This past week we saw some of the biggest changes ever in e-book reading history, with record low prices set by Amazon and Barnes and Noble for the two most popular ereaders on the market.
It’ll be interesting to see how all the smaller players will respond to stay competitive in the coming days and weeks.
This Week’s Top Posts
Nook WiFi Now Selling From Best Buy and B&N – The biggest news of the week was by far Barnes and Noble suddenly announcing the Nook Wi-Fi and lowering the price on the original Nook to $199. This caught everyone off guard, even Amazon, since they didn’t pre-empt the release with an announcement of their own like usual. Instead, they scrambled and ended up lowering the price on the Kindle 2 to $189 just a few hours after B&N announced the new Nook, desperate to deflect some of the limelight off B&N. Which brings us to the second biggest story of the week . . .
Kindle 2 Now $189: Amazon’s Retaliation – Given the drastic price cut of the Kindle 2, it’s fairy likely to assume that Amazon is clearing out inventory in anticipation of releasing a new Kindle in July or August.
$189 Kindle 2 vs Nook 3G and Nook WiFi – Pros and Cons – This post weighs the pros and cons of each device compared to the others with a detailed break-down of all the different features and selling points.
Getting Started with Calibre eBook Management – If you aren’t using Calibre to manage your ebook library, this post will show you how to get Calibre installed on your computer and how to use it to organize your entire ebook collection. It will also teach you how to use Calibre to fetch RSS news feeds off the internet from popular news sources to read on your ereader, PC, or phone.
iBooks App Update: iPhone, iPod, and PDF Support – With the release of the new iPhone and the new iOS 4, Apple now offers iBooks on the iPhone and iPod touch running the new OS. They also updated iBooks to work with PDF files and added some nifty new features like note-taking, changing background color, and more.
Video Interview with E Ink Vice President of Marketing – The vice president of marketing at E Ink, Sriram Peruvemba, gives a 17 minute interview with Charbax from ARMdevices.net. A lot of good information regarding the future of E Ink is addressed in the interview.
Borders New eBook Apps for iPad, iPhone, PC, Mac – Borders finally released their new iPad and iPhone app this week. It’s powered by Kobo and thus is very similar to the Kobo app. Borders also made available their desktop app for PC and Mac which I tried out and thought it was extremely basic with no features to speak of.
eBook Reader Review
Review and Video: PocketBook 301-Plus eBook Reader – Last week we posted an in-depth review of PocketBook’s first ebook reader, the PocketBook 301. The device has a surprisingly advanced and polished user interface, but with the recent price-drop of the Kindle and Nook it’ll be interesting to see if its price gets lowered to stay competitive.
New eReaders Explored This Week
Interesting Results on a Notion Ink Adam Poll – As it turns out, a lot of people want to get a Notion Ink Adam tablet for e-reading. The post also covers updates regarding the Adam.
Libretto W100: Toshiba’s Dual Screen eReader? – Toshiba has a new concept device they are about to release that has ebook reading in mind.
Intel Reader: A Reader for the Blind and Dyslexic – The Intel Reader is a specialty device marketed in the health care industry as an aid for the vision impaired and for reading-based learning disabilities. It converts printed text into digital text and reads the content aloud in a computer generated voice.
Energy Book eBook Readers – Energy Book 3050 and 4050 Touch – The Energy Sistem ebook readers are an obscure brand based in Spain. They look like 5-inch versions of the Kindle 2 with mini QWERTY keyboards and are rebranded versions of Chinese ereaders manufactured by Hanvon.
