“Printing The NYT Costs Twice As Much As Sending Every Subscriber A Free Kindle” (Silicon Alley Insider): “Not that it’s anything we think the New York Times Company should do, but we thought it was worth pointing out that it costs the Times about twice as much money to print and deliver the newspaper over a year as it would cost to send each of its subscribers a brand new Amazon Kindle instead. Here’s how we did the math…”
“Sony PRS-700: The Other e-Reader” (David Pogue, The New York Times): “The Kindle may have scored all the press this week, but it’s not the only e-book reader. The Sony Reader debuted way back in 2006, and has been quietly chugging along ever since, steadily improving with each edition. I thought it was only fair to take a look at the latest version.
“Sony loaned me its top-of-the-line Reader, the PRS-700 ($400, or $40 more than the Kindle) for testing. … Sony still doesn’t seem as attractive as the Kindle. First, getting new reading material onto it involves connecting it to a PC (Windows only) with a cable — a ritual that feels extremely ancient and creaky once you’ve tasted the bliss of the Kindle’s instant cellular downloads. Second, Sony’s bookstore is priced higher and contains far fewer titles.”
“Kindle Rival Plastic Logic Signs up Content Partners” (CNET): “It’s a day for e-reader news. Along with Amazon.com’s Kindle 2 announcement, competitor Plastic Logic revealed the first partners to distribute content on its eReader when the device becomes commercially available sometime in 2010. The partners include Ingram Digital, LibreDigital, and Zinio, which has more than 1,000 digital magazine titles currently in its stable. USA Today and the Financial Times have also signed on.
“The eReader — which is designed to store dozens or hundreds of business documents on a very thin digital reader — is about the size of an 8.5 by 11-inch pad of paper and weighs less than most print magazines, according to Plastic Logic. As the name of the company might suggest, it’s made with plastic, not glass, meaning that it is designed to be strong and to be able to stand up to being hit with objects or, presumably, even dropped. Furthermore, the eReader is an open platform that allows content creators to offer their digital content in their own way.”
“Flexible Screens Get Touchy-Feely” (Technology Review): “Researchers have developed the first computer display that is both flexible and touch sensitive. They say that the breakthrough could lead to more practical and easier-to-use portable devices.
“Ultimately, though, the goal is to make displays that are not only flexible, but that also respond to touch. The first flexible electronic-paper product, the Readius, is due to launch later this year. This electronic reader features a roll-out E Ink display made by Polymer Vision, based in the Netherlands.” (Hat tip to SDRnews for this mini tidbit.)
