e-book reader

Amazon hopes that its new, large-screen Kindle DX will revive the newspaper industry and maybe lighten the load for students lugging around heavy textbooks. Reporter Caroline McCarthy talks to Michelle Meyers about what real impact the new e-book reader could really have.

Also in today's podcast: Americans look to prepaid cellular plans as a way to save money; which PCs and laptops won't support Windows 7's XP mode; and how long before piles of e-waste start to get smaller? Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:

Amazon's big-screen Kindle DX makes its debut

Apple adding 3G to MacBooks?… Read more

Samsung's upcoming e-book reader, the Papyrus, had its debut at CES in January, but the stylish looking device is now making the rounds in Europe with some new details in tow. What's interesting about it is that it seems to have quite a bit of PDA in it as Samsung's gone with a touch screen (an aluminum stylus is included), and is bundling some utility applications such as a calculator, scheduler, and contacts. The Papyrus is an A5-size e-ink device (it's 5.8 inches by 8.3 inches while the entire Kindle 2 measures 5.3 … Read more

Earlier this month Apple got hit with a lawsuit over an "exploding" iPod Touch. Now it appears to be getting hit with a suit over the exploding e-book market.

A couple of blogs, including Apple Insider, are reporting that a Swiss communications firm, Monec Holding, has filed suit in a Virginia district court. Monec accuses the iPhone maker of "patent infringement, unfair trade practices, monopolization, and tortious interference for allegedly treading on its January 2002 patent No. 6,335,678 titled 'Electronic device, preferably an electronic book.'"

We've never heard of Monec, but the mission … Read more

We've had a lot of CNET readers tell us they're waiting for a little color before they jump onto the e-book reader bandwagon. Well, as one might expect, a little color is going to cost you a lot of dough, as Fujitsu gets set to release its Flepia color e-book reader in Japan with a $1,000 price tag.

In the works for several years, the Flepia has a bigger display than does Amazon's Kindle 2--it has an 8-inch 1,024x768-pixel XGA touch screen that can display 260,000 colors (Fujitsu refers to its e-ink technology … Read more

Hoping to gain traction on a device with a much larger installed base than that of its own eBook hardware, Amazon has offered up a free application for the iPhone bearing the Kindle name. The new program instantly becomes the iPhone book reader with the broadest title selection--the entire selection of books available for reading on Amazon Kindle can also be read on Kindle for iPhone.

Amazon, in a bid to keep its own hardware relevant, allows books purchased with the iPhone Kindle app to be transferred to the proprietary Kindle and Kindle 2 devices. Current owners of either Kindle … Read more

Updated 5:25 a.m. PST Wednesday to note the official release of the Kindle application.

Amazon on Wednesday unveiled a free application that will allow the same electronic books available on the e-tailer's Kindle to be read on Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch.

The program will be available for download for Apple's App Store and give users access to the more than 240,000 e-books that Kindle users can buy on Amazon. The program's Whisper Sync service promises to keep track of a reader's place in their chosen book, allowing users to pick up … Read more

The Kindle 2 could generate revenue of $305 million and gross profit of up to $70 million for Amazon this year, according to estimates made by investment bank Collins Stewart.

The estimates are just the latest heady Wall Street predictions for the Kindle 2, Amazon's digital book reader. Last month, a Citigroup analyst published a report that predicted the Kindle 2 would generate $1.2 billion in revenue by 2010.

Amazon hasn't broken out financial numbers for the Kindle 2, which made its debut last month.

Collins Stewart estimates that the device will see sales of $1.6 … Read more

Let me start by saying that I agree with you on one thing: $359 is a lot of money. I just don't agree that it's too much to pay for an Amazon Kindle 2.

In the wake of the announcement of the Kindle 2, the general response is that it's nice and all, but the price is just too high. A price breakdown of the original device found that you'd need to buy about 60 books to make up the price difference (all while paying to get delivery of newspapers and periodicals you could read online for free). And analysts complain that Kindle is a niche product with a small, upwardly mobile target audience. And here's my question: what is the problem with that?

Isn't the Kindle, fundamentally, an early adopter's device? And aren't we usually pretty tolerant of that in the tech space? You all know this story. In the evolution of technology, devices start expensive, they target a niche audience that can afford the price and care passionately about the product, and then they either adopt more mainstream features or become mainstream through a combination of obvious value proposition and gradually lower prices.

Even though the Kindle is on its second iteration, it's still very much in early-adopter territory. Does anyone really expect that an e-book reader is going to take the entire world by storm and become the iPod-like gadget commodity of its day? Of course not; so why should it be priced like bread and milk?

Then there are the features.… Read more

In the story of e-book readers, we're still in the first chapter.

On Monday morning Amazon unveiled its widely anticipated Kindle 2 device at a high-profile event in New York City. The updated, thinner e-book reader included some obvious cosmetic changes from its original Kindle as well as other more evolutionary tweaks. On the same day in the same city, another e-book reader maker, Plastic Logic, looked to stake out territory as the mobile device to read newspapers. Plastic Logic doesn't have a device on the market yet--not until next year--but already it's cementing relationships with newspapers … Read more