Hasta La Gadget!

Remember Que, Plastic Logic’s large screen e-reader that debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year? It’s increasingly looking like vaporware.

Plastic Logic isn’t shipping the Que e-reader, though the company is officially calling it a “delay.” Plastic Logic has canceled all pre-oders and is no longer offering a date as to when we can see the Que in the real world. It has also stopped taking pre-orders for the device.

“We need to let you know that since your unit will not ship on June 24 as planned, our automated ordering system has automatically canceled your order,” Plastic Logic sent in an e-mail to its customers.

Billed as an e-reader for business users, the Que had an 8.5 x 11-inch touchscreen display and the ability to handle Microsoft Word files, PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets, digital books, PDFs, magazines and newspapers. The device could also synchronize with Microsoft Outlook to display e-mails and calendar.

A 4-GB version of the Que with Wi-Fi and storage for about 35,000 documents was priced at $650. The company also announced a $800 8-GB version that includes Wi-Fi and 3G capability from AT&T.

It was an ambitious move and one out-of-sync with the trend in the e-reader market. Amazon’s large screen Kindle DX is priced at$490. Meanwhile, Apple has launched its iPad tablet with iBooks, an iTunes-like book store. Starting at $500, the iPad offers readers access to e-mail and books with a large color touchscreen. So far, Apple has sold 3 million iPads. About 7 million e-readers are expected to sell this year, estimates Forrester Research.

Not surprisingly, Plastic Logic has failed to get off the ground. A month before it promised to to ship the Que reader in April, the company announced to customers that it is delaying the launch to “sometime this summer.” In an e-mail  then, Plastic Logic said it needed the time to “fine-tune features and enhance the overall product.”

This time around, it is offering the same reason.

“Plastic Logic wants to make sure that the product they deliver is the right one for their target business customers in the rapidly changing marketplace,” a spokesperson for Plastic Logic wrote in an e-mail to us. “They are continuing to refine the product, technology and features, and are anxious to get in the marketplace as soon as possible.”

Unless Plastic Logic can bring the price of the Que down significantly and offer greater value than the iPad or the Kindle DX, it is likely to be a product that will be dead on arrival–if it ever makes it to market.

See Also:

• Plastic Logic Aims New Que E-Reader at Business Users
• Plastic Logic Delays Que E-Reader
• Plastic Logic E-Book Reader to Use AT&T Wireless
• Gallery: E-Readers Push Boundaries of Books

Photo: Que/Priya Ganapati

Sure, Pandigital’s Novel may be delayed until next month because of some firmware issues — and we haven’t heard the most positive things about the 7-inch LCD based e-reader / tablet — but we had to check it out for ourselves. At $179.99 $149, the all-plastic reader isn’t going to win any build quality awards (it’s also rather heavy for what it is), but the Android 2.1-powered gadget does have a pretty attractive user interface. In use, however, the resistive screen had to be pressed quite firmly to make selections and the software was noticeably sluggish. Surprisingly, the device did play a standard definition video smoothly and it has an accelerometer — which is more than the Archos 7 Home Tablet can brag. Barnes & Noble’s eBookstore will be preloaded, and it also has a skinned Android browser of some sort. We’ve got a short hands-on video after the break, but you’ve got the picture here: the Novel isn’t what we’d call novel, you just get what you pay for.

Continue reading Pandigital Novel preview

Pandigital Novel preview originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Jun 2010 00:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

The e-reader price wars is on. Amazon has cut the price of its Kindle e-book reader to $190 from $260 earlier. Amazon’s move comes in response to Barnes & Noble’s price cut on the Nook earlier Monday.

The Kindle will still be slightly more expensive than the basic version of the Nook. A Wi-Fi only version of the Nook is now available for $150, while a 3G model will cost $200.

With the latest round of price wars, the distinction between e-readers and tablets is also becoming clear. Tablets and E Ink-based reading devices are likely to co-exist by targeting different groups of consumers based on their purchasing power, the extent of interactivity they need and their reading patterns.

That means two sets of products: Tablets with color displays and lots of features that cost $400 or more, and inexpensive black-and-white E Ink-powered e-readers that will soon be available for $150 or less.

Despite the launch of tablets such as Apple’s iPad, e-book readers continue to be popular among consumers. About seven million e-readers will be sold this year, estimates Forrester. A recent poll by consumer electronics search website Retrevo showed 45 percent of casual readers–those who read one book every few months–say they plan to buy an iPad now instead of an e-reader. But among avid readers–those who read more than five books a month–only 14 percent say they will go for an iPad over an e-reader.

“In other words Apple will still attract many e-reader buyers but Kindle owners might buy more books,” says Retrevo in its blog post. The web site polled 1000 people through an independent panel.

That’s good news for Amazon and Barnes & Noble who are betting on sales of more digital books. E-readers such as Kindle and Nook will help them in that goal.

See Also:

• $150 Kobo eReader: The Real Kindle Killer?
• Acer Debuts New E-Reader, Android Phone
• Why E-Books Look So Ugly

Photo: Amazon’s first generation Kindle (Brian Vallelunga/Flickr)

Barnes and Noble sure is busy today. If you’re a Nook owner, you’re going to want to get on the update they’ve just unleashed pretty quickly. Version 1.4 includes a couple of pretty important fixes — including the much-need “go to page” feature, an extra large font size, and support for AT&T WiFi. That’s right, the next time you wander into an AT&T hotspot you’ll be Nooking for free. The Nook firmware version 1.4 update is available now (and we’ve included a direct link to the download below if you really want to check that out).

Barnes and Noble Nook firmware version 1.4 now available originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 12:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Mobile Tech Review  |  Barnes and Noble  | Email this | Comments

Barnes and Noble has just taken the e-book market a notch further towards the mainstream with a new Wi-Fi-only Nook for $150: $50 less than Wi-Fi+3G model, and $110 less than you’d pay in a Barnes & Noble store for the original version [UPDATE: B&N will also drop the price of the 3G Nook to $200].

The new Nook is available from Best Buy right now, and apart from the lack of a 3G radio it is almost exactly the same as its big brother: 2GB on-board memory supplemented by a microSD slot, a 6-inch e-ink display along with the vestigial color touch-screen, a ten-day battery life and support for most popular picture and e-book file formats, including the EPUB format eschewed by Amazon for the rival Kindle. The only visual difference is the change of the back cover from gray to white.

This is great news, and a very sensible decision from B&N. Who, after all, needs to be able to buy a book at any time, in any place? Just stock up with a few titles and wait until you find the next Wi-Fi hotspot (or pop into Starbucks where the internet is now free). And if you really do need that 3G connection, well, you can just pay a little extra (and just $50 extra, too, not the $130 premium Apple loads onto the 3G iPad).

The trend is clear. Basic grayscale e-book readers are set to become a commodity device, probably occupying a large but cheap specialty niche between tablets and cellphones. We wouldn’t be too surprised if the Nook also lost that novelty touch-screen and dropped below $100.

Wi-Fi-only Nook eReader [Best Buy]

See Also:

• Barnes & Noble Nook
• Barnes & Noble Unveils Kindle-Killing, Dual-Screen 'Nook' E-Reader …
• Nook Software Update Adds Web Browser, Chess
• Best Buy to Sell Nook, Target Bags Kindle?
• Could a $50 'Paperback' Kindle Beat the iPad?