Tag Archives: e readers

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite review (2013): is last year’s best e-reader still tops?

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Amazon Kindle Paperwhite review (2013): is last year's best e-reader still tops?

Amazon's really laid off the pomp and circumstance this year. Between a new Paperwhite e-reader and a trio of tablets, the company's hosted nary a press conference; just a couple of small-scale meetings. In the case of the Paperwhite, the reason seems clear. From the name on down, nothing about the device screams "major upgrade." Both the hardware and software received some tweaks, sure, but, well, if this were an Apple product, it would almost certainly be called the Kindle Paperwhite S. Then again, we loved the Paperwhite the first time around, so why mess with near perfection?%Gallery-slideshow99545%

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Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight gets UK price cut, drops below £50

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DNP Nook price cut

Bookworms in the UK tired of smuggling flashlights to bed might want to take another look at the Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight. After all, you can get one for £49 now that Barnes & Noble has slashed £20 off its retail price -- that's far, far lower than the amount people had to pay at launch. According to the book retailer, you can only snag the device at that price point until current stocks last, so the promo can expire anytime. If you're not particularly fond of e-readers, though, feel free to cast your eyes upon the discounted Nook HD and HD+ tablets instead. You can also nab one of those right now, or, you know, throw hints at your personal Santa that you want one for Christmas.

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Via: Forbes

Google patent filing describes tailored online book clubs, minus the wine

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Google patent describes tailored online book clubs, minus the wine

The phrase "virtual book club" may not conjure romantic visions of low-lit rooms and vintage wines, but you don't necessarily need those things to throw fancy words around. Amazon-owned Goodreads hosts user-created online clubs, but a Google patent application that's surfaced today imagines a different way of bringing bookworms together. It describes a system that automatically prompts the buyer of a new title, presumably acquired through Google Books, to join a club. To make this virtual version a little more like the real thing, it'll suggest specific groups based on your age, location, interests, preferred club size, reading speed and literary tastes. Furthermore, you'll only be coupled with those who've bought the work recently, so your new-found chums aren't on page 400 before you've even started.

It'll all be managed through a social network, of course (we hear Google has one of those), and members will be able to fill specific roles within the club hierarchy. They'll also be able to schedule "activities," which we assume is patentese for Hangouts and the like to foster discussion. The patent filing also talks of financial rewards to tempt participation, which sounds like the perfect strategy for building millions of inactive G+ pages.

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Source: USPTO

IFA 2013 wrap-up: Galaxy Note 3, Xperia Z1, smartwatches, lens cameras, 4K displays and more

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IFA 2013 wrap-up: Galaxy Note 3, Xperia Z1, smartwatches, lens cameras, 4K displays and more

We reckoned IFA would be an exceptionally busy show, and now that we've combed through all of our coverage and condensed it here, it's clear the event lived up to our expectations. Sure, the venerable CES may have topped IFA in show floor square feet, but the announcements in Berlin generated perhaps even more excitement than those that came out of Las Vegas in January. A pair of high-profile smartwatches, two titanic smartphones, a duo of lens cameras, 4K displays and a bevy of hands-ons await you in a neat, yet massive, roundup after the break.%Gallery-slideshow83286%

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Judge orders Apple to stop making special pacts with e-book publishers

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Judge orders Apple to stop making special pacts with ebook publishers

After plenty of tussling over the DoJ's proposed injunction against Apple, preventing it from striking untoward pricing deals with e-book publishers, a judge at the Southern District Court of New York has today laid down the law. The final injunction prevents Apple from setting prices with any of its partners for terms of between two and four years, with the exact term depending on which publisher it's working with and how long they originally took to settle with the DoJ -- which means Apple's relationship with Macmillan faces the harshest restriction.

Crucially, Apple also won't be able to make "most favored nation" pacts, in which e-book prices and discounts are set across a range of publishers or retailers. This particular bit of the injunction will last for five years -- a lengthy period of time in this industry, and one that can be extended by the court if it sees fit, but hardly the ten-year term that Apple's lawyers initially feared. Finally, another key clause prevents Apple from doing business with publishers behind closed doors. For the next two years, Cupertino will have to bring in an independent third party to serve as an "Antitrust compliance officer" in all deals. Sounds humiliating, perhaps, but again, given the relatively short duration, it could have been a lot worse.

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Source: NYSD Court

The once-bright future of color e-paper

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The OnceBright Future of Color EPaper

It's all too easy to dismiss the optimistic fantasies of yesterday: flying cars and robot servants may have filled the pages of Popular Mechanics in the 1950s, but today we're better grounded in reality, pinning our hopes on more reasonable futures based on technology we've actually developed. Still, even those predictions fall flat sometimes, and it can burn to look back at the track record of a horse we once bet on. For this editor, that stallion was known as color e-paper, a series of dimly hued electronic-paper technologies that teased a future of low-power gadgets with beautiful, sunlight-readable matte displays. Prototypes from half a dozen firms exhibited tantalizing potential for the last half of the 2000s, and then promptly vanished as the decade came to a close. Like many ill-conceived futurist predictions, expectations for this technology gently faded from the consumer hive mind.

The legacy of color e-paper may be muted and dim, but its past, at least, is black-and-white: monochrome E Ink set the tone for a decade of reflective, low-power displays. Years before the iPad and other tablets created the so-called third device, sunlight-readable E Ink screens nested into the public consciousness with Amazon's inaugural Kindle. Launched in 2007, it was a blocky, expensive and awkward device that had more potential than practical application, but the visibility of the Amazon brand lifted its stature. Consumers paid attention and the e-reader category was forged.

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Kobo Aura review: is spending $150 on an e-reader ever worth it?

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Kobo Aura review is spending $150 on an ereader ever worth it

Outside the US, Kobo is a major player in the e-reader space. Here in the states, however, mentioning the name will almost certainly elicit baffled stares. In 2011, the company was hit particularly hard when Borders, its main retail partner, shuttered. Since then, Kobo's been attempting to rebuild through networks of independent booksellers. One glaring misstep aside, Kobo has since put out solid devices, ones that could even stand up against what Amazon and Barnes & Noble are selling. Earlier this year, the company took this a step further with the Aura HD, a pricey, high-spec, 7-inch device for hardcore readers. Kobo didn't expect to move many units. The HD now accounts for a quarter of Kobo's e-reader sales. Clearly the company was onto something.

As the successor to last year's Glo, the new Kobo Aura splits the difference between luxury and mainstream, borrowing some elements from the HD and giving them new life in a more affordable 6-inch device. In this case, "more affordable" means $150 -- that's still $20 more than the Glo and $30 more than the Paperwhite. The company's also made some updates on the software end, including, notably, the addition of the Pocket reading app. So, do the upgrades justify the asking price?%Gallery-slideshow83166%

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Kindle Paperwhite (mid-2013) hands-on (video)

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Kindle Paperwhite mid 2013 handson video

So we know all about Amazon's new Kindle Paperwhite, but those press images don't really do the trick, do they? Weirdly, we had to travel all the way to Berlin, but we did manage to get our hands on the new device. As we said before, there aren't a ton of aesthetic changes here. Thankfully, we had our last-gen Paperwhite in hand, and quite frankly, we couldn't really tell the difference -- until we picked it up, that is. Gen two of the Paperwhite is noticeably lighter than its predecessor.

Longtime Paperwhite users will be able to tell you that the minute they hold it in their hands. Another obvious clue: the giant Amazon logo on the soft-touch rear. Granted, we're probably picking nits here (especially yours truly, someone who carries his own Paperwhite around in a case), but the older Kindle logo was a bit more tasteful. We did really appreciate the front lighting in the earlier generation -- and then Kobo came along with the Glo. Since then, things haven't really been the same.%Gallery-slideshow81815%

Update: Amazon wanted us to let you know that the version of the Kindle we had a chance to look at is specifically intended for the European market.

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Amazon’s new Kindle Paperwhite priced at £109 for UK, arrives October 3rd

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A few years ago, British e-readers were expected to wait months before Amazon's latest reading slab managed to swim across from the US -- but no more. The refreshed Kindle Paperwhite is set to launch on October 3rd, just slightly over a week later than its scheduled release in America. Higher resolution, higher contrast text and next-gen lighting technology can be yours for £109 -- reservations are being accepted at the source.

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Source: Amazon UK

E Ink’s new higher contrast Carta display is the secret behind Amazon’s refreshed Kindle Paperwhite

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E Ink's new Carta display responsible for the new Kindle Paperwhite's higher contrast and reduced glare

Amazon peppered its second-gen Kindle Paperwhite announce yesterday with the usual marketing fluff: whiter whites and blacker blacks! But, it turns out, those boasts do have some grounding in reality. E Ink has a new screen tech and, surprise surprise, it's the one that's powering the refreshed Paperwhite's improved readability in sunlight and increased contrast. And the company has some numbers to back those claims too, marking this new "formulation" as offering a 50 percent improvement in contrast over older Kindles, and 20 percent reduction in glare. It's an accurate claim by our estimation, considering we recently had some eyes-on time with the second-gen Paperwhite. Still, it doesn't beat the Kobo Aura HD's screen, but not everything niche can be so nice.

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