Other manufacturers take note: accessibility options need to be taken more seriously.
I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t think the organizations representing the disabled had a case here (due to the Kindle possessing text-to-speech for all its books), but that’s why I’m not a lawyer! Turns out that while the books can be read out loud, the menus cannot, making it extremely difficult to navigate and use for the blind. So until Amazon adds that functionality, they can’t expand on campus trials of the Kindle DX. Very interesting, indeed.
With at least one publisher working on digital magazine content, you would think that the focus would be on making this content available to as many platforms as possible. Development environments like Adobe Air allow cross platform applications, which suits the content providers nicely, but will Apple play ball with such an open format? That’s the reason everybody is holding their breath for the Januar 27 Apple event; their tablet is arguably the most anticipated device in this as of yet unproven form factor and if they don’t support something cross platform, that could have huge ramifications for publishers.
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.
I blogged about this video very briefly yesterday, but I’m more at liberty to go into detail today. CourseSmart was one of the first services to offer digital textbooks directly to students. The goal was to make more textbooks accessible to more students while lowering costs. The lowering costs thing can be debated as CS was founded by a coalition of textbook publishers. Either way, it’s had a pretty fair amount of success, boasting over 8,500 titles available and offering huge savings per book.
I for one am going to keep a very close ear on what they have to announce during the coming week.
Always reassuring.
Ebook distribution platforms are a dime dozen these days, with new niche platforms springing up all over. Blio is more interesting to me because its ultimate goal is to preserve and extend the book, a goal I can certainly associate with. Hopefully Apple and other hardware manufacturers get on board quickly, and if they don’t, app developers do!
