iriver Story retail partners: Hugendubel (Germany)

In order to give you an impression of the strategic partnerships of the iriver Story and to let you know where to get everything regarding the Story in your direct neighborhood, we thought it would be a good idea to introduce the iriver Story retail partners all around the world.
In this first episode we focus on the book store chain Hugendubel in Germany. Hugendubel owns 42 stores in 21 cities all over Germany and an online store with a great selection of books, e-books and audio books. Hugendubel also sells the iriver Story and Story accessory like cases. The ebook section of Hugendubel consists of more than 30.000 books from all genres that are available for immediate download and contain mostly german and some international releases. All current bestsellers are part of this selection too. Most of the e-books offered by Hugendubel come in the file formats .epub or .pdf.
And to round it all up, of course the iriver Story e-reader is being sold at all Hugendubel stores as well. Stop by today and check them out, Hugendubel's always worth a visit. More pictures after the break.

new brown leather case for the Story

This brand new, chocolate brown leather case for the iriver Story is what many have been asking for as an alternative to the light colored carrying case that has been the only choice available up to now. The dark brown leather of this beautiful case makes the Story look even more classy and classic and compliments the minimal design of the e-reader. It's very stable and holds the Story firmly and safe to protect it in the best possible way.
If you want to update the design of your Story, the dark brown case is available in Korea, Japan, China, the Middle East & Russia.

The pros and cons of electronic paper

(click to enlarge image)

Up till now, paper has been the uncontested material for use in writing and reading. Let’s take a look at its pros and cons. Paper is inexpensive, light, flexible, easy to write or record on, and we can see what's on the paper itself as long as there is sufficient light: this is the greatest advantage of paper. On the other hand, it’s not easy to change writing on paper and edit its content once the sheet has been marked. Readers and writers have been forced to accept the nature of paper as a “single-use” material. E-paper has been developed to capitalize the advantages of paper and mitigate its drawbacks. It inherently provides all the benefits of paper and also has electronic advantages such as a wide viewing angle, visibility under normal sunlight and low power consumption. E-paper has embedded ink that works electronically, and its micro structure mimics the characteristics of normal paper. Its paper-like appearance is made possible through using an encapsulated EPD (electronic paper display),  microcapsules that contain a clear fluid with electrically charged fine particles of 2 kinds of pigments and laid between two electrodes. When electricity is applied, the fine particles are distributed and arranged, replicating the phenomenon of a wet ink being written on paper.

But: Is paper ready to be replaced by e-paper?

Iriver & LG Display establish joint venture for e-book business

•  Iriver and LG Display financed a total of 5 million dollars to establish a joint-venture company in Iriver’s China Plant
•  Operating an ODM and OEM system to manufacture e-book reader
•  Develop and produce leading e-book readers in the global market by generating synergy in the technology and manufacturing aspects

Iriver and LG Display have agreed to establish a joint venture company, ’L&I Electronic Technology (Dongguan) Ltd.’ in China to expand their e-book business.

Each Iriver and LG Display will finance 49% and 51% of the joint venture company, respectively, totaling up to 5 million dollars. The business will be founded on original equipment manufacturing (OEM) and original development manufacturing (ODM) systems to develop e-books and provide production services.

Iriver is responsible for product design, accumulated knowledge on e-book technology, including designs and platform development, as well as technical assistance within the joint-venture. And Iriver will be the first customer for the joint venture. LG Display, with its global sales network and world class production skills, will be in charge of providing a stable supply of e-book displays, such as electronic paper displays (EPD) to the joint venture.

Iriver expects to gain a stronger market presence in both the domestic and global e-book markets as it will gain a price competitive e-book reader supplier from the new relationship. The prospect for LG Display also seems bright. It will stand out from its competitors by securing a stable distribution line for its e-book displays, while also making its debut in the final product business.

Jae Woo Lee, CEO of Iriver, said, “The joint-venture is significant in that it lays the foundation for a more stable and competitive manufacturing line. If we succeed in generating a synergy between Iriver and LG Display, our joint-venture company will grow to become the market leader with unrivaled competitive power in e-book development and production business.

LG Display’s Executive Vice President and Head of Mobile/OLED Business Unit Mr. Eddie Yeo said, “LG Display decided to establish a joint venture with iriver to supply customers with more competitive products as part of our upstream-downstream business transformation strategy. LG Display will utilize its advanced EPD technologies to achieve early commercial production of color and flexible EPD and reach the global No.1 position by 2012.”

Weekend Giveaway

To celebrate the fact that we already have over 200 new followers on our iriver Story Twitter, we would like to extend our big Twitter giveaway even more. This weekend only, we'll give away 2 new cordless Logitech laser mouses (see picture to the left) for all of our new Twitter followers untill tomorrow night (Sunday, June 13th). This is separate from the other giveaway (which is still in full effect, June 21st is the deadline here). Follow us now and win one of 2 new Logitech mouses (this weekend) or one of 3 brand new iriver Storys (untill June 21st).  Thanks, Twitter family!!!

Update: The winners have already been contacted as the giveaway has ended. Congratulations to @h0wlingwolfz and @hoshizora

Ready for the soccer World Cup

This picture should be evidence enough to prove that I'm completely prepared for the soccer World Cup that's starting today. I took one of the many game schedules that you'll find everywhere on the web and used the pdf function for the iriver Story to have all matches and all times with me. I'm especially looking forward to the games of Germany, South Korea and England but I think it's going to be a great tournament all over anyway. When you look for a .pdf-file you want to use, make sure it's editable, so you can update the scores on your computer and always have the exact standings with you.

Also don't forget: Our big Twitter giveaway is still going on. Tell everybody to follow the official iriver Story Twitter to get a chance to win one of three new iriver Storys. We have more news coming up very soon. Enjoy the weekend!!!

Twitter Giveaway

As you can see, we started our first big event on Twitter earlier today. We're giving away 3 iriver Storys and you should not miss your chance to be a winner.  How the whole thing works? It's pretty easy but here's all the info in details again: Follow us on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/iriver_Story) until June 21st and you'll automatically enter the lottery. Three of our new followers will be the lucky winners and receive a brand new iriver Story sent to their house. But please have in mind: The deadline is June 21st! Good luck everybody!