Hasta La Gadget!

Take it for nothing more than it is (a lovely, delicious and completely unsubstantiated rumor), but word on the Australian streets is that iriver may have an Android-based portable media player on the horizon. According to local distributor C.R. Kennedy’s iriver product manager, Danny Bejanoff, the outfit is looking to take on Apple’s iPod touch directly, with a 3.5-inch touchscreen, WiFi, built-in web browser, accelerometer, Bluetooth, a digital TV tuner and Google’s Android OS running the show. Sadly, it seems as if this pipe dream has yet to receive the proper final approvals, but we’re here to beg the brilliant designers at iriver to invest whatever it takes to make this so-called K2 a reality. Oh, and just in case that wasn’t enough for you, Mr. Bejanoff also noted that the firm was working up a new e-reader and internet tablet, both of which should be out for testing in short order.

Filed under: Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

iriver reportedly working up Android-based K2 media player originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Jul 2009 05:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung’s announced it’s jumping into the best game in town — the paperless book trade — with its SNE-50K e-book reader. With 512MB of onboard storage, a five-inch touchscreen and stylus, and a complete lack of wireless or internet capabilities, it’s not the most advanced reader we’ve ever seen, but it’s slim and light, at nine millimeters thick and weighing about 6.5 ounces. In South Korea, where the reader will be launched first, Samsung has partnered with Kyobo Bookstore, one of the largest booksellers in the country. There’s no word on launches outside of South Korea at this time, but Samsung does plan on showing a prototypes for other countries at a trade show in January (most likely CES).

Filed under: Handhelds

Samsung jumps into e-book reader game with the SNE-50K originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he’ll explore where our industry is and where it’s going — on both micro and macro levels — with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.

I like books. No: I actually love books. In virtually every room in my home there are bookcases that are filled to overflowing. I like to purchase them, hold them as I read words written to inform, delight, and transport the reader into different times, new experiences, and enlighten them in ways they could not have imagined. Like the worst hot dog I’ve eaten and the worst beer I’ve drunk, the worst book I’ve read was wonderful… but books do have a downside. They’re bulky to store, hard to travel with (paper is really, really heavy), and paperbacks in particular tend to not hold up well over time. So, in addition to books, I’ve been a fan of e-Books. My former venture capital firm did one of the first investments in Peanut Press (long sold and re-sold many times and now owned by Barnes and Noble) and more than a decade ago I struggled with reading fiction by Dan Brown on a Palm V device with low resolution and on backlight. It was a struggle — but it was better than schlepping paper.

Continue reading Entelligence: Two strikes for Kindle is enough for me

Filed under: Handhelds

Entelligence: Two strikes for Kindle is enough for me originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s not exactly an e-book reader of its own as previously rumored, but Barnes & Noble’s announced an alliance with Plastic Logic in which it’ll serve as the “exclusive eBookstore provider” to the long-in-development e-reader, which unless we’re playing with semantics here means any and all digital literature you’re wanting to purchase on-device will have to come from BN. According to the press release, downloads from Google’s public domain archives will also be made available gratis, and as for the enigmatic 8.5 x 11-inch slate, it’s still reportedly on track for an early 2010 launch. Much in the vein of Amazon’s more recent maneuvers, the ole’ brick-and-mortar retailer is taking what it’s calling a device-agnostic approach, with apps already available for iPhone and iPod touch, Blackberry, Windows, and OS X. Practice your reading skills with the presser after the break.

Update: A few added details from Barnes & Noble’s conference call. The company says it’ll be announcing support for other products in the future (not Kindle or Sony e-reader) and that it has no announcements at this point as to whether it’ll be selling Plastic Logic e-readers in store, exclusive or otherwise.

Continue reading Barnes & Noble partners with Plastic Logic, becomes “exclusive eBookstore provider” for its e-reader

Filed under: Handhelds

Barnes & Noble partners with Plastic Logic, becomes “exclusive eBookstore provider” for its e-reader originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re into keeping tabs on irony, check this out. Amazon apparently sent out its robotic droogs last night, deleting copies of the George Orwell novels Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four from Kindles without explanation, then refunding the purchase price. As you can imagine, a lot of people caught in the thick of Winston and Julia’s love story aren’t very happy — and rightfully so — the idea that we “own” the things we buy is pretty fundamental to… ownership. We’re not sure exactly what happened, but it seems that the publisher of said novels, MobileReference, has changed its mind about selling content on the Kindle, and poof! Amazon remotely deleted all previously purchased copies. It’s all a bit Orwellian, is it not? Good thing we “permanently borrowed” hard copies of both from our middle school library, huh? Let Hate Week commence.

Update: According to commenters on Amazon, this message was sent out from the company’s customer service department:

The Kindle edition books Animal Farm by George Orwell. Published by MobileReference (mobi) & Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) by George Orwell. Published by MobileReference (mobi) were removed from the Kindle store and are no longer available for purchase. When this occurred, your purchases were automatically refunded. You can still locate the books in the Kindle store, but each has a status of not yet available. Although a rarity, publishers can decide to pull their content from the Kindle store.

While that publisher’s version of the book may have been removed, it appears other versions of the novels are still available.

Update 2: Drew Herdener, Amazon.com’s Director of Communications, pinged us directly with the following comment, and now things are starting to make a lot more sense. Seems as if the books were added initially by an outfit that didn’t have the rights to the material.

These books were added to our catalog using our self-service platform by a third-party who did not have the rights to the books. When we were notified of this by the rights holder, we removed the illegal copies from our systems and from customers’ devices, and refunded customers. We are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers’ devices in these circumstances.

Still, what’s upsetting is the idea that something you’ve purchased can be quietly taken back by Amazon with no explanation and no advance notice. It’s a rotten policy, regardless of the motivations behind this particular move.

Filed under: Handhelds

Amazon remotely deletes Orwell e-books from Kindles, unpersons reportedly unhappy (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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