elliot ronen

The final weekend of CES has come and gone, but the ereader news keeps coming. Here’s a look around the web at the final coverage of ebooks and ereaders.

Samsung won’t be left out. Here’s the first few of their ereaders being released in the US (mediabistro)

iriver shows off their Kindle Story (Engadget)

Wired enjoys Spring Design’s Alex, but realizes it faces some challenges ahead (Wired)

Jinke goes with SiPix panels over E-ink for their ereaders (Engadget)

Qualcomm’s Mirasol screen impresses with full motion video (Engadget)

Wired also goes hands on with the Plastic Logic QUE proReader (Wired)

The RCA Lexi fails to impress, work (Engadget)

Engadget does a great overview of ereaders and ebooks at CES

The explosion of ereaders at this year’s CES has been pretty remarkable. Not just the amount of devices being announced, but also the sheer quantity of viable technologies for future devices. This is a market and industry still wide open; there is no one format that rules over the rest (but plenty of contenders, see Blio).

The other issue is that in a world where smartphones are getting easier and easier to use and more people have them, people expect their devices to do more. Is there a place for a device that just reads books? Or are these devices expected to make your books do more? This will be an interesting year indeed!

And we know for a fact the interest is there: the Kindle is selling fairly well and a little bird told four7s that at least one of the device manufacturers discussed above signed an international distribution deal during a meeting at CES. We’ll be keeping track as more of these devices make it out of the gate.

My father goes to CES every year for his business dealings, and this year I’m honored that he’s there representing my ventures along with his own. He’s spent a great deal of time checking out some ereader devices, and here’s what he thinks of each after going hands-on with them for a while and conversing with executives from each.

Plastic Logic QUE proReader: “Hands down the most impressive specialized device here in terms of design, both hardware and software. It’s ‘specialized’ because it’s really aimed at its very specific niche and it serves that market extremely well.

The hardware is slick and will result in many happy business people on planes since the battery lasts much longer than a laptop. The interface is well designed and puts the content quickly within reach, but having to sync it with Outlook could be the one hang-up. The announcement of a 3G model is a great step, and hopefully will bring along wireless syncing.”

Entourage eDGe: “These guys win for most versatile device. If this thing had a keyboard instead of an e-ink screen, it would just be a rather large netbook. The inclusion of the e-ink screen makes it something really unique and overall, it works surprisingly well.

One of the coolest features is being able to highlight a diagram or table on the black and white screen and display it on the color screen. This is a huge boon for textbook publishers who haven’t yet been shown that ebooks are a viable alternative for them.”

Havnon WISEreader: “What people may not realize in the States is that Havnon is a gigantic name in China, nearly a household name. Many international companies (think Nokia, Sony and Samsung) use Havnon technologies, software and patents in their devices.

Here at CES, they’re showing off some readers, but the more interesting aspect are the features of those readers that will show up in other devices thanks to Havnon’s willingness to license. Their executives are more excited about people coming up to them with OEM partnerships than purchasing agreements. Spefically, Havnon makes very impressive doodling and screen writing software [editor: think Wacom].”

Dad’s still walking around the show, so more impressions when I get them!

CES is like the nerd show that keeps on giving. My father spent lots of time with tons of devices today. His impressions will come later tonight. Here’s the straight up news of happened today at CES about ereaders and ebooks!

Plastic Logic QUE proReader in-depth video hands-on (Engadget)

Skiff and Marvell make it easy(er) for people to build their own e-ink devices (sorta) (Engadget)

Borders is the ebook store of choice for the Alex (mediabistro)

Mediabistro’s hands on with the Entourage eDGe (mediabistro)

COOL-ER reader was apparently developed in less than 8 months, is #1 in Europe (mediabistro)

Interview with CourseSmart’s Frank Lyman (mediabistro)

Pixel Qi promises screens in devices in 2010 (Engadget)

Speaking of Pixel Qi screens in devices, here’s the Notion Ink Adam (Engadget)

Bookeen debuts Orizon touchscreen ebook reader (Engadget)

Best selling author talks about ereaders and ebooks (mediabistro)

More time with Havnon’s WISEreader ereader lineup (Engadget)

Enough with the ereaders already, says Gawker (mediabistro)

There you have it! Our own hands on impressions coming later tonight.