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.

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)

Steve Paine at UMPCPortal installed the software on a Viliv X70 UMPC and found the experience to be just as positive as I did on my netbook, if not more so. He took it a step further however, with this tweet: “Now all that is needed to kill the Kindle hardware is Kindle for Android.” Sascha at NetbookNews agrees: “This is the beginning of the end 4 kindle hardware.” I disagreed at the time for two key reasons. One, the Kindle has stellar battery life — I use mine daily and charge it once every three to four weeks. Secondly, I find that the e-Ink display is much easier on my four eyes than an LCD screen. Steve’s response was: “Think Kindle batt/better screen with os that provides more. Android kindle app would stimulate the right hardware if mkt there.”

I suspect that Amazon will indeed lose some potential Kindle hardware sales by offering their software for PC and Mac. After all, folks new to the e-book scene get a chance to take a content test drive for little to no money down. But the ability to read content on a computer screen really isn’t the full experience, nor is it something new. People read content on their computers every day, don’t they? The difference is that the Kindle hardware is pretty much an instant on experience. You can’t say the same thing with a computer — you have to either boot up, wake up or resume from hibernation to get going. And you need a place to put the computer, be it on your lap or a desk. It’s just not as mobile of an experience as it is with the lightweight Kindle hardware. With a Kindle, you can pick up your reading pretty much anywhere and with no additional room required.

But Steve’s also talking about smaller devices than a computer, so let’s look at that for a second. E-books on a handheld aren’t a new idea — I started reading e-books on a 3″ PDA about six or seven years ago. The experience wasn’t nearly as good as today’s Kindle is, but it worked and there weren’t many alternatives. I didn’t need an Android device for e-books then, so what’s the compelling reason to have one now? It’s really no different than using Kindle for iPhone software on my iPhone like I do today. In fact, the main reason I bought the Kindle hardware was because Kindle for iPhone software became available. It offered me the flexibility to have a great reading experience on the larger Kindle for long reads or a good enough experience on the smaller iPhone for bite-sized reading sessions. If anything, Kindle software pushed me to buy Kindle hardware — it didn’t diminish the demand, it increased it.

I suspect Steve is envisioning an Android tablet with a 5″ display for reading e-books. And it would function as a traditional Android device with web, email, and all of the other good stuff that Android brings. But at that size or bigger, it’s too large to fit in a pocket or be a phone. If the vision is a smaller device, then I say “We already have pocketable phones that can read Kindle content.” And in either case, there’s simply no way in hell such a device will go weeks on a single charge. And that’s a huge plus to me personally. For all intents and purposes, I *never* have to worry if my Kindle has enough juice in it, which is something I can’t say about any other device I own. In a worst case, the Kindle recharges fully in a few short hours, so if I have to wait three hours to be able to read for three  or four weeks, that’s a concession I’m more than willing to make.

Is the Kindle hardware for everyone? No. That’s not my point. But does adding e-book functionality to a multi-functional Android device mean death to the Kindle hardware? Not by a long shot. There’s no reason in the world that Kindle hardware and Kindle software on various platforms can’t co-exist in the world. Thoughts?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

CUPERTINO, CA – November 2, 2009 - Spring Design today filed a lawsuit to protect its Alex™ e-book intellectual property. The lawsuit asserts Barnes & Noble misappropriated trade secrets and violated the parties’ non-disclosure agreement when it copied Alex’ features into its recently announced Nook e-book.

Spring Design first developed and began filing patents on its Alex e-book, an innovative dual screen, Android-based e-book back in 2006. Since the beginning of 2009 Spring and Barnes & Noble worked within a non-disclosure agreement, including many meetings, emails and conference calls with executives ranging up to the president of Barnes and Noble.com, discussing confidential information regarding the features, functionality and capabilities of Alex. Throughout, Barnes & Noble’s marketing and technical executives extolled Alex’s “innovative” features, never mentioning their use of those features until the public disclosure of the Nook.
Alex, with its unique Duet Navigator™, provides the capability for interaction and navigation techniques of the two screens and furthermore utilizes the capabilities of Android to enhance the reader’s experience by supporting interactive access to the Internet for references and links. As the first in the market to offer an e-book with full Internet browsing while reading and with easy navigational control via its touch screen, Alex is well-positioned to offer the most dynamic and powerful reading device in the market. Spring Design is focused at working strategically with book store partners to jointly develop the market and revolutionize e-book with interactive multi-media open Internet access. “It is our desire to resolve this matter so that we can move forward together to expand and grow this e-book market with enriched user experience, bringing readers to a new level of reading enjoyment,” said Eric Kmiec.

In no particular order, as I am rather indiscriminate when it comes to wanting new toys:

Dell Latitude Z — wireless charging. That’s all I need to say about that.

Barnes & Noble Nook — eReader library access with two screens. ‘Nuff said.

Verizon Droid — best Android phone on my own carrier. Not eligible for upgrade though, and that makes me sad.

Apple Tablet – my membership in the geek’s guild requires this to be on my list.

Having said that, the ability to read a few pages, or even a few chapters, in a short chunk of free time at any location is priceless. And that’s why I believe we’re recently seeing more book-related apps than games launching in the iTunes App Store. There’s surely other reasons, but this one trumps the others from where I stand. Think about it this way — if you’re always carrying your phone and an unplanned short opportunity arises to read a book, you don’t want to whip out a computer, do you? In a situation like this, you’re not limited to how much space you have. You can read with just one hand. You don’t need great lighting. It’s simply a win-win, all around.

Don’t get me wrong, because I love reading on the Kindle2 I bought back in March. It’s my primary e-book reader — I use it daily and I read one or two books a week on it. However, there’s something to be said for consuming e-book content in bite-sized chunks here and there. I find reading most enjoyable when the activity doesn’t have a planned time or location. And thanks to my phone, it doesn’t have to be.

PVI is another company that makes reader displays, and they are ramping up to produce color screens for them in the last half of 2010. The company currently produces black and white displays, and may have color screens using AMOLED technology appearing soon.

Netbook creator ASUS is talking up making its own e-book reader, and bringing it to market early next year. The company has been investigating products they can produce to address competition in the netbook segment, and e-book readers is one such product. They are expected to make a reader announcement before the end of the year.

Amazon will be releasing a PC version of the Kindle reader, to allow reading Kindle books on any PC. The software is full-featured, with a library manager and reader that is touch optimized for Windows 7 PCs with a touchscreen. The PC program will work with the Amazon WhisperNet, so it will sync libraries and reading positions the same as the Kindle and iPhone versions. The PC Kindle reader program will be available in November. Amazon is working on a version of the program for the Mac platform, but no release date has been provided.

Two other e-book readers were announced this week, the first being Spring Design’s Alex. Alex is similar to the Nook, with a second screen that is a color touchscreen for navigation. Another unique dual screen reader is coming from enTourage that foregoes a tiny color touchscreen for a 10.1-inch variety. The eDGe has a unique hinge that allows operating the reader in a number of forms, including configured as a laptop. Both the Alex and the eDGe are running the Android OS, which is rapidly becoming the OS of choice for the e-book reader.

HOSTS: James Kendrick (Houston), Matthew Miller (Seattle) and Kevin C. Tofel (Philadelphia)

TOPICS:

Windows 7 is here, and so is the Windows 7 Whopper.
Will Starter Edition help or hurt netbook sales?
More time spent with Nokia’s N900 and a definitive guide.
B&N Nook vs. Amazon Kindle (which will have a PC edition soon)

CONTACT US: Email us or leave us a voicemail on our SkypeLine!
SUBSCRIBE: Use this RSS feed with your favorite podcatcher or click this link to add us to iTunes!

Want to read e-books from Amazon on hardware you likely already have? There’s an app for that but it doesn’t come from Cupertino. At a Windows 7 launch event today, Amazon introduced a Kindle application for PCs that will be available next month. Like the Kindle for iPhone application, the PC software works with Amazon’s Whispersync — stop reading your book on a Kindle or iPhone and you can pick up right where you left off on a computer. And if you’re out of content, Amazon says you can purchase books right from the PC.

The new application also takes advantage of the native touchscreen support in Windows 7, although you’ll need a touchscreen computer, of course. With touch, you can simply swipe through your page flips or, if you have a multitouch computer with Windows 7, you can zoom in and out by pinching. That’s a great implementation, but I think the best news of all is legacy compatibility — the new software doesn’t require Windows 7 as it can be used with Windows XP or Vista. As a Kindle owner, I’m looking forward to the new software, which makes the PC a “third screen” for the Kindle. It ought to come in handy on my netbook in the rare case I’ve left the Kindle at home!

The enTourage folks aren’t skirting around the desire users have for using such a reader for web work, and as such have chosen Android. They are touting the ability of the eDGe to surf the web, work with email, play MP3s and even check Facebook. Connectivity is done over Wi-Fi or optional EVDO/HSPA 3G. That big, color touchscreen with resistive digitizer would be nice for web work, but is likely hard on battery life. The eDGe looks a lot like that mythical Courier device on which Microsoft is reportedly working.

The eDGe will ship in February 2010, but you can pre-order one now. If you can get past that $490 price tag, that is.