Kinect Sensor with Kinect Adventures!

$149.99 @Amazon

Apple MacBook Air (13.3″ 256GB 2.13Ghz version)

$1649 @MacMall

Apple iPod touch 32 GB (4th Generation)

$279.95 @Amazon

PlayStation 3 320GB System with PlayStation Move Bundle

$399.99 @Amazon

Amazon Kindle 3G + Wifi

$189 @Amazon

Apple iPad 16GB Wifi

$499 @Apple

Shure SE425-V Dual High-Definition MicroDriver Earphone

$299.99 @Amazon

Bose QuietComfort 15 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones

$299.95 @Amazon

Samsung Galaxy Tab

Sprint version: $399 @Wirefly

Verizon Wireless version: $599 @Wirefly

Flip UltraHD 8GB Video Camera

$179 @Amazon

Unlike Amazon and Barnes & Noble, Google won’t rely on eReaders to drive book sales, going with apps for Android, the iPhone and iPad instead. Most of the books will offer day/night reading settings, font size selection, line spacing and font choice. {ZDNet} While the Kindle also has its own apps on those devices as well, Amazon has done everything it can to push the advantages of e-Ink over the glossy screens of tablets and mobile phones. In fact, the Kindle is one of the most notable exceptions to the 85 devices the Adobe Content Server 4-driven store supports (the Nook is supported). {Adobe Digital Publishing blog}

While the Kindle’s wi-fi only version is one of the least expensive at $139 (and best selling), the cost of an app is sure to be less than the cost of a new device – at least for those who already own a smartphone. Also, the fact that Google offers cloud storage means that readers can use multiple devices to start and stop reading, provided there’s wi-fi. How much of an advantage that offers is up for debate, but Android has provided legitimate competition to the iPhone’s single device model, so if that’s any indication Google distributed eBooks may not be a Kindle killer, but could be decent competition, and make user adoption easier.

Don’t expect that to cause any kind of price war though: aside from the roughly 2.8 million out of copyright books which are free, Google’s working with the top 6 US publishers, who have managed to keep pricing the same across devices. That’s usually $10-15. Major publishers will take 70% of that price – considered standard, while other publishers will get 52%. For self-published work, that may make Amazon’s Kindle only model more attractive. Smaller booksellers like Powell’s, Alibris and the American Booksellers Association have been brought on as partners though, which could help in bringing independent titles to the massive library.

Our take? New options in any field is rarely a bad thing. The Kindle is popular enough that it will probably continue to do well, but Google’s focus on distribution rather than device could make it a reasonable competitor.

Amazon is infamous for never releasing hard numbers for how many Kindles are sold, though the company isn’t afraid to talk in relative figures.  It seems that the newest Amazon Kindle has sold more in the first four weeks of availability than any other Kindle launch.  That makes the new Amazon Kindle the fastest selling version yet, which is impressive but none to surprising given the $139 WiFi-only version that is available for the first time. {TechCrunch}

Amazon has also said that the new Kindle models have sold more on both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk than any other product.  The Kindle is also the most gifted and wished-for products on the two sites, which certainly says a lot about how far eReaders have come.

Going on personal experience, it’s difficult in New York City to take a subway without seeing at least one Kindle in use.  Amazon’s relative numbers only back up what we can already infer: there are a lot of people out there who like the idea of reading books without having to carry around the actual books.  Yes, physical books are nice, but eBooks are arguably easier to read, easier to carry with you, and don’t use up so many trees.

If you can imagine it, the new Kindle is even thinner than the Kindle 2, and also a bit smaller without sacrificing any screen size.  The screen is similar to the new Kindle DX screen in that it has 50 percent better contrast and 20 percent faster page turns according to Amazon.  On the inside, the new Kindle now has WiFi.  The device is available in a 3G and WiFi version for the same $189 as the previous model, of a WiFi only version for $139.  Both are available in either graphite or white. {Amazon}

Amazon looks to be taking some shots at Apple’s iPad and other tablets with the new Kindle.  The site’s page for the new Kindle points out that it won’t get hot while reading like computers and tablets.  It also mentions the fact that the screen has no glare about 5 times on the page.  In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said that “For the vast majority of books, adding video and animation is not going to be helpful. It is distracting rather than enhancing. You are not going to improve Hemingway by adding video snippets.”  He then added that there are a lot of companies making LCD tablets, and that he didn’t want Amazon to be one among many {Engadget}.  With the lowered price, it’s certainly easier to get into than the at least $500 iPad.  It might also help if we ever get to see those Kindle apps that were promised months ago.

Definitely better looking than the textbooks we remember

Students enrolled in classes in the School of Media and Strategic Communications and the Spears School of Business will be given iPads for their classes.  Those classes will use eTextbooks on the iPads in lieu of traditional dead-tree textbooks.  According to the school, the ePub version of at least one class’s textbook is $100 cheaper than the paper version.  Not sure how that adds up given that there’s no such thing as a used eTextbok, but it’s still a significant price difference.  If all the eTextbooks prove that much cheaper, the 16 GB iPad essentially pays for itself.  Add in everything else the iPad can do, and it could be a much better choice for students. {Wired Epicenter}

Other schools, such as the Illinois Institue of Technology will be giving iPads to incoming freshmen.  All freshmen are required to take certain classes, where they will use eTextbooks on the iPad rather than dead trees.

Last year, when the Kindle DX was tested in universities, it ended up not being very popular.  Many students lamented the lack of proper page numbers for citation, as well as the singular nature of the eBook reader and the refresh rate.{Gizmodo}  Those issues may persist with the iPad, but there’s a better chance that students will find an app or two that makes them like the device more.  The Kindle DX’s singular purpose is always a plus or minus depending on who you talk to, but our hunch is that students will find it more appealing, even if not necessarily more productive. While being able to jump onto the internet to cross check a certain passage or find additional information sounds good, how long will it honestly take the average student to lose focus?  The iPad itself may not be the perfect tablet for educational use, but using tablets in place of expensive and not so eco-friendly textbooks is a cost-cutting move that we can support.

Like all mobile eBook apps, nook for Android will sync bookmarks and last read pages with other instances of the app or your nook eBook reader.  Unlike the iOS version of Barnes & Noble, nook for Android is an actual nice-looking app.  It has eight choices for fonts, which is even more than is on the nook reader.  The standard to turn the page is a one finger flick, though that can be changed to a single press on either side of the screen.  Like the nook device, nook for Android comes complete with LendMe, so users can share eBooks with friends, giving their friends a copy of the book for up to 14 days (the eBook is then removed from the original owner’s library for that time). {Barnes & Noble}

With Barnes & Noble, that now means all the biggest eBook sellers are on Android.  Given the fact that many publishers are switching to an agency model, making eBooks cost the same across all platforms, it really comes down to which app you prefer.  Granted, those who own eBook reader devices would want to use the same app as the device they have, others are free to choose whichever app they like.  Aside from Amazon, Kobo/Borders and now Barnes & Noble’s nook there’s also Adiko which can access any free eBooks, or read ePub files bought from other virtual stores.

Without releasing exact sales numbers, Amazon has announced that since the price drop, Kindle eReader sales have tripled.  It looks like all that was holding potential buyers back from  buying a Kindle was a price drop of just $70.  It dips below the mental barrier of $200, and is almost in impulse buy territory in terms of gadgets.  That means there’s a lot of people out there now who are willing to buy eBooks, perhaps above buying physical books. {Engadget}

That brings up Amazon’s next point: for the past three months Kindle eBook sales have outpaced hardcover book sales.  That’s all Kindle books as compared to all hardcover books, even those without Kindle versions.  For those months for every 100 hardcover books sold, 143 Kindle books were sold.  For just the past month it’s 9 Kindle books for every 2 hardcover books.  Amazon calls this a “tipping point,” and it certainly seems true.

Important, however, is that Kindle books aren’t necessarily sold only for those with the Kindle eReader.  With the sales of the iPad, the iPhone 4, and the new Android Kindle app, Amazon is proving that eBooks are quite popular.  With 160,000 Android phones being sold each day {TechCrunch}, and the popular ones selling out on the first day {eWeek}, the great size of the iPad for reading, and the beautiful text on the iPhone 4s Retina Display, Amazon stands to sell a lot more Kindle books for quite some time.  Now if only someone could convince all publishers to put out eBooks.

Competition for eReading consumers†affection sizzled on Monday as Barnes and Noble dropped the price of its well received Nook e-book reader 23 percent to $199 and introduced the Nook WiFi at an even bigger bargain $149, though the latter device can only be used in a WiFi environment. Amazon, whose $259 price tag for their Kindle eReader (which comes with 3G technology by default) previously matched the Nookâ€s cost exactly, responded by dropping the price of the Kindle to $189, and they aren’t stopping their competitive advances there. Amazon.com plans to introduce a thinner Kindle with an upgraded screen this August. Sonyâ€s cheapest eReader is still $169. {Fortune}

Get yourself a price gun: the war for th eReader market is on

At this rate, eReaders will be cheaper than the actual books in their stores in no time.

In addition, Apple updated the iPhone and iPod Touch today to include available iBook software. The iPadâ€s price tag for the entry-level model remains near $500, though the additional tablet computer functionality give it an advantage over single purpose eReaders. It would be difficult to justify a $500 eReader purchase, but when that device doubles as a place to play games, browse the web and check on email, it’s a lot easier to rationalize.
“Their sales have obviously been impacted by the iPad,” Charlie Wolf, a senior analyst at Needham & Co. in New York, said. “These price cuts are almost an act of desperation.” {Bloomberg Businessweek}

Meanwhile, Kobo, the e-book retailer that offers eReading software for an array of devices, released free software on Monday that is available through the Android marketplace and allows eReaders to be used on Smartphones with the Android operating system. The e-book retailer already produces software for other Smartphones, iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, Palm WebOS and the newly released Kobo reading device.

Users who buy Kobo e-books with one device can read their purchase on any of the devices for which Kobo offers software.

“We’ve adapted the features our customers love and expect from Kobo to ensure that we provide the best reading experience for Android-enabled smartphones,” Kobo CEO Michael Serbinis said. {Publishers Weekly}

Borders is also holding steady with eReaders that began selling for $119.99-$149.99 in May. {Bloomberg Businessweek}

Need to catch your breath? We sure do! We canâ€t wait to see which devices prove most popular among consumers and how low the prices will need to go to woo customers who are interested in an e-reading device but not its expense.

One of these books can't be shared like the others

As it stands now, eBooks are made available through mostly proprietary book stores like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the iBookstore.  Other companies like Kobo, Sony Library and Fictionwise offer eBooks that work on their selected devices or apps, but can also work on other devices.  Those stores use the ePub format, which was supposed to be the universal format.  ePub is actually used by Barnes & Noble and Apple as well, though some extra Digital Rights Management (DRM) is added on top of the existing ePub DRM in those stores.

Micheal Serbinis of Kobo, when interviewed by Reuters, mentioned that he expects readers will one day be able to lend books to each other.  This is already available on the Nook from Barnes & Noble, though on no other platform.  A world where Kindle users can share books with nook owners would be nice to see, which a universally adopted format could help with.

Susan Peterson Kennedy of Penguin Publishing claimed that “contrary to popular belief, the book is much more flexible [than eBooks].”  Without a universal format that can be true.  EBooks, however, can be used almost anywhere, which is almost more flexible.  Books like “Only Revolutions” by Mark Z. Danielewski {Wikipedia} have proven that the book can do more interesting things, but for most stories and simple text file that can be read on a computer, eReader, tablet and cell phone would just as easily suffice.

But Amazon is reaching even further in the competition between the Kindle and the iPad. Lab 126 has recently posted dozens of job openings. Responsible for the technology behind the Kindle, Lab 126 recently posted dozens of job openings which may indicate that the lab is looking to expand the capabilities of the Kindle in order to appeal to a wider consumer base. {New York Times} Yet, New York Times writer Brad Stone argued that the Kindle’s design is “for book lovers, and the iPad is not.” The Kindle’s black and white screen and relatively simple interface are reminiscent of the (now) old-school book. The Kindle was not created to change the experience of reading a book but rather to make it more convenient in terms of space, weight, and book selection.

Besides the Kindle, the iPad’s other major competitor runs in it’s bloodline. That is to say, the iPod and Macbook are competing for money from someone’s wallet for the same capabilities that the iPad offers. While no significant blow has been suffered by either technology in the iPad’s first month, analyst Steve Baker says, “it’s way too early to see what long range impact on MacBook is going to be from the iPad.” {PCWorld} Baker acknowledges the obvious fact that one month is quite a short amount of time to garner any real statistical reasoning as to the impact of a new product upon already existing markets. But if consumer reviews begin to justify iPad technology, Macbook and iPod sales may drop as more embrace a consumer promoted product.

In the case of the iPad, its evident that only time will tell if the technology is a winner.