Posts tagged e reader

Is Amazon hiring devs to build a robust web browser for Kindle?

Mar 10th

Posted by Joseph L. Flatley in Gadgets

Are you a software dev with a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science, familiarity with current Web standards, and experience with browser engines, Linux on embedded devices, and Java? If so, do we have the job for you. Lab126, the group at Amazon responsible for the Kindle, wants you to help "conceive, design, and bring to market" a new embedded browser on a Linux device. Might this be a sign that the company is ready to start taking web browsing on the e-reader seriously? We don't know, but it sure sparked some interesting discussion over at All Things Digital. As Peter Kafka points out, a decent browser for the thing is pretty much a no-brainer in light of the Apple iPad. On the other hand, the idea of a robust browser on the Kindle has its own complications. What about subscription content like the New York Times -- why would anyone pay for something that's available for free on the web, if you're using the same device to view both? And what about all that new data traffic? Surely AT&T will have something to say about that. Of course, we've been hearing enough scuttlebutt about a mysterious next-gen device being developed at Amazon that perhaps this has nothing to do with the Kindle whatsoever. Who knows? These are all questions that will have to be answered sooner or later, but in the meantime we can say with some certainty that E ink is definitely not the best way to troll 4chan.

Is Amazon hiring devs to build a robust web browser for Kindle? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung E6 e-reader coming to Barnes and Noble this spring for $299

Mar 9th

Posted by Nilay Patel in Gadgets

Samsung still hasn't committed to a formal launch date for the e-reader line it launched at CES, but the company narrowed down the launch date from "early 2010" to "this spring" this morning -- which makes sense, seeing as spring has nearly, uh, sprung. We're only hearing about the six-inch E6 at the moment, along with a new Barnes and Noble partnership -- we're not sure anyone will pick the Samsung over the popular Nook, especially at the $399 price point we heard at CES, but at least there's a built-in content ecosystem. Interestingly, we're not hearing anything about the 10-inch E10 or QWERTY-equipped E61, both of which would fill large gaps in the B&N lineup, but we're looking out for more info -- we'll let you know. In the meantime, you can watch a video of all three devices right here.

Update: Samsung says the E6 will be $299 at launch, which is a nice little drop. As for the E10 and E61, all we're hearing is that they "may be coming soon," so who knows what's going on.

Gallery: Samsung announces E6 and E10 e-book readers at CES

Samsung E6 e-reader coming to Barnes and Noble this spring for $299 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Spring Design Alex still not available for pre-order, ‘early spring’ ship date still planned

Mar 9th

Posted by Joanna Stern in Gadgets

The first week of March may have brought warmer weather and an awesome episode of the Engadget Show, but unfortunately we're still missing a Spring Design Alex pre-order page. The company had promised to have its dual-screen, 3.5-inch Android and 6-inch e-ink e-Reader ready last week after the original February delay, but we've now been told that there were some slight issues with the order page and that it should be up within the "next week or two," and Spring Design still plans to have the reader in customer's hand's by "early spring." We've got no choice but to wait, but we can tell you we are looking forward to this whole spring thing in general.

Spring Design Alex still not available for pre-order, 'early spring' ship date still planned originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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1Cross Tech MIDhybrid is the Android-powered e-reader that looks like a book (video)

Mar 8th

Posted by Tim Stevens in Gadgets

1Cross Tech MIDhybrid is the Android-powered e-reader that looks like a book (video)
It's debatable whether the act of reading on a Kindle or the like is actually preferable to perusing something bound and printed on paper, but regardless 1Cross Tech's MIDhybrid helps to bring the two experiences closer together. It's an e-reader with an E-Ink screen on the left and a small LCD plus keypad on the right, with a hinge in the middle that allows it to fold in half either way. It's Marvell-powered and running Android 1.6 that, much like the tardy Alex, allows you to render content from the LCD over to the E-Ink screen. This could mean browsing PDFs, looking at spreadsheets, or maybe even playing Robo Defense at 1fps (probably not). The device also packs 3G, Bluetooth, and a front-facing webcam, making it sound like a very usable little thing, and while we do have a 15 minute video exploring the thing embedded below, we sadly don't have a price or release date for you just yet.

Continue reading 1Cross Tech MIDhybrid is the Android-powered e-reader that looks like a book (video)

1Cross Tech MIDhybrid is the Android-powered e-reader that looks like a book (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink ARMdevices.net  |  source1Cross Tech  | Email this | Comments
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Spring Design’s Alex e-reader hits the FCC

Mar 6th

Posted by Donald Melanson in Gadgets

Spring Design's Alex e-reader has certainly had one of the more interesting product launches in recent years and, with an actual release now seemingly imminent, it's finally turned up in the FCC's hands. There's not many surprises left at this point, but the agency has at least treated us to a peek inside the device, and offered us our first look at the device's user manual. Head on past the break for a few more exciting images, and hit up the link below for the complete rundown, FCC style.

Continue reading Spring Design's Alex e-reader hits the FCC

Spring Design's Alex e-reader hits the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft’s Courier ‘digital journal’: exclusive pictures and details (update: video!)

Mar 5th

Posted by Nilay Patel in Gadgets

We've been dying to know more about Microsoft's Courier tablet / e-book device ever since we first caught wind of it last September, and while our entreaties to Mr. Ballmer went unanswered, we just learned some very interesting information from an extremely trusted source. We're told Courier will function as a "digital journal," and it's designed to be seriously portable: it's under an inch thick, weighs a little over a pound, and isn't much bigger than a 5x7 photo when closed. That's a lot smaller than we expected -- this new picture really puts it into perspective -- and the internals apparently reflect that emphasis on mobility: rather than Windows 7, we're told the Courier is built on Tegra 2 and runs on the same OS as the Zune HD, Pink, and Windows Mobile 7 Series, which we're taking to mean Windows CE 6.

As we've heard, the interface appears to be pen-based and centered around drawing and writing, with built-in handwriting recognition and a corresponding web site that allows access to everything entered into the device in a blog-like format complete with comments. We're also hearing that there will be a built-in camera, and there's a headphone jack for media playback. Most interestingly, it looks like the Courier will also serve as Microsoft's e-book device, with a dedicated ecosystem centered around reading. It all sounds spectacular, but all we have for a launch date is "Q3 / Q4", and we have no idea how much it's going to cost, so we're trying to maintain a healthy skepticism until any of this gets official -- call us any time, Microsoft. One more pic showing the interface after the break.

Update: We've added a gallery of user interface shots -- some of which we've seen and some of which are new.

Update 2: We've just gotten two full-length HD videos of the interface in action. We've seen parts of these before, but there's some new stuff here that's quite interesting. Check it below.

Gallery: Courier user interface

Continue reading Microsoft's Courier 'digital journal': exclusive pictures and details (update: video!)

Microsoft's Courier 'digital journal': exclusive pictures and details (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony prepping new line of handhelds, including PSP phone?

Mar 4th

Posted by Chris Ziegler in Gadgets

You know who knows everything? People familiar with the matter. In particular, they know everything when "the matter" happens to be Sony's handheld strategy for 2010, which is said to finally include an honest-to-goodness PSP with phone capabilities -- something the world's been demanding for as long as they've wanted a Zunephone. According to the WSJ, the device is apparently part of a larger push by Sony to create an iTunes-like Utopian ecosystem of products this year that connect to Sony Online Service, an ecosystem that would also include a hybrid portable of some sort that "blurs distinctions among a netbook, an e-reader and a PlayStation Portable." Details aren't offered on this particular monster -- but turning our attention back to the phone for a second, it's claimed that Sony's working with it in conjunction with the folks at Sony Ericsson under the direction of Kunimasa Suzuki, an exec largely responsible for the VAIO line who's also involved with the PlayStation team. Of course, SE's already taken some baby steps toward corporate harmony by bundling Remote Play support with the Aino, but everyone knows that PSP compatibility is the panacea; Microsoft finally buckled on the Zunephone thing with the introduction of Windows Phone 7 Series, and there's no reason why Sony shouldn't follow suit.

Sony prepping new line of handhelds, including PSP phone? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Phone Scoop  |  sourceThe Wall Street Journal  | Email this | Comments
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Sony Reader Daily Edition reviewed: unworthy of cost premium or love

Mar 3rd

Posted by Thomas Ricker in Gadgets

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.

Sony Reader Daily Edition reviewed: unworthy of cost premium or love originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS DR-900 e-reader hands-on

Mar 3rd

Posted by Joanna Stern in Gadgets

After weeks of hearing about the DR-900 (or DR-950) e-reader, you had to know that we'd sprint (okay, walk at a brisk pace) over to ASUS' booth to finally handle the touchscreen device in person. The 9-inch ebook reader was quite light in hand, and though we didn't have Amazon's Kindle DX with us, it appeared very comparable in size. As far as the reading experience goes, the preloaded text-based PDFs looked crisp on the 1024 x 768 display and as per usual the e-ink display took about a second or two to refresh. Unfortunately, here's where we tell you that the former touch experience was less than stellar -- we had to press quite hard to select the homescreen icons and light finger taps didn't register when we tried to type "engadget" into the address bar. We got the hang of having to press firmly, but we're happy there are the up and down arrows on the right edge for alternate navigation. Perhaps it will all be fixed up once it heads into production, though we don't have details on when that will be. What we do know is that there's a just lovely hands-on video for you after the break.

Gallery: ASUS DR-900 e-reader hands-on

Continue reading ASUS DR-900 e-reader hands-on

ASUS DR-900 e-reader hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS makes DR-900 e-reader official

Mar 2nd

Posted by Vladislav Savov in Gadgets

We've spent all our time hearing about a DR-950, but today at CeBIT ASUS has trotted out a DR-900 as its first 9-inch ebook reader. It doesn't appear manifestly different from what we've heard and seen already, with WiFi connectivity augmented with a 3G option, and a battery life rated to last a pretty radical 10,000 pages on a single charge. The interface on show clearly invites touch interaction, and we can fill in a few gaps with what we know of the DR-950, namely a 1024 x 768 resolution on a Sipix panel, 4GB of integrated storage, 3.5mm headphone jack, and support for PDF, TXT, MP3 and ePUB files. We'll be tracking down an official price and release date shortly, as well as smudging a few fingerprints on these before the day is through.

ASUS makes DR-900 e-reader official originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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