Ezra Klein discusses Amazon’s Kindle in print and video

The current issue of the Columbia Review of Journalism focuses on the future of writing and reading, offering up a spate of interesting writers examining various threads of that theme. Of particular note is The American Prospect associate editor Ezra Klein’s look at the Kindle, Amazon’s new digital book reader. Books may be in decline, he surmises, but people are still reading all the time – we’re glued to our computer screens. So surely the Kindle is onto something?

This may, ultimately, prove to be Amazon’s truly crucial role—not driving the future of reading so much as the future of writing. E-reading technology will push forward even without Amazon’s involvement. The Kindle will soon face stiff competition from a bevy of able competitors. […] But if the Kindle’s successor or competitors are to succeed, it will be because Amazon used its status as the world’s largest online bookseller to force authors to think seriously about creating content that works better than the book, that goes where the book cannot, that’s interactive and cooperative and open in ways that printed text will never be. [via cjr]

Charlotte marketing firm Lawrimore Communications Inc. has launched a new online ebook store, Ebookloads.com, selling low-cost ebooks on a wide variety of topics. Ebook authors are also invited to submit their works. “Ebooks are in great demand because they allow people who are searching for information to download them immediately, versus waiting several days for the books to arrive by mail or express,” said Lawrimore Communications president Buck Lawrimore.

“As the author of several ebooks sold on different websites, I wanted one central location to sell my ebooks as well as those of others. We’ve also started adding ebooks written by several freelance writers we know, and welcome submissions by other writers, even if they have written only one ebook.” Ebookloads.com, on the web at http://www.ebookloads.com, features over 100 ebooks in categories such as Business & Strategy, Foods and Drinks (including cookbooks), Health, Internet Marketing, Web Developing, Money Making, Occasion, Blogging and more. Other categories will be added depending on what authors submit. Visitors to the site can also download several free ebooks, available at the bottom of different pages on the site.

Plastic Logic, the Cambridge company developing a revolutionary new technology for printing electronic devices, is gearing up for product launch and a share of a multi-billion dollar windfall. And it is following a world-class commercialisation model.

Just as Cambridge chip superstar ARM cashed in by having its microprocessors in the iPod which didn’t hit the market until well after the first MP3 players were launched - so Plastic Logic is content purring in the slipstream of fellow electronic reader pioneers.

A senior source revealed to Business Weekly: “The Amazon Kindle, Sony LIBRIe and IRex iLiad are opening up the market for us.

“They are all glass-based and we will be the first plastic-based eReader, giving a much better experience because the display is larger and a lot lighter, so it can be held in one hand.

“It will also be cheaper. Do not forget there were lots of MP3 players before the iPod came out.”

CEO Richard Archuleta added: “The first application of the company’s core plastic electronics technology in revolutionary flexible displays has very exciting market potential. Plastic Logic has made amazing progress and has the backing of a first class investor base.”

Plastic Logic hasn’t revised is opinion that it will be the first to ap ply the new technology to a fully commercial application - flexible active-matrix displays.

The company’s first target market is flexible active-matrix displays for electronic readers. In January 2007 Plastic Logic raised $100m of equity finance to create the first fully commercial plastic electronics production facility which will start to produce display modules soon this year.

A video comparing LCDs with Plastic Logic’s  [via businessweekly]

There’s no final price yet, but Astak’s eBook reader with five-inch display might be the reader for folks on a budget. Rumors are that the device will arrive in the U.S. next month and could cost as low at $150, which if true, gets this type of device more in line with the consumer electronics market. That’s not suggesting that a $399 Kindle won’t sell; obviously it can and does. But most folks I speak with that show an interest in the Kindle really balk at the price.

Supported formats: TXT, PDF, RTF, HTML/CHM. May an FBReader ports appear for the Astaks, so people can at least enjoy nonDRMed Mobipocket, as well as ePub, the standard of the future! And who knows? I wonder if old editions of Mobipocket’s own software might run on the six-inch and ten-inch Astaks (WIN CE5.0), even now. Unlikely but you never know. The five-incher runs Linux (QT environment). Any FBReader possibilities for that one even now?

Given all this competition, combined with the dearth of titles available to load on them, it might be worth sticking with pulp for awhile to see if prices go even lower. [via astak]

E Ink Corporation, the company developing and marketing electronic paper display technology, has announced to make its next generation segmented display cells (SDC) available. The SDC products are simple digit, icon and alpha-numeric displays and offer commendable readability in a paper-thin form factor utilizing minimal battery power.

The new SDCs are 40 percent thinner, can perform within a wider operational temperature range, and are more flexible for repetitive 3-D bends or 2-D conformable solutions. They can be used to enhance consumer electronics, PC-accessory, display smartcards, capacity indicators, electronic shelf labels, signage and communications applications.

Russ Wilcox, president and CEO, E Ink Corporation, said that the E Ink SDC display lets the user see any vital information quickly and clearly from any angle, and designers can go beyond their imaginations to design innovative product with this paper-thin and flexible plastic display that can be cut to any shape.

The SDCs are available in organic non-rectangular unique shapes, including holes, curves, and other non-standard designs. Apart from it, E Ink’s SDC platform can be viewed under a variety of lighting conditions from direct sun to low-level ambient light, and provides viewable angle of nearly 180 degrees. E Ink’s Vizplex-based electronic paper solutions are bistable, reflective displays which enable the image to remain for over a year with zero power. [via e-ink]