Posted 02/24/10 at 09:02:53 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Spring Design’s Alex e-reader was slated to come out on February 22nd. It didn’t happen. There was a bit of concern around the interwebs as Spring Design didn’t really release any information. The company did eventually come out with a statement to assure us all that the Alex wasn’t vaporware. The release date has apparently been pushed to early March.

We were a bit baffled when we first saw the Spring Design Alex. Not because of any particularly confounding element of the Alex, but because we thought it was the Barnes and Noble Nook. The Alex fit all the rumors: color touchscreen, additional eink display, Android powered. Turns out that the Alex was just very similar to the Nook, and Spring Design even claims the Nook is based on the Alex (hence the legal issues).

The Alex will have a tie to Borders stores in an effort to compete with Barnes and Noble's Nook. It is expected to retail for $359 when it launches… whenever that is.

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Posted 02/17/10 at 09:06:09 PM by Ryan Whitwam

If you had asked us what electronic device had no business running a multitouch display, we’d have said eInk-based ereaders. Apparently, we don’t know what we’re talking about, because the Bookeen Orizon is an ereader with a multitouch screen. Why? So you can adjust the zoom level. No one wants to use buttons for that, right?

The Bookeen Orizon will be out in May and will retail for $250. When the current price of a Kindle or Nook is just a bit higher, they must really be banking on people going crazy for the multitouch. The screen is 6 inches and the device will come with 1GB of built-in storage. There’s no book store for this product, but it supports whatever ePub files or PDFs you’d like to put on it.

Even if you don’t need an integrated book store, why get this over a Sony reader? Is anyone really hankering for multitouch zooming on their ereader?

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Posted 02/15/10 at 06:24:53 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Many people had a bit of hope after the iPad announcement that Apple would take an enlightened view of copy protection on the platform’s iBookstore. The device will support the open EPUB format, but now we’re hearing that the store will utilize Apple’s FairPlay digital rights management solution. This system was used mainly on music in the past, but now is relegated to other iTunes content.

Many publishers are expected to employ the DRM on their ebooks, but some more enlightened publishers may opt out. Apple hasn’t had much to say on the matter just yet. We might not be surprised by this, but we certainly hoped Apple would take a stand here. Apple did manage to talk music labels into dropping DRM, so why go this route with books? It could be that Apple is willing to appease publishers in order to get a chunk of the market even if it means going down the same road they did with music.

So, in a few years will we see Steve Jobs write an open letter about his “thoughts on books”? How does this sit with you? Should Apple be pushing for a DRM free books store? Do you feel differently about DRM on books than you do about DRM on music or movies?

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Posted 02/08/10 at 08:04:51 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Are you searching for just the right outing for you and your special someone this Valentine’s Day? Well, look no further, Barnes and Noble will have Nooks available in stores for you to actually buy. Name just one thing more romantic than swinging by your local retail establishment to buy a new gadget. We sure can’t come up with anything.

The bookseller was caught off guard by demand for their ebook reader this past holiday season, with preorders spilling over into January. Barnes and Noble has had limited numbers of demo units in their retail locations since shortly after launch, but now you can actually take one home. This was cited as a main advantage over Amazon’s offering.

The Nook is a compelling alternative to the Kindle for some. The Nook runs the Android operating system, and a dedicated modding community has even gained root access to its Android core. Now that the production delays have finally been sorted out, we’ll see just how many people walk out of a Barnes and Noble with a Nook.

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Posted 02/05/10 at 02:30:56 PM by Bart Salisbury

One advantage in today’s technological world is upgradability. The product you buy today, no matter its limitations, has a reasonable chance of being transformed into the product you really want. All you have to do is wait for an update. An example of this is the second nook software update in as many months. Good news for users of the Barnes & Noble eReader, as they are now one step closer to having the eBook reader of their dreams.

The update, version 1.2, starts over-the-air distribution today. Registered nook users will  see the update sometime in the next week, either on Barnes & Noble’s Fast & Free wireless or Wi-Fi. The process should take less than 15 minutes, depending on your connection. If you are impatient you can get the update manually, but you will have to download the update, connect your nook to a computer, and update it via USB. Instructions are available at the nook support site.

What’s new and improved in version 1.2? Better in-store connectivity, for starters. More reliable Wi-Fi and more in-store content will be available for visitors to Barnes & Nobles brick-and-mortar locations. Probably more important are speed improvements for opening eBooks and periodicals, better responsiveness for Reading Now and Settings buttons, properly saved current page and bookmarks, easier navigation of daily subscriptions, sorting of personal files, battery optimization, plus the obligatory, but indefinite, catchall “overall system improvements”.

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Posted 01/27/10 at 07:17:18 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Regardless of how you feel about the newly announced iPad, it’s probably going to do a few things very well. But will it be the reading device we’ve all been waiting for? Steve Jobs pushed the iBook store in the keynote, and discussed how the Kindle pioneered ebooks. Jobs then said Apple would “stand on [Amazon’s] shoulders”. Can it work?

The obvious benefit of the iPad is that it has a color screen. There will be more options for text size, search, and even font choices. Magazines and newspapers will look nice, but reading an old fashioned book may not benefit much. The Kindle and other eReaders have a 16 level eInk display meant to be easy to read. The screen on the iPad, being a conventional LCD, may not be quite so easy on the eyes.

Content wise, the iPad may be in good shape. Out of the gate it will have content from Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, Harper Collins and Hachette. It will also support the open ePub format, which is more than we can say for Amazon. This means the iPad will have access to Google Books. The Nook has ePub support also, so it’s not a total win for Apple.

Price is certainly of concern. The iPad is clocking in at $499 for the 16GB version sans 3G. That’s quite a bit more than the Kindle and Nook at $260. To get data on the go, you need to purchase an AT&T data plan for the (more expensive) iPad, whereas the Kindle and Nook come with free wireless. Granted, the iPad does much more than eBooks, but buying it primarily as a reading device may be a questionable move.

Check out this much more exhaustive rundown at MacLife.

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Posted 12/23/09 at 08:26:02 PM by Ryan Whitwam

If a generous friend or family member has Nook waiting under the tree for you this year, you’re far from the only one. Barnes & Noble is expected to have shipped approximately 60,000 of their new eReaders before the year is out; not bad considering the shortage. We can only guess how many they could have sold if they had instructed their manufacturing partner, Foxconn, to build more of the gadgets out of the gate.

Barnes & Noble has pushed back preorders several times, and is now offering a $100 gift cards if preordered Nooks don’t ship by today (December 23). After the fiasco the holiday buying season has been, B&N is directing Foxconn to increase production. The bookseller claims Nook sales could hit 500,000 in 2010. The original Kindle only sold 400,000 in its first year. Though, admittedly that was before the large second generation price drops.

One has to wonder if people will still be buying Nooks at this rate when there are units readily available in stores for people to use. The software experience is reportedly a bit buggy and page refreshes are slow. If Barnes and Noble can work out these problems, the Kindle may have something to fear from the Nook. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see.

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Posted 11/09/09 at 07:28:34 PM by Ryan Whitwam

If the Barnes and Noble Nook sounds like a great Christmas present, you might want to preorder one now. Everyone’s favorite bookseller has announced that due to massive demand, Nook preorders have been pushed into December. There are also reports that Barnes and Noble stores will have no in-store Nooks until mid December.

According to a Barnes and Noble spokesperson, “Nook has quickly become the fastest selling product at Barnes & Noble. In fact, there is so much consumer interest in Nook, that pre-orders have exceeded our expectations." The Nook will be selling for $259 whenever you can find one. Barnes and Noble opened their eBook store back in July and it currently offers over 700,000 titles.
 
The Nook will be going up against Amazon’s Kindle reader. B&N is hoping to leverage their brick and mortar stores to gain an advantage over the all online Amazon. Are you considering getting an ebook reader this holiday season?

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