Category: E-Books
Amazon Kindle coming to the UK
The Amazon Kindle is finally set to land in the UK. Word is out that the online book giant is in advanced negotiations with a mobile operator and is working at full speed to ensure its eBook reader can hit our shores in time for Christmas.
Qualcomm will take care of the manufacture of the Kindle in the UK as well as secure the deal with an unspecified operator (please not O2) which should mean 3G connectivity as well as Wi-Fi and PC side-loading for access to a wealth of books, newspapers and magazines.
Amazon is said to have held talks with Orange, Vodafone and 3 in the past but all broke down. There also seems to be a belief among some of the operators that they can produce a reader of their own in light of their control of connectivity, relationship with hardware manufacturers and customer base but Amazon argues that it’s their access to the publishers will be key.
The trouble is that theses are just the kinds of problems that will cause talks to break down again and, ultimately, it could be the consumer that ends up with the raw deal. There’s no doubt that there’s plenty of good things about the Kindle and lots of other eBook readers but will it really be worth paying the subscription price as set by an exclusive operator just for the access e-ink newspapers and magazines?
(via Mobile Today)
Elonex introduces the eBook in partnership with Borders
Elonex has teamed up with bookshop giant Borders to launch the eBook. Or the eBook 600EB to give it its full title.
The partnership with Borders means that the eBook comes pre-loaded with 100 “all-time classics”. Presumably Napper Goes For Goal is one of the classics included – it is the greatest story ever told. The Borders’ e-book store has an additional 45,000 titles available to download.
The eBook is only 9mm thick and weighs just 180g. It has a 6-inch e-ink screen which can display eight different font sizes. It also has an SD card slot which can support up to 4GB. Elonex sells an accessory pack for the eBook for £29 which has a 4GB card as well as a leather case. Alternatively just buy a 4GB SD card from Play.com for £6.49.
Elonex states that, with a 4GB SD card in place, the eBook can hold 8,000 books. “With 8,000 books weighing the same as an elephant,” they say. “How else are you going to fit 8,000 books in your suitcase?” Quite why you’d need 8,000 books on you is open to debate though. Surely only Holly from Red Dwarf and, perhaps, Will Self have read 8,000 books.
Sorry if this post came off a little unenthusiastic, it’s just that with every e-book release, the giant Kindle sized hole in the UK becomes even more apparent.
The Elonex eBook will cost you £189.95 and will be available here very soon.
(via T3)
Google turns to eBook sales but no device in sight
Google is set to free eBooks from proprietary handhelds by selling digital works readable on any device that can access the web.
The move is in direct competition Amazon and their Kindle who’ve upset publishers by selling digital first editions at less than half the price of hardback hard copy versions. Instead, Google will charge the same as in print while reserving the right to alter prices where deemed “exorbitant”.
Google already sells eBooks through the Sony Store for the Reader but this will take their literature retail in-house and bring novels to mobile phones and laptops everywhere.
Personally, I rather like the idea of having a dedicated eBook reading device and I’m not sure I’m going to get a good experience on my mobile. I also don’t feel too good about paying the same for a digital book as I do for a hardback, especially when Amazon is knocking them out so cheap.
On the plus side, it does indicate there’s a lot tablets out their about to hit the market. I’m sure Google would have an inkling of such things and that the likes of Qulacomm and whoever else will be most pleased by the news. Fingers crossed there’ll be no international issues, or am I just dreaming here?
(via NYT)
Plastic Logic e-reader resurfaces at D Conference
E-readers are a funny old bread, the pushmepullyou of the tech world. The Kindle 2 was hailed as the breakthrough – the e-reader to get everyone e-reading.
But after getting to grips with one myself I found it e-lacking: Its electric-ink screen’s resolution is miserable, and its physical buttons seem at best clunky. It wasn’t as nice an experience as reading a paper book or a newspaper, and with no plans to release it in the UK anytime soon, the Kindle doesn’t look to be the saviour it was hailed as.
The Plastic Logic e-reader, which surfaced again at D Conference this week, looks like a big step in the right direction – toward genuine acceptance for the e-reader. Controlled using a touchscreen, the PL Reader is big enough to allow for the reproduction of whole newspaper pages as opposed to the linear appearance of news on the Kindle 2, which to me, still seems like a weird way to read a newspaper.
It’s creators, Plastic Logic, say its aimed at the business market, which has lead some to suggest it’ll have limited appeal and won’t replace the Kindle. May I remind them the Blackberry was aimed at the business market and now every errant 12-year-old cousin I have has one. And sadly, that is the true measure of success.
It’s on-screen keyboard might be harder to use than Amazon’s QWERTY but you can use a stylus to write on it (and apparently do crosswords – which is oddly exciting), and it’s design is certainly more appealing than the Kindle’s button mince. It’s got WiFi and 3G so connectivity isn’t an issue and with support for Office, PDF, Pages and a host of other files, the Plastic Logic e-reader may be a genuine contender.
As long as they can reign in their price-tag which might well be over £400.
Apple rejects e-reader because sexual material in classic literature
Apple have rejected ‘Eucalyptus — classic books, to go’ an e-reader which allows users to download free public domain books from Project Gutenberg, from their App Store because classic literature contains sexual references.
Bewildered programmers received the following notification from Apple: “Thank you for submitting Eucalyptus — classic books, to go. to the App Store. We’ve reviewed Eucalyptus — classic books, to go. and determined that we cannot post this version of your iPhone application to the App Store because it contains inappropriate sexual content and is in violation of Section 3.3.12 from the iPhone SDK Agreement which states:
‘Applications must not contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, etc.), or other content or materials that in Apple’s reasonable judgement may be found objectionable by iPhone or iPod touch users’.”
Call me a stuffy old traditionalist, but I remember (by remember I mean – have read about) a time when if something was thought to be obscene we had something called a trial. Like, I don’t know, the trial of Penguin Books for publishing Lady Chatterly’s Lover – in 1959. If they weren’t guilty then, how, HOW can things have regressed to such a degree that a mobile phone manufacturer is preventing people from reading whatever they flipping please on their phones.
Apple go find a mirror and take a long hard look at yourself in it. Have a think about your ‘reasonable judgement’. What are you becoming Apple?
Amazon Kindle DX – bigger, thinner and still US only
All of America is laughing at Europe once again as Amazon launches the US-only Kindle DX reader.
The e-ink gadget has shot up to a 9.7-inch screen size while magically slimming down to a hyper-thin 0.38 inches and a weight of just 535g. It’ll now also deal with PDF files natively rather than having to convert them.
The screen is 250% bigger than the old incarnation, the battery lasts 20% longer and the whole device is 100% less ugly. You can download books over 3G and Wi-Fi in under a minute without paying any kind of monthly subscription and there’s already a library of over 275,000 novels as well as a wealth of newspapers after deals were struck with the New York Times and Wall Street Journal as well as magazines including The New Yorker and Time.
The Kindle DX packs 4GB (3.3 usable) of storage, it charges in four hours by micro USB and has a 3.5mm jack for audio playback. It’s available for $489.00 and is largely useless anywhere outside the US.
Espresso Book Machine hits the UK for instant in-store printing
The Espresso Book Machine has landed in London. Blackwell’s on Charing Cross Road has been fitted with the first of the £120,000 instant printing binding wonders in the UK and many dealers hope it’ll present a series challenge to online giants, Amazon.
The Espresso provides customers instant access to 500,000 books, which may even have gone out of print, and would otherwise take up over 23.6 miles of shelving, the equivalent of 50 book shops.
The machine prints 100 pages per minute and, according to one eye witness, “the quality of the paperback was beyond dispute: the text clear, unsmudged and justified, the paper thick, the jacket smart, if initially a little tacky to the touch”. The only tricky part is that some rare works cost up to 10p per page. Better hope they’re short.
Blackwells hopes to roll the Espresso out to all of its 60 shops as soon as they can.
(via Tech Radar)
Fujitsu FLEPia: World's first colour eReader available in Japan
The BeBook, the Sony Reader, the Foxit eSLick – yes they’re all for eBook readers but what else do they all have in common? Answer: they’re all in black and white. The Fujitsu FLEPia, however, lets you read in colour…
Amazon launches e-book buying and reading app for iPhones
Today, Amazon plans to release an application for the iPhone that’ll allow users to buy and download eBooks, outside of its homegrown Kindle ecosystem. The application will be able to be downloaded free of charge, and will also keep track of your page across both a Kindle and an iPhone, so no more wondering where you left off.
There’s competition in the market, from the likes of Indigo Books and Shortcovers, and Google recently launched a free mobile product too. When asked about whether the app might cannibalise Kindle sales, Amazon VP Ian Freed says he’s “not at all concerned”, saying that it’s actually likely to help, presumably because the Kindle offers a better eBook expeirnece.
Unfortunately for the moment, the application isn’t available outside the US, presumably for licensing reasons. We’ll keep a close eye and let you know when you can get it on these shores.
(via Wall St Journal)
BeBook reader updated with touchscreen and Wi-Fi
So, here am I just about to nip off for a Friday night beer to celebrate/mourn the Shiny exit of the fantastic Susi Weaser and a certain mail drops into my box about the next incarnation of the superb BeBook reader to be unveiled in Germany at CeBIT very shortly indeed.
No pictures as yet but there are two things BeBook is adding which should keep its nose out ahead of the competition. First is Wi-Fi…
