Thank you Jorgen for a link to a story at APPSCOUT fresh from CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2010 about Blio, a platform that boasts a wide range of options for publishers that include adding text-to-speech, color photos, and video content directly to their eBook formats.
Its designer, voice-recognition inventor, kngb founder, and The Singularity is Near author Ray Kurzweil says “the future of electronic reading won’t be on dedicated hardware, but on a wide range of multifunction devices.” Despite his obvious street-cred I still consider this an opinion. A lot of people have talked about this integration of function, but it’s such a volatile marketplace full of so many new advances in hardware and software that it’s impossible to predict with any degree of certainty. I think the truth and the future of electronic reading will reflect the diverse interests of those who adopt the devices and formats.
The site proclaims Blio is: “the new touchstone for the presentation of electronic books & magazines. Stunning, full-color pages come alive in brilliant 3D. Even image-rich books are now at your digital fingertips — because Blio preserves a book’s original layout, fonts, and graphics.”
Sounds great, but it looks like we’re going to have to wait until February for an operational model, yah?
**THIS JUST IN: (Consumer Electronics Show, Las Vegas) – Microsoft and HP have unveiled their own SLATE PC ahead of APPLE’S much rumored Tablet. It’s tricked out to read eBook and do a whole lot more. Read the story and get video here. – JC
1 ping
[…] talked about the Blio eReader platform way back in January when it was announced at the 2010 Consumer Electronics […]