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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Earlier this week, a cheaper Barnes & Noble Nook Touch was revealed to the world. Now, it looks like the Kobo wants to do the same touchscreen thing with the announcement of the Kobo Touch Edition. And they got there one day earlier too.

You won’t get a full color touchscreen like how you get with the iPad or Nook Color; instead, it’s an e-ink touchscreen. The interface is pretty much what you’d expect with swipes to turn pages, for example, as well as the ability to highlight text, take notes, and bookmark. They’re also including an on-screen virtual keyboard for ease of text entry.

They’re also noting that it’s not the capacitive technology that you find on most smartphones and tablets today. They’re using an “infrared touch technology” instead, which allows you to use any object to touch the screen.

And it’s ten bucks cheaper than the Nook Touch too. The Kobo Touch Edition went on preorder on Monday for $129.99, dropping the regular Kobo down to $99.99 in the process. What’s interesting is that Amazon has yet to release a touch-enabled Kindle, despite being at the top of the heap when it comes to dedicated e-readers.

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E-readers are getting a lot cheaper. Remember, it wasn’t all that long ago that the Amazon Kindle would run you north of $300, which puts you in the midst of full on Android tablet territory these days. You can get a Kobo for about $150, but it looks like Amazon is undercutting that even further down to $114.

But alas, there’s a catch and it’s not one to be ignored. You see, in order to get your hands on that just a little more than a Benjamin-priced Kindle, you have to put up with having advertisements take up some of that precious screen real estate. The ad-supported Kindle will have banners show up both on the home screen and in screensavers, but thankfully the ads aren’t in the e-books themselves.

For $114, you get the 6-inch Kindle with Wi-Fi, which normally retails for $139. What this means is that a lifetime of advertisements on your e-reader effectively puts $25 (and tax) back into your pocket. Whether or not you feel this represents a good enough value to endure the ads is up to you.

For my part, I wouldn’t do it. The tipping point is when these mass market e-readers have a MSRP of $99 or less. I’ve seen a few hit that price point already, so I know we’re close. The other hindrance? E-books really aren’t that much cheaper than their dead tree counterparts.

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What’s that? You thought the Internet generation was only interested in tweets and YouTube videos? As it turns out we still read books, but we’ll be increasingly turning to e-books moving forward. In fact, a forecast is calling for some huge growth in the e-book market.

As it stands, global e-book reader sales were recorded at about $1.9 billion last year with a total of just under 11 million units sold. According to Yankee Group, those numbers will increase to $8.2 billion and nearly 72 million units, respectively, by 2014. That’s a lot of growth.

The forecast also calls for a worldwide doubling of the installed base of e-readers each year (up to 127 million by 2014), even faster adoption by the European market (143% growth each year, compared to 19% growth in smartphones), and reductions in the average e-reader price. Right now, the average e-reader is $182. They’re expecting that to drop to $114 by 2014.

Considering that you can already pick up something like the Kobo Reader for $100, you realize how far we’ve come from the initial $300+ price tags of the first Kindles. That said, tablets like the iPad weren’t supposed to replace e-readers… but they have been for many people. Is that the real wave of the future or will e-paper and e-ink still have teeth? I don’t read a lot of books, but I am getting more and more tempted to get one of these things.

[Yankee Group]

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If you’ve ever been to college, then you’ll know that textbooks are expensive. Very expensive. And kind of wasteful with all the trees they have to cut to print all those pages. The Kno tablet textbook is supposed to change all of that.

In a sense, you could say that the Kno is like a Kindle or an iPad in that it can be used for reading e-books, but this device was designed from the ground up as a “digital textbook,” as well as a means of “creating a powerfully effective learning environment.”

The single-screen Kno is being pegged at $599. If you want to go with the dual-screen Kno, then you’ll need to pony up $899. Both feature displays measuring 14.1-inches.

They say that, thanks to the “lower cost of digital textbooks,” the Kno effectively pays for itself in three semesters. The hurdle, of course, is convincing the textbook publishers to adopt this format.

Kno is taking a “limited number of pre-orders” now, with the first shipments expected by the end of the year.

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Up until now it seemed that e-reader enthusiasts have had to make a very important decision. If they want the sunshine-friendly display with unbelievable battery life, they’d go e-ink. If they want bright colors and a vibrant display, they’d go LCD. Well, Hanvon is prepared to give them the best of both worlds.

Also listed as Hanwang in some circles, Hanvon is a Chinese company and it’s getting ready to introduce the first e-reader with a color e-ink display. Since it’s not nearly as well known a name in the Western market as Amazon or Apple, it may not have the same kind of impact. Even so, this is still a very notable announcement.

By going with a color e-ink display, Hanvon could indeed be finding that perfect middle ground for e-book readers. You get color and you get the sunshine-ready screen. The battery life is set up to last for a few weeks at a time too.

I remember seeing some of the Hanvon products at Computex in June. They’re largely targeting the Chinese market, but will other companies adopt the same tech for their own products? Barnes & Noble already moved away from e-ink to an IPS display for the new Nook Color; will they move back to e-ink if it does color?

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For starters, the $160 Literati e-reader comes equipped with a full color display. Sharper Image isn’t specify exactly, but we’re likely expecting to see a regular LCD display. There’s also a full QWERTY keyboard underneath for ease of text entry. It doesn’t have 3G Whispernet, but the Literati does have Wi-Fi for wireless book downloads and free reading apps.

But where will it get these book downloads? The Sharper Image Literati is actually connected to the Kobo e-book store. This way, you can gain access to the same content as you would on the e-ink powered Kobo eReader… but with color.

The Literati is expected to hit store shelves in early October. Look for it in Bed Bath and Beyond, Best Buy, JC Penney, Kohl’s, Macy’s and of course, Shaper Image locations.

Now Sharper Image Launches an E-Reader [Gadget Lab]

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Not surprisingly, the Japanese company is staying mostly mum about the details thus far, but it seems that the yet-unnamed Sharp e-reader will indeed boast a color LCD instead of an e-ink based display. But that’s not the best part.

It mostly likely won’t be able to do it at launch, but it appears that the upcoming Sharp tablet e-reader has the “potential for 3D down the line.” Sharp President Mikio Katayama is already really enthusiastic about 3D, so this kind of added functionality makes sense.

The third dimension probably isn’t all that useful for reading through the New York Times, but it could make for a great gaming experience and maybe even some interesting 3D comic books. Or 3D movies even. The current timeline calls for a Japanese release this fall with a US launch by the end of the year.

Sharp 3D Tablet‎ or E-Reader to Launch this Year [TechPinger]

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Despite some of the shortcomings that it may have, the Apple iPad could prove to be a real game-changer for the industry. However, it won’t be the only one populating this newfound niche and it’s not the only one to be priced at under $500. Do you remember the JooJoo Tablet? Well, it’s hit the production line.

It started out its life as the CrunchPad, as heralded by TechCrunch’s Mike Arrington. He had a falling out with his partners (the legalities of the matter are still up in the air), so it re-emerged as the JooJoo Tablet by Fusion Garage. Whatever you want to call it, the JooJoo has some legs up on the Apple alternative.

Possibly in an effort to conserve battery life, the Apple iPad does not support Flash. The JooJoo Tablet does. Other notable features on this tablet are its 12.1-inch capacitive touchscreen, integrated ambient light sensor, and USB connectivity.

Check out the video below for a closer look at the Fusion Garage JooJoo Tablet. Pricing, much like that of the iPad, starts at $499.  They are taking pre-orders now.

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I guess the idea here is that the iRiver Story has a tale to tell and it’s one that takes on an appearance very similar to that of the Amazon Kindle. It has the same matte white finish. It has a similar QWERTY keyboard sitting beneath the large e-ink display. If you didn’t know any better, you’d assume that the Koreans really have a Kindle of their own.

That’s partly true, but not completely true. The biggest difference is that the iRiver Story seems to be lacking in the wireless department. While you can browse and buy new content for your Amazon Kindle through WhisperNet, you need a physical connection to get new stuff for your iRiver Story.

You can load new content using the provided SDHC card slot, so I guess that’s a little more convenient than a full USB connection. Format support includes PDFs, E-Pub, TXT, e-comics, and Microsoft Office files. The Story will do all of these without conversion.

Look for the iRiver Story this month for about $300. It’ll be a Korea-only product until iRiver works out a deal with European and North American distributors.

Source: Gizmodo

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