TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for the ‘ereaders’ Category

By Court Merrigan

David and others may see some double entendre in Barnes & Noble’s new Nook<, but not me.

Maybe I’m just hopelessly naïve, but not only does the Book Nook in my hometown represent my earliest childhood memory of a bookstore, but I also have a two-year old in my house.  So naturally the first thing that came to my mind was Dr. Seuss:

We took a look.

We saw a Nook.

On his head he had a hook.

On his head he had a book …

(I didn’t have to Google that quote, I’ll have you know.  No, I have the entirety of One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish memorized.) 

Think the Marketing folks in at B & N are big Seuss fans?

By David Rothman

“The next move in the ereader space belongs to Amazon. That sound you heard was the air being let out of the Kindle’s tires. Amazon is now forced with the decision to be pragmatic and support the open .epub format or risk being locked out of the market.” – Allen Weiner, Gartner analyst, reacting to Nook announcement.

Reminder: DRMed ePub still won’t be an open, nonproprietary standard. Alas, big publishers are still insisting on DRM.

By a TeleRead Contributor

I received the following first class report from Rachel who has visited the Book Fair. She checked out the readers on display and this is what she found:

Hi Paul!

Just returned from Frankfurt. Didn’t have internet access while I was there (the Messe wanted me to pay 49€ per day for wifi, but I wasn’t that desperate), so I’m glad to be home.

I had an opportunity to check out three e-reader booths while I was there: IREX (with their two readers), Bookeen, and the new German txtr. I got some photos, too. I spoke with the folks at the different booths. My interactions were, I think, indicative of the differences between the companies themselves. At IREX, I spoke with Willem Endhoven, who is the VP of Marketing and Business Development of this Dutch company. It felt more like a formal interview than just a conversation, and he got a bit defensive when I asked him about the future of dedicated e-readers. He basically told me that if reading is what’s important to the consumer, than a dedicated e-reader will provide a high-quality reading experience. The US-only and consumer-aimed IREX is very sleek and appealing, though I’m not a stylus fan. Back in August, IREX and the Barnes & Noble eBookstore announced a partnership, but I wonder how that will be impacted by the introduction of the Nook. IREX says their new focus will be a color e-reader for 2011 (which they will need to pull forward if they want to remain competitive). Their professional reader is huge – rather like Bookeen’s old school reader that they use as an example of how far they’ve come. It’s very cool that users can hand-write notes with it (an “unending notepad”) and use it as a tool (for folks in the book trade, academics, etc.) plus has wifi and Bluetooth connectivity, but it costs 699€ and isn’t very attractive. Still, it had many of the capabilities I’d like to see contained within a sleeker, smaller, slimmer exterior. Wait, what am I talking about again? Hmm. Anyway, one of the first lines in the handout I was given: “The start of IREX Technologies in 2004 is so inextricably linked to the invention of the first commercially produced eReader that the stories must be told as one.” Something IREX should consider, in regards to their marketing materials, is that no one really cares who did what when. We just want to know who will do what next. In any case, the booth seemed quite busy when I stopped by, though I’m not sure who was working vs visiting. Still, Willem assured me that it was practically dead compared to earlier traffic.
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By David Rothman

Earlier we pointed you to documentation for the new OpenInkpot with an improved interface. Now here’s a download link for a release candidate. List of improvements here, installation manual here and users’ guide here. Please remember, this is just a candidate—not the final software. OpenInkpot replaces proprietary software in some E Ink machines. (Via MobileRead.)

By David Rothman

• B&N on Nook: Android SDK possible—plus other goodies from news conf with B&N online-biz prez
• So what do I think of the Nook? Great for getting the ebook word out there
• B&N’s DRMed ePub comes with compatibility gotchas for now—plus the possibility of social DRM
• ‘Barnes & Noble adopts open EPUB eBook Format, PDF and Adobe Content Server’
• Report on Nook news conference: B&N switching to ePub—plus other news conf tidbits
• B&N’s $259 Nook: Friend-lend, sync between devices, WiFi AND 3G, Android operating system, ePub, PDF capabilities
• The Nook e-reader: Why B&N needs to hire marketers with dirtier minds
• Barnes and Noble’s new e-reader and the Donner Party

By Paul Biba

Update, 4:07 p.m.: Plenty leaked out before the news conference. Learn about such features as friend-to-friend lending of books.

Today at 4 p.m. EST B&N will be holding its press conference in New York to announce its new reader. I’ll be there and if there is decent WiFi I’ll post on what I’ve seen (my kingdom for a wireless modem or a MiFi!). If not, then I’ll report when I get back home, which will probably be sometime around 9 to 10pm. A number of my techie friends are going absolutely bonkers about the possibility that the new unit will run Android. We’ll find out.

By David Rothman

I’m a Kindle 2 owner myself and have talked up the K2’s good points and shared tips with fellow users.

Even so, as long as Amazon taints bestsellers and so many other books with proprietary DRM, I’ll consider the Kindle a closed system—at least in ways that count for many readers.

Open systems, moreover, don’t include the capability for the hardware provider to zap books—even 1984! Nor do open systems let publishers prevent disabled people from using text to speech.

Looking beyond the machine, if the Kindle is so open, how come my publisher can’t even get a DRMed edition of my novel removed from Amazon.com. She couldn’t offer The Solomon Scandals at the Mobipocket Store without tolerating a DRMed version of my novel at Amazon.com in addition to the nonDRMed file. Trouble is, the DRMed edition remained at Amazon.com even when we withdrew from the Mobi store. Is that really openness?

Dave “Evil Genius” Slusher is a good guy, but I’d very respectfully disagree with his recent thoughts on the Kindle’s so-called openness. And the same for you, Paul.

Related: Mitch Ratcliffe’s comments.

Image credit: Creative Commons photo from Quinn Anya Domrowski.

By Paul Biba

Here’s another press release. Today is just one release after another! The rather expensive IREX will be available at Best Buy and will be targeted at newspaper and magazine readers. No picture was included in the release. Given what’s going on in the market now, I, personally, wouldn’t spend this much $ on an ereader today.

Westlake Village, Calif., Oct. 19, 2009 – From the Austin American-Statesman to China’s Zhejiang Daily, IREX Technologies will give readers access to more than 1,200 leading periodicals when its DR800SG eReader hits Best Buy shelves.

Agreements with NewspaperDirect and LibreDigital – two leading distributors of digital content – will give IREX users access to the most comprehensive collection of newspapers and magazines available in the eReader market, up to 1,100 more titles than what is currently available on some competitive devices.

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By Paul Biba

The Register’s verdict isn’t too great. They say it looks like a version 1 product and the the interface needs to be more intuitive. In addition they say that the Cool-er doesn’t return to the page of the book where you switched it off – which is enough to take it out of contention in my book. You can get back to your last opened page, but not with without a lot of drilling down. The conclusion is: “The basics are there, but there are a lot of rough edges to it, compared to others like the Sony Reader.”

If you are interested in the Cool-er take a look at the review here.

By Paul Biba

Things are moving faster and faster. Here’s the press release from Spring. They don’t say who they are partnering with, so we’ll have to keep our eyes open.

Spring Design today announced Alex™, the first Google Android-based e-book with full browser capabilities and patented dual screen, the Duet Navigator™. The revolutionary Alex livens up text with multimedia links, adding a new dimension to the reading experience and potentially creating a whole new industry for secondary publications that supplement and enhance original text. Alex’s revolutionary dual-screen display design brings together the efficiency of reading on a monochrome EPD (electronic paper display) screen while dynamic hyperlinked multimedia information and third party input on its secondary color LCD screen, actually an integrated Android mobile device, opens a rich world of Internet content to support the text on the main screen.

Alex, the first Google Android-based e-book device to provide full Internet browsing over Wi-Fi or mobile networks such as 3G, EVDO/CDMA and GSM. With its dual-screen, multi-access capability, it provides the entire Web universe as a handy reference library, prompting users to delve into its vast information base to complement, clarify or enhance what they are reading. Alex is the first truly mobile wireless e-book device that gives users their own personalized library on the go, whenever and wherever they need it.

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By Paul Biba

Plastic Logic has issued a press release, printed in full below, about its new ereader. Unfortunately the new unit is 8.5 x 11 and I don’t have any use for something that big. Let’s hope they come out with something smaller. It will be unveiled at CES. Here’s the website for it.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – OCTOBER 19, 2009 – Plastic Logic revealed today its plans to unveil QUETM, the first proReader designed for business professionals. Premiering January 7, 2010 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (Central Hall of Las Vegas Convention Center at Booth 11840 anchoring the e- Book Techzone), QUE is an essential tool for busy professionals, providing access to a dynamic ecosystem of content.

With QUE, Plastic Logic is expanding the eReader category, which to date has focused on leisure reading devices and casual users. QUE is designed to simplify the multi-faceted lifestyle of the modern businessperson, and to quite literally lighten their workload. In addition to connecting its users with their business and professional newspapers, books and periodicals, QUE supports the document formats business users need (including PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents) and features powerful tools for interacting with and managing the content.

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By Ted Treanor, publishing consultant

Note: Ted Treanor, founder of NetGalley, has just joined the Gilbane Group as a senior publishing strategies consultant. Congratulations, Ted. – P.B.

The video shows a Sony prototype of an OLED color e-book reader that rocks. One complaint of my speed reading friend is that page-flipping on any current e-reader interrupts his reading when he flips to the next page while the screen pulls in the content. Wait until you see the smooth and rapid page-flipping technology from Sony. The video is from last week’s Ceatec conference in Tokyo. To succeed in publishing over the next five years, we will need to embrace digital publishing and engage e-books, e-reader technology and social media.

Related: Earlier TeleRead items mentioning Sony OLEDs.

By Paul Biba

Danny Bloom, a TeleRead contributor, did an interview this summer with Dr. Mangen (pictured above) about whether reading is the same on screens or paper. Dr. Mangen is a reading specialist at the National Center for Reading Research and Education at Stavanger University in Norway, and she published a paper on this topic in late 2008. You might want to take a look at Danny’s interview.

By David Rothman

Dave Law and I both plunked down $3.99 to try out Readdle’s BookReader 1.0 for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Just how would BookReader compare with free rivals such as Stanza?

Well, for now, the others haven’t much to worry about. Both Dave and I were disappointed, for example, by the limited font choices available—an embarrassing flaw in a reader touted as “elegant.” Stanza actually is much better in the font area. But look, this is Version 1.0 of BookReader. Maybe Readdle will do better with the next incarnation, while allowing us pioneers to update at no charge.

Thanks to Dave for writing, in effect, a mini-review via his TeleRead comments. Here it is for the benefit of those reading us on RSS and via email:

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By David Rothman

News release follows, slightly edited. Those are two separate screenshots below, not a double-page arrangement. One wrinkle is the ability to pipe in books from your desktop via USB. Twitter reaction is here. So, gang, how do you think BookReader compares with the free Stanza? Worth the $3.99? – D.R.

Readdle today announces BookReader 1.0, a stylish e-book reader for iPhone and iPod touch. BookReader lets people read digital books from their collections like the paper ones.

It opens nonDRMed TXT, FB2, RTF, EPUB, HTML, and PDF e-books that could be copied from reader’s computer to the iPhone as well as searches and downloads books from Project Gutenberg.

BookReader has a number of handy functions like animated page flipping, night mode for reading in the dark, and more.

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By David Rothman

The Kindle in Russia will cost 47 percent more than Americans pay for the same hardware—so calculates Kindle Review.

But what if the MTS phone company in Russia can negotiate a Kindle exclusive and import the machines directly from the Far East? In fact, negotiations are underway now.

Kindle books in Russian are said to cost a mere $12 on the whole, with 100,000 under $6. Total number is 290,000. Could a new deal drive the price down even more?

Note: I don’t know where the above picture, from Amazon, was taken.

By David Rothman

Check out Barnes & Noble teams with Google Android for eReader, in Net World, where among other things NW contributor Tony Bradley argues for ePub in effect.

“The proprietary Kindle format is a handicap though that will turn off many users who are waiting for the dust to settle on the ebook standards so they don’t get saddled with obsolete technology like a Betamax video tape machine or an HD DVD player.”

Fictionwise, owned by Barnes &Noble, is moving in the direction of ePub as a core format for its eReader program. Will the hardware reader branded by the parent company (photos) follow? I suspect so. If that happens, Amazon’s Kindle format will appear to be more and more of an oddball approach.

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