Following up to my post about Augen devices last night, I just called the Kmart in Branson and spoke to them, and what they had in stock was the e-book reader, and one remaining unit of an Augen netbook different from the one Engadget found. Engadget’s find was an Android “smartbook” with a 400 MHz processor and 128 megabytes of RAM, but Branson has one clearanced unit of what appears to be this model listed for $75 (currently out of stock) on Geeks.com, or $67.99 + $9.99 shipping at NewEgg (apparently in stock), a Windows CE “smartbook” with...

AllThingsD’s “BoomTown” section reports on a rather secretive startup called Kakai that is reportedly working on a Linux-based “Kindle for students”. Founder Osman Rashid is no stranger to the educational market, already having founded the Chegg on-line textbook rental company. Like the Entourage Edge, Kakai’s device is rumored to be a dual-screen foldable tablet, but another interesting piece of the puzzle comes from a (no-longer available) job posting for senior visual designer, as quoted by a VentureBeat article: Kakai is working on the leading edge of touch/gestural interfaces for connected and disconnected devices,...

While it was tempting to grace this post with a picture of blue-skinned aliens, I’m actually talking about a quite different Pandora than the one depicted in James Cameron’s Avatar (though the humans in that movie did use electronic tablets for data display, complete with a very nice user interface for syncing where the image was simply slid off of the desktop and onto a tablet a la Minority Report). After residing in Development Hell for some time, it appears the Pandora open-source Linux-powered hand-held game console is nearly ready to ship. The device will have a 4.3”...

Editor's Note: the following was sent to me by Ansgar Warner of Medienbüro Mitte in Germany. Many thanks! PB Wasn't it Edgar Allan Poe who used to say “My terror is not from Germany, but from the soul”? Judging from the potential threat the German WePad could pose to the iPad, Steve Jobs might as well put it vice versa. If not threatening, the tablet's specs sound at least really promising. „Android. USBs. Camera. Multitasks. If I could buy the WePad in Germany in a week, it would replace my iPad for sure“ no one else than Jeff...

Received an email from Laisvunas Sopauskas about a set of programs he, and I, had never heard of before. Over at Lucidor.org are the following. Check them out and leave your comments here: Lucidor - Lucidor is a computer program for reading and handling e-books. Lucidor supports e-books in the EPUB file format, and catalogs in the OPDS format. Lucidor runs on the GNU/Linux, Windows and Mac OS X platforms.Lucidor is developed by Ordbrand. Lucidor provides functionality to Read EPUB e-books; Organize a collection of e-books in a local bookcase; Search for and download e-books from the Internet,...

Dulin's eBooks is introducing 3 new ereaders. All use the standard Vizplex display. The 5 inch includes a built-in cover and accellerometer and, using Linux, will read FB2, FB2.zip, txt, pdf, rtf, html, prc, chm, djvu, doc, epub and tcr. Included are an rss reader, calendar, notes, chess, sudoku, solitaire, ship battle and clock programs. It goes for $240. Additionally there is a 6" reader going for $275 and another 6" reader with a Wacom digitizer, WiFi and a web browser, but that one is not available yet. Thanks to E-Reader-info for the heads-up....

I am in St. Louis this weekend, along with my parents, for a visit to my brother, sister-in-law, and four nieces and nephews. I am away from my own desktop computer, and am having to make do with a slightly flaky Ubuntu laptop---and do not quite have either the energy or the facilities to write the in-depth examination of how the PRS-700 deals with different e-book formats that I had intended. However, I have brought along the PRS-700 (as well as my iPod Touch) and have observed a few possibly-unexpected uses of the Sony Reader---and another flaw or two---along the way. (Update:...

I have just spent a day trying various different types of e-books with the PRS-700 that Sony has loaned me for the next two weeks. By and large, it has been an interesting experience, and I’m starting to see a lot about the advantages and disadvantages of e-ink. It’s been interesting. In this post, I will cover the installation process, and take a brief look at two conduits—the included Library and the open-source Calibre. Future posts will include some photographic comparisons between the 700 and other readers I have been using. Quick Start I guess that someone at Sony had the...