Google Books now available on your e-reader
South Korean electronics giant Samsung joined the e-readers war by unveiling two wireless e-readers – the E6 with a 6-inch screen and the E101 with a 10.1-inch display. They have also announced a partnership with Google that brings all the Google Books content to Samsung’s all new e-reader. We have previously told you about a similar Google Books partnership that led Amazon to accuse Google of e-book monopoly.
Samsung said the E6 will cost $399 while the E101 will cost $699 and will be available in early 2010. Owners of the Samsung e-reader will have access to the million-plus public domain books via Google Books. The new device from Samsung will compete with against Amazon’s Kindle and a host of other new e-readers devices already on the market.
Amazon smells Apple Tablet – Launches Kindle AppStore
It seems that Amazon has already started feeling the heat of Apple’s Tablet launch yet-to-be. Amazon has announced about it’s plans of introducing an App Store for it’s Kindle Wireless Reading Device. Now this means, with an App Store Kindle will no longer be just an e-reader. Kindle would soon be used as calculators, stock tickers and casual video games and interactive e-books such as search-able travel books and restaurant guides that can be tailored to the Kindle owner’s location, textbooks with interactive quizzes, and novels that combine text and audio.
Amazon has already launched the Kindle Developer’s Kit using which developers can build applications for the Kindle Device. Developers will get 70% of the user revenue and Amazon gets to keep the rest!
Kindle was promoted as an e-book reader during it’s initial days of launch. Now I seem to be lost in this strange connection between an e-book and the fact that you can play games with an e-book. The Kindle App Store will definitely be a success as consumers like to download apps that will help them converge their world – that is do many things at one place. But then the e-reader loses it’s sole point of being an e-book in the first place.
