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Acer's 6-inch LumiRead to offer Barnes and Noble ebooks, ISBN scanner
In another reversal of plans, Acer has just announced its first e-reader device. The LumiRead will participate in the clear.fi initiative for keeping you constantly in the Acer loop, while also offering WiFi and 3G connectivity options. It looks very much like the tablet we saw teased earlier this morning, coming with a similar integrated keyboard and a smaller 6-inch E Ink display. Announcing a distribution agreement with Barnes and Noble and its one million-book library, China's Founder, and Germany's Libri.de, which carries four millions titles, Acer will try to ensure it has a strong selection upon release. It's also throwing in an ISBN scanner, which will be turning paperbacks into instruments of their own destruction by allowing you to scan a book in for later purchase online. Supported formats are described only as "various," and there's 2GB of storage onboard (expandable via MicroSD) to keep things stashed. Expect this new e-reader to show up in Q3 of 2010. Full PR after the break.
E-Ink Shocker! Amazon CEO says color Kindle is 'still a long way out'
Well, if it isn't a surprise to end all surprises. Amazon's head honcho Jeff Bezos recently grabbed a mic at the outfit's annual shareholder meeting in Seattle, and when speaking about the "millions" of Kindle e-readers that he's sold, he pointed out the obvious when questioned about the possibility of a color version. In addressing concerns that LCD-based tablets may seem more attractive due to their ability to showcase color images and video, he noted that developing color electronic ink remains a challenge, and while he's seen things "in the laboratory," the prototypes are simply "not ready for prime-time production." He also stated that these lust-worthy, mythical displays were "a long way out," but that the Kindle would remain focused as a dedicated e-reader moving forward. Hear that, Mirasol? That's the ear-piecing sound of a market opportunity waiting to be exploited.
EB710 e-reader rocks an LCD, intriguing user interface
Looks like this one's been sitting around in the shadows for awhile now, and in fact, we can't even find the bona fide manufacturer of this here device. Boasting a 7-inch LCD (since when were those deemed fit for reading on?), built-in rechargeable battery, multimedia player, image viewer, optional FM radio, USB 2.0 connector and a user interface that almost looks a wee bit like Android at a glance. Regrettably, there's no pricing or availability details to be found (nor any indication of an inbuilt wireless module), but we're guessing the mystery owners here wouldn't try moving this one for too much.
Plastic Logic plans 2012 launch for color e-paper display
E-readers as a whole best be watching their backs (or planning a wave of new functions, one), but it's safe to say that having color displays would give 'em a leg-up on the retina-killing, battery-draining LCD-based alternatives. Plastic Logic is still working to get its first e-reader (the decidedly not color QUE, for those curious) into the paws of consumers, but already the outfit is planning for the next big thing. Achim Neu, Director SCM, recently spoke at the International Electronics Forum, reportedly stating that his company is aiming to "have a manufacturable color display by the end of 2011 and move it into volume production in 2012." Details beyond that were scarce, but still, 2012 seems a long ways out -- if Qualcomm can get its color Mirasol panel into shipping products, there's a better than average chance that none of this will matter.
Fujitsu breathes new life into color e-paper: brighter, faster, lovelier
Fujitsu's been dabbling in the color e-paper market for years, showing off prototype readers during a time when the iPad was simply a twinkle in the eye of Steve-o. Now, the e-reader realm as a whole is having to reevaluate itself with the explosion of multifaceted tablets, but we're not giving up hope just yet -- Qualcomm's downright stunning color Mirasol display could turn the tables once more later this year, and Fujitsu's new and improved color e-paper might do the same later this month. Scheduled to debut at the Fujitsu Forum in Japan, this newly developed color electronic paper utilizes a redesigned panel structure and image re-write methods, and there's also an improved contrast ratio to boot. Unfortunately, there's no public commercialization plans just yet, but we're hoping it'll hit a few products sooner rather than later -- time's a wastin', Fujitsu!
Bookeen's upgraded, colorful Cybook Opus to debut on May 7
We were promised a color-loving version of the diminutive Cybook Opus and here's the delivery of said pledge. Coming in seven new shades to match its May 7 release date, the newly revised Cybook Opus boasts instant-on functionality, a new Boo Reader software that helps to optimize battery life, and a category-best 12 font sizes. It's still a monochrome E Ink display -- 800 x 600 pixels -- and memory hasn't budged up from the 1GB on its predecessor, but at least the opening price has dipped down to a £149 ($199 in USA) RRP. When you consider 150 books come preloaded on the device, it's almost like Bookeen is giving the hardware away for free. It's not, but that's as good a rationalization as any other. Full PR after the break.%Gallery-92018%
E Ink shows off next-gen displays: high contrast, fast refresh, and rugged (video)
It took so long for electronic ink screens to finally hit the market we feel a bit silly getting impatient for the next-generation, but the Kindle has been on the market for a year and a half now, Sony Reader models for twice that long, and still we're dealing with the same crummy 7:1 contrast ratio, 16 shade grayscale, and .74 second refresh rate. E Ink's Sriram Peruvemba, however, is finally showing off next-generation models of the sort parent company PVI told us were coming, the first an improvement on existing screens that offers a 12:1 contrast ratio and a refresh rate fast enough for simple animations. Also shown is a larger, (slightly) flexible model rugged enough to take a meaty fist square in the face without blinking a single pixel. This version Peruvemba sees playing a major role in digital textbooks in the future. Unfortunately we still have a bit of time to wait for either, with the boosted contrast ratio model entering production later this year and the flexible one sometime in early 2011. Add another six months or so for devices using the things to make it to retail and hopes for a brighter, next-gen Kindle shipping by the holidays start to look a bit dim.
Spring Design Alex starts shipping tomorrow
We'd gripe about the wait, but given all the e-book readers we saw at CES that've fallen off the radar or been delayed to oblivion, we're actually pretty proud of Spring Design for shipping the Alex at last. Orders will start going out tomorrow for the $399 dual screen reader. Not sure it's worth the price? Well, we're not positive either. Check out our review for a bit of help deciding.
Plastic Logic expects to ship QUE proReader in June
So, Plastic Logic perhaps isn't for sale, but what about that long-awaited QUE proReader of theirs? Well, we just got an update on that front. A hapless tipster who pre-ordered the devices way back on January 9th just got an email from Plastic Logic saying they should expect a June 24th ship date now. Pre-orderers at least have the opportunity to confirm or deny that they still want the device, and won't be charged until it ships. So, will it be worth the wait? And more importantly: what color will your hovercar be? [Thanks, Shane B.]
Entourage Edge suffers month's delay, minor price bump
It was kind of inevitable with all these e-readers competing for attention at CES that some of the manufacturers would overestimate their capabilities and make promises they could not fulfill. One early candidate for the newly inaugurated promise breakers' club is the dual-screen Entourage Edge, whose February delivery date and $490 price have both been elevated, albeit slightly, to their new values of March and $499. The delay is clearly the most significant change, though we should note the careful wording, which states that "new orders will ship March 2010" and thereby leaves a glimmer of hope for early pre-orderers. The rest of us shouldn't be too downhearted either, it's a moderate time to wait, and we can just fantasize that the company's busy filing away at that splendiferous bezel. Update: Entourage have gotten in touch to let us know the extra $9 on the price is for the new (as of February 1) inclusion of the Documents To Go software, and pre-orders placed before January 12 will be shipped this month. Candidacy for promise breakers' club is denied. Better luck next time.
Yinlips busts out a 6-inch, E Ink-boasting e-reader
Yinlips is jumping on the e-reader bandwagon with a 6-inch, touchscreen E Ink reader all its own. While we don't have full specs for this think-looking little guy yet, we do know that it supports a wide array of file formats, supposedly gets around 20 hours of battery life, and that it's got an FM radio with recording functions. There's no word on pricing, other specs, or even the official name of this product yet (possibly just 'E-Book'?), so make your suggestions in the comments, and we'll try to get word to Yinlips for you.
Kindle display maker PVI promises touchscreens, color and flexibility in 2010 models
Love your Kindle? How about your Sony Reader? Good then lean in close because your electrophoretic display (EPD) maker wants to have a word. Prime View International (PVI) chairman Scott Liu says that his company (the owners of E Ink) will be introducing a wide variety of new e-reader displays this year including color, flexible, and touchscreen EPDs. PVI also says that response times have been improved enough to allow for animation support on products in 2010. Of course, flip books provide animation as well but we wouldn't want to use one for any considerable amount of time -- but let's wait and see what they have before coming to a conclusion. Interestingly enough, PVI says that it's developing pressure touch sensors that sit behind the display rather than using conventional touch-panels that can obscure the display's brightness. Funny, that sounds a lot like the Touchco technology just purchased by Amazon two days ago. Kindle 3, we're waiting... unfortunately for Amazon, the rest of the industry isn't.
Neonode lives: zForce e-reader touchscreen gets pumped into Koobe Jin Young reader
We're not surprised anymore when another company jumps on the ever-fattening e-reader bandwagon, because really, pretty much everyone is making one now... including, apparently, companies we thought had basically ceased to exist. That's right folks, Neonode is seemingly back from the dead (though truth be told it looks like the company was never actually fully cold), pumping its touchscreen tech -- called zForce and made specifically for e-readers -- into Taiwanese company Koobe's just announced Jin Young reader. We don't have fully specs on this bad boy by any means, but we know that it's going to be a 6-inch e-paper styled affair with 2GB of memory (and up to 16GB by way of microSD). The reader claims to be the thinnest device boasting a touchscreen ever made, and should make its way to retail in April (in Taiwan) for somewhere between NT10,000 and NT13,000 (that's between $312 and $405), depending on the content agreement. Full press release is after the break.
TI's OMAP4 prototype drives three independent displays without breaking a sweat
It's been a long, long while since we've seen any life from the OMAP4 labs at Texas Instruments, but with the sudden resurgence of the tablet, now seems just about right for the company to start showcasing the platform's prowess once more. TI is expected to have a mind-bending showcase at Mobile World Congress later this month, but Slashgear was able to get a sneak peek at what's to come at the outfit's Dallas office. The device you're peering at above definitely piqued our interest, as it's some sort of twin-screened handheld that can actually support a third independent display courtesy of an integrated pico projector module. We're told that OMAP4 will bring along dual 1GHz ARM A9 cores, patently ridiculous battery life figures (145 hours of MP3 playback with a 1,000mAh battery) and support for 1080p output via HDMI. Naturally, TI has no intention of ever bringing this piece of hardware to market, but it'd certainly love if some other firm stepped in and did so. Here's hoping we're overrun by potential suitors in Barcelona -- given that the show kicks off on Valentine's Day, we'd say the timing would be just about perfect.
Where's the iMag store?
You know, at first I wasn't so impressed with the iPad, but the more I thought about the ways in which you can use it, the more excited I got. As a piece of leisure technology - something you just have laying around your living room like a newspaper - it's a lot more user friendly than a laptop or an iPhone. However, I don't think the iPad is revolutionary. By now we're well familiar with multi-touch devices and apps stores. And let's face it, ebooks are nothing new. The iBooks app isn't going to be breaking any ground, but you know what would? An iMag store. Sure, there're sites like emagazines.com that offer browser-based magazines, but there's no one universal storefront for emagazines that's easy to use. Even Zinio doesn't make the emagazine buying experience as easy or pleasurable as buy a song from the iTunes store. Can you imaging what an iMag app might be like? Bjørn Rybakken, creative director at Tangram Design, an Oslo based design agency, sent me these mock-ups (and you guys know how I love mock-ups) which got me thinking what the iMag store might be like.
Nokia, Nintendo, Netflix and E-Ink respond to the iPad
We're sure just about every company on the map has an opinion on Apple's new device, but a few big wigs have taken time out of their busy schedules to weigh in on the device. These are their stories. Nokia's Mark Squires, Head of Social Media, was mainly confused by Apple's statement that it's the biggest mobile device manufacturer, surpassing Nokia in combined revenue on media players, phones and laptops. Mark argues that the accepted definition for "mobile devices" excludes laptops, and goes on to mention the undisputed fact that Nokia's still number one when it comes to number of devices sold. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, meanwhile, says that mobile devices aren't a priority for his company yet. They're fighting the good fight of the large screen, and once they feel comfortable in their various efforts there, then they'll move on to small screens. Netflix hasn't done or submitted an iPhone application, but Hastings did mention that he was optimistic that if Netflix did get into the game, the app would be approved for the App Store, and that it would run on both the iPhone and iPad. Satura Iwata, president and CEO of Nintendo, took a much more directly critical approach to the device, calling it a "bigger iPod Touch," and that Apple delivered "no surprises." In the same interview he expressed skepticism as to the value of bringing a high definition Wii on the market, as well as expressing doubts about 3D glasses-based gaming. Iwata is clearly a tough man to please. Perhaps most threatened by the iPad is Russ Wilcox, CEO of E-Ink. He says dedicated e-readers will outsell iPads due to "simple economics," and that the iPad is "great entertainment device," but it's "not the world's best reading device." His criticisms, mostly in juxtaposition to Kindle-style devices, abound, including price, weight, backlight and so on. He's right on the money about the shortfalls of a straightforward comparison, but we wonder if consumers will feel the same? Nothing too salacious, unfortunately, and most of the points raised are pretty spot-on -- though we do wish Reed Hastings would rethink his priorities just a smidgen and get Netflix onto mobile devices sooner than later. We're needy like that.
Delta Electronics to ship 13.1-inch color e-readers by Q2 2010
It's a funny thing, really. We wait years upon years for color e-ink to become a reality, and today -- of all days -- we finally hear that a sizable one is coming to market in just a few months. Reportedly, Taiwan's own Delta Electronics is hoping to ship a 13.1-inch color e-reader (along with an 8.1-inch monochrome version) by the middle of this year, both of which will rely on e-paper technology from Bridgestone. If you'll recall, we got an early glimpse of this stuff right around this time last year, but it wasn't until today that we heard any followup whatsoever. There's no mention of expected pricing and the like, but we're told that the refresh rate is well faster than the black-and-white solutions out there today. Frankly, this thing better check email, play back video and wash our laundry as well -- the reign of the standalone e-reader is just about over.
Boeye's OEM E900 reader is the Kindle DX's cheaper twin
Ever wondered what an exact replica of the Kindle DX would look like? Well, if you were thinking that it would look like an exact replica of the Kindle DX, you're a winner. You're currently checking out the Boeye E900, a 9.7-inch reader hailing from Guangdong, China. Besides the obvious lack of branding here, we're hard-pressed to spot another difference -- though we do only have the one photo. Both sport WiFi, Bluetooth, and text-to-speech, plus apparently the exact same internals as the DX, including an 825 x 1200 resolution, 3G, 128MB built-in flash memory, and a microSD card slot. We'll tell you this -- the price, at around $311, is way cheaper than Amazon's actual reader. That is however, seemingly a wholesale price as the minimum order accepted is apparently 100 pieces. Anybody need 99 fake Kindles?
LG Display's 19-inch E Ink display plays loose with the truth
Well doesn't that look impressive? A big 'ol 19-inch electronic ink display that appears to emulate your father's newspaper. No doubt, this massive Metal-Foil e-paper prototype from LG Display is impressive at this size (just 0.3-mm thin and 250×400mm -- about the same size as a 297×420-mm sheet of A3) and weight (130 grams). Hell, we were already impressed with the flexible 11.5-inch panel from LG Display found in the Skiff Reader. However, like the rigid Skiff Reader, a flexible panel doesn't mean that we'll be seeing a flexible e-reader. In fact, chances are we won't after the manufacturer gets through adding a touchscreen overlay, application processor, and radio chipset. Let's hope for a surprise though, whenever these panels do make it out for mass production... assuming anyone still cares about monochrome E Ink displays by then.
Teclast enters the e-book fold with the K3 Talking Portable Library
Judging by the snowballing number of e-readers we've seen over the last year or so (culminating at CES 2010, as you are no doubt well aware) either people really, really, really love these things, or OEMs are going for the lowest hanging fruit. And what do we have here from Teclast? The company, known 'round these parts for its portable media players, has entered the game with the K3. In addition from the usual array of supported document formats this bad boy rocks a 6-inch E Ink display, an MP3 / MP4 player and -- hold on to your caps! -- text-to-speech either in English or Chinese. The term the company is using to market this bad boy is "Talking Portable Library," but since most TTS devices usually make HAL sound like James Earl Jones we're going to suggest that anyone truly interested in this technology stick with the Kindle. Besides, Tom misses you! You two haven't talked in a long time.
