Hasta La Gadget!

A report this morning from the South China Morning Post claims that Amazon’s 3G-boasting Kindle is selling fast on the so-called “gray” market in China because of its 3G internet connectivity and browser. The device, it seems, offers the Chinese a rare opportunity to side-step the “great Firewall” of the Chinese government, which restricts access to sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Amazon does not officially sell the Kindle in China, which has the world’s largest internet-connected population at 420 million. The Kindle, which seems to have been overlooked by the Chinese authorities thus far, makes use of Amazon’s own network, Whispernet.

3G Kindle a hit on the Chinese gray market for its ability to bypass the “Great Firewall”? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Nov 2010 14:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We still don’t know what Barnes & Noble is announcing at its “very special event” next week, but the company has just made another fairly big announcement: the Nook will be hitting the shelves at some 2,500 Walmart stores beginning “as soon as” October 24th (in addition to Walmart’s online store). That includes both the 3G and WiFi-only Nook models, and some Walmart stores will even have a “Nook-branded eReading area” where customers can try out the device. Head on past the break for the complete press release.

Update: Not to be outdone, Borders will release the Kobo e-reader at Walmart next week as well. Competing devices on the very same shelf — imagine that!

Continue reading Barnes & Noble Nook goes on sale at Walmart next week (update: Kobo, too)

Barnes & Noble Nook goes on sale at Walmart next week (update: Kobo, too) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Oct 2010 13:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Haven’t seen enough of KDDI’s fall 2010 product line? Good. The company has just outed a new e-reader, and shockingly enough, it actually manages to differentiate itself quite well in the sea of me-too alternatives. The biblio Leaf SP02 (a followup to last year’s model) is right around the size of Amazon’s newest Kindle, packing a 6-inch E Ink display (800 x 600 resolution), 2GB of internal storage, a microSD expansion slot, included stylus, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, inbuilt 3G and a battery good for around 7,500 page turns. Curiously, there’s also a small solar panel adorning the bottom right, and we’re guessing that you can (slowly) rejuvenate the internal cell while reading under the sun — just make sure you keep your right palm out of the way. Unfortunately, there’s no direct mention of an expected price, but those stationed in Japan should see it on sale this December for somewhere between free and Yenfinity.

KDDI tacks solar panel onto biblio Leaf SP02 e-reader originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Oct 2010 09:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, this isn’t good. We didn’t have the highest of hopes for the Sharper Image’s Literati e-reader, a $159 7-incher announced back in August. Well, it’s just gotten a review and… it sounds much, much worse than we expected. In fact, the reviewer failed to find one decent attribute of the reader, but does detail its slowness, its unstable and buggy UI, and poor formatting. The Kobo-driven reader has absolutely no annotating options, not even bookmarks, rendering its full keyboard totally useless. The whole thing sounds like a serious mess to us. Hit up the source link to check out the entire, disparaging review.

Sharper Image Literati e-reader gets a ‘don’t even bother’ review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 00:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Think the public library system is the last stronghold for paper books? Think again. Thirty libraries across 17 states have taken Sony up on its Reader Library program. Announced over the summer, the program is designed to train libraries on eBook readers (specifically those manufactured by Sony, naturally).

Cities with participating libraries include Brooklyn, NY; San Diego, CA; Scottsdale, AZ; Springfield, MO; Denver, CO; Omaha, NE; and Princeton, NJ.

In-house training is aimed at teaching librarians and patrons more about eBooks and eBook readers. Staff will be shown how to perform patron demonstrations with the devices, and digital borrowing programs will be set up through Sony.

Training will begin over the next few weeks and will include a bi-annual “update session designed to keep participating libraries and their staff current with latest developments in digital reading content, format and devices.”