Archive for the ‘sharp ereaders’ tag
Sharp’s Galapagos ereader to participate in e-education trial in India no comments
Sharp will be participating in a a proof-of-concept trial using its Galapagos ereaders at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad. Besides the Galapagos ereader, Sharp will be providing etextbooks and interactive whiteboard touchscreen LCD monitors. India has a shortage of teachers in its higher-educational system and the trials focus on enabling one instructor to teach multiple remote classrooms.
From the press release:
India has enjoyed extremely rapid economic growth in recent years, and this has led to a rapidly increasing demand for higher education. A shortage of schools and teachers accompanying this demand has become a serious problem. To resolve these challenges, the development and adoption of electronic systems for education, as well as implementing remote e-education based on them, is urgently needed in India.
For some time now, Sharp has been working on a joint industry-government-academia project with the MIC and the Waseda University Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies to explore ways to support a shift to electronic education systems in India.
In the proof-of-concept trial, the content of textbooks to be used in courses as well as curriculum information will be downloaded to the e-textbook terminals via a wireless (Wi-Fi) connection to a dedicated remote e-education server. In addition, electronic whiteboards used during class instruction are displayed on the e-textbook terminals. Interactive classes can be conducted by using a microphone and speakers in combination with an electronic whiteboard connected to the remote e-education server even in classrooms where no teacher is present.
This system aims to enable students who are not able to take courses because of a lack of teachers to attend advanced classes.
Class A attends a course (instructor is teaching class in normal fashion). The same course instruction can also be received by Class B (where no instructor is present).
Teaching materials on the electronic whiteboard of Class A, plus the audio and annotations from the instructor’s presentation, are shared on the electronic whiteboard of Class B located at a distant site, and are also displayed on the e-textbook terminals of the students.
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Sharp announces launch dates for Galapagos no comments
Today Sharp announced the launch dates for both its Galapagos tablets and the accompanying ebookstore. The tablets will be available to pre-order on Dec 3, with shipments beginning on Dec 10, 2010. The ebookstore, Tsutaya Galapagos, will open for business on Dec 10 with an initial catalogue of 20,000 Japanese newspapers, magazines and ebooks. More content, including audio and video, is to be added in the spring of 2011. Support for the ebookstore will also be coming to Sharp’s smartphones in spring of 2011.
Pricing for the 5.5-inch tablet has been set at ¥39,800 ($472), while the asking price for the larger 10.8-inch model will be ¥54,800 ($650).
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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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eReader & iPad News – 7/20/2010 1 comment
Sharp Announces eReader
At a press conference today Sharp announced two new ereaders that should be available later this year. Both are color LCD devices – one with a 5.5-inch screen and a larger model with a 10.8-inch display.
Akihabaranews reports that Sharp plans to introduce its ereaders into the US market and suggests that Sharp will be looking for a carrier to partner with. There are also a few photos there to check out.
Sharp will apparently be using a proprietary ebook format that also has multimedia capabilities. From Sharp’s press release:
Sharp Corporation has developed XMDF, a next-generation e-book format (hereinafter “Next-generation XMDF”) with advanced features that allow users to enjoy video and audio content, in addition to current features such as texts and still images. With next-generation XMDF as a core technology, Sharp will within this year provide digital platform to promote e-book distribution service and launch compatible reader devices to enter the e-book market. Various publishing houses (newspaper, magazines, catalogs), printing and agent companies in Japan and overseas market will be supporting Sharp to launch this e-book business.
Sharp’s next-generation XMDF is an advanced version of the current XMDF format. The current XMDF format has been commercialized in 2001 and is used in e-book contents including Japanese novels and manga comics. The next-generation XMDF enables easy viewing of digital contents including video and audio, and allows automatic adjustment of the layout to match and meet publishers’ needs. With this digital platform, Sharp plans to enhance users’ e-book lifestyle with more sophisticated user interface technology, and at the same time will contribute to expand the e-book market. XMDF allows users to browse the same content on multiple terminals including smart phones, PCs and TVs and also streamlines publisher’s e-book contents production.
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The Times Paywall – the Glass is Still 1/3 Full
The Financial Times is reporting that visits to The Times website have fallen by two-thirds since Rupert Murdoch decided to add a paywall to the site. While this is a large drop, it is better than the 90 percent drop in traffic that some had expected.
Murdoch’s hope is that combining subscription fees with more targeted advertising can generate more revenue.
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enTourage Systems Partners with Cengage Learning
enTourage Systems has steadily been announcing new digital textbook content that is being added for its enTourage eDGe ebook reader. Today enTourage announced an agreement with CengageLearning to add its catalog of etextbooks as well.
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FileMaker Go for iPad and iPhone
FileMaker, Inc announced today that its FileMaker Go apps for iPhone and iPad are now available. The new apps allow users to easily view, edit and search for information in FileMaker databases from their iPhone or iPad.
From the press release:
Ideal for mobile teams, FileMaker Go provides access to databases created with FileMaker Pro and hosted on FileMaker Server or FileMaker Pro. FileMaker Go can access databases residing on a Mac or PC using a local wireless network or over the Internet via Wi-Fi or 3G. All changes are instantly updated in the hosted file. FileMaker Go users can also copy databases between their desktop or laptop computers and FileMaker Go via File Sharing in iTunes, perfect for single user databases. Databases may also be downloaded by email, popular file sharing sites, or the web.
“Imagine being able to check inventory levels, update the status of a project or add a new customer contact and share it with your remote sales team – just a few of the many workgroup tasks made easy with FileMaker Go for iPhone or iPad,” said Ryan Rosenberg, vice president of marketing and services for FileMaker, Inc.
FileMaker Go for iPad is $39.99 and the iPhone version is $19.99.
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