New HP service undigitizes books: HP believes this whole print-to-digital book conversion push is very much a two-way street — sometimes, for some things, you really want a hard copy. And for a company with roots in printing and ambitions in services, the next play was a natural: How about we offer custom book printing services? And so we see making its formal debut from HP Labs an initiative that puts powerful publishing abilities into the hands of the masses.

The service is called BookPrep, and it enables any publisher “to digitize any existing book and turn it into a virtual asset that can be sold over the Internet and printed on demand — either as is, or personalized by the consumer. … BookPrep automatically aligns and flattens scanned texts of current and out-of-print-books, cleans and brightens the fold and corners of the pages for consistent coloration, and outputs a professional and print-ready PDF eMaster. … BookPrep makes it possible to give consumers access to every book ever published as a high quality replica of the original that they can even personalize.” The appeal here is in the long tail, all the fodder for those with passionate niche interests residing in the estimated 90 million books that are out of print, millions of them out of copyright. The latest addition to the books available for on-demand printing is a collection of 500,000 rare or out-of-print titles from the University of Michigan Library. And while the cost of a custom run was once prohibitive, new technology will let HP price a 250-page book around $15.

IRex is providing additional details about the marketing of their new digital reader in the US this fall–which will be sold through Best Buy, where the NYT reports that the chain “is training thousands of its employees in how to talk about and demonstrate devices like the Sony Reader and iRex, and adding a new area to its 1,048 stores to showcase the devices.” Up until now, the retailer has sold ereaders online and only “in limited tests in stores.” Best Buy svp for entertainment Chris Homeister says “we feel that this is a technology that is beginning to emerge and that we can bring a unique experience to the marketplace.”

iRex is pricing their new device, which will be on sale by next month, at $399. With a previously-announced 8.1 touchscreen, it’s bigger than a regular Kindle/Sony Reader but smaller than a SuperKindle/Plastic Logic reader. Verizon has been announced as their provider of wireless access–and unlike Kindle, the iRex’s wireless chip will allow it to connect, and download reading material, outside of the United States.
iRex site
NYT

By The Paperboy, 7:30 PM on Tue Sep 22 2009, 283,278 views (Edit, to draft, Slurp)

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