I certainly looks as if it might be, as the videos on Engadget show. Engadget has an article full of pictures and videos about the new product, As fjtorres, who give me the heads up, points out there are rumors about Amazon and MS getting together to respond to the iPad and hints at CES about an MS/Blio collaboration. Here's one of the videos from the article: ...

Barron's has published speculation that Amazon and Microsoft have teamed up to develop some sort of tablet. Well, Laptop Magazine's blog has come up with the five things they feel it needs to succeed. Their first requirement is that it have a Pixel Qi or Mirasol display that will give the reader color, but not induce eyestrain. For the remaining suggestions take a look here....

CNet reports that a Millward Brown study shows that Amazon ranks as the most trusted and recommended brand in the United States. It’s not terribly surprising; When you have a company that operates smoothly enough that most people not directly affected by them are willing to overlook those times when it accidentally or intentionally delists books or removes them from user devices, it has to be doing something right. TechFlash reports that Microsoft and Amazon have signed a cross-patent-licensing agreement, where each company gains the rights to use the other’s patent portfolio. The deal indemnifies Amazon against a...

According to Tech Flash, Mike Nash, a 19 year veteran of Microsoft, is leaving to join the Kindle team. Nash is, or was, Microsoft's corporate vice president in charge of Windows 7 platform strategy. Nash, according to the article, is familiar with the Kindle business. Here is a snippet from the press release announcing Kindle for the PC, where Nash is quoted: “Customers have told us that they want access to a wider variety of content and an increasingly diverse set of form factors,” said Mike Nash, corporate vice president of Windows Platform Strategy at Microsoft. “With the announcement of Kindle...

The Tablet PC idea---that’s an HP Compaq incarnation to the left---was a big flop for Bill Gates and Microsoft.  But could better displays, more powerful CPUs, smaller sizes and other wrinkles change that?  Microsoft, Apple and CrunchPad are said to have some new tricks up their sleeves---and over at PC Magazine, Lance Uboff is upbeat. If tablets take off---both pure tabs and convertible laptops---will that steal lots of sales from the E Ink readers in the Kindle vein? Are the pickings big enough for everyone? Detail: The Uboff piece would have benefited from mention...

Good news. At least some Microsoft Press e-books will appear without DRM. And in ePub, too, maybe? Just speculation. Microsoft and O’Reilly Media have entered into a joint arrangement to distribute, co-publish, develop content and manage the expansion of Microsoft Press. This is for the Northern American market and will involve paper as well as electronic books. From our point of view, however, the big news and possible news would be on the digital end. O’Reilly is solidly committed to the ePub format standard. Will Microsoft Press use ePub on some titles, at least? And could a future...

This one seems to be aimed a peer to peer networks and let's hope it doesn't find its way into the ebook realm. From The Inquirer: SOFTWARE IMPERIALIST Microsoft has been awarded a patent for a distributed DRM system that works over peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. Patent number 7,594,275 is entitled, "Digital rights management system" and uses encrypted public and private keys as the licensing mechanism. DRM is about as popular with online music stores as Scottish PM Gordon Brown is amongst his constituents. But Microsoft seems to think that there might be life in the old dog yet - DRM not Brown. If...

“Courier is a real device, and we've heard that it's in the ‘late prototype’ stage of development. It's not a tablet, it's a booklet. The dual 7-inch (or so) screens are multitouch, and designed for writing, flicking and drawing with a stylus, in addition to fingers. “ – Gizmodo. Details: Techmeme and Google roundups and CNET (thanks, Felix), plus BNET’s not-so-upbeat  item on the device’s commercoal prospects. The TeleRead take: Hey, told you something might be cookin’. For now I’d like to know more about the e-book angle, and whether Microsoft will spiff up its Reader app...

Microsoft brushed up its ancient Reader software a tad with slightly tweaked Windows Mobile 6 and 6.1 versions. So might a tablet be next, with e-books as a major app? A Microsoft product manager announcement has sparked some tantalizing speculation about a tab (Techmeme roundup here). E-book-friendly device on the way? If so, it would be in line with an old vision of Bill Gates, who couldn’t pull it off because the publishing industry and the tech weren’t ready. But maybe life will be different now that E has gained more traction and an Apple...

I love that title! Here's what TechFlash has to say about this update: ... The comment made me wonder about the status of Microsoft Reader, and it turns out that blogger Todd Ogasawara turned up something very interesting on that front this week. The Microsoft Reader team, apparently stirring to life, released a small update for the Windows Mobile version of Microsoft Reader. (It's for Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1 devices but not WinMo 6.5, which hits the market next month.) Just how stagnant has this Microsoft product been? The release this week...

I’m a bit reluctant to report news exclusively from one source, but I’ve just found a number of interesting stories on TechCrunch to which I will soon be linking. Several of them involve Apple, Google, and AT&T’s responses to the FCC over the Google Voice app rejection matter. But first, here is an interesting editorial about the Google Books settlement by Paul Carr, who makes it quite clear that he has strong opinions and is going to express them. Carr sums up the history of the Authors Guild lawsuit and settlement, then talks about the Open Content Alliance that...

What do you think, gang? Microsoft Reader just isn’t evolving the way other major e-book apps are---and some are worried, like ilovejadd, a MobileRead poster. And then there’s the problem of Microsoft’s Window-centric strategy, which reduces the number of potential users. In Microsoft’s place, I’d release a version of Reader ASAP that could also handle ePub---thus protecting people’s existing investment in .lit books, while jabbing away at other proprietary formats. What’s more, I’d get Reader going on Linux. If memory serves, hasn’t Microsoft in the past hinted it might port some apps over? Microsoft Reader would be a...