Archive for November, 2009
Kindle has Best Month Ever in Spite of nook no comments
Amazon announced this morning that November is the best sales month ever for the Kindle ereader. This is even before Cyber Monday. It appears that the increased competition from newcomers like Barnes & Noble’s nook ereader haven’t hurt Amazon. Indeed, the increased competition has led to several improvements (with more on the way) for the Kindle, which is definitely great for Kindle owners.
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nook Demos Won’t Arrive in Barnes & Noble Stores Until December 7 no comments
Originally Barnes & Noble was supposed to have demonstration units of its nook ereaders in all stores and possibly a few actual nook ereaders for sale in selected locations tomorrow November 30. According to a Wall Street Journal article this has been delayed until December 7. As previously planned, B&N will begin shipping nooks tomorrow to fill pre-orders.
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Cyber Monday Blues no comments
I’m not yet seeing many deals on ereaders for Cyber Monday. Perhaps ereaders are selling well enough without discounts?
Newegg does have a couple of ereaders on sale though. They are selling the Sony
PRS-600 Touch ereader for $279.00 with free shipping. So far this is the lowest price I remember seeing for the Touch.
Newegg also has the Aluratek Libre Reader Pro in white (black is sold out) for $137.00, again with free shipping.
The Libre ereader has a 5” LCD screen without backlighting and supports PDF, TXT, FB2, EPUB, MOBI, PRC, TF, MP3, BMP, JPEG, GIF and animated GIF formats. Thanks no doubt to the LCD screen the battery gets only 24hrs continuous use (or 2 weeks on standby) before needing recharging.
The Libre comes with a 2GB SD card filled with 100 public domain titles.
The Aluratek Libre ereader appears to be based on the same hardware as the Jetbook Lite. The main difference appears to be that the Jetbook Lite uses four AA batteries whereas the Libre has a rechargeable lithium-ion polymer battery.
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You Can Still Get a nook eReader for Christmas! no comments
Yes, you can still buy a nook ereader for Christmas, but you will have to want it really, really bad. On eBay there are nooks for sale, with Buy It Now prices going up to $750. Other auctions have active bidding with prices up to $500.
On the plus side, most of these sellers are offering free shipping. 
Is one nook really worth two Kindle Global ereaders? Especially when we have not yet been able to use and review one? Obviously some shoppers think so.
There have been reports that a few nooks have been set aside for sale at selected Barnes & Noble stores. The fights over these should make for some nice videos.
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Not Many Black Friday Deals on eReaders no comments
So far I’ve found little in the way of deals on ereaders for Black Friday. BooksOnBoard does claim to be the “Official Black Friday eBookstore”, and it looks like no one else is stepping up to contest their appropriation of the title.
BooksOnBoard has two promotions:
- Every customer who buys a gift certificate for $400 will get an instant credit of $100 toward the purchase of a Sony PRS-300 Reader
- Every customer who buys an Astak EZReader will receive 50 percent back in Rewards Dollars on their first 10 eBook purchases
- All specials can be found at www.booksonboard.com, www.blackfridaybooks.com, or www.blackfridayebooks.com.
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Amazon Adds Enhancements to Kindle Global no comments
In a press release today Amazon said that it is adding a built-in native PDF reader to the 6” Kindle Global ereader. This will be delivered to current Kindle owners via a firmware update delivered by Whispernet.
In addition to the PDF fix, Amazon has also been able to tweak battery life when the wireless connection is on. After the firmware update, the Kindle ereader should have a battery life of up to seven days vs the current four days with the wireless turned on. Manual screen rotation between portrait and landscape mode is also added.
The Kindle DX also gets a couple of enhancements as well. In landscape mode the margins are cropped on PDF’s; this should provide a bit more magnification. The time before sleep mode activates has been increased to 20 minutes from the prior 5 minutes. You can see details of the software update here.
I had hoped that Amazon would release a new Kindle in the very near future, but it increasingly appears that their strategy for dealing with the increasing competition (chiefly Barnes & Noble’s nook ereader) is to finally fix the things about the Kindle that users have been complaining about and requesting for so long.
Since the nook ereader was announced, Amazon’s Kindle Store has become more friendly to other devices (PC so far, with Mac and Blackberry on the way), and Amazon has announced that folders or some other way of organizing your library will be forthcoming in the first half of next year, and now we finally get PDF compatibility. The press release did say that the battery tweak was in R & D for six months.
It’s sad that it took the nook to bring about this flurry of upgrades, but it is good news for Kindlers.
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More Kindle Covers no comments
There are an increasing number of Kindle covers becoming available to protect and beautify your Kindle ereaders. There just seems to be something about the Kindle ereader family that makes its readers want to personalize it. I’ll start with some lower priced covers.
Update: I have moved all the pics to the bottom of the post for formatting purposes.
Mivizu Kindle Leather Case
The Mivizu leather Kindle 2 cover
The Mivizu has no protective padding to protect your ereader in case you drop it, also you will need to lift the cover out of the way to plug in the USB as there is no opening for the USB plug. This is an economical cover that adds some protection for $19.95.
Mivizu also has a side-opening Kindle cover for $39.95. This Generation 2 model uses a slightly pebbled leather and does have some padding. This cover also comes in different colors and gets 4 1/2 star reviews.
JAVOedge Pink Croc Flip Case
If you are a fan of pink crocodiles ( and who’s not? ), you will no doubt love JAVOedge’s Pink Croc Flip Case 
JAVOedge also makes a book style case that is side-opening and that sells for $39.95.
CaseCrown Double Memory Foam Pouch Case
CaseCrown’s Kindle case
The outside of this Kindle case has an antique map design and an accessory pocket for your Kindle AC charger, etc. This case sells for $25.21.
Bobarra
Bobarra makes a variety of Kindle covers
The fabric covers have a stain resistant exterior, and are lined with microfiber or suede depending on the model. Bobarra also makes Kindle 1 covers.
Oberon Design
Oberon Design was featured on a recent episode of the excellent Kindle Chronicles podcast and is definitely one of my favorites.
Oberon’s tooled leather Kindle covers are available in a variety of ornate designs. The closure buttons on the outside of the covers are made of hand-cast pewter. The interior is lined with wool felt and there are stiffeners added to the front and back to protect the screen of your ereader. You can choose from corner straps or a velcro attachment system.
Oberon Design makes cases for Kindle 1, Kindle 2 and Kindle DX ereaders. The prices are $75.00 for the Kindle 1 and 2 models, and $118.00 for the Kindle DX cover.
There are currently 19 designs available for the Kindle 2. Each design is available in a choice of two colors (not necessarily the two colors that I show here). I would like to see more color choices available for each pattern so I inquired as to whether it is possible to order a design in a color other than that shown. Becca promptly replied, telling me that they are working on adding custom orders in 2010.
Oberon Design also makes one size of cover for the Sony ereaders that will fit the PRS-600, PRS-700 and the PRS-505. Covers for the nook are coming in January 2010.
Cole Haan
Cole Haan’s Kindle covers
Update: Amazon also has refurbished Kindle covers.
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Qualcomm’s New Mirasol Tech Could Result in Color eReaders by End of 2010 no comments
A few days ago Qualcomm demonstrated a new application of its Mirasol display technology which could be used in color ereaders. An ereader mockup with a 5.7 inch 1024 x 768 color screen has been developed and was demonstrated in an interview with Slashgear.
While not fully functional, the mockup demonstrates technology that could lead to color ereader screens that like current grayscale e-ink screens use no power when not turning pages; indeed Mirasol is said to add 20 percent to battery life compared to current ereaders. Mirasol-based displays are readable in full sunlight, and the fast refresh rate enables multimedia playback.
Quallcomm says that they plan to bring an ereader using Mirasol technology to the market by the end of 2010. Other color ereader technology reported so far usually seems to point to 2011 as being the year of the color ereader.
You can see pictures of the demo at the Slashgear link above, and Intomobile.com has some videos of a very small Mirasol screen in action.
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nook vs Kindle DX no comments
When I look at the search terms and phrases that result in visitors finding my blog I’m seeing a lot of “nook vs Kindle DX”. This is a bit odd, as it is somewhat like comparing apples and oranges – yes, they are both fruit and they both grow on trees, but otherwise they are much different. While both the nook and the Kindle DX are ereaders, they are for the most part aimed at different sets of users.
The Kindle DX ereader is much larger at 10.4 x 7.2 inches. Its 9.7 inch screen will be much better suited for reading documents and periodicals than the nook’s 6 inch screen. On the other hand, at 7.7 x 4.9 inches the nook
will be a more portable ereader. One feature that both ereaders do have in common and that will be of importance for some users is built-in PDF compatibility. Keep in mind though that we have yet to actually use the nook, so we don’t yet know how effective it will be for handling PDF’s.
PDF and document handling aside, if you plan to carry your ereader everywhere with you then the Kindle DX may be a bit too large to be convenient, and you should probably be comparing nook vs Kindle 2. If you will be doing most of your reading at home, the Kindle DX has a beautiful screen with good contrast that is a pleasure to read on. More text fits on the larger screen, so you will be doing less page turns. If you read in bed a lot though, a smaller ereader is probably going to be easier to handle – again, nook vs Kindle 2.
nook vs Kindle 2
For most people thinking about buying a nook, nook vs Kindle 2 (or Kindle Global, which seems to be its current moniker) is a more appropriate comparison. Again, do keep in mind that we have not yet actually been able to use the nook, so while it looks nice in the pictures, we don’t yet know how well it will actually function in real life. Also, if you want one for Christmas, you are out of luck as current pre-orders will not ship until after the new year. Amazon, after running out of stock during the last two holiday seasons, appears to have an ample stock of Kindle ereaders this year.
So let’s look at a few of the features of the nook and the Kindle.
nook Features vs Kindle Features
Appearance
Obviously the nook ereader is a very sexy looking gadget, and I suspect that its appearance alone is probably the primary force behind its apparent success. A lot of people seem to find the Kindle too plain looking. In its defense, the Kindle is all about reading; Amazon has purposely designed it so that there are as few distractions as possible, making it easy to immerse yourself in your reading.
The 3.5 inch LCD touchscreen below the nook’s reading screen is a clever idea, at least on paper. It not only looks nice, it potentially adds some of the benefits of a touchscreen without the drawbacks ( i.e. the touchscreen on Sony’s ereaders causes serious readability issues). It remains to be seen if it functions really well as a navigational device without adding unwanted distractions to your reading.
eBook Lending and Sharing
Being able to share your ebooks with your friends was a much lauded feature when the nook ereader was announced, but it now appears to be more hype and wishful thinking than actual benefit. With the nook you can loan a
book only once and only for 14 days. You cannot read the ebook while it is being loaned out. Worst of all, publishers must opt-in to allow book lending and I suspect getting some publishers to go along with this is going to be worse than pulling teeth. Some publishers have already stated that they will not allow their books to be shared.
eBooks can be shared by up to 6 (in most cases) Kindle ereaders if the Kindles are registered to the same account. This works best for families who have several Kindles. It could also work for a group of unrelated Kindle owners as long as they trust each other enough to share a credit card.
Wireless Connection
The nook ereader has a wireless connection which only lets you connect to Barnes and Noble, and can only be used to purchase and download books. Amazon’s Kindle ereaders not only let you purchase and download books wirelessly, but also have rudimentary web browsing ability. With a Kindle ereader you can check your email if you need to, research your reading on Wikipedia, etc.
The nook ereader also has Wi-Fi, which the Kindle lacks. Barnes & Noble says that you will be able to use this feature to get additional content if you take your nook with you into one of their stores. We’ll have to wait and see how valuable of a feature this turns out to be.
Storage
Both the nook and the Kindle ereaders should hold around 1,500 ebooks. The nook also has a microSD slot so that you can add more memory if you need to.
Audio
The Kindle and the nook ereaders both support MP3 files, but in addition the Kindle also supports Text to Speech. This feature must be allowed by a book’s publisher, and is not meant to replace audiobooks performed by voice actors, but it can be a very useful feature.
Barnes and Noble eBook Store vs Kindle Store
This is a BIGGIE! Ereaders are for reading books, right? So obviously you want access to the most-est and the best-est at the cheapest! In my opinion this is the most important feature of all when it comes to nook vs Kindle. 
Barnes and Noble claim to have over a million ebooks available. The vast majority of these are out of copyright public domain titles from Google. These also include many duplicate titles from different editions.
The Kindle Store has over 380,000 titles available. While this sounds like much less, in fact many more current (as opposed to public domain) titles are available at the Kindle store than pretty much anywhere else. This is especially true if your reading takes you off of the beaten paths of the best seller lists. The more esoteric your reading tastes, the more likely you are to find what you are looking for on the Kindle.
As for books in the public domain, the Kindle Store has a lot of the most popular of these. You can also download more of these titles in a Kindle ereader friendly format from other sources. You can even download directly from Google and use a conversion program such as Calibre to get a format that will work on Kindle ereaders.
As for ebook pricing, with few exceptions the Kindle Store is cheaper than Barnes & Noble. With a few titles the price difference is small, but in many cases it is quite significant.
In availability and price comparisons I’ve done the Kindle Store wins hands down.
Pricing
As to the prices of the nook and Kindle Global ereaders,
There are also refurbished Kindle 2 ereaders
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No More nook eReaders for Christmas; Kindles to Get Folders no comments
The nook is now officially sold out for Christmas. Barnes and Noble is telling purchasers of its new ereader that as of today pre-ordered nook ereaders will not be shipped until after New Year’s.
All customers ordering a nook beginning today, November 20 should expect their devices to ship beginning the week of January 4, 2010. To assist those customers who are purchasing nooks as holiday gifts, we have created a special holiday certificate, noting an expected January ship date. Beginning today, any customer pre-ordering nook as a gift will have the option to receive a special certificate at no cost — either in-store or via mail, for those pre-ordering online.
No doubt all of this competition to the Kindle ereader’s current supremacy has encouraged Amazon to fill some of the little chinks in the Kindle’s armor of late. Little chinks such as Kindle for PC and Mac and Blackberry (coming soon). And other little missing bits and pieces such as folders to better organize one’s library on the Kindle. The latter is something users of the Kindle ereader have been asking for for a long time.
Amazon announced on its Kindle Facebook page that folders will be added via an over-the-air update during the first half of next year. It seems a bit odd that Amazon released the news first on Facebook and only belatedly on its Kindle forums, but it is welcome news for Kindlers never the less.
It seems that Amazon is seeking to counter competition by adding some of the missing features to the current Kindle model, and this may be an indication that we shouldn’t expect a new iteration of the Kindle ereader in the very near future. On the other hand, possibly this strategy will give Amazon a bit of extra time to develop some really killer features for the next Kindle edition.
