@Gartenberg @jkendrick Have u imagined spending at least 12 hrs without feeling the need for an electronic gadget in ur hand?

I thought about this for a bit, and the answer hit me over the head (or in the hand). I have reached a point in my gadget usage that the gadget simply doesn’t matter. It’s the task I am doing at the time, in this case reading e-books, that grabs all of my attention. It is a testament to how far mobile technology has advanced that I have so many choices in the gadgets I use to do things. As I replied to @AppGeniusBar:

When I’m reading an e-book, and I read 2 – 3 a week, the gadget is simply the vehicle. It’s a book to me, just like paper kind.

That statement couldn’t be more spot on — I do not think about the gadget, I am simply reading a book. The same holds true with all the other tasks I do with a gadget, it’s the task that matters, not the gadget. Sure, it’s nice having a cool gadget that lets me do things I need to do, but when I’m actually doing them I do not think about the gadget at all, as long as it lets me complete the task at hand. This may sound only logical, but for someone like me who is always looking for the “next big gadget”, this was eye-opening. The gadget doesn’t matter, it’s what I do with them.

Earlier today, I was less than enthused with BenQ’s e-book entry, but Qualcomm rejuvenated my e-book excitement with this news from SlashGear — color e-book screens will ship in 2010. The chipmaker’s mirasol color display has the potential to shake up the e-book industry — and possibly others in the portable space — just as much as Pixel Qi’s, in my opinion. The magic behind mirasol is the inspiration, which comes from the wings of a butterfly. Mirasol displays reuse external, ambient light, so no backlighting is needed. The company won several awards in 2009 for its 0.9″ mirasol display, but now it’s ready for a bigger footprint — say hello to a  5.7″ mirasol screen.

Image Credit: SlashGear

This larger panel is color-capable and, like traditional eInk displays, requires power only when refreshing the view. SlashGear says the new panel is even capable of video playback, but at usable frame rates, you’ll understandably see a big hit to the battery life, Still, Qualcomm figures that a Kindle equipped with a color mirasol display could last for a full week on one charge. I’m topping off my Kindle’s battery every three weeks these days, but I’d make it weekly for a color display.

I’m also interested in this display technology from a phone and handheld perspective. From what I’ve seen so far, a mirasol display would look fantastic outdoors, which can’t be said about many other traditional screens. Using it for primary computing might not provide huge battery savings, but on a phone, the overall benefits might outweigh the cons. I’d even like to see it on a smartbook. Who’s getting ready to power those devices? Oh, that’s right… Qualcomm.

Image Credit: Digitimes

Yet another e-book device is coming to market — if you live in Taiwan, Japan or China, that is. Digitimes says BenQ is joining the ranks of Sony, Amazon and Barnes & Noble, to name a few, by offering its own branded electronic book reader. Dubbed the nReader, it uses eInk technology for the 6″ display, offers 2 GB of internal storage and can handle up to a 16 GB expansion card.

But “content is king,” as they say — and by content, I mean “supported formats.” The nReader is pretty bland in that regard: PDF, HTML and TXT are what’s expected to appear on that screen. Pics are viewable through standard formats and you can listen to MP3 tunes as well. Without wireless support or compatibility with ePub or any other major book-specific format, I don’t envision the 300,000 units sold in 2010 that BenQ sees. Watch for it to hit in January for around $280.

Sure enough, just go to www.ereader.com/android from your phone and download the app. The Android version supports working with the eReader online store and the user online bookshelf. I can tell you one thing — the Droid’s big screen makes it a fantastic e-book reader. The only complaint so far is no justification of the text, a pet-peeve of mine.

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.