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International Kindle won't let you use terrible web browser overseas
Amazon got the world's attention when it announced a $279 International version of its heralded Kindle, but if you thought you'd be able to roam globally and really put it to AT&T, think again. Wired has noticed that the fine print explains that accessing blogs and the experimental web browser won't be allowed overseas, though even Americans are cautioned against using the Kindle's browser unless smoke signals and morse code have already failed you. In related news, all International Kindles will ship with US power plugs from a US warehouse, so folks in Europe will need to factor in import fees as well as some sort of power adapter. Ah well, at least you guys get universal healthcare.
3G / WiFi-equipped BeBook 2 launching tomorrow?
Man, are people into reading, or what? Hot on the heels of the BeBook Mini launch in the US and news that Barnes & Noble could be introducing an e-reader of its own as early as next week, Endless Ideas is now rumored to have its BeBook 2 on deck for an October 14th release. And considering that it has a booth at the Frankfurt Book Fair this week, we'd say there's at least a decent chance that the rumors are true. If you'll recall, we snagged the first look at the company's first-ever 3G / WiFi-equipped e-book reader back at CeBIT in March (pictured above), and considering that there can really never be enough competition in the space, we'll take the promised touchscreen and free RSS support any way we can get it. We'll be cautiously watching the action tomorrow for a full reveal, and we'd recommend you do as well -- besides, it's not like that International Kindle is shipping before next week anyway.
Barnes & Noble hosting event on October 20: ebook a lock?
This rumor sure is shaping up nicely. We started with the FCC berth, then the Wall Street Journal weighed in with a meatier rumor, and now Barnes & Noble itself has sent out an invite to select media to a little get together touted as "a major event in our company's history." It's happening in NY on October 20, and at this point the larger surprise would probably be if there wasn't an ebook reader on display.
Plastic Logic deflates dreams, denies Spring 2010 release for color e-reader
We had a sneaking suspicion that it was too good to be true, and now Plastic Logic has stepped forward to officially kill our pipe dreams. Just days ago, the web was set ablaze when a Barnes & Noble representative mistakenly (or deliberately, for all we know) stated that a Plastic Logic-sourced color e-reader was on track for a Spring 2010 release. Today, the aforesaid outfit has stated that the video report was "inaccurate and the individual (who was apparently filmed while attending a trade show was not an authorized Barnes & Noble spokesperson) was misinformed." Continuing on, we're told that while "color is on Plastic Logic's roadmap, it is not on the map for the Spring of 2010." Welp, that settles that... unfortunately.[Thanks, Charlie]
5-inch BeBook Mini now shipping in the US for $199 (hands-on)
We'd heard back in May that Endless Ideas' smallest e-reader yet would begin shipping (presumably in Europe) during the summertime, but it just recently started to make its way onto US doorsteps. Thankfully, our doorstep was among those greeted by the 5-inch reader, which boasts the same specifications as the original BeBook save for the smaller display. Priced at $199, it seemed a lot more competitive before Amazon hacked the price of its Kindle to $259, and given the dearth of WiFi / 3G WWAN, it'll only appeal to those content with hitting up their PC via USB to get new content loaded on. Upon unboxing this cutie, we were struck at just how light and compact the whole unit is, though even with the font at its default size, we had no issues reading the crystal clear e-ink display. Screen refreshes were satisfactorily quick, and menu navigation was a breeze. As an e-reader (and MP3 player, if you wish), it's hard to bang on the pocket-friendly BeBook Mini, but with the Kindle's recent price drop and Sony's $199 Reader Pocket Edition, competition is fierce. %Gallery-75338%
LG's Solar Cell e-Book goes an extra day for every 5 hours of sunlight
Funny thing going on in the marketplace right now: reading for pleasure is on a rapid decline yet the choice of e-reader devices grows weekly. That's good news for those of us not spending our down-time in front of a television, mouth agape -- awkward for manufacturers testing the waters of this unproven niche. LG's showing off its Solar Cell e-Book reader anyway, in a bid to flex its thin-film solar muscle. The prototype features an energy conversion efficiency of about 9.6 percent giving it an extra day's worth of power for that 6-inch TFT-LCD after about four to five hours in the sun. LG is working towards boosting its thin-film solar cell energy conversion efficiency rate to 12% by 2010 on up to 14% by 2012. We say bring it LG, if you can. [Via OLED-Display]
Barnes and Noble 'confirms' color Plastic Logic e-book reader for Spring 2010 (video)
In no uncertain terms, a Barnes & Noble representative at what looks like the CTIA show says that a color (color!) Plastic Logic e-book reader will launch in Spring 2010. Now, we're not sure if Daniel Joresson is authorized to make announcements about its Plastic Logic partner but he did so nonetheless. The Plastic Logic e-reader will feature a color screen about the size of a paperback and runs the "Barnes & Noble e-book reader application." It's not clear, but it sounds like the B&N application will also be available for cellphones including the iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android devices. Right, similar to the Kindle app. So how does this jibe with rumors about a 6-inch Barnes & Noble e-reader from Plastic Logic launching as early as next month? Easy, the first version will be grayscale while a new model featuring a color display will launch in Spring. In fact, Plastic Logic's own web site says that its color reader is "around the corner" and expects to be "first to market with a large, flexible color display" -- take that Sony and Amazon with your PVI built E Ink-based displays. Watch the flirtatious B&N reveal after the break. [Thanks, Tom]Read -- Plastic Logic FAQ (color reader)Read -- Video
International Kindle ships October 19 to over 100 countries for $279, 'US' edition falls to $259
We can't say that we never saw this day coming, but we definitely didn't it see it coming today. After months of forcing us to twiddle our thumbs (and a good bit of pressure from other e-reader players), Amazon has finally taken the Kindle international. Aside from being able to wirelessly download content in over 100 countries and territories, the 6-inch device is the same as it ever was. The $279 price tag on the Kindle U.S. & International Wireless now represents a $20 premium over the standard Kindle, which simultaneously fell from $299 to $259 in price and picked up a new label ("Kindle U.S. Wireless"). The extra Jackson is evidently there to cover the inevitable roaming charges that'll occur when downloading new content overseas, but given AT&T's extensive global roaming footprint (yeah, the global reader is tied to AT&T, not Sprint), you should be covered in most every nation fit to visit. Feel free to place your pre-order now, and get ready for a new life as a globetrotting digital bookworm come October 19th.Update: Just saw this in the fine print: "When traveling abroad, you can download books wirelessly from the Kindle Store or your Archived Items for a fee of $1.99." [Thanks, Tom]Read - Kindle goes internationalRead - US Kindle falls to $259
Astak's 5-inch EZ Reader now shipping from Newegg
Astak -- the company looking to give Amazon's Kindle a 'run for its money' -- gave us a little bit of a shock when it unveiled its attractive 5-inch EZ Reader Pocket PRO back in August. At the time, the company said that the units would be shipping by the end of September, and, lo and behold, they're now shipping from Newegg. The Reader features a 400MHz CPU, 512MB of memory, an SD card slot, an 8-level grayscale E-ink screen, a replaceable battery good for 8,000 page turns per charge plus MP3 player that can operate in the background, and it'll run you $250 if you want to get in on the e-reader action. [Via E-reader-Info]
Kindle coming to the UK in October? Amazon might just tell us next week
Wanna know what we love? Authoritative sources. That fine breed of people who don't like keeping important secrets is back with another hit, this time suggesting that Amazon has finally tied up all the loose ends and is ready to bring the Kindle to Blighty. This implies Qualcomm has done its rumored job of putting together a 3G and WiFi connectivity package with one of the UK's mobile operators, and all that remains to be done now is the old dotting and crossing of i's and t's. An official announcement -- which should tell us whether the Kindle 2 will be joined by the chunkier Kindle DX -- is expected some time ahead of the Frankfurt Book Fair, which commences on October 14. [Via Pocket lint]
Kindle DX called "poor excuse of an academic tool" in Princeton pilot program
We've never thought the Kindle DX was ideal for serious studying, and it sounds like the students and teachers in Princeton's pilot program agree with us -- after two weeks of use in three classes, the Daily Princetonian reports many are "dissatisfied and uncomfortable" with their e-readers, with one student calling it "a poor excuse of an academic tool." Most of the criticisms center around the Kindle's weak annotation features, which make things like highlighting and margin notes almost impossible to use, but even a simple thing like the lack of true page numbers has caused problems, since allowing students to cite the Kindle's location numbers in their papers is "meaningless for anyone working from analog books." That's all led to word that Princeton won't be bringing the Kindle back to school next year, but we'll see if Amazon -- or anyone else -- can address all these complaints before that decision is made final. [Thanks, Tom]
iriver Story e-reader hits pre-order status in Korea, gets priced
We've been keeping our eyes peeled for any news of iriver's Story e-reader -- and it looks like it's on the verge of appearing in reality -- at least in Korea. The company is now taking pre-orders for the 6-inch, QWERTY keyboarded device, which runs 358,000 KRW ( around $290). The reader will come packaged with a 2GB SD card, the book-impersonating folding case we've spied it wearing in the past, and two free book downloads. While we've heard that the reader will eventually get global, we've still yet to heard pricing or release dates for the US of A. Until then, we'll just have to keep curled up on the sofa with our sad, dog-eared, public library copy of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
IREX unveils DR 800SG wireless ebook reader (updated with hands-on!)
IREX is currently, right this very second, taking the wraps off its big new splash in the ebook space, the new DR 800SG. The 8.1-inch unit has wireless connectivity courtesy of Verizon in the US and Qualcomm's Gobi multi-mode 3G for switching it up in the rest of the world. There's also 2GB of built-in storage, memory card expansion and stylus input ("true finger touch" is coming in Q2 2010 to a future product, right now you can only use the stylus, and a color reader is in the works as well for 2011), and IREX claims to have the fastest page refreshes in the biz. Perhaps most notable is that the reader is Barnes & Noble's first big play in the space, with support for the B&N eBookstore -- though the whole thing is an "open platform" with support from content from Newspaper Direct and LibreDigital stores as well, and format support of PDF, EPUB, Newspaper Direct, Fictionwise, eReader and TXT. Quite the mouthful, and IREX promises to follow wherever the market leads when it comes to DRM. The $399 device includes a leather cover and stylus in the box, and will be available this October in "select" Best Buy stores and will hit Europe in the first half of 2010. No wireless contract is required. %Gallery-73806% %Gallery-73809% We got to play with the new reader briefly, and weren't quite sure how to feel. On one hand, it's another sexy, slim reader, with a pretty great and fast e-ink screen. On the other hand, the interface is totally minimal and a little nonsensical without the stylus. A bar on the left side gives you a "tactile" method of pushing right or left to turn the page, but it feels pretty janky. Notetaking isn't enabled currently, so you can't draw on the screen, making the stylus feel a bit of a burden, not a boon -- the closest you get to text input is tapping away at an onscreen keyboard. We're glad IREX avoided the visibility-hampering pitfalls of Sony's touchscreen ebook technology, but perhaps some more thought should've been put into the alternative. We didn't do any heavy downloading, but the reader takes a very long time to create a connection -- a good 20-30 seconds -- which might've been due to the concrete bunker we're hanging out in, or just a sign of a slow processor, we're not sure which. We love the "openness," and it's great to see so many format alternatives right out of the gate, but we're gonna need more time with the DR 800SG before we're sure it's worth the plunge. %Gallery-73812%
iRex DR800SG e-reader brings global 3G downloads -- Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, and Verizon partnerships
Get ready to add another big time e-reader partnership to the list: iRex is set to announce later today a deal that will bring its latest DR800SG E-Ink slab to Best Buy with unlimited Verizon 3G data on board. The $399 e-reader with 8.1-inch touchscreen arrives as rumored with the ability to wirelessly download digital books from Barnes & Noble's e-bookstore in addition to over 1,100 newspapers from Newspapers Direct -- it'll also handle any books downloadable in the ePub format. The 3G goodness comes via a Gobi radio from Qualcomm -- right, that means HSDPA data too, allowing owners to download data while traveling abroad. Take that Kindle. The DR800SG is expected to arrive in US Best Buy stores next month. We'll be going hands-on with it later today where we'll have plenty of pics and the full suite of specs. Update: iRex has dropped a picture onto its home page. Is that stylus to scale?[Thanks, Tom]
Bookeen now shipping $280 Cybook Opus e-reader
We admire Bookeen's resilience here, we really do. After last hearing about this e-book reader in May, we sort of assumed it had just given up on the matter. After all, it's WiFi-less and yet still as pricey as many of its rivals. That said, the Cybook Opus certainly looks different than most every other reader out there, so surely that counts for something. We're not saying it counts for $280, but if you are, you're approximately 1.389 clicks away from having one shipped to your domicile.[Via GizmoScene]%Gallery-73754%
Barnes and Noble e-book reader hits the FCC
Barnes and Noble, the United State's largest book seller has filed with the FCC its own e-book reader, as it's insinuated in the attached Agent Authorization Letter. The dipping of the toes into the digital text industry isn't as peculiar as, say Discovery Communications, since Barnes and Noble already has some known precedence in the e-book reader market, partnering with Plastic Logic as their "exclusive eBookstore provider" -- this may very well be the Plastic Logic reader, but there's no indication one way or another. Chances are it'll be some time before we know, as all external and internal photos are under a confidentiality extension for 180 days as of September 3rd, or about six months from now. See you in Spring 2010!
Time looking to kick out the e-readers after all?
Hey -- this one makes sense, so we shouldn't be too surprised, but it turns out that Time, Inc. is seriously looking into getting into the e-reader business, according to a leaked presentation from June of this year. The slides, which are entitled "New Platforms & Business Models for Publishers," also contained notes which had been updated as late as this past August, indicating that Time has plans to launch a product as soon as the end of this year. Though Time had said back in March that it had "no interest" in getting into the e-reader biz, it's not terribly shocking to hear that they were either fibbing or changed their minds, considering how the market's been heating up lately, combined with the deaths of many, many print mags. NBC contacted Dawn Bridges -- a spokesperson for Time -- about the story, who said the company is "speaking with a number of hardware and software companies as well as other content companies about various projects." Vague enough for you? [Via Gizmodo]
Netronix sneaking 9.7-inch display, hopes and dreams into forthcoming EB900 e-reader
You've just got to admire an outfit like Netronix. Hardly anyone this side of Asia has heard of 'em, and with outfits like Amazon, Sony, Hearst and ASUS doing their darnedest to corner to rapidly expanding e-reader market, you know it has an uphill climb just to get some respect. That said, we're somewhat intrigued by what's on deck for Q1 2010; just a few months after its EB-600 and EB-500 readers were spotted at Computex, the company itself has confessed to having an expansive EB900 in the works. As with the Kindle DX, this bugger is destined to boast a 9.7-inch e-ink display, and you'll also find a 600MHz processor, WinCE 6.0-based operating system, touch support, a handwriting mode, built-in WiFi / Bluetooth / 3G WWAN and a USB socket for connecting to one's PC. The minuscule snapshot you see there to the right is all we've got to go by as far as images are concerned, but you can rest assured we'll be keeping an ear to the ground for more.[Thanks, Tom]
Boston prep school nixes all the books in its library, replaces them with 18 e-readers
We love looking to the future here at Engadget. And while real, paper books hold a special place in our heart, we're fairly certain no one will accuse us of being Luddites for scoffing at a recent development at a Boston prep school. James Tracy, the headmaster of Cushing Academy, says that he sees books as an "outdated technology," and to that end, he's taken the drastic and expensive step of ridding the school's library of every single one of its books. Replacing the books will be a high tech "learning center," housing three flat screen televisions, laptops, 18 e-readers, and a coffee bar. The project -- which is costing somewhere in the neighborhood of $500,000 -- is one of the first of its kind. So, excuse us for our cynicism, but unless there are only 18 students at Cushing Academy, we're pretty sure the e-reader supply is going to come up short.
Alleged iRiver Story e-reader pics exemplify imitation as the sincerest form of flattery
We can't fault iRiver for striving to beat Kindle at its game, but to be Kindle is a different story altogether. A Korea-based MobileRead forum member posted a trio of pics that apparently show off the company's up e-book reader, aptly titled the Story. Here's the scoop as "dasony" tells it: the talented Mr. Ripley here sports a 6-inch screen, physical QWERTY keys, up to 32GB expandable memory, 9,000 page turns (per charge, we presume), a comic viewer, and support for PDF, EPUB, and a number of word / document files. Its local affiliation includes book store chain Kyobo and pre-orders will launch September 16th for around 350,000 to 400,000 KRW, or $282 to $322 in US currencies. Apparently iRiver's looking to expand it to other countries and is in talk with US and Russian retailers, although with that price, it's gonna have to pull out some surprise features and dark magick to compete with what Sony and Amazon are dealing. More pics of the book and its not-quite-svelte case in the gallery below. [Via Engadget German]
