November 18th, 2009

Sony Reader Daily Edition now available for pre-order

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 11:11 am

Categories: Sony, ebooks

Tags: Sony Corp., Sony Reader, E-books, 3G, Wireless And Mobility, Personal Technology, Cellular Phones, Consumer Electronics, Matthew Miller

Back in August Sony announced the Reader Daily Edition with WiFi and 3G wireless support, along with a touch interface. Today, Sony announced that the Sony Reader Daily Edition can be pre-ordered over on the Sony Style store for $399.99 with shipping scheduled for December through January.

Highlights of the Sony Reader Daily Edition include WiFi and 3G access (via AT&T), 7-inch touch screen display with dictionary and annotation support, 16 level grayscale display, aluminum body with integrated cover, and expansion card slots along with internal memory for more than a thousand books. The press release also states that newspaper and magazine content providers will be announced within a month. With this device, Sony now has a family of three ebook readers spanning across a broad price range and usage pattern.

Thanks to Mobile Tech Review for the heads-up on the news. Anyone planning to order this ebook reader? 2010 is shaping up to be the year of the ebook.

November 1st, 2009

Holiday Gift Guide 2009: E-book readers

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 9:21 pm

Categories: Gadgets, Holiday Gift Guide, Kindle, Sony, ebooks

Tags: Sony Corp., Amazon.com Inc., E-book Reader, Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, Wireless, eInk, Ebook Reader, Kindle DX, Professional Document

In the second half of 2009 we saw some major updates to the market leading ebook readers, followed by announcements of new products coming at the end of 2009 and into 2010. We now see wireless and touchscreen functionality being added to these electronic readers, as well as access to more content. With some of these readers you can now check out electronic copies of books from your local library and have access to thousands of books for free. Adobe Digital Editions PDF and ePub are becoming content standards that are rolling out across most of these readers so you won’t be limited by access to content and can look for a reader that you find functional and priced right.

I personally ordered the new Barnes & Noble Nook that is scheduled to ship at the end of November. The interesting aspects of this device include the dual displays (one small color one for library browsing and a larger 6 inch eInk display for reading), ability to loan books to others for 14 days, connectivity via both AT&T 3G and WiFi, and ability to sync bookmarks, annotations, and last reading location across multiple supported platforms. Sony also has their wireless Daily Edition PRS-900 coming out before the end of 2009. In 2010, we will see more of these readers, including the Plastic Logic QUE also powered by the B&N eBookstore.

Ebook readers are a convenient way to carry several titles with you in a small package and are perfect for the business traveler. Prices of new ebooks are now less expensive than hardback titles and in many cases can be downloaded and accessed within seconds of discovering them. Most all new releases are available in electronic format and 2010 should be an exciting year for ebook fans.

Amazon Kindle

At the beginning of 2009, Amazon updated the Kindle (often referred to as the jump from Kindle 1 to Kindle 2) with a much sleeker form factor, reorganization of controls, and more integrated memory. Amazon recently added an international Kindle to the mix with support for wireless access outside the US and then made all new Amazon Kindle devices the same US/international version to avoid confusion with multiple models. They switched from wireless access provided by Sprint to wireless access provided by AT&T in the US.

The Kindle has about a third of the front taken up by a QWERTY keyboard that you can use to look up words or search for books in your library and on the Amazon store and also enter in notes. The Kindle holds up to 1,500 books and is sleek at only 0.36 inches thick. Best sellers and new releases generally start at $9.99. Unfortunately, the Kindle has limited format support and does not support checking out ebooks from your local library. Native PDF files are not supported and must first be converted to be read on the Kindle.

The Amazon Kindle revolutioned the ebook market with the wireless capability and easy access to their content, but others have now caught up and surpassed the functionality and content access of the Kindle.

Price: $259.00 MSRP

[Check out my review and the ZDNet Reviews page for the Amazon Kindle]

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November 1st, 2009

Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Digital Media Players

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 9:20 pm

Categories: Apple, Gadgets, Holiday Gift Guide, MP3 players, Microsoft, Portable gaming, Sony, Zune

Tags: Device, Apple iPod, Archos, Microsoft Zune, Apple iPod Nano, Apple Inc., Video, Archos 5 Internet Tablet, Pixel Resolution, Sony X-Series Walkman

For this Digital Media Player Holiday Guide we will be taking a look at the best devices that offer a complete music playing and video watching experience. There are still some devices that specialize in one or the other, but the capability has improved in most of them so that both types of media content can be enjoyed. Last year we looked at both MP3 players and portable digital video players in two Guides, but are merging them this year since most perform both functions well. Some of these devices can be used for web browsing, 3rd party application usage, and gaming, but we will focus on the music and video support while mentioning some of these more advanced capabilities.

You will see some of the same brand names in this Holiday Guide, but you will also see that updated models continue to improve on the media experience and for the most part you can’t go wrong with these players. You will see that the Guide is arranged in order from highest price device to lowest price device since price is a major factor when you look at one of these media players to purchase.

Archos 5 Internet Tablet

The Archos 5 Internet Tablet is powered by the Google Android operating system and is focused on the media experience with Internet browsing also being a prominent feature. Archos has been know at excelling in portable video playing capability and the Archos 5 continues that tradition. You can view HD video content and photos on the 4.8 inch 800×480 pixel resolution display. The Archos 5 Internet Tablet supports the following video formats; MPEG-4 HD (up to 720p), MPEG-48, H.264, WMV, MKV, and M-JPEG. Supported audio formats include MP3, WMA, AAC+, Ogg Vorbis, and Flac. There are some optional plug-ins available to further enhance support on the Archos 5.

In addition to the various hard drive capacities, the Archos 5 has a microSD card slot with support up to 32GB, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, FM receiver with RDS, and FM transmitter. There are a couple additional accessories to extend the functionality of the device to your TV as well.

With the Google Android operating system you will find that many third party apps seen on Google Android smartphones also work on the Archos 5 Tablet.

Price: $499.99 MSRP for 500GB unit, $399.99 for 160GB, and $379.99 for 32GB Flash drive

[Check out review pages for the 500GB and 32GB models]

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October 21st, 2009

B&N Nook beats Amazon Kindle & Sony Reader, here's why

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 7:35 am

Categories: Gadgets, Kindle, Open Handset Alliance, Sony, ebooks

Tags: Sony Corp., Barnes & Noble Inc., Sony Reader, Loan Technology, Adobe Digital Editions, E-books, Wireless LANs, 3G, Wi-Fi, Wireless And Mobility

I posted yesterday about the Barnes & Noble Nook and then read Mitch’s post where one of his four points about the Nook not being revolutionary focused on the apparent limited use of WiFi. I just posed a couple of questions on the Nook press call and have to now tell Mitch he is wrong about the WiFi access, but he should actually be quite pleased since there are no limits. I confirmed that you can access and purchase books via both WiFi and AT&T 3G from any place where you have access to a network, including your home WiFi network. One point of clarification regarding travel overseas. You can download books from you current library collection via WiFi overseas, but due to licensing issues you cannot browse the store and purchase new content when outside the US (yet). The Barnes & Noble store experience is just an enhanced experience that presents you with free content and also allows you to browse through books, just like you can physically in the bookstore. As I said yesterday, I think the Nook is a revolutionary product in the ebook market for a number of reasons.

Here is why I think the Nook stands out from the others and sets the bar. Some items are found in a Kindle or Sony Reader, but the Nook brings all of these together:

• Ability to purchase content via WiFi and AT&T 3G wireless connections from any location in the US
• Ability to lend ebooks to others for 14 days
• Ability to checkout and read local library ebooks for free
• Ability to browse full ebook content while connected in Barnes & Noble stores
• Sync across platforms and readers of bookmarks, annotations, last reading location
• 16-level grayscale display
• Small capacitive color touchscreen for ebook store browsing

My other question on the call pertained to what happens when you loan out a book and what happens after the 14 day loan period. The loan technology is modeled just like a real physical book so when the loaner gives a friend the book then the loaner has no access to that book. The loanee then has the book for 14 days, I forgot to ask if they can return it earlier, and when that loan period expires the license for that book is transferred back to the loaner. I am not sure if you can loan over and over, but imagine there are no limitations since it is as single license that is just being transferred around. The only requirement for the loanee is that they have to have an iPhone, BlackBerry, Nook, or other compatible device to read the content.

I found in the FAQ and wrote yesterday that you should be able to access and read local library books with the Nook and this was confirmed in another press release announcing the partnership between Barnes & Noble and Adobe. Adobe Digital Editions is supported, along with the ePub and PDF formats.

UPDATE: Mitch was able to speak further with some folks at Barnes & Noble and confirms what I was told on the call this morning in his latest blog post. Mitch also found out some good information about accessing Google Books and I have to say all of this information just confirms that my pre-order was a smart purchase that I look forward to receiving in November.

August 27th, 2009

Your Kindle can't do this, local library ebooks now available on the Sony Reader

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 4:30 am

Categories: Gadgets, Sony, ebooks, mobile services

Tags: Adobe Systems Inc., Sony Corp., Sony Reader, Adobe Digital Editions, E-books, Personal Technology, Matthew Miller

I wrote about the new Sony Reader devices and how we would eventually be able to actually check out ebooks from our local libraries and read them on the Sony Readers. The press release and press coverage focused on the New York Public Library so I didn’t give much thought to trying out my local system anytime soon. As I was resetting my Kindle back to defaults so I could sell it and setting up my old Sony Reader 505 I decided to check to see if the library functionality was up and running. I went to the Sony Overdrive Library Finder site and entered my ZIP code. I was quite surprised to see the local Pierce County library system supported ebooks, including audiobooks, as downloads and it appears people have been able to read these books on PCs and using Mobipocket for quite some time and I just did not know about it.

Now, the latest format announced was the ePub format and it appears that my library system doesn’t have that format yet, but they do have Mobipocket and Adobe PDF formats. Mobipocket formats require a device identifier so I could use my smartphones with Mobipocket to read those book titles. In order to try books out on my Reader 505 I selected a couple of PDF files (my wife and daughters love Twilight so I thought I should read the book and see what it is all about) and saw that they would work for a 21-day period. Some people commented on my earlier post that this functionality must have some kind of fee associated with it, but I am quite happy to say my local library makes these downloads available for FREE.

After entering my library card information and checking out I was presented with Read the rest of this entry »

August 27th, 2009

Is wireless really even necessary in an ebook reader?

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 3:30 am

Categories: Gadgets, Kindle, On the road, Sony, ebooks

Tags: Sony Corp., Sony Reader, Wireless, Ebook Reader, E-books, Personal Technology, Matthew Miller

The has been a lot of ebook news this week with the new Daily Edition Reader added to the latest Sony Reader trio, the launch of the Sony eBook Store on the Mac, and the roll out of over a million free public domain books in EPUB format from Google. It is nice to see Sony go head-to-head with the Kindle devices in terms of wireless capability, but I actually just ordered a new Sony Reader Touch Edition for $299 instead of waiting for the Sony Reader Daily Edition and now wonder if the wireless capability is really a necessity for ebook readers.

There are a select few ebook readers with wireless capabilities, but the Kindle definitely leads in this area. Looking back at the last year or so when I have owned and used the Kindle 1 and Kindle 2, I honestly spent just a few hours total being connected and only found it essential to get content onto my device because there wasn’t a super easy way to do so via cable. I rarely ever used the web browser because it wasn’t a pleasant experience and I think wireless connectivity isn’t as important as so many people make it out to be.

The cons of wireless connectivity include reduced battery life, tendency to buy more than you really need or can even read, and frustrations with weak connections. The pro is that you can get content to your device quickly and easily without a PC. I use my ebook readers to read books and have something like 30+ pieces of material on both my Kindle 2 and Sony Reader 505 and it would take a long time on a desert island alone for me to get through even just the titles I already have loaded up. I don’t see the urgency or need to be so connected to the network for ebooks and actually think as the economy struggles people are looking for way to be a bit more frugal. Spur of the moment purchases on the Kindle don’t help foster responsible spending habits.

The Sony Reader, and other readers like the EZ Readers, are more open to different content types and thus you have access to thousands of free ebooks that will take you years to get through. You can also find thousands of free books for the Kindle, but there are more for these other devices and the content is easier to get to the reader because of the more open nature of them.

I like to treat my ebook reader like a book and that means being free of distractions with a display that most closely matches a book. The Kindle 1 display was good, but the Sony Reader 505 sets the bar for devices I have tried out and the Kindle 2 actually has lighter, thinner fonts and is not as easy to read as the Sony 505. I worry that the touch screen on the new Sony Reader takes away some clarity and if that is the case I may not have my new reader too long, unless other features can overcome clarity issues.

Another benefit to using a PC (and now a Mac for the Sony Readers) is that you can have a local copy of your book content that you can backup to a DVD for storage and a distributor would have to physically come into your house to get that content back. It really is not a big deal to spend 5-10 minutes loading up an ebook reader with hours and hours of books once a month and in my experiences it will save you money by letting you think a bit more before making rash purchases.

Do you think wireless capability is essential in an ebook reader?