ereader

Engadget is reporting that Barnes and Noble’s Nook 3G is running short on supply, and that bulk orders of the device are being turned down. This almost certainly means that the device is on its way out, perhaps for an updated version. Keep an eye out as B&N sells through their existing supply for an announcement of a new Nook. If you or your library is in the market for them, but not in a hurry…you might want to wait a few weeks before you jump in.

Amazon announced today via Facebook and Twitter that one of their Black Friday deals was going to be blowing out their inventory of the Kindle 2 (the last generation of Kindle) for $89. These are new units, not refurbs, and include 3G access with the device.

This deal is going to get pounded, and who knows how many they have left in stock. If you want to try and grab one, the deal starts 11/26 at 9 am PST.

Barnes & Noble is clearing out their refurbished Nooks on Ebay … for $99! That gets you a 3G-capable Nook that still has a year warranty on it … it looks like the best deal that anyone has seen for a high-end eReader.

The long teased Blio eReader platform finally has an official launch date: Sept 28th for the Windows software, and then iOS and Android apps “following soon after”.

Blio is a new eReader platform developed in part by Ray Kurzweil, and focused around flexibility of display and interface. As you might expect coming from Kurzweil, it has strong text-to-speech capabilities, and is designed for full color displays and not eInk devices such as the Kindle. In addition, content is being provided by Baker & Taylor, and Blio claims to have over 100 publishers lined up to help provide content for the platform.

I had a chance to play with Blio nearly a year ago at CES 2010, and talked about it during the ALA Midwinter 2010 Top Tech Trends presentation…it’s exciting stuff. Can’t wait to see if it can give Kindle and Nook a run for their money.

Apple pushed out an update today for the iWork 9 suite that patches a lot of issues within each of the apps (Pages, Numbers, Keynote). But the big news as far as I’m concerned is that Apple added native ePub support into Pages, which means that you can use it to prepare eBooks for publication. Up until now, the only real option for full layout control over ePub was Adobe InDesign… . Pages support will make it that much easier to get your work into ePub, and onto your iPad, Nook, or Sony Reader!

Barnes & Noble is clearly aiming some of their eBook efforts at educational use, something that Amazon and the Kindle have failed to do in any serious way. They ramped up efforts today with the release of Nook Study, a computer program that gives you the ability to view and annotate your Nook books, PDFs, and other files that you throw at it from the comfort of your PC or Mac.

The notes syncing, complete with highlights and everything, works beautifully. It remembers your place from book to book no matter where you are viewing it. And although I wasn’t able to test it, it promises to work with Blackboard:

Barnes & Noble has joined with Blackboard to help you seamlessly integrate eTextbooks into Blackboard Learn, the teaching and learning management system you already use.

Not sure exactly what that means, but it could be a huge benefit to colleges & universities that use the Blackboard system and are experimenting with eTextbooks.

It doesn’t do the one thing I’d hoped, which is sync my local documents (PDFs that I’ve added to my local NookStudy at my computer) to my B&N eReader software on my iPad. But overall, it’s an interesting add-on that might help keep the Nook afloat.

Amazon announced today the next generation of their Kindle eReader. Slightly redesigned, the biggest change is that there are now two models of the standard Kindle: Wifi only for $139, and Wifi + 3G for $189. Both models will also come in two different colors, the standard white and a dark grey, which I think looks great (and actually shows off the contrast of the eInk screen a bit more clearly).

There are a number of improvements, including being slightly smaller while maintaining the same 6 inch screen. The controls are more straightforward, the screen has a higher contrast, and Amazon is reporting that the new Kindle will go a full month on a single charge, if you turn off wireless.

All in all, a very, very compelling package. The $139 model is, I think, going to completely own the holiday gift season. Anyone whose been on the fence about trying out an eReader, this looks like the one to take a long look at.

Amazon was just awarded a very, very interesting patent on specific aspects of eReader devices, and it might have a huge impact on the Nook and others in the market. Among the many pieces of the patent, they were awarded a design patent on:

A handheld electronic device comprising: a housing; an electronic paper display disposed in the housing and having a first surface area; and a liquid crystal display (LCD) disposed in the housing proximate the electronic paper display, the LCD having a second surface area that is smaller than the first surface area of the electronic paper display.

I don’t know about you, but that sounds a lot like the Nook. It will be very interesting to see whether Amazon uses this patent as a stick (beating B&N with it) or as a carrot, and convincing B&N to work with them in some way.

And today, on the heels of the formal announcement of the $150 wifi Nook, and the price drop to $200 for the 3G Nook, Amazon fired a shot across the bow by dropping the price of their Kindle dramatically…all the way to $189. Just yesterday the Kindle was $269!

Both the Nook and Kindle are definitely leaders in this eInk-based eReader space, and for libraries the $150 Nook is especially promising, given that it works with the Overdrive ebook platform. But these price drops just signify what I’ve been saying for a few months now: eInk based devices like these are going to be in a race to the bottom as far as pricing goes for the foreseeable future. Expect these to continue to get cheaper…it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see another small price drop for the holiday season.

Engadget is reporting that a $150 wifi only Nook has shown up in the Barnes & Noble ordering system, again showing an amazing drop in the costs of eInk eReaders. If you’re in the market for one, you might want to sit the week out and see what Wednesday brings.