Pulse On Tech-Digital Reader News

Today analysts have come out to say that the Barnes & Noble Nook sold better than the Amazon Kindle during the month of March, 2010. Digitimes Research who released the information, said that by checking with suppliers, 54% of the ereaders that were shipped to the United States last months were Nook ebook readers, leaving Amazon straggling behind.  In the larger market, 1.43 million ebook readers were sold during the winter quarter alone.

It is thought that the sudden swing in Nook’s favor is due to the fact that the Nook is seen as a bit of a novelty compared to the older Kindle that has been around for longer.  Another advantage is the fact that consumers can go into Barnes & Noble bookstores to try out the device whereas the Kindle has been only available for sale online.  However, as I wrote  a few days ago, the Kindle will begin to show up in a limited number of Target stores in the U.S. this weekend.

Apple  sold one half million iPads in the first ten days of sales and that number is thought to be doubled by now, even though the device is only sold in the United States for now.  One-third of new iPad owners actually plan to read books on their new gadget, but the numbers should be strong enough to give Apple a big chunk of the e-book reading business.

This is interesting indeed. The Kindle, for the first time since its release, is not the top selling ebook reader. And due to the fact that the market will expand soon with even more readers coming out, Kindle may find themselves in even deeper water. Price wars are sure to ensue as Asus and some other top names offer us ereaders that are packed with attractive features and capabilities.

Target Corporation announced that it will begin to sell Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader in select stores beginning this month (April).  Considering the fact that ‘this month’ is dwindling away,  the retail giant means any day now.

This is the first time the Kindle will ever be available for sale in a brick-and-mortar establishment.  Target’s main store in downtown Minneapolis will carry the $259 Kindle as will over 100 stores in southern Florida. Later this year Target plans to sell the ereader at more of its hundreds of stores located across the USA.

Amazon has been rather zipped-lipped over how many Kindles have been sold so far, saying only that the number is in the millions.  This move to allow potential customers the chance to touch and handle the Kindle could be a direct result of the recent outing of Apple’s iPad which comes with e-book reading software.

As you may know, there are several great ebook readers poised to hit the open market this year such as the much anticipated and purportedly low priced Asus ereaders that are due out in a couple of months.   Amazon has done very well with the Kindle so far, but if the new ereaders coming out are as great as we hear they will be, Kindle may be in trouble because after all, $259 is a lot more than spare change to most consumers.

All About Kindle

If you have not yet decided whether or not to buy an ebook reader, maybe you need a bit of encouraging. There are some really great readers out there right now that are selling like hot-cakes.

The Kindle, BeBook, Nook and many others have a very devoted fan base with new owners saying that they will never go back to reading conventional books again.  You can load thousands of books into one of these devices which allows you to take your entire library right along with you wherever you may travel.
It is super easy to buy and download books on an ebook reading device and the entire process takes less than 5 minutes. The e-ink screen technology is really incredible if you have not experienced reading on one yet. The text is as clear as it could ever be and you can even adjust the size of the text by sometimes up to 7 times its original size.

An ebook reader makes the perfect gift. There really is no one who would not love to receive an electronic reader because quite frankly, they are great. They are thin, lightweight and very easy to slip into a purse, backpack, book bag, etc.  The e-ink technology allows you to read your books in direct sunlight without difficulty and minus the annoying eye strain.

You can find thousands of ebooks for free online although most of the no- cost ebooks are classics.  But hey, who doesn’t like to reread an old favorite now and then such as Moby Dick or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?

Nowadays  many libraries are allowing patrons to borrow ebooks. This is a pretty exciting opportunity due to the convenience of it.  You simply locate a library that offers ebook downloads, choose your book and you will be given a download link. You can ‘borrow’ the particular book you downloaded for a set period of time just like you do when you borrow a paper and ink book. At the end of that borrowing period, the file that you have downloaded into your device will simply not work – meaning that you do not need to worry about getting your library book back to the library in time to avoid paying a fee.  Smart, incredibly easy and high convenient, don’t you agree?  Buying new ebooks will cost you anywhere from $10 to $15, depending on where you purchase them from.

So, if you have not yet picked up your own ebook reader, take a look around this site. We have all of the best and most popular ereaders featured here, so take a few minutes and read up on them. Personally, I have a Kindle and an BeBook One and I love them both equally.

Fujitsu has been working on color e-newspapers for over a year now in Japan, and now the company has given the world its first peek at a new prototype ebook reader that uses a color e-ink panel.

This Fujitsu ereader has a super slim chassis. No details have been released yet concerning specs, but the FLEPia  prototype featured a touchscreen that was nearly three times larger that what is on the Kindle  and  it could run for an impressive 50 hours with the wireless connectivity WiFi turned on.  Also, it had an SD card reader, USB 2.0 port and ran Windows CE.

As a way to drum up sales, Barnes and Noble has made it possible for consumers to purchase the Nook at one of over 1,000 Best Buy electronic retail stores in the United States.

Announced just yesterday, beginning on Sunday, April 18th, consumers can purchase the Nook ebook reader, all of its accessories such as covers and screen protectors as well as its free BN eReader software at any Best Buy store.

The Nook did not sell as well as B&N had hoped upon its release last year and has been a rather hard to get ebook reader because it was only being sold at Barnes and Noble’s own stores. The Nook also had some problems early on with buggy software and some other small kinks which resulted in it getting less than rave reviews from critics.

This move to make the B&N Nook more readily available really comes as no surprise considering the fact that the Apple iPad was recently released which has received generally a very good reception and is considered to be a great ebook reader by many new iPad owners.

If the Nook was an ereader you were interested in but you have yet to check it out up close and personal, mark your calendar for the 18th then head on out to your nearest Best Buy and give it a good look.

Back in 2004, Foxit Software Company launched their Foxit Reader which was a small and responsive viewer used for reading PDF documents that was easy to use and featured their very popular software – Foxit PDF Editor.  Later,  Foxit Software Company became incorporated as Foxit Corporation and today it has offices in six countries.

Currently Foxit Corporation is selling the eSlick ebook reader for $259.99. The device weighs 6.4 ounces (180 grams) and comes in a smart and clean looking hard plastic case in your choice of black, gray w/ black back or white w/ light gray back. It runs on Linux, has 512 MB of internal memory and has an SD card slot for adding 2 GB of memory storage.

The file formats supported on the eSlick electronic reader are TXT, PDB,PDF, EPUB, and any document that can be printed after it has been converted to PDF with use of the Foxit included software.  It also supports GIF, BMP, JPEG and PNG image formats.

The eSlick’s electronic paper display screen has a 600 x 800 pixel  resolution so reading is easy on the eyes without glare or strain.  It also sports an MP3 player and comes packaged with a free Foxit Reader Pro Pack and a Foxit PDF Creator as well as earphones.  It measures 7.4″ x 4.7″ x 0.4″.

The eSlick really excels when it comes to zooming. This ereader allows you to view your favorite newspapers, magazines and novels in PDF format with only one click of a button. The zoom feature magnifies the page size from 50% to 400%. When in ReFlow mode, you can read the materila that has been reformatted to fit the size of the 6″ screen and also control the font size from the menu.  The excellent PDF support that this device possesses makes it a great choice for reading graphic-rich content in PDF format such as comics.

In spite of the fact that the eSlick does a great job with PDF support, it does lack wide file support and some other features such as a search function,  a Wi-Fi connection and the ability to take notes.  I’d put it in the same category with the BeBook One. It’s a solid feeling and well built, basic ebook reader with a six inch e-ink screen that offers the user a good ebook reading experience with no added fluff and nothing fancy.

Now that the new iPad owners out there have had their devices since Saturday, reports are popping up online at some of the top techie blogs reporting problems with their WiFi connection.  While the entire extend and range of this issue is yet to be seen, many are saying that they either cannot connect to the WiFi in their homes or that they are losing their connection all together.

Apple’s own support website is filling quickly with complaints of the device showing a very weak symbol with one bar visible – even in parts of user’s homes where other devices get full signals.

This is certainly something that must be causing a great deal of alarm at the Apple headquarters and is also something we’re going to keep an eye on.  Is it fixable? Don’t know. Will it spur some new owners to return the product and demand their money back? Probably. And how is this going to play out regarding people who were waiting for real customer reviews before deciding to buy one? My guess is that it could be the deal breaker. For those of you who were interested in the iPad as an ereader, being unsure if you can even get online to download books is well,  not a good thing.

Some of the biggest tech bloggers and others have finally received their Apple iPads and the reviews are starting to pop up online. One of the most comprehensive reviews out so far is done by PC Magazine.

From what I have read thus far, the reviews are generally great. Of course there is the mention of what the iPad lacks – namely flash support and multi-tasking capability as well as a few gripes that Apple didn’t bother to toss in a pair of earbuds.

What I was particularly interested in was what is being said about the iPad as an ebook reader. PC Mag was very impressed. The fact that illustrations are shown in color and that page turns actually look like actual pages turning. If you have an iPod Touch or iPhone with the Stanza reader app downloaded, you will know that this is nothing new, but I’m betting it looks a bit more impressive on the big screen.

The Search function in iBooks allows you to type in a part of the book that you would like to read again (any phase or group of words you remember) and you are taken that particular place in the book.  You can also use the Search to look up things in Google and Wikipedia while reading which sounds pretty great.   It was also mentioned that you can dim the screen to adjust the brightness while reading.  Again, this is a feature that the iPod Touch and iPhone has already.

You can go directly to the iBook store by tapping the “Store” button on the top left of the screen and the virtual bookshelf swings into view. As we were told earlier, the book prices range from $9.99 to .$12.99. You can read a brief summary of a book by tapping on the cover.

The general public should begin to receive their iPads this weekend. It is going to be interesting to see if people become so impressed with the iPad’s ebook reading capability that they will forget all about purchasing a dedicated ebook reader such as the Kindle or Nook.  Keep in mind that the iPad does not have an e-ink screen so it remains to be seen if that will become the breaking point.  Are people willing to put up with eye strain in favor of the color screen?

What do you think? Is the iPad about to become the “Kindle Killer” as many have predicted?  Will those who have been sitting on the fence going to drop over on the Apple side and forget about the ereaders all together?

ViewSonic, well known for producing computer monitors, entered the ebook reader game late last year with the VEB12 ereader.  The design of the ViewSonic reader is relatively nice and fresh however the attached $210 price tag is not be justified.  Read on to find out why.

Dressed in a white leatherette cover with a magnetic flap closure, the 5 by 8 inch,  6.5 ounce device is certainly sized right for easy holding and portability.  It sports a 6 inch e-ink technology screen with a 800 x 600 pixel resolution so that text, images and graphics are sharp and clear. The VEB612 is only capable of showing 8 greyscale levels when rendering photos and graphics while most of its rivals can display 16 shades of gray.

The Viewsonic VEB612 supports a limited number of file formats: PDF, TXT, ePub, HTML and PRC. There is also a rather limited 512MB of memory on board although you can increase this using the provided SD card slot.  There is no WiFi or mobile data support on this device.

The battery life gives the user 8,000 page turns before needing a charge or about two weeks of usage which is good.  There is an built-in MP3 player provided although many users have reported that playing music slows down the device and that sometimes portions of the tracks skip, making it difficult and pointless to use.

It has also been determined that the Viewsonic VEB612 fails quite miserably when it comes to its software.  It struggles to render PDF files correctly, boggling the format by not being able to display graphics and diagrams and it often uses the incorrect font size. It also sometimes fails to add the icon for the folded page when the user bookmarks a page, regardless of the fact that the mark shows on the bookmark list.

In conclusion, in spite of its nice looks and good screen, the Viewsonic VEB612 is simply not worth the price asked. There are many,  much more capable and bug-free ebook readers on the market that are better.

Global eReading service Kobo, Inc has partnered up with Borders  to sell the new Kobo ebook reader for $150. Considering the fact that the average ereader on the market costs nearly twice that much, this device is worth taking a close look at.

In this deal, Borders will offer a Kobo powered ebook store integrated into the Borders.com website.  The Kobo eReader will begin to go on sale this coming summer at Borders Bookstores in the United States.  Even though the iPad features a colored screen, Wi-Fi connectivity, a multi-touch screen and a gigantic app store and has the publishing industry backing it, some people out there still want just a good basic ebook reader that costs far less than the Apple tablet or even the Kindle and Nook.   It sure seems that today’s top ebook reader manufacturers will have to make some significant price cuts soon if they expect to compete with the likes of the Kobo which is very good looking and low cost ebook reader.

The Kobo is in fact, a better looking ereader than many out there right now. It features a sleek, white frame and a nice quilted nylon back.  But what is very appealing is the user interface on the Kobo. It has a ‘virtual bookshelf’ look that is very much like the iBooks store and what the iPad features.  The Kobo also offers several skins for the case so you can dress up the reader in a number of colors and styles.

The specs are so-so. It does have Bluetooth capabilities for connecting wirelessly but no 3G nor Wi-Fi. (not that it is necessary anyway)  It has the standard, 6-inch e-ink display screen we’ve come to expect which is great. It has 1 GB of internal storage for holding around 1,000 books but if you need more, you can expand it up to 4GB which is also very good. It also supports PDF, EPUB and Adobe DRM and there are five font sizes to choose from on the Kobo.

The Kobo Ebook reader is priced nicely, does not look cheap and it may sell well. Those consumers who have been holding out for a good, low priced ebook reader may find this to be a guilt-free impulse buy this year.