eReaders

NFC coming to the Barnes & Noble Nook

Barnes & Noble and Microsoft yesterday announced a new partnership in the e-reading space that will see the Nook and Barnes & Noble’s college textbook business spun off into a new subsidiary called Newco (until they come up with a new name). In an interview with Fortune, Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch shed a bit more light on what […]

Microsoft and Barnes & Noble form Nook e-book platform partnership

Microsoft and Barnes & Noble today annnounced a new partnership in a new Barnes & Noble subsidiary focused on e-reading technologies. The new subsidiary, called Newco until a final name is found, will consist of the Nook unit as well as Barnes & Noble’s college textbook business. Microsoft will make a US$300 million investment in Newco for a 17.6% equity […]

Barnes & Noble announces NOOK Simple Touch with GlowLight

Barnes & Noble yesterday unveiled its latest e-reader, the NOOK Simple Touch with GlowLight. Glowlight is a lighting technology that solves one of e-readers biggest challenges – reading in the dark. 8 embedded LEDs provide illuminate the 6-inch touchscreen with a “soft, adjustable glow” and allows people to read in low light or dark conditions. It turns on automatically and […]

Amazon to launch two new tablets in second half 2012?

Amazon’s successful Kindle Fire will be replaced by a new 7-inch model and a larger 10.1-inch model in the second half of the year, according to the latest Digitimes report. It adds that Amazon has opted to go with a single larger model rather and will not offer the originally planned 8.9-inch model. Earlier rumours had suggested that Amazon would […]

Amazon working on colour e-ink reader and 10-inch Kindle Fire?

According to the Chinese-language Economic Daily News, Amazon could launch a 6-inch colour e-ink reader later this year. Such a device would be the company’s first to use a colour e-ink display. The report indicates that E Ink Holdings (EIH) has received an order from Amazon to supply it with three million ePaper modules per month starting in March. This […]

U.S. tablet and eReader ownership almost doubles over holidays

Tablets and eReaders were popular gifts this holiday season. According to the Pew Research Center, both types of devices saw U.S. ownership jump from 10% to 19% between mid-December and early January. These findings are striking because they come after a period from mid-2011 into the autumn in which there was not much change in the ownership of tablets and […]

e-Commerce giant Rakuten to acquire Kobo eReader company

Kobo

Kobo today announced that the Canadian company will be acquired by Japan-based Rakuten, one of the world’s top 3 e-commerce companies by revenue. Hiroshi Mikitani, Chairman and CEO of Rakuten, commented on the acquisition, “We are very excited about this next step. Kobo provides one of the world’s most communal eBook reading experiences with its innovative integration of social media, […]