05:07 AM by igorsk in E-Book General | News

Thanks to Forkosigan for the English version of PR.

Netronix Inc. and PocketBook declare joint venture

Las Vegas, USA – January, 7th, 2010 – Netronix Inc. and PocketBook announced creation of the new joint venture today. The decision was based on detailed researches of the world’s electronic market needs. The merged enterprise will operate under the PocketBook Global.
Two e-readers industry leaders bring synergy to the unified company – on the one hand PocketBook develops unique software and designing readers and on the other hand Netronix Inc. has a great experience in manufacturing network products and electronic devices.
International CES 2010 show in Las Vegas, USA, was chosen to declare creating of new joint venture not accidentally. Directing to product high quality and innovation, PocketBook Global is to become one of the world’s leaders of the electronic readers market.
“In view of global warming Netronix Inc. has decided to proceed to manufacture environmentally friendly products – the e-book readers on the basis of E-Ink Technology. Co-operation with PocketBook holds on for a long time successfully. We are sure that the electronic readers PocketBook Global will have a brilliant future”, - President of Netronix Inc., Mr. Arthur Lu.
“Collaboration with Netronix Inc. opens a new wave of impressive possibilities for both companies. PocketBook achieves higher level in development and reduces chances for other e-reader producers to reach the same positions. We are glad to meet the e-readers PocketBook Global in 2010 globally”, - President of PocketBook, Mr. Igor Popov.
PocketBook Global intends to put on sale more than 20 models of e-readers in 2010. The new company’s annual turnover is projected at above USD 165 mln. Representative offices will be located in major world markets - USA, Germany, Russia, China and some others.

Contact information:
Taiwan: Lisa Lin, +886 2 29120211 ext:34, lisa_lin@netronixinc.com
Ukraine: Michael Kholmanskikh, +38050 4888444, mike@pocketbook.ua
USA: Yaroslav (Jerry) Bondarenko (914) 374-5067, ybondarenko@pocketbookreader.com
Germany: Anatoli Loucher, +49 (0) 172 3153898, info@pocketbook.de

Reference:

Netronix, Inc. – World’s manufacturer of electronic readers, network products, POS-terminals and multimedia devices. Founded in 1997 by group of professionals company has US$8,600,000 funds. Headquarters are located in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Details – www.NetronixInc.com.

PocketBook – PocketBook is quite young but rapidly growing company with current turnover more than US$ 25,000,000. This is an independent company, known by its extremely friendly software which allows to read books, play audio books, look pictures and has a lot of additional applications as well. Details – www.PocketBookReader.com

This is pretty big.

09:21 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

Wiltronic sells a number of different products under the Iview brand: netbook, digital picture frame, a bunch of digital cameras, cellphone, and more. I only got to see the one ebook reader, but according to the website Wiltronic will soon be selling 3 different models.

The one I saw was a rebranded Oaxis, which is made by Gajah International. Since the hardware specs are well known, I won't list them here. It felt quite solid and performed reasonably well. I can confirm that the reading software is FBReader, and that it has both a landscape and portrait mode. It doesn't appear to have all of FBReader's abilities, but the menu options include bookmark, search, goto page, and font size.

There are 2 page turn buttons on the left side of the screen, and on the right there are 12 buttons. When in landscape mode the two middle buttons can turn the page. I hope you can reassign some of the 12 buttons to turn the page while in portrait mode. Some users prefer one over the other.

It has a retail of $299 and a release date of soon. I'm not too happy about the price, but I see no reason not to recommend this as one of the ebook readers one might consider. It should suit someone.

09:03 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

Sungale is a maker of small electronic devices like digital picture frames, IP radios, and the like. The EB601 is a departure from the rest of Sungale's products in that it is the first to use an epaper screen. There were a couple mock-ups and 1 functional unit on hand. The one functional unit had an incomplete and still buggy firmware, so I couldn't actually read anything on it. The projected release date is April with a retail of $169.

They're not planning to add DRM support, but it will have FBReader. I have one of the handouts in front of me, and the specs are as follows:

• 6" screen
• 600x800 resolution
• 16 level gray scale
• text to speech
• ebook formats: HTML, PDF, Epub, TXT, Doc, PPT, Excel
• picture formats: JPG, TIFF, BMP, PNG
• Audio formats: MP3, WMA
• Storage: SD (up to 16 GB)

I'll scan the hand out and post it when I get home. You can't tell from the pictures, but there are 2 speakers on the back in the lower corners. There are 4 buttons below the screen: font size, menu, return, and orientation. There are 11 buttons on the right of the screen, the 11th is labeled mark. I would assume that this is for bookmarks.

You may recall that I reviewed the Sungale Cyberus. I didn't think it was a very good ebook reader. The rep I spoke to was familiar with my review and agreed with me. I got the impression that they were more unhappy with the fact it had been labeled an ebook reader than the review.

09:26 AM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

The site was updated this morning in anticipation of CES. You can't actually do anything other than wander around. The reader software is not yet available for download, and the Blio bookstore won't open until February.

But the site does list the hardware and software needs for Blio. The minumum requirement is WinXP, Vista, or Win7 on a 1.6GHz CPU. There is no mention of OSX or any hand held devices. Given the OS requirements, a dedicated reader is out of the question.

The FAQ hints at some of the things you can do with Blio: bookmark, TTS, and annotate with notes, images, and audio/video clips. Blio will also support direct download of content from such sites as PG, Feedbooks, and Munsey's.

http://blioreader.com/

********
I'm somewhat relieved. With all the rumors flying around before the announcement, I was worried that a new format will add to the tower of e-babel. I don't think we'll have to worry about the Blio doing that. Given the high support requirements, it probably won't catch on and hopefully die a quiet death in a couple years.

07:01 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

I only had about 5 minutes to play with it, so my remarks will be rather light. I will try to add more detail when the show opens tomorrow.

Samsung announced a pair of ebook readers for the US market at CES. I couldn't get in to the press conference, but when I saw Engadget's live blog I grabbed my notebook and snuck in. Only the 6” model (the E6) was on hand, but I was told that the 9.7” model (E101) would be on display tomorrow in Samsung's booth.

It's a white with silver trim slider design, and I have to say I'm impressed. The under panel had 2 speakers, a d-pad, and 4 menu buttons.On the lower edge was the headphone port, USB mini-B (client, I assume), and the power switch. The back is a smooth and slightly curved. On the upper edge is a slot for the Wacom Stylus. The only buttons below the screen are the page turn buttons. It has a Vizplex screen, and I confirmed that the 9.7” model also has a screen made by PVI.

I do not know what it is using for reader software, but it doesn't appear to be Adobe DE. I've seen 3 ebook readers with touchscreens and Adobe DE; all handled sketches the same. The E6 was different. You can search, highlight, bookmark, and scribble a note. There is also a drawing mode.

The UI is very similar to the pictures I've seen of the ebook readers Samsung is selling in Korea, so I would guess that it was probably developed by the same dev team. That would make the E6 Samsung's 3rd or 4th ebook reader, which explains why the response rate was so fast. I only have my Boox to compare it with at the moment, but the E6 was much faster.

Some of the other features include TTS (it sounded okay in a noisy room), Wifi, and integration with the pd Google Books. The projected retail is $399 for the 6” and $699 for the 9.7”. Currently the projected release date is March or April.

03:12 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

I just found this interview on one of the tech blogs I follow. The subject of the interview is the lead researcher for the company. The topic of the interview is the epaper skin announced last month.

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english...100106/178979/

02:42 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

from the press release:

McGraw-Hill Education today announced a strategic alliance with enTourage Systems, Inc., to deliver McGraw-Hill's higher educational content to the enTourage eDGe(TM), a revolutionary interactive dualbook(TM) that combines the features of an e-book reader, notepad and tablet netbook in one device. Students purchasing McGraw-Hill titles for the enTourage eDGe will not only be able to read the text but take and share notes online, search for phrases in the text, listen to accompanying audio and view images and video in full color.

**********

It's not clearly stated, but it sound like the McGraw-Hill textbooks in the Edge store will be the ones created for McGraw-Hill Connect. I've discussed my misgivings with the new format over here. I don't like that they created a new format, but if it is coming to the Edge, then this has the potential of being great news for students.

01:54 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

Liquavista just posted a press release on their website.

6th January 2010 – Eindhoven – Liquavista BV. today launched its latest technology platform LiquavistaColor, which offers bright full color capability and the advantages of full interactivity and hi-fidelity video at ultra-low power to future advanced eReader devices for the first time.

They're going to have the demo units on display in their booth at CES. I half expected this announcement; that's why this company was already on my list.

Liquavista also updated their website with new information (it's on their homepage, no less). There is also a brief video here.

Edit: A member found it on Youtube.