Just weeks after lowering the price of the Kindle e-book reader from $259 to $189, Amazon unveiled a fully revamped Kindle on Wednesday. It’s sleeker, better looking, easier on the eyes — and starts at $139.

This new Kindle, Amazon’s third generation, is smaller by 21 percent, and 15 percent lighter too. It has much improved contrast, 50 percent better than before, answering a significant complaint among dead-tree purists who compared the device’s e-ink screen unfavorably to real paper. It’s available in two colors: graphite and white.

Read the full story on MSNBC

Related articles by Zemanta

• Amazon unveils sleek third-generation Kindle (macworld.com)
• Amazon launches a new Kindle, with modest improvements (blogs.consumerreports.org)

Amazon, Amazon Kindle, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Comparison of e-book readers, eink, Nook, Wi-Fi

If you’re in the market for an e-book reader, the past couple of weeks have considerably changed your options, and for the better. Barnes & Noble’s and Amazon’s new products and price drops have made their e-book reader hardware considerably more affordable, and you now have excellent options available in the $149 to $199 price range. Also, a flood of new reading-centric apps continues to solidify the Apple iPad’s position as the premium media tablet of choice.

Cnet posted 5 questions to ask yourself to help you decide which one to buy:

How much are you willing to spend?

How large of a screen (and weight) do you want?

What’s your screen preference: e-ink or backlit LCD?

Do you need always-on wireless data?

Do you need access to your e-books on additional devices?

Final thoughts: Currently, the Nook, Kindle, and iPad are our top e-book reader picks; however, this isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. Depending what features are important to you–color versus black and white screen, backlight versus readability in the sun, touch screen versus not, cheap versus expensive, lightweight versus heavy–the device you prefer may be different from ours. However, there’s no arguing that the range of choices for e-book readers is better now than it ever has been.

Read the full story on Cnet.

Amazon Kindle, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Comparison of e-book readers, E-book, IPad, Liquid crystal display, Nook

Free coffee is Barnes & Noble’s latest means of inducing customers to use its BN e-reader software in various devices, including the retailer’s own Nook, while inside its stores.

During the limited promotion period, customers who show a Barnes & Noble cafe server an open e-book on any device running the BN software can get one free tall cup of coffee. The eligible devices include the Nook along with iPads, iPhones, iPod touches, BlackBerries or HTC HD2 devices and portable Mac or Windows computers.

Source: Computer World

Barnes & Noble, BlackBerry, E-book, HTC HD2, iPhone, IPod, Microsoft Windows, Nook

Hot promotion from B&N:

Buy Nook Today and get $50 gift card

Nook

If you’ve been waiting to get the Nook experience on your iPad, your wait is over. Barnes&Noble just announced the availability of their Nook app, available free from the App Store.

Source: Techcrunch

Barnes & Noble Introduces BN eReader for iPad™,
The Most Easy-to-Use, Customizable iPad App
for Reading and Buying eBooks and Periodicals
Free App Offers Access to Company’s Expansive eBookstore Featuring More Than

One Million Digital Titles and Personal Barnes & Noble Digital Library
Only iPad eReading App That Allows Sharing eBook with Friends
Free Classics and Bestseller Samples Pre-Loaded for New BN.com Customers
New York, New York – May 27, 2010 – Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today launched its free BN eReader app for iPad™, offering
the most personalized and easy-to-use eReading experience for Apple iPad owners. BN
eReader for iPad users can customize the way they read with professionally designed or
completely personalized themes, shop more than one million eBooks, newspapers and
magazines in the Barnes & Noble eBookstore, and access their personal Barnes & Noble
digital library, including most periodicals. BN eReader for iPad is the only eReading app
that offers eBook sharing with friends.
BN eReader for iPad is designed to offer an easy, yet sophisticated, customizable reading
experience. Users can choose from multiple ways to view their library, including
professionally designed themes with elegant and complementary text and page colors, as
well as fonts; and instantly switch between portrait and landscape views based on
personal preference. BN eReader for iPad users can further personalize their reading
experience with unparalleled options: literally millions of colors for text, pages,
highlights and links; eight typefaces and five text sizes; and a variety of margins and
customizable spacing options. Learn more or get the new application at
www.bn.com/iPad.
“We’ve designed the most easy-to-use, highly customizable eReading experience for the
iPad. Ours is the only app that enables iPad users to share eBooks with friends, shop
Barnes & Noble’s vast catalog of eBooks and periodicals and access your personal
Barnes & Noble digital library across multiple devices.,” said Douglas Gottlieb, Vice
President, Digital Products of Barnes & Noble.com. “We believe our customers will
appreciate the book-centric touches we’ve incorporated into our iPad app experience –
including some extra large text sizes, ample margins, and line lengths and spacing
inspired by classic book design conventions – along with the opportunity to fully
personalize that experience to enjoy reading books whichever ways they like best.”
Lend to Friends
Using Barnes & Noble’s breakthrough LendMe™ technology, BN eReader for iPad
customers can share eligible eBooks with friends who can enjoy the titles on a NOOK™
eBook Reader, iPad, iPhone®, iPod touch® and PC enabled with free BN eReader
software. Last page read, highlights, notes and bookmarks will also sync across BN
eReader for iPad and PC, and in early summer, with iPhone and iPod touch, with more to
The LendMe experience was designed to be seamlessly integrated with the iPad. BN
eReader for iPad users can simply choose an eligible eBook flagged with the LendMe
icon, then access their existing contacts in iPad’s onboard address book, tap the contact
and send the lend offer — all without needing to type a single word. The friend can accept
the offer and enjoy the eBook for up to 14 days, a unique feature offered only by Barnes
& Noble. And BN eReader for iPad users will receive LendMe offers from friends within
the application, showing them the eBook’s cover and the message from their friend.
Additional features available in the BN eReader App for iPad include:
Shop the expansive eBookstore: Search, explore and browse through the Barnes
& Noble eBookstore of more than one million eBooks, magazines and
newspapers titles at www.bn.com/ebooks directly by touching Add Books from
the Library. There are more than a half-million free eBooks available, and free
samples are available for all eBooks. Learn more from thousands of editorial and
customer reviews. Pick a current bestseller, a classic or anything in between and
download it wirelessly in seconds.
Access your personal digital library: All eBooks and most newspapers, and
magazines purchased through the Barnes & Noble eBookstore, including those
purchased on NOOK, are at your fingertips in your Library. Customers with large
digital libraries will appreciate the search option that helps them find the desired
book quickly.
Choose from two views: Library Grid view displays big, beautiful covers that are
large and easy to read. Library List displays a column with digital content titles
and eBook covers next to a second larger section that provides rich product details
for the selected eBook including the synopsis and more books from that author.
Sort by recently read, author or title.
Get to your content, faster: The most recently read titles appear on top to easily
get you back to your last great read. And an in-book search also helps you locate
a particular word or phrase.
Take notes: Bookmark pages, make highlights and write notes. Simply tap a
word or drag your finger across a section to highlight it or make a note. In
addition to appearing on your iPad, your bookmarks, highlights and notes will
also appear on iPad and PC enabled with BN eReader software. iPhone and iPod
touch will be added soon, followed by other devices.
Read across multiple devices: Sync the last page read of the last eBook, magazine
or newspaper opened on your iPad with BN eReader software-enabled PCs.
Coming next month, both will sync with BN eReader enabled iPhone and iPod
touch with more devices to follow.
Learn more: Tap a word on the touch screen and the in-text dictionary offers you
the word’s meaning. Want to learn more? Simply tap one of the options to take
you to the Google or Wikipedia page on that word or term using the Web
browser.
Follows the standard: Read eBooks, magazines and newspapers formatted in
ePub, quickly becoming the industry standard.

App Store, Apple, Barnes & Noble, E-book, IPad, iPhone, List of e-book readers, Nook

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) has announced its intention to enter eBook market in June, 2009. Then there were some preliminary announcements of deals with publishers. But as Sony (NYSE:SNE), B&N (NYSE:BKS) kept releasing their own products everyone seemed to forget about the search engine company. With Amazon Kindle vs. Nook, Sony vs. Kindle and iPad vs. everyone and their dog nobody seemed to take Google eBook initiatives seriously. One year ago I believed and I still do that if someone were to dethrone Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) as eBook leader, it would be Google and not other eInk reader manufacturers and definitely not Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL).

Read more: http://blogkindle.com/2010/05/google-editions-to-compete-with-amazon-kindle-in-ebook-market/comment-page-1/#ixzz0nHwswPyW

Amazon Kindle, Apple, Barnes & Noble, E-book, Google, IPad, Nook, Web search engine

Barnes & Noble announced plans to release and e-reader application for the iPad, which will most likely compete with Apple’s iBookstore app.

The bookseller already has an iPhone application, released last July, and now offers more than 1 million books. They are planning to launch an iPad version app when the device will start shipping next month.

Source: Mobile Guerilla

announced, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Handhelds, IPad, iPhone, Nook, Smartphones

BARNES & NOBLE said the launch of its Nook e-book reader helped boost online sales, but weakness at its bookstores led to a drop in quarterly profits.

The bookseller launched an Internet bookstore in June and the Nook in November in a bid to grab a share of the growing e-book market. That helped online sales soar 32% to $210 million during the quarter.

Read more:NY Daily News

Barnes & Noble, Bookselling, Business, E-book, List of e-book readers, Nook, Nook e-book, Readers

Boomnews reports that the new Nook firmware 1.2 update should hit later today. Tweaks include:

• Enhanced in-store seamless connectivity to enjoy free Wi-Fi, with More In Store content promotions exclusively for Nook owners
• Improved opening of eBooks and ePeriodicals
• Improved response to Reading Now and Settings buttons
• Current reading page and bookmarks on all eBooks are properly saved when you power your Nook off
• Eligible LendMe eBooks in your library have LendMe flags
• Easier navigation of daily subscriptions with issues rolled into one folder
• Improved “back” button functionality for navigating eBooks and ePeriodicals
• Personal files downloaded and displayed in My Documents can be sorted by author and title
• Overall system improvements and battery optimization.

Add new tag, Barnes & Noble, Barnes & Noble Nook, Business, E-book, Firmware, Nook, Publishing, Wi-Fi

Barnes & Noble Inc. has informed customers who pre-ordered the Nook that if their electronic book reading devices don’t arrive by Dec. 24, they will be given an online $100 gift certificate. The Nook, which is sold out for the holidays, is a wireless reader that costs $259.

As such, the gift certificate represents more than a third of the Nook’s price. Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating said on Sunday that “there may be a very small percentage of customers who may not receive” their Nooks in time for Christmas. Customers who won’t receive their Nooks in time will be given a certificate as well as the $100 online gift certificate.

On Dec. 17 Amazon said in a release that December was already the “best month ever for Kindle sales.” The retailer has never released specific sales figures for the Kindle. Forrester Research Inc. in October issued a report projecting e-book reader sales of 3 million units in 2009, with 30% of 2009 sales taking place during November and December.

Read the full story on the WSJ

Barnes & Noble, Christmas, E-book, Holidays, Mary Ellen Keating, Nook, Scrip, Shopping