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Amazon announced that it’s releasing a new version of its ultra-popular Kindle reader. This one is geared toward international audiences, and will let you use 3G wireless connectivity to let you download books and periodicals in more than 100 countries, according to the online retailer. It’s listing for $279. But in the United States…
Lots of stuff going on today, so here are some highlights:
Nintendo dropped the price of the Wii to $199 in the United States. John P. Falcone wrote in CNET’s Crave blog about the change, which comes hot on the heels of Sony’s cut in the Playstation 3′s price to $299, and a little farther back, Microsoft’s cut in the 120GB hard drive version of the Xbox 360. I’m guessing that will help push the three consoles through the holiday season, but I’m also thinking sales will remain slow, based on what I’ve heard.
Andrew Nusca wrote at ZDNet that Microsoft‘s acquisition of Danger has yielded two Sharp-manufactured phones, the Turtle and the Pure. These are part of the so-called Pink Project. The pictures look a little like Danger’s Sidekick devices. A few days ago, Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet said Pink Project phones will use a version of Windows Mobile 7 and will be able to use the Zune music store.
On Monday, Barnes and Noble announced a partnership with Plastic Logic Inc. that will bring the companies into direct competition with the Amazon Kindle eBook reader. According to New Mexico Business Weekly, the Logic eReader measures 8.5 x 11 inches and has wireless capability. It also uses an electronic ink display, just like the Kindle. Electronic ink displays help conserve power — the device only has to draw upon the battery whenever you turn the page.
Today, AP writer Peter Svensson reports that AT&T will support the wireless function of the device, much like Sprint provides the wireless support for the Kindle. Now that the wireless piece is in place, we have ourselves a real ebook reader battle!
Of course, Sony has had an ebook reader called the Reader Digital on the market for a while now. Some people prefer the Sony device’s form factor over the somewhat awkwardly-shaped Kindle. But Sony’s eBook reader lacks one of the Kindle’s major selling points — wireless capability.
Yes, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) announced a new monkey yesterday. While it’s not the fabled Bigfoot or skunk ape that I know you all were clamoring for, it is a distinct Amazonian subspecies of saddleback tamarin. That’s him in the illustration. Quite a handsome chap, yeah? He weighs in at less than 0.75 pounds and is only 9 inches tall.
Google likes books. This much we knew. Otherwise it wouldn’t be working so hard on its digitization project — and ruffling many feathers along with way with regard to copyright issues and questions of who controls the material. But Google’s moving from the already-published (and mostly out-of-print) to the not-yet-published.
Crunchgear broke the news earlier this week — Amazon is set to announce a new Kindle format tomorrow. But this new Kindle isn’t going to replace the Kindle 2. The new Kindle is larger than its cousin. Ideally, the large format will make it easier to read electronic newspapers and magazines.
Engadget snagged some covert photos of what appears to be a run-through of the presentation that will take place on Wednesday. The new Kindle, dubbed the Kindle DX according to Nilay Patel of Engadget, looks like a larger version of the old Kindle — black and white screen included. Patel says that the DX’s screen will measure 9.7 inches (about 24.6 centimeters). The earlier versions of the Kindle have a six-inch screen (15.2 centimeters). It will also have one other new feature: Patel says that the new Kindle will have a built-in PDF reader functionality.
Fujitsu announced this morning that it ‘s selling a color e-book reader — I’m sorry, they call it a “color epaper mobile terminal” — named the “FLEPia.” I would guess it’s pronounced the way you’d think it’s pronounced.
It’s been a long time coming. Fujitsu first announced the FLEPia nearly two years ago, in April 2007. According to a Fujitsu press release, the FLEPia will have an 8-inch color electronic paper screen capable of displaying 260,000 colors in high definition. It’ll also support Bluetooth and wireless technology. Color, huh? Expect to see the words “Kindle killer” in a lot of headlines. If the battery lasts as long as Fujitsu said it will — 40 hours — that’ll certainly help the company take on the reigning e-book champ. Then again, Amazon.com claims the Kindle will allow you to read for four days straight, even with the wireless network on.
And the FLEPia won’t let you wirelessly connect to the Amazon.com Kindle Store. Despite granting access to the iPhone and iPod Touch, Sony Reader fans are still contacting Sony for their e-books. Fujitsu said the FLEPia can access Papyless, Japan’s largest e-book retailer.
I found this article in The New York Times as I was eating breakfast this morning and when I got to work I had to take a look for myself. Amazon.com has released an application called Kindle for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
When you launch the application, you land on the main screen, where you can begin reading your books. At the top right, there’s a button called Get Books — press it and you find out that your options for buying books are to purchase them on your computer and upload them to your iPod. Or you can buy them using Safari on the iPhone or iPod. It’s pretty simple.
The software also supports Amazon.com’s Whispersync function, so if you’ve bought books from Amazon.com before, you can read them on your iPod or iPhone.
The publishing industry and technology have a love-hate relationship — there are probably still some Franciscan monks who are still bitter over the invention of the Gutenberg printing press. Lately the publishing industry has locked horns with Amazon’s Kindle 2. It’s not because the publishing industry is scared of electronic books (though I’m sure there are plenty of publishers who are terrified). It’s because the Kindle 2 has a text-to-speech feature that allows you to listen to books read (in monotone) by a computerized voice.
The Authors Guild objected to this feature. In a story featured in USA Today, Authors Guild director Paul Aiken explained that authors may grant electronic publishing rights to one entity and audio rights to another. Merging the two would make matters more complicated from a contractual standpoint.
Amazon stated in a press release that the text-to-speech function violates no copyright laws, nor does it create a derivative work or count as a performance.
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