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Last week, the big news was that several universities decided not to support the Kindle (or similar e-readers, presumably) because they are not accessible or friendly to blind and visually impaired students. Intel has stepped up this week though with an innovative device to help those with visual impairments read and hear the written word easier! Continue Reading

If the idea of carrying a pad of paper, an eBook reader, and a netbook sounds like two too many things to carry, then you might be the target audience for the Android based enTourage eDGe.

The enTourage eDGe is a dual-screen, WiFi-enabled device that has optional access to 3G networks for fast and easy data transfers.  The left side of the enTourage eDGe features a 9.7” diagonal e-paper display, serving as an e-reader or notebook that comes with many built-in applications.  The enTourage eDGe allows users to read e-books in PDF and EPUB format and take notes or draw diagrams for easy storing on the device while they are top-of-mind, such as during a class or meeting.

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The right side of the enTourage eDGe is a 10.1” LCD screen equipped with a touch screen interface to easily browse email, surf the Internet, watch movies or listen to MP3s. The enTourage eDGe supports Bluetooth® keyboards so users can conveniently type notes, emails and IMs.  These two unique screens also work together to help individuals access information faster. For example, a user can highlight a word from the e-paper screen, and drag it to a Web browser on the LCD screen to search for definitions, images and so forth. For increased access to documents, users can choose between email attachments, USB drives, direct PC drag and drop or web page download for moving files on and off the device.

The eDGe looks interesting, and I think it’s smart that enTourage already has an eBook store in place — albeit with a limited selection of current titles and steeper prices compared to the Amazon Kindle and the nook stores; time will tell if the prices get any more competitive. Of course, there are plenty of free ePub and PDF books available online as well.

The enTourage eDGe will be available in February 2010 for $490. Colors available will include piano black, midnight blue, ruby red, glacier white, and ice blue.

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(image courtesy of Techcrunch)

Hello and welcome to another “State of the ebook!” We have an avalanche of news this week, from smartphone news to international expansion and beyond!

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New Droid owners (and other Android junkies) rejoice!  eReader announced tonight via their weekly email newsletter that eReader for the Android platform is now available.

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Remember Choose Your Own Adventure Books? Of course you do. They were awesome; you’d be given a scenario, and after some background you would flip to a certain page for one outcome, and another page for a difference outcome. They were out of print for a bit, having returned in paperback a few years ago, but they are making a comeback…on the Amazon Kindle. Continue Reading

(photo courtesy of Mobile Read)

Sony is proving they are taking their ebook reading customers very seriously. If you bought a PRS-500 (the first Sony Reader I believe), you can choose to send it in for a firmware upgrade or trade it in to save some money on the price of a newer model.

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drawing courtesy of http://www.canastotalibrary.org/book_sale_pic.jpg

Looking for some good books? Before you break out your wallet, Gear Diary has a few ways to save you some money, but only for a limited time!

Direct eBooks has a standing discount of 10% on their books, and this weekend only they are running a coupon for an additional 20% off! Use coupon code – A1NY9VL65W at checkout.

Treocentral also has a deal with Fictionwise this month; use the code Treocentral25 for 25% off at eReader/Fictionwise.

Via Mobileread

Via Treocentral

For alll you ebook enthusiasts, and for those who want to be, have we got a site for you.   OnlineCourses.org, a site dedicated to helping people find great online courses from online universities, has compiled a list of 100 useful e-book links to  help you find the course material you should read for that pesky English Lit class.  But, for those of us who just like to read e-books, its a great repository of all types of sites (free, paid and otherwise) where we can grab an e-book and read, read, read!

Thanks for our friends at The Gadgeteer for the heads up on this.

Welcome to another State of the eBook! This week we’re bringing in an expert to share some thoughts on eBooks, music and movies, and where the future is taking digital media. Read on for Gear Diary’s interview with K.C. Blake of the Entertainment Technology Center at University of Southern California.

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Amazon is not taking their new competition sitting down. I saw this ad watching television tonight, and almost did a double-take; I’ve seen print ads for the Kindle, but prime-time commercials are a whole new level of publicity.

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(courtesy of Amazon.com)

Just a few short weeks ago Amazon announced the Kindle was coming to PCs, and today it landed! Windows-only for now, with Mac OS X support promised “shortly”, Kindle for PC represents Amazon’s first attempt to strike back against Barnes and Noble’s eBook expansion. Does it succeed? I’ve been playing with it all day, read on for my review and thoughts!

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With Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Sony and smaller e-stores all vying for your dollars (and device support), how do you decide where to buy? There’s no price match guarantee with eBooks, and if you are platform agnostic, with no clear favorite site, where do you download that new bestseller you wanted?

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A few week ago, I received a copy of this book to review. I’ll admit it, I’m primarily a Mac user, but I use Windows XP at work, and I run it on my Mac in a VMWare session so I can support my Windows Mobile devices and do those things that are available only for Windows. And yeah, I’m one of the many, many, people who played with the Windows 7 betas – and I like it. Not enough to give up my Mac, but it’s nice to see what Vista should have been finally come to fruition. It’s not perfect, but it’s still very nice.

So, even though I haven’t done a book review since I left school many years ago, I was looking forward to this book because I was hoping to learn about the new OS in some detail – like in previous versions of this book. That’s not quite the spin they took this time around, however. So let’s see what they did instead…

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Remember the Alex ebook reader? And remember how everyone thought it looked awfully similar to the nook? Apparently Spring Designs, the creators of the Alex, agree, and they’ve filed a lawsuit against Barnes and Noble over it.

Highlights of the press release:

-Barnes and Noble and Spring Designs were working together on an ebook reader.

-Spring Design shared information about the Alex with B&N (who were under NDA)

-The lawsuit is alleging B&N stole Spring Design’s intellectual property by studying the Alex’s features and using them for the design of the nook.

Now this does contradict a report from Businessweek that the nook (code named “Athena”) was being designed by Ammunition Partners, the company that designed the first Kindle.

My one cynical, totally unconfirmed theory: Barnes and Noble purposely pushed pre-order shipping back to mid-December to allow time for this to play out and avoid a potential sales injunction.

No other information is available beyond the press release, and there is no word on whether Spring Design will be attempting to prevent nook sales or pre-sales. As more information appears we will definitely be sharing it, so keep an eye on Gear Diary for more news and commentary!

Via egether

photo credit: Joseph Robertson

If last week’s news is any indication, we’re all about to see an army of Droids to be released and hit the mobile scene — in a very big way. Even if you didn’t already pre-order through Best Buy, Big Red hopes you’ll be stopping by their stores this Friday to see what all the fuss is about.   Some good hardware from Motorola and a faster, much improved Android 2.0 should please quite a few Verizon customers by providing what could be argued as the carrier’s first eagerly anticipated smartphone.   But will it pose any real threat to the iPhone?

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