New York Times to launch bestseller list for e-books in early 2011

The New York Times has dropped some PR on us this morning, making an official announcement that it will begin to publish a bestseller list for e-books in early 2011. The current NYT bestseller lists — which are divided into several categories — are considered by many to be the definitive metric for a book’s success. The Times will have two separate lists covering fiction and non-fiction when it launches, drawing on information from various retailers, and will be independently verified by third party company RoyaltyShare. The list will appear in both the print and online editions of the paper. The full press release is below

Continue reading New York Times to launch bestseller list for e-books in early 2011

New York Times to launch bestseller list for e-books in early 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 11:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hanvon’s color e-reader up for pre-order in China — for just $530

We’ll rarely be accused of being proper economists here, but we do have to question Hanvon’s calculations in throwing up a pre-order price for its brand new color e-reader of 3,500 Chinese Yuan. That’s the report coming out of DigiTimes this morning, placing the device at around the $530 mark in a market that’s not exactly known for its rampant consumption of tech luxuries. Then again, what we’re talking about here will indeed be the very first E Ink Triton-equipped device anywhere once deliveries commence in February, so there’s the cachet of short-term exclusivity to look forward to. Or it might be very long-term exclusivity if nobody thinks that color is worth paying that massive premium over more conventional e-readers. We shall wait and see.

Hanvon’s color e-reader up for pre-order in China — for just $530 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 05:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LG demonstrates two color e-paper displays, one with a split personality

LG demonstrates color e-paper displays, about to show E Ink what's what

Competition is good, let’s officially welcome LG to the burgeoning color electronic paper market. The company is diving right in with not one but two color prototype displays that it showed off at FPD International in Japan. Both are 9.7-inches diagonal, the first being fully color with an 800 x 600 resolution — which just happens to exactly match the specs of E Ink’s latest. The second, however, is only partly color, the top three quarters being monochrome with a 1200 x 1200 resolution, augmented by a 200 x 600 color strip at the bottom. It’s an interesting offering, a layout not unlike the Nook but all on a single display. No word on price or availability, but you can see them doing their thing, along with E Ink’s latest, in the video below.

Continue reading LG demonstrates two color e-paper displays, one with a split personality

LG demonstrates two color e-paper displays, one with a split personality originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Nov 2010 12:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Forrester: e-book sales to hit nearly $1 billion this year, $3 billion by 2015

There’s no denying that e-books are already big business, and market research firm Forrester is now offering some pretty impressive numbers that show just how big it already is, and how much bigger it will get in the next few years. The firm surveyed some 4,000 people and found that while just seven percent of those actually read e-books, they still bought enough of them to translate to $966 million in sales this year — a number that’s projected to grow to $3 billion by 2015. As for the reading habits of that seven percent, Forrester found that they “read the most books and spend the most money on books,” and that they read 41 percent of their books in digital form. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they use actual e-readers, though — a full 35 percent apparently do most of their e-book reading on a laptop, followed by 32 percent on a Kindle, 15 percent on an iPhone, 12 percent on a Sony e-reader, and ten percent on a netbook. Interestingly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, Kindle users seem to be the biggest boosters of e-books — they do 66 percent of all their reading in digital form.

Forrester: e-book sales to hit nearly $1 billion this year, $3 billion by 2015 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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E Ink shows off Triton color ePaper, touts faster performance, readability in sunlight (video)

E Ink Triton. That’s the name we should all start getting used to as E Ink Holdings has just officially announced its first color electronic paper display. It was only yesterday that we learned Hanvon would be the first to bring the newly colorized e-reading panels to the market, so today the eponymous E Ink display maker has seen fit to dish out its own press release, catchy title, and even a handy explanatory video. The key points are that the new Triton stuff will offer 20 percent faster performance, sunlight-readable imaging, and up to a month’s battery life. That would suggest there’s almost no sacrifice in endurance relative to E Ink’s monochromatic screens already on offer in things like Amazon’s Kindle, which sounds all kinds of righteous to us. Skip past the break to get better acquainted with the Triton.

Continue reading E Ink shows off Triton color ePaper, touts faster performance, readability in sunlight (video)

E Ink shows off Triton color ePaper, touts faster performance, readability in sunlight (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Nov 2010 03:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon to enact 70 percent revenue share for Kindle newspaper and magazine publishers

Magazine and newspaper publishers are about to get a larger piece of the Kindle pie — 70 percent, to be exact. That’s what Amazon’s now offering, in an effort that’s clearly aimed to attract more periodicals to the service. Only catch is, all versions of the periodical have to work for all version of Kindle, in all geographical regions where the publishers has the rights to distribute — a small price to pay, especially since it keeps the customer base pretty wide open. Interested parties, you probably already know where to look.

Amazon to enact 70 percent revenue share for Kindle newspaper and magazine publishers originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 23:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony Reader Daily Edition (PRS-950SC) now shipping for $299

Just a couple of months after Sony refreshed its longstanding Reader Daily Edition, that very product is now shipping to the masses. ‘Course, you’re probably laser-focused on Hanvon’s new color E Ink device on tap for next March, but if you just can’t wait for that bad boy — and you’re not interested in any of the LCD-based alternatives — the PRS-950SC is now available in stores and through SonyStyle. As a refresher, this guy’s got a 7-inch touchscreen, WiFi and 3G, a spartan web browser and 2GB of integrated storage space. All yours for a buck under $300.

Continue reading Sony Reader Daily Edition (PRS-950SC) now shipping for $299

Sony Reader Daily Edition (PRS-950SC) now shipping for $299 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 20:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Color E Ink Readers Coming to China in 2011

We’ve seen color e-readers before, even colored e-paper displays. But in 2011, Chinese e-reader maker Hanvon will ship the first color reader with a screen made by Cambridge’s E Ink themselves.

According to the New York Times, Hanvon will announce their new e-reader at Tuesday’s FPD International 2010 trade show in Tokyo. Sporting a 9.68-inch color touch screen, Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity, it will retail in China in March 2011 for about $440.

The reader uses a standard E Ink screen with a color filter, so it has the same low-power, lightweight, high-readability characteristics of its black-and-white cousins. But this also means the screen is more-or-less static: it can show color photographs, illustrations and possibly some animation, but not full-motion video. Without a power-hungry backlight, the colors won’t be as bright as an LCD screen either.

Other features of the device remain unclear. Hanvon is known for its handwriting technology, which it packages with some but not all of its e-readers; the NYT is silent on whether the new device includes it. Business users, who are the device’s target market, are often more receptive to a stylus interface than the general consumer market; introducing color could make a stylus appealing to illustrators as well.

The long-term trajectory of color e-paper displays is even less clear, even as more-capable products from E Ink, Mirasol and Pixel QI come to the market. Color plays a different role in reading than it does in video or gaming. Will color illustrations be enough to satisfy readers, or will they drift towards LCD screens and tablets?

The short version is that consumers want everything: vibrant color and full video with low power consumption and zero glare at an unbeatable price. Until that arrives, we’ll continue to see both makers and readers in this space accepting tradeoffs and experimenting to find a balance that works.

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Hanvon to be first with color E Ink reader, sizes it at 10 inches, makes it a touchscreen

While Amazon and Sony are still hemming and hawing about taking their ebook-reading adventure into the color E Ink realm, China’s Hanvon is plunging straight in. The New York Times is reporting that the company intends to grace this year’s FPD International trade show with the news that a 10-inch touchscreen e-reader, equipped with the first color-displaying panels from E Ink Holdings, will be arriving in the Chinese market in March. That’s a little later than the originally promised “by the end of 2010,” but it’s not like anyone else is beating Hanvon to the market. Pricing in China is expected at around $440, and though there are no plans to bring it Stateside just yet, we imagine Hanvon would do so quite willingly if it can reach the volume necessary to offer up a more palatable price. And we’d be very happy if it does, the Nook Color‘s been looking a little lonely in the color ebook reader room.

Hanvon to be first with color E Ink reader, sizes it at 10 inches, makes it a touchscreen originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 02:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pandigital Novel PRD09TW e-reader hits the FCC

Pandigital may have not exactly hit a home run with its first Novel e-reader, but it looks like it might already be coming back for another try with a new model. That device recently hit the FCC with the model name PRD09TW, and it seems to be mostly identical in appearance to the current Pandigital Novel, with the notable exception of four buttons along the bottom. Unfortunately, there’s no specs to be found, but it does appear to boast a 7-inch 9-inch screen (here’s hoping for capacitive this time around), and the test reports do at least reveal the presence of WiFi. What’s more, as the folks at Wireless Goodness have noted, a 6-inch E Ink-based reader from Pandigital has also hit the FCC alongside this new Novel, although it’s not clear if it’s actually a new model or just an early version of the company’s Novel Personal reader (the only different is a slight change in button placement). In fact, the same could be said of the PRD09TW, but the current Novel did already hit the FCC back in May.

Pandigital Novel PRD09TW e-reader hits the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Nov 2010 14:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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