While many people have turned to their iPads and Android tablets for the purpose of reading e-books, there is still very much a market for the dedicated eReader. The e-ink display is so much easier on the eyes and the battery life is way better than what you’d get from a tablet. But, which one is best?

A quick comparison has been put together with some of the heaviest hitters in this space, taking a look at the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle, Kindle Keyboard, Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, Nook Simple Touch, and Kobo Glo. There are others to be considered, like those from Sony or other Kobos, but these are some of the most popular and their comparison should help narrow down your choices.

Display

All six of the eReaders featured in this overview use some form of e-ink technology for their displays rather than the regular backlit LCDs you find on tablets. You’ll also notice that they’ve all congregated on the 6-inch form factor, though you’ll find other variations from Amazon, B&N and Kobo that come in other sizes. The resolutions are mostly the same, though the Paperwhite and the Glo have significantly better PPIs. It’s also noteworthy that the Glo, Paperwhite and Nook with Glowlight are the ones with lit displays for dim reading situations.

Size and Weight

Since they all have six-inch displays, the overall dimensions of all these eReaders are roughly the same. They measure approximately 165 x 120 x 10mm with some variation and they all weigh right around 170-210 grams or so. The lone exception is the Kindle Keyboard, since it has that physical QWERTY keyboard beneath the display, stretching its length to 190mm and bumping its weight to 247g.

Storage Space

Not surprisingly, all six of the eReaders also have roughly the same amount of storage space. After all, e-books are very small files and you don’t need much space. The Paperwhite and Kindle both have 2GB, while the Kindle Keyboard has 4GB. The Nooks and Kobo Glo all have 2GB, plus a microSD expansion slot. That memory expansion could prove to be an important feature for people who want to carry a lot of content with them.

Wireless

They all have Wi-Fi, but you can opt to get the Kindle Paperwhite as a WiFi+3G mdel. The Kindle Keyboard is sold only as a WiFi+3G eReader.

Battery Life

The Kindle, Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, and Kobo Glo all have batteries rated in the 4 week range, while the Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Keyboard and Nook Simple Touch (sans GlowLight) last twice as long at about 8 weeks. Of course, your mileage will vary based on usage, especially when it comes to how much you use the lighting features. Charging any of these eReaders will take you 3 to 4.5 hours.

Other Considerations

If you want to read in dimly lit situations, you’ll want to opt for one of the eReaders that comes with some form of lit display. That’s the Kindle Paperwhite, the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight or the Kobo Glo. If you want to take advantage of Amazon’s gigantic library, then you’ll want one of the Kindles. If you want a keyboard, then you’ll want to the Kindle Keyboard. Of course, there are some tradeoffs if you want, say, a keyboard and a backlight, because that just doesn’t exist.

Price

This will be a big deciding factor for many people. The cheapest of the bunch is the regular old Kindle that starts at $69, but you could also consider something like the Kobo Mini (5-inch) that starts at around the same price range. It is worth noting that all Kindles come with the “Special Offers” advertising that you’ll have to pay $20 to eliminate. If you hate ads, you’ll need to factor that into the price. It’s also debatable whether the Kindle Keyboard is really worth its premium just for a keyboard.

At the end of the day, which eReader you choose will really depend on several factors. Price is one, to be sure, but you’ll also want to think about size, backlighting, and the ecosystem. Whatever the case, it’s a good time to be a consumer, because we are offered a lot more choice than when the original Kindle was the be-all and end-all of e-book readers.

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This comes straight from Walmart PR:

Recently, Walmart Stores, Inc. made a business decision to not carry current Amazon products beyond our purchase commitments and existing inventory.
Our customers trust us to provide a broad assortment of products at everyday low prices, and we approach every merchandising decision through this lens.
We will continue to offer our customers a broad assortment of tablets, eReaders and accessories at a variety of great price points. This decision is consistent with our overall merchandising strategy.

So, what are we supposed to glean from this? Well, we could think that it has to do with sales figures and the Kindle isn’t performing on Walmart’s shelves as well as they would have liked. It might also have to do with money in that Amazon might not be offering Walmart the kind of margins that it would like to have either. Then again, there could be a much more compelling reason.

Amazon directly competes with Walmart in just about everything. You want a physical book? Amazon and Walmart both sell that. You want a video game? They both sell that too. You want furniture, groceries, textiles, shoes, luggage, watches, light fixtures or bicycles? Both Amazon and Walmart sell all of that. In a sense, by stocking the Kindle family, Walmart becomes a bit of an Amazon showroom. This could be the same reason why Target decided to pull the Kindle from its shelves too.

Of course, I could be reading far too much into this, but I think it is amazing how Amazon has its hands in everything. You buy the tablet from them, so you can buy the digital content from them. Even if you buy an iPad or some other device instead, you can buy that product from Amazon too and there’s a good chance that you might get the Kindle app to buy more content. They get paid at every step of the way.

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Many people have turned to their tablets for their e-book reading needs, but the fact of the matter is that an e-ink display is still easier on the eyes. And now you can score a tremendous deal on one of the best e-ink e-book readers out there. Amazon has put the Kindle DX on sale for $110 off.

As a quick refresher, the Kindle DX features a high contrast 9.7-inch e-ink pearl screen, offering 50% better contrast for clearer text and sharper images. Unlike the backlit displays of typical tablets, the e-ink display looks and reads like real paper, giving you the best visibility in sunlight with no glare. The 3G wireless is included (Whispersync), so you’ll never have to make a monthly payment to download more content. Subscribe to a magazine and have it magically delivered to your device while you sleep.

The Kindle DX has enough storage for up to 3,500 books and has a battery life (wireless off) of up to three weeks. The global wireless coverage includes not only the United States, but throughout 100 countries and territories around the world. And yes, it has a keyboard for ease of text entry too. The regular price is $379, but you can buy it today for $269, including free shipping.

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Before you get too excited about curling up this e-reader to stuff into your backpack, realize that the flexible e-paper display here is still inside a reasonably stiff chassis. But that doesn’t mean it’s not without its benefits.

The first to use a new line of flexible screen displays from LG is the Wexler Flex One. The 6-inch monochrome panel has a resolution of 1024×768. While you can’t exactly fold up this e-reader, the flexible plastic display–at 0.7mm–is about a third the thickness as an equivalent glass e-paper display. It’s also just 14 grams and has proven to be quite durable.

There is an unofficial (below) that demonstrates some of its functions and you can see the e-reader can be bent and flexed a little. Aside from that, you have a rather blasse e-reader. It supports the usual range of formats, like EPUB and DJVU, and you navigate through the menus and page turns using the provided physical buttons; this is not a touchscreen. LG’s e-paper tech will soon find itself in other e-readers too. We just have to wait for the one we can wrap around our wrists.

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When you combine this investment with the recent news that Microsoft is re-tooling its multimedia service, Zune, with a new Xbox-branded multi-platform music/video service, it starts to become clearer that Microsoft is pulling out all the stops to make sure they have as much content as possible when Windows 8 tablets hit the scene. Overall, this is just being smart on Microsoft’s part, after all, Apple has already established millions of apps and multimedia content, so Windows 8 will need all it can muster if it’s going to convince anyone to migrate from the iPad, or even an Android tablet, to their new ARM and x86 tablet devices.

As for why Barnes and Noble would find this partnership useful? Beyond the fact that they get a massive $300 investment? Separating its Nook line from its brick-and-mortar and non-digital book offerings might be a way the company can better appeal to more users and other markets internationally, at least according to Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps.

Will the move prove to be a successful one for Microsoft against competitors like Apple and Google? Or for that matter, will it give B&N an edge over Amazon’s Kindle line? Only time will tell for sure.

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The allegation is that Apple colluded with several book publishers to keep the prices of e-books higher in an effort to limit competition. More specifically, it says that this collusion was in direct response to the lower prices being offered by Amazon, which is known to sell best-seller e-books at $9.99. The publishers still wanted their books sold, but at $9.99, they weren’t making enough money.

And thus, the publishers had the same goal as Apple: keep the prices higher. It is “hard to settle a lawsuit when you know you have done no wrong,” said Macmillan (Holtzbrinck Publishers) CEO John Sargent. “Macmillan did not collude.”

The iBookstore from Apple is estimated to have about a 10-15% market share among e-books, compared to the around 60% that the Amazon enjoys, though that figure is down from the 90% it had some time back.

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Amid a sea of millions of iDevice docks, Grace Digital has launched the FireDock, one of the first speaker docks specifically designed for Amazon’s rather popular Kindle Fire tablet. In theory, it might be possible to hook up other devices, but based on its design and fit (and name), it was clearly meant for pairing with the Fire. Besides the audio element of the dock, it also includes a USB port for charging the Fire and will also allow for an optional 2200 mAh Lit-Ion battery pack for using the dock on the go.

It’s nice to see that the Kindle Fire is now starting to get some accessory love, and overall this looks like a pretty well designed docking station for everyone’s favorite little Amazon-powered Android tablet. The Firedock is expected on July 2^nd of 2012 with a suggested retail price of $129.99.

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Yes, physical books may still have their place in our new digital society, but more and more kids are turning to tablets, computers, and e-readers. With Storia, Scholastic is creating an entire e-book ecosystem that is complete with an app, as well as the e-book store itself. Interestingly, the ebooks sold through Storia look like they’re exclusive to Scholastic, not unlike many of the physical books they have sold over the years.

The beta version of the e-reading app for Windows has launched and the iPad version should be going live a little later this month. You get five free ebooks when you download the app and you have access to (buy) over 1,000 more ebooks through the Storia store. The official launch is slated for the back to school season in the fall, at which time there will be over 2,000 titles available, as well as apps for Mac, Android, and iPhone.

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When it comes to e-ink, you won’t get high-res graphics or color like an iPad, but you do get that easy-on-the-eyes B&W newsprint style view of your text and images.   There are currently only a hand full of color e-ink solutions out there and even fewer, like the Ectaco jetBook Color, are very expensive (around $500).  Most are from brands that we have never heard of.

This is about to change though, according to a new rumor that suggests Amazon has begun purchasing 6-inch e-ink color modules from EPD maker, E Ink Holdings. The report comes from a Chinese-language Economic Daily News report and suggests that shipping will begin in March and are expected to three million units per month.

If this rumor proves true this could mean that we will finally have a major-brand color e-ink device in the form of an Amazon Kindle. If true, this could be pretty big news, especially for educational and business venues looking for a device to replace text books and manuals without giving its employees/students full access to a tablet device.

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Unveiled simply as the new textbook category in iBooks 2, Textbooks for iPad is supposed to provide students with a more modern way to learn than the old dead tree edition textbooks. Since it’s on the iPad, it should come as little surprise that these new e-textbooks (or iTextbooks, if you prefer) are interactive. You get multitouch gestures, dictionary lookup integration, annotation, text highlighting, note-taking capabilities, and virtual note cards for later studying.

And just like how iTunes revolutionized digital music, Textbooks for iPad could do the same for education. For starters, they’re only doing high school textbooks (at $14.99 or less) via the iBookstore, but they’ve got big time publishers on board already, including Pearson, McGraw Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. If they make it to college and university textbooks, which easily cost $100+ each, Apple could have a huge cash cow on its hands.

Coinciding with Textbooks for iPad is a new tool called iBooks Author. This is a Mac application that lets you author, build, and publish interactive digital books for iBooks. This includes gallery support, 3D animations, interactive images, custom Javascript, and custom HTML5, all within a familiar iWork-like environment. And yes, it’s a free download.

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