FLEx Lighting has created an illuminated optical film that may eliminate the need for reading lights with e-ink readers (amongst other applications).  The 50 micron film is flexible, edgeless, and invisible when turned off and produces a soft, low uniform light when on using a single low power consuming LED .  It can be implemented either as a back-light or a front-light and integrates with touchscreens.

No more heavy lighted covers or external lights in the future?

Check it out at FLEx Lighting

Filed in categories: eBook Readers and Gear, News

Tagged: ebook, eBook reader, LED Light

FLEx Lighting Illuminated Optical Film – A Bright e-Reader Addition originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 15, 2011 at 12:00 pm.

Kyobo Book Centre, Korea’s largest seller of books, has announced the retail availability of the world’s first e-reader to include mirasol® display technology.

The touch enabled Kyobo e-Reader features a 5.7″ XGA format (1024 x 768 pixels) mirasol display (screen resolution of 223 ppi) and Qualcomm’s 1.0 GHz Snapdragon™ S2 class processor and runs a custom interface on top of Android 2.3 .

mirasol  uses the ambient light in the environment to generate color as compared to the  films, polarizers and many layers of materials used in standard display technologies on the market today. A mirasol display uses near-zero battery power to maintain a static image and needs no backlighting resulting in much longer battery life with low power consumption. Using reflective mirrored surfaces, they’re easier to see in bright/outdoor conditions because they reflect light out and are useable in direct sunlight without glare or washout like “traditional” colour LCD screens.

Currently only available in bookshops in South Korea for KRW349,000 (approx US$310).

Anyone know of a good South Korean forward-shipping service ??

Filed in categories: Android related, eBook Readers and Gear, News, Tablet Computers and Gear

Tagged: eBook reader

Kyobo Colour eReader – Move over Kindle, Nook and Kobo! originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 23, 2011 at 1:00 pm.

Not long ago, Amazon made it possible for you to borrow books from participating libraries, and now they’ve introduced the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.  To participate, you must be an Amazon Prime member, and it appears you must own an actual Kindle.  There are 5000 titles available now, including 100 current and former New York Times best sellers.  You can borrow up to 1 book a month and keep it as long as you’d like.  The lending library link, above, has details for borrowing books.

Filed in categories: eBook Readers and Gear, News

Tagged: borrowing books, eBook reader, Kindle

Amazon Introduces the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 3, 2011 at 7:23 am.

Every year I’ve been writing for The Gadgeteer, I’ve reviewed the newest Sony ebook reader.  I admit I have moved on to reading mostly on my iPad 2, and I did just buy a Kindle, but I couldn’t let the new Sony reader pass without giving it a look.  For many years, starting with the PRS-500, my Sony readers were my most beloved gadgets.  I loved the sleek, strong metal chassis.  I loved being able to store dozens of books in memory, and I didn’t mind at all that I had to connect my Sony to my computer to get new books.  I felt the design of the readers was perfect; after all, Sony was a hardware company invested in producing good hardware.  (Amazon was a bookseller invested in selling books…)  When I heard that Sony had switched to a plastic chassis and had added Wi-Fi access, I knew I had to give the new reader a look.  I ordered my Sony Reader Wi-Fi (PRS-T1) and hoped that I wouldn’t be disappointed in what I’d receive.

Specifications

• Reader Wi-Fi
• Stylus pen
• USB cable
• Quick start guide, Warranty, Audio safety tips, Important product information

Please excuse my tilted pictures.  As you can see, the Sony reader has a rounded bottom.  I haven’t found any workable method to keep the reader straight while I photograph it.

The Sony Reader Wi-Fi (I’m going to follow my tradition of the ages and call it the PRS-T1) now has a plastic body, but it looks similar to the previous PRS-650 model.  It measures about 6.76″ long X 4.25″ wide X 3/8″ thick.  It weighs 5.7 ounces on my digital kitchen scale.  The reader is sturdy, and it passed Julie’s patented Creak Test with flying colors.

The PRS-T1 is available in red, black, or white.  Normally I’m all about the red gadgets, but I found that I wanted the white for a change. The plastic is shiny and slick.

The screen is the same 6″ eInk Pearl screen used in the PRS-650 (and the Kindle that Julie and I recently reviewed).  Images on the screen are sharp and clear.  You can see an amazing amount of detail in the photos that display as screensavers.  Text is very clear, too.  The PRS-T1 has a touchscreen, but it uses an IR grid overlay on the Pearl screen.  Since IR energy is invisible to the human eye, you don’t see any glare or other degradation of screen clarity because of the touch layer.

This IR grid is neither resistive nor capacitive, but it is as responsive as the iPad 2′s capacitive screen.  The lightest touch is sufficient to turn a page or enter data on the keyboard.  Although your finger works perfectly well with the screen, Sony included a stylus for more precise control when you are entering handwritten notes or drawing.  This is a big stylus; it’s about 4.75″ long with a circumference of about 5/8″ inches.  There’s no silo on the reader to store this stylus, but it does have a clip that can hook over a cover, if you use one.  This stylus is much easier to hold than the tiny little things that came with the previous versions of the Sony reader.  I didn’t get cramps in my hands because it’s big enough that I don’t feel I’m pinching a toothpick between my fingers.

Unlike the Kindle, you have complete control over the screensaver, by the way.  You can load up any images you like onto the PRS-T1, or you can turn off screensavers completely.  I used the PRS-T1′s handwritten note feature  to write my name and phone number, saved it as an image within the note function, and used that image as a screen saver.  If I lose my reader, the (hopefully honest) person who finds it can call me.

Even though the PRS-T1 has a touchscreen, there are a few physical buttons on the front of the reader.  From the left, they are: page back, page forward, Home, back to previous location, and the options menu.  The panel above the buttons is metal and seems to be brushed aluminum.  The buttons are made of a silver-colored plastic.  They operate well.

The back of the white PRS-T1 is covered in a putty-colored rubber.  This covering improves your grip and makes the reader a little less likely to slide off a tabletop.  Click the above image, and you’ll be able to see the microSD card slot.  This is the first Sony reader I’ve used that uses the microSD card.  You can use up to a 32GB microSD card to hold extra books or music files.  Sony warns that performance speed and battery life may be degraded when a microSD card is in use.

The only other controls for the PRS-T1 are on the bottom.  From the left is the reset button (I was able to use a ballpoint pen tip to reset my reader!), the microUSB connector (used for charging and for syncing the reader with your computer), the headphone jack, and the power switch and status light.

I did try the headphone jack with the sample music that came with the reader.  The sound was good, but the audio player isn’t something I’ve ever been interested in.  At least they moved the volume controls to the touchscreen and removed them from the bottom of the reader.  I always found a way to bump the old volume rocker, and I swear that seemed to shorten my battery life.

Speaking of battery life, Sony still describes life as page turns.  They say you’ll get 14,000 continuous page turns when reading only.  They also now describe the battery life in time.  The battery charge lasts over a month reading for 30 minutes a day with wireless off or 3-4 weeks if the wireless is on.  I’ve had my reader for a while now, and I still have about 3/4 of the charge left, as shown on the battery indicator.  I leave WiFi on, by the way.

Sony doesn’t mention the type, but the battery is a rechargeable 3.7V DC battery.  It charges in about 2.5 hours from your computer’s USB port.  With the optional AC adapter, the reader charges in about 2 hours.

After you’ve opened up your reader and charged it, you’re ready to connect it to WiFi.  I had no trouble getting connected to my home network.  I selected my network from the list, entered the password and was connected in a few seconds.  After I was on the network, I was asked to log in to my Sony Reader Store (bookstore) account or create a new one.  I’ve had an account for many years, and I was able to log in without a hitch.  You can see the on-screen keyboard that’s used for all input with this reader.  It’s touch-responsive, so no scrolling around and selecting keys like on the Kindle.  The keyboard is very responsive, and it worked well with my finger or the stylus.

Once I logged in, I connected to the Sony bookstore.  Navigating the store from the reader is much like using the store through the computer-based application.  I can browse, search by various criteria, read book info and reviews, and purchase and download books.  I was able to see the several hundred books I’ve bought at Sony’s bookstore over the years.  I was able to quickly download a previously-purchased book to my reader, but I decided I’d connect to my computer to transfer most of them over in one easy step.  I could also purchase and download a book directly to my reader.  Sony has always had the policy that you can redownload books you’ve purchased, so I could either download the book to my computer application or have it synced over to the computer when I next connect my reader.

Reading was easy with the PRS-T1.  You can change the font size or the font type, but Sony warns that page turns and performance may be adversely affected by these changes.  Pages turn easily with a finger swipe on the screen.  Of course, the eInk screen is great in well-lighted areas and even outdoors in direct sunlight.  It doesn’t work so well in a dark room without a good source of light.

After it was pointed out to me, I finally noticed that the Kindle I recently reviewed with Julie doesn’t do the flash-to-black page change after every page.  You’ll get 4 or 5 pages where just the text changes, then you’ll get a black page change with the Kindle.  The Sony PRS-T1 doesn’t do that.  It goes to black for every single page change I’ve noticed.

The PRS-T1 remembers where you left off reading, but you can make other bookmarks by touching the upper right corner to “dogear” the page.  You can even leave a note with the bookmark to remind you why you marked the page.  You can highlight text, and you can leave handwritten or typed notes with the highlights.  You can even handwrite a note directly over the page.  You’ll be able to search for your notes within a book.  You can also search for a keyword or phrase within a book.

There are eleven dictionaries stored in the PRS-T1, and you choose one to be the default dictionary used when you look up a word by tapping it while reading a book.  The dictionaries include the New Oxford American Dictionary, the Oxford Dictionary of English, and 9 bilingual dictionaries.  You cannot add additional dictionaries to the reader.  You can also access the selected dictionary directly from the home page and enter words for lookup or browse, just as you can with a paper dictionary.

There are actually two pages of options in Home.  Before we discuss them, I’ll mention my biggest quibble with the reader.  You always swipe the screen to turn pages – everywhere but in the menus.  There are buttons at the bottom of the home and some menu pages that you have to tap to change pages.  I don’t know why these pages can’t follow the normal protocols.

The first home page shows the last book you were reading at the top.  Touch the book’s cover to open up the book and return to the place where you left off reading.  The next row shows the three books most recently added to your reader; the New badge indicates that you haven’t opened these books yet.  Other buttons let you see a complete listing of all the books you have on the reader, the periodicals (magazines and newspapers which are purchased from the Reader Store) on your reader, and the collections (book categories which can be created and populated either in the reader or on your computer using the Reader application).  You can also open up the Reader Store for shopping or downloading.

The second page is where you’ll be able to access your music files or your pictures.  This is where you find the setup options for the reader.  You can also connect to the public library through the Overdrive Media console to checkout and download books, get Google books, or go straight to a list of all your purchased content at the Reader Store.

There’s also an internet browser;  it’s slightly better than the one on the Kindle, but it won’t win any speed prizes.  The images are clear enough, and you can use the pinch gestures to zoom in or out for a better view.  You actually use this (indirectly) when you checkout library books, so it’s not completely useless.  I’ll have to be desperate before I’ll just surf the internet with this browser, though.

Checking out books is easy, albeit a bit slow.  You’ll go to your library through the Overdrive Media Console and log in with your library card number.  You’ll be able to search for books and check them out easily enough, then you’ll have to download them with the Overdrive download option.  Once they’re downloaded (directly) onto your reader, they’ll appear and act just as any other book – you can search, take notes, highlight, bookmark, etc.  They’ll have a little time-left counter beside them in the book list so you’ll know how long you have left before the book automatically checks itself in.  You can also turn it in manually if you finish it before your time period is up.  As a note, you can search for a book within the complete book list, and you can sort books by title, author, date, etc.

List of notes I've made inside my books.

A list of all the handwritten notes (outside of books)

A handwritten note saved as an image and used as my ID page. (Phone number is scribbled out in this picture.)

I’ve already mentioned the notes – both typed and handwritten – you can add within books.  You can use the All Notes option on the 2nd Home page to see all the notes you’ve created within the books on your reader.  You can search within this list to find the note of interest, then tap it and jump directly to it within its book.  You can also leave notes to yourself outside of your books.  They can be handwritten (or drawn) or typed.

The question that everybody wants answered is “how does it handle PDFs?”  The PRS-T1 does work with PDF files.  The first picture shows how it looks with standard settings.  If you use the pinch gestures to zoom in on the PDF, you won’t be able to read it because it will be grainy and choppy.  If you use the font size adjustment, you can resize the font and the text will be very legible.  Reflow will cause a page numbering artifact – multiple pages will show the same number until you have paged through all the information on that original page.  Reflow doesn’t always handle the images properly, though.  The third image is all I could see of the original illustration.  I did find that I could pinch-zoom in on the image in the original format to see more details, but the images did get fuzzier as I zoomed in.  Also, I noticed that page turns were slower with this PDF file that with the ePub files.

To indicate how much internal storage the PRS-T1 has, I have 494 books, 4 images, and 2 audio files, and various notes on my reader and I still have more than 65% of the 1.4GB internal storage free.  I won’t have to worry about putting books on a microSD card, so I won’t have to worry about the card usage reducing the reader’s performance and battery life.

Apparently Sony has replaced their three previous models with the Reader Wi-Fi (PRS-T1), because it’s the only reader I see on their site.  I think this is a really good reader and combines portability of the previous PRS-350 and PRS-650 models with the Wi-Fi connectivity of the PRS-950.  I think the reader is a good size, but it would be a little easier to hold in a case.  It also needs a light source for reading in a dark room.  (Read my review of Sony’s lighted case for the PRS-T1.)   Sony has made changes – plastic chassis instead of metal – to help bring the price in line with other eBook readers, but I don’t think they’ve compromised the quality of the reader.

I like the Sony PRS-T1 Reader Wi-Fi and I find myself reading on it a lot lately.  (I passed the Kindle along to my husband.)  It’s much easier to hold for long periods than my iPad 2 is, and it doesn’t have other apps that lure me away from my book.  If you’re looking for a good eBook reader with a clear screen, the ability to check out and read library books, and a screen you can read in bright sunlight, you can’t go wrong with the Sony PRS-T1 Reader Wi-Fi.

Filed in categories: eBook Readers and Gear, Reviews

Tagged: eBook reader

Sony Reader Wi-Fi (PRS-T1) eBook Reader Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 28, 2011 at 7:00 am.

Amazon is offering a special version of their current Kindle for $114.00 – $25 off the normal price.  To get the discounted price, this version of the Kindle displays advertising on special screensavers and on a bar at the bottom of the home page.  Amazon says this advertising doesn’t interfere with reading, and they even have a special application that lets you vote on the screensavers you’d like to see on this Kindle.  The offers will help you save more money, like a $20 Amazon gift card for $10 or 6 Audible audio books for $6.  The Kindle with special offers will be released on May 3, and you can pre-order at Amazon now.

Filed in categories: eBook Readers and Gear, News

Tagged: eBook reader, Kindle

Amazon Offers the Kindle for $114.00 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 11, 2011 at 10:34 pm.

Seems like everybody is selling little tablets now – even Walgreens is stocking them in their online store (not sold in brick & mortar stores).  The Maylong 7″ M-150 tablet has an ARM9 (VM8505+) cpu with 256MB DDR memory and an SD/MMC slot for adding additional storage.  It runs Google’s Android OS (but doesn’t specify the version), and has WiFi (802.11b/g) access.  It comes with a dongle for RJ-45 network and USB connection.  The 7″ LCD screen has 800X480 resolution and a resistive touch panel.  Software included: digital music player, video player, digital picture viewer, and ebook reader.  You can download and install custom Google Android applications and games.  The Maylong M-150 tablet comes with a rechargeable lithium-polymer battery, an AC adapter, stylus, and the network/USB dongle.  Walgreens (in the US) is selling the Maylong M-150 for $129.99.

Filed in categories: Android related, News

Tagged: Android tablet, eBook reader

Maylong 7″ M-150 WiFi Middie Universe Tablet Powered by Android originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 1, 2010 at 9:00 am.

The NextBook Next2 isn’t just an eBook reader, it’s also a tablet. Powered by Android OS 1.5, this little guy has a 600 MHz processor, 7″ 800 x 480 resistive touch screen, 2GB internal memory and an SD card slot for expansion. The Next2 ships with 25 free books already installed, but using built-in WiFi, you can surf the Borders store directly on the device, to buy and download books. They also allude to the fact that you can install apps, but I’m unsure if this device has access to the full app market or a subset. The NextBook Next2 will be available on the HSN in November, with a MSRP of $199.99. Lack of a capacitive touch screen and the latest version of Android leave me a little cold… I’ll keep using my Droid X as my eBook reader for the time being.

Filed in categories: Android related, eBook Readers and Gear, News

Tagged: Android, eBook reader, Spotlight Gadgets

Borders get another eBook Reader – NextBook Next2 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 28, 2010 at 3:17 pm.

QVC is offering the PanDigital Novel as their “Today’s Special Value” for 10/23/2010.  The offering price seems to be the normal price for the Novel, but it does come with a 2GB MicroSD card with SD adapter and two gel skins.  You get your choice of a black and a purple gel skin, or a black and a green gel skin.  Read the recent Gadgeteer review of the PanDigital Novel to determine if this is the eBook reader for you or someone on your gift list.  QVC is offering the PanDigital Novel bundle for $179.95 today only.

Filed in categories: eBook Readers and Gear, Gear

Tagged: eBook reader, PanDigital Novel

PanDigital Novel eBook Reader Bundle originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 23, 2010 at 10:04 am.

Today Amazon announced a new sleeker, lighter and less expensive version of their popular eBook Reader. The new Kindle is priced at a very affordable $139 and is available in White or Graphite. Besides the obvious physical changes, the display is supposed to have 50% better contrast that previous versions, battery life is supposed to last an impressive length of time – one month! What’s missing to make the price so cheap? 3G connectivity. This new $139 version only offers WiFi. No word on availability yet. I don’t even see this new model posted on Amazon’s site.

[Via msnbs.com]

Filed in categories: eBook Readers and Gear, News

Tagged: eBook reader, Kindle, Spotlight Gadgets

Amazon Announces Third Generation Kindle for $139 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 28, 2010 at 9:24 pm.

Coming soon from Pandigital is the Novel multimedia ebook reader using the Android operating system.  The Novel has a 7″ color touch screen, built-in dictionary, adjustable font size, virtual keyboard, and bookmarking.  With a WiFi connection, you can surf the internet and use email.  There are music and video players, a picture viewer, games, calendar, and alarm clock.  You can read ePub and PDF files, and you can buy books wirelessly from the Barnes and Noble ebookstore.  Pandigital says the Novel should sell for about $200 at major retailers beginning this month.

Filed in categories: Android related, eBook Readers and Gear, News

Tagged: Android, eBook reader

Pandigital Novel eBook Reader originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 19, 2010 at 10:00 am.

Lexcycle released a new version of their Stanza reader that is optimized for iPad over the weekend.  (Actually, there is a single app that works for iPhone/iPod touch/iPad.)  The new version not only takes full advantage of the larger iPad screen, it has also added support for PDF, DjVu, and Comic Book Archive (CBR and CBZ) files in addition to the ePub and eReader files it already supported.  You can even drag files from iTunes and drop them into the “File Sharing” section of the “Apps” tab on your device.  Stanza is free in iTunes now.

Filed in categories: iPhone, iPad, iPod related, News

Tagged: eBook reader, iPad app

Stanza eBook Reader for iPad is Available originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 7, 2010 at 9:00 am.

Sony Pocket Edition reader in optional premium cover

In September, 2009, I posted a review of the new Sony Touch Edition reader (PRS-600).  That reader has a touch screen, dictionary, note-taking abilities, and it retails for $299.99.  It’s a fabulous reader, but it does have a problem with screen glare.  It’s also expensive and has some features that many people don’t want to pay for.  At the same time the Touch Edition reader was released, Sony also introduced the Pocket Edition reader (PRS-300).  At $199.99, it’s Sony’s least expensive reader.  The Pocket Edition is the smallest reader offered by Sony, and some people may consider it a stripped down, entry-level reader.  Other people may consider it the reader they’ve been looking for.  Let’s give it a closer look.

What’s in the box:
Sony Pocket Edition reader
USB sync/charging cable
Padded sleeve
Quick start guide

Specifications:
5-inch (diagonal) Vizplex ™ E-ink® screen
Dimensions: 6.25 X 4.25 X 0.41 inches
Weight: 7.76 oz
Memory: 512 MB, with 440 MB user-accessible
8-levels gray-scale with 800 X 600 pixel resolution
Rechargeable lithium-ion battery
Media formats supported: ePub (Adobe DRM protected), PDF (Adobe DRM protected), BBeB Book (PRS DRM protected), ePub, BBeB Book, PDF, TXT, RTF, Microsoft Word (conversion to the Reader requires Word installed on your PC)
Connectivity: USB for file transfer from PC
Power: charge with USB cable (supplied) or optional AC adapter
Works on both Windows and Mac computers

There is no installation disk with the reader; installation files are on the reader itself and should be installed when you connect your reader the first time.  I was already running the latest version of the Sony Reader Library software, and I was able to load up books as soon as the device driver installed on my computer (64-bit Windows Vista Home Premium).

The Pocket reader, like the 600, is missing a cover.  Sony provided a spongy sleeve for the reader, but it doesn’t seem very protective to me.  The top is open, to slide the reader in, and there is no way to close the sleeve.  The foam padding isn’t very dense, and I worry that this sleeve won’t provide enough protection if you have the reader in your purse or gear bag.  

The body of the Pocket reader appears to be aluminum.  It is available in silver, navy blue, and rose.  The cost-cutting measure that I think is most noticeable is the lack of the chrome-colored accents.  The top/bottom/right edge of the reader is made of plastic, and the color coordinates with – but doesn’t match – the body color.  I think that’s a little chintzy, but it’s certainly no deal breaker.  The back of the reader has a slightly rubbery feel, apparently to give you a better grip on the naked reader.  The small form makes the Pocket Edition surprisingly easy to hold.  My thumb can easily reach the page advance button, so one-handed reading would be a snap.  I prefer using a book-style cover on my readers, so I purchased the optional Sony premium cover.  You can see it on the reader in the top picture.  And yes, you can bend the premium cover all the way back for one-handed reading, but that does make it a bit harder for my thumb to reach the page turn button.  People with longer fingers shouldn’t have a problem.

(left to right) Cover attachment point, charging light, power slider. Note there are no expansion slots.

The most significant differences between the Pocket Edition and the Sony 600, 505, and 500 models are in the things that have been removed.  The Pocket Edition doesn’t have any expansion card slots, it doesn’t have an mp3 player, and it doesn’t support image files.  None of those things present a problem for me.  The internal memory is sufficient to hold hundreds of books, certainly enough to keep me happy until I can get to my computer to add more.  (The Pocket Edition doesn’t have wireless access.)  It doesn’t display image files, but you’ve got to admit that 8-level gray scale isn’t the best way to show off your photos.  And as for the missing mp3 player?  I never wanted one of those in any of my Sony readers anyway.  I hated having to pay the extra cost for something I’d never use, and I hated having to worry about accidentally hitting the volume rocker.  It may have been my imagination, but I felt that messing with the volume rocker shortened my battery life.

(left to right) Cover attachment point, lanyard attachment, mini USB jack, AC adapter, reset button

Speaking of the battery, the Pocket Edition has a rechargeable lithium-ion battery.  Sony provides a USB cable that is used for syncing and charging your reader.  I recommend that you get yourself an AC adapter.  Not only does the AC adapter charge faster, but many people feel that it provides a better, fuller charge – especially when the battery has been completely drained.  You can buy the $30 official AC charger for Sony Digital Books, or you can pick up a charger for the Sony PSP – it works fine.  Apparently the AC adapters with USB cables don’t work for Sony readers, as reported by many readers on the MobileRead forums.

Sony still reports battery life as “page turns”.  This is misleading.  Most power consumption occurs when the page “turns”, but the battery does continually drain while the reader is on or in standby.  The power switch simply puts the reader in standby – clears the screen and disables all buttons but the power slider.  You can extend battery life with the device shutdown option in settings.  I never shutdown my readers, and I’ve gotten 2-3 weeks, reading 3-4 hours a day, with every Sony reader I’ve owned.  I’ve only played around with the Pocket Edition reader for a couple of days, but I’d be surprised if the battery didn’t last just as long.

Sony Pocket Edition (left), Sony PRS-600 Touch Edition (right). Click to enlarge.

The Pocket Edition reader doesn’t have a touch screen.  When compared to the Touch Edition reader, the Pocket reader screen doesn’t have any glare.  Its screen also has higher contrast, which many people will find easier to read.  However, no touch screen means that there is no dictionary lookup and no note-taking abilities.

Click to enlarge.

No touch screen also means the Pocket Edition has control buttons.  The number rockers along the right side of the screen have a couple of functions.  They are used to select options in menu screens, and they are used to enter a page number to navigate to while reading a book.  The rest of the control buttons are below the screen.  There is a “home” button that returns you directly to the home menu – something neither the 505 nor the 500 readers had.  There is a back button to take you to the previous level. The button showing a book with a dog-eared page creates/removes a bookmark.  The magnifying glass button changes font size.  The Pocket Edition has three font sizes, small/medium/large, and this button toggles through the sizes.

The center navigation button has the enter button in the center; use it to select the highlighted menu option.  The outer ring has the up/down/page back/page forward buttons.  The up/down buttons move the cursor in the menus.

The Pocket Edition has a faster processor than previous models.  Page changes are noticeably faster than on my old 505, and I noticed that it seems to respond quicker when I’m loading up books from the Sony Reader Library software.

The Sony Reader Library software allows you to drag-and-drop books on the Pocket Edition reader.  You can organize books on your reader with “collections”.  Collections are like folders, but no sub-folders are allowed.  They are virtual, so you need only a single copy of the book, but it can be in multiple collections.

The 300 reader handles all the same formats as its bigger siblings.  In the picture with the 600 (above), both readers are using their medium font to display the same page from a text-only PDF file.  Naturally, the Pocket’s screen is smaller, so it can’t display quite as much of the page as the 600.  Both readers can reflow PDF files, but the Pocket edition has no pan-and-scan option like the 600 does.  The Pocket Edition also has the same page-numbering quirk – showing the same page number until all the text from that page has been displayed.  I have included some pictures showing how the Pocket reader handles PDF files with images.  The entire page is displayed when the small font is chosen.  You can see the page layout, and you can see small versions of images on the page.  When you move to medium and large fonts, it’s much easier to read the text, but the images don’t display properly – or at all.  (Click on the following pictures for more detail.)

PDF with small font.

PDF with medium font.

PDF with large font.

You can also read ePub files (with Adobe DRM, or DRM-free), the proprietary Sony BBeB format, and a variety of other formats listed in the specifications above.  You can buy books from the Sony ebook store, but you are not limited to it.  You can use books from Project Gutenberg, Google Books, and you can check out ebooks from libraries.  The Sony Reader Library software can help you locate local libraries that offer ebooks.

The Sony Pocket Edition is a simple ebook reader and the price positions it as an entry-level reader, but it doesn’t seem to be missing anything important.  The sharp, clear eInk screen lets you read for hours without the eyestrain you can get from backlighted LCD screens.  The compact form makes it easy to hold and easy to fit in your gear bag, purse, or even a pocket.  The controls are easy to reach and simple to use.  It’s a great ebook reader for a child, and it’s an equally great reader for adults who want a small format and don’t need a lot of bells and whistles.

Filed in categories: eBook Readers and Gear, Reviews

Tagged: eBook reader, PRS-300 Pocket Edition, Sony

Sony Pocket Edition Reader Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 9, 2010 at 8:17 am.

The Cyberus ebook reader from Sungale offers a 7″ LCD touch screen with 800 X 480 pixels resolution.  In addition to letting you read ebooks (TXT and PDF), you can also use the Cyberus to display and download pictures from Picasa,  read RSS feeds from Yahoo and Google, listen to IP radio, access your Gmail account, YouTube, stock market information, and weather information.  The Cyberus has a calendar, clock, and alarm functions, an American English dictionary, and you can even get navigation information.  The Cyberus can connect through the provided USB cable or through WiFi.  It has a rechargeable battery that provides three hours of battery life.  It’s $249.99 from online dealers, like NewEgg and Amazon.com.

Filed in categories: eBook Readers and Gear, News

Tagged: eBook reader, Internet Radio, Spotlight Gadgets

Sungale Cyberus Ebook Reader / Multimedia Player originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 12, 2010 at 8:47 am.

JAVOedge of Seattle, WA has just announced several Barnes & Noble nook eBook reader cases that are available for sale. The sleeve case that you see in the image above is their Croc sleeve which is made of leather and embossed to resemble crocodile skin. They are also offering oak and ash hardwood style sleeves that are made of synthetic materials.  These cases are priced from $9.99 – $19.95 and are currently selling on Amazon.

Filed in categories: eBook Readers and Gear, News

Tagged: eBook reader, nook, Spotlight Gadgets

Third Party Barnes & Noble nook eBook Reader Accessories Start Appearing originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 23, 2009 at 10:50 am.

The era of the eBook reader is now upon us. Two years ago the Sony PRS-500 eBook Reader came out to little attention. At that time, a lot of people said that eBooks would never catch on. When Amazon released their first generation Kindle, people showed more interest, but not enough to contradict the eBook naysayers. A year and a half later the Kindle 2 was announced and I could tell that the tides were starting to shift. Add another 8 months and it seems that a week doesn’t go by without a new eBook reader being announced. One of the most anticipated readers this year (other than the Kindle 2) has been the Barnes & Noble nook. Is it a winner or a dud? Let’s take a look.

Just a note that a lot of the images in this review can be clicked to see larger versions.

The nook arrived later than promised in a pretty but wasteful package, which I’ve already complained about in my first impressions of the nook posting.

Hardware Specifications

OS: Android
Compatible formats: ePub, PDB, PDF, JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP, MP3
Display: 6 inch diagonal E ink Vizplex electronic paper display and a 3.5 inch color touchscreen LCD
Storage: 2GB (approximately 1500 eBooks)
Expansion: MicroSD card
Wireless: AT&T 3G network, Wi-Fi ( 802.11 b/g)
Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.9 x 0.5 inches
Weight: 11.2 ounces (317 grams)

Package Contents

nook
USB cable
AC adapter
Quick start guide

I’m going to warn you now that this review of the nook is going to be heavy with comparisons to the Kindle 2.

As you can see in the image above (nook on the left, Kindle on the right), both eReaders look pretty similar to each other. The plastic bezel around the nook’s display is close to the same color as the Kindle’s case. The nook even displays author photographs as screen savers like the Kindle. If you don’t care for the author’s photos, you can choose nature scenes or city scapes.

The nook is slightly smaller than the Kindle as far as width and length measurements. It’s obviously thicker though. In hand it feels comfortable but noticeably heavier than the Kindle. On my digital scale, the Kindle weighs in at 10.2 ounces and the nook weighs in at 12 ounces. The extra weight isn’t a bad though though. I think it gives the device a more luxurious feel.

The nook uses a micro USB cable for charging. Next to USB connector is an amber charging status LED and to the left of that is a 3.5mm earphone jack (there are no earphones included with the reader). On either side are the built in speakers.

Here’s another view of the thickness of both devices. If you click on the image, you can get a better look at the thin slot on the side (there’s one on the opposite side too) that I’m guessing this will be used for case holders.

There are also slots on the top and bottom of the shell that might be used for that purpose too. I have yet to purchase a case for the nook, so I’m just guessing.

The top of the nook has a narrow metal power button. Hold it for a few seconds to completely power off the reader, or press it once to wake up the reader.

The back of the nook has a flexible plastic cover that can be easily removed to gain access to the microSD slot and user changeable battery. The nook supports up to 16GB microSD or microSDHC cards. Class 2, 4, and 6 cards are also supported.

The removable lithium ion battery is rated at 1530mAh. You’ll also notice that the nook has an AT&T SIM card slot with an included SIM card. This is one reason why I have been looking forward to trying the nook. The Kindle uses Sprint for its wireless service and has never worked at my house, so I have to keep it turned off or it will drain the battery in one day. Although I don’t have AT&T 3G coverage, I have been able to use the nook’s wireless feature to browse the online store.

The nook lacks a physical keyboard and joystick in favor of a secondary 480 x 144 pixel touch screen beneath the 6 inch e-ink display. This touch screen is color and is used to interact with the reader. The “n” in the thick band that separates the e-ink display from the color touch screen is also touch enabled. It functions as a Home button to wake the nook when the touch screen has gone dark. Tapping it again will go back to the main list of icons that you see above.

I thought I’d love a touch screen on my eReader. Unfortunately, I pretty much hate it. If you’re hoping that the touch screen is as responsive and easy to use as the touchscreen on an iPhone or iPod touch, forget it. I have found that the nook’s touch screen is really ‘touchy’ and sluggish. I sometimes have to practically stab the “n” home button with my finger to get it to react. Scrolling through lists is slow and using the swipe gesture to turn pages while reading works about half the time.

There are five icons on the home screen that give you access to the daily, my library, shop, reading now and settings. To go to any of those items, you just tap the icon with your finger. Let’s look at each one.

The Daily is kind of like your what’s new bulletin board message center that is updated automatically every day. Included is a Grin & Tonic article that is a short humorous piece related to current events. Also included is Daybook, which can be a digest of reviews, an article of the day and this day in literature info. The Daily is also the place to go to see a list of books that have been offered to you for lending.

My Library should be pretty obvious, it’s where you go to see all the books, magazines, and newspapers stored on your nook. Purchased books can be viewed by a scrollable cover art as shown above.

You’ll notice that there’s no indicator as to how far along you are in the books stored on your device in the library list view. There’s also no way to manually sort the book list. It’s just one big flat list. By default, you only see the books that you’ve purchased. To see the content that you’ve added to the reader’s internal memory or any content stored on the MicroSD card, you have to use the View My Documents menu pick. That gives you another list. This is unlike the Kindle, where you can see one list of everything on your reader.

I do like the fact that there’s a clock in the right corner of most views. I’ve always wanted that on my Kindle.

When you click on a book cover or title to read, the touch screen gives you options for searching, font size, word look up and annotations.

The 6 inch diagonal 800 x 600 pixel E-ink Vizplex electronic paper display has 16 levels of greyscale and in my opinion is superior to the Kindle 2′s display. The background is slightly lighter and the text is slightly darker. You can switch between 5 different font sizes and two fonts: Amasis and Helvetica Neue. Switching between fonts is annoyingly slow as the entire document has to be reformatted. As an example, it took about 20 seconds to change from small to medium font size in the Lost Symbol Dan Brown book. From what I can tell, the time it takes to change fonts is dependent on the size of the book. When you change fonts on the Kindle 2, it’s pretty much instantaneous.

Turning pages is accomplished by the two sets of next and prev buttons on the edge of each side of the reader. You are also able to able to swipe the touch screen to turn pages. It’s not very easy to do as you have to swipe really fast. It seems easier to just use the buttons on the sides because you don’t need to move your hand to do so.

Like all e-ink devices, turning pages will cause the screen to blink in inverse (the background will be black and the text will be white) as the page is redrawn. Comparing the nook to my Kindle 2, turning pages is noticeably slower. It’s kind of odd, but I’ve noticed that the nook can turn some pages at a semi-normal speed and then the next page advance will be 2 times as slow as the previous page turn.

The nook can view PDF files as shown above. But, the PDF only looks good when the font is set to small. At that size the whole page can fill the screen.

But it’s too small to actually read (at least for my eyes). When you increase the font, the text wraps and looks horrible.

I updated the firmware on my Kindle 2 so it could view PDF files. The images above show a comparison between the nook and Kindle when viewing the same PDFs. You’ll also notice that you can rotate the Kindle’s display when viewing PDF files. That’s a nice feature!

Annotating books is something I don’t normally do, but it can be done using the touch screen keyboard. To access the feature, you first have to tap the “n” button. Then select Highlights and notes.

A navigation wheel will be displayed that is used to select the word or words that you want to annotate.

After you make your selection, you click the Add Highlight button.

Then use the touch screen keyboard to add your notes and press submit.

Annotations show up with an arrow next to them and a light grey background under the text. The only thing missing is an option to list all annotations for a book. Instead there is just an option to view the notes on the current page. Lame. Also, you can’t annotate PDF files.

Using the dictionary feature is similar to making an annotation. You use the same nav wheel to navigate to the word you want to look up and highlight it. Then you are given the word’s definition in a popup block.

Getting books on to your nook is pretty easy. You can save files to the nook’s internal memory by plugging the USB cable into your PC or Mac and dragging and dropping epub, pdfs and pdb (eReader) files. You can also copy files to a microSD card. I copied a bunch of old pdb files and epub files and did find that the nook wasn’t able to load every pdb file I threw at it. Some it would ask me for a username and password for some weird reason. This could be a big deal for people wanting to move a large collection of books from eReader to the nook.

You can also buy books, magazines and newspapers from the online shop that can be accessed right from the nook. I don’t live in an area with 3G coverage, so navigating the store is painfully slow. Using the wifi feature with my home wifi is MUCH MUCH faster and it’s really enjoyable to browse through books to find something new and interesting to read.

You can get a free sample selection of a book to help you decide before buying it. If you do decide to buy the book you can do so right from the nook and it will automatically download in a few minutes. There are lots of free books that you can download from the shop too.

As far as magazines and newspapers, there isn’t much of a selection so far. There are only four newspapers and nine magazines. Apparently you can only buy single issues of the available magazines, but you can buy subscriptions of newspapers. That said, there only store doesn’t show details on how many issues of the newspapers that you receive for the subscription price.

The only feature of the nook that I’ve yet to try is the LendMe feature that allows you to lend a book to a friend. From what I’ve read, you can only lend a book one time only and the lending period is just for 14 days. That means if you loan The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown to Janet, you can’t turn around and lend it to Jeanne after Janet’s lending period has ended.

I’ve had the nook for less than a week and my feelings about it are mixed. I really like the display and think that it’s nicer than the Kindle’s. Not by a lot, but to my eyes, it’s noticeable. I also really like the built in wifi that I can use to surf through the B&N store. Having a microSD card for extra storage is also nice and even though I don’t have AT&T 3G coverage (yet), I like that they are using that carrier instead of Sprint. One of the features that I’m not sold on is the touch screen. It looks cool, but it is often sluggish to respond and I find myself missing the the joystick for selecting words to look up in the dictionary. My main gripe about the nook though is the overall slow performance. Switching font sizes and loading books is much too slow. Turning pages is slower than the Kindle, but I’m not sure people that have never used an eReader would even notice. I’m really hoping that a firmware update will fix these problems and if that happens, most of my main complaints will be resolved. In the end, I find myself neither loving or hating the nook and until the performance issues are resolved, I can’t really recommend it. I think it’s an “ok” first generation device, but I was really hoping for a lot more given all the hype. Until something much better comes along, my eBook reader of choice will continue to be the iPhone.

For another opinion on the nook, check out Judie’s review at Geardiary.

Filed in categories: eBook Readers and Gear, Reviews

Tagged: eBook reader, nook

Barnes & Noble nook eBook Reader Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 14, 2009 at 9:43 am.

QVC, the giant television retailer, is offering the Cool-er eBook reader as their “Today’s Special Value” for December 11.   The Cool-er has a 6″ (diagonal) e-Ink screen with three font styles and eight font sizes.  It has 1 GB of internal storage, and you can expand your storage with an SD card (not included).  Supported file types are:  PDF, HTML, TXT, RTF, FB2, EPUB, PRC, and JPG.  The Cool-er also has a built-in mp3 player.  The rechargeable battery charges with the included USB cable.  The Cool-er is preloaded with 29 books and includes 10 free downloads from the Cool-er book store (from a restricted list of books).  A computer is required to download and install books, but the Cool-er works with either PCs or Macs.  The Cool-er costs $229.32 and is available in eight colors.  It comes with a silicone case, earbuds, quick start quide, and instruction booklet.  It even has a Sudoku game installed.  I think it’s offical -  if QVC has one, eBook readers are truly now mainstream!  (This price is only good until midnight.)

Filed in categories: eBook Readers and Gear, News

Tagged: eBook reader

QVC Offers the Cool-er eBook Reader as Their Day’s Special Value originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 11, 2009 at 7:43 am.

Those of you that have been keeping score know that I was pretty ticked off when I received an email from Barnes & Noble last week letting me know that my pre-ordered Nook would not arrive on December 1st as promised. I’m happy to say that they did deliver on their 2nd promise of December 9th. The UPS driver placed it in my hot little hands about 30 minutes ago. I quickly sliced open the cardboard box and pulled out my shiny new eReader and two sheets of paper.

The first sheet was the purchase receipt and the second one was instructions on how to open the packaged Nook. Ummm… why do I need instructions?

You can click on the image above for a larger view. As you can see, it goes into considerable detail on how to unpackage the Nook.

Although the packaging looks nice, I have to say that I was pretty disappointed when I pulled off the cardboard sleeve and noticed that the reader was housed in a clear plastic case. Who’s idea was this? Oh boy, more crap to dump in the land fill.

Here is all the packaging minus a smaller box that held the mini AC plug, USB cable and Getting Started instruction sheets.

All that plastic to hold this. Hmmmmm… Maybe this is why shipping took so long? They had to design a pretty case to package the Nook that 9 out of 10 people are going to throw in the trash 5 minutes after removing the Nook. Yes, I’m a tree hugger. This stuff makes me sad.

I decided to write this up as the Nook is charging. It’s one of my new gadget rituals that I can’t use the device until it fully charges the first time. I will say that the Nook’s display at a very quick glance looks better than the display on the Kindle 2. Also, I was really surprised to notice that the idle screen pictures are a complete rip-off of the ink drawing author’s portraits that the Kindle uses.

More tomorrow after I actually use it.

Filed in categories: eBook Readers and Gear

Tagged: eBook reader, nook

My first impressions of the Nook have nothing to do with the Nook originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 9, 2009 at 5:45 pm.

If none of the Sony eBook readers nor the Kindles meet your expectations or your budget requirements, give Libre, the new eBook reader from Aluratek, Inc. a look.   Instead of the e-Ink display used by most readers currently on the market, the Libre uses an exclusive 5″ reflective-light LCD screen that looks like paper and offers faster page changes because it doesn’t require the double flashing used by e-Ink screens.  There is no backlight, so eyestrain is minimized.  The Libre uses a variety of formats, including Adobe DRM, ePUB, PDF, FB2, TXT, Mobi, PRC and RTF.  It also plays mp3 files and has a picture viewer that supports BMP, JPG, GIF and animated GIF files.  The rechargeable battery offers 24 hours of continuous reading time between charges.  It uses SD and SDHC cards up to 32 GB, and it comes with a 2 GB SD card pre-loaded with 100 books (public domain titles).  At $179.00, it’s one of the more inexpensive readers.  It’s not wireless nor is it tied to one eBook store, though Aluretek does recommend a couple of eBook sellers for purchasing new titles for your reader.

Filed in categories: eBook Readers and Gear, News

Tagged: eBook reader, Spotlight Gadgets

Aluratek announces a new eBook reader – The Libre originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 9, 2009 at 1:15 pm.

If you’ve read any of my reviews and news articles, you’ve probably noticed two things about me:  I love my Sony PRS-600 Touch eBook reader, and I LOVE cases and covers for my electronic devices.   Watch out, because now I’m reviewing the Executive Jacket and the Platform Jacket from M-Edge and their brand-new e-Luminator2 book light for the Sony 600 reader!

Sony cheaped out with the 600; they didn’t include a cover, and I found their neoprene sleeve woefully lacking.  I don’t like to read with a naked reader, so I tried my 600 in various covers I had for my old 505 reader.  I also require a book light, because I use one every time I read.  I was accustomed to using the 505 reader in a case with an integrated light, but the 600 didn’t fit in it, and I just didn’t like using a case with a clip-on light. I bought one of the new lighted covers from Sony the moment they were available.  If you read my review of the Sony lighted case, you won’t be surprised to hear that I quickly abandoned it.  Devon Mish from M-Edge commented on the Sony lighted case review to say their covers and book light for the 600 would soon be available.  I asked Julie if she would contact M-Edge to see if they would send us a cover and light for review.  They were kind enough to send two covers and a light.

I already owned an M-Edge Executive Jacket for the 505 reader.  One of the things I really liked about it was how protective it was.  The leather cover was stiffened to provide screen protection.  I normally like soft, supple leather, but I want protection over my electronic screens.  The Executive cover also closed securely with a wrap-around strap.  Because I liked these features, I decided I’d ask for the Executive Jacket for the 600.  I also asked to try out the Platform Jacket; this is similar to the Executive Jacket in appearance, but it opens at the top instead of the side.  I was also sent the e-Luminator2 book light for the Sony 600.

M-Edge is another company that doesn’t waste a lot of money on fancy packaging.  I personally like this, because it tells me two things.  I know that the entire purchase price went into the quality of the leather goods, and it tells me that my new leather cover isn’t going to need a lot of coddling when I use it.  The M-Edge Jackets were packaged in thin, clear plastic sleeves.  When I opened them up, they smelled good, and they looked beautiful.  I asked for a navy blue Executive Jacket.  The navy is a nice, reddish-tinged navy that’s not too dark, and it has white or cream top-stitching.  I asked for the mocha and saddle version of the Platform Jacket.  The mocha is a coffee-with-a-touch-of-cream color, and the saddle is a latte brown. The Platform case also has the white/cream top-stitching.   Both jackets are made of pebbled leather with a matte finish – not too shiny for the guys to use.

Navy blue Executive Jacket

Let’s start with the Executive Jacket.  This is a book-style cover.  I really like this style of reader cover, because it is most like reading a paper book.  The Executive cover is lined with a gray fabric with a suede texture.  The inside front of the jacket has several pockets, sized to hold memory cards, business cards, or a folded piece of paper.  There is a black elastic pen loop sewn into the spine.  I did not use any of these pockets or the pen loop.  (Say it with me – I don’t want to risk scratching my reader!)  The reader is held in the cover with two leather and elastic straps at the top corners and two leather straps at the bottom corners.  The outer bottom strap is shaped differently than the inner one.  M-Edge made it a little smaller to prevent it pressing on the volume rocker on the bottom of the 600 reader.  These straps hold my reader very snugly.  I’ve never had the slightest fear that my reader will fall out.

Interior of Executive Jacket showing pockets. Pocket at upper right holds the e-Luminator2 in place.

There is a sewn-on leather strap that wraps around the outside of the cover.  The end of the strap slides under the beginning of the strap to make a tight closure.  I love the look and the function of this strap, but I do find the loose end is right where I want to put my hand when I hold the cover for reading.  It’s stiff enough that I can’t just push it to the back of the reader, but it’s by no means a deal breaker for me.

Interior of Executive Jacket with reader and e-Luminator2 in storage position.

Light being pivoted into position.

With the reader in place and the cover closed, you’ll notice there is some extra space at the spine of the Executive Jacket.  The magic of the M-Edge cover is in this extra space and in a little pocket sewn into the lining under the back of the reader.  The pocket is located at the top of the cover, and it is designed to hold the e-Luminator2 book light in place.  Simply slide the paddle end of the e-Luminator2 into the pocket, and the light head and flexible metal neck will rest in the extra space along the inner side of the reader.  The light head contains a “Super Bright” LED, and there is a plastic lens that helps to evenly disperse the light.  The little cylinder at the other end of the flexible neck holds a single AAA battery (not included).  The battery compartment also serves as a pivot point; simply twist here to raise the light head into position.  The neck is long and flexible enough to allow you to adjust the head to illuminate the screen.  I have the best results when I turn the lens parallel to the reader, so the entire screen is washed with light.

e-Luminator2 book light for the Sony 600 reader.

Using low-intensity setting.

The back of the light head has a three-position switch – low illumination, off, high illumination.  There is a noticeable difference between the two intensity levels, but I have found that the low level provides a good amount of illumination for most situations.  I think the battery would probably last longer at the lower intensity, too.  M-Edge says you’ll get more than 20 hours from a battery, with no dimming.  I do have a bit of a problem with the switch.  Instead of turning off the light, I always seem to push it back and forth between low intensity to high.  I wish it had been arranged off-low-high, so at least I could just shove it over to “off” easily.  Again, this is not a deal breaker for me.

Platform Jacket in mocha and saddle.

Interior of the Platform Jacket showing pockets. Strap is attached to the bottom of the back of the cover.

The Platform Jacket is as beautifully made as the Executive.  It also has the gray fabric interior, the little storage pockets, and the black elastic pen loop.  The reader is held in place with the same straps as in the Executive Jacket.  It has the same strap closure, stiffening to protect the screen, and it looks like the Executive Jacket – only in “portrait mode”.  The Platform Jacket opens like a steno pad, and you can flip the front all the way to the back, and use the strap to form it into a stand for hands-free reading.  The reader angle isn’t really adjustable, so you may find it most comfortable to read when it is sitting on a higher surface.  For example, a seat-back tray in an airplane may be a little low for comfortable hands-free reading.  You can also just fold the front all the way back and hold it in one hand.  There is a stiff strip down the left side of the reader that makes a nice grip for one-handed reading.

Platform Jacket in hands-free reading position. Brown strip on left side of picture is where e-Luminator2 rests when not in use.

This stiff strip is where the e-Luminator2 rests when not in use.  The book light works beautifully with the Platform Jacket.  The only problem I had using the book light was when I tried to raise the light into position.  The leather was so stiff here that the battery compartment couldn’t pivot.  However, the instructions for using the book light say that you should pull the e-Luminator2 out from the side of the reader before pivoting.  I found I could pivot the book light into position in the Executive Jacket without this step, but it was necessary with the Platform Jacket.

I can say – without the shadow of a doubt (thanks to the light from the e-Luminator2!) – that I have found the perfect cover and light for my Sony 600 reader.  I absolutely love the M-Edge Executive Jacket with the e-Luminator2 book light.  The Jacket is beautiful, it smells good, it’s protective, and the navy color looks great with my red 600.  The light from the e-Luminator2 is just the right amount, and it covers my entire screen.  The book light adds very little weight to the case.  Because it’s “built in”, there is no bulky lump on the back of the case when I’m reading and no extra item to stuff into my purse.  I also like the Platform Jacket, and it will be nice to use when I want to huddle under the covers and read in bed this winter.

And you don’t have to be jealous if you don’t have a Sony 600.  M-Edge makes covers and book lights for the Sony PRS-300 Pocket reader and for all Kindle editions (1, 2, and DX).  According to their web site, they are also planning accessories for the Barnes and Noble nook.  If leather isn’t your thing, they also offer neoprene covers.

Filed in categories: eBook Readers and Gear, Reviews

Tagged: Book Light, eBook reader, eBook Reader accessories

M-Edge Cases and Light for Sony PRS-600 Touch Reader Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 2, 2009 at 2:05 pm.

Sony is taking pre-orders for their 7″ eInk Daily Edition Reader.  The Daily Edition retains the notetaking functions and the touch-screen of the PRS-600 Touch reader, and it adds free 3G connectivity.  You can buy books wirelessly from the Sony eBook Store, or you can still buy and load your books with usb connection.  Just like the PRS-300 and PRS-600 models, the Daily Edition works with multiple eBook formats, including ePub and PDF files.  The Daily Edition comes with a soft cover and an A/C adapter for recharging the reader – accessories that the 300 and 600 models both lacked.  The reader costs $399.99.  Sony says shipping for pre-orders will occur between December 18 – January 8, but no delivery date can be guaranteed.  And as the old saying goes, you can have any color you want, so long as you want black.

Filed in categories: eBook Readers and Gear, News, Wireless

Tagged: eBook reader, News, Wireless

Sony Daily Edition eBook Reader Available for Pre-Order originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 27, 2009 at 8:35 pm.

Click for a larger view

A few weeks ago, I submitted a news article about the new Custom Book Pouch from Renaissance Art, a maker of beautiful, handmade leather goods based in Santa Fe, NM.  Renaissance Art designed these pouches as a storage or presentation pouch for paper books.  But since 99% of my reading is on my Sony PRS-600 digital book reader and since I subscribe to the opinion that one can never have too many cases for a beloved gadget, I immediately thought the pouches would make a great case for my Sony reader.  I was thrilled when Julie told me that the people at Renaissance Art were willing to send a Book Pouch to The Gadgeteer for review – and I was the one who got to do the review! 

Because the Book Pouches are custom made to your specifications, the ordering process requires a few decisions.  Based on the length, width, and depth of your book, you choose either the small, medium, large, or x-large size to determine the starting price.  These sizes vary in price from $55 for the small (max. book size of 4.5 X 7 X 2.5 inches) to $95 for the x-large (max. book size of 9 X 12 X 2.5 inches).  You send along the exact measurements so they can customize your pouch to your book.  I wanted to use this pouch as a protective case for my reader in another cover, so I measured the Sony reader in both covers I currently own for it.  I found the two covers were almost identical in size, and they fit into the medium-sized pouch ($67).  Choosing the leather colors was fun, because there are twelve colors to choose from.  Some colors are described as “elegant” with a shiny surface, and some were described as more rustic and appeared more matte in the picture.  I was tempted by the sunflower yellow for the exterior, but I ultimately decided on the cranberry red – because I always choose red.  I chose the black/ebony color for the interior.  Two closure options are available – a simple snap or a long leather lace that you wrap around the pouch.  Because I want to use the pouch when I carry the reader in my purse, I chose the snap closure.  I thought that would be less likely to get tangled up in all my other purse stuff.  You can specify a little extra depth added to your pouch; I requested a quarter-inch extra depth, but you can choose up to a half-inch.  None of these options added extra cost to the base price.  Finally, you can add up to three lines of personalization at $12 per line.  You can specify where you’d like the personalization on the pouch, or you can leave it up to the people at Renaissance Art to decide where it looks best.  I didn’t request any personalization on my pouch.

Have you ever received a fine leather item in beautiful packaging?  You know – the heavy, expensive box that you open to reveal the beautifully constructed fabric bag cradling the leather goods inside?  At first you are impressed by the luxury, and then you think:  “Wait a minute!  How much of the cost went into this packaging?  How much less would this have cost me if I didn’t have to pay for all this other stuff?”  You don’t have to worry about that with Renaissance Art.  My Book Pouch arrived in a flat manila mailer, wrapped in plain brown paper that was held together with masking tape.  The people at Renaissance Art know how to make a presentation, because they save all the beauty for the item that really counts.  You open up that brown paper, you get that subtle whiff of leather, and you can see that every penny went into that beautiful leather item that they hand-crafted just for you.  Nice!

When I picked up my Book Pouch, I was impressed at how soft and flexible the leather is.  I looked at the edges, and I saw nothing but the interior and exterior pieces of leather – no cardboard or any other substrate to add thickness and substance.  The two pieces of leather are pretty thick, too – about 3 mm thick on the flap edge.  The colors I chose are apparently part of their “elegant” finishes.  The cranberry red color is a rich, deep bluish-red with a very glossy sheen.  The color is a bit mottled or marbled, just as you would expect from color added to natural leather.  Looking at the edge of the leather shows that the color goes all the way through.  The glossy finish almost appears cracked because of the flexible leather, but close inspection shows that the finish is completely intact.  These “wrinkles” add an interesting texture to the appearance.  The interior leather is a deep, even, glossy black, with the same wrinkled texture.

The upper edges of the front and side pieces are nicely finished.  They appear to have been shaved down and the exterior piece folded over to make a smooth edge the same thickness as the rest of the piece.  The snap is plain and silver colored and is centered on the front flap.  The stitching is very even and straight and done in a heavy black thread.  And did I mention the smell?  I don’t notice any petrochemical smell at all from the dyes or finishes – just a nice leather smell.

Sony lighted cover, Renaissance Art Book Pouch, M-Edge Executive cover

Okay, this Book Pouch has a great first impression, but how does it perform?  I expect it to be the protective outer cover for my reader.  I expect it to protect my reader from getting gouged by pens and keys or anything else that could scratch.  I expect it to provide a little extra strength to protect the screen.  And remember the manila envelope and the brown paper?  I expect that this pouch is going to hold up because Renaissance Art gave me the impression that they know their products are going to wear well.  It didn’t have to be coddled to ship it to me, so I shouldn’t have to coddle it in daily use.

With the M-Edge cover

With the Sony lighted cover. Also note the thickness of the flap and the color that penetrates the leather.

First of all, how does it fit?  I tried the Book Pouch with both of my covers.  Both covers fit perfectly.  The extra depth allows me to get my fingers in there to grab the reader for easy removal.  I’ve been using the lighted cover, so I put my reader in that cover, put it in the Custom Book Pouch, and just crammed everything in my purse along with my wallet, cell phone in a leather pouch, my keys, sunglasses case, and sometimes my iPod Touch.  I dragged the Pouch out whenever I wanted to read, opened and closed the Pouch many times, and it still looks great.  With stiffer leather, I would expect a crease to start forming or perhaps the edge of the flap to start curling up from pulling up on the flap to open it.  The flexible leather just returns to its original state with no permanent effects.

The Book Pouch still looks great.  It works great as protection for my Sony reader.  It is much thicker than the neoprene netbook sleeve I’d been using in my purse to protect my reader.  Of course, the Book Pouch wouldn’t protect from serious crushing – say a car running over my purse – but it works beautifully to protect my reader from normal perils.  It keeps keys and pens away from the screen, and it provides a layer of cushioning against bumps and slight drops that might happen with my purse.

You can see the beautifully finished edges of the front and sides, and you can also see the metal back of the snap.

I do have two concerns, both involving the snap.  The bare metal back of the snap is exposed on the inside of the Pouch.  It does “sink in” to the flexible leather, but I worry that it could scratch a “naked” reader while pressing the snap closed.  I also worry that pressure on the reader while closing the snap could damage the screen, again especially with a naked reader.  Even though I have my reader in a cover, I make sure that I face the back side of the reader to the snap.  I don’t mean to imply it takes excessive pressure to close the snap.  I’m just exceptionally careful with my gadgets.  (I know what you’re thinking –  and “obsessive/compulsive” is such a harsh term!)  Using a magnetic snap would make it easier to close without putting undue pressure on the reader.

It almost seems a shame that I’m using this Book Pouch inside another bag.  I think this would make a nice, simple clutch purse for daily use or even as an evening clutch. With the variety of sizes available, you could design it just the size you need to hold your wallet, cell phone, and other essentials.  I like the way it looks now, but I’d like to see how it looks with two snaps pushed out closer to the outside edges of the flap.  I think two snaps would make it even more appealing to me – symmetry is my life!

In any event, I think the Custom Book Pouch does a great job protecting my Sony reader.  Because of the variety of sizes available, you could customize a pouch to fit just about any digital ebook reader.  Don’t you think your reader deserves a beautiful, safe home after all the pleasure it gives you?  Oh, and I’m sure it would work beautifully to store a treasured paper book.  And I know it would make a very impressive presentation if you gifted someone a book in the Custom Book Pouch.

I anticipate using the Renaissance Art Custom Book Pouch for many years.  As long as I can keep my husband from stealing it from me!

Filed in categories: eBook Readers and Gear

Tagged: Cases and covers, eBook reader, Leather

Renaissance Art Custom Leather Lined Book Pouch Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 13, 2009 at 11:57 am.

The folks at OnlineCourses.org have just posted an article that lists 100 Useful Links for eBook Lovers. Their list is broken down into sections such as Free, Kids, Tech Books, eBook Readers, etc. It’s a great reference list that just begs to be bookmarked. Go check it out and then come back here to let us know if you have some additional sites that we should know about that are not included on their list.

Filed in categories: eBook Readers and Gear, News

Tagged: eBook reader

100 Links for EBook Lovers originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 12, 2009 at 5:08 pm.

The Sungale Cyberus ID700WTA “Smart Info Engine” claims to be the 1st and only universal portable media player device that offers a large 7″ (800 x 480) LCD color screen and a user friendly touch-screen interface that allows instant one-touch access to read eBooks, watch movies and streaming video, upload, view and manipulate digital photos, listen to music, and take advantage of Wi-Fi applications such as current weather report by zip code, RSS feeds for news updates, real-time stock quotes, and more. Hmmm, I thought the iPhone and iPod Touch could do all those things? Oh yeah, they don’t have a 7″ display. The Cyberus will be available from Amazon for $279. I think I”ll stick with my iPhone.

Sungale Unveils Cyberus Smart Info Engine with

Universal Portable Media Device

Unique personal device is the only universal portable media device with

WiFi applications, streaming video capabilities and convenient touch screen

Chino, CA – Sungale, a premier manufacturer of consumer digital electronics products, today announced the latest addition to their Cyberus^TM line of products, the new Cyberus ID700WTA “Smart Info Engine”. The ID700WTA is the first and only universal portable media device that offers access to real time internet information and applications by automatically linking wirelessly to users’ home routers. With a large 7” LCD color screen, the Smart Info Engine provides an eBook reader, photo display, card reader, and streaming audio and video player, plus clock, calendar and alarm functions.

The Cyberus^TM Smart Info Engine features a user friendly touch-screen interface that allows instant one-touch access to real time internet information without using a computer. You can get online news, weather reports, stock prices and charts, maps and traffic routes, access YouTube, IP Radio and Picasa and receive Gmail. The Smart Info Engine also allows you to read eBooks, watch movies and streaming video, upload, view and manipulate digital photos, listen to music and much more.

“Today’s media-savvy consumers expect the most up-to-date digital technology, and we strive to keep Sungale’s products on the cutting edge to meet and exceed our customers’ expectations,” said Gary Bennett, Sungale VP of Sales & Marketing. “The Smart Info Engine is truly a next-generation device that combines eBook reader capabilities with the most comprehensive set of digital media features available in a single product. It is designed to deliver the rich entertainment experience we believe our customers deserve.”

“Our goal is to cement our leadership position in the consumer electronics industry by making the latest IT technologies available directly to consumers. We overcame some very tough technical challenges during the development of the Cyberus series, especially automatically linking to the internet to allow users without IT knowledge to derive the full benefit of Cyberus devices,” added Ningjun Sun, Sungale President & CEO.  “We now want to make the Cyberus Smart Info Engine accessible to the widest possible consumer audience, so we’re offering it at a far more competitive price than any other high-tech high end product in this category.”

About the Smart Info Engine

The Smart Info Engine handles most video, audio and photo formats such as AVI, MPEG4, DIVIX, XIVID, WMA, JPG, BMP, TIFF, PNG etc including ebook file formats TXT and PDF.

Lightweight and portable, the Smart Info Engine boasts up to four hours of battery life for convenient access to digital entertainment anywhere. Unlike the small black and white screens of most eBook readers, the Smart Info Engine delivers visually rich full color 7” LCD displays. The ultra-high resolution 800 RGB x 480 pixels color screen ensures that PDF pages, photos, and video images are sharp, crisp and clear.

In addition to the eBook reader, music and video players, the full complement of WiFi applications for the device includes: Weather, News from Yahoo or Google, YouTube, Traffic: Driving Directions by Zip, IP Radio, Picasa, Stock, Gmail Alerts, Notepad, Calendar, Clock and  Alarm.

The device comes with a stylish leather case in a choice of black, brown and white, headphones, AC Adapter, user “Quick Guide” and comprehensive user manual.

The Smart Info Engine has a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) or $279 USD.  It is available from national consumer electronics retail chains, online stores such as Amazon.com and directly from Sungale’s website.

About Sungale

Sungale is a premier manufacturer of Consumer Electronics, with many years of experience as an OEM supplier and leading supplier of digital photo frame and other state-of-the-art digital products. Sungale is committed to actively keeping pace with today’s rapid innovations in the field of Consumer Electronics. Through their devotion to cutting-edge technology, exceedingly stringent quality control system and dedication to customer satisfaction, Sungale’s products are known for their superior durability, applicability and affordability. Recent additions to the company’s product line include a Digital Photo Frame, Digital Photo Album, Wi-Fi DPF, E-Book Reader, GPS, IP Radio, Bluetooth series and Security products, a full line of Personal Media Players, and more. Sungale has its headquarters in Chino, CA and production facilities in Shenzhen, China. For more information visit the company’s website at www.sungale.com

Filed in categories: Audio, Video, TV Gear, eBook Readers and Gear, News

Tagged: eBook reader, Spotlight Gadgets

Everyone wants on the eReader bandwagon – Cyberus Smart Info Engine originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 6, 2009 at 1:39 pm.

People who have an interest in reading ebooks but who want a multi-functional device may be interested in the enTourage eDGe device.  The eDGe closes like a book, and it has a 9.7” (measured diagonally) e-Ink screen on the left and a 10.1” (diagonal) 1024 X 600 pixel color touchscreen on the left.

The eDGe ebook reader side allows you to read PDF and ePub files.  It is not associated with any bookstore, however.  You can take notes in the books using highlighting, dog-earing pages, or by handwriting directly in the books. 

The netbook side has WiFi, Bluetooth, and optional 3G connectivity.  Its operating system is Linux with Google Android.  You can surf and email and run applications, like the included journaling program.  It comes complete with a voice recorder and a web camera.  It has 3 GB of user-accessible internal memory, and you can add an SD card for more.

The eDGe is 8.25 X 10.75 X 1.0 inches when closed.  It weighs 2.5 pounds.  It is will ship in February 2010, but it is available for pre-order now at the enTourage website.  It costs $490.00 in midnight blue.  It is also available in ruby red, glacier white, and ice blue for $530.00.   Learn more at the enTourage website.

Filed in categories: Android related, eBook Readers and Gear, News

Tagged: eBook reader, Netbook, Spotlight Gadgets

enTourage eDGe DualBook Reader / Netbook originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 26, 2009 at 7:34 am.

Electronic Books (eBooks) are huge news these days. From the Kindle to Barnes & Noble’s latest offering, portable readers are the news of the day. While some think this is the wave of the future, I have come full circle from my non-comvergence stance: At some point in the future, there will be a single device that will do everything you want well enough that you will stop using your single-purpose device. Some say that day has come and the iPhone is it. I’m not quite there mentally, but the proliferation of reading programs on the iTunes App Store makes me think some folks are going in that direction. This review is of one of many different reading apps, Classics2Go from KiwiTech.

Copyright before Steamboat Willie (who transmogrified into Mickey Mouse) was a looser affair than it is now. Works were owned by the originator, and they remained so until that person died. If no renewals took place, the work became public domain, and anyone could publish and use parts of it at will. For this reason, many of the book readers and collections (including the Gutenberg Project) concentrate on pre-1923 works: Dickens, Doyle, Wells, Shakespeare, et al. Modern copyright makes paying royalties to the originator (or the current copyright holder) difficult, at best.

Classics2Go takes all those books many of us grew up reading and loving, as well as the tomes we endured in English Literature over the years, and puts them into a library of easy to manage volumes right on your iPhone. There are two versions of the application – Classics2Go Lite and the Classics2Go Collection. Several individual titles are also available as stand-alone freebies.

To anyone who has read an eBook on a handheld device, the interface will be familiar, but probably more attractive than any other readers you’ve seen. To those who have never thought of reading on a handheld – give it a shot. The books show up in a Bookshelf, you read the titles off the spine, and tap once to add them to your shelf. Once there, another single tap opens the book to the cover. Each subsequent tap takes you a page along the volume. Tap to the left of center, and you’ll go back a page. In an instant, you’re reading with one hand, and captivated by the antique patina on the page. OK, so it doesn’t feel like an old book, and it’s not dusty or moldy, but the visual effect is that of reading one of the classics in a pulp printing from back in the day. There are even wrinkles on the cover.

When I first got a Palm, I began to re-read the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in stolen moments waiting for clients, sitting in traffic, and at lunch. I probably hadn’t read them since the 70′s. The greenish tint and the sans-serif print, not to mention having to tap with my fingernail or click a button to turn the page, was not quite the same effect as my hardback collected works edition that I think is still at my mom’s house. Here they are again, though, ready for another round, anytime I want. Now, I’m reading some other oldies (P. G. Wodehouse’s “The Girl on the Boat” and Dumas’ “Three Musketeers”, if you must know). Small touches like a tasseled leather bookmark that floats over the page to save your place when you exit one book for another let you know that this collection was put together by someone who is paying attention to your reading experience.

With Classics2Go, as long as you have your iPhone, you’ll never lack something to read. And with the collection, updating your application will add new books as they bring more to this platform. It’s a great way to carry around your required reading if you’re in school, or to re-read (or maybe discover!) those treasures from the past.

Filed in categories: eBook Readers and Gear, iPhone, iPad, iPod related

Tagged: eBook reader, iPhone, Literature, Software

Classics2Go iPhone eBook Reader App Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 16, 2009 at 8:09 am.