Thursday, November 19, 2009
Adobe is preparing to put magazines on Apple's purported wondertablet. But what if that device, like Apple's iPhone, doesn't want to work with Adobe?
MediaMemo
Plastic Logic Offers a (Quick) Look at Its Kindle Killer: Meet the Que
By Peter Kafka
Plastic Logic, which has been talking up its coming e-reader for some time now but hasn't actually started selling it, has a little more to say: It will have more to say about its coming e-reader in a few months. Oh, and its coming device has a name--the Que. Read More »
Published on October 18, 2009
Featured Review
Amazon's Kindle 2 Improves the Good, Leaves Out the Bad
By Walter S. Mossberg
Walt finds that Amazon.com has fixed the worst design flaws in the Kindle, its popular electronic-book reader, while maintaining the excellent book-buying experience that made the first model tolerable despite those problems. Read More »
Published on February 25, 2009
Reviews and Reader Questions
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Here's yet another content creator that's convinced Apple has a tablet device in the works: Condé Nast says it will have a digital version of Wired magazine ready for the purported gadget by the middle of next year and will eventually create similar versions for all of its 18 titles.
But Condé, like other publishers, says Apple won't actually talk to the company about its plans for the device--or even acknowledge that it has plans.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Not sure what Barnes & Noble has to say about the "Nook" that it didn't discuss yesterday, when it unveiled its new e-reader. But the bookseller's press conference this morning, scheduled for 9:30 EDT, gives us an opportunity to try a little crowd-sourcing experiment: Send me any questions you have and I'll try to ask the company on your behalf.
Monday, October 19, 2009
It's e-reader preview week, apparently. Last night, Plastic Logic formally named its would-be Kindle killer; tomorrow, Barnes & Noble is supposed to show off its own branded device. This morning's entrant: Spring Design, which says it has produced a reader that boasts two screens and an operating system that runs on Google's Android. What it doesn't have: Big-pocketed partners to boast about.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
To be taken with a grain of salt: Apple’s long-rumored tablet will arrive at market early next year and will feature a 10.6-inch panel designed with e-books in mind. This according to the occasionally accurate DigiTimes.
Amazon won't even tell us how many Kindles it has actually sold, so projecting how many it's going to move in the future makes for particularly tough fortune-telling. But that doesn't stop anyone from trying: Forrester thinks Jeff Bezos and company will move 600,000 newly discounted units this holiday season and sell 1.8 million by the end of 2009.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Had to see this one coming: Amazon is chopping the price on its plain-vanilla Kindle e-book reader and is introducing a new version that will allow users to download books when they're outside the U.S. Your move, Sony--and every other would-be Kindle competitor.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Way back in the fall of 2001, BoomTown attended a keynote speech at the now-defunct Comdex show in Las Vegas, where Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates continued to bang the drum for one of his long-running obsessions: The tablet computer.
It is an obsession he has never given up.
So it is ironic that all the hype has suddenly and firmly coalesced around the particulars of the tablet that Apple has developed--a device being spearheaded by CEO Steve Jobs and likely to arrive in the coming months.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
The Kindle gets plenty of attention, but the e-book reader is still a niche device. When will that change? When it gets cheaper. A lot cheaper, says a new Forrester study.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Sony started selling e-book readers long before Amazon, but blew its lead. So how can it catch up with its new device, which looks and works much like the Kindle, but costs $100 more? Maybe Sony can do it with the help of free books from your local library.
After Sony unveiled its new line of readers this morning, I posed that question to Sony executive Steve Haber, who immediately pointed out that his “Daily Edition” machine has a slightly bigger screen than the Kindle 2 and boasts a touchscreen.
Sony did indeed have a bit of news to announce at the New York Public Library: Its most direct challenge to Amazon's Kindle to date. Like the Kindle, the "Daily" reader will feature a wireless connection--Sony will use AT&T, while Amazon uses Sprint. And unlike current versions of the Kindle, the Sony device will feature a touchscreen.
But it will come at a price: The device will retail in December for $399. That's $100 more than the current price of Amazon's Kindle 2. And that price point is almost certain to drop in coming months.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Here's another company choosing a side in the coming e-book war: Irex Technologies, a Dutch company that plans on selling a Kindle-like reader in the U.S. this fall, has allied itself with Barnes & Noble's online bookstore. Earlier this summer, would-be Kindle rival Plastic Logic announced a similar pact. And in other "e-book reader made by someone other than Amazon" news, Sony has a press conference scheduled for tomorrow.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Have you bought a Kindle? Do you plan on buying a Kindle? If you answered yes to either question, you're part of a not-that-small group: JP Morgan estimates that some 10 million Americans either own one of Amazon's e-book readers or plan to get one soon. Meanwhile, whatever happened to Amazon's plan to bundle newspaper subscriptions with its DX reader?
Monday, July 27, 2009
Novelist Nicholson Baker loves books, but not Jeff Bezos's device: "Amazon is very good at selling things. It isn’t so good, to date anyway, at making things...fortunately, if you want to read electronic books there’s another way to go. Here’s what you do. Buy an iPod Touch."
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos didn't make it to his company's earnings call today, but he did find time to apologize for Kindlegate--Amazon's ham-fisted removal of George Orwell novels from his customers' e-book readers. Great, right? Almost.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Here's another set of customers for AT&T: People who buy e-book readers from Plastic Logic, the would-be Kindle killer due out next year.
Privately held Plastic Logic says it will rely on AT&T to supply its gadgets with a wireless connection, in the same way that Sprint is the network provider for Amazon's Kindle.
Last week, Amazon acknowledged that it deleted some copies of "1984" and "Animal Farm" from customers' Kindles. So what book will be next?
Because while Amazon has said it won't repeat what it did last week, it hasn't actually sworn off remote book-removal--or remote-anything removal, for that matter--altogether. Does that worry you? It should.
Six years after shuttering its first e-book effort, Barnes & Noble has embarked on a new one. Monday afternoon, the bookseller announced what it describes as “the world’s largest eBookstore,” an online storefront that boasts 700,000 titles.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Amazon hasn’t said how many Kindles it has sold since launching the device in 2007, but it may soon be selling quite a few more of them. The company today dropped the price of the six-inch Kindle to $299--$60 off of its previous price. That’s certainly not a dramatic reduction, but it may be enough to drive consumers who’ve held off on purchasing the device to reconsider.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Reading books and newspapers on a handheld device has gotten to be a hot arena in the consumer electronics business, especially after the introduction of the Kindle from Amazon.
Plastic Logic will come on the market next year with its e-reader offering, so the Silicon Valley-based company gave a sneak preview of the device, including a first look at the gadget’s innovative touchscreen user interface.
Look ma, no keyboard!
Amazon's Kindle gets many plaudits, but it also gets one consistent criticism: Why can't it come with a color screen? It can, say the folks at Pixel Qi, a start-up based in Silicon Valley and Taiwan: It could use the cheap, lightweight color screens that we're going to make.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
At some point, this will no longer be a coincidence: Once again, Amazon's newest e-book reader has sold out shortly after launch. This time, it's the Kindle DX, the super-sized reader with the super-sized price tag. Amazon started selling the DX three days ago, and by yesterday afternoon the e-commerce giant said it was cleaned out. The next batch won't arrive until next week.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Amazon isn't the only company that wants you to read books and newspapers on a handheld device. The Kindle has a bevy of competitors, some of which already exist--like Sony's Reader--and those that have yet to hit the market. Plastic Logic falls in the second category. The Silicon Valley-based company's device, which every D7 attendee will receive, won't be on the market until next year. But today Plastic Logic will provide an update on the device's progress and show off some interesting features, including a first look at the gadget's touchscreen user interface. Look ma, no keyboard!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Want a big screen Kindle? You're going to have to pay up -- or get a subscription to the New York Times, the Boston Globe or the Washington Post.
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- Could iRex Be the Company Making News Corp.'s Kindle? Mmmmmaybe. in MediaMemo
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- Sony, Google Fire Back at Amazon's Kindle With… "Black Beauty"? in MediaMemo
- Rumored Apple Netbook Actually an E-book? in Digital Daily
- First Impressions of Kindle on iPhone in Mossblog
- Amazon's Kindle 2 Improves the Good, Leaves Out the Bad in Personal Technology
- E-Read It and Weep, Amazon in Digital Daily
- Amazon's Kindle Makes Buying E-Books Easy, Reading Them Hard in Personal Technology
- The New Sony Reader For Books Performs Like a Good First Draft in Personal Technology
The E-Reader Wars are heating up with new entrants from Sony, Barnes & Noble (Nook) going up against Amazon’s established Kindle line. Who is next to join the party, Plastic Logic or Apple?
