New Nook Is Latest Entry in Tablet Wars

Barnes & Noble answered Amazon’s challenge in the tablet wars on Monday, introducing a $249 color device called the Nook Tablet.

Speaking at Barnes & Noble’s store in Manhattan’s Union Square, William Lynch, the company’s chief executive, set the new Nook directly up against Amazon’s recently released Kindle Fire, promoting what he described as the Nook’s advantages in memory and multimedia capability.

“The Kindle Fire, and they do a lot of things well, is a vending machine for Amazon services,” Mr. Lynch said. “We’re going to partner with the world’s most popular music services. We’re going to let the consumers choose.”   Full story

Read Kindle books on Nook Color

Yep, you are reading this right. It’s actually quite easy now to get Kindle books on Nook color and have both eBook stores available to you on a single device. This is possible because Nook Color is more of an entry level Android tablet than a dedicated eReader. As it comes out of the box it just happens to start the Nook application by default and not let users run anything else.

However that can easily be fixed by rooting the device and enabling the Android Market. With Andoid market you can install all kinds of applications, including Kindle, Kobo reader. You would also be able to play Angry Birds and watch Youtube videos. Installing the Kindle application for Android will let you read Amazon Kindle books on your Nook Color device.

Full story continues here.

Among E-Readers, Competition Heats Up

WHEN Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, introduced the iPad, he bluntly took aim at the rapidly emerging e-reader market. “Amazon has done a great job” with the Kindle, he said. “We’re going to stand on their shoulders and go a little bit further.”  The iPad’s full-color screen and its ability to browse the Web and run thousands of applications certainly make it more versatile than the Kindle, but Apple is not the only company bringing more than just black-on-white text to readers.
AsusTek, Dell and Hewlett-Packard will soon be following Apple’s lead, bringing to market large-screen tablets that are ideal for reading books and newly formatted digital magazines and newspapers. And unlike Amazon’s and Sony’s stand-alone e-readers, which are limited by monochrome E Ink screens, the new multipurpose devices provide access to the Web and other applications.
Does this mean dedicated digital reader devices will be landing in the grave? Not quite.

Full story continues here.

New Kindle Expected This Summer, Touch Possible Later

Amazon could release a new slimmer Kindle in August, Bloomberg News reports, citing “two people familiar with its plans.”

Bloomberg reports that the new Kindle would be thinner than existing models and although the next model would still offer a black and white screen, it would have a sharper and more responsive display.

Full story continues here.

Folds like a book, color and cheaper…Does Asus have the formula for e-reader success?

“Asus’ e-reader will likely have color touch screens, a speaker, a webcam and a microphone, along with the capability to make inexpensive Skype calls. Despite all those features, the U.K’s Sunday Times reports, somewhat unbelievably, that it may be priced lower than its competitors from Sony and Kindle.

With dual screens, the new Eee e-reader could give readers a user experience similar to paper books. The device could also offer readers the option of using the second screen to browse a web page.  The best part about the device, though, would be the price tag, says the Times report. The cheapest version of the Asus Eee reader could cost about $165.”   Full Story

Amazon zaps purchased copies of 1984, Animal Farm from Kindles

“People who bought Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm for their Kindle were surprised to discover that it had disappeared from their devices overnight. It turns out the publisher changed its mind about offering an electronic version, and Amazon caved into their demand to sneak into people’s electronic libraries and take back the book at the publisher’s request.”

Interestingly, as the article mentions, not all countries have the same copyright laws, and in Australia “works of authors, who died before 1955, have expired and are now within the ‘public domain’ and freely downloadable on the net…The works of George Orwell are still under copyright in the United States and the European Union, and therefore users in those countries should not download these works.”  But will people be so respectful of copyright when publishers take purchased books off their Kindles, without warning?    Full Story

Google To Take on Amazon, With Plans to Sell E-Books

“[At the] BookExpo convention in New York over the weekend, Google signaled its intent to introduce a program by that would enable publishers to sell digital versions of their newest books direct to consumers through Google.  The move would pit Google against Amazon.com, which is seeking to control the e-book market with the versions it sells for its reading device.

Google’s move is likely to be welcomed by publishers who have expressed concerns about Amazon’s aggressive pricing strategy for e-books.  Amazon offers Kindle editions of most new best sellers for $9.99, far less than the typical $26 at which publishers sell new hardcovers.  In early discussions, Google has said it will allow publishers to set consumer prices.”   Story

(Something to consider: If Google charges more than Amazon for the same ebook (because Amazon takes a loss on each $9.99 sale) this could make the Kindle seem like a bargain to heavy readers.  Only time will reveal how this all works out. )

The World vs. Kindle Wars??

Well, we all knew that the Kindle would not go unchallenged for too long. So as we look at the Kindle for its potential use in the library, it seems there’s a war brewing.     Story

Amazon Debuts $489 Kindle DX

“Amazon on Wednesday launched a next generation Kindle, an e-reader with a large, textbook and newspaper-friendly screen dubbed the DX.  With a screen that measures 9.7 inches diagonally — two-and-a-half times the size of the current-gen Kindle 2 — the DX is aimed squarely at penetrating for the first time the potentially massive and untapped market of textbooks, as well offering some life support for the struggling business of subscription-based electronic newspapers.”    Story

NYT: Big-screen Kindle this week?

“A breaking report from The New York Times has it that Amazon will introduce a larger version of its Kindle e-reader “as early as this week,” one that’s tailored for “displaying newspapers, magazines and perhaps textbooks.” If you’ll recall, magazine publisher Hearst made its intentions public to produce such a device earlier this year, noting that a larger panel would be more conducive to traditional print media layouts, and thus, additional revenue from ads.”    Engadget (brief)   NYT (full)