Skiff

News Corp has acquired Skiff, the e-reader platform. They have also launched the "Digital Journalism Initiatives" - which will be responsible for News Corp's new business efforts in premium digital journalism, and invested in a startup called Journalism Online

Amazon is introducing their Kindle for Tablet software (and yeah, that includes the iPad). B&N are also working on their own software for Apple's upcoming tablet, and we should expect a Skiff application soon, too. Things are heating up...

Apple iPad

via Engadget

Engadget has taken a look at the Skiff reader, and really like it and the content platform, too. They say it might be a real alternative to the Kindle (but we'll have to wait for the final device). The Skiff has a 11.5" E Ink display with a 1,600x1,200 resolution - enough to display an entire newspaper page complete with ads (yeah, ads are part of the Skiff publishing model).

The platform actually allows the content to be accessed in a wide range of devices - mobile phones, mobile PCs and e-readers.

Skiff (owned by Hearst) is not just an e-reader maker, they also want to allow other manufacturers to use their content system. Now they have teamed up with Marvell to create the Skiff Reader Development Kit (RDK) to allow e-reader makers to create devices based on Marvell's Armada System-on-a-chip, an integrated e-paper display (E Ink have teamed up with Marvell on this) and Skiff's eReading service and digital store.

Skiff Reader

Via Engadget

Via Engadget

Marvell said it has teamed up with E Ink to create an integrated application processor. E-readers based on the technology are expected to hit the market in the first quarter of 2010.

The first devices include the already announced enTourage Edge, a combination e-reader and netbook; the Alex reader from Spring Design, and an offering from Plastic Logic.

Marvell's platform is based on its new Armada family of processors, announced last month.

The company is also partnering with FirstPaper, which is backed by media giant Hearst Corp, for content and graphics technology.

Weili Dai, Marvell's co-founder and general manager of its consumer and computing business unit, estimated the entry level price point of a e-reader based on the Marvell platform at roughly $150 -- cheaper than devices currently on the market, which range upward from $199.

There are rumors that several large publishers (including Time Inc., Hearst, Condé Nast and maybe Meredith Corp) has teamed up to create a new e-reader for magazines and newspapers. They want to develop both the hardware and the software. The content will be compatible with HP and Sony devices, and upcoming Apple reader (if the rumors are true on that one). The new e-reader is said to have a color display (and so not E Ink based).

Via NYPost