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Blio for Windows review, now available for download
Last week we brought you news that KNF-B was prepping for a September 28 launch of its Blio e-reader software, and according to our date books, the time has come! The free PC software (Windows XP, Vista and 7 are all supported) can be downloaded now at the source link below; the iPhone app should be hitting the App Store very soon, however. We've been using the program for the last few days to, you know, "read," so before heading over to download it yourself you'll naturally want to hit the break for our impressions of the unique reading application. %Gallery-103557%
Blio for PC will be available on September 28, iOS and Android apps soon after
The fact that Blio was preloaded on our Toshiba Libretto W105 was a good hint that the company was getting ready to release its software to the digital reading masses, and sure enough in just a few weeks that's exactly what's going to happen. The full-color program, which was designed to mimic the look of a book with fancy 3D page turns, will be available for download starting on September 28 directly from Blio's website. Sure, Blio's no Amazon or Barnes & Noble, but they're promising a million free titles at launch and they've partnered with Baker & Taylor to provide another 10,000. We're also intrigued by the software's advanced text-to-speech capabilities -- hey, don't forget Ray Kurzweil is the founder! Not too far after the launch of the PC software, Blio will be releasing Android, iPhone and iPad apps. It's also promising that there will be numerous partnerships with device (i.e. tablet, laptop) manufacturers, retailers, and carriers, so it looks like we'll be hearing quite a bit about the company in the weeks to come. We'll hit you back with our impressions of the apps sometime soon, but in the meantime you can peruse the screenshots and press release after the break. %Gallery-102197% %Gallery-102324%
Toshiba Book Place full-color e-book store is powered by Blio, launches soon (video)
And here we go, an honest to goodness book store built around Ray Kurzweil's Blio e-reader software. It's been a long time coming and still it's only a teaser page, but Toshiba is promising to unleash its Book Place store "in the coming weeks" stocked with "thousands" of full-color e-books. The Blio software, you might remember from our video hands-on, offers a fully interactive reading experience rich in multimedia capabilities and should run beautifully on oh, say, Toshiba's new dual-screen Libretto W100. Man, when did Toshiba suddenly become interesting? See it in a cheesy, promotional packaging rager (that hints at an iOS app at the 2.42 mark) after the break.
Blio finally launching e-reading software soon, Walmart excited for some reason or another
So yeah, we sort of forgot all about Blio and its e-reading software for laptops and smartphones, but it turns out the company has kept on truckin'. While it seems to have missed the February release of its software, famed inventor and founder of the company Ray Kurzweil told the New York Times that it will be more widely available over the next two months. He also went on to mention that "large PC" manufacturers along with retailers "like Walmart" will start offering it on their own products. Oh, Wally World, you say? Apparently, the mega-tailer wouldn't comment on the statement, but it certainly has us raising our eyebrows wondering about a Walmart e-reading product of sorts. Regardless, we're excited to see Blio finally making some waves after being fairly impressed with the features of the color reading experience when we saw it back at CES -- now, to see if those waves lead to action.
Blio seeks to take digital reading in a new, more inclusive, and colorful direction
As if we didn't have enough pretenders in the ebook space, here's Ray Kurzweil with a new format of his own and a bagful of ambition to go with it. Set for a proper unveiling at CES in a week's time, the Blio format and accompanying application are together intended to deliver true-to-life color reproductions of the way real books appear. Interestingly, the software has been developed in partnership with Nokia, in an effort to turn Espoo's phones into "the smallest text-to-speech reading devices available thus far," though apps are also being developed for the iPhone, PC and Mac. The biggest advantage of this format might actually be behind the scenes, where the costs to publishers are drastically reduced by them having to only submit a PDF scan of their books, whose formatting remains unchanged in Blio. We'll be all over this at CES, but for now you'll find more pictures and early impressions over at Gizmodo.
Futurist Ray Kurzweil to deliver SLCC 2009 keynote
Some consider him a kook or an eccentric, while others think of him as a technological visionary. Either way, the accomplished Raymond Kurzweil will be taking the stage to keynote the Second Life Community Convention in San Francisco next month, a spot traditionally afforded to a Linden Lab executive. Kurzweil, a famous futurist, author and inventor, is notable for his many inventions (from the first CCD-based flat-bed scanner to reading machines for the blind), his notions about transhumanism and technological singularities and a significant number of awards and honorary degrees. He has strong opinions on virtual environments, and it will be interesting to hear what he has to say. The Second Life Community Convention 2009 will happen in San Francisco, on August 13th - 16th, 2009 at the Westin St. Francis Hotel. Registration for the event is open and attendees can register at the convention's Web-site. Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.
Kurzweil predicts that machines will match man by 2029 -- bring it on
Famed technologist and futurist Ray Kurzweil is on the record about human-machine intelligence parity: it's going down by 2029, so be prepared to get digital on entirely new levels. Apparently, machines "will have both the hardware and the software to achieve human level artificial intelligence" by then, but even if it's not in the form of meatbag-terminating cyborgs, Kurzweil thinks one future of intelligent machines is on the nano scale, with interfaces to enhance our own physiology and intelligence. Oh sure, this stuff is completely pie in the sky -- but it's still absurdly fun to think of what kinds of crazy crap the 21st century's going to hold.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Ray Kurzweil to deliver GDC keynote: 'The Next 20 Years of Gaming'
For those of us attending the Game Developer's Conference this February, we've got something new and juicy to look forward to. Ray Kurzweil – author, entrepreneur, and the Sultan of Singularity himself – will be delivering the keynote, entitled "The Next 20 Years of Gaming." If you're not familiar with Kurzweil, we recommend you set aside an afternoon and read his lengthy Wikipedia entry. In short, he practically invented the flatbed scanner, he believes that nanomachinery can help humans achieve immortality, he's written a ton of best-selling books predicting all sorts of things like some modern-day Nostradamus, and he's apparently a great speaker. ... yeah, we're really looking forward to that keynote all of a sudden, too.
Kurzweil set to unveil portable reader for the blind
Even though we've seen a ton of products designed to aid the visually-impaired in their daily lives, technology still has a long way to go before disabled folks are able to enjoy a completely unrestricted lifestyle, which is why inventor/visionary Ray Kurzweil has spent the last quarter-century building devices that make reading easier for the blind. His latest invention, called the K-NFB, is basically a five megapixel digital camera attached to the back of a Windows Mobile 5.0-powered PDA, which is loaded with software that uses optical character recognition and text-to-speech technology to read aloud the words contained in user-captured photos. Once it's called into action, the $4,860 device supplies the operator with an initial "situation report" that attempts to describe whatever's in the camera's field of vision; if the report indicates that the desired text is within range, owners can then choose to snap a photo and listen to the resulting translation. Although the K-NFB is scheduled to be released soon by the UK's Sight & Sound, several technical issues -- most importantly, the software's difficulty in understanding inverted (white-on-black) text -- still have to be ironed out before it's available to the public.[Thanks, Megan]
