BeBook says that the Neo is the fastest reader on the market, up to 2.5 times faster than other units. It has a 6" screen and a WACOM touchpad which can be used for sketching, annotations and text markup. It has WiFi, but no 3G, and 512MB on board, with an SD slot for more expansion. I can't find any info on their site about formats, but other websites are reporting it reads Epub and PDF. It will retail, in the US for $299 and be available on Feburary 25. There is a series of YouTube videos about...

A BeBook at CES apparently didn’t use working Liquavista display tech. The screen seems to have been a mockup despite a report that we and other sites mentioned. I caught up with Liquavista about a skeptical item in MobileRead. The company’s Anthony Slack e-mailed me: “This posting is largely correct. Liquavista is a display technology developer, and we had a number of monochrome and colour demos on our booth at CES. We had 3” handheld demos as well as 6.2” demos. The latter not being handheld. The demos are development samples, but the contributor below [actually MR]...

Such great device names: Kindle. Nook. Blio. Ectaco JetBook Lite. Spring Design Alex. Txtr. JournE. Skiff. Cool-er. Plastic Logic Que. iRex. Pixel Qi. Bookeen Cybook. Foxit eSlick. Astak EZ Reader. BeBook. Not exciting enough for you? How about the oh-so-brilliantly named Sony Reader? Most of these names are flat out horrible. What were the marketers thinking? These manufacturers are not only trying to build their brands in a crowded marketplace, they are trying to create a new market for a new generation of devices against a well established device that does not require electricity to operate, has a long history...

“Savage” is the only word for it. Along with the Engadget review, this is the most negative review I've seen elsewhere of the Nook---jibing well with Jean Kaplansky’s Nook pan in TeleRead. David Pogue’s review is in the Personal Tech section of the New York Times, and here are just a few of the comments Pogue makes: "And in the electronics business, Greed-Borne Insanity is contagious…” After talking about some of the Nook special features Pogue says that buyers who believe the ballyhoo are afflicted with "Sucker Syndrome." “...touch screen is balky and nonresponsive," and...

Here are some stories that do not quite make full-fledged TeleRead posts in and of themselves, but are interesting nonetheless: * Crain’s New York Business has a short piece on September 2009 e-book sales at Random House seeing a dramatic 700 perent increase over the same period in 2008---largely due to Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol. Just imagine how much sales might go up if they actually sold their e-books at reasonable prices! * PC World Magazine has a review of the bebook Mini e-book reader. They like it, on the whole, but note it has some interface...

Independent bookseller, Foyles, will begin stocking Sony Touch and Pocke ereaders and the BeBook Mini 5" reader. Additionally, the bookseller will open its own ebook webstore with 57,000 titles in EPUB and PDF formats. The ebook supplier, Gardners, will set the prices and Foyles will establish the discounts. Given the earlier KPMG survey that says that about 4% of 1,000 British consumers surveyed have read an ebook in the past month, it makes sense for the independents to get into this market. You can read more at The Bookseller....

The R&D Media Group will be offering the BeBook in Australia and New Zealand. The BeBook will cost Australian $ 499 and the new Mini will cost Australian $ 389. The Mini will support ePub,,PDF, doc, html, bmp, jpg, png, gif, tif, djvu, fb2, wol, txt, ppt, pdb, lit*, chm, rar, zip, mp3, mobi*, prc*, htm and mbp are all supported. (*=non DRM) and it has text to speech and an SD slot which will eventually support an WiFi module. The Australian website is here. Thanks to Robert van Geest for the link....

Kindle Review has a summary, with comments, on seemingly all available, and rumored, ereaders. It makes an excellent reference. Covered are Dell, Asus, Sony, Kindle, Foxit, Neolux, Azbooka, Hanlin, BeBook, Cool-er, Samsung, Bookeen, Onyx, Hanlin, Pocketbook, txtr, Plastic Logic, Apple, Netronix, iRex, Fujitsu and Brother....

So says a MobileRead post. Isn’t DRM great? People doing upgrades on other brands, not just the BeBook, will probably experience similar ecstasy. No more access to Mobi books. Don’t you love the way DRM enhances the quality of life? To hell with the future. Let’s treat books like driftwood. At least in the past and perhaps even now, Mobipocket has frowned on competing DRM-capable readers being simultaneously present on the same devices that display holy Mobi. Nothing like the benevolence of Amazon lawyers. Amazon, of course, owns Mobipocket and, perhaps to help the Kindle, won’t...

“Tomorrow we’ll release the ePub/PDF/Adobe DRM/reflow firmware update as a public beta. [With] no surprises, final next Monday / Tuesday.” – BeBook Tweet via Mike Cane. Related: Random House, other pubs miserly toward IDPF/ePub, but new e-readers and Sigil editor show there’s hope....

Time for a reader contribution. I received this email from Johannes Haupt. Thanks! Hey Paul, The Bebook Mini (branded Hanlin V5 -> http://www.jinke.com.cn/Compagesql/English/embedpro/prodetail.asp?id=42) will rollout within the next 2-3 weeks in several european countrys including the nederlands, uk and germany according to local newsblog eareaders.nl. Their stuff met with Bebook producer Endless Ideas officials yesterday (Check http://twitter.com/bebook/status/2796429764) when they made that announcement. Bebook Mini will be priced at 199 euro which makes the device quite cheap compared to competitors. http://www.ereaders.nl/23070903_exclusief_sneek_peeks_van_bebook_mini_en_bebook_2 http://www.lesen.net/kaufen/bebook-mini-kommt-in-2-3-wochen-768/ Bye Johannes...

TeleRead Co-Editor Paul Biba, while covering BookExpo America, landed a nice scoop---the news that a BE Book with E Ink will retail for a mere $199 or so. And for around $30, you’ll be able to buy a wireless add-on. Kindle-level ease ahead for other e-book-shoppers? Scroll down for these and other BEA posts from Paul. Speaking of E Ink: Check out Chris Meadows’ continuing series on his Sony PRS-700 review unit....