Amazon Releases Kindle DX with Bigger Screen & Auto-Rotate Mode
Amazon.com introduced yesterday Amazon Kindle DX, the new purpose-built reading device that offers Kindle’s revolutionary wireless delivery and massive selection of content with a large 9.7-inch electronic paper display, built-in PDF reader, auto-rotate capability, and storage for up to 3,500 books.
Kindle DX’s display has 2.5 times the surface area of Kindle’s 6-inch display. The larger electronic paper display with 16 shades of gray has more area for graphic-rich content such as professional and personal documents, newspapers and magazines, and textbooks. Kindle reads like printed words on paper because the screen works using real ink and doesn’t use a backlight, eliminating the eyestrain and glare associated with other electronic displays.
Kindle DX features a built-in PDF reader using Adobe Reader Mobile technology for reading professional and personal documents. Like other types of documents on Kindle, customers simply email their PDF format documents to their Kindle email address or move them over using a USB connection. With a larger display and built-in PDF reader, Kindle DX customers can read professional and personal documents with more complex layouts without scrolling, panning, or zooming, and without re-flowing, which destroys the original structure of the document. Everything from annual reports with graphs to flight manuals with maps to musical scores can be viewed on a single, crisp screen with Kindle DX.
Kindle DX’s display content auto-rotates so users can read in portrait or landscape mode, or flip the device to read with either hand. Simply turn Kindle DX and immediately see full-width landscape views of maps, graphs, tables, images, and Web pages.
Amazon today introduced Amazon Kindle 2, the new reading device that offers Kindle’s wireless delivery of content in a new slim design with longer battery life, faster page turns, over seven times more storage, sharper images, and a new read-to-me feature.
Kindle 2 is purpose-built for reading with a high-resolution 6-inch electronic paper display that looks and reads like real paper, which lets users read for hours without the eyestrain caused by reading on a backlit display. More than 230,000 books are now available in the Kindle Store, including 103 of 110 current New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases, which are typically $9.99. Top U.S. and international magazines and newspapers plus more than 1,200 different blogs are also available. Kindle 2 is available for pre-order starting today for $359 at http://amazon.com/kindle2 and will ship February 24.
“Kindle 2 is everything customers tell us they love about the original Kindle, only thinner, faster, crisper, with longer battery life, and capable of holding hundreds more books. If you want, Kindle 2 will even read to you — something new we added that a book could never do,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “While we’re excited about Kindle 2, we know that great hardware is useless without vast selection. That’s why the Kindle Store offers customers over 230,000 books.”
Kindle 2 is 0.36 inch thin (9 mm) and weighing just over 10 ounces (290 gm), so it is pencil thin and lighter than a typical paperback. With 2 GB of memory, Kindle 2 can hold more than 1,500 books, compared with 200 with the original Kindle.
Kindle 2 users can read for four to five days on one charge with wireless on and for over two weeks with wireless turned off. Kindle 2 comes with the New Oxford American Dictionary and its 250,000 word definitions built-in, and with Kindle 2 definitions appear instantly at the bottom of the page.
Kindle 2 offers the experimental read-to-me feature “Text-to-Speech” that converts words on a page to spoken word so customers have the option to read or listen. Customers can switch back and forth between reading and listening, and their spot is automatically saved. Pages turn automatically while the content is being read so customers can listen hands-free. Customers can choose to be read to by male or female voices and can choose the speed to suit their listening preference. Using the read-to-me feature, anything you can read on Kindle, including books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, and personal documents, Kindle 2 can read to you.
Flint & Silver: Treasure Island Prequal Tells The Story of The Two Most Famous Pirates
Who does not know Long John Silver? Who haven't read the book "Treasure Island", written by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1883, or at least watched the movie or the animated series whether in Arabic, English, or Japanese? By the way, you can download the full book in PDF format by clicking here (8.42 MB).
When you read "Treasure Island", you feel like you are reading a sequel! The book is full of un-answered questions. How did Long John lose his leg? Where did he get the parrot? Who was the black girl he married? Who was the monster, demon, Captain Flint? And above all, why did they bury the treasure?
In my summer vacation to Gold Coast, Australia, early this month, I came across this book displayed in (New Releases) section of a bookshop. It was just published last month. The book is "Flint & Silver" by John Drake. It was like a dream came true to me! I bought the book and I'm currently half way through it.
John Drake, the author of "Flint & Silver", explained about the idea of pirates burying their treasure, "Think about that because buried treasure is so deeply entrenched in our culture that we never ask why pirates did it. And the truth is that they didn't. I know of no proven instance of pirates burying their treasure. This isn't surprising. Pirates lived short lives. They didn't set aside for the future. When they got money it went on girls, booze and food. You didn't stick in a hole in the ground to get 5.75% interest minus tax at standard rate. You didn't set it aside for the future because you didn't have a future. Blackbeard the most famous of all pirates lasted about fifteen months till the Navy caught him and killed him and cut his head off.".
Drake continues, "Since Robert Louis Stevenson was dead, and I was fascinated by this period of history. I decided to answer all these prequel/sequel questions, but to do it for adults. Stephenson wrote the book for his stepson Lloyd Osborne who was thirteen and wanted no women in the book. But I can't have that. I'm older than thirteen. So I brought Long John to life again, who has for years been in the shadow of Robert Newton's character: a short, dark, boozy, dirty, squinting A-harrr Jim-Lad, which is nothing like the character Stevenson created: who should be tall - that's why he's called Long John - and big and clean and blond! Flint was the other great opportunity. In Treasure Island he was long dead, but a monster who terrified everyone but Silver. So I've brought him to life, as a monster, but a beautiful one. A charismatic psychopath. Charming and clever and mad. "
Watch John Drake talking about his book ...
I can tell you from what I've read so far is that I'm hooked to this book. I totally recommend it for all "Treasure Island" fans to read. The book is full of action and will answer so many questions left unanswered from Stevenson's greatest masterpiece.
There are some rumors that "Flint & Silver" will be made a movie to hit the big screen in 2010.
"Flint and Silver is the beginning of a series. There are plenty more to come. And I'll keep writing them if you keep buying them. ", said Drake.
The Digitizing Line turns and scans 1500 to 3000 pages per hour. 4DigitalBooks ensures that only one page is turned at a time. This means that no page would be missed or would be scanned twice. The Digitizing Line is suitable for all types of books, magazines and newspapers for the business of professional scanning. According to their website, it is as easy to use as a photocopy machine.
There is no need to specify the size of the book prior to process it as the Digitizing Line has a set of sensors that measure all necessary dimensions of the book. After loading the book on the automatic book cradle, the Digitizing Line would automatically measure the book. There is no way for the operator to enter a wrong value or make a mistake that would damage either the book or the Digitizing Line.
Every time a page is picked up, the page detector checks if there is only one page. If more pages are stuck together, pages are released and the pick up process is repeated differently. The efficiency of the page detector is spectacular as it discriminates even if pages with radical thickness or porosity are stuck together. Turning pages without making sure that only one page has been turned at a time makes no sense to 4DigitalBooks. Imagine what would be to scan a book of 1000 pages and to get 999 files or less ?
During the process of turning pages, the page is pushed to the left by the right moving glass. The interface between the page and the glass is a special profile with an adequate soft shape. The fore edge of this profile presents a page-push air-blower that creates an air cushion between the page and the profile itself, that allows to gently push the page by air, without friction.
Philip M. Parker, the chaired professor of management science at Insead (a business school with campuses in Fontainebleau, France, and Singapore), has developed computer algorithms that collect publicly available information on a subject — broad or obscure — and, aided by his 60 to 70 computers and six or seven programmers, he turns the results into books in a range of genres, many of them in the range of 150 pages and printed only when a customer buys one.
While the most popular of his books may sell hundreds of copies, he said, many have sales in the dozens, often to medical libraries collecting nearly everything he produces. He has extended his technique to crossword puzzles, rudimentary poetry and even to scripts for animated game shows.
While nothing announces that Mr. Parker’s books are computer generated, one reader, David Pascoe, seemed close to figuring it out himself, based on his comments to Amazon in 2004. Reviewing a guide to rosacea, a skin disorder, Mr. Pascoe, who is from Perth, Australia, complained: “The book is more of a template for ‘generic health researching’ than anything specific to rosacea. The information is of such a generic level that a sourcebook on the next medical topic is just a search and replace away.”
When told via e-mail that his suspicion was correct, Mr. Pascoe wrote back, “I guess it makes sense now as to why the book was so awful and frustrating.”Mr. Parker was willing to concede much of what Mr. Pascoe argued. “If you are good at the Internet, this book is useless,” he said, adding that Mr. Pascoe simply should not have bought it. But, Mr. Parker said, there are people who aren’t Internet savvy who have found these guides useful.
Mr. Parker described his motivation as providing content that the marketplace has otherwise neglected for lack of an audience. That can mean a relatively obscure language is involved, or a relatively obscure disease or a relatively obscure product.
Mr. Parker compares his methods to those of a traditional publisher, but with the computer simply performing some of the scut work. In an explanatory YouTube video, Mr. Parker shows a book being created. The computer is given an assignment — project the latent demand for antipsychotic drugs around the world, based on the sales figures in the United States.
“Using a little bit of artificial intelligence, a computer program has been created that mimics the thought process of someone who would be responsible for doing such a study,” Mr. Parker says. “But rather than taking many months to do the study. the computer accomplishes this in about 13 minutes.”
'Pele' Limited Edition Books Available for $3,000-$11,000
Pelé is a global symbol of where sporting brilliance, drive and humanity can take you and he remains soccer's only genuine, universal icon.
'Pelé' book from Gloria Books Ltd. is the luxury, large-format limited edition version of the new, official autobiography by Pelé. The giant, 720-page tome (including gatefolds) finally does justice to his extraordinary life. Two years have been spent researching, sourcing, interviewing, and ultimately producing the greatest ever soccer book. It is limited to a worldwide edition run of 2,500 units only. It includes an introduction and unique, new autobiographical material from the man himself, plus a special tribute to Pelé by Joseph 'Sepp' Blatter, President of FIFA. Finally, each numbered copy is personally hand-signed by Pelé. This is a genuine high-value, long-term investment in a piece of soccer history.
'Pelé' is available now and has been in high demand amongst limited edition collectors and sports fans across the world since its launch during summer 2006.
The images and text cover every key moment of Pelé's life, from early childhood to the modern day. The book contains over 300,000 words including exclusive new biographical contributions from Pelé himself, as well as classic and newly-commissioned work from some of soccer's greatest living writers, including Hugh McIlvanney and Brian Glanville, as well as João Máximo, José Werneck and Juca Kfouri from Brazil.
The collection of over 1,700 images is the result of months of exhaustive research across photo libraries and personal archives in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, London, New York and Paris, and has resulted in the discovery of a treasure trove of photographs, many of which had lain hidden for decades. Expert restoration and reprographic treatment has ensured the quality of the historic photography.
'Pelé' makes a big impact at 45cm x 35cm and weighing over 16kgs. It is also big on graphic style and features breathtaking design and production. The pages are printed throughout in eight colors including resilient metallic inks. The book and specially-created presentation case are covered in printed and embossed Setalux Italian fine silk. The cover is also embroidered with calf-skin yellow leather title lettering.
Of the 2,500, 2,100 will sell for $3,000. Another 250 are priced at $3,750 because the photographer Marvin Newman signed his 16-by-20-inch picture of Pelé in Central Park in 1975. "The last 150, priced at $11,000 and signed by the surviving members of Brazil’s World Cup-winning 1970 team, have sold out", said Gloria Books publisher & CEO Ovais Naqvi.
Atiz BookDrive: World First Desktop-Sized, Automatic Page-Turning Scanner
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I guess I have missed this one from this year's Consumer Electronics Show 2006. I talked before about Kirtas' APT BookScan 1200™: World's Fastest Book Scanner, but this is really different and much smaller. Atiz BookDrive is just like any traditional flatbed scanners that you are familiar with, but BookDrive is unique in that it has an automatic page-turning mechanism inside. Simply entering the number of pages you want to scan, BookDrive then automatically outputs the entire content of the scanned book in a digital format without requiring constant supervision and interference.
At 100 DPI BookDrive can scan 248 pages per hour in color and 500 per hour in black and white. Atiz BookDrive is designed for people with small businesses, libraries, copy centers or colleges, the BookDrive is scheduled to be available in March for a price ranging from $40,000 to $50,000. It is made by Atiz Innovation of Los Angeles.
Kirtas' APT BookScan 1200™: World's Fastest Book Scanner
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Ever wondered how Google is going to scan thousands of books in the process of digitizing libraries?
According an essay written by Joseph Huttner, "Google recently implemented a convoy of new machines from Kirtas Technologies called the APT BookScan 1200, which is capable of scanning up to 1200 pages per hour (Kirtas Technologies). The machine works by utilizing a 16-megapixel digital camera to photograph each page, then transfers the image to local storage. Then, a robotic arm gently turns the page of the book, and the process is completed for each additional page. The digital images are then ‘cleaned’ to remove smudges and other errors, cropped, and centered. At this point, the image can be posted online, but "searching through the text is impossible".
