Blio Seeks to Redefine E-books, Lacks Elements

06.12.2010
E-book readers aren't limited to the portable hardware devices that deliver traditional printed books in electronic format. Instead of focusing on new hardware, the folks at K-NFB Reading Technology (a company founded by voice recognition pioneer Ray Kurzweil) have developed PC software that re-creates the graphic elements of traditional printed books and effortlessly delivers related content such as multimedia.

That's the elevator pitch for Blio eReader, e-book reader software available as a free download for PCs, with iPhone, Android, and Silverlight versions (which will presumably run in any browser that supports Microsoft's Flash alternative) promised down the line. In my tests, Blio largely delivered on its promises, making it an intriguing alternative for to for handling complex book content. At this point, though, Blio is not a serious substitute for a portable device when you want to read the latest New York Times best-seller while commuting.

Once installed, Blio launches into its Library View, which shows all of your Blio content as book covers on shelves, along with a quick start guide and a user manual. The interface is extremely polished and intuitive. The brightly colored book covers, designed to draw attention in brick-and-mortar bookstore shelves, achieve the same goal on a handsome backlit LCD display. You can also find out what others have thought of the book: Blio has partnered with , a social media site where book lovers can share reviews with friends.

Content acquisition is the catch. You can obtain commercial Blio content through the Blio store, and you can get free e-books from Google--both are readily accessible via the top left of the Library View screen. K-NFB has partnered with a major book wholesaler, Baker & Taylor, to fill its store with titles from major publishers, but I couldn't find most of the top 10 books on this week's New York Times fiction best-seller list (all of which were available for the , and most of which I could buy as e-books from Borders).

When you attempt to buy your first e-book from the Blio store, the software presents you with a form for setting up an account (in addition to the account you must create for the software itself) and providing a funding source--a credit, debit, or gift card. After that, purchasing a title is as easy as buying a track or video on iTunes. I bought Gordon Ramsay's Cooking for Friends, which cost $18.60 on Blio (versus $23.10 for the hardcover book and $16.99 for the Kindle edition on Amazon).

The book was a 5.4MB download, owing to its heavy use of color photographs. Oddly, though the print edition is 272 pages long, the Blio edition runs 370 pages. Blio representatives told me that because this particular book was in (which Blio supports), it did not preserve the print layout. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to tell whether you're buying an ePub book or a Blio book before you make the purchase.