Gemstar-TV Guide Launches Gemstar Ebook

Posted on October 13, 2000

Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc. has announced the release of six titles from bestselling authors, including Patricia Cornwell and Robert Ludlum, exclusively for the Gemstar eBook, an electronic reading device. At launch, publishers including Penguin Putnam Inc, Simon & Schuster, St. Martin's Press, Warner Books and Harlequin will offer exclusive titles to eBook readers.

Thomson multimedia, the manufacturer and marketer of RCA electronics products, has also announced that the first eBook devices licensed from Gemstar-TV Guide International and sold under the RCA-brand will be available nationally in time for the holidays. After Thanksgiving, the paperback-sized REB1100 and color-screen REB1200 will be available at retail outlets including Best Buy, Circuit City and OfficeMax. The new RCA-brand eBook devices will also be available for consumers to purchase on rca.com and from other soon-to-be announced web retailers.

``Through our broad distribution network of retailers, RCA is making the benefits of electronic reading easily accessible to a nationwide community of readers,'' said Lou Lenzi, Vice President of New Media Services at Thomson. ``If you are a lover of books, you'll have a lot to be thankful for this holiday season. With the RCA-brand eBook device, you can easily adjust the font size to make any Gemstar eBook into a large print edition. An adjustable backlight makes it possible to comfortably read in bed, or to read on the couch. You can easily move forward or backward in the text at a touch of a button, as well as underline passages and make notes. It's reading in a whole new light.''