Beyond Binary

NEW YORK--As nearly everyone already knows, Barnes & Noble is officially entering the e-reader business on Tuesday with the launch of the Nook, a $259 device with an e-ink display as well as a secondary color touch screen.

I'm on hand at the Chelsea Piers event to provide live coverage and share whatever surprises might be remaining.

4 p.m. EDT: The event hasn't started, but I can tell you all of the rumors and leaks are basically true. It looks like what you think, and you will be able to lend e-books to a friend who can read it on their Nook or other device compatible with Barnes and Noble's software.

Also, there are some high-fashion cases from Kate Spade New York and Jonathan Adler.

(Credit: Barnes & Noble)

4:20 p.m. EDT: Things are about to get started.

4:23 p.m. EDT: Barnes & Noble CEO Steve Riggio kicks things off, noting company's entire management team and some of its directors are at the event.

4:25 p.m. EDT: Riggio noted that the company has innovated in the past, re-imagining the college bookstore, becoming the first major bookseller to discount and then moving online, including being the first to offer e-books (an effort it abandoned several years later).

Books, he said, are still a huge market, bigger than music, Riggio noted. "This industry that we are all a part of is still a huge industry."

Launch of software in July was first step to e-books, he said. Today, is the second step.

4:30 p.m. EDT: "Thank you for bearing the Obama blockade to get here," William Lynch, president of Barnes & Noble.com. President Obama is going to be at Columbus Circle this afternoon for an event, leading to extra traffic snarls in the area.

Lynch leads a technology team based in Palo Alto, Calif. Notes that they have had over a million downloads since they launched their e-book store in July. Lynch gives a nod to the Que, the large screen Plastic Logic device due out next year. Barnes & Noble is powering the Que's book store.

4:35 p.m. EDT: "Simply following the leader is not in our DNA," Lynch said, introducing the Nook. Rolls video with some of the details--It supports PDF, uses AT&T's wireless network, can be customized with photos.

4:37 p.m. EDT: Can choose up to five fonts, 2GB of memory on board with Micro SD slot. Nook owners can add pictures, music and personal documents. Use of touchscreen and Android means new features can be added over time.

"LendMe" technology lets users lend a book for up to two weeks from one Nook to another. They demo using Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point." Mid-demo, Gladwell comes on stage in person and starts reading from his book.

"Just to be clear Malcolm Gladwell does not come with the book," one executive quipped. However early Nook customers will get a free copy of "The Tipping Point" with their e-reader.

4:45 p.m. EDT: Riggio notes Nook will be sold in all Barnes & Noble stores this holiday season, adding that the retail stores will be a huge advantage, with its 40,000 store workers serving as ambassadors to help customers understand e-books. In-store users will be able to browse complete e-Books in store at the stores over the Nook's built in Wi-Fi.

4:46 p.m. EDT: Pre-orders begin tonight online and soon in stores, but device itself won't be in stores and ship until the end of November. As mentioned, it will cost $259.

4:47 p.m. EDT: Riggio promises more to come. "We're going to blow you away with what we've got in store in the future," Riggio said.

4:48 p.m. EDT: Formal event is over, but there is a media Q and A, so we'll try and find out about Web browsing, apps and other questions.

5:00 p.m. EDT: Got some answers.

No Web browser: We think browsers on e-ink are a really clumsy experience," said Lynch.

As for apps, nothing to announce today, but the company did choose Android in part because it liked fact that lots of people were developing for Android.

"It's not lost on us there will be a lot of development on Android," Lynch said.

Lending does work from Nook to other devices, as I indicated earlier. However, they noted that some books are lendable and others are not, per the wishes of the publishers.

The Nook supports PDF and ePub formats, as well as legacy Fictionwise, but not, Microsoft Word.

Wi-Fi is only in the store, for now, to allow streaming and free content.

5:09 p.m. EDT: More from the Q and A session.

The touch screen is capacitive, similar to the iPhone. Library e-books could be side loaded onto the Nook if they are in PDF or ePub format.

"We're committed to being extremely competiitve on e-Book pricing, whatever that means," Lynch said.

Lending works similar to in the physical world. If you have lent a book to someone else, you don't have access to it while it has been lent.

5:13 p.m. EDT: The company is exploring creating an e-Reader application for other Android devices and also plans to support Windows Mobile.

Lynch said that the company has also been talking with publishers about the notion of bundling where those that buy a physical book would also be able to get a digital copy.

NEW YORK--Barnes & Noble's forthcoming electronic book reader will be called the Nook and sell for $259, according a report in The Wall Street Journal.

The Journal, citing a forthcoming ad for the product, also says the device will feature the ability to lend electronic books to others as well as a widely reported dual-screen display that features an electronic ink display and a smaller color touch screen.

The bookseller is expected to unveil the device at an event here on Tuesday. Leaked photos of the device cropped up last week. Also, as I noted earlier on Monday, Barnes & Noble has received FCC approval to start selling an electronic book reader.

The field, long dominated by Amazon's Kindle, is quickly becoming more crowded. In addition to a new crop of devices from Sony, a host of others have either announced products or plans for products that combine an e-ink display and wireless connection.

Plastic Logic said on Monday that its larger-screen Que device will be out early next year, while start-up Spring Design announced plans for a device that sounds a whole lot like the Nook, though a spokeswoman told CNET News that the company was not involved with Barnes & Noble's device.

Spring Design's Alex e-reader, announced Monday. Could it offer clues about the expected book gadget from Barnes & Noble?

(Credit: Spring Design)

It's not like it wasn't already pretty clear that Barnes & Noble is planning to do an e-reader, what with the leaked photos and invitation and all.

But for skeptics who needed more convincing, the company has also received FCC approval to start selling such a device. The OK came last month, but most of the juicy parts--the external photos and user manual and stuff were marked confidential.

It should all become totally official on Tuesday, when Barnes & Noble has its event at the Chelsea Piers in New York.

Meanwhile, a company called Spring Design on Monday announced plans for a dual-screen Android-based e-reader that sounds a whole lot like what was depicted in those leaked photos.

In its press release, Spring Design said it is working with "selected strategic partners" to have the device on the market by the end of the year.

According to the announcement, Spring Design's device features a 6-inch e-ink screen and a 3.5-inch color display, and has full browsing abilities.

"This is the start of a whole new experience of reading content on e-books, potentially igniting a whole new industry in multimedia e-book publishing for secondary authors to create supplementary content that is hyper linked to the text. We are bringing life to books with audio, video, and annotations," Spring Design CEO Priscilla Lu said in a statement. "This gives readers the ability to fully leverage the resources on the Web, and the tools available in search engines to augment the reading experience."

Also, Spring Design's device is called Alex, while Barnes & Noble's device is said to be called Alexa.

Updated 11:30 a.m. PT: A Spring Design representative said that, although it is in talks with all major book players including Barnes & Noble, it is not involved in the product that Barnes & Noble is set to introduce on Tuesday.

Plastic Logic has given a name--but not a launch date--for its forthcoming e-reader.

The e-book reader, which can display electronic books as well as PDFs, PowerPoint, and other business documents, will be dubbed the Que, the company is announcing this week. Plastic Logic said it will show off the Que at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, at which time it will announce pricing, availability, and other details.

Plastic Logic plans to show off the Que at CES in January, at which time it will announce pricing, availability, and other details.

(Credit: PlasticLogic)

The product was originally slated for launch this year, but the company said in March that it would not arrive until early next year.

As previously detailed, the Que will have both Wi-Fi and a connection to AT&T's wireless network and is about the size of an 8.5-inch-by-11-inch pad of paper.

The big question facing Plastic Logic is how much of its thunder will have been stolen by the time it launches. Since the company first showed its prototype last year, Amazon has updated the Kindle and introduced a larger-screen Kindle DX, while Sony has also enhanced its product line.

"We're not worried about that at all and I think the main reason is that our reader is so different," Plastic Logic CEO Richard Archuleta said in an interview. "We haven't seen anybody even come close to what we're doing with our product."

Archuleta noted that the Que has a bigger screen that the Kindle DX and also has a user interface that lets users easily jump around within a document and among multiple documents.

Barnes & Noble, which powers the Que's bookstore, is widely expected to debut its own e-reader at an event in New York City on Tuesday.

In addition to Barnes & Noble, Plastic Logic also has content partnerships with USA Today, the Financial Times, Zinio, LibreDigital, and Ingram Digital.

Barnes & Noble has sent invitations to select media for an October 20 event in New York. Many expect the company to launch its own brand of e-book reader.

(Credit: CNET)

Barnes & Noble has sent out invitations to a New York event next week, where many expect the company will launch its own electronic-book model.

"Barnes & Noble cordially invites you to a major event in the company's history," Barnes & Noble said in an invitation received by CNET News. The launch comes conveniently (especially for this San Francisco-based reporter) two days before Microsoft uses New York as the launch pad for Windows 7.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Barnes & Noble is working on its own e-reader to rival products from Amazon and Sony. Barnes & Noble has already struck deals to serve as the bookstore for e-readers made by others, including Plastic Logic.

The company launched its own book-reading software in July, following its March purchase of Fictionwise.com.

Back in 2000, Barnes & Noble launched an e-book store, but discontinued sales of electronic books three years later.

Amazon said late Friday that it recalled two Kindle e-books because the publisher lacked the rights to the book. However, in the future, it says it won't pull already downloaded material from customers' devices.

The removal of two George Orwell books from the accounts of those who had already purchased them sparked an outcry from customers, bloggers, and mainstream media outlets.

"These books were added to our catalog using our self-service platform by a third-party who did not have the rights to the books," Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener said in an e-mail. "When we were notified of this by the rights holder, we removed the illegal copies from our systems and from customers' devices, and refunded customers."

Herdener said Amazon won't handle things the same way in the future. "We are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers' devices in these circumstances."

Some said that Amazon's move appeared to violate its own terms of service.

Much is being made this Friday over Amazon's move to essentially forcibly recall two e-books that some customers had purchased.

According to multiple reports, Amazon removed the books from users' accounts after the publisher decided to pull its e-book. (My favorite headline, by the way, was Seattlest's "Amazon's Kindle: Now with new take-backsies feature".)

(Credit: Amazon.com)

The publisher is certainly within its rights to stop selling the e-book and certainly Amazon needs to honor those wishes. But its hard to understand by what rights the retailer can remove the book from those who have already purchased one of the titles.

The added irony is that one of the two books in question is George Orwell's "1984." The other is Orwell's "Animal Farm."

The New York Times David Pogue quoted one reader that likened the move to "Barnes & Noble sneaking into our homes in the middle of the night, taking some books that we've been reading off our nightstands, and leaving us a check on the coffee table."

Peter Kafka at All Things Digital cites Amazon's terms of service, which don't seem to permit the move, noting that once users buy a book, they get "the non-exclusive right to keep a permanent copy of the applicable Digital Content and to view, use, and display such Digital Content an unlimited number of times, solely on the Device or as authorized by Amazon as part of the Service and solely for your personal, non-commercial use."

Even if there are contract terms somewhere that permit this, it sets a terrible precedent for the company, as it plays into some of customers' worst fears around digitally protected content.

One of the things I value as a customer of digital content is the idea that I can keep a book and have it with me whenever I want. It's one of several reasons that I own one of the e-book readers.

The idea that at any point Amazon can take it back and give me a refund is disturbing, to say the least. I've asked Amazon for comment and will let you know what I hear back.

When I misplaced my Kindle last year, I not only lost the device, but also any means of reading several e-books that I was in the middle of.

That all changed on Wednesday. My Kindle is no closer to home, but by downloading the new Kindle app for the iPhone (which also works on my iPod Touch), I was able to recover access to my virtual library. Not only that, but thanks to Whispersync, I was able to start reading right where I left off. Whispersync is Amazon's technology for keeping one's place in a book across multiple Kindles or cell phones.

Although I don't think the "I lost my Kindle" crowd is the target market, I must say it was very satisfying to wake up Wednesday once again having access to books that had seemed lost.

The experience highlights both the pros and cons of the "digital locker" approach taken by Amazon with Kindle content. Although some have criticized the fact that one can't resell or give away their Kindle books, the site does provide other aspects of true ownership. In this case, I didn't need to re-buy anything and as soon as I entered my account information, I had access to every book I had purchased for the Kindle. (Periodicals don't work on the iPhone or iPod Touch.)

As for reading on the iPod Touch (or iPhone), I found it quite acceptable for my 15-minute public transit commute to work. The iPod's small size makes it easy to read on a crowded train. One can even hold the iPod and flip pages in one hand while hanging on to a handrail with the other hand.

Ina Fried's Kindle is still among the missing, but thanks to the new iPhone/iPod Touch application, she was reunited Wednesday with her electronic library.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

That said, I'm not sure I won't go out and buy a Kindle 2 eventually. The iPod Touch reading experience, while fine for short bursts, isn't the easy-on-the-eyes phenomenon I had with the Kindle. It's harder to buy books and I can't read newspapers or magazines. Also, I suspect it will do a number on my iPod's battery.

At the same time, I won't be deleting that iPod app even if I do replace my Kindle. The option of reading on my iPod will help for my commute to work and for those trips where I can't bear to carry an extra device.

Ultimately, the end result is likely to be that I will just be reading (and buying) more electronic books. And, in the end, that's exactly what Amazon wants.

SEATTLE--Amazon wanted to make the Kindle 2 hot, but not too hot.

It gave it a slimmer design and more storage, but there are a lot of things Amazon could have added, but didn't. Things like a color display not only would make the device pricier and give it a shorter battery life, but would also make the gadget uncomfortable to hold.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos holds up a Kindle 2 at the device's recent launch in New York City.

(Credit: David Carnoy/CNET Networks)

"One of the great things about Kindle is it doesn't ever get hot," Amazon Vice President Ian Freed said in an interview at Amazon's downtown office here. That's important, Freed said, given that the company has one main goal with the Kindle--making the product as invisible to users as possible when they are reading.

"The most important thing for the Kindle to do is to disappear," Freed said. That was the goal with the first device and was also a key factor in deciding what would go in the sequel, which started shipping on Monday. There are the obvious factors, like the thinner, sleeker design. But there are also things like an improved cellular modem. As a result, Kindle users will find themselves out of range in fewer places to get updates or buy a new book.