Hasta La Gadget!

Oh paper, ye olde guardian of human wisdom, culture, and history, why must you be so fragile and voluminous? Not a question we ask ourselves every day, admittedly, but when you’re talking about the British Library’s extensive collection of tomes from the 18th and 19th century, those books, pamphlets and periodicals do stack up pretty quickly. Thankfully, Google’s book digitization project has come to the rescue of bewildered researchers, with a new partnership with the British Library that will result in the availability of digital copies of works from that period — spanning the time of the French and Industrial Revolutions, the Crimean War, the invention of the telegraph, and the end of slavery. In total, some 250,000 such items, all of them long out of copyright, will find a home on Google Books and the British Library’s website, and Google has even been nice enough to bear the full cost of transforming them into web-accessible gems of knowledge. Jump past the break for the similarly digital press release.

Continue reading British Library and Google Books partner up to digitize 250,000 out-of-copyright works

British Library and Google Books partner up to digitize 250,000 out-of-copyright works originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Jun 2011 07:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

Spring proved cruel for the sparse population of products that combine e-paper and LCD displays. Startup Entourage announced that it was discontinuing its Edge dual-screen e-reader / tablet combo. And then Barnes & Noble closed the book on the original Nook to introduce a successor that had only one screen and one button. In doing so, it leaped over (or is that under?) even the Kindle’s minimalism.

E-readers have followed an unusual demographic adoption curve for a consumer electronics product. The first buyers were, like those of many other tech products, more affluent, but the majority of them were also older and female in keeping with the book-buying habits of physical books. They were attracted to the crisp display and high contrast of e-paper displays. And many were (and continue to be) attracted by a focused product that allowed them to concentrate on the text without distraction of other media type, the Web or thousands of apps.

Continue reading Switched On: E-readers drive to digital distraction

Switched On: E-readers drive to digital distraction originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Jun 2011 18:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Kobo Touch is a lighter, smaller, even more minimal E-reader than its closest known relative, the Simple Touch Nook. And in some areas of performance, the Kobo outguns it and the Kindle 3. More »

When it first announced the launch of its eReader Touch Edition late last month, Kobo referred to itself again and again as the “David” in a reader market full of “Goliaths.” It’s not difficult to see why — the company’s chief competition in the space is Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Sony, all giants in their respective fields. In spite of overwhelming odds, however, Kobo has managed to stay afloat, and even competitive. True to form, however, Barnes & Noble launched its own device a mere day after Kobo, which for most intents and purposes, looks an awful lot like the eReader Touch Edition. In fact, the devices were seemingly so alike that we created a head to head, in order to see for ourselves precisely what set them apart.

The new Nook also managed to beat Kobo’s device to market, offering a more than worthy competitor to Amazon’s latest. The question with the launch of the Kobo then, is not only whether the David can compete in a market so dominated by the Kindle, but if the eReader Touch Edition has enough to set it apart from the superficially identical Nook.

Continue reading Kobo eReader Touch Edition review

Kobo eReader Touch Edition review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Jun 2011 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re expecting to see plenty of new features crop up for folks that have rooted their new Nook WiFi, but it looks like those not willing to go that far can still expand their options a little bit. As it happens, the new Nook has an experimental web browser of its own, which you can access simply by typing a URL into the search bar. Of course, Barnes & Noble has likely kept this feature under wraps for a reason, as actually browsing the web using it seems to be somewhat hit and miss — see for yourself in the video after the break courtesy of The eBook Reader.

Continue reading Web browser found hiding in latest Nook, no root required (video)

Web browser found hiding in latest Nook, no root required (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Jun 2011 13:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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