Mirasol color e-paper readers due from someone soon, they say

MIRASOL ANSWERS QUESTIONS ON FACEBOOK

This is just an alert to a Kindle Forum thread about what Qualcomm's Mirasol reps are reported to have said on their Facebook page recently in response to questions.

Wiiman writes that he's been watching the discussions there.

  As most Kindlers who watch the ereader news know now, Mirasol is an e-paper technology that has similarities to e-Ink except that it's in color (muted and subdued colors) and has a fast refresh rate.  Because of that much faster refresh rate, unlike the Kindle, Mirasol screens can handle video.

  Last I heard, they were thinking of a 5" display (and the 6" screen is already too small for most PDFs, for many of us).  Wimman reports at Kindle forum the recent Qualcomm responses:

' "Hi Wei, thanks for the question.  As a display component supplier, we'd like to see our consumer-facing partners ship mirasol enabled product before the end of the year.  We'll keep you posted."

  And also from mirasol's FB page "Hi Kevin, thanks for the question and for your frequent participation.  You are exactly right about product schedule control.  We, along with our customers, expect to see products later in 2011.  That's about as specific as we can get at this point (deferring to our customers)."

 It's a known fact that Amazon has had the mirasol tech in their labs for "testing" for some time now... '

  I'm not sure why he doesn't provide links to the described quotes at Facebook.  I imagine he'll update the thread when/if he reads anything that might be of interest re Amazon.

Also, see a recent blog article here about Mirasol and ereaders:

---

For daily free ebooks, check the following links:

Temporarily-free books - Non-classics - USA: by: NEW:  May  June  July 2011    Publication Date   Late-listed    Bestselling   High-ratings UK: PubDate   Popular What is 3G? and "WiFi"?       Battery Care Highly-rated under $1,  Newest: $1-$2, $2-$3

Most Popular Free K-Books U.S. & Int'l (NOT UK):    Top 100 free UK-Only:    Top 100 free USEFUL for your Kindle (U.S. only, currently):   99c Notepad 1.1,   99c Calculator,   99c Calendar,   99c Converter

Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($164)   DX Graphite

Amazon buys Touchco - UPDATE2

Amazon has acquired Touchco, a New York-based start-up specializing in touch-screen technology.  We all know what that means.  This, coupled with the Mirasol stories about something happening with Qualcomm's color display and Amazon's Kindle (with hints from Qualcomm reps), indicate we may see an additional, quite different Kindle by September-October or so, at which time the non-touchscreen models will likely go down in price.

The NY Times story by Nicky Bilton and Brad Stone reports that the staff of 6 for that start-up will merge with Lab126, Amazon's Kindle hardware division, which has recently had ads for 40+ new technical employees)

Like the Mirasol technology, this one will be somewhat less expensive (relative to similar items of their types) for makers also.  The report says that

' Touchco uses a technology called interpolating force-sensitive resistance, which it puts into displays that can be completely transparent and could cost as little as $10 a square foot. The capacitive touch screens used in the iPad and iPhone are considerably more expensive. Unlike those screens, the Touchco screens can also detect an unlimited number of simultaneous touch points.

Touchco’s technology uses resistors that are sensitive to different levels of pressure. It has said its screens can distinguish between the touch of a finger and the pressure of a pen or similar pointing device. The company had designed its technology to work well with full-color LCD screens, similar to those used in the iPad and Hewlett-Packard’s coming line of tablet PCs. The technology could allow Amazon to introduce a full-color touch-screen Kindle, raising the question of whether the device’s current displays, which are made by a company called E Ink will play a role in the next round of reading devices. '

The caption under the photo describes a feature not mentioned in the body of the article: "Touchco’s technology is fully flexible, as pictured here, which would allow for a more robust Kindle."

UPDATE, 2:48 PM - Original posting made 2:32 PM
Eric Engleman of TechFlash reports that "Amazon nabbed Microsoft Windows executive Mike Nash for its Kindle team."  He'd worked most recently as corporate vice president in charge of Windows 7 platform strategy.

Engleman also sees that the Lab126 ads have increased to 50.

UPDATE2, 3:04 PM - Extremely brief video (a few nanoseconds)of an example of the Touchco GUI - involves moving an object, in this case, on a remote screen.
Other company videos once at youtube are no longer available there.

"Kindle for PC" beta download - reactions. Update2

During a 23-hour airplane ordeal coming back to the U.S., which was relieved by time with my Kindle DX (placed too close to my tomato juice and coffee), Amazon released the free "Kindle for PC" beta software for download.

  Much has already been written on it and I'll summarize what it does (or doesn't do) and link to early reviews of functioning of the features.

A file format that releases the book owner from dependence on the Kindle device
  Essentially, this new software that makes it possible for us to read any purchased or free Kindle book on our computers -- whether desktop, netbook or tablet -- upends the argument that if our Kindles are lost, destroyed, and we don't want to order a replacement, it would mean we'd no longer have access to the book we purchased.  Now, we have a sure way of being able to read any Kindle book we got from Amazon, whether or not we still have a Kindle.
  In fact, people who have never bought a Kindle and never may can also use this app and buy Kindle books for their computers at the usually excellent Kindle pricing offered (though they cost more outside the U.S.).

Shared reading by other household members.  (Update)
  Note that other household members will be able to read, on a shared computer and at no added cost, any of the books bought by the account holder.
  In that case, whispersync should be turned Off, as different people reading concurrently should have different last-page-read markers.

  It should also be noted that the computer counts as an added 'device' for the feature allowing up to 6 devices to share a book under one account.

Color
We can read a book in color, if that's important -- not ordinarily, since most books are black text on light background.  But if it's a travel or photography book or a book using illustrations or charts dependent on color coding, then this will be extremely useful as a supplementary way of reading the book.

  Kindle books don't always have high-resolution photographs, and some will even exclude some photographs (which the publisher should note in the product description and if the publisher doesn't, then it's good cause for returning the book for refund, possible within 7 days of the purchase).   But most do include the photographs and usually in the original color.

Flexibility
This is a larger feature than some have noticed in reviews I saw tonight.  That an e-reader formatted book can be read on any of your computers, with a Kindlestore registration and purchase, does two things:
  While opening up your reading options and making you far less dependent on having or keeping your Kindle, it still protects publisher and author rights, at a time when it's so easy for some to distribute whole books for the taking from anonymous-membership binary download areas.  Unlike musicians, who get the bulk of their income from live concerts/performances after CD and mp3 exposure, the book is the end-'Performance' and if that's freely distributed to all out of a love of "cool" things to do (which happens to deprive a writer of income for the work), then it's not helpful to the book scene.

Kindle-user book-annotations shown
  Some online writers have noted the currently unrivaled flexibility of this e-reader in its ability to allow you to continue reading on your netbook or iPhone/iPod, or Kindle from where you'd last read on another device.  Some have used the touchscreen capabilities of their laptops when using Window 7's new touch-screen feature with any Kindle book though it is not yet working in a very smooth way yet.  I'll return to that further down this post.

In addition to the current (largely unknown but excellent) feature of being able to read your annotations (notes and highlighting) for any of your books on a private Amazon web page (if you opted to allow backups of annotations to the Amazon servers), with the ability to "See all your highlights and notes on one page" (offered at the bottom of the first password-protected webpage of notes for a book), the new Kindle for PC software includes an optionally-displayed pane that lists and links to the annotations you've made in the book.

  Amazon is working, they say, on a way to add annotations via the Kindle for PC reader, which would make this a much more valuable academic tool.  Personally I highlight and add notes often, to reinforce and then jog my memory and to share info I can find easily then, with friends.

Kindle Search feature - missing for now
  The Kindle Search feature (giving location-identified results with surrounding context) is not included yet, and Amazon says that's being worked on also.  In the meantime, we can use the Ctrl-F or (Find/Search) feature of Windows to find a word on a page -- but it's not a real substitute for the Kindle search of a book).

Reading a book when you haven't brought your Kindle or an iPhone or iPod.
The new application software allows you to read any Kindle book you own, during lunch, while at work, for example, even if you didn't bring your Kindle (well, if your work includes a Windows computer).  Amazon has confirmed that it is working on a Mac version and one for Blackberry smartphones too.

Free samples
Free samples from books can be ordered in the way they're ordered from the Kindle.

Kindle periodicals are not included currently
Amazon has limited the reader to books for now, explaining: "Kindle newspapers, magazines, and blogs are not currently available for Kindle for PC" - all these require ongoing agreements with publishers and authors.  Blogs tend to be relatively low-cost but have higher distribution costs because they are not sent or downloaded only once as books are.

PDFs - For Kindle 2's
PDF books are normally converted for the Kindle 2 and not particularly well when they involve complex layout with diagrams or multiple columns and surrounding text.   But in this case Amazon should be able to just send the original PDF and it would be readable on the computer.

The system-requirements are extremely modest so that this can be used on older computers as well:

  * A PC with a 500MHz Intel or AMD processor or faster
  * At least 128MB of RAM
  * Screen resolution of 800x600 or greater
  * Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later, or Windows Vista or Windows 7
  * 100MB of available disk space

  Note that this means this won't work on Win 3.1 or a Mac, though they are working on a Mac version which is "coming soon."

Selection of books and International Kindle book costs
Kindle users outside the USA have a smaller selection of books available due to lack of publisher agreements in the other countries.
  Unfortunately, 'free' books (for US Kindle-owners) at Amazon will involve a charge of about $2.30 US for international Kindle users living in countries with high wireless-access costs.

Reports from writers who have tried the beta version include:

  . Kindle for PC: Game, Set and Match for Amazon - Ed Moltzen for ChannelWeb.Com reports its ease of use and "... a new leader in the drive to make data truly portable and cross-platform."

  . Renay San Miguel for TechNewsWorld points out that the quick and small download "sets up an easy-to-navigate Home page for you and automatically archives any previous Kindle purchases."  If you don't have touchscreen capabilities on your netbook you'll need to use the Kindle-style "Aa" font button.  One book was received in "full-color glory" while another had some color photos in b&w.

  . TestDrive by AppScout using a touchscreen laptop (Lenovo).   (Update)

  . Amazon Leaves Behind its Rivals with a New Version of Kindle - Sidhrath Surana for The Latest News in India reports that it's very easy to use.

  . Yardena Arar for PC World under the Washington Post web page, finds it "highly useable" but writes that the app "does not support registration of multiple accounts" (which would not be the same as multiple Kindles under one account).
  Adar says that arrow buttons or mouse's scroll wheel can be used to turn pages.  There are 10 font sizes available and the page width can be set with a slider - something not doable with Kindle hardware except that with the Kindle DX you are given three choices of left/right margins, which will allow reading to the edges or, at the other extreme, a more newspaper-column type look to the page, but with only one column.

  As ever, Whispernet synchonization is for a one-user account when that person wants to read on another device from the last point read with another device.  The default setting is Whispersync" is "On" but I turned mine off as I haven't needed it yet, and definitely two people reading the same book should not have that feature turned On.

  Adar notes that the menu item "Future Improvements" says that Amazon plans to add both annotation (adding, since it already offers viewing of those) and book-search support similar to the Kindle's.

  The "Back" button works in the same way it does for the Kindle 2 and DX.  Remember that 1-yr factory warrantied refurbished DX's are available for $399 ($90 less than a new one).  The Back button doesn't take you to the previous page but takes you 'back' to any page that linked you to the current one and from which you clicked to 'jump' to the current page.
  For example, on the Kindle, if you look up the full detail for a word, in the dictionary, clicking on 'Back' will take you back to the page on which you read the word.

All in all, this is a delightful new capability.

iRex DR1000S 'Paper tiger?' - DX size $989 US

First, I ran across a few more interesting stories and they're linked at my Twitter page, so if you're interested in additional news items that I don't expand on here, you can get them at twitter.com/kindleworld where we're limited to 140-character alerts but can still link you to the full stories.

The iRex Digital Reader DR1000S is reviewed by Bill Ray, of Register Hardware, and he subtitled it "Paper tiger?" which sums up his appraisal, amplified by the 55% Rating he gave it.

  Expectations can be high when the suggested price of this unit, somewhat larger than the Kindle DX, is more than twice the cost of the DX -- at $989 US (£599) for the iRex DR1000S vs the DX's $489, often referred to as "too expensive."

  He says it's not exactly comfortable for reading books due to its size, but I thought I'd feel that way about the DX and have come to find the size just fine.

  The screen is 10.2 inches (in diameter, I assume) with the same 16 levels of gray as the DX, and he finds that it "excels at rendering an A4 page, ideally from a PDF file" and describes it "a joy" and slim enough so that it feels like a clipboard.

As with the iRex iLiad (reviewed by AlexOnLinux after a year of use), it uses a stylus which has slight lag time.  While calling the hardware "superb," Ray writes that the interface is a "mess" with "appallingly designed processes" and:

" Take this scenario: imagine one has finished reading a PDF document and wishes to close it and then delete it. Closing the document involves nine key presses, in the correct order switching between side and bottom buttons, deleting the same document takes another eight: get one wrong and you're back to the start. We've not seen interfacing this bad for a very long time..."

The battery is affected by the capacitive screen if not much by the e-ink display and "would rarely allow 10 hours of reading."  On the other hand he was "using complex PDF files. and taking lots of notes"

For e-books, it supports Mobipocket but he says the model is "not intended for reading books."
  What?  The iRex iLiad (normally $850) deals with all kinds of file formats, so I don't know what he means, unless he means the device is mainly for pdfs, excel sheets and office documents. He adds:

" The value of this class of device is in the ability to make a load of scribbled notes onto a PDF file and then merge those notes into the PDF file for viewing elsewhere. "

 The iLiad model is open and has encouraged hackers to create apps that strip out pages with no notes and which change all notes into red marker -- really useful for ultra long documents.  But this model won't do that, for now.

His "Verdict"

" Despite the disappointing software and outrageous price this is, quite simply, the most effective way to read and make notes on long documents.  If you have to do that regularly, then the RD1000S is the best tool for the job, but try to get the company to pay for it. "

See the article for far more details and many photos.