Hasta La Gadget!

Timely, no? Just as the 2010 back-to-school season really gets rolling (and that dreaded Fall semester arrives to pester you to death), Barnes & Noble is looking to become your go-to place for eTextbooks, study tools and pretty much anything else in the related field. Up until now, there have been few all-encompassing eTextbook delivery method, and the options that are out there are generally poorly thought out, spartan or simply not marketed well. ‘Course, B&N isn’t coming right out and saying it, but why else would you create a comprehensive application suitable for Macs and PCs that not only puts digital textbooks into the hands of students for up to 40 percent less than conventional books, but also a full library of study aids, test prep guides, periodicals, and hundreds of thousands of trade and professional titles. Moreover, the app “provides students access to all of their materials — eTextbooks, lecture notes, syllabi, slides, images, trade books and other course-related documents — all in one place, so their digital library goes wherever they go.” Oh, and did we mention that it also supports highlighting and notes, both of which are searchable? Yeah. Currently, Nook Study is being used in a smattering of universities, with an August rollout pegged for universal use. Lookout, used bookstore — the end could be nigh.

Continue reading Barnes & Noble looks to lock down e-book delivery for education with Nook Study

Barnes & Noble looks to lock down e-book delivery for education with Nook Study originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon has been granted what appears to be a fairly broad patent for an e-book reader with a secondary LCD display. The patent was filed for the early version of the Kindle, which featured an LCD scroller on the side.

But if you follow the e-book reader market at all, odds are that an entirely different reader has already sprung to mind: The Nook. Barnes and Noble’s reader is a dual-screen device, featuring a large e-book display and a smaller LCD one. Here is the language fom the original patent application, courtesy of Engadget,

A handheld electronic device comprising: a housing; an electronic paper display disposed in the housing and having a first surface area; and a liquid crystal display (LCD) disposed in the housing proximate the electronic paper display, the LCD having a second surface area that is smaller than the first surface area of the electronic paper display.

So, is Amazon entrenched in the e-reader battle enough to sue? No one but the company can say for sure, though things have certainly been heating up in the space as of late, thanks in no small part to the three-way price wars being waged between Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Borders.

Looks like the battle for e-reader dominance between Amazon and Barnes & Noble could soon expand beyond the recent spate of price drops and into the courtroom as well: the USPTO just granted a 2006 Amazon patent on e-readers with secondary LCD displays (like the original Kindle’s scroller-navigation panel), and several of the claims are potentially broad enough to cover the Nook and many other devices with both electronic paper and LCD displays. What’s more, Amazon agreed not to file for any corresponding foreign patents during the four-year approval process and thus wasn’t required to publish the patent application — meaning this is likely a complete surprise to the entire industry. Yeah, it’s juicy. Here’s one of the claims that could cause problems for Barnes & Noble — in plain English, it potentially covers any device with both an electronic paper display and a second smaller LCD display next to it.

A handheld electronic device comprising: a housing; an electronic paper display disposed in the housing and having a first surface area; and a liquid crystal display (LCD) disposed in the housing proximate the electronic paper display, the LCD having a second surface area that is smaller than the first surface area of the electronic paper display.

That’s pretty sweeping — it doesn’t take much to look at the Nook and see that it has both an electronic ink display and a smaller LCD located next to it. Now, we don’t know if Amazon has any plans to actually sue anyone over this patent yet, but we’re guessing there’s a flurry of legal activity happening at all the major e-reader manufacturers right now, and we’re definitely curious to see what the fallout looks like — remember, Barnes & Noble is already involved in a trade secret dispute over the Nook with Spring Design, which claims that B&N saw its Alex reader under NDA and then copied it for the Nook. That case isn’t scheduled to wrap up before November, so there’s a chance B&N and Spring Design could end up simultaneously fighting each other in one case while taking on Amazon as allies in another, which would be… messy. We’ll see what happens — while we’ve no doubt Barnes & Noble will put up a serious fight if it comes to that, we’re curious to see if the shift away from e-reader development to general-use tablets hastens as the market contracts, margins shrink, and the cost of litigation becomes prohibitive. The ball’s very definitely in Amazon’s court now — stay tuned.

[Thanks, Anand]

Amazon Kindle dual-screen e-reader patent granted, Barnes & Noble Nook potentially in trouble originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 15:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading E Ink explains the new Pearl display used in the updated Kindle DX

E Ink explains the new Pearl display used in the updated Kindle DX originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I broke my Kindle over a year ago. But I still only buy Kindle ebooks. More »