Our platform focus continues this fine Sunday with the e-Book Echo, our take on the week in the digital publishing world. Barnes & Noble lit a fire under Amazon with the introduction of its own e-book reader, the Nook. The Nook matches Amazon’s Kindle feature for feature, and adds a small color touchscreen. The Nook will take advantage of the e-book experience with the ability to lend e-books to friends for two weeks. Nook owners will be able to read any e-book for free while inside any B&N brick and mortar store. It is running the Android OS, which opens the possibility up for homebrew apps for the Nook.
Amazon will be releasing a PC version of the Kindle reader, to allow reading Kindle books on any PC. The software is full-featured, with a library manager and reader that is touch optimized for Windows 7 PCs with a touchscreen. The PC program will work with the Amazon WhisperNet, so it will sync libraries and reading positions the same as the Kindle and iPhone versions. The PC Kindle reader program will be available in November. Amazon is working on a version of the program for the Mac platform, but no release date has been provided.
Two other e-book readers were announced this week, the first being Spring Design’s Alex. Alex is similar to the Nook, with a second screen that is a color touchscreen for navigation. Another unique dual screen reader is coming from enTourage that foregoes a tiny color touchscreen for a 10.1-inch variety. The eDGe has a unique hinge that allows operating the reader in a number of forms, including configured as a laptop. Both the Alex and the eDGe are running the Android OS, which is rapidly becoming the OS of choice for the e-book reader.
{"source":"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2009\/10\/25\/e-book-echo-welcome-the-nook\/wijax\/49e8740702c6da9341d50357217fb629","varname":"wijax_c511ca64320c4c41f7e127821de4aaeb","title_element":"header","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Cheader%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fheader%3E"}