Jun 28

3M reader concept looks familiar, begs you not to judge an ebook by its cover

Posted in: cloud, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, Today's Chili
This image purporting to be the current concept design for 3M’s upcoming ereader looks awfully familiar. In fact, the similarities to the txtr reader we saw a couple of years back are pretty uncanny — and they’re likely more than skin deep, seeing as how 3M has been investing in the company. There’s a decent chance, however, that the device will hit the market looking a bit different — and hopefully with a few other changes on-board, since the txtr reader is now a bit ancient. One thing does seem fairly likely: the device will probably play nicely with 3M’s recently announced Cloud Library lending service. You didn’t expect 3M to let other companies have all the fun, did you?

3M reader concept looks familiar, begs you not to judge an ebook by its cover originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Jun 2011 13:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 27

HP TouchPad veers into stores early, flaunts its webOS moves (video)

Posted in: BestBuy, demo, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, hewlett-packard, HewlettPackard, HP, palm, palm pre, PalmPre, slate, tablet, Today's Chili, touchpad, video, walmart, webos, wifi
Dying to get your hands on HP’s TouchPad before it’s available on July 1st? According to Pre Central, a visit to either Best Buy or Walmart may afford you the opportunity. During the past few days, the stores have apparently begun quietly displaying demo-loaded versions of the slate. The device went up for pre-order about a week ago, but for webOS hopefuls still contemplating whether to take the Palm-rooted plunge, a pre-release impression may not be a bad grab between socks and motor oil. Don’t feel like taking a trip to Wally World, you say? You’ll find a video overview past the break; although the box to the left has us wondering if now’s a good time for getting lucky…

Continue reading HP TouchPad veers into stores early, flaunts its webOS moves (video)

HP TouchPad veers into stores early, flaunts its webOS moves (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jun 2011 22:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Palm Infocenter  |  sourcerbrown530 (YouTube), PreCentral (1), (2)  | Email this | Comments

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Jun 21

Amazon tablet with TI processor shipping as early as August?

Posted in: amazon, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, rumor, streaming, tablet, ti, Today's Chili

For months now, DigiTimes has been fueling rumors of Amazon’s first foray into the LCD tablet market. Today it ratchets up the specificity with sometimes contradictory claims that Quanta Computer will be responsible for assembling the tablet with a supposed TI (not NVIDIA) processor and Wintek (not EIH) touch panel among its components. According to DigiTimes, Amazon hopes to move some four million units in 2011 alone with plans to launch the new tablet as soon as August. Possible? Sure, likely even. But we’ll wait for Bezos to sing before updating our holiday shopping lists.

Amazon tablet with TI processor shipping as early as August? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Jun 2011 01:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 21

Self-published Kindle author breaks one million in sales, legs might have something to do with it

Posted in: amazon, amazon kindle, AmazonKindle, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, kindle, Today's Chili

Our big, bad digital era’s been caught red-handed overturning media industry business models before, so it comes as no surprise that publishing houses have a new headache on-hand. Straight outta sunny Seattle comes word that Amazon has welcomed its first self-published author to the “Kindle Million Club.” John Locke (so this is where he wound up after going to that quasi-‘heaven’) is the lucky dude who gets to claim the prize, and that’s not all — Mr. independent-author-from-Kentucky now shares bold-face status with the likes of Stieg Larsson and Nora Roberts. By churning out action / adventure novels on the $0.99 cheap and making heavy use of some leggy lady models, Locke easily blew past the one million mark, and even has a book to tell you how he did it. Take that evil publishing overlords. Hit the break for Amazon’s official PR spiel.

Continue reading Self-published Kindle author breaks one million in sales, legs might have something to do with it

Self-published Kindle author breaks one million in sales, legs might have something to do with it originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 17:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 20

British Library and Google Books partner up to digitize 250,000 out-of-copyright works

Posted in: e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, ebooks, education, Google, official, partnership, Today's Chili, uk, united kingdom, UnitedKingdom

Oh paper, ye olde guardian of human wisdom, culture, and history, why must you be so fragile and voluminous? Not a question we ask ourselves every day, admittedly, but when you’re talking about the British Library’s extensive collection of tomes from the 18th and 19th century, those books, pamphlets and periodicals do stack up pretty quickly. Thankfully, Google’s book digitization project has come to the rescue of bewildered researchers, with a new partnership with the British Library that will result in the availability of digital copies of works from that period — spanning the time of the French and Industrial Revolutions, the Crimean War, the invention of the telegraph, and the end of slavery. In total, some 250,000 such items, all of them long out of copyright, will find a home on Google Books and the British Library’s website, and Google has even been nice enough to bear the full cost of transforming them into web-accessible gems of knowledge. Jump past the break for the similarly digital press release.

Continue reading British Library and Google Books partner up to digitize 250,000 out-of-copyright works

British Library and Google Books partner up to digitize 250,000 out-of-copyright works originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Jun 2011 07:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 20

MSI WindPad 110w listed for $599 pre-order, is brown

Posted in: 10-inch, AMD, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, Microsoft, msi, pre-order, tablet, Today's Chili, Windows, windows 7, Windows7
Looks like ASUS isn’t the only popular netbook maker finally releasing more of its tablets into the wild. We’ve had various encounters with MSI’s 10-inch WindPad 110w this year, but pricing and availability details on the Windows 7 tablet — and its Android slate-mates — had remained secret. That’s now slightly changed courtesy of J&R’s website, where a pre-order listing for the 110w has surfaced displaying a $600 street price and a full specification rundown. Highlights from under the hood include a dual-core AMD Brazo (as expected), a 32GB SSD, and 4GB of DDR3 RAM along with WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity; around the outside are two cameras, a plethora of ports including mini HDMI, USB 2.0 and an SD card slot. Not too shabby, although it appears you’ll have to settle for brown (and loss of all dignity at checkout).

MSI WindPad 110w listed for $599 pre-order, is brown originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Jun 2011 07:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 19

AUO Sipix e-paper staggers through video at 6 fps, could go as high as 16

Posted in: e ink, e reader, e-book, e-book reader, E-bookReader, Today's Chili, video




We haven’t heard from the folks at IRX Innovations in a while, but if this video is any indication, they haven’t given up on their e-reader dreams just yet. A wily internet video shows the outfit squeezing a modest 6 fps out of an AUO Sipix e-paper panel. Playback is noticeably choppy, but IRX engineers say they can eek an additional 10 fps from the unit by running content through a memory buffer. It’s a far cry from Mirasol’s crazy-smooth 1080p color displays, or even Bookeen’s anti-chromatic offering — but we won’t complain if they can keep it cheap. Besides, Chariots of Fire was born to be seen in slow motion.

AUO Sipix e-paper staggers through video at 6 fps, could go as high as 16 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Jun 2011 01:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 19

Switched On: E-readers drive to digital distraction

Posted in: column, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, switched on, SwitchedOn, tablet, Today's Chili

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

Spring proved cruel for the sparse population of products that combine e-paper and LCD displays. Startup Entourage announced that it was discontinuing its Edge dual-screen e-reader / tablet combo. And then Barnes & Noble closed the book on the original Nook to introduce a successor that had only one screen and one button. In doing so, it leaped over (or is that under?) even the Kindle’s minimalism.

E-readers have followed an unusual demographic adoption curve for a consumer electronics product. The first buyers were, like those of many other tech products, more affluent, but the majority of them were also older and female in keeping with the book-buying habits of physical books. They were attracted to the crisp display and high contrast of e-paper displays. And many were (and continue to be) attracted by a focused product that allowed them to concentrate on the text without distraction of other media type, the Web or thousands of apps.

Continue reading Switched On: E-readers drive to digital distraction

Switched On: E-readers drive to digital distraction originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Jun 2011 18:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 18

Kobo eReader Touch Edition goes on sale in the US and Canada

Posted in: e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, Today's Chili
At the moment, there are two very similar-looking e-readers with black-and-white Pearl E Ink touchscreens on the market, and now, the smaller and less expensive of the pair is up for grabs. The Kobo eReader Touch Edition went on sale today in the US and Canada for $129.99 (or $139.99 Canadian) at Best Buy, Borders, Walmart, and the Canadian bookseller Indigo. If you’ll recall, the 6-inch Kobo is thinner, lighter, and more compact than the Nook Touch, even though its screen is the same size. It also undercuts it by $10 but it lacks the convenience of any physical buttons. Could these trade-offs be worth the trimmer design? We’ll leave that to you and your wallet (and the guy who may or may not receive this as a last-minute Father’s Day gift).

Continue reading Kobo eReader Touch Edition goes on sale in the US and Canada

Kobo eReader Touch Edition goes on sale in the US and Canada originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 18 Jun 2011 07:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 14

Kobo eReader Touch does more than words, handles Sudoku and web browsing on the side (video)

Posted in: e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, gaming, Today's Chili, video, web browser, WebBrowser
The Nook WiFi may have been rooted to play Angry Birds, but Kobo’s competing eReader Touch Edition can apparently show off its gaming capabilities with factory settings. It turns out that aside from the Nook-like embedded web browser we uncovered in our review, the e-reader also comes pre-loaded with Sudoku — perfect for some pattern deducing fun between reads. YouTube user codystheory has posted a video showing the quick sequence of taps needed to access the game, and we can definitely say it looks much easier than installing a custom ROM. We’ve placed the short clip after the break if you’d like to see for yourself.

[Thanks, Nate]

Continue reading Kobo eReader Touch does more than words, handles Sudoku and web browsing on the side (video)

Kobo eReader Touch does more than words, handles Sudoku and web browsing on the side (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 08:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Digital Reader  |  sourcecodystheory (YouTube)  | Email this | Comments

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