And even Google dives into the market for e-reader

And even Google dives into the market for e-reader

Google is chronologically the last to arrive among the players who flock to the market dedicated to digital reading devices. Should be space between American companies Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, including brands that represent Europe as Bookeen, the farmyard IBS.it, Pocketbook, and between manufacturers representative in Southeast Asia such as Sony, Asus, Onyx, and iRiver Hanvon .

It was with the Korean iRiver (hence the site) that Google has signed a collaboration agreement to create an ebook reader that integrates natively Google eBooks, the platform dedicated to digital reading made by Big G and active for the time being only in the U.S. .

Story iRiver HD, this is the name of the device, allow the user to read (and buy) online ebooks eBooks from Google via the wifi.

Technically this is possible using the web services (API) that Google makes available to anyone who wants access (publishers and producers) to the entire catalog of its ebook platform.

The agreement with iRiver and then marketing the first e-reader integrated with the open platform Google eBooks, as also pointed out the official blog Inside Google Books.

The iRiver Story HD has a screen 6 inches (768 × 1024 pixels).

On the iRiver website, among other specifications, is not mentioned the name of the manufacturer of the electronic ink display. If it were we would definitely E-Ink wrote. Probably, however, the supplier is LG based on a partnership that iRiver and LG announced at CES in Las Vegas last January.

The design draws much the Kindle (with QWERTY keyboard located below the display).

iRiver Story HD is equipped with 2 GB of memory (storage space of about 1500 ebooks), but is expandable to 32 GB, weighs 207 grams, supports ePub and PDF formats (with and without Adobe DRM).

Like the iRiver Story Kobo Touch HD also uses the latest generation hardware platform i.MX508 produced by Freescale (we talked about in previous articles) specially designed for electronic ink devices.

If you think you will be happy to buy it to know that the menus are also available in Italian.

For detailed technical information refer to the manufacturer's website.

iRiver Story HD will be on sale in the United States today, Sunday, July 17, Target stores (online and land ;-)) at a price of $ 139.

For comparison the Kindle 6 inch WiFi has the same price (but the version "sponsored" costs $ 114), the Kobo Touch costs $ 129 and $ 139 Nook Touch yet.