Alongside the Onyx Boox, there are two other eBook Readers that are taking aim at Kindle 2 -
- iRiver Japan’s Libre Reader which has a surprisingly clean cut look to it.
- BeBook 2 – which is the follow up to the BeBook and pictures for which are hard to find.
iRiver Japan’s Libre eBook Reader
The key things that caught my attention are -
- PDF support.
- Joystick based controller.
- SD Card slot.
- A rather clean cut looking device -
iRiver Reader Libre
BeBook 2 Reader from Endless Ideas
Here are the details that have been revealed -
- BeBook 2 will be unveiled at CeBit on March 6th. They’ll also be showing it off at the Salon du Livre (Paris, March 13th-18th).
- Launch will be before Summer 2009.
- Features WiFi and 3G connectivity.
- Touchscreen navigation.
- Wireless RSS support.
- Support for content from multiple formats/providers.
- You can take a look at the existing BeBook’s specifications to get an idea of what the BeBook 2 might be spec wise.
- BeBook 2 will get ePub DRM support in a few months.
Neither the BeBook 2, nor the iRiver Libre seem to be much of a threat to the Kindle 2. What is interesting is that both BeBook 2 and Onyx’ Boox reader have touchscreens and WiFi and 3G connectivity. Kindle 2 remains the clear-cut #1 choice – however, the gap is being whittled away by competitors.
Filed under: eBook Reader Devices Tagged: | bebook 2, iriver libre, kindle killer
I really don’t get peoples PDF infatuation. I have NEVER read a PDF on my kindle, but IF I wanted to, then I would user calibre to convert it then copy over, or I might use the email address that Amazon gave me.
Anyway, the fact that the iRiver supports PDF should not be news worthy, the fact that it is means that people don’t get it, or have never read a PDF on an ereader.
“Kindle 2 remains the clear-cut #1 choice”
Just curious about this statement. Do you say this because of content availability?
A few reasons –
1) widest range of content, including widest range of new content.
2) supplementable with free books from manybooks.net etc. (so you can’t really say that free books aren’t available).
3) Whispernet making browsing and purchasing really easy.
4) WhisperSync – which will become a BIG deal as soon as Kindle mobile gets launched and cellphones and laptops and netbooks get covered.
5) everyone who actually owns a Kindle or Kindle 2 tends to love it and give it 4 star or 5 star ratings.
switch11, thanks for the reply
PaulC:
I am a current Kindle 1 owner and I have many technical books in pdf and chm format. Yes, I have converted these but it is usually not as simple as just clicking a button. If I want a table of contents, there are a lot of manual steps involved. Of course, if the display of these formats natively on an ereader isn’t done well, then it wouldn’t be any better. But if it can do a good job with reflowing text and maintain the table of contents, it would be great.
Chris:
I am in a bit over my head, but…
As I understand it, your problem (a very real one) is that the a PDF file is created to fit certain size, usually 8×11. So when you put it on any reader that is smaller than that, you are bjorked. PDFs really aren’t very Portable.
Do other readers display PDFs “correctly”? or even better?
Thats why I never read PDFs on my kindle I guess.
That is a good question. Most pdf’s display alright on the Kindle, as long as they don’t have tables or things like that. Programming stuff doesn’t fare as well. Basically, it’s great for reading the text, but if much of the content is something else, you’re sort of out of luck. I am hoping that one of these next generation readers will do a great job with PDFs. I don’t really want to get something with a bigger screen though, because that cuts down on portability.
I do not currently own any ebook reader; however, I have an eye on the Kindle 2 and the other competitive readers coming out soon. A reader that can easily handle PDF files would be a great benefit to me. The reason is because I am involved in university research (currently completing a Ph.D.) and tend to have a large collection of research papers in PDF format (which is a standard format for technical publishing) that would be nice to store on an ebook reader. Being able to take notes, mark, and annotate these documents on an ebook reader would also be nice. All of these papers contain charts, equations, etc., so the reader would need to be able to adequately display these. In addition to research, I frequently download PDF docs from the internet on various topics, such as pertaining to entrepreneurship and business formation, etc. So, in answer to PaulC not understanding people’s “PDF infatuation”, here are examples of necessity, not infatuation. If anyone has any additional information, suggestions or comments, please let me know.
Thanks Chris and DanR.
Well, my statement still stands, although DanR does hit the nail on the head. PDF is not REALLY portable, sure its portable between systems with large displays, but not so much for cell phone, ereaders, or anything with a small screen. The problem is that DanR has docs that are in PDF format, so either content creators need to start putting their content in a truly portable format or Adobe needs to make the “P” in PDF accurate.
Thanks for the input DanR, I am just grateful that my docs can all be accessed via formats other than PDF.
After watching the video for the Onyx Boox reader, I was pretty impressed with its handling of PDFs. It allow content flow control, removal of margins and zooming in of parts of images. It seems like it might do a good job with PDFs.
Chris – good point. I’m waiting for someone to add on a review of a production model.