Photo: goXunuReviews / Flickr

After months of speculation it seems that the rumours are true and Amazon has officially announced that they will be releasing a newer version of the Amazon Kindle. The new Kindle, as expected, will be smaller and lighter, and even greater news is that the Kindle will finally be going ‘mass market’, being available for order in 27 countries, including directly from the UK Amazon site.

A more serious Kindle

The new Amazon Kindle doesn’t look as flashy and suave as the last one, but looks like more refined and grown up as Chief Executive, George Bezos said, ‘We developed this device for serious readers’. The new Kindle is also set to sell for about $189 (a bit under £121) for the e-book reader with wi-fi and 3G connectivity, while only $139 (just under £89) for the device with wi-fi connectivity only. On the new pricing of the latest Kindles, Bezos believes that, ‘At these price points… People will buy them for their kids. People won’t share Kindles anymore.’ However, the price is still slightly above what the tech experts expected the new device to retail at, which was closer to $99 (just over £63) for the most basic Amazon e-book reader.

Highlights of the new Kindle

The new Kindle is not only more lightweight and compact, but also comes with some new features such as 50 per cent better screen contrast, faster page turns, increased battery life, a beta WebKit-based browser, improved text-to-speech options and 4GB built-in memory. These new features definitely make quite an impact on improving the overall reading experience when using what will be called the ‘Kindle 3’.

The old Kindle had recently been listed as out of stock on Amazon, which got the speculation going on whether Amazon were trashing the device or releasing a new one. Seeing that we now have the ‘Kindle 3’, anyone who ordered the old version within the past 30 days will be able to exchange their older version for the new one.

Photo: Onda

With memory that can store books upon books, having an e-Book reader is like carrying around your own little bookshelf. Onda communications has just announced their new e-Book reader called the MyTile, which will be coming out soon.

Specs

Onda’s new e-Book reader, MyTile, is already making a good impression with some stunning features and great design. It has a 9.7-inch colour touchscreen, and is powered by a 700/1000Mhz processor. It supports Bluetooth, 3.5G, wi-fi, GPS and HSDPA connectivity. The Onda MyTile also has a DRAM/flash size up to 1GB, making it quick and easy to get a variety of your favourite e-books and store them.

Other features are email, printing, HDMI output, voice recording, handwriting recognition, audio playback, USB and SD card slots, Adobe reader and a zoom text function. It’s also DLNA-compatible.

Versatility

Seeing that Onda’s new e-Book reader is small and compact, carrying it around won’t be a problem. It’s portable, can be used and kept anywhere. The nice thing about the Onda eBook is that it’s got wi-fi connectivity, so a consumer can easily purchase and download a new book wherever they are. The Onda MyTile is one of the first to have a HDMI output. This connects it to TVs, Blu- ray players and audio devices, customising the way you use the MyTile.

Making the most of the LCD screen

Onda’s new e-Book reader screen display is LCD with a LED backlight, and even though this is a luxury to look at, it also means it’s very sensitive, so won’t stand up to rough handling. Using the stylus on the Onda eBook will keep it clean, and this also complements the handwriting recognition feature.

As yet, pricing details have not been released, and until it’s been tried and tested by consumers, whether or not this is as good a buy as it seems will remain to be seen.

Photo: Aiptek

Late last year Aiptek released a revolutionary e-reader for children. The InColor Storybook was the first e-book reader released in full colour, a much needed development in the e-book reader market, and also the first e-reader designed with children in mind.

Reading should be fun

With making learning to read fun in mind, Aiptek’s e-book reader allows children to read along with  the 20 stories that come along with its internal memory. Cute illustrations accompany the stories, and the interface is fun and easy for small people to handle.

Features

The InColor comes with a generous 8-inch 800×600 LCD display, and a 512 megabyte internal memory, which will hold up to 45 e-books. An expandable memory slot will accommodate up to 16GB, though. Four-way buttons allow children to search for books to read as though browsing through a book case, and the page up and down buttons simulate the natural movement of pages when reading.

Extras

The InColor can also play MP3s, save pictures of up to 30 megapixels, and display photographs, functioning as a digital picture frame. It also has a slideshow function for children to play with. While these features aren’t necessary, they will help distract children from the TV for a while, and the timer will stop them from damaging their eyes by reminding them to take a break from reading every 20 minutes.

Dubious content?

Aiptek’s website offers a range of e-books in Chinese and English, starting at $4.99 (around £3). All books for this device need to be bought from Aiptek, and there is no guarantee that the content of the e-books available for the InColor e-reader will be of the quality consumers have come to expect from Amazon and the Apple iPad store.

Is it worth it?

At $199 (Approximately £130), this is an expensive piece of technology to give to a four-year-old (the target age group for the InColor e-book reader is four to eight). It’s fun to use, and educational, but will demand that parents constantly monitor children while they read and listen to stories on it. It might be a better idea to stick to hard copies of children’s books until something better comes on the market.

The Kindle eBook Reader is an amazing device that is manufactured by amazon.com. It is an e-reader which helps you to read online books without connecting any other device with it. It is one of the most famous e-book readers available in the market. It is available in a stylish white colour which makes it look sophisticated and attractive. It is very compact as well and you can easily carry and store it. The device is provided with a wide screen which offers crystal clear graphics.

The Kindle eBook Reader is actually a 3G wireless device which enables you to download books from the internet. It is supported in over 100 different countries which enhances the functionality. The device is 1/3rd of an inch in width and is very thin which makes it look pretty attractive. It is very light in weight and only measures around 10.2 ounces. The eBook reader can be set up in less than 60 seconds and there is no computer required for setting it up. The best thing is that you don’t have to pay any monthly fees or download charges. Another very helpful feature is that you can read the e-book reader even in the sunlight.

The Kindle eBook Reader is a library in itself as it can carry over 1500 books at once. The device is fitted with a spectacular rechargeable battery which offers a long battery back up and a hassle free performance. You also have an amazing text to speech feature and you can even read newspaper and magazines on it.

Tags for this article: ebook reader, eBook Readers, kindle ebook

With everything going digital and on the move, the eBook readers are also being manufactured on the same track. The latest tend which is to be seen is of Portable eBook Reader which will be an ideal travelling partner for all those who love reading books. This king of eBook reader allows you to enjoy your journey and spend some leisure time reading books electronically.

The Portable eBook Reader is being manufactured by leading brands and is widely available in markets with great variety to offer. It offers great way of relaxation combined with excitement and craze to all the eBook readers. Some of the most sought after Portable eBook Reader include the Sony PRS-505S with 6.0 inch display. Compatible with formats like TXT, RTF, PDF, DOC, MPS and JPG, this reader offers hard drive space of 20MB and internal memory of 128MB.

The Endless Ideas BeBook is another Portable eBook Reader offering a resolution of 600 x 800 pixels. This stylish reader is compatible with JPF, GIF, RAR, ZIP and MP3 formats. It also allows you to save data up to 512 MB and is actually a rather cheap eBook reader. If you are looking for more expensive models with bigger displays, then you can choose from the iRex Digital Reader 1000s featuring 10.2 inch display with an excellent resolution of 1024 x 1280 pixels and supports formats including PDF, TXT, HTML, PNG, GIF and TIF. Another great product in this range is iRex iLiad Book Edition.

You can make your choice from the wide range of Portable eBook Reader available and add more excitement and relaxation to your journey. Other choices can be Interead Cool-ER 2009, Bookeen CyBook OPUS,
Sony Reader PRS-300 and many more. The leading brands manufacturing portable readers are Sony, Interead, Bookeen, Endless Idea and iRex.

The e-book reader from Sony uses an electronic paper display that has 166 dpi resolution, eight levels of greyscale and is viewable in direct sunlight. It allows the user to connect to an e-book store and displays Adobe PDFs, ePub format, personal documents, blogs, RSS news feeds, JPEGs, and Sony’s proprietary BBeB (“BroadBand eBook”) format. The e-book Reader can also play unencrypted MP3 and AAC audio files. The Sony PRS-505S E-Book Reader has a protective cover and has a sleek, muted metallic finish that is pleasing to the eye. Weighing as much as a DVD case-sized unit, it is durability and value for money. The PRS-505 has a standard USB 2.0 connector that can be used for both data transfer as well as charging.

The e-book Reader from Sony also accepts pictures in JPG, GIF, PNG, and BMP formats and it can play back MP3s and unencrypted AAC files, thus you can listen to music as you read. However playing music drains the battery quite a bit. However, the Reader doesn’t have a speaker, but it has a headphone jack and two types of memory card slots. The Sony PRS-505S has 200MB of internal storage space that shows as an externally manageable device in Windows. When a song is popped into the drive, it shows up on the Reader in a single long list. When the user begins to play the song, it plays through the list completely and then over again until the battery has been drained completely. As an e-book reader, reading text on the Reader is pleasant experience. The background is not white like in real books but a light shade of grey. There is a choice of three font sizes that allow the user to scale the text to the most comfortable level. It also has bookmark feature that helps the user continue reading from where he had left off without having to remember the page number.