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J.K. Rowling, Google to bring Pottermania to your e-reader
Having a hard time parting ways with a certain plucky, lightning-scarred orphan? J.K. Rowling feels your pain (as she counts her money) and has teamed up with Google to help you fall in love with the world of Hogwarts all over again -- e-book style. The voluminous tomes will be making their exclusive electronic debut through Google's eBooks platform as part of the Sony-backed Pottermore site launching this October. El Goog's open format plays nicely with "more than 80 ereaders" -- we're looking at you iRiver Story HD -- and can also be downloaded in app form for iOS and Android smartphones. But the integration doesn't end there -- under terms of the agreement, Google Checkout "will be the preferred third party payment platform" for all the site's Harry Potter knick knacks your credit limit will allow. It's ok, you don't have to let go of the dream just yet. There's still a little wizard inside us all.
iRiver Story HD review
When it was unveiled back in January, the Story HD, iRiver's first entry into the US e-reader market, boasted all manner of exciting technologies, including an "HD" display and a souped-up (in e-reader terms) processor. Things have changed in the past six months, thanks in part to new Nook and Kobo devices. The other week, however, iRiver pulled out a pre-release surprise that turned plenty of heads: a partnership with Google Books. Are these features enough to make the company competitive in an already crowded market dominated by the Kindle? Find out the answer to all that and more in the review below. %Gallery-128506%
There's a web browser hiding inside the iriver Story HD, but it's pretty shy
Looking for a way to surf the web on your new iriver Story HD? The Digital Reader's got you covered, with a nifty, albeit not totally satisfying hack. As it turns out, the Story HD's much-ballyhooed Google eBookstore operates as a mobile version, rather than an app, meaning you can use it to access other pages -- if you know the trick. All you have to do is navigate to the first Help page within the eBookstore, where you'll see a list of links running across the top. The Books link leads to books.google.com, from which you can jump to google.com, effectively putting the internet at your fingertips. The major downside, however, is that iriver's hidden browser won't give you an address bar, though it does offer basic refresh and page-flipping capabilities, located within the options menu. It's certainly not as fluid as the WebKit-based browser you'll find on Amazon's third-generation Kindle, nor is it as straightforward as that experimental feature buried within the Nook WiFi -- but at least it's there. If you're interested in digging it up, hit the source link for more details. [Thanks, Nate]
iRiver Story HD becomes first Google eBooks-integrated e-reader, won't be the last
We aren't exactly lacking for digital bookstores, but Google's eBooks offering is indeed one of the slickest around. And evidently, it's not in nearly as many places as the marketers in Mountain View would like. The Goog just announced that iRiver's Story HD would soon become the first Google eBooks-integrated e-reader, with the new model going on sale July 17th at Target. It'll still sell for $139.99, and none of the actual hardware specifications will change from the existing model. Of course, the eBooks platform has been open to all publishers, retailers and manufacturers from the start; it's just that iRiver has become the first manufacturer to heed the call. Naturally, Google's teasing us by openly stating that more of these are on the way, and if you just so happen to be an e-reader maker... well, it'd certainly love to have a chat.
Archos' Android-based 70b e-reader up for pre-order in Europe
We have all ideas that the 70b will look mighty weak after next year's spate of slates, tablets and readers hit the public view at CES, but with a price tag as diminutive as €99.99 ($130), who cares about bells and / or whistles? Spotted first in the FCC's lairs a few weeks ago, the Archos 70b e-reader is now up for pre-order in Europe, boasting a 7-inch WVGA touchpanel, 4GB of storage, 802.11b/g WiFi and an SD expansion slot. We're told that the battery will keep things humming for around ten hours (or up to 18 if using it strictly as a music player with the screen flipped off), and if we had to guess, we'd say it'll probably make the trip through the Panama Canal in Q1 2011. Question is: will you care?
Google's big week: Nexus S, Honeycomb tablets, Chrome OS laptops, and eBooks to boot
We gotta hand it to Google: if its goal was to own the technology news cycle for 48 hours, mission accomplished. The Mountain View-based company spent the first two days this week laying out pretty much every big announcement it possibly could: a new flagship phone coming next week (the Nexus S), a new Android build (2.3 Gingerbread), a preview of the next Android build (Honeycomb) on a never-before-seen Motorola tablet, the debut of its cloud-based laptop platform (Chrome OS) with hardware, and a giant plunge into the growing e-book market -- and that isn't everything. We've done our best to condense all the days' highlights into something easier to digest, so read on for a recap on all things Google!
Google eBooks 404 page tips spear to Twitter, would make Ahab proud
That iconic "fail whale?" It was created in 2007 by an artist named Yiying Lu who had never heard of Twitter when the site grabbed the image from iStockphoto, where she'd uploaded it. The rest, of course, is history and, with the launch of Google eBooks (née Google Editions), the Googs is giving something of a tip of the hat to Twitter with its own error page -- but putting a literary spin on things. You can see the result above, a dejected man finding a decidedly non-white whale, and you don't have to be called Ishmael to catch the reference here.
Archos 70b eReader stops at the FCC on its way to the Google eBookstore
Oh look, another Android-based eReader has just exposed itself to the fine men and women of the FCC's test labs. This time it's Archos under the lens with its previously unannounced 70b eReader (model 7702). Specs include 802.11b/g WiFi, a USB jack, stereo speakers, an SD card reader, and support for Adobe Digital Editions DRM making it compatible with the Google eBookstore launched yesterday. And because the 70b eReader is built around what looks like a 7-inch color LCD, it also support video and image playback in full color. Check out the frontside display as well as some interface grabs from the user manual in the gallery below. %Gallery-109401%
Google eBooks is live: just in case Amazon, B&N, and Apple aren't enough
You hear about this whole e-books thing? We hear it's gonna be a pretty big deal. Google, always with its finger on the pulse of our ever-evolving digital lifestyles, has decided to take a wild stab at this nascent market, and is launching Google eBooks today. Formerly known as Google Editions, the Google eBooks ecosystem is actually a pretty grand gesture, and seems to combine most of the positives of the primary e-book contenders (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple, naturally), while skimping on the UI flourishes, in traditional Google fashion. Books you buy are stored in the cloud, with your progress synced Whispersync-style, and can be read on your choice of native Android, iPhone, or iPad apps; from your browser; or on any device that supports the Adobe Digital Editions DRM for PDF and ePub files, which includes the B&N Nook and the Sony Reader (and plenty of other devices). Google is also trading on its vast repository of public domain books, with 3 million free eBooks on offer at its Google eBookstore, in addition to traditional paid fare. It's certainly a crowded market, full of sharp elbows, but it seems Google is having no trouble adjusting.
