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Continue reading Amazon lets you check out Kindle books from library websites, asks you to shush yourself at home

Amazon lets you check out Kindle books from library websites, asks you to shush yourself at home originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Sep 2011 10:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LeVar Burton may best be known ’round these parts for his role in Star Trek, but he’ll soon be known as the guy who made childhood reading relevant again. It wasn’t that long ago that today’s up-and-coming adults were soaking up all sorts of useful knowledge during their summers, glued to a PBS station and doing their darndest to climb inside of mum’s CRT television. And now, their kids will be doing likewise — but with an iPad. Burton has plans to produce an educational RRKidz iOS app that enables readers to “explore topics of interest in a multimedia-rich environment, with voice-over-enhanced children’s books, familiar videos of Burton at real-life places, and games.” In order to do so, he’s planning a “disruptive” technology that’ll bolster a conventional PDF book with basic animations, voice-overs and games “in a matter of hours.” There’s no specific time table on a release, but we’re guessing Burton’s moving along as usual pace: Mach 5.

Reading Rainbow roaring back with RRKidz iPad app, ‘disruptive’ ebook technology in tow originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Sep 2011 23:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re raising our glasses to the original Galapagos e-reader this morning, because Sharp has decided to discontinue it. Today, the manufacture announced that it will stop taking orders for its 5.5- and 10.8-inch Android tablets on September 30th, just nine months after they first launched. A company spokeswoman, however, confirmed that Sharp isn’t leaving the market altogether, as it plans to continue churning out the 7-inch A01SH that launched last month. The Japan-based firm is confident that “the market for electronic books will continue to expand,” but decided to terminate its older slates because they’ve already “fulfilled the purposes that they were designed for.” Sharp declined to disclose sales figures for the doomed devices, though local media outlets are reporting that they may have been squeezed out of the Japanese market by the iPad — a decidedly Darwinian explanation.

Sharp to discontinue original Galapagos e-readers, 7-inch species survives originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 04:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, it’s certainly not much in the looks department, but Plastic Logic finally has a product out the door that will at least get some use. The Plastic Logic 100 is the shatterproof descendant of the canceled Que, which will be arriving in Russian classrooms later this month. Underneath is soft-touch plastic exterior is 4GB of storage and an 800MHz processor pushing Windows CE. There’s no wireless connectivity to speak of (loading texts on it is accomplished via microUSB), but it does sport a 10.7-inch, 1280 x 960 capacitive screen with a touch-based UI. There’s even a software keyboard for making notes and highlighting passages. But, at 12,000 Russian Rubles (just shy of $400) we can’t help but think the Kremlin might as well have picked up a bunch of cheaper Kindle DXs. Check out the PR after the break.

Continue reading Plastic Logic 100 unveiled, set to bring e-textbooks to Russian schools

Plastic Logic 100 unveiled, set to bring e-textbooks to Russian schools originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Sep 2011 01:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Waterstone’s isn’t exactly the biggest name in book sales (at least not stateside), but it knows that to survive in this market it’s gonna have to get on the e-book train. The British company’s managing director, James Daunt, told Radio 4 that it planned to enter the market with both an electronic book store and an actual reader by spring of 2012. Mr. Daunt claimed he was inspired by the success of the Nook, and the challenge it posed to Amazon’s Kindle, to finally take a stab at ushering the UK chain into the 21st century. Of course, while we hate to harsh his buzz, Waterstone’s has already been offering e-books and e-readers since 2008 through a partnership with Sony with only minimal market impact. And we’ve already seen one major book seller (one twice the size of Waterstone’s) fall flat on its face as it tried to enter the digital age. But still, we wish Daunt and his company the best of luck.

[Image credit: Chrisloader]

UK book seller Waterstone’s to enter the e-reader race originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Sep 2011 03:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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