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(Credit: Plastic Logic)

Plastic Logic and Barnes & Noble announced on Tuesday that Plastic Logic's Que proReader will be sold through Barnes & Noble's retail stores and on B&N's Web site in 2010. The Que is Plastic Logic's long-awaited e-reader that is not set to be officially unveiled until January 7 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, but both companies continue to promote the device vigorously as Barnes & Noble gets set to launch its Nook e-book reader in November.

While Plastic Logic has yet to show a full profile image of the Que, it has provided some details. The device will feature a larger, "shatterproof" 8.5-inch by 11-inch e-ink display with an integrated capacitive touch screen--it's unclear whether the touch screen is a separate, smaller color LCD like the one found on the Nook or whether the entire display will be a touch screen--and have Wi-Fi and AT&T 3G wireless capabilities, like the $259 Nook does.

The slim Que (one-third inch thick), which is geared toward mobile ... Read more

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:... Read more

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 ... Read more

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 ... Read more

(Credit: Plastic Logic)

So far, Amazon's Kindle has been in a safe position as one of the dominant electronic readers on the market. However, this may be changing because its rival, the Plastic Logic e-Reader, has been busy gaining prelaunch partners.

Plastic Logic, the start-up maker of the possible Kindle "killer" e-reader, announced Thursday that Olive Software will be a key service provider and partner for the Plastic Logic Publishers Program. The partnership means the two companies will develop content-publishing solutions for newspapers, magazines, and Web content providers, as well as other publishers that distribute their content via Plastic Logic's e-reader.

Olive is a prominent digital publishing company that produces hundreds of newspapers and magazine titles across multiple platforms--including electronic reading devices, smartphones, browsers, and Internet-enabled TV.

Plastic Logic e-reader photos

The Plastic Logic e-reader is an electronic reader designed specifically for mobile users. The device will be about the size of an 8.5-inch by 11-inch pad of paper and weighs less than most magazines. It seems to be an ultrathin, simple, and strong ... Read more

(Credit: Plastic Logic)

Last week, Plastic Logic hooked up with Barnes & Noble. Now it's got something going with AT&T to provide the 3G wireless connection for its upcoming e-reader, due out in early 2010.

Early Wednesday, the company announced the agreement, though details were scant. There was no mention of pricing, and it remains unclear whether you'll have to pay extra for AT&T's 3G service or whether it will be included with the device, like it is with Amazon's Kindle. (Amazon has a partnership with Sprint to supply the Kindle's wireless connection.) However, the announcement does note that AT&T offers worldwide coverage and that "AT&T devices work in more than 200 countries and regions."

Plastic Logic's upcoming e-reader has been in the works for a while. It uses E-ink technology, is about the size of an 8.5-by-11-inch pad of paper, is less than 0.25 inches thick, and weighs less than many print magazines (at least the ones that still attract advertising). It also ... Read more

(Credit: Modern Mommy Gear)

Food storage bags have revolutionized how we store edibles for longer periods of time, divide bulk bags into healthy portions, and pack lunches for workdays. The problem is that we use millions of them every year, and many of them end up in oceans, rivers, and landfills. Since they're not biodegradable, they end up staying there for a long time.

I'm certainly guilty of using the bags: on any given day, I'll use at least one, whether it's in a packed lunch or to bag dinner leftovers. I try to limit my use of them, but when I do have to use them, this bag dryer will thankfully let me reuse them too.

The Bag-E-Wash is handmade in Canada, and dries up to eight bags at a time. After being washed with soap and water, the bags are dried on the rack, preparing them for their next use. This simple act could cumulatively do wonders for the environment: if you reuse your 25-pack of sandwich bags 5 ... Read more

(Credit: Plastic Logic)

Plastic Logic envisions its e-reader simplifying life for students.

(Credit: Plastic Logic)

CARLSBAD, Calif.--In between the big name CEOs speaking at D: All Things Digital, Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg also have a few tech companies on stage to show their wares.

A short while ago, electronic book maker Plastic Logic showed off the user interface of its touch-screen reader, which is due out early next year. The interface seemed simple, although the page turns on the prototype seemed interminable.

The company wouldn't reveal pricing, but did say that the device will have both Wi-Fi and 3G wireless, though it did not specify the carrier. As for color screens, they said they have it working in their labs, but it won't be a next year kind of thing.

Currently, the CTO of force feedback specialist Immersion is showing a couple new technologies, including a prototype touchscreen keyboard. When a user presses a key on the soft keyboard they not only see and hear which key they have pressed but can feel it as well.

"It is a very natural experience," said Immersion CTO Cristophe Ramstein. "Sounds are not as profound as touch to give you this feel."

The second demo was what the company is calling "hapticons," essentially adding feel to an electronic message. He sent a love note to Mossberg, with his screen pulsing to a beating heart.

British adventurer and bank dynasty heir David de Rothschild plans to sail from San Francisco to Australia--in a boat made from discarded soft-drink bottles.

No sharp epoxy smells greet us on San Francisco's Pier 31 when we go to visit de Rothschild on a sunny weekday afternoon. Instead, popping sounds from bottles being re-inflated echo like a huge popcorn machine in the northern end of a hangar. This is where the strange vessel, called "Plastiki," is being built.

In part of this hangar the size of a football field, 12,000 recycled bottles donated by the Waste Management company are being washed, cleaned, and pressurized for their new role--acting as flotation devices in the two pontoons of the 60-foot high-tech catamaran.

"If we really want to move from Planet 1.0 to Planet 2.0, we need to really start taking action and stop just talking," de Rothschild says as he arrives at the construction site.

The tall, bearded 30-year-old--a charismatic scion of the British Rothschild bank dynasty and the youngest British person to ever reach both the North and South poles--demands attention as he circles the busy site.

He runs the Adventure Ecology educational organization and is the mastermind behind the Plastiki project, which, among other things, aims to change people's perception of garbage. Today, most plastic bottles in the U.S. are not recycled, according to environmental organizations, and instead end up in the world's landfills and oceans.

"Thirty-nine billion plastic bottles are consumed in the U.S. every year," de Rothschild says. "Only 20 percent are recycled. Imagine what that is in terms of resources."

The lofty goal of a voyage to Australia has spurred a number of inventions. The skeletal hull, decks, and cabin of the boat, for example, are made of composite Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) plastic panels consisting of layers of self-reinforcing PET skins, a woven fabric made of reused plastic.

"What we have been exploring with is biocomposites, bioglues, biopolymers," de Rothschild says, "things that are not just going to be positive for this project, but have ongoing implications."