Hasta La Gadget!

It seems we have yet another reason to volley complaints in Amazon’s directions. 17-year old high school student Justin Gawronski had apparently been taking electronic notes and annotations on his Kindle for a summer assignment on George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Yeah, you can probably guess where this is going — after the retailer remotely pulled the plug on that particular version of the book, Gawronski’s notes were lost in the ethers, rendered useless. The suit, which is seeking class action status, asks that Amazon be legally blocked from improperly accessing users’ Kindles in the future and punitive damages for those affected by the deletion — and if he asks nice, we’re pretty sure Jeff would write his teacher a note. [Warning: read link is a PDF]

[Via Trading Markets]

Filed under: Handhelds

Student sues Amazon after Kindle eats his homework originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Electronic books reader manufacturer Plastic Logic announced Wednesday that it will offer wireless access in its upcoming devices through AT&T’s 3G network. The e-book reader expected to launch early next year will also have Wi-Fi connectivity.

“Built in 3G access adds mobility to the product and allows users access to books at all times, wherever they are,” Daren Benzi, vice president of business development at Plastic Logic told Wired.com

The move also positions Plastic Logic  squarely against Amazon’s Kindle e-reader that uses Sprint’s wireless connectivity for over-the-air book downloads and basic internet surfing.

Since Amazon launched the Kindle in 2007, the e-books reader market has taken off with more than 15 models of e-readers available today.  E-readers with 6-inch displays, such as those seen in the Kindle 2 or Sony Reader, are the most popular among consumers. But earlier this year, Amazon launched the Kindle DX with a 9.7-inch screen for $490.

Plastic Logic is targeting its e-readers at business users. The device is about 8.5 x 11 inch, the size of a large notepad, less than 0.25-inches thick and has a touchscreen interface. The company has not disclosed pricing for the product.

On Monday, book retailing giant Barnes & Noble said it will power the Plastic Logic devices through its new e-books store. Barnes & Noble’s e-book store will have more than 700,000 titles, compared to the 300,000 odd books that its closest rival Amazon has. And because of  the wireless capability of the Plastic Logic devices, the combination will be a completely integrated experience for consumers, says William Lynch, president of Barnes&Noble.com.

Lynch did not comment on whether Barnes & Noble would eventually sell Plastic Logic devices at its stores but said the e-book store partnership with the latter is not exclusive. “We are open to working with other manufacturers,” says Lynch.

The Plastic Logic Reader will offer users more than just newspapers, books and magazine content. It will support the document formats such as PDF, Word, PowerPoint and Excel, some of which current e-readers cannot.

Plastic Logic is also counting on AT&T’s wide network of Wi-Fi hotspots to please its customers, says Benzi.

See Also:

• Plastic Logic E-Reader is Slimmer than Kindle DX
• Buying Guide: How to Choose an E-Book Reader
• World’s First Color E-Book Reader Goes on Sale
• Google Boosts E-Reader Status of Smartphones with Mobile Book

Photo: Plastic Logic Reader/Plastic Logic

more than 200 countries and regions. AT&T is also the nation’s largest Wi-Fi provider,

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.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

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.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments