Posted 11/11/09 at 11:30:35 AM by Paul Lilly

One of the hottest trends in electronics right now is digital readers, but no matter how many companies jump on the bandwagon -- and several of them have -- prices will have to come down before the public embraces them, according to Gartner.

"At the moment it appears that $199 will be the lowest price for fully featured e-reading devices for the 2009 shopping season, but prices will need to drop closer to $99 to gain significant traction," Gartner noted.

At the same time, Gartner predicts e-reader "mania" in 2010, though getting to that point won't be without a few hurdles. The market research firm says a wider variety of retail channels is needed, and more publishers need to be seen buying into e-readers.

"It's the perfect time for a trial and to establish relationships with others in the value-chain -- that is service providers and digital warehouses -- that can be positioned to assist in a rapid deployment if the market takes off earlier than anticipated," Gartner added.

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Posted 11/11/09 at 07:04:26 AM by Paul Lilly

Intel this week became the latest company to enter the e-book market, only Intel's is specifically intended for the visually impaired. The launch is being spearheaded by Ben Foss, a 36-year old who grew up with such a severe case of dyslexia that his mother used to read him books during his school years.

Not unlike other e-book readers, the Intel Reader is capable of reading digital files aloud. But it doesn't stop there. The Intel Reader can also capture images from any printed material and convert it to speech at a variety of listening speeds. It also boasts a high res camera used to convert printed text to digital text, and it can even capture words from Websites.

"We want people to experience the independence of being able to read on their own in a public place or anywhere they want to," said Foss. "A metaphor for this are the ramps that make buildings wheelchair accessible. This reader is like a ramp."

The reader's also worth its weight in gold, and then some. It's available now, but for $1,500.

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Posted 11/02/09 at 01:10:50 PM by Paul Lilly

Pretty soon, it might be easier to list out companies not releasing an e-book reader than ones ones that are. Just as quickly as netbooks took off, digital e-book readers are fast becoming the next must-have portable device, as evidenced by the number of product announcements from a variety of players. The latest comes from Creative, who will look to make a splash with its Zii MediaBook.

According to Creative, the Zii MediaBook will be unlike any other e-reader on the market. The Zii will come with a touchscreen, text-to-speech, an SD memory card slot, and the ability to play video files and roam willy nilly across the Internet. That means you can probably expect WiFi, though whether integrated 3G connectivity comes as part of the deal remains to be seen.

Creative will also implement a strong social networking element to its device by offering users access to Facebook and Twitter while on the go.

The Zii MediaBook will face stiff competition from Amazon's Kindle and Barnes & Noble's nook (with a lowercase 'n') right from the outset, and it won't get any easier over time. Asus, MSI, ViewSonic, and several other companies are either working on e-readers of their own or have shown interest in the fast growing digital reader segment.

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Posted 10/20/09 at 09:29:24 AM by Paul Lilly

The e-book reader market is fast becoming a crowded niche, so in order to stand out from the competition, some manufacturers are taking liberties with the basic design. Take Spring Design, for example, who on Monday announced a dual-screen e-book reader built around Google's Android platform.

"This is the start of a whole new experience of reading content on e-books, potentially igniting a whole new industry in multimedia e-book publishing for secondary authors to create supplementary content that is hyper linked to the text," said Dr. Priscilla Lu, CEO of Spring Design. "We are bringing life to books with audio, video, and annotations. This gives readers the ability to fully leverage the resources on the Web, and the tools available in search engines to augment the reading experience."

Called 'Alex,' the new e-book readers sport a 6-inch e-ink EPD display on the top portion and a 3.5-inch color LCD on the bottom. Spring Design says Android has been optimized to support integration between the two displays to prolong battery life. But what exactly is the point of the color display?

Apparently Alex owners are able to capture and cache Web content on the color display and toggle to view it on the EPD screen without taxing the battery. Users can also create their own images and notes to augment the original text.

Spring Design says it is still talking with "major content partners" and hopes to release Alex into the wild by the end of the year.

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Posted 10/14/09 at 11:20:10 AM by Paul Lilly

Gizmodo managed to get its hands on the first product shots of Barnes and Noble's e-book reader, which will enter what's shaping up to be an increasingly crowded cage match with the likes of Amazon, Sony, Asus, MSI, and several others.

 We're still a week away from Barnes and Noble's official unveiling, but according to Gizmodo, the e-reader will feature a black and white e-ink screen similar to the Kindle, but with a multitouch display like the popular iPhone. The top screen size checks in at 6 inches with an 800x600 pixel resolution, while the bottom touchscreen portion will boast 480x144 pixels.

Pricing is not yet known, but word on the Web is that Barnes and Noble plans to offer significant discounts on the books it publishes compared to the print editions.

More pics here.

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Posted 10/11/09 at 02:17:13 PM by Justin Kerr

Based on the sheer volume of eBook reader news that has been making headlines recently, it appears dedicated gadgets for reading is a trend that is here to stay. Generally the devices can be broken down into simple categories by features which sometimes include wireless over the air downloads, touch screens, or additional format compatibility.

Trying desperately to distinguish itself from the pack, LG is set to unveil its new eBook reader which includes a thin-film 10cm solar cell to wirelessly charge the device while outdoors. A mere four to five hours of sun exposure can yield up to a days worth of reading time indoors, and allows you to easily recharge your battery while on the go. Solar made a huge difference for portable calculators, and if it works as well as LG claims, it could prove to be a huge leap forward for the category.

The device itself has a 6-inch OLED display, measures in at 0.7 mm thick, and weighs a mere 20 grams. To save you the trouble of trying to convert those numbers, that’s about the thickness of a credit card and the weight of a fountain pen. It appears as though the design requires the device to remain tethered to the case, but we’ll know more when they get closer to launch.

Is this enough to set LG apart from the rest?

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Posted 10/09/09 at 09:26:39 AM by Paul Lilly

It's hard to argue with the success of Amazon's Kindle e-book reader, which has prompted competition running the gamut from Asus and MSI, to startups looking to cash in on the rapidly growing market. But one company Amazon apparently needn't worry about is Microsoft.

"We have a device for reading. It's the most popular device in the world. It's the PC," Microsoft's Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Thursday.

 Er, what? But Ballmer wasn't joking and went on to say that Microsoft would be willing to work with Amazon to port more books over to the PC.

"I would love to see companies like Amazon and others bring their books to the PC," Ballmer said. "Hopefully, we can get that to happen with Barnes & Noble or Amazon or somebody. But no, we are not interested in e-readers ourselves."

Microsoft might not be interested in e-readers, but consumers are. Portable readers are expected to do particularly well this holiday shopping season, and Industry research firm Forrester this week raised its forecast for e-reader sales by 50 percent to 3 million units.

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Posted 09/29/09 at 01:40:57 PM by Paul Lilly

E-book readers are poised to become as popular as netbooks, and it's Amazon who stands to benefit the most, whose Kindle readers lead the charge. But the handheld digital readers are best served for personal use and not in an academic setting, suggests Princeton University.

As part of a pilot program, 50 Princeton students received a Kindle DX e-book reader at no cost, but according school newspaper The Daily Princetonian, "many of them said they were dissatisfied and uncomfortable with the devices."

The Kindles were given to students and faculty in three courses -- WWS 325: Civil Society and Public Policy, WWS 555A: U.S. Policy and Diplomacy in the Middle East, and CLA 546: Religion and Magic in Ancient Rome. In all three classes, the general consensus was that the devices were too difficult to use.

"I hate to sound like a Luddite, but this technology is a poor excuse of an academic tool," said Aaron Horvath, a student in Civil Society and Public Policy. "It's clunky, slow, and a real pain to operate."

Horvath went on to explain that by trading in textbooks for the Kindle, students lose the ability for physical interaction, including highlights, page-tearing, sticky notes, margin notes, and so forth.

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