Hasta La Gadget!

Well what do you know, turns out the LB4400 was a harbinger of things to come. LG Display and iriver just announced a $5M joint venture to manufacture e-book readers. The new China-based company, L&I Electronic Technology (Dongguan) Ltd, sees iriver doing the platform development and product design (thank gawd) while LG provides the EPD displays. It’s interesting to note that the company will act as an OEM/ODM to anyone looking to slap their brand on an e-book reader… after iriver — the company’s first customer — takes the pick of the litter.

Continue reading LG Display and iriver enter joint venture to make e-book readers pretty, affordable

LG Display and iriver enter joint venture to make e-book readers pretty, affordable originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Still waiting to see a Kindle in the wild before you pull the trigger? Hate shopping online? Need to pick up some toilet paper and a huge barrel of pretzels? You’re in luck, because Amazon’s finally going to be spreading Kindles out in retail nationwide through Target stores. After a trial run in April that got the e-reader into Target’s flagship store and 102 brightly lit retail paradises in south Florida, the $259 e-ink device will be available all over as of June 6th. The press release points out that the Kindle is still Amazon’s bestselling product, and we can’t see a retail push like this hurting its prospects — though with rumors flying about an imminent Kindle update, it might not be the absolute best time to buy. PR is after the break.

Continue reading Kindle going nationwide in Target stores on June 6

Kindle going nationwide in Target stores on June 6 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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My, how the tablets have turned. Despite valiant efforts, even Acer can’t resist the temptation of diving into the ever-expanding e-reader market, but rather than going head to head with Amazon’s Kindle, the company seems to be readying at least one unique creature for release into the mainstream. Thanks to a stop at Qualcomm’s lair here at Computex, we think we may have found the company’s numero dos. In just about every respect, the simply-titled eBook is nothing at all like the LumiRead; in fact, it looks (sort of) like an iPhone 4G after pulling a Mark McGwire. We weren’t told just how large the screen was, but as you can tell from the gallery below, it’s quite long. The device was reportedly made as a way to showcase Qualcomm’s aging MSM7227 processor, and while there’s obviously no way to know if this thing is / isn’t headed for the production line, it was running Android underneath. Unfortunately, responsiveness wasn’t this thing’s strong suit, and it was fairly obvious that the software wasn’t exactly fully baked (we surely hope not, anyway). That said, the form factor could certainly be honed into something practical, and we’re sure they could get the UI humming along a bit smoother if they really put their minds to it. For now, it’s the gallery below… or nothin’.

Acer eBook concept preview: Qualcomm MSM7227 and Android onboard originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 07:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pandigital Novel e-reader / handheld hits the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 19:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The era of the color e-book reader is upon us. Granted, it was rather forcefully nudged along by the Apple iPad, but the Pandigital e-reader seems likely to be yet another nail in the coffin of the current crop of black-and-white readers, such as the Amazon Kindle in its various iterations.

Pandigital today announced that it has extended beyond its digital photo-frame roots with the release of the Novel eReader, a $199 e-book reader with a 7-inch TFT LCD color touchscreen display. The device features access to Barnes & Noble’s eBookstore and the company’s LendMe technology, which lets users share e-books with friends.

The Novel has 800-by-600 resolution, Wi-Fi, a mini-USB port, a SD/MMC slot, and 1GB of built-in memory. It can read a number of file formats, including PDF, ePub, and HTML.

The Novel eReader ships in June.