iRiver Story HD optimized for Google Books

$140 Google eBooks reader, iriver Story HD, hits stores July 17.jpeg

iRiver's Story HD e-book reader is optimized for Google's eBooks service (with 3m free titles) and will carry the same price tag—$140— as Amazon's Kindle. Casey Johnston writes:

Given that Google Books is one of the most widely accessible e-book platforms--computers, Android and iOS devices as well as Nook and Sony readers can all access the e-book content--we expect the hardware and user experience will have to deliver in order for the reader to make an impact on a market where other brands like the Nook and Kindle already have significant momentum.

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Anonymous

Apparently Target Corp. gets to be the exclusive retailer for these things in the U.S…
seanpatgallagher

Yeah, but is it evil or not? I can’t tell by looking and it isn’t discussed in any of Cory’s SciFi novels.

-S
alittler

There are enough e-readers out there for me to be picky about the fact that this had a physical keyboard. Its a reading device that has touch screen on it, what the heck is the point of a keyboard?

Unless it doesnt have a touch screen, but then there is no point considering it
- dculberson
  
  Actually, I feel quite the opposite – what use is a touch screen on an e-reader? I don’t have any use for that, but find a physical keyboard useful from time to time.
  - peterbruells
    
    Well, for one thing, these readers often displays menus, either lists of titles or a table of contents. It’s much more direct to touch the entry one wants to use than to manipulate a cursor.
    
    Most importante, for me, would be how easy it is to get to the next place and for that I would like what the txtr reader is supposed to have: A capacative button set where simply flicking the thumb in one direction would turn the pictures.
- Anonymous
  
  Touch screens are disgusting for e-readers; even if the touch layer adds no visual interference (a big “if”), you just end up with your screen covered in smudges and smears.
  
  No thanks.
Anonymous

“In Europe ‘m’ = thousands,”

First of many Europeans checking in to say no, I imagine.
jorum

If page turning is by that middle 4-way it sucks.
The side-buttons on the kindle are a great function.
Blaine

I reaaaaallly don’t know about that keyboard. I mean, I’m excited for it. I’ve hitched my wagon to the Google Books horse, so this is the ereader for me… provided it can store the whole book. No 3g means rough times.
Anonymous

one of my first mp3 players was an iriver – I loved it though it only worked for a year or so and I could put in a stereo mic to do music recordings. (I play the fiddle)
After it no longer worked though and I replaced it with another mp3 player – and uninstalled the iriver software. It never quite fully uninstalled – I still get an error msg when the computer boots up that because some iriver software is still trying to run.
Anonymous

how does this compare to the kobo touch reader?
Anonymous

Google eBooks has about 3 million free public domain eBooks available. Google eBooks are available ePub or PDF depending on book. This e-reader comes with a dictionary for reference.
Anonymous

“with 3m free titles”

Is that three Million free titles? or… three Thousand free titles?

In Europe ‘m’ = thousands, in the US ‘m’ = millions.

me==Sam-Hec
- elro
  
  @Anon (Sam-Hec)
  “Is that three Million free titles? or… three Thousand free titles?
  In Europe ‘m’ = thousands, in the US ‘m’ = millions.”
  
  No it doesn’t. In S.I. units ‘m’ stands for milli, which means thousandths. 3/1000 of a book would be perhaps 1 or 2 pages…
- Anonymous
  
  “In Europe ‘m’ = thousands,”
  
  Umm, not in Europe’s main English-speaking country, i.e. the UK. This article is written in English, for an English-speaking readership. 3m = 3 million. End of story.
nosehat

“Wi-Fi only”?! Argh!

I guess my search for an e-reader will still continue.
Anonymous

I don’t think many E-readers will make headway outside the US until local booksellers start offering a decent selection or the current crop of large US booksellers stop with the “We don’t sell to your region”/”This title is not available in your region”.

The situation improved dramatically when Kindle started being sold worldwide, but most of the improvement was on Amazon itself (which still needs to improve). If other manufacturers and booksellers ignore the situation they’ll probably find Amazon is entrenched to the point of no return.

I only bring it up because Google eBooks has had the same tired line on their ebook page since launch: “The latest Google eBooks are not available for sale in your location, yet…”
Anonymous

Hmmm – iriver should be more careful with their photoshop. The Snowman is by Jo Nesbo or Raymond Briggs, not by Chelsea Handler, who happens to be listed right under The Snowman.
Anonymous

I bought the ad version of the Kindle a few weeks back. They were out of the regular version, but the ads aren’t too obtrusive (only visible when browsing titles or when turned off) and it did save me $25. It only has wi-fi, which isn’t needed much and usually turned off to extend battery life.

Odd thing about the ads: some are pretty good deals. Mixed in with car and cosmetic ads (blah) are $20 Amazon gift cards for $10, 99 cent albums, and one or two other decent deals.

I’m jealous of the Nook color, but the Kindle is pretty darn awesome for a reader. This Google version looks nearly identical.
Anonymous

In WHAT way is it optimized for Google Books? The post doesn’t say. The linked page doesn’t say. Does it have some google books reading app? But there is already a Google Books app on the Android market that runs fine on my rooted Nook Touch.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.apps.books

I’m surprised the Android factor for the new Nook hasn’t gotten more traction on BoingBoing and elsewhere. It changes everything. The common comparisons between the apps on Kindle, apps on the X ereader, apps on the Y ereader and so on become pointless. If it is on the Android Market it will most def run on Nook. Android Kindle App? Check. Pdf reader. Check. Czb? Djvu? office? Any browser you want? checkity-check-yourself!
Horn55

I want an eInk reader that runs a non-proprietary version of Linux, that allows you to edit your eBook like the text zip file that it is, meaning allowing you to underline, italicize, and change to bold and so forth. I want one without remote monitoring. I think I’d like a Keyboard but I like the one button (no touch design) because it is reduces the possibility of inadvertently hitting a button when I handle an eReader like a book ie: not carefully worrying about the placement of my fingers.
- nosehat
  
  I completely agree.
  
  The open epub format is a zipped html file–there’s no reason any modern e-reader shouldn’t support it (I’m looking at you, Kindle) and allow for the kind of basic editing you mention.
  
  The Wi-Fi thing bugs me too. I want an e-reader that functions like an MP3 player–something that is hardware I control, something I can load and manage from my PC, without any the reader constantly phoning home, aggregating data about my reading habits and selling it, trying to sell me stuff, etc. In other words, I want to pay my money for a piece of hardware that is designed to serve only me, the user, not designed to serve the e-retailer.
  
  According to the Google Blog post that the Ars Technica article links, this is a “Google eBooks e-commerce platform”, not an e-book reader. To me that’s a crucial difference.
- Anonymous
  
  you mean so you can re-write Dickens? and then re-post the corrupted version as the real thing?
Jason@Adadpress

I had a chance to check out the iRiver Story HD (at CES 2011 and recently) and it is a good product, on par with other e-readers today (though I think I still prefer the Kindle and the side buttons, even if the screen was a little better). I just wish it and Google eBooks were available in Canada so we would have some good competition in the e-books realm. I’m looking at publishing my first science fiction novel (Rawmesh, http://www.adadpress.com/) soon and want to have it primarily as an e-book (and print on demand), but I would like a few more options up here sooner rather than later…

I tend to like iRiverâ€™s products, though I have to admit that Iâ€™m not a big fan of how this e-reader looks — and Iâ€™m not the only one (http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/07/google-and-iriver-make-worlds-ugliest-e-reader/). One issue I have is with Googleâ€™s epub eBooks themselves — sometimes the OCR software is having a bad day, and the books have some odd (or hilarious) mistakes in them. Evil or not, Iâ€™m sticking with Amazon (for now).
duncan

Nice ad-buying on this page; I have an advert for the nook running on the top of this page.

“Starting at $139″ *Zing*
- Donald Petersen
  
  “Starting at $139″ *Zing*
  
  Ha! I got that beat. The banner up top currently sez, “Available today: iPads for $23.74?”
  - Anonymous
    
    My Kindle will be on its way tomorrow. I’ll no longer be the only ebook-less person in the office here in Japan. “Evil, but available” vs “Not for people Living On Most Of The Planet”
  - Palomino
    
    What browsers are you two running? I never get that shit, I’m running Chrome.
    
    It’s not the ads themselves that bother me, it’s the damn flashing, like a Vegas strip on my laptop.
querent

I love iRiver! They made my favorite mp3 player to date.
regeya

Wow, that thing looks like ass. Still, that’s an interesting development.
Anonymous

Google ebooks are scanned and readable as PDF files. As epub versions, Google ebooks are OCR’d by second-rate software and not checked by human or monkey.

The result is massive, head-scratching, or howling ‘scannos’ that render most of the Google ebook epub editions simply unreadable.
Anonymous

I hate, hate, hate silver plastic.

It looks cheap new and terrible after the tiniest bit of use.

It should never be used on anything people touch or in any car that costs more than $100.

Yeah, I’m looking at you entire car industry.