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VeriFone credit card reader gets deal to be in Apple Stores
The Square credit card reader for the iPhone has gotten most of the buzz around here, especially after we saw that impressive demo at Macworld a few weeks ago. But VeriFone's competing reader has been given the green light by Apple itself: the unit has been granted a deal for shelf space. VeriFone will be selling its PAYware Mobile units inside Apple's retail stores coming up as soon as the end of March. I'm not quite sure what the reasoning is behind this one on Apple's side, as the PAYware service seems to be a little more clunky than the Square solution: you have to pay both an activation fee and a monthly fee on top of the per-payment charge that Square asks for, and the reader itself is much bigger, taking up the iPhone's dock rather than just using the headphone port like Square's. Whatever Apple saw in them, you'll be able to get VeriFone's system right along with an iPhone or iPod touch all at the same time.. No matter which system eventually prevails (if indeed anyone needs to prevail at all -- there's certainly more than one credit card company, so there's no reason why there couldn't be more than one payment system on the iPhone), this does seems like a model that will change a lot of business transactions in all sorts of industries. It'll be interesting to see how the curve takes off once these things are up and running.
Sony Reader Daily Edition reviewed: unworthy of cost premium or love
For all the fuss made at its launch back in August, Sony's Reader Daily Edition has all but dropped off the map in terms of interest. Remember, Sony's response to the Kindle gave us a 7-inch touchscreen device with free AT&T 3G data for a street price of $399. Now we've got a proper in-depth review of the thing. On the plus side, the interface is simple and easy to understand right out of the box with nice, oversized icons suitable for your meat digit manipulation. Unfortunately, the Daily Reader was also sluggish. According to Laptop, it was common to suffer a delay of a few seconds after tapping an icon or other interface item. Worse yet, about a third of the time the Daily Reader's touchscreen display wouldn't respond to taps or swipes at all. Conversely, page turns responded with a relatively snappy (for E-Ink) one second delay -- faster than both the Nook or the Kindle. The EPD display was also a bit "dull" compared to non-touchscreen e-readers like the Kindle and Nook thanks to the additional screen layer that enables touch -- a common issue that affects all touch-enabled e-readers, we might add. This resulted in some eye strain in medium to low light. Connectivity also proved a sore spot. AT&T's network would inexplicably drop out during testing. It was plenty fast, however, when available, capable of delivering new books to the device in just seconds. Performance still lagged both the Kindle and Nook during comparison testing though. Laptop's verdict isn't surprising then, finding the $140 premium you'll pay for the Daily Reader difficult to justify compared to the EPUB supporting Nook or Kindle 2 with its better design and superior content selection. It's worth noting that Laptop did not test the Daily Reader's library finder services that lets you check out e-books from the local branch for free for a period of up to a month. A shame; as library nerds we think that's one of the killer features compared to the competition.
Barnes and Noble CEO describes Nook as 'single best-selling product,' critical to success
In a conference call with investors yesterday, Steve Riggio described the Nook as a great success and the company's best selling product. The former is predictable, but the latter is kinda weird. You typically wait to have more than one own-brand product in order to describe anything as "best-selling," but we'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he's comparing the Nook against books published under the B&N name. It's still disappointing that, much like Amazon, Barnes and Noble refuses to issue actual sales figures. The closest we get to that is Steve's boast that the Nook's release has fueled a 67 percent increase in online ebook sales -- an effect that would have been even greater if the company had more stock of the device to sell. In the long term, he sees the Nook as a stimulant of traffic and sales, both in its retail and online stores, and a central component of his company's strategy. As to the iPad? Steve skirted that question by noting that B&N ebooks are also available on PC, Mac, iPhone and BlackBerry devices. Which is good to know.
Acer tables e-reader plans, says market is 'not that big'
What's this we hear? Is it the distant thunder of sanity emanating from Acer's Taiwanese headquarters? The Taipei Times is reporting this morning Acer chairman Wang Jeng-tang's announcement that his company will not be releasing an ebook reader "for now." It was only a month ago that Jeng-tang and his crew were telling the world about the aggressive inroads they were going to make into the Amazon-dominated e-reader market, but it appears some second-guessing has been taking place in those Taipei boardrooms, which has led to the scrapping of the earlier plans. Considering the absolute glut of interchangeable E Ink devices out there, we have to agree with Acer's perspective; you either have to come up with something unique -- like the Nook, the Edge, or the Adam -- or just focus your energies elsewhere. Good job on remembering that we're more interested in seeing that mysterious ultrathin laptop than just another run of the mill 6-inch e-reader.
Samsung's E6, E101 and E61 e-readers shown on video
We were fortunate enough to get a quick moment with Samsung's new assortment of e-readers back at CES, but the cool kids over at Notebook Italia were able to get the E6, E101 and E61 on video. There's little doubt that these look awfully different than all of the other me-too options on the market, and the touch input seems to be extraordinarily responsive based on the demonstration. Speaking of which... hop on past the break to have a look yourself, cool?
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.
Brother's SV-70 e-book reader is a little bit cheaper, still $1,100
Remember the SV-100B "Document Viewer" from this time last year? It's okay, we had to look it up too. With its $1,500 MSRP and exclusive release in Japan, it hardly made waves over here. We're expecting the SV-70 to have a similarly ripple-free reception in the States, since it too probably isn't coming here, but there's no telling how Japanese businesspeople will take to it, ditching the Bluetooth module that gave its predecessor a bit of charm, and even the lowly 2GB microSD card that was formerly included on the way to a lower (but still high) $1,100 MSRP. Other specs remain the same, including a relatively expansive 9.7-inch, 1200 x 825 display, 100MB of internal memory, microSD expansion slot, and 83 hours worth of battery life. Why, that's plenty of time to read even the lengthiest of pseudo-inspirational corporate memos.
Openmoko brings improved keypad / scrolling and math equations to WikiReader
It sort of blows our mind that OpenMoko has managed to sell more than a smattering of its $99 WikiReaders (you know, considering just how limited in scope this thing is), but evidently there's a huge demand out there for improvements. The company has just rolled out its Spring 2010 update, which adds math equations, fluid scrolling, and enhanced navigation. Reportedly, the latter comes in the form of an improved touchscreen keypad, which is said to make "finding Wikipedia entries easier and faster and makes enjoying one of the largest reference archives known to mankind even better." We won't bother pointing out the gross exaggerations in that there comment, but at any rate, existing users can download the update today free of charge. Don't all hurry over at once and crash the servers, okay?
Elecom introduces SDXC-compatible card reader, waits for you to afford SDXC cards
Panasonic's duo of SDXC cards should be shipping out this month, which means that you'll be needing a new card reader on the double. Of course, it's not like you're really about to pay upwards of $450 for 32GB of wicked fast Secure Digital storage (or $600 for the 64 gigger), but hey, it's hard to knock Elecom for being proactive. Said outfit has just released what looks to be the first multicard readers to openly support SDXC, with the MR-A001BK handling ten formats and the MR-A002 supporting a grand total of 32 -- some of which haven't been used regularly since Vikings ruled the north. Both are expected to ship in Japan later this month, with pricing set for ¥1,890 ($21) and ¥2,415 ($27) in order of mention.
Notion Ink to have competition to encourage development for Adam reader, might release two versions
Back at CES, we were pretty excited to get our hands on Notion Ink's far out, Pixel Qi display-boasting reader, Adam. Well, Notion Ink is on the move, and encouraging development for the Tegra-powered little devil is apparently a top priority. The company has unveiled plans to hold an App Competition with one million dollars in prize money for the development of Adam-compatible software. There are no final details about the contest yet, but we think we'll probably be hearing more about it next week at MWC. Slashgear's got some interesting renders Notion Ink sent over which give us an idea of what a final production model might look like -- and it's definitely different than the prototype we saw in Las Vegas. The company also told Slashgear that it's considering having two retail versions of the Adam -- but has only said that one might measure 12.9mm thick, and the other 11.6mm thick -- so we're not sure what other differences might be in tow. We'll let you know when we hear more details about that million dollar prize money, though.
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.
E-reader statisfaction study shows 93 percent of users are happy, just not you
The wind sure changes very quickly, eh? Just a week ago the University of Georgia revealed that many of its study participants -- Athens residents who were given a Kindle to play with -- weren't happy with their e-reader experience, but yesterday a new study reported something fairly contrasting. Rather than doling out touchscreen-less e-readers to a group of people, the NPD Group surveyed more than 1,000 e-reader owners in late November last year, and found out that 93 percent of them were "very satisfied" or "somewhat satisfied" with their devices, while only 2 percent "expressed any level of dissatisfaction." The report also reveals that wireless access is the favorite feature for 60 percent of the users, while only 23 percent chose the touchscreen. Compared to last week's report, this probably shows that consumers who actually buy e-readers don't really care about the touch feature, whereas those on the outer circle are mainly waiting for more -- and no doubt cheaper -- touchscreen e-readers. Seriously though, only 34 percent wanted color screens? Those guys sure are easy to please.
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.
Study finds people want more from their Kindles, less from their newspapers
This may come as a surprise to you (although probably not, you smart devil), but it turns out that plenty of people are dissatisfied with their current e-reader options -- according to a recent study conducted at the University of Georgia. The study was conducted over a six-month period where participants read the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on a Kindle, then provided feedback. The results were, well -- not entirely shocking. Younger adults found the Kindle to be lacking because it had no touchscreen or other applications (though to be fair, neither does the print version of the paper), while older adults seemed more satisfied, but also reported missing the crossword puzzles and comics of a real, live newspaper. Pretty much everyone agreed that the screen was nice and comfortable to read on, but almost no one was a fan of the price. All in all, there's not terribly much here that we think is overly telling -- besides (of course) the fact that paper rules.
Sony says the Reader is selling 'very well,' thank you very much, isn't planning color versions
With all this talk of iPads and Kindles shaking up the print world, few people are sparing a thought for Sony's noble Reader series, so the company would like to take this opportunity to remind you that it is "selling very well." Fujio Noguchi, Deputy President of Sony's e-book division, indicated that the gadget is its most popular item in the Sony Style store, with the Touch Edition selling the most units. He says that his focus is on "readability" and that the company will continue to use e-paper, good news for those with sensitive eyes, but that Sony has no plans for a color Reader until color e-ink screens are of sufficient quality. So, for now, you'll just have to buy yourself the one on the left above if you're looking to tickle your cones.
Keepin' it real fake, part CCLIII: Amazon.com gets copied with its Kindle in tow
Guys, seriously: you're going to love this one. Indian site Infibeam -- which looks at least somewhat "legit" -- has completely ripped off Amazon.com... as in pretty much copied it exactly. Now, we're no strangers ourselves to a bit of 'fan fictionizing' of our name and likeness (for retail locations), but this is possibly the most blatant (and blatantly hilarious) thing we've ever seen. Oh, and while you're visiting Infibeam.com, don't forget to pick up an Infibeam Pi -- AKA Kindle ripoff. Infibeam's CEO, Geoff Pezos will thank you. [Thanks, Vinod P.]
BeBook Neo e-reader launches with WiFi and WACOM capabilities
We're still patiently waiting for Endless Ideas to launch a 3G-equipped e-reader to compete with the masses, but 'til then, we suppose we'll have to be satisfied with the WiFi-toting BeBook Neo. Boasting a 532MHz Freescale CPU, Vizplex display (800 x 600 resolution), 512MB of internal storage, 3.5mm headphone jack, USB 2.0 connectivity and an SD expansion slot, the 6-inch, February-bound Neo brings to the table very little that we haven't seen elsewhere -- in fact, it's a dead ringer for Onyx International's Boox. Naturally, you'll find support for a multitude of file formats (ePUB, PDF, HTML, JPG, PNG, etc.), and the internal battery is good for 7,000 page turns on a full charge. The company is also playing up the unit's ability to access a wide variety of third-party ebook venues, which gives you the option of purchasing books from any given outlet rather than a predefined store. There's also WACOM tech built in, which should delight those who love to annotate and add text mark-ups. We're told that future software updates will add a multitude of new features, but it's tough to say if that promise is enough to coax you into dropping $299 on a pre-order. %Gallery-83700%
ASUS DR-950 9-inch touchscreen e-reader brings text-to-speech and internet browser
ASUS is suddenly all chatty with its plans to enter the e-reader market in 2010. Just yesterday we got word of a 6-inch color (claimed to be OLED by InGear) e-reader from ASUS by the name of DR-570 headed to retail before the year is through. Now we've got details of a second ASUS e-reader, dubbed the DR-950 that should arrive sooner. This time we're looking at a 9-inch Sipix panel with 1,024 x 768 pixel resolution pushing 16-levels of gray just like the Jinke reader unveiled at CES. The touchscreen DR-950 features text-to-speech (based on Svox engine supporting 26 languages), a web browser that works in portrait or landscape modes, a virtual keyboard and handwriting input, a RSS reader, and dictionary (with expandable database) with real-time translation. Spec-wise, the 222 x 161 x 9-mm / 370-gram reader packs WiFi and HSPA (WiMax is optional) data radios, 3.5-mm headphone jack and stereo speakers, with 4GB of internal memory and SD Card expansion. Supported formats include PDF, TXT, Audible, MP3, and unprotected ePub. Not bad ASUS, not bad. Now let's see some content partners, eh? See it pictured browsing the web after the break.
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?
Unauthorized iPhone news readers raise eyebrows
Here's an interesting little new media legal dilemma for you: apparently there are several paid apps in the iPhone App Store that bill themselves as "readers" for publications like the New York Times, CNET, and the BBC, but aren't actually licensed or official in anyway -- they're just pulling RSS feeds. That means people paying for an app like The New York Times Mobile Reader aren't actually getting an app from the Times -- and, perhaps more importantly, the Times isn't getting anything from anyone. Seems like Apple should probably just shut these apps down, but that's the interesting part: all these apps are pretty much just custom-built feed readers, and you can generally access all of the same content using Safari. Now, there's obviously a trademark issue involved here, especially if these apps are confusing people into thinking they're official, but we're curious to see how these pubs and Apple handle the situation in the next few weeks, since it's relatively uncharted territory. P.S.- Let's not even get into the fact that Apple's rated the NYT Mobile Reader app "12+" for "Infrequent / Mild Mature / Suggestive Themes." Oh, the App Store.
