Tech NewsCommerce

Amazon Kindle 2 Might Ruin Christmas By Not Showing Up

TechCrunch reports that the previously spied Kindle 2, or Kindle II, or Second-le, or whatever it’s going to be, isn’t really going to be anything before Q1 of 2009. Apparently, the device was on track for a pre-holiday release until Jeff Bezos himself demanded last-minute software changes. Although it’s impossible to know if TechCrunch’s source … Continued

Reviews

Sony PRS-700 Reader Review: Blinding Glare Kills All Improvements

Though it must scare the crap out of the publishing biz, we will all one day carry ebook readers. In the US, Sony and Amazon have led the way with impressive E-Ink systems that prove that digital displays can be as readable as ink on paper. For this holiday season, Sony presented the $400 PRS-700 … Continued

io9Books & Comics

The Digital Book: Paper’s Last Hurrah

While Sony Readers and Amazon Kindles take to the scene, one paper lover, in celebration of the Blood on Paper exhibition (something we’ve never heard of but have a pretty good idea what it’s about), released this USB copy of The New Machiavelli. Photographed page by page, those who think its contents might resemble Google … Continued

Tech NewsCommerce

Are Books Doomed to Become Art Collector Items?

The always fascinating Dark Roasted Blend has an article on alternative uses for books. Sculptures, lamps, structures, furniture… everything made with books. It’s an eerie view on book heaven or book hell, depending on your mood. Mine is a bit gloomy, so looking at the beautifully spooky gallery and knowing about the renassaince of electronic … Continued

Tech NewsCommerce

Kindle Rumors Say Next Version Coming Fall Will Be Thinner, Cheaper, Much More Stylish

The $100 discount on the Kindles may be Amazon’s way of clearing out the first-gen to make room for the now all-but-certain second-gen this fall. Business Week says that Amazon’s hired a guy from frog design for the next version, which will have a better screen, thinner body, fewer UI annoyances and (obviously) be better … Continued

Tech NewsCommerce

Esquire Expects You to Hack Their E-Ink Cover

I was not impressed with Esquire’s E-ink cover idea, but Joel Johnson at BBG has interviewed the Esky overlords and changed my mind a bit. Surprisingly, Esquire expects us to buy these mags and hack them. Second, Ford advertisements, also in E-ink, displaced some of the cost of production. That’s good news for us. I … Continued

Tech NewsCommerce

Sony Opens Up More E-Book Formats For Reader

A firmware update scheduled to drop later this week will allow Sony Readers to use the .epub format, an open standard (with DRM support) that has the backing of several major book publishers. This means you’ll be able to get books from sources other than Sony’s own Connect store, which currently only has one third … Continued

Tech NewsCommerce

On Esquire’s Stupid E-Ink Cover

I love stupid gimmicks, don’t get me wrong. But this cover is one of the worst ideas I’ve heard from a publication in awhile. Said the editor to the NYTimes: “Magazines have basically looked the same for 150 years,” Mr. Granger said. “I have been frustrated with the lack of forward movement in the magazine … Continued

Tech NewsCommerce

Rumor: Amazon Kindle 2 Coming This Fall

CrunchGear’s got it on good authority that the next year or so will see not only an update to the current model—making it thinner and lighter—but also an altogether new model with dimensions something like a piece of loose leaf paper. They should come out in October and sometime next year, respectively, though no word … Continued

Tech News

iPhone App Store: eBooks for 99 Cents a Pop

Clever: Taking novels in the public domain, re-boxing them, and selling them in the iTunes App Store for a buck a pop. It’s mostly stuff you had to read in high school, like Dickens and Edith Wharton, but there’s also a whole mess of Tarzan novels in there too. The text looks crisp and readable, … Continued

Tech NewsGadgets

Dual-Screen Ebook Developed, Navigates in Real Page-Turn Style

Sure the Kindle is fab, and printed media may soon be “dead“… but ebooks really don’t feel quite as good the real thing do they? A science team from Maryland and Berkeley Universities noted that we do much more sophisticated navigation when we read a real book than is offered by current ebooks, so they’ve … Continued

Tech NewsCommerce

Penguin to Launch Ebooks Alongside Regular Releases

The international publisher, Penguin, has decided to hop onto the ebook bandwagon, by promising regular book launches to be held in conjunction with their ebook counterparts. Unfortunately, the prices will not be lowered for the ebook varieties, but Penguin will offer direct downloads from their website. Regardless, simultaneous release dates with new hardbacks, availability (eventually) … Continued

Tech NewsCommerce

ECTACO’s jetBook E-Book Reader “Will Change the Way We Read Forever!”

According to ECTACO it won’t be the Amazon Kindle or the Sony Reader that changes the way we read—it will be their new jetBook. Why? Well, first of all it is red and everyone knows that red is the color of learning. Second, it features a 5-inch, high-res TFT display, an MP3 player, bookmarking capability, … Continued

Tech NewsCommerce

Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader Locked Up: Why Your Books Are No Longer Yours

If you buy a regular old book, CD or DVD, you can turn around and loan it to a friend, or sell it again. The right to pass it along is called the “first sale” doctrine. Digital books, music and movies are a different story though. Four students at Columbia Law School’s Science and Technology … Continued

Tech NewsCommerce

Jeff Bezos: Kindle Back in Stock Soon, Honest! (P.S. I Love the Kindle Cake)

Whether the Kindle’s perpetual sold out status is the result of honest-to-God feverish demand for the little slab of e-book voodoo or a willfully sub-demand supply, that’s about to change. Jeff Bezos has a little love note on the front page of Amazon saying he’s sowwy they can’t keep up with our blistering desire to … Continued

Tech NewsCommerce

Netronix E-Book To Have Touchscreen and Wi-Fi

Taiwanese manufacturer Netronix is promising a new spin on an old idea: putting a touchscreen on an the EB-100, an E-Ink-based e-book reader. We’ve actually seen the basic design before, in the gen-3 Cybook by Bookeen. But there was never promise of touchscreen, nor anything said about 802.11g Wi-Fi, which Netronix is also offering. The … Continued

Tech News

iriver Ebook Concept Takes Notes, Looks Suave

We did not spot this ebook concept from iriver at CES, but their website is showing it off nonetheless. To say details are light would be true. So, details are light, but what the concept ebook does promise is a color display and the ability to accept handwritten notes. Other than that we have nothing … Continued

Tech NewsCommerce

Amazon Kindle Has Secrets: Faux-GPS Google Maps, Minesweeper, and More

So, you wasted some hard-earned money on bought an Amazon Kindle. Good for you! Now that you have one, it’s time to exploit the crap out of it. I’m talking, of course, about easter eggs, otherwise known as functionality that should be available to everybody in the first place. Yes, there’s Google Maps access with … Continued

Tech News

Iranian Invents Multilingual Talking Book Reader

There’s not a lot of information about this invention from Ramin Sedighi of Iran, except that it’s a device with an electronic pen that scans words of a book and says them aloud. The news clip says that the device will teach languages to children ages 4 to 16, and that it can also “explain” … Continued

Tech NewsCommerce

Kindle DRM Hacked (That Was Easy)

The Kindle only allows the reading of Amazon DRM-protected content. So how do you load other eBooks onto the Kindle? Just add Amazon DRM. That’s one solution hacker Igor Skochinsky has used to load Mobipocket books onto his Kindle. Using a series of scripts, he’s able to convert eBook files to Amazon’s AZW format and … Continued