06:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

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E-Book General - News and Commentary

• A New Year's reflection on the ePub e-book format
• Paradigm Shift's new ebook readers
• A last minute update for CES
• Skiff reader is largest yet with 11.5" display to debut at CES
• Vook's Sherlock Holmes App (mediabistro)
• Outlook for electronic books in China appears bright (WSJ)
• Cincinnati buys Mayor, other politicians Kindles to save $25K/year
• Hands On with Spring Design Alex
• New York Times- "Microsoft and HP to Debut Courier Tomorrow"
• E-Books – The Bigger Problem, Part One of Three
• Kindle DX goes International
• Meet Copia - a new ebook reading platform
• NewspaperDirect comes to the Kindle, Sony
• e-Books: Averting a Digital Horror Story (BusinessWeek)
• LiquaVista to demo color epaper reader at CES
• McGraw-Hill digital textbooks coming to the Entourage Edge
• Interview: Kars-Michiel H Lenssen of Philips Research (Tech-on)
• I just saw Samsung's new ebook reader
• Blio site is up
• Sungale EB601
• Iview-600EB
• E-book writes its 2nd chapter, ITnews AU
• PocketBook and Netronix to merge as PocketBook Global
• First readers with SiPix screens announced
• Borders to sell the Spring Design Alex
• Introducing the Bebook Neo
• Hanvon ebook readers
• Introducing the Cybook Orizon
• Ditto Book
• Copia

01:27 AM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

You might remember that I reported on Copia before. It appeared out of the blue with a complete platform of software+devices. Today I had time to visit the DCM Worldwide booth, and they might actually have something here.

Let me preface my remarks by saying that what I saw was a demo. They didn't have a complete version of the software on display. Also, the devices were present, but they wouldn't let me touch them.

That being said, it was an impressive demo. The desktop software I saw seemed very sophisticated and complex. When I describe it before as social media meets ebook reading, I was right. I don't know enough about social networking to comment on it.

There was an impressive number of ebook readers and accessories on display. I believe I caught most of them in the attached photos. (The 4th and 5th photos show a keyboard that is supposed to plug into the screen only units.)

I was told that the software should be out in March, and the ereaders are due out in June. I asked and was told that the retail price for the e-readers ranged from $199 to $299. Yes, the $299 price is for the 9.7" device with a touchscreen. (I don't believe it, either.)

11:53 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

This company was a pleasant surprise. I first heard about them some time ago, when they were importing the stock Netronix reference model with the original firmware and offering customization services such as content loading and engraving. At the time they were barely worth a mention, but times have changed.

When I stopped by their booth today, I learned that Ditto Book now offer both the D-6, a 6" ereader with keyboard, and the D-9, a 9.7" with touchscreen. The larger one was not on hand, but they did have the D-6.

They actually have 3 devices to offer under this model name. All have keyboards, and they all come with FBReader. I identified at least one of the 6" units as being made by Insdream. You may recall I mentioned a e-reader with an unusual LCD screen a while back. That was it. The screen was a little odd, but it was usable.

Ditto Book will soon be selling the D-6 and D-9 retail at www.dittobook.com. The expected retail is $249 and $429 (they were less than certain on the price of the D-9, so it could be wrong).

P.S. In the pictures below, the gray ereader is the one with the LCD screen.

10:47 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

Bookeen was at CES this year with a new ebook reader. The Orizon has a 6" capacitive touchscreen, with 16 level gray scale. It has Wifi and Bluetooth, and comes with 2GB of storage. According to the handout format support includes Adobe encumbered Epub & PDF as well as FB2, HTML, and TXT. The projected retail price is $249, and it should be available iby June of this year.

I didn't get to spend any time using it, but I did get some pictures.

07:20 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

I visited this company's booth at CES. They are a Chinese company with 4 ebook readers on the market. They actually brought a fifth model that was new to me. Several different models are being distributed in Europe.

The 4 models are the N516, N518, N520, and the N526. All 4 use the same 5" e-ink screen and CPU. They also all use FBReader to display ebooks. The latter 2 models have keyboards, the first two do not. The N518 and the N526 also have touchscreens. As you can see, Hanvon has a nice balance between touchscreen and keyboard options.

I encountered a serious problem with the N520 and N526: I can't use the keyboard. I didn't realize until I had my hands on them but the keyboard buttons are too small. It's not obvious in a photo because the ratio between the keyboard and the screen appears to be about the same as on the Kindle, and that one was quite usable. But these 2 ereaders have a smaller screen.

I also don't like the N516 and N518, but this is really more of a personal preference. I think the buttons are too small. I also found it easy to miss the buttons when pressing while reading. BTW, I own a Jetbook (similar size), and I'm quite happy with it and its buttons.

04:22 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

I managed to meet with Peter Zieleman of Endless Ideas, and he told me about the new Bebook ebook reader. They really could have somehting here.

The Neo is a rebranded Onyx Boox with a new firmware. They've fixed the existing bugs (wifi, for example), and will be ready to release it in the next few weeks. The projected retail for the Neo is 299 to 329 euros.

Their new firmware added a couple neat features. First, you can now use the OTA ebookstore downloads provided by RM 9.1. And second, they're adding an Ebookmall to the menu. They're working with every interested ebook store to enable that store to sell you ebooks on the Neo. And, the Ebookmall menu is organized geographically. You can select your country and you'll see a list of stores that can sell you ebooks.

The Neo still has Wifi, and there is a reason for that. They don't think 3G connectivity will work in Europe. Do you remember the 3G equipped Bebook2? They had a bad experience with trying to sign contracts with European cellular providers. It turned out that it wasn't practical, and the Bebook2 was dropped.

The attached picture is of the Ebookmall. So far that's the only part of the GUI that's been changed.

11:12 AM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

We're a day late on this, but I thought it was worth a note.

FREMONT, Calif. and ANN ARBOR, Mich., Jan. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Spring Design and Borders Group, Inc. (NYSE: BGP) today announced an agreement in principle to feature the upcoming Borders eBook store powered by Kobo on the new dual display Alex(TM) eReader later this year. The agreement in principle follows a recent announcement that Borders will launch a new eBook store on Borders.com as well as Borders-branded mobile eBook applications, powered by Kobo. The new Borders-branded eBook store will offer more than two million titles.

"The combination of Borders' leadership in the book industry and Spring Design's innovation and experience in consumer electronics will create a world class service for eBook readers," said Dr. Priscilla Lu, chief executive officer of Spring Design. "This partnership delivers one of the critical foundations of our business growth going forward," Lu added.

"Our agreement with Spring Design represents another step in our digital strategy, which continues to focus on offering book lovers - including our more than 35 million Borders Rewards loyalty program members - high quality content on the device of their choosing," said Borders Group Chief Executive Officer Ron Marshall. "We look forward to bringing a world class eBook experience to Alex users."

from:
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix....ews&id=1372615

11:12 AM by sabredog in E-Book General | News

Thought this article from ITnews Australia is quite interesting...

Digital restrictions management: help or hindrance to the spread of e-books?

Help, because publishers require it to enter the e-book market, and we need the publishers / their content to make e-books successful; hindrance, because honest customers feel cheated and limited in their rights. Eventually, as e-books will move up the maturity curve and publishers won't have a choice but embrace them, DRM will disappear - just as it did for music from the iTunes store - allowing the consumer to be the judge of what's right and what's wrong, a flexibility that DRM couldn't.

I still believe that DRM is evil and unecessary but the above is quite relevant and quite possibly the way it might pan out eventually. There is no mention of geographic restrictions which may well shape up to be a bigger issue (at least for me) than DRM.

I have narrowed the contenders for my first dedicated ereader to the Onyx Boox 60 and the Kindle 2. The Boox does more for only a little extra in cost, so it is edging ahead. But all these new offerings just over the horizon.....

Cheers

Mike