Future Is Here: More E-Reading Apps Debut at CES

New e-reader apps and devices are hitting the market at a furious pace, and this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is a favorite venue for unveiling new entries. The profusion of free downloadable software apps, in particular, promises some kind of social and technical shakeout in the years to come.

blio-ereader

The most recent software app announced at CES, Blio, comes from knfb Reading Technology, a company founded by futurist Ray Kurzweil, the inventor of voice-recognition, and the Federation of the Blind.

Originating as an app to help people with impaired vision read digital content more easily, knfb is marketing Blio to mainstream consumers. Blio aims to preserve the visual format of books and magazines, including layout, type, images and colors, while also enabling an array of digital media, like online video and interactive Web.

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Compatible with desktop and tablet PCs, netbooks, iPhones, iPods and other mobile devices, the free app allows users to make "notes" by saving additional images, video and voice content alongside digital content. It also compiles lists of relevant Web references.

Blio offers users access to 1.2 million titles through a partnership with book distributor Baker & Taylor, Kurzweil said. Like other e-reader services, Blio stores digital editions purchased by the user in a virtual library, but unlike some other services, the user can access this virtual library by various means, including mobile devices, desktop and tablets, allowing them to "transfer" the reading experience between devices.

Kurzweil also touted its color capabilities as a significant improvement over competing services, which are for the most part limited to monochromatic reproductions of print content, noting the importance of color to reader experience for content like cookbooks, travel guides, how-to books, textbooks and children's stories.

On the device front, the Consumer Electronics Association predicts e-reader sales will double this year, compared to 2009, then again by 2012. Earlier this week, Skiff, LLC previewed its new Skiff reader at CES. The reader, created at the behest of magazine and newspaper publisher Hearst, has its own Skiff e-reader app, which should be compatible with content from other publishers.

1 comment about "Future Is Here: More E-Reading Apps Debut at CES".
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  1. Joan Azarva from Transition Success, LLC, January 9, 2010 at 12:02 a.m.

    Glad to see another milestone in digital media. As far as I'm concerned, this field can't grow fast enough to level the playing field for students with dyslexia.

    Conquer College with LD/ADD
    http://www.conquercollegewithld.com/forum.html

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