Hasta La Gadget!

Go ahead and grab the salt shaker, ’cause this one’s nowhere near carved in stone… or is it? A breaking report from The New York Times has it that Amazon will introduce a larger version of its Kindle e-reader “as early as this week,” one that’s tailored for “displaying newspapers, magazines and perhaps textbooks.” If you’ll recall, magazine publisher Hearst made its intentions public to produce such a device earlier this year, noting that a larger panel would be more conducive to traditional print media layouts, and thus, additional revenue from ads. The article also notes that Plastic Logic will “start making digital newspaper readers by the end of the year.”

Coincidentally (or not), the Wall Street Journal also published a report this evening that dug deeper into the aforementioned Hearst deal. As the story goes, a number of big-shots in the publishing industry are banding together to set their own subscription rates (rather than go through a middleman such as Amazon), and this writeup asserts that Plastic Logic’s reader won’t actually roll out until “early next year” (as we’d heard previously). If you’re seriously able to handle yet another twist in this madness, WSJ also points out that “people familiar with the matter” have stated that Apple is “readying a device that may make it easier to read digital books and periodicals,” but it’s hard to say if this is simply regurgitation of unfounded rumors already going around or something entirely more legitimate.

All in all, it’s clear that flagging print publications are desperate for a device that caters to its layout and allows them to regulate rates — only time will tell if there’s room for two, three or possibly more of these so-called “big-screen e-readers” in the world, but this week definitely just got a whole lot more interesting.

Update: Press event invite just received, it’s on for Wednesday!

Read – New York Times report
Read – Wall Street Journal report

Filed under: Displays, Handhelds

NYT: Big-screen Kindle coming from Amazon “as early as this week” originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 03 May 2009 23:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s not the BeBook 2, unfortunately, but Endless Ideas’ official Twitter has released an image of a smaller variant of its current e-book reader, dubbed the BeBook mini. It’s got a 5-inch e-ink display and reportedly all the same features as its older brother. Manufacturer Tianjin Jinke Electronics also happens to sell products under the Hanlin brand, and this looks to be the same device as the upcoming Hanlin v5, which according to Chinese site mobread would indicate SD card support and a May release window locally. As for elsewhere in the world, there’s no indication of a release date, but BeBook Twitter feed did tease about staying under the $200 / €200 price barrier.

[Via Wired]

Read – Hanlin v5
Read – BeBook mini Image
Read – Teaser about sub-$200 / €200 price tag

Filed under: Displays, Handhelds

BeBook mini e-reader with 5-inch display makes pictorial debut originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 07:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The technology’s already here, we just need a venture capital firm and a determined entrepreneur to make it happen. A foursome of designers — Seon-Keun Park, Byung-Min Woo, Sun-Hye Woo and Jin-Sun Park — have banded together to create the above pictured concept, an e-reader for those with limited or no vision. Their Braille E-Book concept theoretically relies on electroactive polymers in order to change the surface’s shape as pages are turned, and while we fully expect the battery life to suffer due to all the necessary commotion, it’s definitely a start that needs to happen.

Filed under: Displays, Handhelds

Braille e-reader concept can’t be far from reality originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Apr 2009 04:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh sure, the e-reader may be just fine for some, but for the traditionalists in attendance who just can’t enjoy a novel without turning those crisp, cool pages as you plow through yet another masterpiece, this invention is the one to care about — particularly when you’re fingers are frozen in place and you’re just too dilapidated to do anything but read and comprehend. The absolutely genius Book Time creation managed to nab a Robot of the Year award over in Japan, as it holds down books and periodicals and automatically flips pages and pins down edges to keep sheets from flapping about uncontrollably. We can’t quite tell if this thing’s voice activated or not (we’re hoping so), but either way, you can check out the hot paper turning action for yourself just past the break.

[Via NewLaunches]

Continue reading Book Time shrugs off e-readers, turns paper pages for you

Filed under: Robots

Book Time shrugs off e-readers, turns paper pages for you originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 05:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Everyone else is doing it, so why not Barnes & Noble too? That’s the talk following last week’s CTIA at least, where mysterious “insiders” were reportedly abuzz about the possibility of a B&N e-book reader that, like the Kindle, would supposedly be tied to a cellular carrier for some Whispernet-like connectivity. According to one of those insiders, Barnes & Noble had apparently first been in talks with Verizon about a partnership, but those seem to have fallen apart for one reason or another, and it now looks like Sprint (Amazon’s partner, coincidentally) is the top contender. Some “observers” apparently still aren’t ruling out AT&T as a possibility, however, especially in light of its recent expression of interest about getting into the e-book reader game. No word about the actual device itself just yet, but there’s no shortage of ready-made options out there (like Plastic Logic’s e-reader above) should B&N decide to go that route.

[Thanks, Tim]

Filed under: Handhelds

Barnes & Noble working on an e-book reader of its own? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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