It looks like Bookeen may finally be through teasing us — the company is preparing to unleash the Odyssey, a reader sporting its High Speed Ink System. The modified Pearl E Ink screen has been shown off multiple times, playing back video and browsing the web. Now it will finally make the transition from interesting tech demo to actual product. Better yet, the 6-inch, full motion-capable screen has been paired with a touch layer, which means it could deliver a tablet-like experience with battery life closer to a traditional e-reader. Underneath the hood is a an 800MHz Cortex A8 processor from Texas Instruments and a WiFi radio, presumably for downloading content and browsing the web. The Odyssey is expect to start shipping in Europe in the next few weeks, but Bookeen has yet to reveal a price. You can check out the machine translated PR at the source link.
Cybook prepping Odyssey reader with High Speed Ink System screen originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 09 Oct 2011 14:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Pandigital hasn’t made much of an effort to swathe its Supernova tab in mystery. When the 8-inch LCD slate swept through the FCC earlier this summer, we were privy not only to images of the device and its internals, but also to the apps that’d be pre-loaded on purchase — GetJar and Barnes & Noble’s Nook app amongst others. So, what can you expect for $230 when it lands this month? Well, the company’s forsaken Honeycomb for the soon-to-be outclassed Gingerbread OS, tossed in a single-core 1GHz A8 processor, 4GB of storage (expandable to 32GB via microSD slot), WiFi and Bluetooth. It’s a cheap, me too Android tablet entry, for sure. And with the recent outing of a certain budget-priced, ecosystem-friendly tab, we might suggest you hold off for the higher-specced goods. Official PR after the break.
Continue reading Pandigital Supernova available mid-October for $230, is an eReader in Android tablet disguise
Pandigital Supernova available mid-October for $230, is an eReader in Android tablet disguise originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Oct 2011 09:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Was it too cheap? Well, here’s some great news for fourth-generation Kindle users already tiring of its embedded ads looking cheap alongside their Vertu phones. You can now pay Amazon the requisite fee and unsubscribe from built-in advertising and offers. Visit the Manage your Kindle webpage and you can edit your subscriptions for the newest entry-level e-reader. There seems to be no option, however, to do the reverse just yet. Would Amazon hand over $30 to push those special offers into our currently ad-free Kindle?
Ad-supported Kindle 4 has built-in $30 “upgrade”, gets rid of embedded special offers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Oct 2011 05:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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There’s little question that the Fire stole the show at last week’s Amazon event. After all, the new tablet marks a change for the company’s Kindle line, which until now has been defined by relatively simple E-Ink-based devices. The Kindle Touch, meanwhile, stepped up to bat to take on the likes of new Nook and Kobo touchscreen readers. But while most expected that device to become the heir to the Kindle throne, the company made a something of a surprise move, offering up a new device that will bear the reader’s name. Now in its fourth generation, the Kindle has shed its keyboard and been reborn as a pocket-sized, lighter-weight reader. And a cheap one, at that — $109 for the standard version and $79 for the ad-supported. So, is the new Kindle worthy of the name that has become synonymous with e-readers? Or did the company make too many sacrifices in the name of slashing prices? Find out in our review after the break.
Continue reading Amazon Kindle review (2011)
Amazon Kindle review (2011) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Oct 2011 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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One of the three major devices launched at
today’s Amazon event, the
Kindle Touch is aimed firmly at the latest touchscreen
Nook and
Kobo devices. Like those readers, the new Kindle is based around an infrared touchscreen, in the place of a physical keyboard, making the device a good deal smaller than the
Kindle 3. The touchscreen is fairly responsive, and the thing flips through pages quickly with a swipe or a tap, refreshing about once every six pages or so, a rate about on-par with that of its chief competition. A task like performing a search on the other hand, requires a much larger screen refresh — still, activities like these and typing are performed quite quickly for an E-Ink device. The search function itself is rather precise, letting the user locate instances of things like character names throughout a text. In all, it looks as though Amazon has produced a worthy competitor to the space-leading touch devices — and the $99 / $149 price tags for the WiFi and 3G versions certainly don’t hurt. Check out a video of the device after the break.
Continue reading Amazon Kindle Touch impressions (video)
Amazon Kindle Touch impressions (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 12:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Price was one of the reoccurring themes at today’s
Amazon event in New York City, and nowhere was that factor more present than with the
new Kindle. At $79, this truly is an entry level device, and certainly the company made some sacrifices to hit that price point — most obviously, the reader doesn’t have the touchscreen featured in both the
Kindle Touch and the latest
Nook and
Kobo devices — though like those products, the Kindle did lose its physical keyboard, giving it a much smaller footprint than the
last generation. In place of the infrared touchscreen are a series of buttons: Home, Menu, Keyboard and Back. In the middle is a toggle button that lets the user scroll through menus — that activity can be performed pretty quickly with the physical buttons, and flipping through pages is not problem with the familiar page buttons on either side of the screen. Where one really misses the presence of touch, however, is with the on-screen keyboard — typing is performed by clicking one’s way through the virtual keyboard, a familiar task for anyone who has ever entered their name at the beginning of a video game with a console controller. Of course, typing is a secondary task on a device like this, so for many users this may well not be a deal-breaker. For those who foresee the need for such functionality, however, $20 will buy you an upgrade to the Kindle Touch.
Continue reading Amazon Kindle (2011) impressions
Amazon Kindle (2011) impressions originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 12:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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As if a $199 Kindle Fire wasn’t enough, Amazon’s also launching a Kindle e-reader that’ll dip below triple-digits for the first time. You heard right — a $79 Kindle. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, the company’s Kindle line will “start” at the aforesaid price as of today, a marked decrease from the $114 being charged for its lowest end unit earlier in the week. If anything, that’s a huge blow for Barnes & Noble, and we’re surmising that a reactionary drop will be coming soon in the Nook family if it hopes to keep pace. We’ve also learned that this guy has ads built right in — not a shocker given the price, but notable for those who aren’t keen on buying a device that continually serves up commercials to justify the lower up-front tally. If you’re looking to avoid the hassle, the non-ads variant is priced at $109.
Keep up with the unveiling at our liveblog of the Amazon event.
Update: We’ve added the first commercial video after the break.
Update 2: Orders are live!
Continue reading Amazon reveals $79 Kindle, ships today!
Amazon reveals $79 Kindle, ships today! originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 10:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Love libraries, but hate having to look at all of those dusty old books? Good news: following the recent
Seattle-only launch, it’s now possible to
check out Amazon Kindle books from some 11,000 library sites, as long as you have a valid library card and an Amazon account. You can check a library’s inventory (like their physical counterparts, the libraries only have a limited number of Kindle copies for each title) and download copies to your Kindle or Kindle app-enable device via WiFi or USB. Like the libraries’ physical books, Kindle copies will carry an expiration date — but after that time, they can either be renewed or purchase through Amazon, with all of your bookmarks and notations still in place. Press release after the break.
Continue reading Amazon lets you check out Kindle books from library websites, asks you to shush yourself at home
Amazon lets you check out Kindle books from library websites, asks you to shush yourself at home originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Sep 2011 10:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Well, it’s certainly not much in the looks department, but Plastic Logic finally has a product out the door that will at least get some use. The Plastic Logic 100 is the shatterproof descendant of the canceled Que, which will be arriving in Russian classrooms later this month. Underneath is soft-touch plastic exterior is 4GB of storage and an 800MHz processor pushing Windows CE. There’s no wireless connectivity to speak of (loading texts on it is accomplished via microUSB), but it does sport a 10.7-inch, 1280 x 960 capacitive screen with a touch-based UI. There’s even a software keyboard for making notes and highlighting passages. But, at 12,000 Russian Rubles (just shy of $400) we can’t help but think the Kremlin might as well have picked up a bunch of cheaper Kindle DXs. Check out the PR after the break.
Continue reading Plastic Logic 100 unveiled, set to bring e-textbooks to Russian schools
Plastic Logic 100 unveiled, set to bring e-textbooks to Russian schools originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Sep 2011 01:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Waterstone’s isn’t exactly the biggest name in book sales (at least not stateside), but it knows that to survive in this market it’s gonna have to get on the e-book train. The British company’s managing director, James Daunt, told Radio 4 that it planned to enter the market with both an electronic book store and an actual reader by spring of 2012. Mr. Daunt claimed he was inspired by the success of the Nook, and the challenge it posed to Amazon’s Kindle, to finally take a stab at ushering the UK chain into the 21st century. Of course, while we hate to harsh his buzz, Waterstone’s has already been offering e-books and e-readers since 2008 through a partnership with Sony with only minimal market impact. And we’ve already seen one major book seller (one twice the size of Waterstone’s) fall flat on its face as it tried to enter the digital age. But still, we wish Daunt and his company the best of luck.
[Image credit: Chrisloader]
UK book seller Waterstone’s to enter the e-reader race originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Sep 2011 03:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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