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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.

(Credit: Epson)

One gripe I have with electronic viewfinders is that they're usually low-resolution displays with slower response times. Also, their color rendition is typically not as good as LCD's. But Epson's newly developed EVF seeks to correct all the flaws, and the company states that this can even replace optical viewfinders.

Epson's new EVF will utilize a 1.44-megapixel TFT color panel made from high-temperature polysilicon. It measures 1.2 inches diagonally and has a color filter to prevent tonal breakup when viewing fast-moving subjects through the EVF.

The Japanese firm is targeting its new product at dSLR manufacturers with hopes to replace the traditional OVF. This means dSLRs can be made smaller and slimmer by removing the mirror component that's necessary for reflecting light to the OVF.

However, we think the enhanced EVF is probably more suited for smaller shooters such as the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1, which employs an external EVF attachment. dSLR users may still be more used to OVF, whose main advantage is a zero lag response time and no color shifting caused by digitization of the scene. That said, Digital Photography Review did list some advantages for dSLRs to use Epson's EVF, one of them being the elimination of a mechanical lag time caused by the mirror moving when taking a shot.

Given that compact interchangeable lens camera systems such as Micro Four Thirds are gaining momentum in the industry and look set to be a huge trend in 2010, Epson's latest innovation will be welcomed by consumers who want high-resolution EVFs that offer minimal lag response and accurate color reproduction.

(Source: Crave Asia)

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.

(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET)

In Japan, for one week a year the spotlight of this gadget-obsessed country is shifted from the urban neon oasis of Tokyo's Akihabara neighborhood and trained on an expansive convention hall an hour's commute outside of the city.

On Tuesday the purveyors of TVs thinner than a credit card, cell phones pressed with 3D screens, humanoid robots, and the latest in electric car technology descend, along with media, analysts, retail buyers, and industry executives for the opening of the Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies, known by the acronym Ceatec.

Photos: Early peek inside Ceatec show in Tokyo

It's the Japanese equivalent of Las Vegas' CES and Berlin's IFA, and like those two shows earlier this year, attendance is expected to be good, if slightly contracted as companies have cut back on expenses in light of the current economy.

At Ceatec 2008, 804 exhibitors and 196,630 attendees flooded the floor of the Makuhari Messe, a dip from the 895 exhibitors and 206,000 attendees in 2007. The tenor of this year's show should be a bit less gloomy than last year's--which took place the same week banks were failing right and left and Wall Street seemed on the brink of collapse. We'll keep our fingers crossed for less economic drama during this year's show.

Murata Girl shows off her unicycling talents at Ceatec 2008.

(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET)

Things we are hoping for: more cute robots! Ceatec is unlikely to disappoint in this respect. Last year's expo saw the debut of automatons that did everything from perform front-office reception tasks to helping the elderly. But based on the crowds she drew, the star was undoubtedly Murata Girl, a unicycle-riding robot. This year, we hear she'll be back with even more tricks up her sleeve.

Like those robots, there's also an amazing array of stuff shown at Ceatec we'll never see in stores on this side of the Pacific--see our gallery of cool concept cell phones. But while Ceatec offers a glimpse into the future of gadgetry, the convention hall is also packed to the skylights with practical products.

Last year was the first time Ceatec established a separate pavilion for green technology, and it's back this year. Nissan, which takes its electric cars very seriously, will be there, as will Toshiba. Though not thought of traditionally as a car company, it believes its Supercharge ion battery (SCiB) is perfectly suited for electric cars and scooters. Besides green car technology, we'll also see electronic parts that make ordinary gadgets like TVs and digital signs greener.

ElectronLuv amplifiers are vacuum tube designs.

(Credit: ElectronLuv)

For over 10 years ElectronLuv has been producing custom amplifiers and high-end components.

I think they're awesome-looking things, and I love that they're built to order. In a way ElectronLuv's design ethos reminds me of the "American Chopper" TV series where they custom build high-end motorcycles to order. But in this case it's stereo pre- and power amplifiers, guitar amplifiers, turntables, and horn speakers designed to meet ElectronLuv's customers' desires.

ElectronLuv also makes custom guitar amplifiers.

(Credit: ElectronLuv)

Some might call it steampunk or retro chic, but I think ElectronLuv products are unique and represent the best of American high-end audio.

ElectronLuv's Josh Stippich needs three to six months to design and build each of his one-of-a-kind products. In the early design stages Stippich sends his customers drawings to get feedback so he can give them exactly what they want.

Flat-screen televisions are a major upgrade from existing cathode-ray tube TVs, making new high-definition sets one of the hottest-selling items in consumer electronics. But that dazzling picture and bigger screen come with a price: higher energy use.

To individual consumers, a bigger flat-screen TV might mean a noticeable bump in monthly electric bills. But at a national level, the onrush of these new energy-hungry TVs is a growing concern.

On Friday, the California Energy Commission finalized a proposal to regulate energy consumption in TVs sold in California sold after 2011.

The move is significant because California's stringent efficiency standards in appliances have impacted codes across the country in the past. California's efficiency measures in big appliances, such as refrigerators, have been credited with keeping the per capita electricity consumption in the state steady since the 1970s.

But not everyone is happy with the California measure, which is expected to pass in November. Industry association the Consumer Electronics Association opposes the proposal, arguing that any efficiency improvements should come from consumer demand rather than regulation.

To unwind some of the issues around energy efficiency and TVs, we offer this FAQ, which draws on the analysis of CNET Reviews' senior editor David Katzmaier, who has been measuring power consumption in TVs for the past three years. You can see the latest data at CNET's Energy Efficiency Guide and power ratings of 150 HDTVs.

If I buy a new flat-screen TV, will I be slapped with a huge energy bill?
Not necessarily. The primary reason flat-screen TVs consume more power is because they are bigger. The California Energy Commission estimates that per square inch, LCDs consume a bit more than CRTs, but most people are also upgrading in size, which means significantly more electricity use. That's one reason why TV product ratings from the likes of CNET and Consumer Reports now include yearly energy consumption estimates.

One of the coolest features for Spore gamers is the ability to create their own creatures. Now, anyone can assemble aliens through a new site set up by Electronic Arts.

Spore Creature Creator 2-D, released Wednesday, lets you conjure up and animate your own creatures using an assortment of eyes, arms, feet, horns, and various unidentifiable body parts.

Produced by EA's Maxis studio, the Flash-based game starts with a large egg cracking open to reveal a simple alien body that you mold online like a lump of clay. Thin, fat, long, or short--you devise your creature's basic shape. Then it's time to build your baby with the right parts.

The Spider

(Credit: Electronic Arts)

Choosing from such categories as mouths, limbs, and graspers, just drag your favorite body parts onto your creature to evolve it from a formless blob into a fully-functioning whatever. The game helps you along, directing you to drop the parts in all the right places. You can bend and resize many of the parts, giving your creature big eyes and a small mouth or long legs and stubby feet. You can also add a splash of paint by choosing from a wide palette of colors.

As you develop your creation, it takes on life by showing off its animated parts, such as a mouth that opens and closes, eyes that blink, and graspers that try to grasp. If you're in a hostile mood, you can even add weapons, like the Problem-Solvent that sprays solvent, the Hockitlauncher that spits out water, or the Phlegmthrower that shoots, uh, well, you get the idea.

If you need a helping hand, you don't have to build your creature from scratch. Spore Creature Creator 2-D lets you tap into the Sporepedia, an online gallery of creatures designed by Maxis developers and other Spore gamers. Simply load one of the pre-existing creatures and then tweak it to assemble a totally new organism.

Once you're done, it's time to name and describe your creature. You can then take it for a workout in the Creature Trainer arena, where you move it around the screen to catch bouncing balls with its mouth, hands, or other parts.

The Chamelon

(Credit: Electronic Arts)

If you're proud of your new creation, you can e-mail a postcard image of it to a friend or save it as a PNG file for your own picture gallery or Web site.

A variety of Spore masterpieces are viewable at the Sporepedia Web site. And for all you budding Spore artists, Maxis is offering a Creature Creator challenge. Recreate one of your favorite Spore creatures using Creature Creator 2-D for a chance to be featured on Spore.com.

Caryl Shaw, a senior producer at Maxis who helped bring Spore Creature Creator 2-D to life, told me the game came about because Maxis wanted to make Spore more accessible and let anyone with a Web browser experience the same creativity that Spore gamers enjoy. As one of the most popular features of Spore, the Creature Creator seemed a natural.