E-Reader Madness: The Nook, The Que, The Alex

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E-Reader Madness: The Nook, The Que, The Alex

A busy day in e-reader announcements. Some highlights:

—Barnes & Noble: Barnes & Noble event is hosting an event in NYC Tuesday—and the bookstore chain is expected to unveil its first e-reader there. Some additional details on the device, from a WSJ report: It’s priced at $259, will feature a color screen, and has been coined the Nook. There’s also speculation that the device will allow users to lend e-books to each other.

—Plastic Logic: Plastic Logic says it will officially show off its e-reader, which it is now calling the QUE, at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. The startup says it will differentiate the device by focusing on the “lifestyle of the modern businessperson.” So, the QUE will feature “powerful tools for interacting with and managing ... content,” including PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents.

—Spring Design: And then there’s Alex, which could end up being the first Android-based e-reader. Spring Design says the device (pictured above) will have two screens—one where users will read texts and a second one below which could be used to access internet content linked to in the main text. The company says it is talking to “major content partners” and plans to release the device by the end of the year.

Not e-readered out yet? For our complete coverage, see our archives for eReaders.

Joseph Tartakoff

@josephtartakoff Oct 19, 2009 9:00 PM ET

Posted In: Media & Publishing, Books, eReaders

latest headlines

Danny bloom

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=kindle

New definition of TO KINDLE as a verb here at Urban Dictionary

Danny bloom

ed dunn, at another thread here, said to me:

"Danny, If you live in Taiwan, you are very near the source.

You should be able to sniff around and see the uptick in private label e-reader tablets ramping up reducing these things to commodities up in Tawain.

It is becoming apparent to me these e-readers will move away from tech firms and will be run more by publishers who will want to distribute multiple content on their own hardware with subscription…watch and see… "
—ed dunn

Danny bloom

hi ed dunn,

Yes, i do live just down the street from PVI who make 90 percent of the e-screaders for Amazon, etc, they now own E-Ink from Boston, and Scott Liu, the CEO, is on my list of future interview "gets"—if I can get in the door there at Prime View International. They are very secretive, I have discovered. The PR people kind of pushed me away when I inquired about a possible interview. I don't know the future, but yes, Taiwan is a big player now in the e-book industry. I am more concerned right now with trying to find a new word for reading on screens, since I am sure it is NOT reading per se. Any ideas or suggestions, ed?

see my bloggy ruminations here:

The Hogwash Statement:
composed on a Mac screen by Danny Bloom
Webpasted: October 31, 2009

The point of all this is not so much to coin a new word—God knows
there are enough neologisms already, the reading field surely doesn't
need a new word for "reading" if "reading" is fine for "reading on a
computer screen"—and for all that I care, the new word could be
"hogwash", as in "I'm hogwashing 'Moby Dick' on my Kindle tonight"—
so the real point of my public crusade/campaign to search for a new
word (if needed, and if useful!) is to point out the need for scholars
and scientists to study the very real differences between reading on
paper and reading on screens, and not just with learned opinions and
surveys, but with hard science—that is to
say, MRI brain scan studies in laboratory settings and hospital rooms
to study—firsthand! up close and personal!—white matter and grey
matter neural pathways and try to ascertain if reading on paper
surfaces lights up different parts of the brain compared to reading on
a screen.

That is all this campaign is about. I don't care to coin a
new name for reading on screens. I am not a name coiner. I have no
interest in coining a new word for screen-reading. If a new word or term
does come to us, great. If not, that's okay, too. All I want to do
is to egg scientists and
neuro-scientists on to study these issues with MRI scan tissues. Then we will
really know what the differences between paper reading and screen
reading really mean.

Question: Why am I so concerned and seemingly obsessed about this? I
worry about the future of human civilization! If screen-reading turns
out to be a bit inferior to paper reading—in terms of which parts
of the brain light up for things like processing info, retention,
analysis, critical thinking, empathy, digesting, internalizing,
understanding, etc—then we need to know this.

That's my hunch. That's all I want to know. Let the brain scans begin!

http://zippy1300.blogspot.com/2009/10/hogwash-statement-by-danny-bloom.html

ed dunn

If you live in Tawain, you are hardly in the cave, in fact you are very near the source.

You should be able to sniff around and see the uptick in private label e-reader tablets ramping up reducing these things to commodities up in Tawain.

It is becoming apparent to me these e-readers will move away from tech firms and will be run more by publishers who will want to distribute multiple content on their own hardware with subscription…watch and see…

danny bloom

It does seem that this reefer madness, er, nookie madness, er, e-screener madness, er, e-screader madness, is getting out of "hand". Vook, Mook, Nook. Alex. Cheryl. Antonia. Marge. Billy.

A little nookie anyone? Where does this end?

And where is TS Eliot when we need him?

But hey, the digital revolution cannot be stopped and all the big guns are going to come out soon to play. Fun!

Press releases beget press releases! Meanwhile, the New York Times announces today that 100 newsroom jobs will be cut this year. Goodbye Mr Paper, Hello Nookie!

I say: "Ouch!" But then again, I live ien a cave in Taiwan and nobody cares what I have to say on this….