# Google's New E-Reader



## R. Doug

It's called the Story HD, and it's going to be priced pretty competitively. Unfortunately, it sounds as if the Story HD has the bulk and heft of the Kindle 2 with only incremental advances over the Kindle 3 (slightly better resolution and a bit better battery life).

Nothing to write home about, especially as it's the same price as the Kindle 3 WiFi and slightly more than the "Special Offers" edition. Also, distribution is limited to only one retailer-Target.


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## KindleChickie

Its kinda ugly.


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## Anne Victory

Kinda?  ets sleek Kindle:


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## Doug Lance

It's not made by Google. It's made by iRiver. Google is partnering with them to offer the book selection.


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## BTackitt

it does look like my K2. 
the thing is, it will get more people reading e-books, which for authors is a good thing.


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## R. Doug

Doug Lance said:


> It's not made by Google. It's made by iRiver. Google is partnering with them to offer the book selection.


I doubt any e-book seller be it Amazon, B&N, or Google, actually manufactures their own readers. They pretty much all subcontract that out.


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## KindleChickie

Looks a lil better in a larger pic, but still meh.


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## Doug Lance

R. Doug said:


> I doubt any e-book seller be it Amazon, B&N, or Google, actually manufactures their own readers. They pretty much all subcontract that out.


Amazon designed and branded the Kindle.

Google got together a bunch of books and approached iRiver with a deal. iRiver designed and branded the device.


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## balaspa

I tend to like Google, but their ebook endeavors have been, in my opinion, a disaster.  I have three books available for sale in the ebookstore and it took me half a year to get them formatted and updated.  I have yet to sell a single one.  It was such a disaster, I have not sent them any of the novels I have published since I got those four up there.  So, I think they are a bit late to the game here.


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## FastPop

It shows how much an eReader is dependent on a great eBook marketplace.


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## Alan Ryker

The device is pretty uggo, but I would LOVE a page-turn button in that position on my Kindle!


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## Casper Parks

My question, will someone be able to buy and read a Kindle book on it?


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## R. Doug

Casper Parks said:


> My question, will someone be able to buy and read a Kindle book on it?


No.


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## LunaraSeries

Casper, 

No with an explanation.  Amazon encodes their books to play only on kindle.


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## R. Doug

More on the HD Story, Google, iRiver, and how it all ties in with ABA.


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## jason10mm

Hmm, that screen looks interesting. Probably see it in the K4.


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## balaspa

I was at Target this past weekend and was hoping they would have a display model out that I could play around with.  Sadly, they did not, just a bunch of readers in boxes on an end cap.  So, I still don't know what it feels like or how it functions.

I have four novels available at the Google eBookstore, so we'll see if any sales happen because this reader catches on.  I think there is room in the market for several popular ereaders.


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## lynnb

Looks kinda like my K2.
My wife wants a reader for her B-day in 2 weeks and she is leaning toward the nook to get the touch screen capability.
You get a bit spoiled after using a touch screen.  
Google's iriver is just not tickling the fancy.


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## Ann in Arlington

Lynn, there are STRONG rumors that Amazon will be releasing a new generation of Kindle within a couple of months and much of the speculation is that at least one model offered will have a touch screen.  So you might want to consider holding off on the nook just yet.  Not that's it's not a fine reader. . .but if you already have a Kindle, and if the two of you read similar things, it will be easier to share books with two Kindles.  In fact, except for titles in the public domain, or published without copy protection, there's no real way to do that if you have two different branded readers without violating the terms of service of at least one of them.


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## Sharon Red

KindleChickie said:


> Its kinda ugly.


Wow yes it is...


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## Sharon Red

Doug Lance said:


> Amazon designed and branded the Kindle.
> 
> Google got together a bunch of books and approached iRiver with a deal. iRiver designed and branded the device.


Wow iRiver, no kidding. I would not expected them to do that.


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## Jan Strnad

Technology and design seem to be converging on the ereaders themselves. More and more, the choice of which to buy will be based on the shopping experience, which Amazon wins hands-down.

Of course, we *should *have the ability to buy wherever and read on whatever, but the industry keeps playing the exclusivity game.


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## The Hooded Claw

I'd almost forgotten about iRiver.  My first MP3 player was an iRiver T30 with two whole gig of internal music storage!  It actually was a very nice device for the day.  But I don't see this ereader as being much of a success.  Google is too late here, IMO.


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## Lizz

I have gotten so out of date with the new info, I didn't even know they were making one. I have to agree that it is completely butt ugly. I love Google, android, etc, but won't be ditching my K for this one. I heart my Kindle.


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## Ann Chambers

That reader is surprisingly ugly and clunky. Thumbs down. Agree that Google is too late here. The debate is all Kindle vs. Nook, and that ugly device isn't changing anything.


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## Will Write for Gruel

Google has a better chance releasing a color tablet that can be used as an e-reader. Their $99 iRiver device can't compete. Maybe if they got it down to $49....


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## SheenahFreitas

I haven't heard of this eReader until today... what's special about it?


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## JesseT

There is an interesting bit of research and lots of opinions about giving consumers too many choices - but one of the things a lot of researchers have been catching onto is that when the differences between larger numbers of choices seem smaller the choice gets so hard to make that they often end up unhappy with the decision they made, not making one at all or rationalizing the choice they made. I know, it's all academic/research wonk kind of stuff but I definitely appreciate at least one thing about the Google/iRiver e-reader and it's the improvement of image delivery.

Being a comic artist it's definitely beneficial to me as a creator (63% more pixels can make a lot of difference already for comics) - so I am hoping future version of all of these e-readers is to offer better fidelity in e-ink and hopefully color very soon.

But yes, Google has been awfully silent in this category by comparison to other efforts which makes me think they may have other experiments we aren't privy too.


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## jeminyrk

Really good information... I don't know about this e reader before..


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## Marlene Joyce Spark

KindleChickie said:


> Its kinda ugly.


Kinda? Its fugly.

Sent from my GT-I9100T using Tapatalk 2


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