Hasta La Gadget!

Elonex has been dabbling in small screen wares for quite some time now, so it’s not a huge surprise to finally see it join the likes of BeBook, Sony and Amazon by introducing its very own eBook reader. Design wise, the 6-inch reader looks an awful lot like that played-out OEM model that everyone seems to start with, but hey, you won’t find us kvetching about competition. The device is launching exclusively at Borders UK, and with that comes the new Borders eBook Download Store. With a 4GB expansion card, there’s room for some 8,000 ebooks, and the 9 millimeter-thin frame ensures that this one won’t bog you down too much. Interested consumers over in the UK can snap this one up right now for £189 ($311), and that price nets you 100 free ebooks, a charger, data cable and a great sense of pride.

[Thanks, Sam]

Filed under: Displays, Handhelds

Elonex launches £189 6-inch eBook reader through Borders UK originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What’s the deal with the DX (http://tinyurl.com/m74toc), you ask? Think of it like the (awesome) Kindle 2—only with a bigger screen and price tag.

We’ve known that Google has designs on the ebook market for quite a while, and now Tom Turvey (the company’s director of strategic partnerships) has said that the program will be ready by the end of 2009. Details are still rather sketchy, but according to The New York Times, the plan involves selling the books at prices set by the publisher — as opposed to the rather strict Amazon pricing guidelines that sees most Kindle titles selling for $9.99 (to the chagrin of many publishers). In addition, the company will be selling readers online access to the titles. On one hand, this means that access to your books won’t be limited to specific devices, but it will require Internet access and some sort of off-line caching (presumably Google Gears). This news has us wondering if we weren’t a bit hasty in putting down the money for Danielle Steel’s limited edition Sony Reader. Aww, who are we kidding? You know we can’t get enough of those Sisters.

[Via Paid Content]

Filed under: Handhelds

Google gets into the ebook biz, for real this time originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I visited Book Expo America in midtown Manhattan earlier today to check out the ways in which technology has seeped into the publishing world. From all the reports I’d heard leading up to the event, I expected something of a subdued gathering–a quiet mourning for the last days of paper publishing. It’s a testament perhaps, to the bubble that those us in the tech world live in that the show was anything but quiet: Registration lines snaked up and down the halls.

I’d heard talk of there being something in the neighborhood of 20 percent fewer exhibitors this year as well, but the large convention hall upstairs was packed to the walls with exhibitors, with industry attendees clogging up the aisles between booths.

Finding ebook readers was an entirely different matter. The vast majority of companies showing off these devices were segregated to a small piece of carpeting dubbed “New Media Zone.” Amazon was there with the Kindle, and Sony was showing a variety of its devices, but both companies were relegated to small tables in what couldn’t really pass for full booths.

The Gadget: The Cool-er, a lower (compared to the Kindle) priced eBook reader that lacks built-in wireless functionality and a hardware keyboard, but adds music, an SD card slot and PDF/MP3 support. But of course, the lower price is the big draw.

The Price: $250

The Verdict: Cheap in every sense of the word, but usable. The Cool-er has the same 6-inch screen as the Kindle 2, but renders text with a proprietary computer-screen-esque font face instead of the more “print”-like Kindle 2 typeface. It is, of course, size-adjustable. You can also flip it 90 degrees to read in landscape mode.

As if it wasn’t obvious enough from its appearance, the Cool-er is designed to be the iPod of eBook readers. It succeeds in looking like an iPod and being available in a lot of colors, but fails in usability and design. The only thing going for it is that it works as an eBook reader if reading is the most important part of the package (which it is, to many people). Also, it’s quite a bit lighter than the Kindle 2, so you can easily hold it with one hand while you’re brushing your teeth, lying in bed, or using the bathroom.

The problem comes from the interface—it feels very much like a Chinese knockoff. The giant iPod design, with the D-Pad scrollwheel acting as both a menu selector and a page turner, isn’t the best way to read a book. Meaning, you can only turn pages with either your right or left hand (if it’s in landscape mode), making reading slightly more awkward. The onscreen UI is also indicative of it being made by a smaller company; it works, but you have to conform to the interface rather than the other way around.

Being able to play audiobooks in MP3 format off the SD card is better than straining to understand text-to-speech with the Kindle 2’s robotic voice. And listening to music while reading is good, but you have no playback controls unless you get out of your book and into the file. It’s really mostly intended for audiobooks, I believe. And it’s more half-baked than anything.

You load eBooks onto the player via mini USB or onto the SD card, but it’s not quite compatible with Macs. Transferring files via OS X will get you four blank folders (the metadata files that Macs deposit on external drives) that you can’t seem to ever get rid of. Also, the battery meter is somewhat finicky and fluctuates up or down depending on its mood. There’s also no great auto-sleep mode like the Kindle has.

Where They Get You: The books. The Host, by tween vampire novelist Stephenie Meyer, costs $20.79 on coolerbooks.com, but only $9.99 for Amazon’s Kindle. Other, older and less popular novels, are more on par between the two stores. You do get 25% off of the list price if you own a Cool-er reader.

The coolerbooks selection is also smaller than Amazon’s, housing none of Ian Fleming’s Bond books, one of which I’ve found used in the photos anyway. (Amazon has them all for $9.99 each.)

Good For Piracy: But the upside is that the Cool-er supports native PDF format documents, like the Kindle DX, so you can load on downloaded and torrented eBooks with ease. But if you really wanted to pirate books onto the Kindle 2, it’s just a matter of using calibre to transcode the books into a compatible format beforehand, so it’s not that huge of a benefit.

Versus Other Players: It’s not as capable as say, a Kindle 2 or the touch-capable Sony PRS-700 reader, and it’s not as cheap as this lousy Ectaco jetBook reader at $170, so it’s kinda just right there in the middle.

If it were $199, we’d recommend this to people who just want to read, and don’t care about all that extra stuff like touchscreen or downloading books directly to the device before your plane takes off. But it’s $250, which is only $50 cheaper than the Sony. If that $50 is very important to you, go with the Cool-er, otherwise we’d recommend either the Sony or the Kindle 2.

I really, really wish this reader were $199, because it’s not a bad reader, it’s just not as good as what’s out there now. [Cooler]

$50 to $100 cheaper than more popular eBook readers

UI is only so-so, and page controls are slightly awkward

Feels plasticky, lighter build means easier reading

Not as polished as Kindle 2 or Sony’s PRS-700, which may be worth the extra $50 to $100