Alongside this week’s announcement that the IDPF voted in favor of the Open Publication Standard 2.0, there’s been good news coming from a number of ebook technology players.

The new Sony Reader?

On Monday, the blog The Reader caught a brief glimpse of Sony‘s upcoming website changes which briefly revealed they’re preparing to release an updated Sony Reader, the PRS-505. The new iteration is expected to have double the internal memory, better control buttons, a more rectangular styling like the original Sony LIBRIé device that was launched in Japan, and should be available as both a dark slate blue or silver finish for the same price as the current model. It’s unknown if it will use the new VizPlex e-ink system. The Reader presently sells for $300 and can be found at Best Buy stores across the U.S. (via Wowio)

Palm is also getting ready to inject some new life into their company by integrating two major players from Apple. Apple’s ex-CFO Fred Anderson will soon be joining the board of directors and Jonathan Rubenstein, a key player in the iPod’s success, will become executive chairman. Earlier this year, a company started by U2′s Bono and headed by Fred Anderson, Elevation Partners, bought a 25% stake in Palm, effectively bailing out the company from financial trouble. The new corporate leadership were demonstrably some of the finest people from Apple’s resurgence under Steve Jobs and its expected that they will focus more on innovation at Palm. Palm is also expected to update their popular Treo line in the very near future, and it will be interesting to see how the new competition with Apple might help improve their product line. (via Gizmodo)

Finally, iRex scored a major coup for the e-ink based Iliad Reader available in Europe. Les Echos is the first European paper to be made entirely available in a daily ebook edition designed for the Iliad and Star eBook device. A one-year subscription is 365 EUR. Also interesting is that among the first articles in the first Les Echos digital edition is news that Amazon may be set to launch the Kindle on October 15th with an announcement at the Frankfurt bookfair. (via MobileRead)

- Michael Gaudet