Move over, Kindle. iriver Story HD is Google's e-Reader, $139.99 | Hacker News Reader

Move over, Kindle. iriver Story HD is Google's e-Reader, $139.99

zdnet.com

14 pointsuberstart27 comments

Unless things have changed, I can vouch for the quality of iRiver's kit, particularly the high quality of their firmware. I have owned a number of MP3 players from them over the years, and all were superb products.

That is one ugly-looking device. But if we're trying to compete on e-ink readers, I think the device to compete against now is the Nook Simple Touch. I loved my Kindle when I had one, but after using the NST I realized how rough a lot of the edges on the Kindle are. It really is a clear and solid step above the Kindle, and it's the device you need to compete with for e-ink. Wifi vs 3g doesn't matter; nobody buys books often enough to really truly NEED 24/7 connectivity across the globe. The NST touchscreen is shockingly responsive and totally obviates the need for a physical keyboard.

As for integration with Google Books--while I haven't used GB myself, I read a lot of Project Gutenberg books, and I'm assuming the two are similar platforms. The problem with PG books is that the formatting is just awful for a lot of the ebooks. Sometimes the person compiling the book will slavishly stick to a print edition, going so far as putting page numbers in or other print ephemera; or sometimes the internal coding is so bad that it only looks good on a small subset of readers; or sometimes the book is OCR'd and thus riddled with typos. What I'm saying is, you get what you pay for--and a lot of the free public-domain ebooks are just awfully compiled.

Hell, even some books I've bought from the Amazon store have been very obviously OCR'd with no second thought to ebook presentation or editing--a big example is one of Stephen King's Dark Tower books, which are huge sellers that you'd expect to have been ported to digital with at least a little attention to detail. Not so: the one I bought from the official publisher was obviously OCR'd and so riddled with typos and errors that I returned it to Amazon without finishing it.

So I guess what I'm saying is, I'm not impressed with this device. It's a generation behind the Nook Simple Touch, and integration with Google Books isn't enough to interest me given the awful or non-existent editorial oversight in most public-domain ebooks.

"Wifi vs 3g doesn't matter; nobody buys books often enough to really truly NEED 24/7 connectivity across the globe."

Totally agree, personally. Some people use the 3G for other stuff, but I only read books. Btw, purchased Google eBooks are not like PG, though, they are formatted like purchased Amazon and B&N eBooks.

"It's a generation behind the Nook Simple Touch, and integration with Google Books isn't enough to interest me given the awful or non-existent editorial oversight in most public-domain ebooks."

I'm interested in the new nook too. I saw it in the store, but didn't bother with checking it out. Next time I will. Integration with Google is also irrelevant to me, but access to Google eBooks (and all the other ePUB books with DRM via Adobe) totally matters to me, and this is why I won't buy a Kindle, yet.

When it comes to well-formatted public domain eBooks, I like Feedbooks.

I used to have a 3G Kindle, but it was stolen, and now I have a WiFi Kindle.

I agree with what you guys are saying, but without the 3g, my impulse purchases have really gone down. For example, I used to buy periodicals while on the train with some regularity, but now I hardly ever do.

So providing 3g on an e-reader might be a good investment in that sense.

Nothing jumps out at me as a Killer Feature that would make me want to own this rather than my Kindle.

I can see Google competing with Facebook, but Amazon? Seems like they should rethink that battle - going head to head is not going to be a winning strategy.

Yeah, but I don't own a Kindle. If I owned a Kindle I probably wouldn't be inclined to switch either having invested in books locked (albeit easily unlocked) to that platform. I had been considering the Kobo reader since Kobo is the only vendor that also offers an app for my phone as well. I might also consider this iRiver reader since I know that the Google Books website works fine on my phone.

I had been considering the Kobo reader since Kobo is the only vendor that also offers an app for my phone as well

What phone do you have?

Palm Pre

Ah, can't believe I missed that one. And I consider myself an enthusiast.

Ok, so that's a killer feature for you and two other guys...

Joking aside, there are serious economic issues: the Google device needs some Big Advantage over the Kindle in order to win market share, and compatibility with a phone no one owns is not it.

Google's eBook strategy is excellent. Google licenses eBooks at prices that rival Amazon and B&N, and the eBooks can be read in browsers, on cell phones, on eReaders from B&N, Sony, and now iRiver, etc., and if and when Amazon enables the Kindle to read ePUB eBooks that employ Adobe Content Server DRM (e.g., eBooks that Google, B&N and Sony sell, and public libraries lend), then Google eBooks will be accessible practically anywhere. Pretty shrewd move on Google's part.

The iRiver device looks pretty good, but as duiker101 points out, the Kindle has the unique 3G advantage.

Is Google the least innovative high-tech company? I cannot think of a single Google product that wasn't either an improved copy or a takeover of another company's product.

From search to gmail, maps, android, latitude, g+, tv, and now this.

I AM glad they usually make them better and more polished competitors, but still... not an ounce of originality?

This isn't a Google product -- it's designed by iriver. What's new is that it uses Google Books as its online bookstore, which potentially gives you access to the millions of books they've scanned from university libraries and such.

Who has an ounce of originality in your opinion?

http://www.everythingisaremix.info/

What's not innovative about being able to massively scale products for a global audience? For example, Gmail debuted with 1000 times more storage than its competitors and when it launched many people thought it was a joke (because it was too good to be true and conveniently launched on April 1st).

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090106205401AA...

is it just me, or does it look shockingly similar to the Kindle (overall shape, screen size, etc.)? I am a Kindle owner, and love it, my only quibble being the DRM they use. on that front, the 3mill+ public domain books on Google Bookstore is a winner. But I don't think it will be a "Kindle killer".

Is there a hope that with more (successfully) competing e-book vendors, more DRM-free books will be in the works? As a Kindle owner, the biggest thing preventing me from considering buying a Google books based device would be the fact that I couldn't read the books I previously purchased through Amazon on it.

Is there any hope that DRM'ed e-books will have a similar trajectory as MP3s did?

I have thought about this as well, and I hope (and think) there will be. The Kindle DRM wasn't a problem initially, because it was one of the first widely sold e-readers with a huge company backing it. however, as more devices come out that can compete with the quality of the Kindle, a change will need to happen.

I was about to type "No one will buy Amazon e-books without a Kindle, and no one will buy a Kindle if they can't read the books elsewhere", but I'm backstepping. The current Kindle business model reminds me of Apple/iTunes, something that makes me shudder. If they can still make enough money off DRM content, then maybe the incentive to make it open is small.

And the problem with saying "No one will buy Amazon e-books without a Kindle, and no one will buy a Kindle if they can't read the books elsewhere," is that it's already untrue. With the Kindle app on iOS and Android devices, plenty of people are doing just that. Don't really have numbers to back that up, though...

So another option came to mind: E-readers that can run apps. Apps like Kindle, or Google Books. That might just be wishful thinking, though.

The Nook 2nd Edition is apparently really easy to root and install apps on: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1138564

Right, that's true, but I was thinking just of e-ink devices. It's a tough sell, though, since e-ink devices are really only good for reading, so there might not be much incentive for creating an open e-ink device that can run 3rd party apps.

Amazon has started to allow 3rd party apps on the Kindle, but I don't think it's been very effective or popular, and I don't expect a Google Books app on there any time soon.

The N2E is an e-ink device :)

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/index.asp?PID=35699

I agree on the openness. I don't get the impression that many manufacturers are interested in an e-ink Android device though- B&N and Notion Ink are basically the only ones, IIRC.

yeah, you're right, you're not locked to the one _device_, just the one e-reader.

e-readers with apps would solve the problem, but I think that blurs the arena with tablets. a tablet with the Kindle app isn't really different than a Kindle with Angry Birds, right?

As long as Kindle has free 3g there is no way i'm going to change it. It can be bugged as hell, but the possibility of browsing my email or HN and someother sites from almost everywhere for free cannot be easilly replaced.

They call it Google's ebook reader, but did Google have anything to do with it other than providing the content?

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