Hasta La Gadget!

Amazon’s new Kindle has plenty of desirable features — like a month-long battery, double the storage and a more responsive screen — but some exciting new additions weren’t highlighted on the press release. Diving through the official User’s Guide for just such unheralded items, the Kindle World Blog discovered the unit will come with a second English dictionary, a PDF contrast adjustment and… a microphone. As you can see immediately above, that last won’t be accessible out of the box — and may just lead to audio annotations down the road — but the hacker community (or more legitimately, Kindle developers) could do very interesting things with the discovery. We hesitate to even mention for fear the feature will get pulled, but we’re dreaming of Skyping across that free 3G connection already.

New Kindle comes with microphone, seeds of possibility originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Aug 2010 19:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Wired, TeleRead  |  A Kindle World Blog  | Email this | Comments

It’s fairly safe to say that DMC Worldwide’s Copia e-reader family won’t exactly make that estimated Spring 2010 ship date, but a new report over at The Wall Street Journal is cluing us in on a bit of a revised outlook. As of now, the first Copia suite of e-readers will “hit stores this fall in time for the holiday season,” a suite that’ll presumably include the 5-inch color (LCD) Wave 5 for $99, a 7-inch Wave 7 for $129, a 10-inch Ocean Color for $299 and a pair of E Ink-based options for $49 (Tidal) / $159 (Tidal WiFi). It doesn’t seem as if the two Waves will include any sort of wireless connectivity, and given the LCD display, we’re sure that battery life will be nowhere near as good as the marginally-more-expensive Kindle. That said, the user interface does look rather striking from afar, and if these manage to slip a bit further in price before that magical day in December, you could very well see a rush to stuff stockings with a member of this here family. Give those links below a poke if you’re on the prowl for more detailed specifications.

DMC’s 5-inch Copia color e-reader landing this fall for $99, others to follow originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink UberGizmo  |  Wall Street Journal, Copia  | Email this | Comments

Following the launch of Amazon’s third-generation Kindle, company CEO Jeff Bezos sat down to discuss the e-reader business with USA Today. We’d recommend giving the whole piece a look-see if you just can’t get enough Kindle in your life, but a few choice quotes caught our attention. For starters, Bezos predicted that Kindle e-book sales will “surpass paperback sales sometime in the next 9 to 12 months,” and that “sometime after that, we’ll surpass the combination of paperback and hardcover.” Considering that the Kindle platform is but 33 months old, and that books are just a wee bit older, that’s pretty impressive. In a separate sit-down with Pocket-lint, Steve Kessel — Amazon’s senior vice president of Worldwide Digital Media — teased us all with regard to a color version of the company’s famed e-reader. ‘Course, we’ve known that Bezos and Company aren’t too hopeful about such a thing in the near-term, but we’ve yet to actually hear the company confess to having specific color alternatives in the lab. If you’ll recall, we found Qualcomm’s Mirasol demonstration worthy of laud back at CES, and according to Kessel, “that’s in the lab.” We’re also told that a slew of other color options are always in testing, though, so we’re doing our darnedest to not get those hopes too high. It ain’t working, but still…

Amazon sees e-book sales surpassing paper versions, has Mirasol technology in the Kindle labs originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink All Things D  |  Pocket-lint, USA Today  | Email this | Comments

Let’s be honest — you saw this one coming, didn’t you? Today Amazon is introducing a new reading device for e-book aficionados dubbed simply… the Kindle. The new handheld — slated to be released on August 27th — is 21 percent smaller and 15 percent lighter than the previous model, has a 20 percent faster refresh rate on its E Ink (yep, still E Ink) screen, and will now come in two colors (graphite, like its big brother the DX, and the original white). In addition to the color changes, there will be two radio configurations available: a $139 WiFi only version, and a $189 3G version (utilizing AT&T’s network, just like the last model). The screen will remain the same 6-inch size as the last two Kindles, though the company claims page turns are faster and contrast is improved. The internal storage on the device has been cranked to 4GB, and the battery life is now rated at a month with no wireless, and 10 days with wireless switched on. The company also announced plans for a UK-localized version at £109 and £149, respectively, as well as a UK e-book store.

Along with the big changes, there have been minor tweaks as well — the keyboard and five-way controls have been streamlined and altered slightly. The rocker is now more compact and flush with the device, and the side buttons have been modified in length to emphasize the forward paddles, while the back buttons have been downsized. Software wise, there are some interesting new features, the most notable being the inclusion of an “experimental” Webkit-based browser. If you’re expecting future iterations to go even bolder with their multimedia capabilities, we kindly direct you to some choice quotes by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, care of WSJ: “For the vast majority of books, adding video and animation is not going to be helpful. It is distracting rather than enhancing. You are not going to improve Hemingway by adding video snippets,” adding later, “there are going to be 100 companies making LCD [screen] tablets… why would we want to be 101? I like building a purpose-built reading device. I think that is where we can make a real contribution.”

We had a chance to play with the device for a short while during a meeting with the company, and we can report that the Kindle is still very much the reading device you know and love (or hate, depending on your preferences). The build quality and materials used did seem slightly more polished than the previous version, and we really liked the new, more subtle rocker. We can also attest to screen refreshes and overall navigation feeling noticeably more responsive and snappy compared with the previous generation. Amazon was showing off a jacket accessory which will be made available at launch that includes a small, pull-out light for late-night reading sessions. We’re sure it will please a lot of folks eager to keep their partners undisturbed while they tear through The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. We’ll have a full review as soon as we can get our hands on the device, but for now, check out all the details in the video and PR after the break, and feast your eyes on the handful of press shots in the gallery below.

Continue reading New Amazon Kindle announced: $139 WiFi-only version and $189 3G model available August 27th in the US and UK

New Amazon Kindle announced: $139 WiFi-only version and $189 3G model available August 27th in the US and UK originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A digital book reader could bring information to students in developing countries using a technology that is long past its prime: 8-bit computing.

The Humane Reader, a device designed by computer consultant Braddock Gaskill, takes two 8-bit microcontrollers and packages them in a “classic style console” that connects to a TV. The device includes an optional keyboard, a micro-SD Card reader and a composite video output. It uses a standard micro-USB cellphone charger for power.

In all, it can hold the equivalent of 5,000 books, including an offline version of Wikipedia, and requires no internet connection. The Reader will cost $20 when 10,000 or more of it are manufactured. Without that kind of volume, the each Reader will cost about $35.

“Everything about it is related to the cost,” says Gaskill. “It’s meant to be an absolute basic system that can deliver Wikipedia and e-books for educational and non-profit use.”

A major driver for this kind of technology is that 8-bit processors are cheap and people in developing countries have greater access to TVs than to computers.

“Hundreds of millions of households have TVs but no access to the internet,” says Gaskill. “I wanted to create a device that uses the display on the TV.”

Gaskill’s Humane Reader is much cheaper than the $100 WikiReader launched last year. (The self-contained, battery-powered WikiReader may be more useful in a zombie invasion, however.)

Over the last few years, a number of initiatives have tried to bring low-cost computing to students in developing countries. The One Laptop Per Child project, started in 2005, promised a $100 laptop but now sells its device for twice as much. Intel has its own low-cost PC for students called Classmate. Last week, Indian officials showed a prototype $35 tablet targeted at students. All these ideas use the latest display technology and chips to power the devices.

Meanwhile, another group of researchers have looked at 8-bit computing as an inexpensive way to reach students. Playpower is a $12 system that uses a microprocessor favorite from the 1970s, the 8-bit 6502 processor. The system plugs into a TV and comes with a keyboard and a basic game controller.

Gaskill says Playpower is focused on educational games, while the Humane Reader is about giving students a digital encyclopedia.

Next, Gaskill hopes to find partners to help produce and distribute the device.

“Once you put these in the hands of the students, they can, not just learn from it, but also hack it,” he says. “The combination of a computing platform and a encyclopedia opens up the world to them.”

For electronics hobbyists, Gaskill hopes to sell a tricked-out version of the Humane Reader, the Humane PC. The PC has almost the same specs as the Reader but offers additional features such as a micro-USB port and infrared port. Gaskill estimates the Humane PC’s bill of materials will cost just a few dollars more than the Reader, though he hopes that it will be sold for profit.

See Also:

• $12 Computer: Playpower Wants to Save the World 8 Bits at a Time
• 8-Bit Imagery Invades Music Videos
• Homebrewed CPU Is a Beautiful Mess of Wires
• 8-Bit Trip: 1500 Hours of Lego Stop-Motion in Four Awesome Minutes

Photo: Humane Info