E Ink Corp

Russ Wilcox tells the colorful tale behind E Ink Corp. with the ease of someone who has done it a thousand times. It goes like this: Joseph Jacobson was sitting on a beach in California a few years ago, finishing up a book. Wouldn't it be nice, the MIT physicist mused, to have another one handy? Or better yet, what if the book in his hands could magically fill itself up with the words of a new one? Atop that seemingly random thought Jacobson and two of his students created a company.

Russ Wilcox tells the colorful tale behind E Ink Corp. with the ease of someone who has done it a thousand times. It goes like this: Joseph Jacobson was sitting on a beach in California a few years ago, finishing up a book. Wouldn't it be nice, the MIT physicist mused, to have another one handy? Or better yet, what if the book in his hands could magically fill itself up with the words of a new one? Atop that seemingly random thought Jacobson and two of his students created a company.

Most people think of Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle as a slim piece of hardware the size of a very thin paperback book. In fact, Kindle is also a piece of software that displays digital books on any device Amazon chooses. On Thursday, the Seattle online retailing giant unveiled a Kindle version for computers. The application was part of Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system launch event Thursday in New York. Expected to be released in November, the program will also run on Microsoft's earlier operating systems, Windows XP and Windows Vista.

When Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs showed off the new iPad -- complete with built-in bookstore -- on Wednesday he praised Amazon.com Inc. for pioneering the electronic book business with its popular Kindle reading device. But moments later, the compliment took on an ominous tone when Jobs added, "We're going to stand on their shoulders and go a little further." At first glance, the multimedia iPad -- with its fast, colorful touch screen and built-in Web browser and video player -- would seem to outshine the slower Amazon device.

For more than a decade, inventors have tried to come up with a high-tech version of that most sacred of analog content delivery systems: the book. The results have been gizmos only an uber-geek could love. But finally, someone has come up with a version for humans. At least some humans. Amazon.com last week unveiled the Kindle, a hand-held, rechargeable device that can store hundreds of books, newspapers and magazines to be accessed and read page by page on the go.

Driving down the Sunset Strip, you spot a video billboard advertising a hybrid SUV. Intrigued, you press a button on your dashboard that immediately downloads a spate of information into your handheld computer. At the Beverly Center, you stroll by an advertising kiosk that senses your gender, approximate age and personal style, then flashes an ad for a store that fits your demographic.