E-Book Readers Archive

Kobo 7 Inch Arc Tablet Hits the FCC, Coming Soon

– November 7, 2012Posted in: Android, E-Book Readers, NewsFeed

Kobo’s 7 inch Arc tablet has just reached the FCC for approval and this model is also known under the codename K107. It got approval for its WiFi capabilities and official documents say it features a 7 inch 1280 x 800 IPS display, plus a dual core 1.5 GHz processor, up to 64 GB of storage and Android 4.0.

This is a follow-up to the Kobo Vox, one that will go on sale at the middle of the current month with a price tag of $199. It will also feature a faster TI 1.5 GHz processor, a battery that should provide 10 to 12 hours of runtime and a custom UI applied on top of ICS. Arc comes with a front 1.3 megapixel camera for videochat, as well as two speakers at the front, for audio purposes.

The IPS panel will be great for video viewing, especially when it comes to viewing angles. The CPU We have here is a TI OMAP 4470 in case you’re wondering and the good news about the device is that it actually gives you full access to Google Play Store, so you can download all the apps you need. Does this model have any extra appeal compared to the Kindle Fire HD?

Nook Simple Touch Glowlight Available in UK for 109 Quid, HD and HD+ Tablets Coming Next Month

James A.

– October 29, 2012Posted in: E-Book Readers, NewsFeed

Barnes & Noble has taken its time to debut its first Nook e-readers in the United Kingdom, but finally it has done so. The Nook Simple Touch and Nook Simple Touch Glowlight are now available for 79 quid and 109 respectively. They’re up for sale at various retailers and it appears that next month we’ll see the new tablets from B & N arriving, the Nook HD+ priced at 229 quid.

The 7 inch Nook HD will cost 159 quid, for those interested and you can now preorder both version of the tablet in the UK. The Nook products are available at stores including John Lewis, Argos and Blackwell’s, plus supermarkets like Waitrose, Asda and Sainsbury’s. If you’re into the GlowLight Nook, this e-reader is a bit thicker than the Kindle Touch, measuring 11.9 mm. It’s also lighter than both the Kindle or the Nook Simple Touch, weighing almost 7 ounces.

The GlowLight uses a 6 inch 800 x 600 E Ink Pearl display and it has a screen protector on the top of said screen, that makes text appear slightly softer and with a lower contrast. The technology behind Glowlight involves a set of 8 LED lights at the top of the slate, that are placed between the bezel and the display. The light shines down on the Nook’s display and spreads all over its surface.

Amazon Kindle Touch Discontinued to Make Room for Paperwhite

James A.

– October 23, 2012Posted in: Amazon, E-Book Readers, NewsFeed

Amazon is supposed to have discontinued the Kindle Touch e-reader, in order to make room for the Paperwhite. The Kindle Touch was priced at $99 and was apparently dropped in favour of the $119 Paperwhite, that has some shipping delays, of 4 to 6 weeks. Amazon also discontinued the 9.7 inch Kindle DX this month as well.

The best proof for the Kindle Touch replacement is just entering the Kindle Touch product page. There you’ll see it listed as “currently unavailable” and a link will point you to “a newer model of this item”, the Paperwhite. It’s sad that you’re so limited now, with the Paperwhite being sold out since early October and facing shipping delays now. The most basic Kindle the non touch one, with $69 price tag (with ads) is still available for some reason, just like the old Kindle Keyboard, at $139 with 3G and ads.

Their availability makes the disappearing Kindle Touch a mystery, although I can see through Amazon’s strategy here, as they try to make Paperwhite the new standard. However this new model is $20 pricier than the Touch with ads, because of the new front lit screen technology and superior resolution. There are also minuses, like 2 GB of storage on the Paperwhite, while the Kindle Touch had 4 GB and lack of audio or text to speech on the newer unit.

Kindle Paperwhite Gets Jailbroken

Radu Iorga

– October 6, 2012Posted in: Amazon, Android, E-Book Readers, NewsFeed

The Kindle Paperwhite maybe be exclusively an e-reader, but that doesn’t mean it can’t suffer some sort of jailbreak or hack. The device just got through a jailbreak based on the hack for the Kindle Touch, now ported to this E Ink e-reader and available on the Paperwhite.

The features that you can unlock include using your device for weather information and serial terminal access with Raspberry Pi systems. The jailbreak for 5.1.2 firmware works for the Paperwhite 5.2.0 firmware. A word of caution here: the hacks that are installed on a jailbroken PaperWhite may cause bricking. The debricking requires a serial port use, until you discover how to get it into USB Downloader mode. It appears that the device was easily hacked from the look of things.

Installation is as easy as uploading a certain file to the root directory of the Kindle Paperwhite and then restarting the device. When it boots up again, it will be jailbroken. Once again be sure that you know what you are doing.

Barnes & Noble Offers Cheaper Nook Simple Touch With GlowLight, After Price Cut

Radu Iorga

– October 1, 2012Posted in: E-Book Readers, NewsFeed

The NOOK Simple Touch with GlowLight was introduced the past Spring for $140 and it’s now time for a price reduction, apparently. This may be done in light of the new Amazon e-readers debut and the fresh Nook tablets revamp, plus the new Kobo products. Any way, you should know that the B & N device with a 6 inch touchcreen is now $120.

The device relies on E Ink technology and provides readers with a paper-like reading experience. It’s also the first e-reader with GlowLight, so it emits a soft, adjustable glow, that allows people to read in the dark. The e-reader incorporates a microSD card slot, comes with 2GB of memory, 1 GB for content and 750 for NOOK books. The reviews of the device were pretty good, saying that pages turns are fast, the brightness is adjustable and there’s no excess glare.

There is no web browser is music feature on this device, only a connection to the B & N online NOOK bookstore. There’s also a social networking aspect to the experience, that allows you to interact with friends and share what you’re reading with them. You can link your Twitter and FB accounts to the experience apparently.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Technology Detailed in Explanatory Clip (Video)

Radu Iorga

– September 30, 2012Posted in: Amazon, E-Book Readers, NewsFeed

Amazon has just released a new video showcasing their new PaperWhite e-reader screen technology, that’s supposed to be something very special. Kindle PaperWhite was announced about two weeks ago and it has a special sharpness and brightness, surpassing many rival products. The product is priced at $119 and offers a 1024 x 768 pixel resolution.

It’s got a PaperWhite E Ink technology screen, with higher contrast than the E Ink Pearl screen from the previous Kindles. The new model also has a 3G version, priced at $179 and both will debut tomorrow in USA. As far as design goes, the new model is similar to the older Kindle Touch, but it does pack some tweaks, like a darker gray plastic chosen for the body and the Home button at the front has been removed. The power button can be found at the bottom together with the mini USB port, like on the predecessor.

According to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the Research and Development department has been working on the technology behind the screen for many years, searching for the ideal balance between brightness and battery life. The technology here is described like a sort of optical cable laid across the display. The idea is to direct the light back at you by reflecting it like a lightbulb would on a book. The light at the rim of the display is captured and reflected across the face of the device, but more about that in video below:

Barnes & Noble Announces New 7 Inch Nook HD and 9 inch Nook HD+; Prices Starting From $200

Radu Iorga

– September 26, 2012Posted in: Android, E-Book Readers, Featured, NewsFeed

We supposed from the start that following the Amazon Kindle Fire HD announcement, Barnes & Noble would pull a move and launch a similar product… or two. There were speculations about Windows 8 being involved, but that’s not the case, as B & N just launched two new Nook models, the Nook HD 7 inch slate and the 9 inch Nook HD+, with prices starting at $200.

The 7 inch Nook HD costs $200 in the 8 GB version and $230 in the 16 GB one, while the 9 incher goes for $270 in the 16 GB version and $300 for the 32 GB one. Nook HD 7 inch supports a resolution of 1440 x 900 pixels, while the HD+ offers a stunning 1920 x 1280 pixel res and both come with 1 GB of RAM and a TI OMAP 4470 processor at 1.3 and 1.5 GHz respectively. The two also share expandable memory, WiFi, Bluetooth, but no GPS or 3G/4G. These evolved e-readers will come with the brand new Nook Video Service, that allows you to buy or rent HD movies, much like Amazon.

The tablets feature Android 4.0 ICS as the OS of choice, but they rely on the Barnes & Noble app store for app downloads, instead of the Google Play Store. The OS here has been heavily tweaked, so there’s almost no trace of the Google involvement here. Nook also comes with parental control options, multiple user accounts and a homescreen that’s been dumbed down to show only the recently used apps, books, magazines and shortcuts. Preorders start today and shipping happens towards the end of October.

Kobo Arc Tablet Reaches Stores in November, Available in 64 GB Version

Radu Iorga

– September 19, 2012Posted in: Android, E-Book Readers, NewsFeed

In case you didn’t know Barnes & Noble and Amazon aren’t the only big names in the e-reading business with their own tablets, but also Kobo. Recently they unveiled the Arc tablet, that is now supposed to hit the stores in November. It will also have a 64 GB version, which is something rare for an e-reading tablet, especially a smaller slate like this one.

Kobo Arc offers a 1.5 GHz TI OMAP 4470 dual core processor, 1 GB of RAM, a 1.3 megapixel camera with HD capture and 10 hours of reading time. Upfront we’ve got a 7 inch IPS display with a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution and as far as software goes, Android 4.0 ICS does the job. WiFi is available and if you want price tags, the 64 GB Kobo Arc goes for $299, while the 16 GB one is $199 and the 32 GB one is $249.

Kobo even went as far as promising a Jelly Bean update for the Arc, but without a clear rollout date settled yet. I also expect this device to be rooted fast and played with. If you ask me, this sounds like a very good Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD and Barnes & Noble Nook alternative, unless you really want a quad core CPU or you really want the Amazon services.

Nook Simple Touch Runs PlayStation Games Via Hack, in Black & White of Course (Video)

James A.

– September 13, 2012Posted in: Android, E-Book Readers, NewsFeed

Although the idea of playing PSX games in black and white defeats the purposes, it’s nice to see that even the lowest specced of devices is able to play titles that back in 1995 were the bomb. I’m talking about the Barnes & Noble Nook Simple touch eReader, that’s now able to run PlayStation games via a hack.

The device features a 6 inch E Ink screen and doesn’t have a high resolution. The advantage of the E Ink screen is that it doesn’t use too much power, almost none at all and it’s also easy to watch/read in bright rooms and outdoors, not having glare problems. It’s important to know that under the hood and under the software customization Nook Simple Touch runs Android, so it’s highly hackable. The guy who did these demos is StarDroid, from the OpenPandora Forums.

The eReader seems to handle PlayStation games such as the first Wipeout with ease. The only problem is the B & W and pixelation. The funny thing is that I wasn’t even sure what the second game was, till I realized it was actually Spyro, the Dragon, when I saw the little guy flying in there. I’m used to seeing him purple…

Barnes & Noble Rumored to Leave Android, Approach Windows 8 for Future Nook Tablet

Radu Iorga

– September 9, 2012Posted in: E-Book Readers, NewsFeed

Since Amazon launched its new Kindle Fire HD tablets, we’re bound to see a reply from B & N soon enough, as far as tablets are concerned. However, recent speculations point towards a change of attitude or better said a change of software partner. The company could opt for Microsoft and Windows 8 this time, instead of Google and Android. So, will the Nook Tablet 2 have Win 8? Let’s see..

Microsoft and Barnes & Noble have been getting close since the former invested $605 million into the latter, entering the e-reader and college business. The Nook Tablet is actually a pretty good gadget and it was very well received by the public, in spite of being a similar experience with the one offered by Amazon’s Kindle Fire, but without the app-filled Amazon App Store. There’s also the Nexus 7 tablet out there, so competition is more fierce than even and it will be hard for B & N to differentiate.

It would be smart for B & N to switch operating systems and maybe customized Windows 8 with their own skin and services, although Microsoft probably wouldn’t allow it as much as Google did with Android. Maybe B & N is waiting for the main wave of Windows 8 tablets to hit the market in October and launch their product then…

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