Hasta La Gadget!

Let’s face it, at this point everyone is looking to get in on the e-book reader action. Back in February, broadcast television group Discovery Communication — known for BBC America, Travel Channel, TLC, and Discovery Channel, naturally — filed a patent for its own digital book reader back in February that’s now surfacing online. There isn’t a lot of concrete detail here, other than it runs the gamut of possible distribution options, including public libraries à la Sony’s Daily Edition. In the picture above we’ve got hints of Cos News Services and US News and World Report, but that could very likely just be filler for the filing. It won’t be nothing without partners, but if Discovery’s serious, we’re sure they’ve got a few phone numbers to call up and try to make a deal with.

[Via Baltimore Sun; thanks, Tom]

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Discovery Communications patents e-book reader, why not? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As it turns out, those Sony Reader leaks from earlier this week were spot on. The company just went official with the PRS-300 and 600, which will more affectionately be known as the Pocket and Touch editions, respectively. The latter (pictured left, not to scale) is the 6-inch resistive touchscreen model replacing the PRS-700, with Memory Stick / Duo and SD card slots. The backlighting layer from its predecessor has been dropped to improve touch responsiveness and to alleviate concerns of glare. It also comes packing a stylus and a digitized copy of the Oxford American English Dictionary and will be available in red, black, and silver. The Pocket Edition, on the other hand, is your standard fare with no touchscreen or expandable disk port, and palettes including blue, silver, and rose. Both models have USB 2.0, 512MB internal memory, and no WiFi whatsoever — Sony assures us a WiFi version is coming and there’ll be news on those coming soon, but this isn’t it. There’s also Mac compatibility, a first for the series, that’s trickling down to older models via a firmware update. Touch and Pocket will be available by the end of August and will retail for $299 and $199, a substantially more competitive price point than its previous generation. Speaking of which, as of tomorrow, the Sony’s e-book store is dropping the prices of its bestsellers from $11.99 to $9.99. A win all around, but will it be enough to make a dent in Kindle‘s stronghold? Things are certainly getting more interesting.

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Sony Reader Pocket and Touch editions lower cost of entry, online e-book store follows suit originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung’s announced it’s jumping into the best game in town — the paperless book trade — with its SNE-50K e-book reader. With 512MB of onboard storage, a five-inch touchscreen and stylus, and a complete lack of wireless or internet capabilities, it’s not the most advanced reader we’ve ever seen, but it’s slim and light, at nine millimeters thick and weighing about 6.5 ounces. In South Korea, where the reader will be launched first, Samsung has partnered with Kyobo Bookstore, one of the largest booksellers in the country. There’s no word on launches outside of South Korea at this time, but Samsung does plan on showing a prototypes for other countries at a trade show in January (most likely CES).

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Samsung jumps into e-book reader game with the SNE-50K originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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