[…] Kurzweil said he doesn’t see a big market for dedicated e-readers with limited capabilities. All of these enhanced books require work from the publishers, though Blio can handle the task of syncing an audiobook by scanning the text and audio. In that case, it’s more a matter of acquiring the rights to both text and audio, though Kurzweil notes that it opens up an opportunity for publishers to sell a premium version of their books.

Under the hood, Blio uses a number of Microsoft technologies, including Windows Presentation Foundation and the XML Paper Specification (XPS). Kurzweil said his company is also working on a Silverlight version of its software that will provide for Mac support.

Users will be able to register up to five different devices on which they can read their content, although some textbooks will be limited to just three devices to limit piracy. “They are a little worried about some of your generation,” Kurzweil said. […]