Hasta La Gadget!

At this point, there’s little doubt that Barnes & Noble will soon be joining the e-reader game. We’ve heard whispers through the grapevine, seen FCC documentation and now, renders of what the thing might actually look like. With October 20th rapidly approaching, Gizmodo has secured images that it claims are of the forthcoming device — and the design certainly jibes with recent happenings. If you’ll recall, a B&N-badged representative recently noted that an e-book reader with its logo on it was on track for a Spring 2010 release, and by golly, it would sport a color display. Plastic Logic later stepped forward to deny the claim, but if these images are legit, both parties might actually be correct; the dual-panel device would boast a traditional e-ink display up top with a multitouch panel beneath, the latter of which would undoubtedly lead to all sorts of shenanigans. So, is it Tuesday yet, or what?

Filed under: Displays, Handhelds

Barnes & Noble twin-screen e-reader revealed early? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The future of media isn’t on paper. And a device just dedicated to replicating dead trees is a waste of time. Let me show you why electronic ink’s virtues don’t matter as much as its weaknesses do.

Click through the gallery for a blow-by-blow of e-ink’s strengths and failures:

E-ink is a great digital tool for emulating what books were. But a horse with rollershoes can’t keep up with the automobile, so why should we expect a digital book to keep up with modern media habits?

I fell in love with the Kindle last year, but I think you’re a fool to buy one now—let alone any of its lesser competitors—when so much new technology is about to hit over the next six months. I’m giving up on it. I am waiting for a tablet. Same size, different priorities. And unless you love novels and non-fiction more than TV, movies, cookbooks and glossy magazines all together, you should, too. [Fantastic rendering above by Rob Beschizza]

What do you get the CEO who has everything? If you were thinking of picking up a Kindle for Steve Ballmer for the holidays, you can think again. The Microsoft head is not a fan of e-book readers.

Asked what he thinks about such devices during the recording of a Netherlands TV show, Ballmer answered, “We have a device for reading. It’s the most popular device in the world. It’s the PC.” Oh, snap.

Ballmer added, “I would love to see companies like Amazon and others bring their books to the PC. Hopefully we can get that to happen with Barnes & Noble or Amazon or somebody. But no, we are not interested in e-readers ourselves.”

All of this ultimately brings into question the Courier prototype we saw, a couple of weeks back. The device is ostensibly a tablet, sure, but judging from the design, the ability to display e-books sure seems to be at the top of its to-do list.

It’s not certain, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t the best idea I’ve heard in a while: Barnes & Noble‘s rapidly-approaching eReader will be an Android piece, according to our source. And it really should be, according to me.

The leak came from someone who (quite convincingly!) claims to work for B&N developing mobile apps—his background knowledge of their app projects was startlingly deep, at any rate—and makes quite a bit of sense as an alternative to the brutally dumb software of current ebook readers.

Think about it. At six inches, it’s a smallish device, and we’ve seen Android on similarly-sized screens already. Wireless connectivity is built into the OS. Extraneous, inappropriate software and settings could be easily stripped out and replaced with relevant ones. A custom-designed interface could be easily dropped in. Apps—oh, sweet apps—could be a huge boon. And hey, E-Ink Android drivers have already been demonstrated on video. Not to mention the fact that B&N has conveniently skirted releasing an Android app, despite putting quite a bit of effort into iPhone and BlackBerry versions of the mobile ebook sofrware.

Simply put, this would be pretty fantastic, and it’s eminently plausible. And from the looks of it, we won’t have to wait long to find out.

Wanna know what we love? Authoritative sources. That fine breed of people who don’t like keeping important secrets is back with another hit, this time suggesting that Amazon has finally tied up all the loose ends and is ready to bring the Kindle to Blighty. This implies Qualcomm has done its rumored job of putting together a 3G and WiFi connectivity package with one of the UK’s mobile operators, and all that remains to be done now is the old dotting and crossing of i’s and t’s. An official announcement — which should tell us whether the Kindle 2 will be joined by the chunkier Kindle DX — is expected some time ahead of the Frankfurt Book Fair, which commences on October 14.

[Via Pocket lint]

Filed under: Handhelds

Kindle coming to the UK in October? Amazon might just tell us next week originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 08:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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