Your search for "android ereader" got 65 results

Want to Assemble Your Own Smartphone? Google Shows Off Project Ara Modular Phone Prototype

29.10.2014 7 Comments

The idea of assembling a DIY mobile device has long since fallen out of the mainstream, but if Project Ara is successful then that could change.

For the past couple years Google has been working on, well, they’ve been working on many hardware projects, but the one that has me waiting with bated breath is Project Ara.

This project has a goal which is as simple in concept as it is complex in practice; Google is trying to develop a platform for a modular smartphone which would enable owners to upgrade their existing phone piecemeal rather than junking it simply because the screen is broken.

In theory Project Ara will enable consumers to buy a base unit as well as components which met their needs: camera, screen, battery, wireless chip, etc. When all the parts arrive the consumer will be able to plug the parts into the base unit and have a working phone.

The following gallery should help explain it better.

Project Ara is still in the prototype stage, and it’s scheduled to hit the market early next year. Right now the only units floating around are in the hands of the original project team as well as a select handful of outside developers who (hopefully) are creating modules which you can buy.

You can see the latest prototype in the video below.

Google is planning to offer 3 different base units, enabling fans to choose between a phablet or a more pocketable smartphone. The largest is said to be about the size of a Galaxy Note 3. (Just to give you an idea of the size, that phone sports a 5.7″ screen.) The smaller Project Ara base units will be about the size of a 5″ phablet and one of the early iPhones.

The platform is designed so users can hot swap modules without shutting down or rebooting the phone. I’m not sure how well that will work in practice but the idea has me interested. Want more battery life? Add a better one. Need a better camera? Just swap out your existing one. Don’t like the sound quality? I’m sure you’ll find a Chinese OEM with a compatible module.

I don’t know of any plans to make a tablet sized unit, which is a shame. The larger area would enable you to add far more modules.

But even with the size limitations, I am keeping a close eye on Project Ara. While I don’t think that this is an explicit part of the plan, I am expecting one Chinese OEM or another to create a module with an epaper screen. I am going to have me some fun assembling my own Android ereader.

Liliputing

Earl E-ink Android Tablet Delayed Until 2015

26.10.2014 8 Comments

The Earl back country tablet continues to hold its own as one of the most delayed gadgets of 2013 and 2014. This tablet was originally scheduled to be released by the end of last summer, but the latest update from its developers have revealed that it is still under development and has yet to get its wireless certifications or enter mass production.

A new update on the Earl was posted last week on the Sqigle website, saying in part that:

Following our last post, our hardware team informed us that Earl’s shell had a 40% chance to survive a substantial drop and remain sealed against outside elements.

This latest delay will likely push the delivery date back until next year, if not later.

The Earl was designed to be a drop, impact, water, and dust resistant Android tablet based around a 6″ E-ink screen. These stringent requirements have led to several major redesigns since the Earl was first announced in May 2013, each of which has pushed back the Earl’s release date by several months.

The Earl has both gained and lost components with each design iteration. The original concept included a kickstand with integrated solar panel, but that was dropped late last year in order to simplify the design and make it more rugged. And the Earl also gained an adjustable antenna to better support the multiple types of connectivity (AM/FM/SW/LW, UHF, VHF, and two way).

According to the specs, the Earl runs Android 4.4 KitKat on a dual-core 1GHz Freescale CPU with 1GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, Wifi, Bluetooth, NFC, GPS, and multiple sensors. It is going to use a 6″ Mobius E-ink screen with a glove friendly touchscreen.

It was originally funded as part of a crowd-funding campaign in May 2013. Early supporters bought their place in line for $249, but after the campaign closed the price was bumped to $299. If you feel like gambling, the Earl is still listed for pre-order for $299.

I’ve never been so inclined. When the Earl was first announced I was short of funds, and then after it met its first roadblock I counted myself lucky to have avoided investing in a project which I didn’t think would succeed.

And I’m still not convinced that the Earl will ship, but even if it foes I have lost interest.

My main interest in the Earl was less its ruggedness and outdoorsy-ness than the fact it ran Android on E-ink. When the Earl was announced in May 2013, there weren’t any good options for Android on E-ink. Your only real options were some ereaders like the Nook Touch and the Sony Reader PRS-T2 which could be hacked to bypass the original software limitations.

Now there are several options for Android ereaders, including the Onyx T68 Lynx, Icarus Illumina, and the Boyue T62. They’re not nearly up to the abilities of the Earl, but on the plus side they are readily available – and the Earl is not.

Comparison Review: Kindle Voyage vs Onyx Boox T68 Lynx

24.10.2014 3 Comments

The Kindle Voyage from Amazon may be getting all the ereader buzz this week but it’s not the only premium ebook reader on the market. There’s also the Kobo Aura H2O, and the Boox T68 Lynx, an Android ereader with a 6.8″ screen.

A couple days ago I pulled my T68 Lynx out of storage to test a couple apps at the request of a reader, and now that I have it in my hands again I’m remembering why I liked it so much.

Before I get into the comparison review, let me first point out that I reviewed the T68 Lynx extensively back in June. Many of the details shared here are written in the context of that post, so if you are thinking about buying a T68 Lynx you should read that review as well.

Comparison

There are nine ways that these two ereaders differ.

Design – The Voyage has a polished design with a smoothly curved rear shell, a recessed power button, and a screen mounted flush with the front of the device. The T68 Lunx, on the other hand, has a design which looks like Onyx slapped a thin gray box around their electronics, added a scallop accent to the edges, and called it a day. The T68 Lynx’s design is simple and functional but quite utilitarian.
Page Turn Buttons – The Voyage has touch sensitive page turn buttons on either side of the screen, while the T68 Lynx has a pair of awkwardly placed page turn buttons on the right side of the screen, and home/back buttons on the left.
Storage – Both devices ship with 4GB internal storage, but the T68 Lynx also has a microSD card slot.
Screen – While both devices have similar screen resolutions (1,080 x 1,440), the Voyage packs those pixels into a 6″ Carta E-ink screen which is a generation newer than the 6.8″ Pearl E-ink on the T68 Lynx. The Voyage has a whiter and sharper screen (300dpi vs 265dpi) but the T68 Lynx’s is larger, which can be a plus when viewing PDFs and other fixed layout documents.
Frontlight – The frontlight on the Voyage is brighter and whiter than the one on the T68 Lynx, which looks fuzzy in comparison. The Voyage also offers better software to control the frontlight including a much lower minimum setting.
Software – The Voyage runs the latest version of Amazon’s Kindle OS, while the T68 Lynx runs Android 4.0 with Google Play and the option to sideload apps. This means that the Voyage is the better Kindle, but that is all it is. The T68 Lynx, on the other hand, can read Kindle ebooks as well run apps for Comixology, Nook, Kobo, and Logos Bible software (just to name a handful). The T68 Lynx might not be as good at being a Kindle but it is hugely better at being everything else, including supporting some features of the Kindle platform like audio and PDFs. For example, RepliGo is simply awesome at displaying PDFs on the T68 Lynx.
Software, Redux – And it’s not just ebooks. The T68 also offers the option if installing better web browsers as well as Audible, Pocket, Feedly, and other apps.
Speed and Responsiveness – Given that the T68 Lynx supports far more formats and lets you install apps, it’s not really possible to compare the responsiveness. But I can say that the Voyage is marginally faster at turning the page when compared to the stock reading app on the T68 Lynx. But when it comes to third party apps like Aldiko or RepliGo, those are about as fast as the Voyage.
Accessories – The T68 can work with external Bluetooth devices and as you can see in the following video it can accept USB mouses and keyboards:
Price – Both the Voyage and the T68 Lynx can be bought on Amazon for $199. They both have smartcovers.

Conclusion

The T68 Lynx has a noticeably clunkier design, but it also has its strengths. As a general purpose ereader it’s not going to be as good as the Voyage at being a Kindle, but the T68 Lynx is better than the Voyage at pretty much everything else.

What Are You Reading On? October 2014

01.10.2014 47 Comments

Given the many new mobile device launched each year and the excess of models still floating around from past years, a reader has many choices for reading devices.

That’s why every so often I like to post an open question where I share what I’m using, and ask readers what gadgets they are reading on.

When I last discussed my ereader tools in June 2014, I mentioned that I used a laptop to keep up on news and work, an iPad (rarely), and two tablets: the Kindle Fire HD and a Kobo Arc (2012).

I have long been a fan of reading ebooks on tablets (my first ereader was a Tapwave Zodiac, TBH), so the lack of an ebook reader in that list should come as no surprise. But what surprised me is that after many years of using tablets and preferring them to ereaders, I found an ebook reader which drew me back to the gray side – and it’s not the Onyx Boox T68 Lynx, with its 6.8″ screen.

I’m still using my Kindle Fire HD as a media tablet, and yes it is the same buggy one I had in June, but my main reading device is the Boyue T61 Android ereader I reviewed a few weeks back.

As much as I like the color screens and multi-purpose nature of Android tablets, every time I put down a review unit I keep getting drawn back to the T61. It has a 6″ E-ink screen with a disappointing frontlight, which I had thought would cool my interest, but the combination of page turn buttons and the fact it runs Android has made the T61 a very attractive ereader.

I can install any of the reading apps I want, and since most of the apps work with the page turn buttons the T61 offers what I feel is a great reading experience. I’ve been using it as a straight ebook reader, and not the multi-purpose device it could be.

I guess the lesson I’ve learned here is that sometimes it’s not the screen size or resolution that matters; it’s the little details that count.

***

So that’s what I am reading on; how about you?

Are you reading on a tablet, smartphone, or ereader? The comments are open.

The hardware blind spot – Why Amazon probably isn’t working on a Kindle Android tablet

21.03.2011 7 Comments

The Kindle Android rumors surfaced again on Friday.

The NY Times noticed that Amazon are hiring Android developers at Lab126 (they develop the Kindle hardware and apps) and jumped to the obvious conclusion. Amazon must be working on a Kindle that runs Android, and that this new device could have a color screen.

There are a couple holes in that idea, unfortunately.

The first problem with this rumor is that this isn’t the first time that Amazon have hired Android developers. This same rumor went around the blogs back in August of 2010. In fact, the August rumors mostly trace back to the same blog on the NY Times website as the current rumors. Guess what? Both posts suggesting a Kindle Android tablet were written by the same author, Nick Bilton.

If he was wrong then, what are the chances he’s right this time around?

But a bigger issue is that everyone shares a blind spot when it comes to new stuff. We all assume that a developer is working on hardware, not software. There’s no reason for this assumption, but it exists all the same. I think we make this assumption because it’s easier to conceive of a physical object like a gadget than it is to think of something as ephemeral as software. You can’t touch it, so it slips your notice.

Take Sony, for example. In August of last year Sony started hiring Android developers to work in their Sony Reader division. Everyone jumped to the conclusion that Sony was working on an Android ereader. They weren’t. A few months later Sony announced that they would soon have reading apps available for iOS and Android. That Android app was released back in January, and you know what happened to the iOS app.

I was the source of the Sony story, and lucky for me I didn’t fall victim to the blind spot. I didn’t assume it was either software or hardware. (Sometimes my foresight amazes me.) I’m pretty sure I was thinking that Sony was developing reading apps, but that isn’t clear from my post.

But 3 different blogs credited me, and they all assumed that Sony was working on an Android gadget. They were all wrong – and that’s the blind spot.

You could argue that past performance is no way to predict future behavior, and this is true. But that doesn’t mean that the hardware assumption is a valid one. We don’t know why Amazon is hiring Android developers.

TBH, any argument I could make in favor of software is just as invalid as the hardware assumption I debunked, so I’m in something of a pickle. We don’t know.

Let’s wait and see what happens.