Hasta La Gadget!

Neofonie announces WePad 11.6-inch Android slate originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 20 Mar 2010 21:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know who makes the E-Ink displays on the Kindle? PVI. The Taiwanese company is also the EPD provider for several other tier-1 eReader device makers including Sony. So take a good look at that color E-Ink prototype display currently sitting in a PVI booth at a Shenzhen tradeshow ’cause that’s what you’ll see packed in color eReaders near the end of the year and into 2011. PVI is showing off both 6- and 9.7-inch color prototypes set to hit the manufacturing lines in Q4 (and sampling now), just right for the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX should Amazon choose to keep things simple and just swap out the display (and a minimum of componentry) within its existing device lineup. It’s worth noting that the extra layer of color filtering glass will impact battery life a bit, but certainly not enough to lose its edge on LCDs. And while PVI was demonstrating a color animation running on its new displays, they can’t do video worth a damn due to the slow frame refresh. And don’t expect to see the color EPDs sporting a contrast or color vibrancy anywhere close to what you’ll get from a traditional LCD either. Regardless, people seem smitten by the USA Today’s use of color so we’re sure these color E-Ink displays will find their niche as well.

PVI’s color E-Ink displays are a perfect match for Kindles originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 04:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Spring Design said its Android-powered Alex e-reader is now on sale, and customers can pre-order their complementary e-books in a variety of formats.

Customers can order the $399 Alex e-reader at www.springdesign.com. The company announced the Alex e-reader late last year, sporting a dual-screen 6-inch E Ink display, a second 3.5-inch Android-powered touchscreen, and Wi-Fi connectivity.

Pre-orders will be shipped no later than mid-April, Spring Design said.

Spring Design will allow e-books to be shipped with what it calls a novel feature: LinkNotes,” which “opens up a whole new dimension in publishing,” according to the company. “Authors may
insert
hyperlinks in their books that show up on the EPD reading screen
indicating that
there is linked-in Web-based content available.  Users can click on
hyperlinks
in eBooks, corporate documents, or periodicals that lead to relevant
web-based
information or to multimedia content stored on the Alex eReader that
will enrich
their reading experience. “

Spring Design has hooked up with Google’s bookstore (with over one million titles) and other bookstores that
support Adobe’s DRM technology.  Spring has also engaged with multiple international partners to
jointly deliver multi-language versions of Alex for countries speaking Chinese,
Spanish, Russian, Korean and Hebrew, the company said.

It’s possible Spring Design may be the launching pad this whole “hypertext” idea needs to really take off.

We’re not going to engage in too much wild speculation on this piece of information, but there are certainly a few raised eyebrows in Engadget-land right now. Apparently Plastic Logic is no longer offering pre-orders of its QUE proReader, as a tipster of ours discovered while trying to push through his order of the $799.99, 8GB / 3G version of the large-screen device. According to the order page “Pre-orders are sold out. QUE will be available online and in select Barnes & Noble stores this summer.” This of course comes on the heels of news that the company would be further delaying the ship date from mid-April to summer related to “fine-tuning” and “enhancing the overall product experience.” So our minds aren’t exactly at ease, as we’re trying to understand why a company wouldn’t just caveat pre-orders by letting people know there’s been a run on supply — though it’s possible that Plastic Logic is doing separate batches for mail order and in-store, and just needs to pace themselves. We’ve reached out to the company for comment, and we’ll let you know as soon as we hear back.

[Thanks, Clive]

Plastic Logic QUE proReader pre-orders halted? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Plastic Logic, which was set to ship its large screen Que e-reader in April, is now delaying it to “sometime this summer.”

The company sent notifications to pre-order customers late Thursday afternoon announcing the delay and saying it needed the time to “fine-tune features and enhance the overall product.”

Plastic Logic launched the Que at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. The Que proReader has an 8.5 x 11-inch touchscreen display and the ability to handle a range of documents such as Microsoft Word files, PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets, digital books, PDFs, magazines and newspapers. It can also synchronize with Microsoft Outlook to display e-mails and calendar.

A 4-GB version of the Que with Wi-Fi and storage for about 35,000 documents will cost $650. An $800 8-GB version that can store 75,000 documents and includes both Wi-Fi and 3G capability — powered by AT&T– will be $800.

Plastic Logic CEO Richard Archuleta didn’t reveal the exact reasons for the delay. But if it is to make sure that the company works out all the kinks in the product before it ships, he may have made the right decision. Last year, many e-reader enthusiasts criticized Barnes & Noble for rushing its Nook e-reader to market. Barnes & Noble has since the launch offered firmware updates to fix some of the Nook’s problems.

But the delay is also likely to cost Plastic Logic some ground. Apple’s iPad tablet will be available April 3 and the device starts at $500. Though it doesn’t offer an E Ink screen, the iPad is also targeted at consumers who want to read digital books. Apple will have its own iBook store, similar to iTunes, so consumers can buy digital books directly from the device.

Meanwhile, other companies such as Dell and HP are also planning to launch their own tablets and plan to highlight digital reading as one of the key experiences on the device.

See Also:

• Plastic Logic Aims New Que E-Reader at Business Users
• CES 2010: Que Touchcreen E-Reader Packs in Features – Video – Wired
• Slim, Large Screen E-Reader Skiff to Debut on Sprint
• New Freescale Chip Could Birth a $150 E-Reader

Photo: Que (Priya Ganapati/Wired.com)