We just got a glimpse of the CST-01 E Ink watch, the result of a partnership between Central Standard Timing and E Ink itself. The product has been in the prototype phase for a year, but it just went live on Kickstarter, with a funding goal of $200,000 and pre-orders available for $129 each.
The real standout feature here is the 0.8mm design, which is apparently thinner than a credit card. In any case, the stainless steel design is super svelte. The whole package consists of several flexible components that are laminated into a 0.5mm unit, which is then photochemically etched into a piece of flexible stainless steel. This is a digital watch, of course, but its form factor is more along the lines of a bangle than a Casio-style timepiece. An embedded Thinergy micro-energy cell charges the device in 10 minutes via an external dock. The external dock is also used for setting the time (military or 12-hour), as there are no controls on the watch itself. Battery life is rated for a month.
When we tried it out here at CES, the watch felt extremely light, though the edges were a bit jagged. This, of course, is because it’s not yet a final product — you can expect a much smoother finish on the final product. You can check out the CST-01 prototype in our hands-on gallery below, along with the video embedded after the break.
Today is the day that you’re going to want to purchase one of two ereaders if you’ve not already done so – and if you want one, of course: both the Nook Simple Touch and the Amazon Kindle Fire HD have had their prices slashed this morning. The oddest thing has happened – two of the biggest competitors in the ereader space have discounted one of their hero devices – imagine that! Of course the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is not even beginning to be the same sort of tablet as the Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch when it comes down to it, but they’re both on the cut – and in Amazon’s case, just for today!
We’ve had a peek at the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 very recently in our full review, this showing off how you’re not just getting an ereader with this package, you’re getting a full tablet. But not just a full tablet, mind you, an Amazon window into their full content library – don’t expect an Android tablet here, it only runs the software under the hood. This device has a full-color display as well, nothing like the Barnes & Noble offering. The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 has been discounted by $50, this making the price closer to $250 USD in its least expensive iteration.
The Nook Simple Touch on the other hand is an ereader in every sense of the word. Here you’ve got an eink display and a size that’s much tinier than the comparatively massive Kindle Fire HD 8.9. This machine has “16 levels of gray” and is made for reading text-based-books from start to finish. The hardware here is 6.5 x 5 x 0.47 inches and weighs in at a tiny 7.48 ounces, and the discount is permanent, it seems: $79 USD total, down from the $99 it was previously.
Have a peek at our lovely 2012 holiday gift guide for tablets as well to make sure you’re up to date on all of the best-of-2012 action for the holidays. It might be time to decide between the ereader and the full tablet experience here at the dawn of 2013 – perhaps time for a switch?
Smartphones cases are becoming pretty dry nowadays — it’s mostly just the same old thing for every case. However, one case in particular, called the popSLATE, slaps on a 4-inch e-ink display on the back, effectively giving your iPhone 5 two screens. It’s currently trying to get $150,000 in funding on Indiegogo.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen something like this, though. During IFA 2012 back in August, we checked out a similar concept that involved a smartphone with two screens — one LCD, and the other e-ink. However, the popSLATE case simply adds an e-ink display to your existing iPhone 5, which seems a bit more practical at this point in time.
The 4-inch e-ink screen is always on, but the company claims it’s very energy efficient. The screen can be used for all sorts of things, including notifications, sports scores, maps, and lists and notes. Plus, since it’s always on, you don’t have to worry about the screen going into sleep mode with the rest of the phone when you’re reading something. The company is building an API for the screen, which means that we should be seeing a lot of third-party apps add support for the second screen.
The company is still in the early stages of development and the case itself is only in its prototype stages, but the company has already gathered a team of designers, engineers and developers to make the case. They also have a partnership with E Ink in order to use the latest e-ink technology. Two colors will be available at launch (black and white), and it will start at a price of $79 for the first 500 supporters, then $99 and up from there.
This is pretty darn cool. It’s called Popslate — an iPhone 5 case with a four-inch E Ink screen on the back — and it’s launching right now on Indiegogo for $79 in two colors. Combined with a bespoke social imaging app, it lets you take and share pics, then “pop” them to the back of your phone. Better yet, the always-on, ultra low-power, black and white display becomes a canvas for notifications, sports scores, maps, lists and notes, all just a glance away.
An open API allows third-party developers to design custom apps for Popslate — including accelerometer support to interact with the backside screen by tapping on it. Imagine a micro e-reader app which uses the E Ink display instead of the main panel to conserve battery.
The company is still in the early stages of development and sadly didn’t have a prototype to show us, but it’s already gathered a team of talented designers, engineers and developers. It’s also secured a partnership with E Ink to use the latest in ruggedized e-paper technology and is hoping to raise enough funds to make Popslate a reality. Two colors are available at launch (black and white) with prices starting at $79 for the first 500 supporters, then $99 and up. Hit the break for the demo video and IndieGogo link.
Shouting “first!” isn’t reserved for overeager blog commenters. PocketBook is just as determined to get ahead of the e-reader field with the first unveiling of a front-lit, color E Ink device, well before it’s ready for store shelves. While the device doesn’t even have a name, we’re already promised the combination of Kindle Paperwhite-like illumination with a Triton-based 8-inch, 800 x 600 touch display that can show 4,096 colors. There’s even an early battery life estimate of a month of typical use, which should stack up decently against most of the e-reader’s grayscale counterparts. Just don’t be surprised if PocketBook loses its crown before it’s even sitting on the throne. An initial launch in the Commonwealth of Independent States is pegged for June 2013 — far enough into the future that competitors could announce and ship products before PocketBook lands its first sale.
It would appear that the honor of being the lightest e-reader on the planet has been claimed by Bookeen and their new Cyberbook Odyssey HD FrontLight, complete with E-Ink HD display and the 6th generation since the start of the line. This device will be launched in November starting in Europe and the folks at Bookeen have made it clear that they’re coming for Amazon’s lunch, noting their power in a single sentence: “Since 1998, Bookeen has been the European champion in digital reading years before Amazon entered the market.”
Bookeen is making it clear that with this device they’ll be attacking the “independent” market as the only solution to do so “against Amazon or Kobo.” This device works with a 213 DPI resolution display and works with what Bookeen claims is 62% more pixels than “current e-readers” – though they do not specify which. This display has 758 x 1024 pixel across it, to be specific.
You’ve got a capacitive touch display up front working with that E-Ink and you’ll have twenty level of FrightLighting to adjust according to your needs. This device also has the ability to activate the FrontLight or de-activate it depending on if you’re in the dark, the light, or anywhere in-between. For reading documents, you’ve also got features here on this newest generation device that past generations simply were not capable of.
One of these options is PDF reflow – tap the button and your PDF’s text is re-adjusted without you needing to change the display in any way. You’ve got what Bookeen calls a High Speed Ink System as well for “action at a fast pace.” This device will be coming out in more than 40 countries, weighs in at 180 g/6.35 oz, and boasts both touch-screen management and mechanical buttons.
You’ll be able to pick this device up in Old Pink, Black, Red Vermillion, and several more case colors. It’ll also be joined in its release later this year by a Cybook Odyssey 2013 Edition – a new version of the company’s best-seller. Prices and further specifications will be revealed soon – stay tuned!
If you had told us at roughly this time last year that the e-reader race would be heating up going into the 2012 holiday season, we would have disagreed. If anything, 2011 seemed like the beginning of the end. Spurred on by the tablet explosion, companies like Amazon, Barnes & Noble and even Kobo were looking toward that space for inspiration, introducing flagship devices on which reading was just one of many features. Heck, even the readers themselves started to look more tablet-like, with many abandoning of physical keyboards in favor of infrared touchscreens.
But here we are at the end of September, and this product category has never been more exciting. Back in May, Barnes & Noble captured our hearts and midnight reading marathons with the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, a wordy name for a great little device that made reading in bed at night a little easier. (A problem, according to Barnes & Noble, that was tearing the country’s families apart.) But don’t let it be said that Amazon doesn’t believe in the American family. Earlier this month, the company launched the Kindle Paperwhite, the latest addition to a product lineup that has more or less become synonymous with the term “e-reader.”
At that launch event, CEO Jeff Bezos described the four years of R&D that went into the front light technology powering that bright screen. It was clear from our hands-on time with the device that, although Amazon is placing extra emphasis on the Fire line these days, it still has a lot invested in the e-reader fight. The sharpened, illuminated text is impressive, and Amazon has gone so far as to describe this as the Kindle it’s always wanted to build. That’s all well and good, but how does it compare to similar offerings on the market? Is this worth the $119 asking price (with ads)? Let’s find out.
To many, the war of the eReaders is between Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Though Sony has never managed to get quite as big as either of those two companies in the eReader space, it’s back with a new Reader and looking to become a serious contender. Does Sony’s Reader PRS-T2 help the company stand out in the bigger picture, or does it fall flat in a sea of eReaders vying for your attention, and more importantly, your dollar? Read on to find out.
Screen and pre-installed apps
The Sony Reader PRS-T2 sports a 6-inch pearl E Ink touchscreen, and like nearly every other eReader out there, one of the big draws of the screen is that you can read it in direct sunlight. The screen actually looks great when it’s in direct sunlight, and it looks just as good when you take it indoors. The goal behind E Ink displays is to make it feel like you’re reading the page of an actual book, and the Reader PRS-T2 definitely succeeds in that respect. Reading on this is a pleasure – the text on the screen is always nice and sharp, and as an added bonus, Sony has cut back on screen flashes with this latest in the Reader line. Instead of flashing every time you turn the page, the screen flashes once every 15 page turns. Ghosting can sometimes be an issue as a result, but really it isn’t something that’s noticeable all the time. Most likely, you’ll be too absorbed in the book you’re reading to notice, as it isn’t enough to actually make reading any more difficult.
Having touch capabilities is a nice feature, letting you turn the page by swiping the screen instead of using the physical buttons that have taken up residence along the bottom edge of the screen. Touch will undoubtedly be appreciated by most, but to tell you the truth, I like the fact that the Reader PRS-T2 sports actual buttons. To complement the touch screen, Sony has included a stylus. There isn’t any dock for the stylus like we see on the Samsung Galaxy Note or the Nintendo DS, for example, so you’ll have to keep it in a pocket, which inevitably means that it’s only a matter of time before that sneaky stylus turns up missing (for some of us anyway). The stylus makes navigating easier, especially for someone with big, clunky man hands like me, and there are quite a few instances when the stylus comes in handy, such as when you’re using the Notes app, browsing the web, or highlighting text in a book.
Let’s back track for a minute and focus a little more on those physical buttons toward the bottom of the device. There are five in total: page back, page forward, home, previous, and menu. They’re all pretty much self-explanatory – page back and page forward obviously move through the pages of your book, home takes you to the main menu screen (more on that later), previous takes you back to the last page you were viewing, and menu opens up a little menu packed with options while you’re reading a book. In this menu, you can do things like change the font and its size. There are six or seven different font options (though to be honest I liked the default font the best), and you have a pretty wide range of font sizes to choose from too, from “teeny tiny” all the way up to “you must be legally blind if you need the text to be this big.”
Also in this menu is a navigate page button, which allows you to quickly speed through the pages in your book so you aren’t stuck hitting the page buttons or swiping the screen over and over again. From here, you can also jump back to the book’s table of contents. There are also some shortcuts to the Notes and Handwriting apps, as well as an option that lets you customize your page view, giving you control over the page layout and how the text is displayed. As if those options weren’t enough, there are additional options that allow you to search your book for a specific term, switch between portrait and landscape modes easily, and share what you’re reading to Facebook.
While you’re reading a book, you can highlight a word or a phrase and do a couple of things. In the case of a word, you can look it up in the New Oxford American Dictionary, which comes installed on the PRS-T2. Alternatively, you can also do a Google search for the word, or look it up on Wikipedia, a feature that is nice to have around if you want to know more about a character or place in the book you’re reading. With quotes, you might want to share them to Facebook, or save them in Evernote.
The Reader PRS-T2 boots up relatively quickly, taking a few seconds depending on how big the book you’re currently reading is, and it isn’t long before you find yourself on the main menu screen. From here, you can continue your book right where you left off – it even tells you how many pages you’ve read and when you last read it – or take a look at your four most recently added books or some Reader Store selections. At the bottom of the main menu screen, there are three touch buttons – Bookshelf, Reader Store, and Apps. Bookshelf takes you to a page that displays all the books you have installed in a neat little fashion, whereas Reader Store obviously takes you to the Sony Reader storefront, and Apps takes you to – right again – a page where your installed Apps are displayed.
The PRS-T2 comes with a number of Apps pre-installed ranging from the Public Library app and pictures app, to the aforementioned dictionary, notes, and browser apps. Included are shortcuts to periodicals you’ve downloaded, as well as a handwriting app that allows you to jot down handwritten notes (or drawing maps, as in one of the examples that comes pre-loaded on the PRS-T2). From the Apps screen, you also have the opportunity to set up the PRS-T2’s Facebook integration, or link your Evernote account. Having Evernote integrated is going to be a big draw for a lot of people, considering how popular the service has become. With Evernote, you can add quotes from your favorite books to your collection of notes, or save something you’ve written up with the handwriting app. For many, it’s going to be nice to have Evernote along for the ride, and Sony definitely earns big points for including it in the Reader PRS-T2.
Browsing the Reader Store for new books is simple as well. There are actually a surprising number of books on the Reader Store, meaning that you’re only ever a few taps away from having a brand new book to dive into. Navigating is made easy by the categories the Reader Store is split up in, but if browsing isn’t quite your thing, there is naturally a search function, allowing you to find books based on title, keyword author. While it may not have as many books available as the Amazon Store, the Reader Store still definitely boasts enough to keep any reader satisfied for a long time.
One little bonus that I particularly liked was the fact that the Reader displays the cover of the book you’re currently reading when it’s in sleep mode. This gives you a chance to see how sharp the eReader display actually is, and also has the added benefit of looking really cool. Though we don’t expect ads to be shown on anything that isn’t a Kindle, it has to be said here – Sony doesn’t display any ads on the Reader PRS-T2, meaning that when the Reader is off, the only thing you see is a blank screen. That isn’t much of a surprise, but it’s worth noting, especially considering that Amazon’s Kindle ads have a tendency get people riled up.
As with most eReaders, the battery on this thing lasts a really long time. That is, after all, one of the major benefits of an E Ink screen. Sony says that the Reader PRS-T2’s battery can last for up to 8 weeks, and to be frank about it, I’m going to have to trust them with this one. The battery came about three quarters of the way charged, and despite using it every night for more than a week – I’ve been reading George R.R. Martin’s A Storm of Swords on it, and anyone who has read that book knows it doesn’t let go easily – I still haven’t been able to kill it. Naturally, the battery will go a bit faster if you have Wi-Fi on all the time, but even then, you probably won’t be reaching for the charger all that often.
Wrap-Up
So, by now you know that the Sony Reader PRS-T2 comes packed with a lot of nifty features. That’s all well and good, but it doesn’t matter much if you have a device that isn’t comfortable in use. Thankfully, the Reader PRS-T2 succeeds there as well, and it’s lightweight design (the Reader PRS-T2 comes in at just under 6 ounces) makes it very easy to hold. That’s true even for someone like me, who has hands that may as well belong to Hagrid or Andre the Giant. The only problem is that the PRS-T2’s lightweight design also makes it feel a bit fragile. It’s definitely sleek and minimalistic (no ugly full keyboards here), but it also demands that you treat it gently. Naturally, I’m not going to start hurling it across the room to test its durability, but it’s safe to say that exercising a little extra caution when transporting it isn’t a bad idea, especially with that 6-inch screen taking up most of the front.
It’s easy to fall for the Reader PRS-T2 – that much is definitely true. However, with that being said, we’ve already seen most of these features on other eReaders. There’s no question that the Sony Reader PRS-T2 is a solid eReader, but that unfortunately doesn’t help with the feeling that it’s a little late to the party. Sony is to be commended for releasing a feature-rich eReader like the one I’ve been enjoying recently, but I wish it had done so sooner. It comes with something of a steep price tag too – $130. Of course, it’s important to remember that the price of this Reader isn’t subsidized with ads, but I still feel like the price is a little too high for what you’re ultimately getting. If Sony would bring the price down a little bit, it would do a lot to make the Reader PRS-T2 a hit with the eReader fanatics of the world.
Still, aside from the price, there’s a lot to like about the device. I certainly have no major qualms with it, and in fact I really enjoyed the time I spent with it. If you can get over the price and don’t mind the fact that you won’t have a backlight at your disposal, then I’m sure you’ll be satisfied with the Reader PRS-T2. It comes packed with a lot of extra features and is easy to use – making it a good idea for those who are new to the eReader scene – and it’s a good looking device to boot, so if you’re in the market for a new eReader, definitely give the PRS-T2 a look before you make your decision.
Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD is being pegged as a do it all device. Video, internet, magazines, games, etc. And of course, there are books. But I’m not sold on LCD screens for hardcore reading. Sure its fine for a magazine article or two, but when it comes time to sit down and read dozens, if not hundreds, of pages in a single sitting, i prefer an ereader every time. It’s just easier on the eyes. Am I crazy? More »
Have you been enviously eyeing the self-illuminating screen on the Nook SimpleTouch with GlowLight, but didn’t want to give up your digital library of Kindle wares? Dear reader, today is your lucky day, with Amazon announcing the Kindle Paperwhite. No, not paperweight, Paperwhite. It has a new, front-lit display that will let you read in the dark, and a capacitive touchscreen that goes away from the IR based systems we’ve seen in the past.
Jeff Bezos tells us that it has 25 percent more contrast than the Pearl screens in the current Kindles and, with 212ppi, it has a 62 percent higher resolution. It relies on a fiber optic like system to direct light down onto the display, not unlike the Nook but, from what we can see, the color is much whiter. It’s just 9.1mm thick, the battery is said to last for eight weeks and there are no physical buttons for control. You’re entirely dependent on that touchscreen to flip those pages — which, by the way, are said to turn 15 percent faster.
The interface has seen some tweaks too. The fonts are more detailed now, as they should be with that higher resolution, and you can tweak the brightness of the display with a slider. The software will calculate your reading speed and estimate how long it will take you to finish a given chapter or book and there are now author bios.
Price is $119 for the WiFi version and it ships October 1st! If you’d like a little 3G connectivity with your Kindle, you’re looking at $179.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
