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Google eBooks-Integrated E-reader Out On Sunday

Posted by Unknown on from the ereader-burnings-considerably-more-toxic dept.

minutetraders sends word of an announcement from Google. Quoting: "Starting this coming Sunday, July 17, the iriver Story HD e-reader will be available for sale in Target stores nationwide and on Target.com. The iriver Story HD is the first e-reader integrated with the open Google eBooks platform." It appears iriver has released source for the GPL components on the device, unlike the last time around.

37 of 56 comments (clear)

  1. Re:"over-the-air" ? by spaceplanesfan · · Score: 1

    Besides, isn't WiFi transferred by electromagnetic waves and thus need to air? Or they transfer data using ultrasound?
    (For dense, that is a joke)

  2. As someone who mostly reads books in bed by Flector · · Score: 1

    It's going to be hard to beat swiping across a touch-screen to change pages.

    1. Re:As someone who mostly reads books in bed by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 2

      As someone who also mostly reads books in bed, it's hard to beat physical "next/previous page" buttons conveniently located on the edge of the device (as in Kindle). Swiping the screen requires moving the thumb, whereas with buttons you can hold your fingers on "next" and just push as you need.

      ("too lazy?" hell yes, that's why I read books in bed in the first place!)

    2. Re:As someone who mostly reads books in bed by Flector · · Score: 1

      As I think about it,e- readers should have microphones so you can whistle or make other sounds to change pages.

    3. Re:As someone who mostly reads books in bed by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      I think that would get tiresome real quick.

      Nah, what I'd want is some kind of wireless switch, conveniently shaped such that it can be clutched in a fist, with a single button for "next page". That way you can keep your hand under the pillow (or wherever is most convenient) while reading, without having to reach out to the device to flip pages.

    4. Re:As someone who mostly reads books in bed by geekoid · · Score: 1

      More movement means being brought out of the story more.

      Swiping is horrible vs a convienant button.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    5. Re:As someone who mostly reads books in bed by geekoid · · Score: 1

      Naw, it should be an eye motion detector. when you look at the bottom of the page, it automatically changes

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    6. Re:As someone who mostly reads books in bed by MartinSchou · · Score: 1

      I can't say I've tried other readers, but the iPad doesn't require you to swipe either. Just touch the side. Both in the iBook and Kindle app. You can, but you don't need to

      Honestly I'd be surprised if any other touch screen tablet would require you to swipe to turn the page.

    7. Re:As someone who mostly reads books in bed by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      Yes, normally you tap the side. Unfortunately, due to the nature of capacitive touchscreens, you can't just rest the finger at that spot and push harder to press, since even the slightest touch is registered. With hardware buttons, you can do that, though how convenient that is depends on where the buttons are located; my favorite still remains Sony PRS-505, where you had three (!) sets of forward/back buttons in different locations, so you could always find one that's convenient for your pose, whether lying, sitting or standing.

    8. Re:As someone who mostly reads books in bed by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 2

      I have both a kindle2 and regular touchscreen tablets/phones/etc.

      the finger swipe is 'cool' but you know, its tiring and not all that efficient.

      kindle got it right. I hate giving amazon credit but they got it right.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    9. Re:As someone who mostly reads books in bed by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

      I'm almost surprised at how Sony managed to go from being among the most interesting players in the dedicated e-reader business to a pathetic, overpriced, also-ran in such a relatively short span of time. They were practically the only people making e-ink readers of any size and quality, back when 'ebook' still usually meant "Project Gutenberg on my Palm Pilot"(not that there's anything wrong with that, weasel reader 4 lyfe!). Now the market has all kinds of exploded and I haven't even seen a Sony display model in at least a year(in context, I see probably a dozen kindles, 2-5 nooks, a few ipads, and I-known-not-how-many assorted smartphones on my average daily commute, so it isn't a market-acceptance problem...)

    10. Re:As someone who mostly reads books in bed by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      Well, Sony readers are featured pretty prominently in all Best Buys I've seen in the last few years, so it's not all that bad... but ultimately, I think it boils down to the fact that stores for Kindle and Nook are that much better (in both amount of content, and convenience of use).

      For Kindle, in particular, it's tough to beat its 3G OTA shopping, and the convenience of having it synchronize across all your devices - I read with DX at home for that large screen convenience, but I also have a v3 for when I go out, and occasionally I also use Kindle app on my phone when I unexpectedly end up in a queue somewhere.

    11. Re:As someone who mostly reads books in bed by ncc74656 · · Score: 1

      As someone who also mostly reads books in bed, it's hard to beat physical "next/previous page" buttons conveniently located on the edge of the device (as in Kindle).

      Tapping the left or right edge of the screen is sufficient to change pages with the iBooks app. I think that also works with Stanza...not so sure if the Kindle app supports it, or if it only knows swipe-left/right. With an iPhone at least, tapping either side with the thumb of the hand that's holding it is easy enough.

      --
      20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
    12. Re:As someone who mostly reads books in bed by Serious+Callers+Only · · Score: 1

      the finger swipe is 'cool' but you know, its tiring and not all that efficient.

      On iOS at least you don't have to swipe at all, you can tap the edge of the page - so you could easily navigate without moving your hands from the edge of the device.

    13. Re:As someone who mostly reads books in bed by teh+kurisu · · Score: 1

      I kinda feel sorry for Sony, because they have been doing some things right with their latest batch of e-readers. They got Pearl e-ink devices to market at around the same time as Amazon did, and they came with those infra-red based touchscreens long before the latest Nook.

      Ultimately what I think has hurt them is the lack of wireless, and hence a lack of integration between their devices and their store. Kindles and Nooks are sold as an entire package (iPads too to some extent), whereas a Sony Reader is only half of what you need.

      I think Waterstones are still pushing Sony readers in the UK, because they have a compatible e-book store. And because the Nook is unavailable here, that puts them second in the market. But it's a distant second behind the Kindle.

    14. Re:As someone who mostly reads books in bed by treeves · · Score: 1

      So real (dead tree) books were always a problem for you?

      --
      ...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
    15. Re:As someone who mostly reads books in bed by jgoemat · · Score: 1

      Yes, normally you tap the side. Unfortunately, due to the nature of capacitive touchscreens, you can't just rest the finger at that spot and push harder to press

      Dear God, how did you survive when you had to actually turn a page?

    16. Re:As someone who mostly reads books in bed by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      Do you have to remind me of psychological traumas I've experienced in childhood? ~

  3. Re:No Thank You by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

    My understanding is that only their pay-for books are thus DRMed. They also have that vast catalog of(often esoteric, and sometimes imperfectly scanned; but generally beats having to tromp down to the nearest university library that won't give me a nasty look) scanned public domain stuff. Also epub format; but the only restriction appears to be having to solve a CAPTCHA before downloading...

    The announcement of yet-another-DRM-ebook service is a bit of a yawn, point-and-click loading over wifi of all kinds of interesting scanned articles is why I hacked the Google Books android application onto my Nook.

  4. Re:No Thank You by Inner_Child · · Score: 2

    Funny, I've been using Linux to check out e-books from my local library for several months, at least. And B&N's DRM is just as easily defeatable as the ADEPT scheme. Please don't bother posting ignorant comments unless you've bothered to do a rudimentary search first. Hell, the page where you get the info for removing B&N DRM? It's the same as for removing ADEPT! Not to mention there are plugins for Calibre that make it a simple matter of dragging and dropping the DRMed files into Calibre, and getting wonderful DRM-free files out the other side, nicely organized, too.

    --
    Today is red jello day - all workers must eat all of their red jello. Failure to comply will result in five demerits.
  5. Not too bad. by Hadean · · Score: 1

    I had a chance to check out the iRiver Story HD (at CES 2011 and recently) and it is a good product, on par with other e-readers today (though I think I still prefer the Kindle and the side buttons, even if the screen was a little better). I just wish it and Google eBooks were available in Canada so we would have some good competition in the e-books realm. I'm looking at publishing my first novel (Rawmesh, http://www.rawmesh.net/ [rawmesh.net]) soon and want to have it primarily as an e-book (and print on demand), but I would like a few more options up here sooner rather than later...

    I tend to like iRiver’s products, though I have to admit that I’m not a big fan of how this e-reader looks -- and I’m not the only one (http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/07/google-and-iriver-make-worlds-ugliest-e-reader/). One issue I have is with Google’s epub eBooks themselves -- sometimes the OCR software is having a bad day, and the books have some odd (or hilarious) mistakes in them. Evil or not, I’m sticking with Amazon (for now).

    1. Re:Not too bad. by e3m4n · · Score: 1

      so what was battery life like on it? One thing that I absolutely love about my kindle3 is that I can turn off the wifi and 3g after charging it up and read for damn near 6wks straight @ 2hrs / night without having to charge up. And thats while using the built in LED reading light integrated in the cover 30% of the time. Having to keep the ipad charged on a damn-near daily basis just doesnt compare. When you factor in eye strain vs e-ink's no-strain reading I've been very happy with my kindle3. Granted some of my reading has come from other sources other than amazon.com but thats OK too.

    2. Re:Not too bad. by Hadean · · Score: 1

      Exactly a reason why I still like my Kindle. Unfortunately, I never got to play with it long enough to see how the long the battery would last, though I was promised it would be equivalent to other e-ink readers (in the weeks with regular use and wi-fi turned off). The original iRiver Story lasts about 9000 page turns, so I'm guessing this would be similar.

  6. Considering... by Sinthet · · Score: 1

    $140 isn't all that much, plus its open-source. I've been wondering if these e-book readers are any good, and this seems like a pretty good deal, not to mention the Google books integration. If it turns out that its hacker friendly, I'm definitely getting one.

  7. Re:No Thank You by Rashkae · · Score: 1

    By no means would I ever encourage anyone put up with DRM. However, for those interested, it's worth knowing that Adobe Digital editions works great on Linux via Wine, (and as a bonus, De-DRM tools are able to extract the key it uses to fix the DRM)

  8. Kobo touch beat it to market for less by Rashkae · · Score: 2

    Unfortunately for Google E-books, Kobo has already released the Touch. It took the compnay 3 tries, but they finally got it right. You can tap the side of the page to turn page (Sony requires a swipe if you use the touch screen, which does becomes tiresome by comparison.)

    You probably won't see it on display models, (unfortunately), but with the new firmware update, it also allows you to install your own fonts, (as well as a built in selectoin of 5), as well as the ability to adjust page margins and line height to your comfort. And it sells for less.... so yeah, this device is too little too late.

  9. Re:No, they did release the source by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

    One usually imagines trolls as being gleeful because they ruined people's day without having to put any effort in.

    But here you are putting all this effort into trolling... which makes it more sad, than anything. I mean, about 10 seconds after clicking goatse the person will simply move on with their day; to waste so much time on a pointless endeavor, how bored must you be?

  10. sorry, don't want my page-by-page reading stored by The_Laughing_God · · Score: 3, Informative

    After a year of increasing interest, I'll be buying a reader or tablet this week. I almost pulled the trigger 3x this weekend, but each time found a better deal on a better model -- though ultimately, *any* of the the three, in hand by the end of next week, will be adequate

    I was excited to read about this release. It felt like a serendipitous alignment until I realized that I wouldn't have actual possession of ANY file, just a 'service' feeding me a page at a time -- and Google is quite clear that it logs each page I read and when (it touts this as a feature, saying they record it so I can pick up on the same page of each of my ebooks on any other device).

    Do I want to be cut off from all my eBooks in wifi or wireless outage? No. That's when I'll want a book or manual most --- during an outage, in a plane, in the woods, in a lab or shielded room... Do I want anyone monitoring and recording exactly what pages I read or re-read and how often, tech or fiction? Nope.

    I'm amazed /.ers take this so lightly

    So much for serendipitous fortune. This reader is off my list, until it's hacked to keep Google OUT unless invited

  11. features I'm waiting for by bcrowell · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Features I'm waiting for before I buy an e-book reader:

    1. I'm not touching anything with DRM, because any book I buy with DRM is virtually guaranteed to be unreadable in four years.

    2. A decent selection of books.

    3. Good support for books with equations in them.

    Iriver apparently fails #1. The WP article on google ebooks says it's touted as open, but actually uses DRM.

    A quick search for books by an author I like shows that only a small fraction of his books are available, so fail on #2 as well.

    All epub-based formats basically fail #3. Dunno about the formats supported by google ebooks.

    --
    Find free books.
    1. Re:features I'm waiting for by jtownatpunk.net · · Score: 2

      Ya know, I dislike DRM as much as the next guy (actually way more than most next guys since I know what it is and what it represents) but, at some point, you're just going to have to get over it and remove the DRM from whatever you decide to purchase. Once a DRM scheme is standardized, The Man is locked into a specific method of protection which can be easily bypassed.

      1) DRM exists and it's not going away any time soon. What the smart consumer wants is fast adoption within the industry so hackers can get busy making tools to circumvent the chosen "protection" ASAP. Removing the DRM from my ePub purchases takes all of several seconds per title. After that, I can use Calibre to convert it to any format I want so I can move it to new platforms in the future. Beats the hell out of refusing to move forward because the path isn't laid out exactly the way I want.

      2) If you don't mind pirating, you can find just about every popular book available online for free. The lack of popular titles in online storefronts is the fault of back-asswards publishers who think they're selling paper rather than content. If they won't pull their heads out, buy a paperback copy and download a pirated version. At least the author is still getting their miniscule cut of the action if you do that. I've even found a few particularly popular titles which have better pirated ebooks than legitimate ebooks because fans have taken the time to do a good job with the layout.

      3) Layout is something you'll have to take up with the publishers. Until they pull their heads out, there will be problems in this area. Also, the current generation of dedicated book readers don't have the pixel density necessary to properly simulate a printed page. Until you start seeing pixel counts that match what you get on a laser printer, it will be difficult to create ebooks that look as good as the printed versions without significantly reducing the amount of content on the page. The FORMAT is not the problem. It's the lack of effort put into creating a proper LAYOUT that looks good on the available readers. All of the major formats are quite capable of being used to present a quality reading experience when an effort is made to design a presentation that is tailored to the output device. Shit in, shit out. It doesn't matter what format publishers use if they don't make a proper effort to create a layout that looks good on the final output device.

      Also, DRM doesn't have a darn thing to do with being "open". All sorts of "open" projects involve encryption and access controls. I don't know where people get the idea that a project or product can't be considered open if it involves controlling data access and distribution.

  12. Google releasing a new hardware product? by Garabito · · Score: 1

    It will be a hit! Just like the Nexus One was...

  13. Re:No Thank You by Captain+Hook · · Score: 1

    Which means that you have paid for a crippled format which although you can decrypt still gives the publishers the idea that DRM is acceptable.

    I wont touch DRM on books even if I can decrypt them because I think it sends the wrong signal about acceptable behaviour.

    --
    These comments are my personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the other voices in my head.
  14. Re:No, they did release the source by tehcyder · · Score: 1

    The first rule of any internet forum is DON'T FEED THE TROLLS.

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  15. Disappointing Device by ITMagic · · Score: 1

    Although I can't comment on the iRiver Story, I do have the Cover Story. For anyone interested, these are my thoughts on it:

    The technical specs were (for me) pretty much perfect. It was most definitely a purchase made on specs, rather than having the product in my hand prior to buying it. But I have a lot of niggles - which renders the device somewhat less than perfect...

    First, the good stuff. DRM is not an issue - for me, at least. That is an Adobe thing, and I don't have any DRM'd PDFs. The device should handle most of the (normal) formats you can throw at it. It is touch screen, with WiFi.

    But that's all. Forget the "Open Source" crap. Sure, it's linux. But the download link is an odd .jpg of the GNU preamble, with an iframe for the actual license text. The links to sources are odd javascript, pointing to old versions hosted god-knows where. I can't see the tool-chain and anything else required to actually compile a working binary. Not that that would help, because I haven't worked out how to gain root access - which you need to. The fonts installed are useless for anything other than standard US English (major complaint).

    What else? Crap battery life. Turn off the WiFi, and you might get 24 hours of reading time (but I can't). I know some people complain about the touch screen, but I can live with that, just.

    All in all, the average user should avoid this device like the plague. Hell, I'd even recommend the kindle above this, at least for usability (despite the kindle/1984 intrusion). *If* someone manages to write a HOWTO about jailbreaking it, and compiling user software (or iRiver have a more helpful attitude), then it *might* be an interesting toy. DRM on this device is so insignificant a problem that you can ignore it - I suspect that Google would not really want to promote this ability, anyway. It's the encrypted kernel firmware that gets my goat.

  16. Dead on arrival by DrChandra · · Score: 1

    No audio, so it can't double as an MP3 player like Kindle. You can't use it to read audio books, which is a great thing to do while driving the car. Amazon downloads Audible.com books directly via Wifi into Kindle.

    I like the better display, and the Wifi download, and the SD card slot.

    I'd like it more if I could be sure it's running Android, like the Nook, so I can maintain the OS after they stop doing so. I see some GPL, but can it be built and installed on the device?

    Sorry, but it's missing some of the key things that Kindle has, so it doesn't compete well, at least not for me.

    If I'm wrong about any of these facts, blame the website, where they don't seem to like going into much detail. Oh, and buy an 's' once in a while will you? A plural word like "Products" is what we expect when referring to more than one Product, Feature or Specification. Bad English isn't stylish, it's annoying.

    --
    Words, words, words ... Buz, buz! - Hamlet, Act II, Scene II
  17. Re:sorry, don't want my page-by-page reading store by dargaud · · Score: 1

    Do I want to be cut off from all my eBooks in wifi or wireless outage?

    Without even looking at the specs, it's a safe bet to assume that there's gonna be a cache for offline reading on that thing.

    --
    Non-Linux Penguins ?
  18. popular shoes by new+air+jordan+ · · Score: 1

    The most popular shoes, however, continues to be the Air Jordan , regardless of how many years Michael Jordan has been retired.