Gadgets Blog » e reader

As if you need any more realization that print media is a dying business, media magnate Rupert Murdoch is developing a newspaper designed specifically for iPads and other tablet reading devices.

The paper, to be known as The Daily, will be “delivered” daily at a cost of $0.99 per week and may be available as early as late December, according to CNN.com. Murdoch has long been a proponent of creating and charging for news content delivered by digital medium, and this digital newspaper is his first major foray into that field.

The question that must weigh heavily on Murdoch’s mind is this: Will people pay for digital content when they get most of their news online for free? Also, newspapers like The New York Times can already be delivered directly to the Kindle and other e-readers for a modest amount.

Murdoch plans to focus on national issues and not local content for the newspaper, so I can’t see it making much of dent in the online information market. Even with some of the top journalists of the day working for him, he is going to be charging for stories that will be readily available via online news sites and other e-papers at the same time.

Today’s topic fits right in with the rest of my activities for the day. Fall semester is finally starting up at Claremont Mckenna College, meaning I have to go to class and (ugh) start reading new material for the sake of learning. Students all across the country are returning to the classroom, and regardless of how excited they are, there’s no doubt they’re going to come in contact with a vast number of books. Companies like Amazon and Barnes and Noble have given e-readers to the world, compact little gadgets that are capable of containing hundreds of books, and today’s news story brings a serious new contender to the e-reader arena, as Sony announced their latest and greatest, the “Reader.”

Chief among the features boasted on this gadget is the already-successful E-Ink display. Both Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes and Noble’s Nook have adopted this technology, which was designed for periods of prolonged use. Easier on the eyes than traditional electronic displays (such as the one on the iPad), both the Reader Pocked Edition and the Reader Daily Edition feature the latest in E-Ink technology, the Pearl display system. The organic features of these particular displays have been one of the selling points for rivaling E-Readers, making it a great decision for Sony to follow suit.

Today’s top news story also makes for a great way to discuss a nifty gadget: the e-reader. On Monday of this week, Barnes & Noble proudly announced they would be cutting the price of their in-house gadget, the Nook, to the spectacularly low price of $149. It wasn’t available for all editions of the Nook, just those with only WiFi support (as opposed to the more luxurious model which boasts WiFi and 3G coverage). Scarcely hours later, Amazon.com struck back with a price cut of their own, knocking the Kindle down to $189. The result? A price war just before summer reading. But which one to buy?

The Kindle has stood as the favorite in the e-reader arena for some time now. Hitting the market before the Nook, it was one of the first devices to exist solely for the reading of electronic books, and made a sizable impression in the market. Lightweight and portable, with battery life lasting a staggering amount of time, the Kindle offered up a great way to take an electronic library on the go. Factor in how the device was tied to Amazon’s burgeoning online book empire, the availability of texts was an excellent addition to a serious reader’s gadgets.

The Nook, on the other hand, is the challenger in this fight. Barnes & Noble’s gadget offers up some features that improve upon the ideas found in the Kindle, and advantage it gained by being the latter of the two devices to be released onto the market. The Nook features a touch-screen instead of the bulky Kindle keyboard, and also enables the user to “lend” a book to another Nook user for up to two weeks. The better-looking of the two gadgets, the Nook is somewhat troubled by its slower loading speed and shorter battery life.

I’d like to first of all wish everyone a happy Mother’s Day for yesterday. Prior to the holiday itself, I’d been writing several gift guides for some nifty gadgets that could be great for the special occasion. And although it’s a day late, today’s Gadget of the Week would have made an excellent addition to the listed ideas. The Amazon Kindle, however, is a great gift not just for Mom, but for anyone, including yourself! While the much-hyped iPad stands to potentially intrude on Amazon’s share of the e-reader market, a recent update to the main Kindle software looks to jump-start hopes of an improved Kindle in the next year.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Kindle and the idea of electronic readers in the first place, here’s a crash course. Released by Internet distributor Amazon, the Kindle is tuned into the website for distribution of a wide variety of books. These files, which range in price but are generally less expensive than their physical counterparts, are then downloaded to the internal hard drive. The second generation of the Kindle then added some great new features, including 3G wireless Internet access as well as a fantastic Wikipedia integration, giving any Kindle user access to the online encyclopedia.