Hasta La Gadget!

PSP Comic Store, we hardly knew ye. No really, we hardly knew ye — which is probably why Sony is warning PSP owners that its comic book portal is shutting down after October 30th. Come Hallowe’en, we’ll lose the option to download the necessary app or buy additional titles. Any currently owned comics will be available to download again until mid-January, but readers will be on their own to preserve existing libraries after that. Outside of Japan, that creates significant problems for literary PlayStation fans: while PS Vita owners in Sony’s home country will get a Manga store and reader in October, there’s no equivalent crutch for other countries (or any PSP owners) at this stage. The console maker is non-committal and says there’s nothing it can discuss “at the moment,” which to us is a hint that we shouldn’t plan our reading hours around a PSP or PS Vita in the near future.

[Thanks, Sooraj]

Filed under: Gaming

Sony shuts down PSP Comic Store after October 30th, leaves most of us in the lurch for now originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Sep 2012 08:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon’s certainly not the first company to deliver an illuminated e-reader, but the mega-retailer’s psyched about its new Kindle Paperwhite nonetheless, and after playing around with the device a bit, it’s easy to see why. According to CEO Jeff Bezos, R&D’s been working on the technology for years now, attempting to get the perfect balance of brightness and battery life, all while ensuring an even distribution across the display. How does it achieve this? We’ve heard the technology described as an optical cable laid flat across the display. The company goes into a bit more detail on the technology that powers the reader, via a few Beautiful Mind-esque shots in the video after the break. It’ll give you something to do while you wait for your reader to ship early next month.

Continue reading Amazon breaks down its Kindle Paperwhite light technology (video)

Filed under: Amazon

Amazon breaks down its Kindle Paperwhite light technology (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Sep 2012 13:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Barnes & Noble must want no corner of Britain untouched by Nooks. Following its planned bookstore invasion, the American company is bringing both the Nook Simple Touch and its GlowLight cousin to Sainsbury’s and Waitrose supermarkets, as well as Dixons Retail-owned chains Currys and PC World. When the e-readers arrive at the outlets’ respective online and retail stores from early October onwards, they’ll bring the Nook’s reach to nearly 2,000 UK sales points — not quite ubiquitous coverage, but more than double what we saw in our most recent check. About all that’s left is to offer the Android tablets that have been conspicuously missing from Barnes & Noble’s initial expansion strategy.

Continue reading Barnes & Noble Nook lands in Currys, PC World and Sainsbury’s stores, furthers the UK conquest

Barnes & Noble Nook lands in Currys, PC World and Sainsbury’s stores, furthers the UK conquest originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 04:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s all too easy to forget in English-speaking countries that the e-reading selection often isn’t as diverse in other parts of the world, where local authors are often kept out of the equation. The Portuguese may know that all too well, which makes Kobo’s arrival in their country a potential breakthrough. A deal with European retailer FNAC has both the Kobo Touch and a localized Kobo e-bookstore reaching physical and online stores in Portugal as of today. The price strategy won’t be a shock versus what we’ve seen through an earlier deal in France: the Touch itself costs €99.90 ($129), while books vary and typically hover around €15 ($19). Whether or not Kobo’s offering is a good deal, its arrival could be a relief for lisboetas who’d rather not resort to paper and ink to catch up on their own culture.

Continue reading Kobo Touch, localized e-bookstore reach Portugal through FNAC

Kobo Touch, localized e-bookstore reach Portugal through FNAC originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Sep 2012 02:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s a lonely world when you’ve no storefronts to call your own. Shortly after Target decided it best to halt the sales of Amazon’s Kindle products, it’s being reported that Walmart is following suit. A quote obtained by Reuters suggests that Wally World’s bigwigs won’t be carrying Amazon tablets and e-readers “beyond the existing inventory and purchase commitments.” And yes, that includes “all Kindle models current and recently announced.” No actual reasoning was given beyond the conventional company line, but one has to wonder if Walmart isn’t somehow considering getting into some of the businesses that it was previously helping Amazon push.

It’s also taken a plunge with Vudu, as it’s offering an in-store disc-to-digital UltraViolet conversion as well. You might say that Walmart would never, ever start hawking its own e-readers, but crazier things have happened — Best Buy has an entire brand devoted to in-house goods, and Amazon itself has expanded from an online storefront for laundry detergent and bestselling novels to a bona fide hardware mainstay.

Walmart to stop selling Amazon’s Kindle line of readers and tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Sep 2012 12:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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