Feedbooks will launch e-book reader this fall

[Taylor514ce]

Originally Posted by NatCh

Nope, just out of state. The Republic recently decided to open diplomatic relations with Tennessee, an obvious and overdue move, really, considering our closely joined histories.

Anyway, I got tapped for the slot and have opened the Embassy here in Jackson. I'm still working on the sign for the front door.

"All my exes, live in Texas, and that's why I hang my hat in Tennessee..."

We apologize. This interruption brought to you by the committee for [U.S.]. You may now resume your original discussion.

[wallcraft]

Teleread has a couple of threads: Feedbooks working on e-book device: E Ink and six-inch screen and Hint, hint, Sony: Feedbooks will offer embolden feature to make E Ink screen easier to read. They say:

It will be "released this fall through a large retailer in France, and later this year in specialized retailers and online," according to Hadrien.

and

We’re not planning to initially support things such as a dictionary,

The 1st quote is probably from the video, but the 2nd might be new information.

The thread title needs to change to: Feedbooks will launch e-book reader this fall

[zelda_pinwheel]

arg !!! no dictionary ????? oooh, the feedbooks liseuse has taken a serious hit in my estime there... perhaps i will not be the first in line to buy it after all. dictionary lookup has become possibly my favorite feature.

[Taylor514ce]

liseuse

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

liseuse

:thpbbt:

[Hadrien]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

- it will be released as a bundle with feedbooks content already loaded, and also with applications for connexting to the site to download RSS feeds etc. ; the device will have some kind of 3G connectivity, and enough internal memory to contain hundreds of books (the amount of internal memory has not been completely decided yet).

Ok, I need to correct a few points.
The device won't be connected, but we're working on software to connect such devices to our service. We haven't decided yet what we'll do with the software, but it'll be probably available to any hardware manufacturers that would like to integrate Feedbooks into their device or any programmer that would like to integrate features/content from Feedbooks into a website, a widget etc...

- it will definitely fully support epub.

We're working on the support for a commercial (DRM...) format, nothing finalized yet. There's basically 2 choices for this: ePub (with Adobe's DRM) or Mobipocket.

arg !!! no dictionary ????? oooh, the feedbooks liseuse has taken a serious hit in my estime there... perhaps i will not be the first in line to buy it after all. dictionary lookup has become possibly my favorite feature.

I'm not saying that we'll never support such a feature, but honestly, I'd rather focus on the basic features and doing them right first rather than trying to do everything all at once and mess things up.

[zelda_pinwheel]

thanks for the clarifications, Hadrien ! sorry to interrupt your work with our impatient speculations... it's good to have more (and official, accurate) details.

i happen to consider a dictionary to be very very important, however i do understand your point of view and it seems absolutely defendable and reasonable.

i noticed in one of the articles linked higher up you mention planning regular updates (brilliant !), can we hope to see dictionary support added in a near future, as an update ?

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

thanks for the clarifications, Hadrien ! sorry to interrupt your work with our impatient speculations... it's good to have more (and official, accurate) details.

i happen to consider a dictionary to be very very important, however i do understand your point of view and it seems absolutely defendable and reasonable.

i noticed in one of the articles linked higher up you mention planning regular updates (brilliant !), can we hope to see dictionary support added in a near future, as an update ?

Yea, dictionary support does need to be in the basic plan even if it is not released at first. There are some fundamental architecture decisions for properly supporting a dictionary. It is not just a simple add on.

Dale

[Hadrien]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

well, he did specifically mention they were trying to keep the cost reasonable, in the interview. however 1. he couldn't yet be more specific, so "reasonable" could mean anything, and 2. i don't know how international sales would work, at first. i'm sure Hadrien will let us know more details, as soon as he can, if he can take a break from working on feedbooks...

Nothing finalized yet, but "reasonable" in this case would mean similar to the other 6" on the market (Sony PRS-505 & Cybook).

Unlike Astak, which basically use a very generic firmware from Netronix (something that I can't imagine releasing in Europe or in the US) based on what I've seen so far, we have dedicated resources working on the firmware and we're building most of it ourselves. As with any other product, price will go down once we reach a certain number of units sold.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by Hadrien

We're working on the support for a commercial (DRM...) format, nothing finalized yet. There's basically 2 choices for this: ePub (with Adobe's DRM) or Mobipocket.

MobiPocket might give dictionary support almost by default. Does Adobe even have dictionary support today?

The problem with MobiPocket is that their Java reader is an orphan that does not seem to have been worked on in years (even given its use in the Kindle), with very poor control over the display of text on the screen. It has been the only DRM game in town for Linux based readers, so I hope they get their act together now Adobe is shaping up as a real competitor. Bookeen has the best MobiPocket/Kindle E-Ink text renderer currently, because (if I understand correctly) they are not using the Java reader.

[archerwoo]

very nice news
i hope there are more corporations products E-readers then i think the price will be
lower than now.
second, i hope the e-book reader by Feedbooks can be more confortable with PDF format cus i read only PDF ebook. the shipment should be also confortable with people all over the world.