If you’re not yet into e-books,  well  you’re in luck. It’s not hard to get into e-book reading today especially since you have several options on what e-book reader to get. Here are some of the e-book readers available in the market today  in case your interested to join the e-book bandwagon.Amazon Kindle

Of course you’ve heard of the Amazon Kindle.  What started as a 6-inch reader that displays e-books in e-ink against a gray background now has a larger 9-inch model. And it’s even going international as announced a few days ago. This means, that non-U.S. readers can now purchase the Kindle from Amazon and connect to the Amazon Kindle Store to get their fix of e-book goodness.

Sony e-Book Reader

The Kindle’s closest rival in the e-book reader market. It supports multiple file formats including ePub and PDF. Aside from tying up with Google books, Sony has also established its own online e-book store. The Sony eReader price starts from $199.99 for the Pocket edition and $299.99 for the Touch edition.

These two e-book readers are currently the major players in the eReader market. But there are other manufacturers who are planning to join the fun.

LG’s Solar Powered e-Book Reader

LG recently launched its own e-book reader and it has caught many people’s attention because  it is said to be solar-powered. It has a 10 centimeter wide thin-film panel that absorbs the sun’s energy to provide a full day’s worth of reading time. Other details of this e-book reader are yet to be announced but it is enough that we know that it is going to be one of those environment-friendly gadgets.

Plastic Logic’s Que Reader

Plastic Logic’s upcoming e-book reader has been getting a lot of attention lately.  In fact just today, it has finally been christened as the Plastic Logic QUE e-Book Reader. It is also rumored that this e-book reader will tie-up with Barnes and Nobles which recently launched it’s online e-book store.  With this tie-up Amazon should start worrying about its Kindle business.

Eee Reader

When Asus announced that it will be coming up with an Eee Reader, many got excited simply because Asus was able to to bring the netbook market to where it is right now with its famous Eee PC netbook line. Hopefully, the Eee Reader would materialize soon, as Asus promises to bring down the cost of e-book readers to the level which  majority of consumers will easily afford.

These are just five of the e-book readers that are expected to further shape the gradually becoming popular e-book reader market. Of course, it would be great if Google which announced its online e-book store recently, the Google Editions would join the fun and perhaps even with Apple and Microsoft might join the party soon.

Book Worship celebrates “graphically interesting” books from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, covering quite a lot of subjects including physics, sci-fi, maths, philosophy and fiction.

If you like the distinctively retro look you only seem to get on old reference books, this is the site to browse. The author says that he’s read most of the books displayed here, which were often “lucky finds” in tucked away bookstores.

Although Nyantype seems to be coming out every quarter instead of monthly like Megami Magazine, it’s still a good alternative for someone looking for some variety in their pin-up posters. Unfortunately, as with the first volume of Nyantype, it does not seem like they include any extras (such as B2 size posters or calendars) like Megami Magazine. To make up for the lack of extras, there is something in this volume that will definitely make Strike Witches fans happy:

In case you can’t tell what that is, it’s a neck pillow with a very close resemblance to one of the characters, Miyafuji Yoshika. This special pillow is only offered through Nyantype, and for a little extra yen it could be yours in a matter of weeks. Personally though, I would rather have a free poster.

Joe Schreiber’s Star Wars Death Troopers horror roman will be released on October 13th. The horror adaption tells the story of prisoners fleeing on a star destroyer… filled with Zombies. Star Wars zombies!

When the Imperial prison barge Purge – temporary home to five hundred of the galaxy’s most ruthless killers, rebels, scoundrels, and thieves – breaks down in a distant, uninhabited part of space, its only hope appears to lie with a Star Destroyer found drifting, derelict, and seemingly abandoned. But when a boarding party from the Purge is sent to scavenge for parts, only half of them come back–bringing with them a horrific disease so lethal that within hours nearly all aboard the Purge die in ways too hideous to imagine.

And death is only the beginning.

The Purge’s half-dozen survivors–two teenage brothers, a sadistic captain of the guards, a couple of rogue smugglers, and the chief medical officer, the lone woman on board–will do whatever it takes to stay alive. But nothing can prepare them for what lies waiting aboard the Star Destroyer amid its vast creaking emptiness that isn’t really empty at all. For the dead are rising: soulless, unstoppable, and unspeakably hungry.

Pre-order it at Amazon.
]]> http://www.forevergeek.com/2009/07/star_wars_death_troopers_coming_in_september/feed/ 0 http://www.forevergeek.com/2009/06/travel_the_world_with_the_geek_atlas/ http://www.forevergeek.com/2009/06/travel_the_world_with_the_geek_atlas/#comments Sun, 14 Jun 2009 15:50:39 +0000 Dora http://www.forevergeek.com/?p=13014 Traveling has become one of the most popular and coolest hobbies today. Because of this – or maybe the reason for this (is) – travel costs have gone down considerably. Whether you are a geek or not, travel is probably at the top of your list. And if you are looking for the most interesting trips you can go on, look no further than the new travel guide The Geek Atlas.

Written by John Graham-Cumming, The Geek Atlas showcases the most significant places on earth. Significant in what way? Well, this travel book’s full title is The Geek Atlas: 128 Places Where Science and Technology Come Alive.

The title pretty much sums up this great piece of work. It features locations in the world wherein discoveries in science, math, and technology were made. Lest someone say that these discoveries are mere things of the past, the book also features places where more recent discoveries occurred and locations where significant studies are currently happening as well.

To give you a bit of a teaser, how would you like to visit these places?

-Bletchley Park in the UK, where the Enigma code was broken
-The Alan Turing Memorial in Manchester, England
-The Horn Antenna in New Jersey, where the Big Bang theory was confirmed
-The National Cryptologic Museum in Fort Meade, Maryland
-The Trinity Test Site in New Mexico, where the first atomic bomb was exploded
-The Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, California

I don’t know about you, but I AM SOLD. Get a copy at Amazon for less than $20.

In a fashion very similar to Megami Magazine, Nyan Type features all of the popular bishoujo series and includes a number of pin-up posters of bishoujo characters. Besides the posters, Nyan Type also has information regarding new and upcoming bishoujo anime, something Megami Magazine also focuses on. I haven’t gotten the chance to look through the magazine myself yet, but from some of the?images that have recently made their way onto the internet, it certainly looks promising.

It’ll be interesting to see what actions Megami Magazine will take (if any) to snuff out its new rival, more freebies perhaps?

But apparently the changing landscape of technology media has turned EGM from a pioneer to a victim. The Ziff-Davis owned publication will be releasing its final issue this January just shy of achieving its 20th year anniversary.

The reason for the cancellation has been attributed to a corporate reshuffling at Ziff Davis when the company sold the 1UP network to UGO Entertainment owned by Hearst Corporation.

EGM was launched March 1989 and initially covered the Sega and Nintendo systems although it also had reviewers for the Amiga, Atari and Commodore systems as well.

I think the growth of gaming blogs and gaming media sites has also contributed to the sinking sales of gaming magazines. Too bad because magazines still serve a niche audience.

I’ve used my trusty Asus EEE PC for reading e-books up until a few days ago. It was a very good gadget for a reader especially if you use a small app that would turn the screen from landscape to portrait, you then have to turn the book to its side, much like a book. But I had to sell my EEE because of my plans to upgrade to a new model next year.

Nintendo is also planning on tapping the market for e-books with its new partnership with HarperCollins. The company is releasing the 100 Classic Book Collection, a software that includes works from such celebrated authors as Shakespeare, Dickens and Austen. The software turns the DS into a virtual book where you can turn pages by touching the DS screen.

With a price tage of £20 or $30 and initially available in Great Britain, this is very good price point for a very cool use of the DS. I hope that the software will also allow for the addition of new books. Of course, an alternative is to use some of the homebrew e-readers that can be used on the DS.

Based on recommendations I began to read the Sword of Shannara. It’s a relatively good yarn but the book I had was the compilation of the first three books, so you can just imagine how thick and bulky it is. A friend suggested that I try Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series because the paperbacks are widely available in bookstores. I followed his advice and started looking for a copy of the first book in the series, Wizard’s First Rule, but it looked like the stores only carried most of the latter volumes and never the first three books. Exasperated and desperate I decided to look for alternatives. I briefly toyed with the idea of ordering through Amazon but with a tight budget I just couldn’t afford it. So I settled for the next best solution — an e-book.

I was never a fan of e-books before because I could only read it on my PC, which prevents me from bringing it with me to my favorite reading corner — the toilet. But a look at the capabilities of my trusty Nokia E61i made me realize that I could put books in my phone! I proceeded to install an e-book reader on my phone and copied all 11 books in Goodkind’s series on my phone. Voila! Books at my fingertips anytime I want to read them without having to bring any bulky books anymore! The ease and convenience of bringing e-books has made me an overnight convert and addict. I now always remember to charge my phone because I bring it with me everywhere I go. I can now sneak in reading a few pages of what I’m reading anytime and anywhere — yes, even the toilet!

We’ve seen the commercials over and over again. Oprah Winfrey saying “I’ll tell you what my favorite gadget is… on Friday”. Well it’s Friday already and guess what, I guessed it right. Complementing her hundreds of thousands member “Oprah’s book club” she has exclaimed that her favorite gadget was a book reader. Ha ha… what else?

Now if you’ve been holding off getting an Amazon Kindle yourself, would the little Oprah push finally make you get it? No… ok, now how about if entering the code OPRAHWINFREY and saving US$50 do the trick. I guess it will! :) But you better act fast because this offer is only until Nov 1.

I could just imagine Oprah fans by the millions heading to Amazon.com to get their own Kindle 2. This is such a “made for each other” deal that will surely get America back to reading again.

Putting a Gaiman work on film is exciting enough but there are now plans to also make games based on the novel and movie. D3 Publisher has announced that it will make Coraline games for the Wii, PS2, and the DS and this will be made available by January next year, a month before the movie debuts in America.

This is great news for Gaiman fans, and you can count me as one of ‘em.

Directed by Henry Selick, Coraline will be the filmmaker’s first full-length stop-motion animated film since he first established himself with the classic The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. As with James, Selick will be working from the source material of a well-respected scribe. The original novel Coraline was penned by Neil Gaiman, author of the seminal Sandman series of comics as well as Stardust, a novel adapted to the big screen last year.

In the film, a young girl discovers a doorway to a fantastic alternate reality in her house. However, when her alternate world turns sinister, she must marshal her wits to escape the predicament and return home to her old life.

Coraline has not yet been rated and is under development by Papaya Studios (Medal of Honor: Airborne, Larry Boy and the Bad Apple) and Art Co. (Shaun the Sheep, Gunpey for DS).