Reports of the, up until now, stealth company KaKai are surfacing of a “kindle like” device aimed solely at the education market. Osman Rashid, who also owns Chegg, a textbook rental company, is said to demo the dual-screen education tablet in the upcoming months.

According to Kara Swisher at AllthingsD.com, “BoomTown has found out exactly what [Osman & Kakai] are up to via reports of a concept video the company has shown potential investors and interviews with several sources close to the situation. In simplest terms, it’s essentially a Kindle for students.”

Little is known about the device and service, outside of the following limited facts:

• Navigation and core functions will be a gesture-based
• Designed with portability in mind, will feel like a mix between notepad and book
• Foldable dual screen
• Will be paired with a custom software suite and interlinked website.

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Last week’s announcement by Apple CEO Steve Jobs about the release of the company’s newest gadget, the iPad, has set the e-reader world ablaze. For a few years, Amazon’s Kindle has lead that market, making it possible to read everything from novels and cookbooks to magazines and blogs on a conveniently thin digital reading device. Now, heads are turning toward the iPad with similar expectations. One market in particular, college students, who are a key market for Apple, wants to know if the iPad for textbook claims are realistic, and if they trump the Kindle. Read the rest of this entry »

Within the next few days, Apple is expected to release its newest multimedia gadget, the Tablet. This device will allow users to play games, surf the web, watch TV, check out the latest headlines from The New York Times, or read their textbooks.

Supposedly, education publisher McGraw-Hill is discussing a partnership with Apple. The goal is to create e-book versions of its textbooks on the Tablet, similar to the textbooks that are now available on Amazon’s Kindle.

It is quite obvious why McGraw-Hill would want their books and services on the Tablet.

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In July 2009, Amazon decided to remove some content from thousands of Kindles. They removed every copy of George Orwell’s 1984, including the notes high school student Justin Gawronski’s had taken for his summer assignment.

Amazon deleted two books by Orwell, 1984 and Animal Farm, from their inventory when the publishing company decided they did not want their books to be electronically available. In addition to just removing the books from being able to be purchased, Amazon deleted those books from the Kindles of users who had already purchased the books. In this process, they also deleted any notes or comments that users had made in their personal Kindles about the book that they had purchased.

Some have called Amazon the homework-eating-dog of the 21st century. Gawronski decided to sue Amazon for destroying his homework. And on October 1, 2009, he won. He won big, earning $150,000 in the lawsuit. Read the rest of this entry »

In a pilot program at Princeton to assess the value of Amazon’s Kindle DX for students, it seems the class has graded the gadget as a no pass.

Fifty students were given the digital e-reader in the test, and after a mere two weeks of being used in three classes, students are “dissatisfied and uncomfortable.” One student made his case by saying it’s “a poor excuse of an academic tool.”

The greatest criticism is coming from the lack of ability to highlight, mark pages, or make notes in margins. Additionally, anyone trying to cite a page number is out of luck, with one student calling it “meaningless.”

It’s entirely likely that the Kindle DX won’t see the light of day in the spring semester.

Almost one year ago, Amazon launched the Kindle with the sole purpose of cornering the digital books market. For those of you that don’t know, this gadget is a fully functional digital library. Since our previous story on the Kindle, Amazon has made some much-needed updates including a larger screen, sleeker profile, and greater storage capacity.  They have also integrated a 3G wireless network enabled browser within the system to allow for a 60 second download of your favorite title.

In an attempt to broaden the uses of this device to college students around the world, Amazon has made an agreement, dubbed “The Kindle Project,” with six universities. Amazon has agreed to provide the Fall 2009 freshman class of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Pace University, Princeton University, Reed College, Darden School at the University of Virginia and Arizona State University with Kindle devices preloaded with electronic versions of their chemistry, computer science and freshman seminar classes. Read the rest of this entry »