02:32 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

Toronto, Canada, January 11, 2010 --(PR.com)-- Riding on the success of 1,216% year-over-year growth in 2009, Wattpad today announced that the company has completed its first round of funding. A consortium of private investors including Harvey Beck and Alan Levine, former co-CEOs of ICOM and Bert Amato, co-founder of Delrina participated in this round.

Wattpad, also known as "YouTube for ebooks + MySpace for writers", is the world's most popular ebook community where readers and writers discover, share and connect. The investment will allow Wattpad to capitalize on its leading position in the red hot mobile, social media and ebook sectors.

from:
http://www.pr.com/press-release/203504

09:13 AM by anurag in E-Book General | News

Note: A few days ago Nate asked me if I would be interested in becoming a staff writer for MobileRead. I gladly agreed, and this is my first post in this role.

Barely ten days into January, 2010 is already being hailed as the year of the ereader. However, recent developments indicate that 2010 could be the beginning of the end for dedicated ereaders as new multi-function devices become the ereading devices of choice for consumers. Even as the Apple Tablet looms over the horizon, companies like Pixel Qi and Qualcomm hope to antiquate e-ink based devices with new display technologies that offer full color, video-capable refresh rates and enhanced indoor and outdoor viewability while still consuming far less power than traditional LCD screens.

Another such company is Liquavista, a 2006 spin-out from Philips Research Labs in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The key to Liquavista’s display technology is electrowetting, a technique that uses electric fields to change how solid surfaces interact with liquids. Liquavista’s electrowetting displays consist of a layer of colored oil between a layer of water and a solid water-repelling surface. In this stable state, the layer of oil is visible to the viewer through the water. When a charge is applied, the layer of oil changes its shape, exposing the solid surface below and changing the perceived color of the 3-layered surface. Such manipulations are performed at the level of tiny pixels to create a full-color screen. The power consumption of Liquavista’s display technique remains low because the stable state requires a low constant charge and the solid surface below the layer of oil can be made reflective to maintain screen brightness without the need for a backlight like in LCD screens. Most importantly, the electric transformations that manipulate the layer of oil can be applied several hundred times a second, giving the technology the ability to render video.

In October 2009 Liquavista demonstrated a 6-inch device running video on a monochrome display with 64 shades of gray (compared to the Kindle’s 16). The official name of the monochrome technology is LiquavistaBright:

At CES this year, Liquavista displayed the color version of LiquavistaBright. The demo below compares a contemporary e-ink screen with LiquavistaColor technology.

At CES Liquavista also demonstrated a concept device called the LiquavistaPebble (video below), but few specifics were released beyond the description of the curved shape of the device.

While Liquavista’s technology sounds promising, the biggest challenge for the company isn’t technical. Pixel Qi has already announced a partnership with Notion Ink to bring a color e-reader to market this summer, and there have been strong rumors about the next Kindle using Qualcomm’s Mirasol color display. So far Liquavista have only announced a partnership with chip-maker Texas Instruments, who plan to use Liquavista in their ‘next-generation e-reader development platform’. There are reports that Liquavista-based devices will not be available before the first quarter of 2011, by when Pixel Qi and Qualcomm’s Mirasol may have made significant inroads into the ereading market.

E-ink based displays have played an important role in creating the current market for ereaders and continue to dominate the market as the screen technology of choice in e-readers from Amazon, Sony and Barnes & Noble. But e-ink (and dedicated e-reading products) might be forced into oblivion as new multi-function devices offer more bang for the consumers’ buck. Sri Peruvemba, vice president of marketing at E Ink, is still not convinced. “If I give one of these devices to my daughter and I know she’s going to make phone calls on it and surf the Internet on it, I’m not going to be motivated to buy it for her”.

If the lack of features like video and voice continues to be E Ink’s unique selling proposition, display innovators like Liquavista might have much to cheer about this year.

Thanks to CleverClothe for pointing out an error in the story's description of Liquavista's power management techniques.

09:53 PM by skyline in E-Book Readers | Alternative Devices

Let's just say that this year we will have a greater that ever variety of umpcs/tablets/slates to choose from. I'm sure that there are a lot more devices coming out sooner or later this year so please feel free to add to the following short list:

Microsoft boss Steve Balmer showed off HP running windows tablet at CES 2010
Dell Mini 5
C-Motech Mangrove 7” Tablet
Wirelession W1090
Ramos W7
Archos 9 - it's been around for a while
Asus EeePC Touch Series Tablet
viliv n5
Compal Android tablet
Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid
Mirasol shows prototype reader-like device
Entourage Edge
Paradigm Shift readers
Sungale 7-inch Cyberus
Freescale smartbook short review from Chippy (this device looks very sweet at 200 dollars)
LG GW990
ASUS planning dual screen Eee Reader: world's cheapest e-book reader
Vega Android Tablet
Creative Zii MediaBook e-reader
Cowon's Atom-powered W2 MID
MSI Android tablet
MSI dual touchscreen umpc/netbook !!!!!!
Cydle M7 Android tablet
Quanta Tegra 2

09:49 PM by taglines in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Get ready for a potentially controversial book, coming mid-2010.

Back in 2006, William Powers, a national media critic who lives on Cape Cod in eastern Massachusetts, wrote a 75-page paper titled "Hamlet's BlackBerry: Why Paper Is Eternal" that was published by a Harvard think tank, and it still available online as free pdf read. In fact, it available at the link below if you go to the extra icon.

Powers' longform essay caught the attention of publishers in New York, and with a major change in emphasis, a book will be published in July and titled "Hamlet's BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age."

Note the new subtitle. According to Powers, the book will bear no resemblance to the long journalism piece that led to the book deal, and is not even about paper. According to Powers, "The book is about managing life in our connected world, and the need for a new philosophy."

Here's the link to the publisher's web page:
http://www.harpercollinscatalogs.com/harper/527_1300_313837383333.htm

The HarperCollins pre-publication publicity says of the book: "A crisp, passionately argued polemic that challenges the sacred dogma of the digital age -- the more we connect through technology, the happier we are -- and offers a new, practical philosophy for life in a world of screens."

More from the PR department: "At a time when everyone, from big businesses to ordinary individuals, is trying to make sense of their connected lives, 'Hamlet's Blackberry' presents a bold new paradigm for understanding the devices that now demand so much of our time and attention. Written in a lively, engaging style, 'Hamlet's BlackBerry' shows how our computers and mobile devices are changing the way we think, feel, and relate to others. While these technologies are tremendously helpful, they are also becoming our greatest burden, making it harder for us to focus and think clearly, do our best work and achieve the depth and fulfillment we crave."

And this: "'Hamlet's BlackBerry' argues that we've surrendered too much of our lives to our screens, by following a philosophy the author calls Digital Maximalism. He offers an alternative approach that any individual or organization can use to manage their connectedness more wisely. Drawing on the ideas of some of the most brilliant thinkers in the history of human connectedness, from Socrates to Shakespeare and Ben Franklin to Marshall McLuhan, this new philosophy proceeds from the simple notion that connectedness serves us best when it'ss offset by its opposite, disconnectedness. There are ways to strike a healthy balance between the two, and Hamlet's BlackBerry shows how, using concrete examples from everyday life."

11:16 AM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

An observant MR member just pointed this out to me. It's another 6" e-ink reader from China, only this one runs Android. Here is what we know so far (from the webpage):

• Android OS
• 6" 16 gray scale screen
• 3G or Wifi (optional)
• ebook formats: TXT, HTML, EPUB, Adobe ® PDF, Office DOC support
• web browser
• apps: reader, notepad, dictionary, games
• keyboard
• microphone
• headphones
• speaker
• microSD card slot
• release date: February 2009

from:
http://translate.google.com/translat...tbb=1&ie=UTF-8

10:52 AM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

I've come across a bunch of articles on this topic; I almost wrote one myself. But I'm not so sure the market is over saturated; I'm not going to jump to the same conclusion as everyone else.

But I do think buyers should be cautious. I wouldn't buy a device that is dependent on a service (sorry, txtr). I wouldn't buy an ereader that is dependent on a locked in format (Jetbook Lite, eSlick). And I wouldn't plan on being able to use the wirelss connection of an e-reader; if (when) Irex shuts its doors, will Sprint continue to support the DR800SG?

And in case you're wondering why I don't include the Kindle in the above, it's because Amazon is the 800 pound gorilla. They're not going away.

CES: E-readers' next chapter might not have happy ending (CNet)

The e-book wars of 2010: displays and hardware (Ars Technica)

Too Many eReaders (Gawker)

CES is Not a Book Fair (Publishing Perspectives)

"Deluge" of devices threatens e-market (the Bookseller)

10:31 AM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

So I'm slowly working my way through the RSS feeds I missed during CES, and I came across this video on Mediabistro. It's worth a listen, but when I tried to watch it, it was pretty choppy and had a low frame rate. Did anyone else have this problem?

from:
http://www.mediabistro.com/ebooknews...8252.asp?c=rss

10:20 AM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

The EFF has responded to the comments, complaints, and corrections about the previous version of the privacy guide. They posted a new one on Wednesday.

A few weeks ago, EFF published its first draft of a Buyer's Guide to E-Book Privacy, which summarized and commented on the privacy-related policies and behaviors of several e-readers. In that first draft we incorporated the actual language of the privacy policies as much as possible, which unfortunately created some confusion since companies generally use different language to address similar issues. We also did a few other things clumsily.

Since then, thanks to the feedback and corrections we've received, we've made some updates and corrections to the guide which we hope will make it more useful. First, we've re-written many of the questions and answers to provide more clarity about the behavior of each e-reader. Second, we've tried point out where companies' privacy policies themselves are unclear on particular issues. And finally, we've made the whole thing easier to read by changing its visual layout.

This guide continues to be a work in progress. So, please continue to let us know whether it's helpful and what additions you'd like to see.

from:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01...-guide-privacy