[Update] Amazon Kindle Event Wrap-up.

Amazon just unveiled some new Kindles. Bookworms rejoice! Now there’s a Kindle for everyone at $79, $99, $149, and $199 price points. Hop past the break for the rundown…

Barnes & Noble Unveils The Nook Touch: Smaller, Cheaper, And 2-Month Battery Life.

The new Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader isn’t quite the beast of a device that many thought it would be. Instead, B&N took the sensible route in releasing a smaller, cheaper, and much more efficient device.

Specs include: 6-inch Pearl display, 7.5oz weight, 800MHz TI OMAP 3 processor, 2 GB of internal storage, and Android 2.1. But the really impressive feature — 2-month battery life. The Nook Touch makes use of a new proprietary flashing technology that supposedly does away with the ugly ghosting that rears its ugly head on competing e-readers. Essentially, pages “dissolve” into each other.

Besides the new hardware, B&N also launched a new service dubbed “Nook Friends” which is a social-esque community allowing book worms to follow fellow bookworms, see what others are reading, and recommend books to followers. Nook Friends…er…friends can also lend books to each other — interesting.

The new more frugal Nook is now available for pre-order online and in stores and will begin shipping June 10th for $139. The good ‘ol boys — the original WiFi and 3G Nook — will bring up the rear for $119 and $169 respectively.

Barnes & Noble Announcing Android 3.0 eReader May 24th?

The above snapshot of an SEC filing made by major American book retailer, Barnes & Noble, is pretty much void of any detail except for the mere fact that “it” is coming. What “it” is, however, is unknown outside of the fact that it is an ereader and being announced on May 24th.

Considering the current Nook Color ships with Android 2.2 and the proposed release of this new ereader will be later in the 2H of the year, we’d certainly hope to see some 3.0+ action, and at the very least Android 2.3.x.

And the waiting game begins…

Barnes and Noble Release NOOK Kids iPad App.

Today, Barnes and Noble officially released the “NOOK Kids” iPad app, targeting reading in young children. The app comes with a complimentary copy of both “Richard Scarry’s Colors” and “Elephant’s Child” as well as a robust set of parental controls for protecting youngsters’ eyes from not so age appropriate reading material. Overall, there are over 230 interactive books at your disposal with some supporting text-to-speech as well as compatibility with the NOOK Color.

NOOK for kids is now available in the Apple App Store for free. Press release inside.

Nook Color Rooted. Android Market Access Unlocked. #nookcolor

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been following a thread over at XDA off and on, whose ultimate goal was to root the Barnes & Noble Nook Color. (For those who don’t know, the Nook Color runs Android 2.1 atop some pretty compelling hardware: 800MHz processor, 512MB RAM, 8GB internal memory + 32GB additional memory, and a spacious 7″ touchscreen.) The main reasoning behind rooting a nook: in its stock state the Nook Color is severely crippled, having access to the Android Market blocked outright.

But that is true no more. The fine talent over at XDA has cracked open the Nook Color allowing plenty of awesome hacks, with the most notable being access to the entire catalog of Android Market apps. It’s especially interesting considering the highlighted hardware above, because as it stands, said hardware is near the top end of current Android tablets. And now that the software has been unlocked, the Nook Color can officially compete in the world of tablets.

For now, instructions aren’t publicly available. Hopefully that changes. Nonetheless, it’s extremely reassuring to see that the full potential of the Barnes & Noble Nook Color can finally be unleashed, albeit even in private groups. Anyone eager to root their Nook Color?

Nook Color Now Shipping. Nook 3G Update Coming Next Week. #nookcolor

Fans of the popular first generation Nook who also ordered the new Nook Color will be pleased to know that the device is officially shipping. Compared to the first-gen Nook as well as several other big name e-readers (including the Kindle), the Nook Color almost appears like a tablet computer of sorts. With Android 2.1 being the main powerhouse behind the 8GB of memory, 7″ 1024 x 600 display, and WiFi b/g/n, it almost doesn’t fit into an “e-reader” category.

Nonetheless, it’s a mighty fine device. However, it will be interesting to see how moving away from e-ink to LCD fares with the hungrier book worms of the crowd. In particular, the battery life has tanked from 10 days to a mere 8 hours. Not to mention, LCD isn’t nearly as easy to read as the more “paper-like” e-ink.

In other news: Nook 3G owners can expect an update to drop next week which will bring among other things, faster page turn times, “Reading Now”, and customized library organization.

Would you sell your e-reader if “exclusive” walled gardens hamper ebook uptake?

Yesterday Amazon announced that they scored an exclusive deal with publisher Andrew Wylie (clients: Oliver Sacks, Salman Rushdie, and Philip Roth plus more) that will give them the sole rights to distribute books by mentioned (and unmentioned) authors for a full 2 years. At first, it seems like a great way to push ebooks further and yeah, is a nice little nest egg for Amazon. But when you sit back and look at the bigger picture, it’s a very bad decision. First and foremost, no other outlets have access to these exclusive titles — no other ereader devices and not even traditional paperback versions.

Essentially, Amazon is setting a precedent for other publishers and ebook storefronts to create their own exclusive “talent clubs”, thereby fragmenting the market in an extreme sense. Just think, in a years time the sole decision when purchasing an ereader is: “What books can I or can’t I download?” That’s the wrong question to be asking. Features of the hardware itself and provided 3rd party services should be number one — not worrying about how many different ereaders you’ll need to read books from all of your favorite authors….

Kno unveils tablet/e-reader with dual 1440 x 900 IPS displays and Tegra 2!

What would you say is “too big” for a tablet? If you think the iPad is pushing boundaries, then advert your eyes from the hot mess that the Kno dual-screened tablet is. Each of those IPS screens above you is 14.1″ in size with resolutions of 1440 x 900 — per screen.

Think it’ll break your back? Think again. At 5.5lbs, if you have trouble carrying this, your worthless.

The screens are but one small part. I’m sure you’d all like to know what powers this Linux e-reading beast. Continue on oh curious reader…

Kindle tries, and fails at 2nd life as GameBoy Classic.

Think the Kindle is washed up, used, and useless in leu of all the other e-readers/tablets that have come on the scene recently? In many ways, those looking for a feature packed e-reader would be somewhat correct. Then again, if you buy a device specifically made to read digital books, how many bells and whistles do you really need?