E-readers - Page 10

Liquavista today launched its first technology platform LiquavistaBright, aimed at the booming eReader space. Offering vastly improved usability, content compatibility and cost compared with the first generation of ereader’s, LiquavistaBright offers a high performance monochrome reflective display with video capability.

Liquavista are developing three technology platforms (LiquavistaBright™, LiquavistaColor™ and LiquavistaVivid™) planned for product implementation throughout 2010/2011.

The first technology platform, LiquavistaBright, will enable a smooth and fast user interface on eReader devices, thanks to the inherent video capability. Being able to move and scroll the content seamlessly will allow consumers to have a fully featured UI and significantly larger effective screen, enabling access to other more traditional online media such as web content and video, as well as both tabloid and broadsheet newsprint. In addition, these displays will be brighter and have more contrast than current solutions. The devices using the LiquavistaBright display can combine the durable eBook experience, which can be found in the current eReaders, with a new multimedia experience, which is according to recent marketing research one of the most requested benefits of future eReaders.

The Sony Reader Pocket Edition (PRS-300) is now available for 199$. This is a budget e-reader with a 5" E Ink display,512Mb internal memory, USB 2.0 and no wireless connections.

The PRS-300 is now available for 199$.

Barnes and Noble officially announced their e-reader, the "Nook". It's got two displays - a 6" E Ink (16-level gray) and a 3.5" touch LCD. The Nook runs on Google's Android platform, has 2GB of memory built in and a microSD card slot, and can play MP3 files, photos and more. It supports ePub, PDFs and more formats. There's free wireless in the US (via AT&T) and Wi-Fi, too.

The Nook is available from Barnes & Noble's site, for 259$. It will ship in November.

Gizmodo reports that the Barnes & Noble's e-reader will be released next week. It will feature two displays - an E Ink and a smaller color multi-touch LCD:

There's an interesting article over at Gizmodo saying basically that E Ink E-readers are dumb. He prefer reading on LCDs (E Ink is better on the eye, but it's not important to him), power saving is not interesting (he reads around the house), he wants video, and color.

Obviously this does not suit everyone - people who read on the go, and outside surely appreciate E Inks superior readability and battery life. But it's an interesting article in any case.

Amazon has finally announced international support for the Kindle. They now offer the Amazon US & International edition for $279 (available since October 19th). It can be used in over 100 countries (using AT&T's global roaming network). Each download overseas will cost 1.99$ (when you buy a new book or download one from your archived items). This is rather expensive - so this is more for Americans who want to use this abroad as well, although it can be shipped internationally from Amazon.

The Kindle US edition now costs 259$ (down from 299$), and will not allow for international roaming.

The Astak 5" EZ Reader is now shipping, for 250$. It offers a 5" E Ink display, supports many open file formats and has 512Mb of memory, SD card expansion slot, MP3 player and a text-to-speech feature. It weights 170grams.

Polymer Vision has been bought by an Asian company (we do not know the name yet). They will restart the development of foldable E Ink displays. Polymer Vision will retain about 80% of their employees.

Polymer Vision was about to release the Readius - an e-reader with a foldable E Ink display, and will continue development (although it might be a different product).

DisplaySearch forecasts that total e-paper display market will grow to 1.8 billion units and $9.6 billion in revenues in 2018, from 22 million units and $431 million in revenues in 2009, for a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 41% for revenues and 64% for units.

E-book displays currently account for the majority of e-paper revenues. Nearly all e-book devices currently in the market use E Ink's electrophoretic display technology, with a small number--such as Fujitsu's FLEPia--using cholesteric LCD (liquid crystal display) technology. Other electrophoretic display suppliers SiPix and Bridgestone have announced that they will also commercialize e-book displays.

Sony has officially announced the two new E-Readers, the PRS-300 and PRS-600. The PRS-200 is a budget device, priced at 199$, which is the cheapest e-reader available.

Sony also says they will soon launch a reader with wireless (Wi-Fi) connections.