By Chris Scott Barr

Remember last month how we told you about the Alex Dual Screen eBook Reader? I wouldn’t be all that surprised if it doesn’t stick out in your mind, as it was easily overshadowed by the Nook from Barns & Noble. Well the two had one very distinct feature in common, namely their extra color LCD screen. It seemed a little coincidental that two readers would come out so close together with this feature. Apparently Spring Design thinks it’s not so much of a coincidence.

Spring Design filed suit this week against Barnes & Noble, accusing them of misappropriateing trade secrets and violating a non-disclosure agreement. Apparently Spring Design had shown off their device in hopes to work with the bookstore giant. Sure, it’s possible that both companies just happened to have the same great idea, but not very likely. Barnes & Noble have not yet responded to these claims, but it will be interesting to hear their side of the story.

VIA [ PCMag ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Are you tired of e-reader news yet? Well since I can’t hear anything other than the voice inside my head, I’m going to assume you’ve answered no. Well as a follow-up to my piece on the Nook the other day, I thought you might find it interesting to know what Amazon did actually think. While they’ve not responded with words, they have done a little trimming to both the selection and price of their Kindle.

Amazon has decided that they no longer need two versions of the regular-size Kindle, so they have dropped one. The International Kindle has had its price lowered to $259, while the US-only version was kicked to the curb. This brings it in line with the Nook, which I don’t regard as enough to help their cause. Yes, the Kindle has become something of a household name (in terms of e-readers), but if customers can get something with a touchscreen LCD (and other features) for the same price, they probably will.

[ Amazon ] VIA [ GearLog ]

By Chris Scott Barr

The last month has been a pretty big one for e-book readers. Some of the highlights include Sony’s touchscreen e-reader, another from Irex and the international version of the Kindle. Well another big name has decided to throw their hat into the ring, and it’s a damn-good looking hat.

Barnes & Noble announced that they will be launching their own reader, dubbed ‘Nook’. The first thing you’ll notice about the Nook is that it has a pair of screens (not unlike the Alex Dual Screen we saw on Monday) instead of just the traditional one. There’s not much to say about the top 16-color e-ink screen, but the bottom is a full-color 3.5 inch touchscreen LCD. This can be used to browse through your library, or as a virtual keyboard for input.

The second screen isn’t the only thing the Nook has on most popular e-readers. In addition to having 3G service (through AT&T) for downloading content, it will also feature Wi-Fi. Why this has been left out of readers like the Kindle, I still don’t understand. As for content, it will support PDF’s natively,  along with EPUB and various other eReader formats. They claim that you’ll have access to over a million ebooks.

Other notable features include 2GB of internal storage (expandable by 16GB via microSD), the ability to play MP3 audio (but no text-to-speech) and the ability to share books. That’s right, you can “loan” out an e-book to friends using compatible devices for up to 14 days at a time. How cool is that? The only requirement is that your friend needs to have a device that is running the Barns & Noble software.

The Nook is going to go on sale sometime in November for the price of $259. With all of these features, you have to wonder what’s going through Amazon’s mind right now.

[ Barns & Noble ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Every time I see a new ebook reader, I think that they’re maybe two steps away from being ready for me to buy. I love the concept of being able to read books, comics or anything from just a little pad. If you’ve ever tried to read a book that contains the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, you’ll understand why I want an e-reader. Well the latest one from Irex is another step in the right direction.

The new Irex DR800SD e-reader has an 8.1-inch display, making it one of the larger readers on the market. Unlike the Kindle family, the screen takes up almost the entire face of the device, making it a much sleeker design. Since there are no buttons on the front, they’ve opted for a touch screen. Don’t get too excited here, unlike Sony’s latest reader it isn’t a capacitive screen. You’re still going to need a stylus to work it. They chose this route because the current capacitive screens actually make the text less readable due to the extra layer of glass that needs to be used.

Other notable features include free 3G service from Verizon for downloading e-books and periodicals, an SD card slot (2GB card is included) and a user-replaceable battery. As for document support, it currently works with Adobe PDF, EPUB, Newspaper Direct, Fictionwise, eReader and TXT. They’ve also partnered with Barnes & Noble and NewspaperDirect for content.

The biggest issue I have with the Irex is the price. $399 is still a lot of money to pay for a device that lets you read books. Sure, when you stack it up against the competition, the price seems rather reasonable for what you’re getting. I’m more suggesting that the prices for e-readers in general still need to come down before they really become mainstream. Look for it to hit stores at the end of October.

[ Irex ] VIA [ Crave ]

By Chris Scott Barr

I’ve been watching the Kindle for a little while now, and have been tempted to pick one up. There are a few reasons that I haven’t, one of which being the size of the screen. If I’m going to buy an e-reader, I’d like to have more than six inches worth of screen to stare at. That’s not even enough for a single page of a paperback novel. Rumors have been flying around for a few days about a new larger Kindle that is designed with textbooks and magazines in mind.

The new Kindle DX sports a whopping 9.7-inch screen, which is about as large as two full pages in a paperback book. A bigger screen isn’t the only thing the DX has to offer. An accelerometer allows you to rotate the orientation of the page by rotating the device (the same principle is used on many iPhone apps), a built-in 3G card and 3.3GB of storage are also welcome upgrades. Native PDF support is probably one of the best new features, as it eliminates the need to pay Amazon to convert the documents to their proprietary file type.

Amazon has teamed up with three of the top textbook publishers to get schoolbooks onto the Kindle. These are Pearson, Wiley and Cengage which together dominate 60% of the textbook market. This partnership has allowed them to launch trial programs at several universities which will virtually replace the need for students to carry around most of their books. Finally, they’ve struck deals to get The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Washington Post onto your Kindle at a reduced price.

So how much are these extra features going to cost? You’re looking at $489 smackeroos. That’s about $130 more than the Kindle 2, which was only released a couple of months ago. I’m glad I didn’t decide to pick one of those up, I’d be pretty upset to see something bigger and better this quickly.

[ Amazon ] VIA [ GearLog ]

By Luke Anderson

Ever since the original Kindle was released I’ve been thinking more and more about getting myself an e-reader. I actually do quite a bit of reading, but I hate lugging around big books everywhere. The simple solution seems to be in a handy electronic e-ink reader. Sure, the Kindle has some pretty cool features, but wouldn’t it be cooler to just make your own?

This cool e-Ink AM200 Electronic Book Reader Kit has everything you need to construct your own e-reader. The picture above is what you could construct with the kit, which is about 7mm thick and weighs just 150 grams. You can load content via the MMC card slot. The catch? Oh, there’s just that tiny little $3,000 price tag. I think I’ll pass.

[ eInk ] VIA [ Red Ferret ]

I’ve been dragging my feet on the whole e-reader thing since I haven’t quite found the perfect device for my needs just yet, and at the moment there are only a handful of readers on the market to choose from. Thankfully more are on the way, including the Readius which quite frankly I thought would never actually see the light of day. The device features the first foldable 5-inch electronic paper display that’s also capable of producing 16 levels of gray. The foldable design makes it a lot easier to carry in your pocket and also serves to protect the display when not in use. Polymer Vision, the company responsible for the Readius, recently launched a corporate blog and the first post by CEO Karl McGoldrick claims their e-reader will launch in Autumn of this year.

Our exclusive rollable display technology is the core around which we build our plans, and in the Autumn of this year we will launch Readius, the first pocket eReader. Readius offers the advantages of eReaders as known today – but now all neatly wrapped into a pocket sized device.

Readius is very much a data centered mobile product, designed around eBooks, eNews, RSS feeds, and receiving email messages. It is optimised for mobility by allowing instant access to hundreds of books from your pocket, while the integrated 3.5G data connection ensures high speed downloads of pre-ordered content and instant news updates on the go.

They also announced the launch of www.readius.com which will serve as a portal for the Readius where users can select and manage content whether it be free or subscription based. Unfortunately though specific pricing information for content or the reader itself still hasn’t been announced.

[ Readius's Blog ] VIA [ SlashGear ]