These devices are getting hotter every month and it looks like they are about to become the new netbook, of sorts. They started out as something that is pretty niche and then Kindle came along. Now that the bubble wrap on the B&N Nook is still fresh, you can see that the industry is actually getting bigger and bigger players like Google are stepping in.

B&N Launches Nook, Apps On Their Way

So in the world of eBooks this week, B&N’s Nook is obviously the biggest news. The highly anticipated ebook reader is finally here and we are all pretty impressed by how different it is from the Kindle. The Android touchscreen, the lending feature and the RSS feed  – all refreshingly different from the Kindles.

We are also hearing that apps for Android, iPhone etc. are in the pipeline. So you will have a Nook in your pocket pretty if you own any device that fits the bill.

I just got through comparing the Nook with a design prototype from Spring Design. It’s another Android dual screen eBook reader called Alex. Read all about it right here.

Spring Design Springs Alex Video On Us

As mentioned above, Spring Design has this new eBook reader called the Alex but it is still in the pipelines. All that they can show you right now is a video with what appears to be a prototype (or may be pre-production unit). Enjoy the video for now or go read my comparison of the device with the Nook.

Entourage edge DualBook

This is another eBook reader I covered this week. Yes, me covering three eBook readers this week and this round up post – they are all related. :p

So this is another interesting device – it is an eBook reader and a netbook. Read about it right here.

The Best eBook Readers To Buy Right Now

If you are in the market for a new eBook reader, these are best ones to choose from. Between these three, you will find everything that the industry has to offer and the build quality that will last.

B&N Nook

This week’s eBook star and momentarily overshadowing the Kindle with its dual screen and Android driven touchscreen. It’s selling for $259 from the website (nook.com) but feature-wise, I would say that Kindle has a better deal for you.

Amazon Kindle 2 And DX

The Kindle going International with free 3G connection (to the whispernet only though) in almost anywhere in the world is plain fantastic. That means I can browse the store for a book from anywhere in the world and get it instantly. The Kindle 2 is $259 and the Kindle DX, the special Kindle with a bigger screen, is $482. But unless you really want to have the DX for its extra features, you are really just better off with the normal Kindle.

Amazon recently pulled this $20 refund stunt where it refunded $20 to all pre-order buyers because they reduced the price to $259 from $279 all of a sudden to match Nook’s price. But don’t wish for it to happen too often because the last time this happened, Amazon was removing a book from Kindles without the owners’ permission and refunding their purchase.

Sony Readers

Sony is the only company that I would recommend for eBook readers that does not have a huge publishing platform. Sure it has the Sony Connect store but compare to B&N or Amazon, it is nothing. Still, their Sony Reader Touch Edition (PRS-600) is a pretty good device, especially because it has a touchscreen.

Not having physical controls, the device is far more compact and hence I feel is easier to use in some ways. It sells for around $200-$250 depending on where you are buying it from. Also, I like Sony’s design aesthetics.

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Plastic Logic is another trustworthy company. They are the ones who made the Nook for B&N. But their own eBook Reader – the Cool-er is not very compelling when compared with the three above. So I did not mention it.

(Corrections: That was a terrible mixup I had made above and a media rep. from Cool-er’s actual company (Interead) kindly pointed this out. Please note that ‘Cool-Er’ is made by ‘Interead’ and ‘Plastic Logic’ is the eBook store partner of B&N and not the manufacturer of the Nook (which the rep. also pointed out). The two companies are not related and I apologize to them both.)

One more thing to note is that the Kindle is the only device that will give you 16 progressive shades of grey. The other two have 8. This means the Kindle’s screen has a better looking display.

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Got another reader you use and love? Tell us about it in the comments section.

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Amazon recently started exporting the Kindle to other countries, so I bought one. Amazon struggled to negotiate deals with European carriers, which was one reason why the Kindle was not already available to the European market, so instead, the Kindle roams from the AT&T network.

The features are fairly similar to those available to American customers. One can subscribe to and download newspapers, magazines and buy and and download books. One can’t, however, download the images inside the newspapers and magazines, browse the Web or subscribe to blogs. This is all down through a mobile internet connection, either 3G/GPRS.

The 3G coverage in my house is somewhat intermittent, although I still think it is just about tolerable. I find a 2G signal perfectly reasonable for downloading a book or browsing the Kindle store. I initially thought it strange that the Kindle lacks WiFi, unlike many of its competitors, but I have since realised that WiFi is unneeded.

As the mobile internet coverage is included in the purchase price of the Kindle, Amazon prevent users from browsing the web on it outside the US due to the high costs they would face. This would prove annoying to some users, although I imagine web browsing on the Kindle would prove clumsy, due to fact it’s black and white.

The Kindle can also play MP3s, so audiobooks, music and podcasts can be placed on it. I believe that you need to connect the Kindle to a computer to transfer them onto it. For books, magazines and newspapers, no computer is needed. Files can be coverted into Kindle format by emailing it to an address that will automatically send them to the Kindle (at 0.99USD/MB), by using a free Kindle email conversion service and transferring the files via USB, or by using software like Calibre. The Kindle handles the Mobipocket format, so you can get free public domain books from websites like Feedbooks and transfer them on.

The battery life is very good, due to the way text is displayed. E Ink, which the Kindle employs, has extremely low energy consumption. If you turn the wireless off, it can keep going for weeks without being charged. Charging takes a couple of hours, although the charger supplied is a US socket. It does charge via USB so this isn’t an issue.

It has a couple of other nice touches, too. One can annotate texts, have them read aloud via a text-to-speech feature (although this doesn’t work very well) and has a very attractive standby screen which rotates between different images of different writers and writing-related objects.

The International Kindle costs $260, plus postage and import tax. Altogether, mine cost around $340. This is equivalent to about £210 or €225; roughly the same as its competitors. The mobile internet is a big selling point which many competitors lack. They are only purchasable from Amazon.com, so any discounts or vouchers you may have for other Amazon sites won’t work. Also, books are only available from Amazon.com, so you pay notice the absence of the work of your country’s authors. I hope that eventually we will be able to relink our Kindles to our own national Amazon sites, although there is no certainty (or even indication) that Amazon will permit this.

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A viable alternative was announced some time ago in 2008 in the form of the Txtr Ebook Reader. The reader does not use DRM, supports a much broader format spectrum including pdf, html, Office and ePub formats, provides an Open Software architecture and uses a Linux kernel. It offers the same screen resolution as the Amazon Kindle 2 which is 600×800 pixels. The device makes use of an integrated accelerometer to automatically detect the orientation of the device and display the text accordingly.

Another difference is the design of the Txtr ebook reader which has been streamlined to be usable with one hand. Other specs of the device are:

• eInk Vizplex 6″ display at 600×800 pixels
• 146mm x 128.2mm x 8mm, 260g
• Freescale ARM11 CPU 532MHz
• 64MB SDRAM onboard
• MicroSD memory card slot
• 8GB MicroSD card included
• internal 3G/GPRS modem
• USB 2.0 cable connection
• Bluetooth 2.1 for audio, external keyboard and future enhancements
• WiFi

The device will be released in the third quarter of 2009 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The price is unknown at this point in time. If you are looking for an ebook reader that supports a wide range of document formats out of the box and does not come with DRM then it might be a device to recon with. The main drawbacks are the missing “ebook library” that Amazon supplies and the availability and price.

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