Oct 07

Pandigital Supernova available mid-October for $230, is an eReader in Android tablet disguise

Posted in: Android, barnes and noble, BarnesAndNoble, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, ebooks, gingerbread, nook, slate, tablet, tablets, Today's Chili

Pandigital hasn’t made much of an effort to swathe its Supernova tab in mystery. When the 8-inch LCD slate swept through the FCC earlier this summer, we were privy not only to images of the device and its internals, but also to the apps that’d be pre-loaded on purchase — GetJar and Barnes & Noble’s Nook app amongst others. So, what can you expect for $230 when it lands this month? Well, the company’s forsaken Honeycomb for the soon-to-be outclassed Gingerbread OS, tossed in a single-core 1GHz A8 processor, 4GB of storage (expandable to 32GB via microSD slot), WiFi and Bluetooth. It’s a cheap, me too Android tablet entry, for sure. And with the recent outing of a certain budget-priced, ecosystem-friendly tab, we might suggest you hold off for the higher-specced goods. Official PR after the break.

Continue reading Pandigital Supernova available mid-October for $230, is an eReader in Android tablet disguise

Pandigital Supernova available mid-October for $230, is an eReader in Android tablet disguise originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Oct 2011 09:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 06

Ad-supported Kindle 4 has built-in $30 “upgrade”, gets rid of embedded special offers

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

Was it too cheap? Well, here’s some great news for fourth-generation Kindle users already tiring of its embedded ads looking cheap alongside their Vertu phones. You can now pay Amazon the requisite fee and unsubscribe from built-in advertising and offers. Visit the Manage your Kindle webpage and you can edit your subscriptions for the newest entry-level e-reader. There seems to be no option, however, to do the reverse just yet. Would Amazon hand over $30 to push those special offers into our currently ad-free Kindle?

Ad-supported Kindle 4 has built-in $30 “upgrade”, gets rid of embedded special offers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Oct 2011 05:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 04

Boogie Board Rip goes on pre-order, no more tearing through notepads

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

The Boogie Board Rip is now available to pre-order for all your digital sketching needs. The latest stylus-friendly writing tablet from Improv Electronics adds the ability to save notes and sketches, then port them across to your computer as PDFs. Its reflex LCD only uses power when it’s wiping the screen, meaning it should squeeze out a week of typical use between charges. You can reserve yours now from the maker in the US and Canada, but at $130, it’s pricier than previous storage-free Boogie Boards. Europeans longing for a digital sketch pad can lay a claim to one next week, with the scribbling slate set to ship on November 1st.

Continue reading Boogie Board Rip goes on pre-order, no more tearing through notepads

Boogie Board Rip goes on pre-order, no more tearing through notepads originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Oct 2011 20:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 04

Amazon puts the kibosh on Kindle Touch 3G’s experimental browsing free ride

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

Back in the early ’90s, a certain Mr. Vandross and Ms. Jackson serenaded us with a little ditty on the benefits of free goods. Well, it might be time they updated the track because the best things in this eReading life are no longer free over a carrier’s 3G. If you happened to grow accustomed to sucking down data on your AT&T- or Sprint-enabled Kindle keyboard, we’d advise you to hold off on that newly introduced upgrade. An Amazon rep lurking the web retailer’s forums this past weekend delivered the disheartening news that experimental browsing over 3G on the Kindle Touch would no longer be supported. Sure, you can still connect to WiFi and surf via the clumsy E Ink browser, but where’s the on-the-go, loophole-exploiting fun in that? Bookworms with a predilection for an interwebbed free lunch should cling tightly to their outdated eReaders.

Amazon puts the kibosh on Kindle Touch 3G’s experimental browsing free ride originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Oct 2011 05:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 03

Amazon Kindle Lighted Leather Cover hands-on

Posted in: amazon, amazon kindle, AmazonKindle, case, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, hands-on, light, Today's Chili
It’s true of other portable electronics and it applies here, too: if you own an e-reader, there’s a strong argument to be made that you need a case. Sure, readers are a little more scratch-resistant than smartphones, but a little bit of backpack trauma can do some nasty things to an e-ink display. That could be Amazon’s elevator pitch, anyway. Introduced at the company’s launch event last week, the Kindle Lighted Leather Cover comes in various sizes, with versions for the Kindle Touch and fourth generation Kindle. We spent some hands-on time with the latter over the weekend and have to say: we’re liking what we’re seeing so far. Read on to find out why.

Gallery: Kindle Lighted Leather Cover hands-on

Kindle Lighted Leather Cover hands-on

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Amazon Kindle Lighted Leather Cover hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 03

Amazon Kindle review (2011)

Posted in: amazon, amazon kindle, AmazonKindle, e ink, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, kindle, review, Today's Chili, video

There’s little question that the Fire stole the show at last week’s Amazon event. After all, the new tablet marks a change for the company’s Kindle line, which until now has been defined by relatively simple E-Ink-based devices. The Kindle Touch, meanwhile, stepped up to bat to take on the likes of new Nook and Kobo touchscreen readers. But while most expected that device to become the heir to the Kindle throne, the company made a something of a surprise move, offering up a new device that will bear the reader’s name. Now in its fourth generation, the Kindle has shed its keyboard and been reborn as a pocket-sized, lighter-weight reader. And a cheap one, at that — $109 for the standard version and $79 for the ad-supported. So, is the new Kindle worthy of the name that has become synonymous with e-readers? Or did the company make too many sacrifices in the name of slashing prices? Find out in our review after the break.

Gallery: Amazon Kindle review (2011)

Amazon Kindle review (2011)

Continue reading Amazon Kindle review (2011)

Amazon Kindle review (2011) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Oct 2011 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 02

Switched On: Assets in gear

Posted in: amazon, Android, android tablet, AndroidTablet, column, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, kindle, Microsoft, sony, switched on, SwitchedOn, tablet, tablets, Today's Chili, Windows, windows 7, windows 8, Windows7, Windows8

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

Ecosystems take years to build and depend on other companies. Really, who has the time these days? Plus, they kick in only if a product reaches critical mass. Microsoft and SanDisk demonstrated the risk a few years back with their digital media players in seeding the market with third-party cases and docks using their own proprietary and now abandoned connectors. Over the past year, though, we’ve seen a number of tech companies take a new approach to mobile product development — the corporate showcase — where they convincingly shun any notion of silos by throwing just about everything they’ve got into a product.

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Switched On: Assets in gear originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 02 Oct 2011 18:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 29

Kobo’s Vox Android tablet appears online briefly, gets Canadian release date and pricing

Posted in: Android, android tablet, AndroidTablet, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, tablet, Today's Chili
A day after another little-known e-reader manufacturer announced a tablet, a new Android slate from Kobo made a brief online appearance on Future Shop’s site, only to be quickly taken down. According to the Canadian retailer, the FCC-approved tablet will offer up a 7-inch display with a 1024 x 600 resolution, WiFi, a speaker (perhaps the reason behind the Vox name) and 8GB of storage. The tablet is apparently set for an October 17th release in that country, priced at $250 Canadian.

[Thanks, Carolyn and Bart]

Kobo’s Vox Android tablet appears online briefly, gets Canadian release date and pricing originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Sep 2011 14:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 28

Amazon Kindle (2011) impressions

Posted in: amazon, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, kindle, Today's Chili, video
Price was one of the recurring themes at today’s Amazon event in New York City, and nowhere was that factor more present than with the new Kindle. At $79, this truly is an entry level device, and certainly the company made some sacrifices to hit that price point — most obviously, the reader doesn’t have the touchscreen featured in both the Kindle Touch and the latest Nook and Kobo devices — though like those products, the Kindle did lose its physical keyboard, giving it a much smaller footprint than the last generation. In place of the infrared touchscreen are a series of buttons: Home, Menu, Keyboard and Back. In the middle is a toggle button that lets the user scroll through menus — that activity can be performed pretty quickly with the physical buttons, and flipping through pages is not problem with the familiar buttons on either side of the screen. Where one really misses the presence of touch, however, is with the on-screen keyboard — typing is performed by clicking one’s way through the virtual keyboard, a familiar task for anyone who has ever entered their name at the beginning of a video game with a console controller. Of course, typing is a secondary task on a device like this, so for many users this may not be a deal-breaker. For those who foresee the need for such functionality, however, $20 will buy you an upgrade to the Kindle Touch.

Gallery: Kindle 2011 impressions

Kindle 2011 impressions

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Amazon Kindle (2011) impressions originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 12:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 28

Amazon Kindle Touch impressions (video)

Posted in: amazon, amazon kindle, AmazonKindle, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, kindle, Today's Chili, touchscreen, video, wifi
One of the three major devices launched at today’s Amazon event, the Kindle Touch is aimed firmly at the latest touchscreen Nook and Kobo devices. Like those readers, the new Kindle is based around an infrared touchscreen in the place of a physical keyboard, making the device a good deal smaller than the Kindle 3. The touchscreen is fairly responsive, and the thing flips through pages quickly with a swipe or a tap, refreshing about once every six pages or so, a rate about on-par with that of its chief competition. A task like performing a search on the other hand, requires a much larger screen refresh — still, activities like these and typing are performed quite quickly for an E-Ink device. The search function itself is rather precise, letting the user locate instances of things like character names throughout a text. In all, it looks as though Amazon has produced a worthy competitor to the space-leading touch devices — and the $99 / $149 price tags for the WiFi and 3G versions certainly don’t hurt. Check out a video of the device after the break.

Gallery: Kindle Touch impressions

Kindle Touch impressions

Continue reading Amazon Kindle Touch impressions (video)

Amazon Kindle Touch impressions (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 12:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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