E-inkReader
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Entourage shuts down Edge content store, devices reportedly discontinued
It seems natural selection has finally caught up with the Entourage Edge. When we first reviewed the combination touchscreen/E Ink "dualbook," we wondered whether its neither-fish-nor-fowl design would catch on -- especially priced at $500. That price dropped substantially with its successor, the Pocket Edge, but neither device truly found its feet, in part because of a lack of applications and no updates beyond Android 1.6. And now comes word that the Edge store has officially closed, with customers having until May 27 to download any purchased content. It all points to RIP for the Edge family, and Good E-Reader claims to have recent confirmation from the company. In its goodbye message Entourage steers users toward the Amazon app store, where it notes "you will now have access to a lot of Android Apps that Google would never give us access to." Obvious bitterness aside, the team reportedly has a new device in the works, this time in the typical slate model. [Thanks, Roy]
Acer's LumiRead 600 hits the FCC with slow bursts of 2.4GHz radiation
Acer's 6-inch LumiRead e-reader just hit the FCC, but there's not a lot to learn -- the company smartly withheld the user's manual and detailed images, so all we have are the triplicate forms of stalwart government employees trying to irradiate themselves. Those thankfully painless tests reveal that the Kindle-alike will have standard 802.11b/g WiFi alongside its monochrome E Ink screen, and the whole 532MHz Freescale iMX357 kit will be powered by a 3.7V, 1460mAh battery. Exciting stuff, we know. In other news, the FCC's "ancillary equipment" list features genuine Apple iPod earbuds, and a Dell Vostro 1510 -- because that's how they roll.
Entourage Edge review
Is it an Android tablet? An e-reader? Just a sweet gadget with two screens? Truth is the Entourage Edge is a little bit of everything, and that's exactly why we've been so intrigued with the "dualbook" since we fondled it at CES. Finally ready to make its shipping debut, the $499 dual screen device is aimed at students, but really it's for anyone interested in a combination 9.7-inch E Ink reading / note-taking experience and a 10.1-inch Android web tablet. It's sounded very cool to us for quite a while, but there's always a difference between hype and reality. Does the Edge live up to its promise or attempt to do too much? The only place to find out is after the break in our full review. %Gallery-88032%
txtr's e-reader offers a 6-inch e-Ink display, plenty in the way of Teutonic content
Word of an e-reader from txtr GmbH -- a platform for online document hosting and storage -- has been making the rounds for a while now, with the thing finally making the leap from vaporware to full fledged gadgethood at the Frankfurt Book Fair yesterday. Built around an ARM11 CPU and a 6-inch grayscale e-Ink display, this guy features support for ePub format documents, microSD card storage (ships with 8GB) and access to your documents either via USB, WiFI, or the txtr Net wireless service -- which, as near we can tell is Germany-only -- where you can expect to pay about €14.99 ($22) a month for a three month contract or $11.99 ($18) per month for the year. Among the many enticements offered to lure you away from Amazon (or, perhaps, Barnes and Noble), the company is promising that this will be an entirely open platform for devs, and they're throwing in a novel by Thomas Klupp (which, as far as we can tell, is only available in German). Pre-orders start December 1st, 2009 for €319 ($477), with plans to get these guys in European and American customer's hands before Christmas. PR after the break.[Via NewGadgets.de]
China Mobile to offer subsidized e-ink reader
We don't know how well a subsidized e-reader would fly in the States, but it looks like we're soon to find out how well it does in China. The AirPaper50T e-book reader sports a 6-inch (800 x 600) e-ink display up top, another 3.7-inch display below for navigation (we guess), and allows you to purchase books for between 3 and 5 yuan (between $0.43 and $1.02) from China Mobile's store, over its TD-SCDMA and GSM networks. This bad boy also sports a USB interface for transferring files from our PC (which is good, 'cos it has no WiFi) and a SIM card slot, and a single charge can last some 30,000 page views or sit in standby mode for 7 days. Let us know how this one works out for you, eh?%Gallery-72482%[Via Engadget Chinese]
Sony's new Reader close to greatness, but a bit too dim
Sony's lithe new PRS-700 conquers many of the most annoying faults of Amazon's chunky little fire-starter, but falls just short of greatness according to MobileTechReview. First with the good: the touchscreen enables page turning with the flick of a finger (or stylus), note taking via virtual keyboard, responds quite well, and doesn't even smudge! It supports PDF and Word files, can be used landscaped, and even has LEDs built into the screen's border for reading in the dark. Sadly, though, that display can't even match the contrast of its predecessors, which are plenty murky to begin with, and with no wireless of any sort you're stuck filling this one via USB, SD, or MS Duo. In other words there's still no perfect choice in the world of the e-ink reader -- but it is awfully hard to ignore the Reader's sleek exterior when compared to the Kindle's distinctively sci-fi doorstop look.
