Jun 01

Ebook publishers seek universal format, lament Apple and Amazon’s closed ecosystems

Posted in: amazon, amazon kindle, AmazonKindle, Apple, apple ipad, AppleIpad, Books, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, ebooks, ipad, kindle, Today's Chili

You don’t need to sit down, we’re not about to hit you with any shocking news, but a recent BookExpo America convention has given publishers the chance to air out their laundry list of complaints. Seriously, do these guys ever have anything positive to say? Now they’ve managed to pinpoint a flaw in the Kindle and iPad’s resounding success, identifying the two ebook reading platforms as closed, and expressing a yearning for a universal and open format that all books can be published and consumed on. Of course, they wouldn’t be publishers if they didn’t also lust after robust DRM measures, which might explain why they’re not roundly supporting the readily available EPUB format. It has DRM options, but perhaps they’re not gnarly enough for the dudes responsible for bringing us the psychological horror of the Twilight series. We still don’t like the suggestion that the people, Amazon primarily, who popularized this market should just open it up out of the goodness of their own hearts — maybe we would if publishers ever showed themselves capable of doing similarly noble things.

Ebook publishers seek universal format, lament Apple and Amazon’s closed ecosystems originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 06:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 31

Slim Amazon Kindle ‘Shasta’ to be first with WiFi?

Posted in: amazon, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, exclusive, kindle, Today's Chili

You know what Amazon’s Kindle doesn’t have? No, we’re not talking about color, the other thing. Right, WiFi. That looks set to change when the rumored slimster — codenamed “Shasta” — launches in August. The screencap above displaying the results of an internal Amazon device query shows entries for “Shasta” and “Shasta WiFi.” That would seem to indicate that Amazon’s next reader will launch in two flavors: WiFi + 3G and 3G-only (our source isn’t sure). There’s even an outside chance that one could be a WiFi-only device. Another grab after the break.

Oh, and here’s an interesting footnote: the original Kindle was apparently codenamed “Fiona” after Fiona Hackworth in Neal Stephenson’s novel The Diamond Age. Many of the names in the device list above — Nell (the protagonist), Miranda (mother figure to Nell), and Turing (i.e., Turing Machines) — are all related to that very same story. What we can’t figure out is how the word “Shasta” fits into all this so lay it on us Cyberpunks if you know.

Update: Freddo411 seems to have nailed it in the comments: Shasta, Lassen, and Mazama are all volcanoes in the Cascades.

Continue reading Slim Amazon Kindle ‘Shasta’ to be first with WiFi?

Slim Amazon Kindle ‘Shasta’ to be first with WiFi? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 May 2010 08:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 31

ASUS Eee Tablet preview

Posted in: ASUS, e reader, e-book, e-book reader, e-books, e-readers, hands-on, impressions, LCD, preview, Today's Chili, video

Alright, stick with us here. For some reason, ASUS decided it best to name its freshest e-reader the Eee Tablet, while its downright magical tablet goes by Eee Pad. Got all that? Good. The Eee Tablet (again, not to be confused with the Eee Pad tablet) is half e-reader, half note taker, and it’s an interesting twist on a played product category. We took a few precious minutes to experiment with the device here on the Computex show floor, and overall, we like what we’re seeing. Gone is the painfully slow E-Ink page refresh that Kindle owners are so accustomed to, with this particular LCD proving deliciously quick at changing screens. The only hang-up comes when you attempt to flip through too many pages, too fast — we managed to harness a loading wheel on two occasions, both of which took around six or eight seconds to vanish and the next page to finally appear. We also confirmed that the screen only works with the included stylus, much like pen-enabled Wacom tablets. That said, the bundled stylus was perfectly weighted, and the Eee Tablet responded well to our doodling. Speaking of weight, the model shown here in Taipei was shockingly heavy (at least iPad-level heavy), while the 10-inch EP101TC was markedly less hefty. Enough chatter — have a look at our hands-on video just past the break.

Gallery: ASUS Eee Tablet hands-on at Computex 2010

Continue reading ASUS Eee Tablet preview

ASUS Eee Tablet preview originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 May 2010 06:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 31

ASUS Eee Pad EP101TC and EP121 preview

Posted in: ASUS, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, impressions, NVIDIA, preview, tegra, Today's Chili, video

At long last, the ASUS Eee Pads have arrived, but unfortunately they’re just not working the way we’ve been imagining for all these months. We got a few minutes to toy around with the 10-inch EP101TC and 12-inch EP121, but both were barely working. And “barely” is being gracious. We can tell you that both models are incredibly well built — they’ve got aluminum edges and matte back covers — and neither was particularly heavy. The EP121 wasn’t booting at all, but it was being shown off with a super sleek keyboard docking station, which will be used to turn the tablet into an ultraportable laptop of sorts. An NVIDIA Tegra-powered EP101TC was powering on, but its Windows Embedded Compact 7-based interface was still noticeably buggy, and the touchscreen quite unresponsive. The UI certainly looked attractive enough, and our swipe motions across the capacitive touchscreen were handled admirably, but ASUS definitely has a ways to go in terms of functionality. We wish we had more impressions to share, but it looks as if we’ll have to wait for a less half-baked iteration to really dive in. ‘Til then, feel free to peruse the gallery below and peek the video just beyond the break.

Gallery: ASUS Eee Pad hands-on at Computex 2010

Continue reading ASUS Eee Pad EP101TC and EP121 preview

ASUS Eee Pad EP101TC and EP121 preview originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 May 2010 05:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 31

ASUS Eee Tablet: a notepad with impressive 2450 dpi touchscreen sensitivity (updated)

Posted in: ASUS, breaking news, BreakingNews, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, LCD, Today's Chili
Don’t call it the Eee Pad, this is ASUS’ Eee Tablet — a digital notebook with a 2,450 dpi touchscreen and lickity quick 0.1 second page turns on a backlight-less TFT-LCD offering 64-levels of grey. As such, ASUS is calling its Eee Tablet one of the world’s most accurate and sensitive note taking devices available. The other being paper and pencil of course. While the Eee Tablet will serve up texts and ebooks for reading just fine, ASUS is really pushing the note taking feature with built-in notepad templates and the ability to store, sort, tag, and annotate your notes on the fly. It comes packing a MicroSD slot and 2 megapixel camera for snapping lecture slides which students or professionals can then annotate and then sync back to a PC over USB. Battery life? 10 hours — so yeah, it’s not E-Ink… but then again it’s not E-Ink.

Update: Uh, ok, we’ve received clarification here at Computex. Apparently, when ASUS says “a 2450 dpi touch resolution screen” they actually mean a 2,450 dpi input sensitivity. In other words, annotations probably will feel like writing on paper, or an 8-inch 1024 x 768 pixel panel, anyway.

Update 2: We’ve just been told to expect the Eee Tablet to cost somewhere between $199 and $299 of the green stuff when it launches sometime in September.

Update 3: Lookie here — we’ve got a hands-on preview up, video and all.

Gallery: ASUS Eee Tablet unveil Computex 2010

Continue reading ASUS Eee Tablet: a notepad with impressive 2450 dpi touchscreen sensitivity (updated)

ASUS Eee Tablet: a notepad with impressive 2450 dpi touchscreen sensitivity (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 May 2010 03:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 30

MSI WindPad 100 is a 10-inch, Intel Atom-powered Windows 7 tablet

Posted in: breaking news, BreakingNews, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, intel, msi, tablet, tablet pc, TabletPc, Today's Chili, windows 7, Windows7

Oh, hello WindPad! MSI just took the wraps off its 10-inch, Windows 7 tablet during the company’s Computex press conference. The tablet is powered by a 1.66GHz Intel Atom Z530 processor, 2GB of RAM, and packs a 32GB SSD that boots Windows 7 Home Premium, though MSI has created a Wind Touch UI layer. While they were showing early prototypes, it will have two USB ports, an HDMI and a webcam when all is finalized. According to an MSI product manager on hand, the WindPad 100 will hit the market later this year for around $499. We just caught a few minutes with the tablet so hit the break for some early impressions and a short hands-on clip.

Gallery: MSI WindPad 100 hands-on

Continue reading MSI WindPad 100 is a 10-inch, Intel Atom-powered Windows 7 tablet

MSI WindPad 100 is a 10-inch, Intel Atom-powered Windows 7 tablet originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 May 2010 00:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 28

Amazon Kindle slimming down in August?

Posted in: amazon, amazon kindle, AmazonKindle, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, kindle, rumor, rumors, Today's Chili

Color might still be out of the question — both now and far into the future — but Amazon seems fit to take out some of the Kindle‘s fat. Bloomberg has it on word that the company will debut a thinner version of its e-book reader in August, and the new workout regiment will also enhance its screen sharpness and responsiveness. No word on if this’ll apply to current models or be an entirely different variant, but in addition to no color, we do hear it lacks a touch screen. Bummer, but if the price is right, we’ll bite.

Amazon Kindle slimming down in August? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 22:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 28

Sony patent application points to dual-screen, dual-use tablet

Posted in: e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, patent, patent application, PatentApplication, solar, solar power, SolarPower, sony, tablet, Today's Chili
We never put too much faith in patent applications leading to actual products, but we can’t help but get a little bit excited about the possibilities presented by a recent Sony application for a dual-screen tablet. Described specifically as an “electronic book with enhanced features,” the device would sport two screens that could take on a different functionality depending on how the device is oriented — functioning as an e-reader when in portrait mode, and displaying a keyboard on the lower screen when placed on a table, for instance. Now, this obviously has a few similarities to the Courier, and even more to Microsoft’s earlier Codex project (with its “Battleship posture”), but Sony does seem to have put a slightly unique spin on things, and has even thrown in a few more ideas of its own — even mentioning solar charging in its claims for the application.

Sony patent application points to dual-screen, dual-use tablet originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 19:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 28

Pandigital Novel e-reader / handheld hits the FCC

Posted in: Android, e reader, e-book, e-book reader, E-bookReader, e-books, e-readers, Today's Chili
Pandigital’s already manage to at least pique our interest with its Android-based Novel e-reader / handheld, and it looks like the device has now reached one more milestone on the road to availability — it’s just turned up at the FCC. As you can see, the particular device undergoing testing is black (not white as the final version will apparently be), and the FCC unfortunately doesn’t give us much of a look of that bright 7-inch LCD in the on position. It has, however, given us a glimpse of the device’s insides, subjected it to the usual battery of tests, and kindly provided us with the device’s user manual — though there’s not too many surprises in there at this point. Hit up the link below for all that and more.

Pandigital Novel e-reader / handheld hits the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 19:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 28

WiFi-only Nook gets FCC approval?

Posted in: barnes and noble, barnes noble, BarnesAndNoble, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, nook, Today's Chili

If you’ll allow us to do a little dot-connecting and hand-waving here, we think we may have just stumbled across a new version of Barnes and Noble’s Nook that drops the GSM connection and soldiers on with WiFi alone, matching up nicely with a rumor that spread across the webs not long ago. You see, the Nook’s FCC ID is BNRZ100, and this thing that we just found in the FCC’s filing system under Barnes and Noble’s name has an ID of BNRV100 — and the test reports are very explicit about the fact that this is for “EBOOK, WLAN, AND USB PORTS WITHOUT WWAN.” WWAN, of course, is a fancy way of referring to a cellular connection, so that’s that. If this thing can sell for, say, $100 less than the Nook’s $260 — a price that puts it out of reach of the average person’s impulse purchase limit — we could see some significant new uptake of the platform, we’d wager. No word on a release, but we’ll keep our ears to the ground.

WiFi-only Nook gets FCC approval? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 18:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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