them for colluding to raise the prices of ebooks.
For the release of the original iPad, Apple and these five publishers came up with the agency model, which let publishers set the prices at which their ebooks could be sold. Other ebookstores, notably Amazon, were then forced to join the agency model. Prior to this ebook sellers could set the prices of ebooks at whatever they chose and consumers could shop around for lower prices on their ebooks rather than finding the same fixed prices everywhere.
According to the Journal’s report, some of the parties involved are negotiating with the Justice Department to settle before it all ends up in the courts. This could mean we might be seeing lower ebook prices ahead, with possibly even a return to competitive pricing.
Of course this is a complex and controversial matter. Amazon sells many things besides ebooks and can undercut the competition by selling ebooks as loss leaders to get shoppers through its virtual doors. In the short term this is good for ebook consumers, but in the long term it will mean less competition as the other ebook sellers cannot compete. Less competition is never good for consumers. On the other hand, I don’t like to see publishers pricing ebooks, with their much lower creation and logistical costs, at the same level as their paper counterparts just to prop up a traditional paper book publishing industry built around selling hardcover bestsellers.
Update: Forgot to mention that this is not the first lawsuit concerning the agency pricing model. At least one law firm has filed a class-action suit against Apple and the five publishers who started it. The EU is also investigating the agency model.
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Meanwhile, back in Mountain View, Google has changed the name of the Android Market, which is now called Google Play. To me this choice of name does not seem to make very good strategic sense. While all tablets are more or less entertaining, one area in which the iPad with its available apps holds a clear competitive advantage is its appeal to business and professional users and its adoption by the educational market. Naming the principal Android app shop ‘Google Play’ seems almost like an acknowledgement and acquiescence to this fact by Google.
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Sony unveils new ereader no comments
Sony officially released the details of its newest ereader today. The Sony Reader Wi-Fi (PRS-T1) will feature a 6-inch Pearl display and will weigh in at under 6 ounces. The new Sony ereader will feature a touchscreen — one on which pinch to zoom has been enabled. A stylus is supplied, but is not necessary to use the touchscreen.
The PRS-T1 will allow users to use the Wi-Fi connection to connect directly to public libraries in the US and Canada via a dedicated icon. eBooks can be checked out from the device itself rather than having to be sideloaded.
Sony also confirms earlier rumors that it would be bundling the Harry Potter ebooks with its new ereader, although the release does not specifically say whether the Potter books will come to the new Sony Reader before going on sale to the general public. The PRS-T1 will come with a voucher for the first book of the series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, to be downloaded from Pottermore “when it becomes available.”
The PRS-T1 will come with two English (British and American) and 10 translation dictionaries on board. Other features include 2GB memory, headphone jack (the PRS-T1 can play back music), six font styles with eight font sizes and user changeable screensavers. Sony claims a battery life of over a month or 3 weeks with the Wi-Fi turned on.
The PRS-T1 is expected to be available in October (this is according to the release from Sony — at the Sony Style site it says mid-September) and will be priced at $149. Three colors will be available — Red, White or Black.
It is good to see that Sony got the Wi-Fi in there this time around. The pricing is much more competitive as well. Looks like the lower pricing and the very light weight come at the cost of the metal case that previous generations of Sony ereaders have had. This is necessary in order for Sony to be at all competitive, but one thing I like about my PRS-650 is the metal case, which makes it feel more durable and solid than the plastic cases of other ereaders.
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Next gen Sony ereaders to get Harry Potter ebook bundle? no comments
The Register is reporting that the new Sony ereaders which are expected to be unveiled soon may come bundled with the Harry Potter ebooks. Other ereaders will most likely have to wait until next year for digital versions of the Potter books, which will be sold exclusively through the Pottermore website. Pottermore just went into beta yesterday and is expected to open in October.
This has apparently not been confirmed by Sony, but it sounds more than plausible as Sony is a partner in the Pottermore site. I’m guessing that Sony’s unveiling of its new ereaders will be tied to the public launch of Pottermore.
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New Sony ereaders on the way? no comments
Bloomberg is reporting that Sony plans to refresh its line of ereaders, with new models possibly arriving on store shelves in August. Sony also has a couple of tablets on the way.
I have to say that I’ve had the feeling of late that Sony is abandoning the ereader market in the US. The company’s ereaders have fallen behind the Nook and Kindle ereaders in terms of marketshare.
My take — To get back in the race Sony will need to achieve more competitive pricing and include expected features like Wi-Fi. To do this it will need to put more emphasis on selling content than it currently does. The competition makes relatively little on the ereader devices themselves, which are subsidized by the sale of ebooks. This seems to be a concept that Sony has so far been unwilling to grasp.
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Barnes & Noble unveils its new Nook ereader no comments
As promised, Barnes & Noble has unveiled its new Nook ereader today. 
B&N is calling this latest addition to its ereader lineup the ‘All-New Nook, The Simple Touch Reader’ — which I’ll shorten here to Nook Touch, which sounds much more simple to me.
The new Nook Touch features a touchscreen, Pearl e-ink display (same as the Kindle 3) and boasts a battery life of up to 2 months. Gone is the LCD strip that gave the original Nook its unique and sexy look, but added to the cost of the device and also did not always perform as well as could be wished. The new Nook Touch looks much more basic, but also looks like it is more dedicated to reading. Priced at $139 it is also much more competitive with the Kindle 3 and Kobo’s latest ereader.
Some of the Nook Touch features:
- 6-inch Pearl display from E Ink Holdings; 16 grayscales; resolution 800 x 600.
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n); micro USB.
- Battery life up to 2 months (sans Wi-Fi); charges over USB or with included AC charger, charging takes 3 hours with AC adaptor.
- Memory: 2GB internal; microSD card slot (up to 32GB).
- Supported file types: ePub, PDF, JPG,GIF,PNG,BMP.
- 7 font sizes.
- Dimensions: 6.5 x 5 x .47 inches; weighs 7.48 ounces.
It appears that the Nook Touch will not be able to play music files, if that is important to you. There is mention of different font styles, but not of how many choices there are.
The Nook Touch is priced at $139 and is now available for pre-order. It will begin shipping on June 10.
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Kobo unveils new ereader (Updated) no comments
Kobo has unveiled a new ereader at Book Expo America. 
The latest Kobo eReader will feature a touchscreen, Pearl e-ink display and a faster processor from Freescale. Engadget has video and pictures.
Engadget also mentions that the touchscreen is IR-based. This probably means that it is the same technology from Neonode that the current generation of Sony ereaders use, which is quit good.
The price of the new ereader is said to be $129, and it is expected to start shipping next month. Looks like Kobo is trying to steal a little of Barnes & Noble’s thunder by announcing the new ereader a day before B&N has said they will announce theirs.
Update: The Kobo eReader Touch Edition is now available for pre-order at Bordersand Indigo/Chapters. It is priced at $129.99 ($139 from Indigo) and comes with the quilted back available in four colors: Lilac, Silver, Blue and Black.
The specs of the new Kobo Touch ereader:
- Freescale iMX508 processor
- Storage: 1GB internal; Micro SD card slot (up to 32GB)
- Supports ePub and PDF
- 6-inch Pearl e-ink display; IR based touchscreen
- Wi-Fi
- Micro USB port
- Dimensions: 165 x 114 mm x 10 mm (6.5 x 4.5 x .4 inches)
- Weight: 221g (8 ounces)
- Battery Life: Up to 2 weeks or 10,000 page turns
- Warranty is one year Factory Defect Warranty
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Barnes & Noble to unveil new Nook ereader this month no comments
According to a document filed by Barnes & Noble with the SEC, the company told investor analysts in a meeting yesterday that it plans to announce a new ereader on May 24.
My guess is that we will see a thinner and faster Nook 2 ereader with a Pearl e-ink display. The new Nook may also lose the LCD strip so that it can be sold for less. Then again, when B&N settled its lawsuit with Spring Design it gained access to that company’s IP portfolio, so maybe the Nook 2 will go the other way and include an LCD panel that is much better integrated with the e-ink display. Not sure if that makes sense in the current market, especially since B&N has the Nook Color.
B&N could also follow Amazon’s lead and release a new, lower priced ereader that is subsidized by ads.
(via WSJ)
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More Thoughts on the New Sony eReaders 1 comment
The more I ponder Sony’s newly announced ereaders the more bizarre I think it is that Sony chose not to include a wireless connection in the PRS-350 and PRS-650. The only way I can explain this omission to myself is that Sony persists in looking at the ereader market primarily from the point of view of a hardware manufacturer with little regard for the market from the perspective of a content provider.
The new Sony Touch Edition is priced higher than the primary competition, no doubt in large part to the shiny new touchscreen that Sony has implemented. This in itself may not be such a problem, as in addition to a lot of hardcore Sony fans out there, many users will also value a touchscreen and the freehand note taking feature.
How much would it have cost Sony to include a Wi-Fi connection? $10 more per unit? $20? I’m not sure, but I think it should have been included at the announced price. A wireless connection is now perceived as being a standard ereader feature, and the Sony Touch and Pocket Editions will be seen as being somewhat crippled without it.
With a wireless connection Sony would be able to sell more of its ereaders, and more ereaders in the hands of users would mean more sales from the Sony Reader Store. Also, a wireless connection makes it almost too easy to buy ebooks. If you don’t develop some self control it is very easy to end up with a large backlog of purchased books waiting for your time to get them read. With a Wi-Fi connection in its ereaders Sony would surely sell more content from its Reader Store.
It feels to me (admittedly without actually yet having seen and worked with the new ereaders) as though Sony has taken a couple of steps forward and another step back, and quite possibly tripped over its own feet in the process.
Its sad really. Yes, I am a Kindle fan. That would be because I feel that the Kindle is the best ereader out there for the money at the present time. One reason is that it just works. Kindlers are not waiting around for the next patch to fix broken features or to finally add promised but still missing capabilities. Yes, there is still the occasional problem, and there will always be more features that we want, but Amazon has had the time to get most of the bugs worked out. The Kindle is the most mature platform. The Kindle Store also has more content, and to my thinking the Amazon shopping experience is better than the competition.
That being said, one of the reasons that the Kindle is more advanced is the competition presented by the NOOK, Kobo and all of the other announced ereaders that were waiting to jump into the market. Competition is generally good for consumers, and the ereader market is no different. I would like to see Sony introduce a really good ereader, Barnes & Noble to keep improving the NOOK, Kobo to introduce a better ereader with more advanced features, etc.
The new Sony ereaders do look like a a big improvement and I imagine that they will do quite well internationally, but I think that the absence of wireless connectivity will impair their chance to be a real contender in the US market.
If you want to have a look at the manuals for the PRS-350 and PRS-650 I have posted the links to them on the ereader manuals page.
Below are a couple of videos of the new Sony ereaders from YouTube. The first is a promotional video from SonyLearnTV, while the second is from SSRoss99 who was at the unveiling of the ereaders at NYC today. The other ereader in the second video is the jetBook Mini. The new touchscreen is obviously much better than that on the older models.
