Hasta La Gadget!

It ain’t exactly summer, but we’ll take it. Launching just a few days after we’d been told to expect it, Barnes & Noble’s PubIt! self-publishing portal is finally open for business. As you’d heard before, this platform is essentially designed to give independent writers a venue for hawking their masterpieces, with PubIt! converting files to ePUB for use on a wide range of e-readers (read: not only the Nook). Published titles will be available for sale within 24 to 72 hours after upload on the B&N eBookstore, and the company’s pretty proud of its “no hidden fees” policy. Unfortunately, the compensation model — which is being detailed today for the first time — has its quirks. For PubIt! eBooks priced at or between $2.99 and $9.99, publishers will receive 65 percent of the list price for sold content; for those priced at $2.98 or less, or $10.00 or more, publishers will only receive 40 percent of the list price. In other words, there’s a no man’s land in that $10 to $15 range, so you’ll probably be settling for a $9.99 price point or reaching for the skies at $19.99. But hey, at least all PubIt! ebooks will also be lendable for a fortnight — surely that counts for something. Right?

Continue reading Barnes & Noble opens ‘PubIt!’ self-publishing portal, details compensation model

Barnes & Noble opens ‘PubIt!’ self-publishing portal, details compensation model originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Oct 2010 22:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The knock on Borders’ E Ink reader at launch was that unlike the Kindle, Nook, or Sony entries, it had no wireless access. The new Kobo Wireless adds that to the mix, along with three color options, as Gadget Lab’s Charlie Sorrel reported this morning.

The new Kobo also keeps its pricing low: $139, identical to the Wi-Fi-only Kindle, $10 less than the Wi-Fi Nook. Kobo’s e-books are also priced competitively compared to the Nook and Kindle stores. Finally, the Kobo costs $40 less than the similarly multi-colored Sony’s Pocket Edition. Like the first Kobo, the Sony has no network capability — but importantly, it does have an optical touchscreen.

Ultimately, the big problem I foresee with the new Kobo isn’t the network gap but the interface gap, particularly as it adds the ability to browse and buy books online. One reason the first Kobo didn’t have an on-board bookstore was that adding that functionality to the device typically commits the manufacturer to including some key hardware. But check out a picture of the Kobo from the front and tell me what you don’t see:

That’s right — still no keyboard, just a big five-way controller button.

Now, the Kobo’s store and library navigation look very nice, and I’m sure many people will appreciate the added ability to wirelessly browse best-sellers and genre categories. But the key advantages of shopping in a digital bookstore for most of us are:

1) a gigantic selection, bigger than any physical bookstore;
2) the ability to search for and quickly find EXACTLY the book you want to buy.

Text entry on the Kindle and Nook are not fantastic, but they work. And you can search for and buy e-books on the web site or using the desktop application, but that negates most of the benefits of being able to buy over Wi-Fi. Without 3G, you can’t buy books anywhere; without a built-in web browser, I don’t really see much other use for Wi-Fi connectivity.

Those are the trade-offs that Borders has chosen for Kobo — and the tradeoffs you’d have to weigh as a Kobo Wireless owner. Me, if I had my heart set on hot pink, I’d spend the extra scratch and get the Sony. If I’m giving up on network access and text entry to browse virtual bookshelves, I at least want to be able to flick through them with my fingertips rather than using a Nintendo controller.

Update: Kobo CEO Mike Serbinis chimed in in the comments to this post to note that on the company’s new readers, “there is a virtual keyboard to search for authors, titles, etc. It’s easy to use, and keeps the industrial design clean & simple and focused on reading vs typing, or accidentally hitting a button which does happen often on other devices.”

All images via Borders.com.

See Also:

• Sony Pocket E-Reader Combines Touchscreen, E Ink
• Sony Takes on the Kindle With Touchscreen E-Readers
• How to Do (Almost) Everything With a Kindle 3
• Wi-Fi Only Nook for $150 in Best Buy
• $150 Kobo eReader: The Real Kindle Killer?
• Kobo E-readers Offered to Hotel Guests
• Kobo Updates E-Reader with Wi-Fi, Price-Drop

So here it is, after months of details coming to light an inkdrop at a time, the HP eStation all-in-one printing solution. But we’re not gonna dwell but on half of that: the 7-inch tablet skinned out by Yahoo and powered by Android 2.1. As we expected, though, the Google experience is decidedly less that you’re accustomed to: search is Yahoo only, and our attempt to find an alternate method was met with a barebones settings menu. Additionally, there is no access to Android Market, relegating your customization instead to HP’s print-heavy app store — sorry, no games, as that’s not what the company wants to focus on here, according to the rep. That also means no Gmail, much to our dismay. What Yahoo has provided is a suite of apps and widgets that actually work well in their simplicity, from weather to stocks and search.

We were reminded at numerous points that this is a prototype build, and for good reason — the responsiveness was questionably slow, especially in the browser. That said, the Nook store and e-reading app was as fluid as you’d ever need. WiFi is equipped on both the tablet and the printer for cloud-based connectivity on the go. Battery life is measured at four to six hours, and Android 2.2 is expected by holiday still sans Market, but beyond Flash (and at this point we question its performance on this hardware), there’s probably not a lot of value-add in the update. Expect this AIO to be shipping the in the next few weeks.

Continue reading HP’s Photosmart eStation Android tablet hands-on (update: video!)

Filed under: Tablet PCs

HP’s Photosmart eStation Android tablet hands-on (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Sep 2010 11:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony 350 with Cover from Sony Style

Sony doesn’t get as much attention for its e-book readers as Amazon, Apple or Barnes & Noble, but it remains a serious competitor. Its newest and prettiest model will be available stateside this week, and is definitely worth a closer look.

Sony will release three new e-reader models this fall: the Pocket, Touch and Daily Edition, all featuring E Ink displays with optical touchscreens. According to Sony Style USA, the silver Pocket Reader is available for order now and will ship tomorrow (Sept. 14); the pink version can be preordered and should ship Thursday (Sept. 16).

When Gadget Lab looked at Sony’s models earlier this month, they discussed their strategy in the market. “The bottom line is we didn’t want to compete on price,” said Steve Haber, president of Sony’s digital reading business division. “We wanted to build quality and overall experience. We want to give consumers the feel of buying an e-reader, not a toy.”

The most attention-grabbing feature of the new Sony is the fact that its E Ink screen responds to touch input. The touch sensors aren’t actually in the screen, but are triggered by infrared sensors all around the screen’s edges. Invisible beams respond when your finger breaks the plane of the screen — just like security devices in a spy movie. You don’t even have to actually physically touch the screen for the sensors to respond, just get within the sensor’s threshold.

The Sony PRS-350 has the same Pearl high-contrast E Ink screen as the Kindle, but in a slightly smaller form factor (5 inches instead of 6 inches). According to iReader Review (and as you can see from the gallery after the jump below), this knocks the image and text quality of the old Sony Readers out of the park. And because the new Pocket Reader doesn’t have a hardware keyboard, the whole device is only 5 3/4 inches by 4 1/8 inches, and just a shade over 1/3-inch thick.

Like all Sony Readers, it supports both ePub and PDF with or without DRM. The body design is gorgeous, and the build quality is reportedly top-notch.

So we have a tiny, touchscreen E Ink reading machine that might even display images and tiny fonts better than the new Kindle. Did Sony just make the long-awaited “paperback e-reader” to move the whole show?

No, unfortunately, they didn’t. Here’s why.

The Sony Pocket reader has no internet capability at all. No Wi-Fi, no 3G. Nothing.

This means that while it’s terrific for reading books, you can’t use it to read anything else. No checking e-mail, no using Instapaper, no Google Reader.

Speaking of Instapaper and RSS readers — there’s also the specter of the Amazon App Store, which promises to add a lot more functionality to the Kindle. Functionality that’s likely to be dependent in no small part on web access. Even if Sony starts thinking seriously about casual gaming on their e-Readers — and frankly, I think moving in the other direction and putting e-Books on PSPs is a lot more likely — they’re still moving uphill.

In a follow-up review, iReader Review notes that actually loading books onto the Pocket Reader is a giant pain. “It’s not just that you can’t get books to Sony 350 wirelessly in 60 seconds. You can’t get books to it in 60 seconds period…. Sony proves that it’s a hardware company and not a software company.” He notes several other user-experience problems with the device, too, including an imagined vignette where Sony asks its software design team to take this magical device and completely screw up the UI.

Finally, it costs $179. That’s $10 less than the 3G Kindle (which gets you free 3G forever), and $40 more than the Wi-Fi-only Kindle ($30 more than the Wi-Fi Nook), both of which still get you Wi-Fi. A 20-25 percent markup is a lot to pay for a touchscreen.

Face it — two months ago, the Sony Pocket Reader would have been a cannonball in the world of e-readers. It would have been cheaper and more capable than nearly anything on the market. But the Kindle 3, with its improved screen and WebKit browser, is actually turning into something more than a repository for e-books.

Sony’s made a gorgeous one, and I think it will appeal to many, many people. Seriously — it’s appealing to me. But it doesn’t look like the future.

P.S. Whatever you do, don’t try to find this e-reader by searching for “Sony 350.” Sony makes a kajillion products from cameras to DVD players that all have “350″ somewhere in their official handle. It’s a nightmare. Why they don’t just call the thing “Pocket Reader” is completely beyond me.

All images courtesy of iReader Review.

See Also:

• Simple Tip Turns Kindle into Ultimate News Reader
• Amazon Kindle Third Generation With 3G + Wi-Fi
• Showdown: Kindle 2 vs. Sony Reader
• Sony's E-Book Reader Adds Touchscreen, Wireless Downloads
• Despite Reports, B&N Nook Competes Just Fine, Thank You
• Wi-Fi Only Nook for $150 in Best Buy

We saw it this weekend for a fleeting moment, but thankfully one handy reader sent us copies of the product page for HP’s Photosmart eStation C510, which we can now confirm is the Zeus / Zeen printer and detachable tablet combination we caught wind of back in early August — and we’ve got some more details. Bad news first: as of a month ago, the Gmail app was missing and there was no support for Android Market, meaning the Zeen might not be an official “with Google” Android tablet like the Samsung Galaxy Tab. (The product page conspicuously lacks any mention of the OS, so we’re thinking Android might simply be the hidden-away base layer for the TouchSmart UI, making this thing super boring.) It does have the default Android browser and at least some custom apps for printing pictures from Facebook, Yahoo, and Snapfish preloaded, but we don’t know about anything else. Major bummer, but we’re told it shouldn’t be too hard for the community at large to root the sucker. Beta testing begins this month, so that all might change before the projected September 20th release. Here’s what else we know so far:

• The Zeen is a capacitive tablet running HP’s TouchSmart skin on top of Android 2.1 — it won’t get shifted to webOS, and it’s not clear if it’ll get upped to Froyo before launch given the development time required. It has capacitive touch buttons, an SD card slot, video support, and at least some prototypes have cameras with a special webcam app installed.
• We’re told TouchSmart will be locked in, but we don’t know how deep that’ll go — right now the standard Android homescreen is still accessible. That’s supposedly going away, so don’t get your hopes up for any native Gmail / Angry Birds use.
• E-reading is a major focus, and the Zeen has “significant” integration with the Barnes & Noble Nook bookstore and ecosystem. Makes sense, as the Nook itself is based on Android, and being able to print e-books from the Zeen would be a huge differentiator — and a great way for HP to sell more ink.
• The touchscreen is apparently not very accurate at all, and we’re told the overall experience is far less satisfying than a competent Android phone. Don’t expect this to replace your Droid Incredible for all at-home use.
• The Zeen will come in two configurations: a $399 bundle with a new printer called Zeus and as a standalone unit for an unknown price. The Zeus has its own “basic” control setup, but when the Zeen is docked it provides a rich interface to the printing functions — presumably a web-connected interface like the one HP’s been moving towards with other printers. (Note: the product page listed $399.99 but provided no indication what price the Zeen might go for solo.)
• Ship date is an estimated September 20th but due to some testing issues this may be pushed back.

Until HP comes clean and inks out the details for all the world to see, check out the product page in pictorial format below.

Exclusive: HP Photosmart eStation C510 is Android-powered Zeus / Zeen, may not run Gmail or Market apps originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Sep 2010 12:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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