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Before we get carried away, keep in mind this is 100% rumor, based on a tip that Gizmodo got from a seemingly knowledgeable tipster. What isn’t rumor is that a Barnes & Noble eReader passed through the FCC. What IS rumor is that the device could be running Android.
Why an eBook Reader with Android you ask? My question is better… why not? It has everything you need and could be customized and modified to better serve its core purpose. You’ve already got drivers for touch sensitivity, 3G connectivity on GSM and CDMA, Wi-Fi, auto-rotate, on screen keyboard and much more. Why rebuild what is already built for you?
Take Android, customize the appearance/UI, limit what can be downloaded by installing a proprietary eBook store of sorts and give it a go. A few details were leaked by WSJ:
The device is expected to feature a six-inch screen from digital-paper maker E-Ink Corp. with touch input and a virtual keyboard, like the one used on Apple Inc.’s iPhone. The Barnes & Noble device is expected to also use a wireless connection to download books from the online e-book store that the books retailer unveiled in July, those people said.
Sounds fancy and if it hits in time for the holidays it could get some quality attention. Assuming these aren’t all just pipe dreams… which is still a possibility.
This thing could give the Kindle a run for it’s money. That is if the price is low enough and the cost of books is comparable to the Amazon store. I have been tempted to get a Kindle but now I’ll wait and see if this device is better.
I don’t see how this will work. Android isn’t designed to run with e-ink and, even if it could it certainly wasn’t made for it which means the lack of color could hamper any positives gained by having the OS.
Otherwise, one could argue that the e-reader won’t use e-ink at all, in which case it’s useless as an e-reader and may as well just be a tablet. There’s a reason why 90% of the e-readers use e-ink instead of LCD/OLED displays and that’s because of eye weariness. Constant reading on a computer for even a couple hours can wear out the eyes and cause headaches.
@Geoff also e-ink is a battery saver.
This is just a rumour. This device is the DRS800 G of IREX and it running Linux + GTK+ just as it’s professional brother DRS 1000
This could open the door for the Barnes and Noble eBook reader app on the Android Market. iPhone and Blackberry have it. I would definitely use it if it was available in the Market. A good number of the free ebooks viewable at books.google are available for download at B&N. Unfortunately there is no Android reader that reads the format. Speaking of books.google, why no books.google reader app?
This is bollocks. [fact]
The refresh rate of e-ink is far to low to support a normal UI. It will definitely be custom software.
It’s *possible* that the underlying system is Android, but that’s just the same as saying it will run linux. Which seems likely.
6″ screen?
No thanks.
Put a 9″ screen on it, and then “maybe”.
Totally false:
http://jaap.haitsma.org/2009/10/09/barnes-and-nobles-reader-uses-gnome/