e-book

New Cool-er kid on the e-reader block

When I talked to Interead's CEO and founder Neil Jones a few months ago, he told me his upstart U.K. company was getting ready to launch a new lightweight e-book reader that he was hoping would get some attention in the marketplace for sharply undercutting the price of the Kindle 2. He was going to call the thing the Cool-er, and it would cost $250 and tie into Interead's fledgling e-book store.

Jones was planning a very controlled launch for the product, with a target date set for just before Memorial Day here in the the U.… Read more

Amazon tweaks its Kindle store for iPhone users

On Monday, Amazon.com put out a small tweak to its Kindle application for Apple's iPhone (iTunes link) that takes users to an iPhone-optimized store when they click on the "get books" button.

There's now a page that lets users search either by title, author, keyword, or category. It also lists some of the New York Times best sellers, and items that have been recommended based on past purchases and browsing habits. Previously it would simply offer up a link to the desktop version of Amazon's Kindle Web store, which required a whole lot of … Read more

Gadgettes 136: The dog people are weird (but cat people are weirder) episode

Treat your pets right this Mother's Day! We spend equal time talking about gifts for mom and for fluffy. Go figure.

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EPISODE 136

Petairways.com–for the pet who loves to travel (Thanks Sheala!)

Honda unveils dog-friendly car

The Tweeting Cat Door (Thanks Nathan!)

New worm-like floor-cleaning robot threatens Roomba’s dominance

Digigrade Leg Extensions

Dog poo recycler

Special Edition Mother’s Day Gender Gap Danielle Steel Limited Edition Reader Digital Book is More of the Same just in Red (No! Don’t do it! Get a Kindle instead!)

Mother of the Year video

Mother’s Day shirt for the geeky mom-to-be

A propos (of) nothing Lego sunglasses let you build your own fashion

What a concept Portable toaster

Why didn’t I think of that? PermaFLOW Self Cleaning Drain System

Pretty Gorgeous iphone cases (thanks fernando!)

Good Vibrations (Thanks Fred!) DIY Steam punk vibrators… Read more

Early analysis of Amazon's Kindle DX: E-textbooks

This is the third part to my early analysis of the new Kindle DX large-format e-book reader. In the first post ("Early analysis of Amazon's Kindle DX: Overview") I discussed the physical and software features of the new device. In the second post, "Early analysis of Amazon's Kindle DX: E-news", I described the limitations of the DX for news reading.

The textbook market represents an even greater challenge for the Kindle DX. There's a lot of variety among textbooks. Some textbooks will work well enough on the DX's display, but most, I … Read more

Early analysis of Amazon's Kindle DX: E-news

This is the second part to my early analysis of the new Kindle DX large-format e-book reader. In the first post ("Early analysis of Amazon's Kindle DX: Overview") I discussed the physical and software features of the new device. In the third post, "Early analysis of Amazon's Kindle DX: E-textbooks", I'll talk about how the DX will fit into the educational market.

But here, let's talk about the DX's suitability for reading electronic newspapers.

Newspapers are about text, and there's only a moderate need for interactivity. For each story, the … Read more

Early analysis of Amazon's Kindle DX: Overview

As expected, Amazon rolled out its new large-screen e-book reader, the Kindle DX. See Caroline McCarthy's coverage of the announcement here on CNET: "Amazon's big-screen Kindle DX makes its debut." I've spent much of the day reviewing the available information, and here are my first thoughts on the announcement.

Inevitably, the DX isn't exactly what I expected when I wrote my predictions earlier this week ("What to expect from Amazon and Apple"), but I got most of the major points right.

Here are the basic facts:

It's 7.2" wide … Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: Can Kindle DX rekindle publishing industry?

Amazon hopes that its new, large-screen Kindle DX will revive the newspaper industry and maybe lighten the load for students lugging around heavy textbooks. Reporter Caroline McCarthy talks to Michelle Meyers about what real impact the new e-book reader could really have.

Also in today's podcast: Americans look to prepaid cellular plans as a way to save money; which PCs and laptops won't support Windows 7's XP mode; and how long before piles of e-waste start to get smaller? Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:

Amazon's big-screen Kindle DX makes its debut

Apple adding 3G to MacBooks?… Read more

What to expect from Amazon and Apple

The New York Times reported this weekend, in an article titled "Looking to Big-Screen E-Readers to Help Save the Daily Press," that Amazon.com is on the verge of introducing a new larger-screen Kindle e-book reader.

A blog post from CNET's David Carnoy ("Amazon to introduce larger Kindle this week?") says that Amazon has scheduled a press event for Wednesday that may be the venue for this announcement.

The larger Kindle (which I think of as a "Kindle Pro," although I really have no idea what Amazon might call it) should be about … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 966: We're gonna need a bigger e-book reader case

On today's show: thoughts on a bigger Kindle made for reading newspapers (fail), Sprint's earnings report (fail), whether Microsoft will allow downgrades from Windows 7 to Vista (fail) and "silver ooze" (winner!).

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 966

NYT says giant Kindle is on the way this week (as Times Co. threatens to shut Boston Globe in as little as 60 days.) (Press event scheduled for 10:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday.) http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/technology/companies/04reader.html?_r=4&ref=business http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124143635883282991.html?mod=googlenews_wsj … Read more

iPhone's killer app: E-books?

O'Reilly's Ben Lorica took a look (slides below) at the developers behind the most successful applications on the iPhone and found that electronic books may be the killer app, simply because there is a such of wealth of offerings.

According to ReadWriteWeb, Apple's App Store features about 40,000 different apps. Based on recent data, game developers have on average, 2.3 apps in the store while typical e-book vendors have 18 apps, which obviously stacks the odds in their favor.

What's interesting about this is that this news suggests that the iPhone really is a … Read more