Digital book technology took a major leap forward at the Consumer Electronics Show when knfb Reading Technology Inc. unveiled Blio, Barnes & Noble partnered with Audiovox for the Lexi and Skiff tapped Marvell for an eReader development kit.

Barnes & Noble,  Audiovox partner for eReader

Audiovox has entered the eReader market with a new line to be sold under the RCA brand. The product launch will be supported by content delivered through Barnes & Noble, the world’s premier destination for ebooks, magazines and newspapers.

Barnes & Noble has more than a million titles available as well as an expansive library of periodicals. An ecommerce storefront provided by BN.com will facilitate the transaction process of buying the content, delivery of it and the maintenance of a digital library of consumer purchases.

The Audiovox eReader will be called Lexi. It has a six-inch E Ink display with 800 x 600 pixels of resolution, 16-level gray scale, 2GB of storage and a rechargeable battery that delivers 7,000 page turns.

Lexi also features ezTurn functionality for either left or right handed page turning and has Auto-Magic content synchronization, which simplifies the loading of the device and eliminates the need to drag and drop files.

Knfb CEO Ray Kurzweil unveils multiplatform eReader

Digital book technology took a major leap forward today at the Consumer Electronics Show when knfb Reading Technology Inc. unveiled Blio, the free eReader that promises to transform the consumption of printed media while delivering access to the most comprehensive selection of eBook titles to date.

Blio preserves the image-rich format of books and magazines, including their layout, typesetting, images, color and graphics, while also supporting full media functionality, including video, graphics and Web links.

The Blio software application will be available for desktop and tablet PCs, netbooks, and mobile devices, including iPhones and iPods.

Blio will be available for download at blioreader.com in late January 2010.

Skiff, Marvell announce eReader development kit at CES

Skiff LLC and Marvell announced the Skiff Reader Development Kit (RDK), which is designed to enable manufacturers to more easily create innovative reading devices with various display sizes, fast performance and reduced overall component costs.

RDK does this by leveraging the eReading System-on-a-Chip (SoC) with an integrated Electronic Paper Display (EPD) controller.

The Skiff service will enhance the utility and differentiation that manufacturers can bring to their devices, while increasing out-of-the-box consumer value.