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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.

2 of 56 comments (clear)

  1. 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

  2. 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.

    --
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