As you probably know, bistable or passive displays like the E-Ink ones in e-readers focus on battery life and readability rather than color and interactivity. The latest devices have been optimized for fast page refreshes and touch operation, but generally you’re still waiting a half a second or so for the screen to flip over to the next page, menu, or what have you.
But that’s not all they’re capable of. We’ve seen hacks before, but this one definitely takes the cake. → Read More
Barnes & Noble may be challenging Amazon’s dominance of the e-book world, but the Kindle sales are still growing faster than the Nook’s — at least if you connect the dots between some of the numbers included in a recently-published article by The New York Times. → Read More
Ownership of tablets and e-book readers saw a big spike over the holidays — in fact, it nearly doubled in the United States, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project.
The study was based on telephone surveys conducted in mid-December and January, which found that ownership of both device types nearly doubled in just a month. Now a total of 29 percent of US adults own a tablet or an e-reader, or possibly both. → Read More
Amazon’s extra-large Kindle DX is available this weekend (which is to say for the next few hours) for the low, low price of $259, down from its normal $379. It’s telling that even the lowered price still seems ridiculously high, considering that smaller but more advanced models are selling for under $100. How long can this outlier live in a world dominated by cheap, pocketable, touchscreen e-readers?
In its current form, the fact is it’s likely on its way out. The Kindle Keyboard and indeed the graphite look in general are on their way out, to be replaced by the lighter, thinner, more touchable new generation. But there’s a problem: the DX is one of the very few e-readers that doesn’t use the same 6″ E-Ink screen as everyone else. Amazon probably knows there’s demand there, but perhaps the time is not yet right to strike. → Read More
If you were thinking of laying out the cash for one of the new touch-based e-readers, now would be a good time. Kobo is dropping the price of its Touch e-reader device, which I reviewed here, to $99 if you’re willing to see ads when the device is sleeping.
That puts it at the same price as the Nook and Kindle – except the Nook is getting a special price this Friday. → Read More
Depending on who you talk to, the fact that you need a light to read e-paper-based e-readers like the Kindle is either a strength or a weakness. It’s become part of the branding, after all: “just like real paper!”
But with increasing competition from LCD-based devices, it might be that E-Ink and its many clients will need to level the playing field. How about a softly-glowing screen? → Read More
Amazon has announced an update to the Kindle file format integrating many HTML5 tags and CSS attributes. Many expected a concession by Amazon in the form of an EPUB-compatible upgrade, and this comes as a slight surprise — but it’s a natural evolution of the format, really, and of course everyone is already familiar with the toolset.
In a way this makes Kindle formatted books nothing more than extremely long webpages, but that’s really a matter of perspective. Flexible layouts and well-known rules for handling text, fonts, images, and so on mean that the file format is adaptable to many devices, zoom levels, resolutions, and so on. → Read More
The increasing socialification (as opposed to socialization) of our everyday activities is food for thought. What is it that makes people want to share everything about every activity? Reading especially, to me, has always been more of an escape from the social sphere. Except for on the rare occasions on which I have had to read out loud, books are a way to completely disengage from the constantly and insistently connected online world. Yet I can’t deny that the urge to share and be shared with must be as compelling for some regarding books as it is for their lunches, activities, and so on.
So when Kobo shows off its e-book reader and touts it as the world’s first social e-reader, I am skeptical. Firstly because I’m pretty sure there are plenty of socially-enabled e-readers out there, and secondly because I’m not sure social is a basket into which that Kobo should be putting all their eggs. → Read More
This probably won’t affect the e-reader wars over here in the states much, but I can’t say no to a handsome device like this. And when they put Homer on the screen as well, that’s just icing on the cake. The Cybook Odyssey, from French e-reader maker Bookeen, has a trick or two up its sleeve that I hope our US devices will learn one day. → Read More
Amazon’s not-so-secret project is finally unveiled and is the company’s first real tablet contender. The Kindle Fire is Amazon’s prize fighter in the battle for tablet dominance. But the new LCD-equipped Kindle isn’t in the corner alone. Amazon also took the wraps off of two new, more-traditional Kindles, including a $99 touchscreen model and a stripped-down $79 option.
The Fire itself is rather characterless and dull. It looks a lot like the 7-inch BlackBerry PlayBook (probably for good reason) and features just enough tech to pass as acceptable. There’s a tw0-point multitouch screen (the iPad has a 10-point screen), and an unspecified CPU although reports place a TI OMAP CPU at the core. There are no physical buttons on the black slate along with little Amazon branding. The Fire doesn’t have a camera, mic or 3G connectivity although it does pack WiFi. It’s all about the experience → Read More
The news that Amazon’s tablet was real was a great scoop, but not quite a shock to the industry. Bezos all but confirmed it months ago, and supply-line leaks had it coming in late summer, which was optimistic but not far off; the Fire will be arriving on Wednesday.
One question I always had, though, was how Amazon would justify putting out this device when they’ve spent so long slagging the iPad as an e-reading platform? Simple: the Fire isn’t an e-reader. Sure, you can read books on it, but its main function is acting as a wedge for all those sadly-overlooked Amazon services. Apple sells you on one platform then keeps on nudging you until you accept the rest. iTunes, iPhone, iPad, OS X, it doesn’t matter which you do first, the point of the ecosystem is to make you use all of them. Amazon is trying for a similarly lateral play. → Read More
Microsoft is officially putting their MS Reader system to bed. First made available in 2000, before e-ink readers were more than a twinkle in some materials researcher’s eye, the application was intended for the consumption of e-books on LCD screens, using Microsoft’s ClearType font smoothing and a relatively compact, familiar format.
The .lit filetype and Reader application have only been receiving the lightest of support, the last desktop version appearing in 2007 and the last mobile update bringing it up to speed with Windows Mobile 6.1. You can’t blame them, really; it was never much more than a hobby (e-books were far from big business then) and they couldn’t have predicted the hardware advances that would make the Kindle and other popular devices the default for reading e-books. Like so many Microsoft projects, it was ahead of its time — but too little, too early. → Read More
A new Pew research survey of U.S. adults conducted in May, 2011 shows that ownership of electronic readers such as the Amazon Kindle or The Barnes & Noble Nook is now at 12 percent. The ownership of e-readers doubled from six months prior when it was 6 percent.
The adoption of e-readers continues to outpace tablets such as the iPad and Motorola Xoom. Only 8 percent of respondents said they won a tablet, compared to 5 percent six months earlier. So tablet ownership seems to be growing at a slower pace. → Read More
Update: It’s over! Congrats to all the winners – emails have been sent. Thanks for entering, everyone, your bookcases are all very interesting. If you’re curious about the new generation of touchable e-readers, now’s your chance to pick one up just for being a CrunchGear reader. Kobo has been generous enough to donate one of their new eReader Touch Editions for us to give away, and a few gift cards as well. I like the device: it’s a simple, responsive e-reader that would tempt me if I weren’t a scurrilous, paper-loving Luddite. So how do you win? → Read More
We just posted our hands-on with the new touchscreen Nook e-reader, and we’ll have a full review in a couple days — but if you can’t wait (or don’t care what we think), B&N has actually started selling the things ahead of schedule. Pre-orders have shipped, online orders are shipping now, and devices will be in-store on Thursday and in stock on Monday. Thinking about whether to buy this or the new Kobo eReader Touch? I’ll have both on hand in about a week, so if you hold tight I’ll be doing a head-to-head comparison. → Read More
We’ll soon have both of these new e-reader devices for review, but a quick comparison seems in order since they’re so similar on paper. Both are going to be available in early June, and both promise a frills-free touchable reading experience. How do they differ? Let’s run down the specs and see what happens. → Read More
I’m a big fan of my Kindle DX. It’s literally my favorite gadget. I love the form factor, the large screen, the relatively good battery life and the keyboard. Amazon could eliminate any of those items and my love would still be just as strong. The Kindle DX is perfect in my eyes. It’s so perfect that just the thought of Amazon ditching the buttons in favor of a touchscreen pains me as deeply as The Road.
That’s the trend now: touchscreen e-ink screens. Within the last 24 hours, Kobo and Barnes & Noble introduced models with new touchscreen e-ink displays. It’s a fantastic step in low-power consuming displays with really quick page refreshes and battery life. The new Nook has a 2-month battery. All good. Even the touchscreen is great technology with good-enough sensitivity. But I don’t want it in my next Kindle. → Read More
Kobo launched as a Borders-based alternative to the Kindle hegemony, and while their e-reader was perfectly decent, I wouldn’t say it was feature-competitive with Amazon’s latest. They’ve announced today a new device that may not match the Kindle (or its rumored tablet successor) on all fronts, but it’s at least distinct and definitely worth looking at. Yes, a touchscreen e-reader for a reasonable price is finally available.
One of the fundamental issues with nearly all e-readers is having to navigate by d-pad or keyboard while the slow e-ink screen refreshes. The new Pearl displays have mitigated that inconvenience, but it’s still unintuitive and sluggish. The Plastic Logic touch e-reader we got all excited about a couple years back proved to be too rich for its own blood, and while Sony has been touting its touchable e-readers for years now, they’ve been expensive, stylus-based, or both. This Kobo eReader Touch is $129, which I think is more than competitive. → Read More
There’s no denying that the latest cool displays are making important advances. But that doesn’t mean they’re quite ready for prime time. Take the flexible, 13.3″ color e-paper being shown by Sony over at SID right now. Without a doubt it’s cool stuff, but be honest — would you buy something using it? Not just yet. → Read More
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