Hasta La Gadget!

We’re being told that Verizon has a pair of devices that it’s identifying as “e-readers” on the roadmap for September of this year, but what’s really interesting is that they’re called “Entourage.” It’s possible there’s no association to the company of the same name, but we’re kind of thinking that the carrier has hooked up with the makers of the oddball Edge for these devices — especially since we know they both share an affinity for Android. We don’t know the specifics of the units other than the fact that they’ll be 7- and 10-inch tablets — presumably sans the Edge’s crazy dual-display design, though we can’t say for sure. Verizon has yet to play the e-reader game the same way Sprint and AT&T have with the Kindle and Nook — and of course, we’ve no doubt they’d love a viable iPad competitor. Who’s buying?

[Thanks, RBF]

Verizon getting two e-readers / tablets from Entourage in September? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

When it comes to boring ‘ol text and images, there are plenty of formats that modern e-readers can manage — your EPUBs and OPFs and the like. But, when it comes to integrating multimedia content into a kind of next-gen e-book experience, the sort Wired is pushing on the iPad, things are rather less standardized. Sharp wants to be on the forefront of bringing that style of content together under a single standard: XMDF, or ever-eXtending Mobile Document Format. It enables video and animations and flashy presentation to be mingled in with the text, surely with the intent of distracting you from actually having to read anything. Of course, XHTML can manage all this stuff too, but it never was particularly great at the sort of precision text layout publishers crave, and presumably that’s also being addressed here. Naturally we’re a little more excited about hardware, and Sharp showed off two prototype readers measuring 5.5- and 10.8-inches respectively… though it didn’t have much to say about them otherwise. More details later this year, supposedly.

Sharp’s XMDF format looks to bring e-books into the next generation originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Jul 2010 07:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Akihabara News  | Email this | Comments

While Amazon is being as coy as usual when it comes to an actual number (still keeping to the vague “millions” figure), the company has revealed that sales of its Kindle hardware has tripled since the price took a plunge from $259 to $189. While it’s hard to gauge just how many champagne corks are being popped over that statistic, news that downloaded kindle books has overtaken its hardcover brethren is certainly cause for major celebration. According to a press release, 143 Kindle books have been sold for every 100 hardcovers in the past three months, and that ratio is a more impressive 9:2 if you only look at this past month. Before you start asking about the obvious caveats, the data both include sales of hardcovers where no Kindle equivalent exists and exclude free Kindle downloads — meaning if those weren’t considered, the ratio would be even greater. Guess the agency pricing model didn’t deter too many customers. Since you’re in such a good mood, Amazon, how about a slimmer model to satiate the remaining holdouts?

Kindle’s digital book sales overtake hardcover, device purchases triple after price drop originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink NYT, All Things Digital  |  Amazon  | Email this | Comments

Good golly, not another e-reader! Well, for once the Brits may actually be getting something rather affordable here — we were promised a £99 ($152) price point when Elonex announced its 710EB e-reader back in April. Sadly, this 7-inch 800 x 480 color LCD device never materialized in mid-May, but a quick phone call to Elonex just now revealed a new launch date in early August. Before you cast your doubts, this is also semi-confirmed by the availability date on HMV’s pre-order page — we’re just slightly mystified by the slight price bump to £119.99 ($184). Either way, here’s hoping that we actually see something before the autumn rain keeps us indoor.

Elonex 710EB color e-reader gets cheeky price bump, available for pre-order originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Gizmag  |  HMV  | Email this | Comments

The Pandigital Novel e-reader may have had its share of problems since its launch just a month ago, but it’s starting to look like a slightly more attractive option for those willing to hack the device. As detailed by Nate of The Digital Reader blog, the procedure for installing a new home screen and additional apps is fairly straight forward, and doesn’t involve actually rooting the device (although others are working on doing that as well). Of course, it’s not quite a seamless experience as an Android tablet (there’s apparently some stability issues), but it doesn’t look too shabby for a $179 device. Head on past the break for a video of the hack, and hit up the link below for the necessary details to do it yourself.

Continue reading Hackers start hacking the Pandigital Novel e-reader

Hackers start hacking the Pandigital Novel e-reader originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 05:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  The Digital Reader  | Email this | Comments