Hasta La Gadget!

E-readers are likely to get hotter with the next generation of devices sporting color screens and large displays expected to launch through the year.

One of the first products to announce its arrival is the Skiff e-reader, a lightweight device with a 11.5-inch full flexible touchscreen that makes it the largest e-reader on the market, beating the 9.7-inch display Kindle DX.

Unlike other e-readers designed for reading mainly books and PDF files, the Skiff is optimized for newspaper and magazine content and will use Sprint’s 3G network to offer wireless connectivity. The device will debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas later this week. The company hasn’t announced availability and pricing for it yet.

Electronic book readers are a emerging yet fast growing category of devices. Since the launch of Amazon’s Kindle in 2007, a slew of new devices have entered the market. About five million e-readers were sold last year, estimates research firm iSuppli. Though the Kindle DX is the only e-reader with a screen size larger than the standard 6-inch available in the U.S. currently, more plus sized e-readers are set to hit the market. For instance, Plastic Logic’s Que will have a 8.5-inch by 11-inch screen.

At over a quarter-inch in overall height, Skiff’s display will have a resolution of 1200 x 1600 pixels.  It weighs just over one pound and offers a week of average use between charges, says the company. The device will have both 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity.

Like all other e-readers, Skiff uses the black-and-white display technology developed by E Ink. But the underlying electronics that power the display has been developed by LG. LG has used a sheet of stainless-steel foil for the back of the display, instead of the glass layer that is the the foundation of most e-paper displays available currently. The result is a thinner device that is less likely to break.

Skiff’s touchscreen will help users navigate newspapers, magazines, books and other digital content they purchase through the Skiff Store–its own e-reading service. Readers can expect to see visually appealing layouts, high-resolution graphics and other design qualities that would enrich the reading experience, says the company. After all, Skiff has strong roots in the print media. It’s parent company is Hearst, which publishes magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Popular Mechanics and Smart Money.

See Also:

• Barnes & Noble Unveils Kindle-Killing, Dual-Screen ‘Nook’ E-Reader …
• Nook E-Reader Gets Hacked to Run Apps, Browser
• Roundup: E-Reader Gift Guide
• Dual-Screen Device Combines E-Reader, Netbook
• Stanza v2.0: The iPhone’s Best E-Reader Just Got Better

Interead expands COOL-ER e-reader line-up, announces additional content originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It has taken longer than anticipated, but the Boox e-reader that we toyed with at CeBIT earlier this year is finally available for order here in the US of A, with shipments expected to begin in a fortnight. Onyx International’s 6-inch reader — which features WiFi, a Vizplex e-ink display, a 532MHz processor, 512MB of memory, a 1,600mAh battery and an SD / SDHC expansion slot — is bring slung across the seas courtesy of Dulin’s Books, and while it won’t ship with integrated 3G support, it’s still coming here with a lofty $349 price tag affixed to it. Sure, that WebKit browser may impress some, and the bundled white leather cover is a pleasant touch, but we can only wish it luck as it tries to rival the (less expensive and more capable) Nook and Kindle.

[Thanks, Jorge]

Dulin’s Books brings Onxy’s 6-inch Boox 60 e-reader to US shores for $349 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 06:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s definitely shaping up to be the year of e-book readers: the Amazon Kindle is flying off (virtual) shelves, and we’d expect the Barnes & Noble Nook to start moving at a decent clip once the kinks get worked out. But any device with an always-on 3G connection to a central server raises some privacy questions, especially when it can broadcast granular, specific data about what you’re reading — data that’s subject to a wide spectrum of privacy laws and regulations when it comes to real books and libraries, but much less so in the digital realm. We’d say it’s going to take a while for all the privacy implications of e-books to be dealt with by formal policy, but in the meantime the best solution is to be informed — which is where this handy chart from our friends at the Electronic Frontier Foundation comes in. As you’d expect, the more reading you do online, the more you can be tracked — and Google Books, the Kindle, and the Nook all log a ton of data that can be shared with law enforcement and various other third parties if required. Of course, we doubt the cops are too interested in your Twilight reading habits, but honestly, we’d rather users weren’t tracked at all. Check the full chart and more at the read link.

[Thanks, Tom]

E-reader privacy policies compared: Big Kindle is watching you originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Dec 2009 16:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You didn’t think the whole Nook saga was over, did you? After just succeeding in delivering devices to expectant pre-orderers in time for Christmas, Barnes and Noble is today cleaning up yet another mess courtesy of its ill-prepared content servers. Judging by customer feedback on its support forums, it appears a glut of download requests over gift-giving day jammed the B&N net pipes and left a great many disappointed Nook users. All attempts at downloading an ebook yesterday — even by those who got their Nook a little earlier in the month — were greeted with a “Queued: Will complete shortly” message, which apparently remained that way until early this morning when downloading finally resumed functioning. The biggest perceived failure here, though, is the book retailer’s silence on the issue, which illustrates the importance of communicating with your customers — most people seemed tolerant of the setback once they realised they didn’t have faulty hardware.

[Thanks to all who sent this in]

Nook fails to communicate, download purchased ebooks originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Dec 2009 08:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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