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The iPad isn’t even out yet, and the eBook app wars have begun! Barnes & Noble is promising the book savvy that “around the time” of the slate’s launch, a B&N Reader app for access to their 1 million+ eBookStore catalog will be “designed specifically” for the iPad. That means you’d have books, magazines and newspapers at your fingertips, and might even be able to dodge Apple’s prices on books, whether it be small or high. Now where’s that Kindle app?
Source: Engadget, B&N Unbound
While we might have been waiting for the 9-inch DR-950, at least we got the DR-900 announced at CeBIT in Germany, a 9-inch eBook reader with Wi-Fi and a 3G option, as well as a purported battery life of 10,000 eBook pages. It also includes a 1024 x 768 resolution on a Sipix panel, making it better than e-ink, 3.5 mm headset jack, support for PDF, TXT, MP3, and ePUB files, and an included 4GB of storage. No price or release date yet, but so far it looks pretty good. Now where’s the ebook store for this thing ASUS? Remember no e-reader in the U.S will succeed if it doesn’t have a bookstore of some sort, like the Nooks, or the Kindles of this world, otherwise, we can pretty much end this here, right now.
After nearly 4 months of limbo, the DR 800SG from iREX is officially shipping out for the price of $399.99 from BestBuy.com. For those of you who were following gadget blogs properly, the DR 800SG was supposed to be the first e-book reader with access to the Barnes & Noble E-BookStore. Of course other readers like Barnes’ own Nook took that place. Press release after the break for those of you who are interested. Now we’ll finally be able to get our grummy paws on this thing for a review.
A multitouch eBook Reader. Let’s see here, why would I need multitouch in my reader? Maybe when I’m waiting for the page to load I can amuse myself by pinching-and-zooming to wait even longer? Or maybe I can just look at how weird and ugly my e-reader is?
It’s unfortunately coming out in May for $250, features a 6-inch, 800×600 display, along with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 1GB of storage, microSD and an accelerometer. It can read both ePub and PDF formats. There is no electronic bookstore behind it, so you’ll have to fatten it up with PDFs and ePubs. [E-reader-info via Electronista]
Just in time for Valentines Day, Barnes & Noble has gotten its manufacturing act back together. If you remember the numerous delays for the Nook, BN said things would be back to normal around now, and everything is. So if you have an extreme love of books (and gadgets), then the Nook is right up your alley. And as an added bonus, Barnes has started its exclusive “More In Store” content. When you do buy your Nook you’ll be presented with a short story by Adriana Trigiani, a red velvet cupcakes recipe by Anne Byrn, the Cake Mix Doctor, and finally a little something called “Read Between the Wines”, by wine expert Kevin Zraly, a dude who will tell you what to drink in terms of wine. PR after the jump, people.
[Barnes & Noble, In-Store Locator]
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Speed. That’s the main new feature in the new Nook v1.2 firmware update right now. Early reports suggest that the color touchscreen becomes more responsive and e-ink pages load faster. Unfortunately with the Nook, there isn’t a way too speed up the time that your Nook actually recognizes that there is a new update available, so you’ll have to wait until it says so.
With the big but small announcement of the ASUS e-readers, we’ve been waiting for pictures. Actual closeups of this thing. And here they are:
The ASUS DR-950 measures at just 0.35 inches thin, but still fits in a 9-inch, 1024 x 768 pixel display. And it’s not E-Ink — it’s a new technology that ASUS had to call SiPix Microcup electronic paper which consumes less energy than E-Ink (or is purported to, anyway). Besides that you have your 2-to-4GB of storage, SD card slot, Wi-Fi and HDSPA, a USB port and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Pricing and a release date are still in limbo. Something interesting by the way, is that ASUS UK Headquarters posted the pictures on Flickr, with a couple of the shots showing the e-reader being compared to an iPhone. Now how’s that for originality? [Flickr via Engadget]
According to the WSJ, HarperCollins Publishers is in talks with Apple to provide e-books for the upcoming tablet. If something like this actually happens, companies like Amazon will take a serious hurting from such a deal. According to HarperCollins’ own chief exec, Amazon would have something to worry about because: “e-books enhanced with video, author interviews and social-networking applications could command higher retail prices for publishers than current e-books”.
Such an idea would (and should) be ideal for Apple’s upcoming tablet on the 27th. Of course, there will be more speculation until Apple’s press event, but just imagine this for a moment: man created the e-book, and now a super e-book. I like it.
All of a sudden ASUS has 2 e-readers which look like they can pack some serious punches. Starting off with the DR-950, it includes a 9-inch 1024 x 768 pixel touchscreen with 16 levels of gray, text-to-speech in 26 languages, a web browser that can switch between landscape and portrait modes, built-in RSS reader, and an expandable built-in dictionary with real-time translation. The 222 x 161 x 9-mm / 370-gram e-reader also packs in Wi-FI and HSPA (WiMAx is optional), 3.5 mm headphone jack, 4GB of internal memory and SD card expansion. Supported formats include: PDF, TXT, Audible, MP3, and unprotected ePub.
As for the 6-inch OLED DR-570, it has that amazing 122 hours of battery life, Wi-Fi, 0.03 second page turns (making it 23 times faster than the Kindle’s), 124 x 170 x 8.8-mm / 200-g size, 4GB onboard storage with SDHC card expansion, 512MB of SDRAM, and 1,530mAh battery. Text-to-speech and built-in web browser, RSS reader, support for ePub, PDF, txt, MP3, MP4, and AVI content formats, audio/video/Flash player, as well as a possibility for online video streaming from Amazon. As for the 6-inch screen, there is some doubt that it could actually be a smaller 5.7 inches, but that’s not confirmed yet.
Not too shabby ASUS, not too shabby. Now, where’s the content partners for these things?
An impressive entry from ASUS into the e-reader market, the DR-570 boasts a 6-inch OLED screen and a claimed 122 hours of juice. No extra details except it’s coming out at the “end of the year”. From the looks of it though, it won’t be cheap, contrary to ASUS’s usual pricing schemes. [Via Times Online, Engadget]
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