koobe def: » Digital reading

Apple iPad and iBooks Store: The Next Standard In e-Reader?

Wayne — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:15:54 +0000

Apple finally revealed its long-rumored tablet: iPad. It’s half inch thick, weighs about 1.5 pounds, and has a 9.7 inch touchscreen (IPS LCD), powered by a custom made A4 1GHz CPU. All iPod touch/iPhone applications can be used on iPad without any port or modifications. The battery can last about 10 hours and one month during standby. The build-in storage comes with 16, 32 and 64GB. As for connectivity, it has a 30-pin Dock connector, one speaker and one mic connect, along with the Bluetooth and WiFi (802.11n). Nothing spectacular, right?

Don’t forget Apple has Apps. The new iBook Store, an ebook reader and store designed for the iPad, uses ePub format. Several publishers (like McGraw-Hill, Penguin, Simon & Schuster) have joined Apple to publish their ebooks through the iBook Store. This is, to date, the most promising rival for the Amazon Kindle. Let’s just sit back and wait for some fresh hands-on reviews on the iPad.

ASUS DR-950 Photos?

Wayne — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 20:14:03 +0000

People at ASUS UK released a couple of pictures about an eReader, possibly the DR-950?

Update: The photos are now pulled down on Flickr. A teaser?

Apple Tablet: Potentially the Best eBook Reader?

Wayne — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:46:11 +0000

Forget about Steve Jobs’ “People Don’t Read Anymore” and his premonition about the death of the Kindle. Although Apple never states that it will make a reader (and it won’t), the long rumored tablet device, which will possibly revealed on 27th this month, seems like a perfect candidate to an all-round eBook reader.

Now think of Apple tablet as a ‘Kindle Touch’, with color touch screen, Wi-Fi and 3G connection. Books can be easily obtained from iTunes. You get the same feel as on an enlarged iPhone or iPod touch: smooth and comfortable. It is hard to deny that it will be the best Reader out there, if such a Tablet really exists.

ASUS Into eBook Business with 2 DR Models

Wayne — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:06:53 +0000

Last year we have seen the onset of the ebook digital reader market with the buzzword ‘Kindle’. Now ASUS is ready to get involved in the ebook business with two readers, DR-570 and DR-950.

ASUS DR-950

The DR-570 hosts a 6 inch OLED color touch screen, and it brags a battery run time over 120 hrs with a single battery charge. The DR-950, on the other hand, uses a larger 9 inch touch screen however in black and white. The resolution is reported as 1024×768. The web browser is said to be able to alternate between portrait and landscape display.

Both units support 3G download and Wi-Fi. The price is still unknown, but the DR-950 should fall below the $200 mark. The more advanced DR-570 could easily go above $350 thanks to the OLED touch screen.

Kindle for PC now available for download

Wayne — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:19:51 +0000

Kindle for PC beta

The wait is over. The beta version of Kindle for PC is finally out. Currently the reader only supports Windows OS. Mac users should also expect it coming within a few weeks.

Note that Kindle newspapers, magazines, and blogs are not currently available for Kindle for PC.

Amazon Kindle soon available on windows PC

Wayne — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:50:25 +0000

The ebook business never looks so hot in the last few weeks. First, Barnes & Noble releases their own eBook Reader devices. Amazon, on the other hand, introduces its international version of Kindle and also cut its retail price. Not to mention other massive ebook devices appearing on the market.

Kindle for PC

Now, feeling all the pressures from Sony, Google, B&N, or whatever, Amazon apparently wants to gain more market share for its Kindle format, not only from its Kindle device customers, but from everyone who owns a generic personal computer. This new Kindle for PC project aims to spread more than 360,000 Kindle books over Windows PCs first in the United States. Yes, you don’t need a Kindle for that.

So, ebook “pirates”, are you ready for this?

iRiver Story emerges

Wayne — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:16:04 +0000

iRiver Story eBook reader

Don’t call it another Kindle clone? But this is exactly an Amazon Kindle DX wannabe. The Korean company, iRiver, renowned for its MP3 players, now gives the world a surprise with its Story reader. It sports a full QWERTY keyboard, a memory card slot (SDHC) content with up to 32GB, and a 6 inch E-ink display. The Story supports a wide range of ebook format: PDF, EPUB, plain TXT, DOC, XLS, and even PPT from Microsoft. The unit will be on sale this month priced at about $300.

Hanvon D21 ePaper gets reviewed

Wayne — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:40:29 +0000

Hanvon D21

The Hanvon D21 has recently been reviewed (in Chinese), and currently it is only available in China. In terms of the specs, it has a 5 inch E-ink display with a 4:3 aspect ratio. The resolution is claimed to be 800×600. As you can see from the picture, it adopts a QWERTY keyboard, like the Amazon Kindle DX. The whole white unit is measured about 10 mm thick, which is quite remarkable for such entry-level reader targeted at the entry-level market. The review found the battery life time for the D21 is outstanding. You can even leave it powered on for a couple of days. It is also possible to make some notes on the screen with the attached stylus. An add-on feature is the text-to-voice capability, which not only can read aloud the English content but also in Chinese. This is similar to what we have see in Amazon Kindle DX. Of course, You don’t have to worried about the content formats: PDF, plain txt, and even the JPG (maybe for some scans) are supported. Meanwhile we are not sure if it can read the EPUB document.

Given all these favorable features, this unit is sold in China at about US $400. It is not so low-end after all, isn’t it?

Since when everyone is making digital readers?

Wayne — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:04:00 +0000

It is likely that Asus is going to make its own ebook reader device under the Eee brand, reported by Digitimes. This Eee reader could be seen on the market possibly by the end of this year. It is also implied by the report that another Taiwan based company, MSI plans to expand its portfolio with an ebook reader.

While we have already predicted that there will be an abrupt increase of ebook reader units on the market stimulated by the introduction of the EPUB open standard by Sony, it seems that a prosperous ebook reader time is approaching much faster than we thought. We won’t be surprised to see more units coming out of the surface.

Sony’s new Daily Edition Reader

Wayne — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:51:02 +0000

With a 7 inch touch screen, a 3G modem, and full content support from NYPL, the Daily Edition is set ready to compete with Amazon Kindle DX. This new unit will be available in December at $399. Still you need some patience to have your hands on this hot gadget.