09:12 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Color us skeptics on this one, but a French company named Nemoptic claims to have developed an electronic paper superior to that of E Ink or other electrophoretic technologies. Just what we expect from e-paper, their bistable nematic technology (also dubbed BiNem) requires power only when you change the content of the screen. In addition, the company says it's offering a better contrast ratio ("up to 15:1" versus "4:1") and a faster refresh rate than E Ink. Well, perhaps they did not update their webpage recently, but from the information I could gather, the current generation of E Ink displays has an 8:1 contrast ratio. Probably one great advantage, if true, is that you can use standard LCD production lines to manufacture BiNem display panels.

Last week, Nemoptic CTO Jacques Angele was interviewed by a French newssite, and he said that his company was about to enter the e-book market with the Sylen reader (see photo). While I don't know anything about this reader, I found on their website (here and here (PDF)) that back in 2003, there was another reader supposedly launched with BiNem technology in partnership with Taiwanese Picvue. Do you know more?

07:33 AM by CommanderROR in More E-Book Readers | Netronix

Good news everyone! My STAReBOOK arrived just now. I can't give you a big review yet of course, but I'll just put up a few pictures of this pretty little device. A few things I can say so far:

Booting up is about 4x faster than the iRex iLiad. The device is very small and light, it's easy to hold with two fingers (!!!) and it comes with a nice set of accessories. There is even a 512MB SD card in the box.
It also has a user replaceable battery (!!!) (as you can see in the pics) and it's recognized as a mass-storage device in Windows, showing up as two devices, one for the main storage and one for the SD card.

The device has some of the style of an Apple iPod and feels nice in the hand because the back is slightly rubberized. I have not transferred any books onto it yet, but I'll do that this afternoon and try my best to give you a short pre-review this evening (German time).

For now, enjoy the pictures! (sorry for the bad quality in some, I was in a hurry...)

05:24 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Prime View International (PVI), the Taiwanese company who has been pumping E Ink displays out in volumes for the Sony Reader & co, is said to release its own e-book reader in partnership with the French daily Les Echos this spring. According to this news, PVI's reader will not only feature an E Ink screen (no details about size), but also Bluetooth, WiFi, and GPRS connectivity. It will cost around 500 Euro and comes with a year's subscription of the digital edition of Les Echos.

My college French is pretty rusty, but Babelfish did a nice translation.

Thanks Tadw for the tip!

09:34 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Oh goodie, the big day is finally here. According to a report in today's Sunday Times, Google, along with their pals from the publishing industry, are planning to launch an e-book retail platform. Jens Redmer, director of Google Book Search in Europe, is quoted saying that the platform serves as an extension to Google Book Search and targets customers who seek to have online access to e-books with their mobile devices such as the BlackBerry. Beside purchasing books you can also just rent them (such as a travel guide) or buy individual chapters.

My only question is about the usefulness of having online access to books. Mr. Redmer does not mention whether or not you can download purchased e-books and read them offline on your reading device. For me, the latter is a prerequisite for this project to succeed. Also: No comments about the supported e-book format.

07:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

Just in case you've missed anything, here is the list of our frontpage news this week.

E-book Devices, Future E-Book Devices
iriver e-book reader powered by Adobe Reader LE, more photos

E-book Devices, Sony Portable Reader
Sir Stringer on the Reader: "We're not making enough..."
Reminder: Sony's $50 e-books promotion to expire

E-books, News
Designer portrays London Tube with E Ink
Google to host Un-bound event - 15% of book sales through online biz
Toshiba Matsushita Display readies E Ink competing LCD panel
E-paper industry sceptical about short-term prospects

E-books, Reading Software
Adobe launches Digital Editions for Mac, updates

Mobile Devices, Others
Creative TabletPC and UMPC alternatives
The Samsung Q1 in person - Some thoughts
Sharp Zaurus production is being terminated

02:47 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book Readers | Alternative Devices

TamsPalm has posted the sad news that Sharp is ending production of it's line of Linux Zaurus PDAs in February. Apparently, parts will be available for a long time from third party suppliers, which is a testament to the dedicated following that has been built by the products.

The Zaurus is one of those devices that everyone says they love, but nobody actually seems to buy or own. I think we all just really like the idea of having a clamshell device, but when it comes down to it, other form factors are usually more practical. Pocketable form factors like the Treo and other smartphones are often criticized, but they work.

If it's not going to fit in my pocket, then I want it to be easy to carry around, and big enough to get extra usability. That means a "real" keyboard (even if it's small), and a bigger display. A small notebook computer shape would be nice, so you can carry it like a Franklin planner, and the screen isn't exposed.

Usually electronics are rather fragile, so devices need to stay relatively convenient to carry even when in a case. That's one of the big reasons I'm very high on the future of UMPCs. I think they'll eventually get the form factor tweaked so that you can do decent typing on it, and it's still small and portable, and easy to carry around with you. (If you don't carry it around most of the time, what's the advantage over a traditional notebook computer?)

So you can see why I think the Zaurus line didn't catch on, just like most other clamshells. Mostly, it's the form factor. I'm not sure why they didn't go ahead and add a better keyboard like the old handheld PCs. You remember... like the Jornada 720. Believe it or not, I have still recently seen those in use for pharmaceutical field sales.

And, of course, if you don't have mainstream 3rd party software options or a spectacular set of built-in applications, then it becomes a hard sell. People want to be able to use the device, not just admire it's form factor.

But if you have been wanting to use a new Zaurus, or would like to pick one up for the novelty and gadget factor, this may be your last chance outside of eBay.

Via Palm Addicts.

07:15 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

By now, almost everyone seems to be aware of the new Origami/UMPC devices, and especially the Samsung Q1. It's small, but big enough to use. There is a built-in translucent screen keyboard that uses the touchscreen digitizer. And it has Windows XP TabletPC, so you get to run regular Windows software on it.

The processors are even updated already in the new versions (the Q1B with much better battery life but no bluetooth, and the Q1P with better battery life plus 1gig memory and a bigger hard drive).

After playing with one in person, I had some very definite reactions to it. I basically thought a lot about how people might use it. It was, without a doubt, a great device, so the main issue was how it would fit into someones computing life.

Here's what I think:

1) If you are basically looking for a much more powerful PDA with a better screen, you will be amazed at how wonderful the device is, but you will probably be disappointed at how heavy and relatively hard it is to carry it around. Especially if you add the keyboard/organizer combo accessory, which I think is almost necessary if you are going to do any real computing. It's just kind of bulky. Because of that, it won't be as easy to carry around as a typical Franklin planner. But if you can live with that trade-off, you'll love it.

2) If you are basically looking for a smaller laptop, you'll be excited about the portability and price point, and the ability to use it as a slate. But you will probably be disappointed about the USB keyboard and the on-screen touch keyboard.

The USB keyboard is kind of flimsy, and not real easy to type on. But it is sufficient, I suppose, and the thumbstick pointer built into it is a stroke of genius, as is the organizer case. In fact, that keyboard and organizer are enough to make any UMPC without that accessory option to be much less practical. Who wants to use the onscreen keyboard all the time? And would anyone really carry around a separate keyboard and be happy about it?

The translucent dial keys screen keyboard was hard to use. Even after I started to get the hand of it, it just wasn't real pleasant. The buttons were easy to tap and it felt good and was pretty accurate. But it takes a while to get used to the wide split. I don't like using thumbs while holding the unit up, and it was much more comfortable when I put it down. In that case, the keyboard layout is not very good, as it seems to be set up for thumbs.

I'd like to see a similar translucent keyboard, but with a more standard layout for fast two fingered poking, and still room on the screen for the application window. (Maybe there is already a third party program to do that? Update: I remember now... there's a very nice free one from Illiumsoft offered here.) And I never did figure out how to type an apostrophe or other special characters. So I think a good Origami dial keys replacement could revolutionize the Q1 and all the UMPCs. Even if you have to set them down to type, you almost always at least have a lap.

Some Tentative Conclusions (Which may change any day!)

I think it's a great piece of hardware and I hope this type of computer becomes a big hit. I think it's future is wrapped up in having a great on-screen keyboard, if such a thing is possible on that size screen, and some really effective case options. I guess the jury is still out on how well the manufacturers will do in both of those areas.

So, after a personal hands-on test run, I can definitely see why some people have recently been talking about using it as their main computer. With advances in power management, UMPC software and touchscreen quality, it is going to become a very attractive option for a lot of people.

04:39 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Sure, a lot of us would love to catch a glimpse of a next-gen e-reader device, but industry insiders caution against expecting anything breathtaking anytime soon. EETimes Europe talked with Jochen Dieckow, new media researcher at publishing industry think tank Ifra, and Simon Jones, VP of product development at Plastic Logic, the producer of flexible e-paper displays who just recently raised $100m to build a manufacturing facility in Germany. They say:

• possible successors of the iRex iLiad or Sony Reader are still "very much work in progress"
• an intuitive user interface is still lacking (with reference to the iRex iLiad)
• consumer confidence still needs to be established
• don't be hyperactive about the short-term prospects
• there is a big potential market, but there are no compelling devices
• e-reader designers need to think "unconventionally"
• Plastic Logic works closely with (unnamed) partners to design new products

Related: Plastic Logic raises $100 million, Plastic Logic's flexible e-paper may be available in 2008, Cut the hype and get us working e-reader devices!, De Tijd-iLiad e-paper trial - has it been a failure?