GadgetReview

If you’ve got any kind of interest in e-readers, then you know they can be a bit pricey.  But the jetBook-Lite from ECTACO is looking to change all that by selling for $149.95.

The jetBook-Lite is officially, as of this writing, the cheapest e-reader device on the market.

Now, when you get a low-cost device like this, naturally you give up a few things.  Tops on the list is 3G wireless connectivity and color secondary screens.

However, what you DO get is support for pretty much any ebook format on the face of the earth, including eReader DRM from Barnes and Noble.  Plus, you also get support for multiple languages and a built-in dictionary, a rotating screen that can handle portrait or landscape mode, and last but not least, and incredible twenty three hours of run time on the strength of four AA batteries.

It’s a pretty good value for a cheap e-reader.

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Barnes and Noble came clean about their e-reader device today, and yes, it’s called the Nook.  And like the leak said the device sports a 6″ e-ink screen for actually reading the books (or magazines) as well as a 3.5″ color touchscreen for perusing Barnes’ ebook store.  If you’re game, you can preorder the device today for $259 (the same price as Amazon’s 6″ offering) and it should ship as early as 11/30, which is a bit late for the whole bum rush of holiday sales.

As for wireless delivery of books you can jack into any available WiFi connection, or suck them down over AT&T’s 3G connection.  Built-in storage caps out at 2GB, which is good for about 1,500 books, but you can expand that to a whopping 16GB via microSD card slot.  Taking a cue from Apple, it looks like the battery is non-removable and will achieve up to 10 days of page turning action before you need a recharge, which takes about 3.5 hours.

Size wise were looking at a .5″ thin, 4.9″ wide and 7.7″ long, which makes it a bit fatter than any of Amazon’s Kindles and a bit shorter and narrower than their 6″ versions.

For all you Android fans out there you’ll be glad to here the Nook has joined the ranks, the first e-reader to sport the OS.  To get another leg over Amazon they’re letting users lend e-books for up to 14 days to other Nook users and their store currently boast over 1 million titles that start at $9.99.

While my vote is still out on the Nook until I get a hands on, the color touchscreen is a huge draw, but might prove more gimmick than anything else.  Kindle does have a physical QWERTY keyboard, but since I’ve never tested one I can’t speak to its actually usability.

Video walk through after the ‘leap’ …Continue reading: Nook: Barnes And Noble E-Reader…Yeah It’s Official (video)

The WSJ is reporting that Barnes and Noble will officially announce their e-reader device as early as tomorrow.  Word is that the e-book reader will be called the “Nook”, let users share books with friends and cost $259.  The news comes by way of a leaked full page ad, which one has to assume isn’t going to be placed in the Wall Street Journal, at least not any more without a significant discount.

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Pictured above is supposedly Barnes and Noble’s e-reader.  While specs and a wireless carrier have yet to be announced, or leaked in this case, rumor has it that it has an e-ink display on the top 3/4 of the device for reading magazines and books, while the lower quarter is a color LCD screen that will not only be good for perusing book covers but will double as a touchscreen keyboard or mutlitouch surface.  …Continue reading: Gadget Leak: Barnes And Noble’s E-Reader Has Two Screens

LG is coming out with an amazing new gadget that’ll quite possibly change the way you think about summer: the solar-powered e-reader.

This is actually a whole lot of amazing in one sentence, so I’ll try and break it down into more manageable chunklets for you.  One, an e-reader that runs entirely on solar power is an exciting development.  Reading a book outside in the spring–or in some cases, summer–sun has long been a popular activity, but now you can take a library outside with you and have your choice when you finally settle in under that tree and set out to read.

Two, this is one of the first e-readers to be powered by the sun, thus every other e-reader is now going to have a significant bit of competition on its hands.  None of the other e-readers are powered by free sunlight, you know.  And buying batteries over and over, or paying the power company to recharge batteries, will always lose out to free recharge.  Every time.

Three, a solar panel capable of powering a gadget by itself, and still be portable?  This might be the start of something new and different in the whole solar panel industry.  It might take an entire roof’s worth of solar panels to make a five thousand watt generator, but one panel running an e-reader?  That’s interesting.

The LG solar e-reader represents several significant strides forward, and hopefully, we can get our hands on them fairly soon.

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Seems the competition for a piece of Amazon’s coveted Kindle market has already started to boil up out of the woodwork.  iRiver’s Story is one of the first off the block.

Formerly a major player in the Flash-based MP3 market, iRiver’s been having a lot of troubles in its home market of  Korea.  Thus, they’re looking to join in on the e-reader market and snag a little market share away from Amazon.

The iRiver Story has a six-inch LCD display, two gig of internal memory and comes in white only.  It’ll also play back MP3s, which is handy for those books on tape.  It’s not a bad little design, from the look of things, even if it really DOES look a lot like the Kindle.  So hopefully, it’ll manage to pull off a comeback.

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Guess who wants a piece of Amazon’s Kindle market?  As it turns out, a whole a lot of people.

The list is pretty wide and growing by the day, and includes names like News Corp (otherwise known as Fox), Hearst Publishing, and now, Time Magazine wants to change the way you read books and possibly even its own magazine.

At the rate things are going now, it’s not so hard to believe that dead tree publishing will go the way of the dodo within the next 20 years.  After all, who is really that interested in keeping giant cases full of books in their house when all they have to do is put their library down on the nearest end table at night?  Taking a paperback book with view to the grocery store or jury duty or to a doctor’s appointment is a pretty cumbersome task unless you have deep pockets or a handbag,  and you can really only carry one at a time. But imagine the possibilities of being able to take your entire library with you. And why stop at yours? Why not the entire Library of Congress?

Maybe print-based books will have longer than I think they do to live.  But with the sheer amount of competition coming for them, it won’t be an easy fight.

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Sony added to their e-reader line up today with the announcement of the Reader Daily Edition.  Following on the heels of the Reader Pocket and Touch Edition, which were announced earlier this month, the Reader Daily Edition uses a larger 7-inch touchscreen and provides access to Sony’s eBook store anywhere in the US thanks to built-in wireless connectivity via AT&T’s 3G broadband network.

In terms of revolutionary features, Sony has partnered with OverDrive, a leading global digital distributor of eBooks to libraries, to provide Reader users with access to their local libraries eBook library.  Users simply punch in their zip code, download a desired eBook and after 29 days of use the eBook will automatically be deleted with absolutely no late fees or costs.

A built-in USB port allows books to be uploaded directly from a computer and the stock memory of the Reader Daily Edition will store up to 1000 eBooks with a memory stick card slot for expansion.  The e-ink display can show up to 16 levels of gray scale, while the 7-inch screen, which is housed in an aluminum body can be viewed in portrait or landscape mode.

The Reader Daily Edition will launch this December for $399.

Full release after the ‘leap’ …Continue reading: Sony Announces Reader Daily Edition

Although we’ve known for a few months now that Samsung had plans to enter the e-reader game, we didn’t know when the device would emerge.  Today the company made the device official and what was known as the Papyrus has now become the SNE-50K, at least as far as I can tell.

It sports the same 512mb of storage as the Papyrus, a 4320 continuous page view battery life, 5-inch screen, 6.5oz weight, lack of any wireless connectivity (everything must be downloaded from a computer iPod style) and costs about $270.  Right now it’s only available in South Korea, but Samsung says they’ve got plans to show off a prototype e-reader to international markets at CES 2010.

To put it in perspective, Amazon’s Kindle 2 offers a 6-inch screen, wireless connectivity and its very own e-book store.

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Price drop alert! Amazon today cut the price on their Kindle 2 E-Ink reading device.  It includes a 25% longer battery life, 6-inch sun bright readable screen, 20% faster page turns, weighs 10.2oz, wireless and is just a 1/3-inch thick.  It’s $359 – $60 instant savings + $0 S&H = $299 shipped!