Hasta La Gadget!

The iPad: it’s a video player! A productivity tool! An e-reader! On the last attribute, at least, there’s plenty of competition for Apple’s new tablet.

Amazon, of course, has established itself with not only the world’s largest marketplace for books, but a substantial number of e-books as well. And the company’s Kindle dominates the e-reader space, although the company does not disclose the exact number of e-readers sold.

So, naturally, we asked Amazon was asked to comment on its latest competitor.

“Thanks for your inquiry,” Andrew Herdener responded. “Customers can read and sync their Kindle books on
iPhones, iPod touches, PCs, and soon Blackberrys, Macs, and iPads.  Kindle is
purpose-built for reading.  Weighing in at less than 0.64 pounds, Kindle fits
comfortably in one hand for hours, has an e-ink display that is easy on the eyes
even in bright daylight, two weeks of battery life, and 3G wireless with no
monthly fees–all at a $259 price.  Kindle editions of New York Times Bestsellers
and most New Releases are only $9.99.”

Our followup question has not been responded to, so we’ll have to read these tea leaves for you: basically, it seems that Amazon views the iPad as a platform, like the iPhone (with its own Kindle app) and views the Kindle as the one true e-reader. Which it may turn out to be.

It’s a funny thing, really. We wait years upon years for color e-ink to become a reality, and today — of all days — we finally hear that a sizable one is coming to market in just a few months. Reportedly, Taiwan’s own Delta Electronics is hoping to ship a 13.1-inch color e-reader (along with an 8.1-inch monochrome version) by the middle of this year, both of which will rely on e-paper technology from Bridgestone. If you’ll recall, we got an early glimpse of this stuff right around this time last year, but it wasn’t until today that we heard any followup whatsoever. There’s no mention of expected pricing and the like, but we’re told that the refresh rate is well faster than the black-and-white solutions out there today. Frankly, this thing better check email, play back video and wash our laundry as well — the reign of the standalone e-reader is just about over.

Delta Electronics to ship 13.1-inch color e-readers by Q2 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS hasn’t exactly been tight-lipped about its DR-950 e-reader — you know, with it outing photos and all — but apparently the 9-inch E Ink, touchscreen reading device will be ready for buyers in April. ASUS told the guys at Electric Pig that it’s currently in process of shopping around for content partners, but plans to have the e-reader to market by springtime with a price tag in the range of £250 (about $354). Not too bad, though it’s tough to get too jazzed about a black-and-white model with the OLED color DR-570 version on the horizon.

Filed under: Handhelds

ASUS DR-950 to be released in April for a likely £250 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Man, Acer’s on the warpath. The world’s second-largest PC manufacturer seems hell-bent on radically changing the status quo, telling Bloomberg today that it’s “aggressively pursuing” Chrome OS “so there’s a change to the Microsoft-Intel environment,” with plans to be among the first to ship in Q3. That’s somewhat ahead of Google’s own schedule for reaching v1.0, so yeah, it’s definitely aggressive — and it also sounds like a strong hint towards an ARM-based Chrome OS machine in our future, but Acer wouldn’t confirm anything. Still, those are basically fightin’ words, especially since Acer’s framing the future as a choice between “either” Windows or “Google’s defined OS space.” Acer also promised to fully detail a 6-inch monochrome e-reader by June with an initial focus on European markets, and we’re also informed of a forthcoming free / cheap application store that will be compatible with Android, Windows Mobile, and, obviously, Chrome OS. And lest you thought Acer was ignoring the Apple tablet madness that permeates our world, we’re told that an Acer tablet is in the works, accompanied by the candid admission that the Taiwanese giant is waiting to see what Apple has in store before finalizing its own plans. Yep — things are getting a little nuts.

Acer to launch e-reader, app store, and Chrome OS netbook this year; wants to ‘change the Microsoft-Intel environment’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We were wondering how Kindle’s impending active content (read: apps) would be harnessing that free Whispernet bandwidth. As it turns out, there’s just a smidgen allowed for gratis. According to the terms laid out by Amazon, there’s a 70 / 30 revenue split, with that smaller percentage going to Bezos and co. “net of delivery fees of $0.15 / MB.” The price tiers is a little simpler: apps can be free if their download over 3G is less than 1MB and they use less than 100KB per month, per user. Apps between 1MB and 10MB require a one-time purchase fee that offsets the bandwidth usage, and likewise a subscription fee is needed for those that plan on allowing over 100KB of a monthly data streaming. (To put that in perspective, this post — just the copy — is 4KB. That image above is 120KB.) Anything over 10MB requires a download over WiFi, and the maximum file size is 100MB… and if anyone manages to justify a 100MB app that runs on a greyscale E Ink display, color us impressed.

Kindle’s active content given 100KB free monthly bandwidth allowance originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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