Sony’s old PRS-500 eBook reader gains a new trick with the addition of ePub format support, says MobileRead. Oh, but it’s quite a trick to get the support. While one would expect this to be a simple firmware update, it isn’t. Well, it’s either that or it’s a way for you to get a new model — you be the judge. To get ePub support, you’ll need to send in your PRS-500 to a Sony Service Center. Sony will “update the firmware” — so it is just a firmware update, yes? — and return your reader to you within 14 days. Plan B is to trade up. Sony will give you $50 off of the $199 Reader Pocket Edition or $75 off the $299 Reader Touch Edition if you trade in your older device. Both of the newer models already support ePub, so you gain the new format as well as a newer device if you go the trade-in route. Don’t wait too long to decide — Sony is migrating its eBook platform and store to ePub before the end of the year.

Early adopters of the PRS-500 might be on the fence here, but if it were me and I had the money, I’d probably take advantage of the upgrade for a little cost savings. The newer devices have a faster refresh rate, 8-level grey scale and, in the case of the Touch Edition, offers a touchscreen display. Nice to see Sony give a little something to the first Reader customers.

Our platform focus continues this fine Sunday with the e-Book Echo, our take on the week in the digital publishing world. Amazon released a beta version of the Kindle reader software for PCs this week. The app aims to do what Kindle for iPhone does, allow the reading of Kindle books without the need for a Kindle reader. Amazon says a Mac version is coming soon. Early adopters of the PC app complain that it doesn’t have a wealth of features, but it does work well on XP, Vista and  Windows 7, and even on netbooks.

The Readius pocket reader was doomed with the failure of Polymer Vision. The innovative device used a flexible display that rolls up into a base unit, and early prototypes were impressive. This week came welcome news, Wistron bought the failed company and plans to sell a similar device early next year.

When the Barnes and Noble Nook went up for order at launch, the company claimed a Nov. 30 ship date. Early buyers were indeed quoted that date, and it is expected to see the Nook appear in B&N stores around that date. Customers who are buying the Nook currently, are now being quoted a ship date of Dec. 18, so the logical deduction is that sales are going briskly enough to outstrip production. This is similar to the situation when the original Kindle was launched. Maybe it’s an e-book thing.

Image from ZDNet

Remember the Readius, the pocket-friendly e-book reader with the display that rolled out of the device? It interested a lot of enthusiasts with the prospect of the flexible e-Ink screen that folded away when not in use. Then the company behind the Readius, Polymer Vision, went bankrupt before bringing the Readius to market and all hope of seeing the cool reader were dashed. Not so fast, Wistron bought Polymer Vision and the technology behind the Readius and they are now telling folks they will bring a 5 – 6 inch device with Readius-like flexible e-paper display to market in 2010.

(via engadget)

Yesterday, I took a look at Amazon’s Kindle for PC software on my netbook. The beta software is missing a few features just yet — search, note-taking and highlighting passages — but for reading Kindle content, it’s quite good. You gain the benefit of a color screen and the ability to tweak fonts and line spacing to a greater degree. All in all, the experience is enjoyable. But will it be so good that it actually kills off Amazon’s Kindle hardware products? I don’t think so.

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Amazon’s Kindle for PC beta application arrives this morning. The software supports Windows XP, Vista and 7 machines, while Amazon says that a Mac version is coming soon. What’s ingenious about this app — as well as the iPhone app before it — is that you can read Amazon Kindle books without buying the Kindle hardware. With a Windows version, Amazon is expanding their potential customer base to 85% or more of computer users. Reading books on a computer certainly isn’t the same experience as reading them on a light eInk device or a handheld, but I could see this swaying more money into Amazon’s bank account.

I downloaded and installed the beta app on the Windows 7 partition of my Toshiba NB205 netbook this morning. Once I signed in to my Amazon account, I was able to see all 44 of my archived book purchases with full color covers. Books can be sorted by Title or Author. A double-tap downloads the book and you’re off and running. Page navigation can be done by mouse, arrow keys or Page Up/Down keys. There are 10 font sizes to choose from and you can modify the page width using a “Words per line” slider. Kindle for PC does support Whispersync, so the software will pick up from the last read position if you were reading on a Kindle. Or you can read on your PC and your Kindle will synchronize to that point when you move from PC to Kindle.

Notes, highlights and bookmarks also sync to the PC, but with this version of the software, there’s no way to make notes or highlight text on the PC — you can bookmark pages, however. Amazon is also planning to add search and zoom / image rotation to Kindle for PC in a future version. Of course, you shop directly for Kindle books, but not within the application. Clicking the “Shop in Kindle store” button opens your default browser where you can then send samples to or purchase full titles. Now that my software is registered, I see a “Kevin’s Kindle for PC” delivery option for content. It’s worth noting that Windows 7 users with touch supported hardware gain one bonus now and one in the future. The current app supports touch zooming with a two-fingered pinch. In an upcoming release, Amazon will add page turning with finger swipes.

Since I have a Kindle, I’ll still rely on it for my daily reading. I generally take the Kindle everywhere, but on the off-chance I don’t bring it, I usually have my netbook with me, which will make for decent backup reading device. I’ll still likely use Kindle for iPhone as well, but that would be for a different scenario. When I have five or ten minutes of just standing around, the iPhone does the trick. If I can sit somewhere and I’ll want to read for a longer period of time, the netbook will be my tool of choice. And if I have my Kindle with me, it will likely trump both options, provided I have enough light to read the eInk display. The only exception might be a graphic novel of some type as the PC app supports reading color.

Our platform focus continues this fine Sunday with the e-Book Echo, our take on the week in the digital publishing world. Sony is teaming up with indie publishers to allow such work to be carried in the company’s e-book store for Sony Reader customers. Sony is working with Smashwords and Author Solutions to handle e-books distributed by those services. This opens the door for authors to get their own self-published works onto the Sony Reader line of electronic readers.

The Foxit eSlick reader is going to support the standard ePUB format for e-books. This support comes with a firmware upgrade for the readers that adds not only ePUB but eReader format support, in addition to the text and PDF formats already handled. The firmware upgrade also added a touch keyboard for entering passwords on the reader.

Barnes and Noble was sued this week for violating information shared with them by Spring Design under NDA. Spring Design announced the Alex reader the day before B&N announced the Nook reader and the two devices do share similar features in both hardware and software. The lawsuit claimed that B&N met several times with Spring Design and details of the Alex were shared, yet B&N never acknowledged they were working on the Nook at the time. The suit asks for an injunction barring the sale of the Nook reader.

After reading so many books on PDAs and phones over the past years, the lack of any lighting on my Kindle2 is a bit of drag. It’s not stopping me from reading one or two novels a week, but there are times I’d like to read without the lights on. That’s were Case-Mate’s Enlighten product comes in.

I like the outside of the case, which looks like an old leather-bound book. And on the inside is an integrated lighting system. All of the Kindle’s buttons are still available to use directly, save for the Previous Page and Next Page buttons on the left. There’s a Next Page button on the right of the Kindle, so that’s not a major issue. And Case-Mate created a spot to push the Previous Page button for use, so it’s not totally lost. Based on Judie’s review at Gear Diary, this looks like a winner to me. Sadly, the $79.95 device isn’t available until mid-December, so I’ll have to wait a bit. I’m adding this product on my letter to Santa right now.

In the “e-book reader that’s really a computer without the computer bits” department comes the Sungale Cyberus Smart Info Engine. The Cyberus is a 7-inch slate device that provides “an e-Book reader, photo display, card reader, and streaming audio and video player, plus clock, calendar and alarm functions” according to the PR.

If you are confused as to exactly what you can do with the Cyberus, you’re not alone. The PR goes on to claim “the full complement of Wi-Fi applications for the device includes: Weather, News from Yahoo or Google, YouTube, Traffic: Driving Directions by Zip, IP Radio, Picasa, Stock, Gmail Alerts, Notepad, Calendar, Clock and  Alarm.”

So basically, what you have is a an e-book reader that handles PDF and TXT files, a media player that handles AVI, MPEG4, DIVIX, XIVID, WMA, JPG, BMP, TIFF, PNG files, and a web computer without a browser or OS. All of this can be found on Amazon at the starting MSRP of $279.

Spring Design shook up the e-book world recently with the announcement of the Alex — a reader with a small, second color LCD touchscreen for navigation. The Alex will be released before the end of the year, and the timing of the announcement of the Alex at the time seemed to be trying to beat the Barnes and Noble announcement of the reader that turned out to be the Nook. The Nook shares similar features to the Alex, most notably the small color LCD touchscreen. Spring Design claims those similar features are no accident, and have filed suit against Barnes and Noble claiming the company “misappropriated trade secrets and violated the parties’ non-disclosure agreement when it copied Alex’ features into its recently announced Nook e-book.”

According to the suit, the two companies have been working together under an NDA since early 2009, and B&N did not inform Spring Design it was working on the Nook.

“Spring Design unfortunately had to take the appropriate action to protect its intellectual property rights,” said Spring Design Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Eric Kmiec. “We showed the Alex e-book design to Barnes & Noble in good faith with the intention of working together to provide a superior dual screen e-book to the market.”

The Nook is set to be sold this month, and this could get very sticky for the bookseller. You can find the full press release after the jump.

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As we head into the year-end holiday season, the companies that produce gadgets are working overtime to make sure that geeks like me are building a wish list. The problem is with holiday gift season drawing nigh, our own wishes are not something we can fill. Not and keep peace at home, anyway. With that in mind I present my current wish list full of gadgets. The list changes almost daily, and is subject to major revisions at a moment’s notice. That’s the legacy of being a geek. This is by no means the only gadgets I would like to have, just the major ones of the moment.

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