e-Book Echo — Readers Are Popping Out All Over
Our platform focus continues this fine Sunday with the e-Book Echo, our take on the week in the digital publishing world. There’s no question that the electronic book reader space is heating up, with new devices announced seemingly daily. This week iRex lifted the veil on its newest reader, the DR800SG, an 8.1-inch reader that’s short on frills but long on content possibilities. The DR800SG will be able to get e-books from the Barnes & Noble e-book store as well as from libraries à la the Sony Reader. It will also work with a number of DRM systems, meaning it can handle a wide range of content from various online sources. Interestingly, the $400 reader uses a Wacom digitizer to drive the screen, meaning pen interaction only.
With the appearance of so many e-book readers it’s becoming a chore to determine what sets one apart from the others. The folks at CrunchGear feel our pain and have prepared a comparison chart to help us figure out which reader does what. Currently it only features four different readers, but maybe they’ll add other readers as they become available.
Whatever happened to Microsoft Reader? Back in the day, it was the biggest, if not the only, platform for e-books. All the recent hoopla in the space got me to thinking about MS Reader, which only made me realize how long it’s been since I’ve heard anything about it. Now that e-books are here to stay, will this be another business Redmond tries to re-enter?
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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FYI, we also have an extensive matrix of e-book readers at http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_Reader_Matrix which may be helpful for comparisons.
The following website has a better comparison chart, but it is somewhat older.
http://ebook-reader-review.toptenreviews.com/
Actually MS Reader was just updated.
http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/news/show/95139/microsoft-reader-gets-updated.html
So the new B&N content is not going to be PDB based but epub?
What the logic in that? Most of their content today (ereader) is PDB and the new device will not support it?
I must be misunderstanding something … please help.
Tal
Seems like epub is slowly becoming the standard for ebooks, especially now Sony have jumped on the format for their ebook store.
This reader will support B&N content.
That is a bit of a cryptic answer James. If all reports specifically say epub and not PDB then what with my curr books?
I have been assured by Fictionwise/ B&N that eReader content will work with the B&N store readers. The B&N reader is built on eReader Pro technology.