Hasta La Gadget!

When the Kobo e-reader first appeared, its very affordable price point of $149 made it an attractive proposition. It’s been a few months, however, and the market is ever-more crowded, with both dedicated e-readers as well as multi-taskers (such as the iPad) moving into the space big time, and there are also plenty of similarly priced options, including the WiFi version of the Nook. In fact, almost anything qualifies as an e-reader these days — but there’s still room for a thin, light dedicated device that reads books in an enjoyable way for an affordable price… or at least that’s the story that Kobo is trying to tell.

We’ve spent the last few weeks reading with the Kobo, with the main goal being to find out if the simple device has enough features to contend with the host of options (and price points) available to consumers today. Read on for our thoughts.

Continue reading Kobo e-reader review

Kobo e-reader review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks like the little green robot has found two slightly roomier homes in the Cruz Tablet and Cruz Reader by Velocity Micro. Announced Tuesday, July 13, the tablet and e-reader devices will feature Google’s Android operating system.

According to Velocity Micro, the 7-inch Cruz Reader will be available in August for $199. It features a 4:3, 800×600 full color touch display, a built-in accelerometer, and expandable SD memory. Not to mention the little bugger houses several apps including a dictionary, address book, and games library. Backed by Borders’ E-book library of two million titles, it might give both the NOOK and the Kindle a much deserved challenge.

At $299, the similarly-sized Cruz Tablet — set to release this September — promises an Android-based tablet alternative with a 16:9 screen ratio, a 800×480 full color display, and 802.11n WiFi. This tablet only has 4GB of onboard storage, but the price of the device includes an 8GB SD card for some extra memory. While, for some people, Android OS is an attractive alternative to Apple’s iOS-driven iPad, the lack of 3G connectivity and smaller onboard memory could make it a tough sell.

Finally, Velocity Micro wants your kids in on the e-reader craze with the $149 Cruz StoryPad, which houses essentially the same features as the Cruz Reader (as well as the Android OS), but with a design geared towards tots. With a matching release date to the full blown e-reader, the StoryPad comes in a drop-resistant casing and presents an intuitive touch interface that the manufacturer thinks kids can relate to.

We haven’t heard much about Velocity Micro’s Android-based Cruz Reader since it sort of came out of nowhere back in April, but it’s now finally nearing a release (sometime in August), and the company is starting to show it off a bit more. As expected, the Cruz Reader is just one of a series of tablets from the company and, despite the “reader” moniker, is actually more of a full-fledged Android tablet, complete with support for apps, games, web browsing, and other tablet-like activities. Velocity Micro is playing up the reader angle though, and has announced a partnership with Borders and Kobo to deliver ebooks to the device. Somewhat confusingly, however, it will be joined later in August by the $299 Cruz Tablet, which opts for a 16:9 capacitive display, adds 4GB of internal storage and an 8GB SD card, and Flash support, which the Reader apparently doesn’t have (we’re not quite sure what that means OS-wise). Rounding out the initial group is the kid-friendly Cruz StoryPad, which boasts a spill-resistant case and will run $149. Head on past the break for a look at the Cruz Reader on video, and the complete press release.

Continue reading Velocity Micro shows off $199 Cruz Reader

Velocity Micro shows off $199 Cruz Reader originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Timely, no? Just as the 2010 back-to-school season really gets rolling (and that dreaded Fall semester arrives to pester you to death), Barnes & Noble is looking to become your go-to place for eTextbooks, study tools and pretty much anything else in the related field. Up until now, there have been few all-encompassing eTextbook delivery method, and the options that are out there are generally poorly thought out, spartan or simply not marketed well. ‘Course, B&N isn’t coming right out and saying it, but why else would you create a comprehensive application suitable for Macs and PCs that not only puts digital textbooks into the hands of students for up to 40 percent less than conventional books, but also a full library of study aids, test prep guides, periodicals, and hundreds of thousands of trade and professional titles. Moreover, the app “provides students access to all of their materials — eTextbooks, lecture notes, syllabi, slides, images, trade books and other course-related documents — all in one place, so their digital library goes wherever they go.” Oh, and did we mention that it also supports highlighting and notes, both of which are searchable? Yeah. Currently, Nook Study is being used in a smattering of universities, with an August rollout pegged for universal use. Lookout, used bookstore — the end could be nigh.

Continue reading Barnes & Noble looks to lock down e-book delivery for education with Nook Study

Barnes & Noble looks to lock down e-book delivery for education with Nook Study originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Outside of a perhaps too strong resemblance to the Kindle, there was nothing much to fault the iriver Story when we played with it back in January. Its biggest downfall, however, was a lack of wireless connectivity, and iriver is going to rectify that with the new iriver WiFi Story. Apart from this obvious enhancement, nothing’s really new with this reader, which was already pretty feature-flush on the software side, including decent format support for books and even Microsoft Office files. Unfortunately, while the current iriver Story goes for £149 at WHSmith in the UK (which is doing the e-book store end of things as well), the new WiFi model will apparently retail for around £250 — exactly double the cost of a Kindle in the UK right now, with the sort of WiFi premium that only Microsoft could love. So while consumers are getting a kick out of this Amazon / B&N price war in the e-reader space, it looks like it’s indeed going to be tough for other manufacturers to keep up. Right, Sony?

iriver WiFi Story turns to the ‘overpriced wireless connectivity’ chapter originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Jul 2010 03:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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