10:12 AM by igorsk in E-Book Readers | Sony Reader

Reported by knigolub from the-ebook.org forums. Rough translation:

A few days ago I've met a guy with the Sony Reader in Montreal's metro. He said he was at a Sony conference and Sony Canada announced that Reader sales will start on June 1st.

Source: http://www.the-ebook.org/forum/viewt...?p=78413#78413

09:14 AM by NatCh in E-Book Readers | Alternative Devices

Intel launches 'Centrino Jnr' for UMPCs

ZDNet Australia is reporting that Intel has a new chip just out that's expressly designed for UMPCs. The CPUs, known as 'Stealey' CPUs, are "ultra-low voltage tweaks of the 90nm Pentium M processor with a 512Kb Level 2 cache."

The article also discusses Intel's intent to re-position UMPCs as "mobile Internet Devices," and discussion of increasing emphasis on Linux as an OS for them. It doesn't seem to be suggesting that they're abandoning Windows, just adding more Linux exposure:

"Intel's positioning of UMPCs as mobile Internet devices and its choice of Linux as an OS makes sense for OEMs, as the target audience is now consumers and prosumers rather than mobile professionals," said Hugo Ortega, director of Sydney-based tablet PC and UMPC distributor Tegatech Australia.

"UMPC sales are being dragged down by their high price, unrealistic expectations and lack of functionality with Windows Vista. Given that current UMPCs and Tablet PCs are considered as niche products, it makes sense for Intel to adopt a broader market strategy," Ortega said.

Ortega cautions that vendors will have to hit the right price point for ultra mobiles. "Cost will be a crucial factor contributing to the success or demise of these devices. If the price is too high then the same critics who slammed the first generation of Microsoft's UMPC platform will have a field day with these devices."

The Linux-powered mobile Internet devices are expected to touch down in the first half of 2008, which is also when Intel will release its second-generation ultra-mobile platform codenamed Menlow.

"Menlow is designed from the ground up for ultra-mobility," said Chandrasekher, "and it meets Intel's goal of achieving a 10x reduction in power consumption by 2008".

There's a bit more nitty-gritty in the article, for those who are interested.

Full article.

08:55 AM by NatCh in E-Book Readers | Alternative Devices

Apple to Offer Subsidized iPhone?

PMP Today is reporting that AT&T (Cingular) may be offering iPhones with a subsidy for new (maybe renewed?) contracts:

American Technology (AmTech) analyst Shaw Wu had it from reliable sources that Apple is considering selling a subsidized iPhone through its exclusive carrier AT&T. “We are hearing rebates of $50-150 that will be offered by AT&T to lower the price points for iPhone (currently $499 for 4 GB and $599 for 8 GB) and to entice customers to sign longer term voice and data contracts,” Wu wrote. “From AT&T’s perspective, a rebate is a great marketing tool and small sacrifice to make to entice a customer to sign up for 2-year voice and data cell phone plans that cost about $75-100 per month (before taxes and fees), meaning $1800-2400 in ‘guaranteed’ bi-annual revenue.”

The article further comments that part of the monthly fees may go straight to Apple as well, and that analysts are predicting a revenue jump of something like $1.3 billion ... um, in the next year, I guess, they don't really say.

Full article.

05:38 PM by Adam B. in More E-Book Readers | iRex

I have released a File Manager for the iLiad. It uses the 3 paned approach similar to Midnight Commander. The attached zip file will work in any directory on the the iLiad.

A word of caution. Deleting files with the "Trash" icon will move them to /home/root/.local/Trash/Files. If you delete too large of a file from the memory card, it is possible to fill up the internal file system. I recommend that you do not use the trash function until I can sort out the root cause of this.

You can find more information about emelFM2 here: http://emelfm2.net/emelFM2

04:45 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Intel showcased the Metro Notebook during the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing this month, and while we've seen only a few mock-ups of the device, a lucky PC Pro author had the chance to experience the real thing. It's a superslick notebook with an E Ink display attached in its leather case. Unlike what the mock-ups like us to believe, the E Ink display is still not in color but only in the typical four levels of grey.

Still, seeing a major brand like Intel embracing E Ink technology makes my heart leap for joy.

04:43 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book Readers | Sony Reader

Did you know that there is a nice collection of classic works appearing at the Sony Reader Uploads section of our forums? Some of the works already available include e-books like the original Zorro ("the Scarlet Pimpernel of California"), and from authors such as the following:

* Edgar Rice Burroughs' (Tarzan collections)
* Jane Austen
* Edgar Allan Poe
* H. Rider Haggard (a multi-volume anthology)
* Charles Dickens
* H.G Wells
* Jules Verne

Feel free to take a look and download the books you are interested in. They are all manually formatted for the Sony Reader to provide a superior reading experience, likely to be much nicer than the equivalent offerings on original sources like Project Gutenberg or even the Sony Connect store.

We also encourage you to contribute yourself with some not copyrighted e-books formatted for the Sony Reader. There is even a very nice tutorial to get you started. Even if you don't contribute, you may want to take a look at the tutorial to get familiar with one approach to formatting books and preparing them for the Sony Reader.

We especially want to thank the newest MobileRead moderator, HarryT, who has initiated and coordinated this effort. He has seeded it with many books himself, and don't miss his great book descriptions! He also created the primary formatting tutorial, and nourishes the cooperative effort. It is exciting to see his work and the many others who are contributing significantly to this rich resource in many ways.

Contributions don't just include book uploads, but additional help with determination of copyright status (to make sure posted works are in the public domain, which is not always so easy to determine), or updates to the MobileRead wiki (see e-book conversion tools or e-book file formats or Book Designer, for example.)

This is an exciting beginning to a new collection of custom formatted e-books for the Sony Reader, and the community has really been delightfully helpful.

We don't want to forget, however, to highlight some of the many huge efforts toward making public domain books available to all of us. And some of them even provide some form of automated conversions to Sony Reader formats. Distributed Proofreaders, Project Gutenberg, ManyBooks, Blackmask Online (now via Silk Pagoda) and others are on the front lines and bring us huge digital libraries of great works. Due to the vast numbers of books, only the cream of the crop will ever be hand formatted for specific devices, but we want to give credit to those giant shoulders on which we are standing.

So if you have a Sony Reader, go check it out, grab a book, and after enjoying it maybe you'll catch the wave and add some books yourself!

04:21 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Yeah, well, it's not exactly a full digital Harry Potter, but considering Ms. Rowling's shortsighted stance on e-books, it's a milestone. LibreDigital, the European unit of NewsStand, is letting you search and preview books from Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury through their "Look Inside" online service.

The service is Flash-based and you can try it out here.

Thanks to David of TeleRead for pointing out the news.

03:30 PM by Alexander Turcic in More E-Book Readers | iRex

Matthijs provided us with a link to the history of iRex Technologies, the company he works for. I assume most of you already knew that iRex is a Royal Philips Electronics spin-off. What's new, at least to me, is what makes the iRex iLiad special in technical terms:

Apart from major steps in the development of waveforms, iRex Technologies also developed the next generation display controller. The “Delta” chip encompasses many of the unique skills and knowledge’s, built up over the years by the iRex Team and is now readily available in the iRex iLiad which explains its uniqueness among other Electronic Paper Devices. With this product the boundaries of the electronic paper experience has been pushed even further, from E-Book to an actual Electronic Paper Device. The latter carries an EPD that can display black, white, 16 levels of grey and that is enabled with writing and sets a distinct course for electronic paper devices to come.

It doesn't seem that any other vendors use the "Delta" chipset in their current reader devices. Now you know why the iLiad is the currently only commercial e-book reader device with a larger display, a better resolution and 16 instead of 4 levels of grey.