It’s not exactly the sexiest piece of technology, we’ll admit, but consider this: How often have you taken your work outside, only to be thwarted by evil glare? Or have temporarily lost your vision trying to read a 60 page PDF at two in the morning? The Pixel Qi’s 3Qi Display is going to change all that. It’s going to transform the way you use your laptop.

Why is it so special, you ask? The Pixel Qi switches between your everyday color LCD screen, a low power black-and-white display (kinda like the Kindle’s E-Ink screen), and a transflective mode that makes your LCD screen visible in sunlight. And yes – this is a first generation product – but the very idea of its future incarnations has us and every other techie dancing for joy. Or, more accurately, blogging for joy. No one needs to see techies dance. Trust us.

Need even better news? You won’t even have to buy a new netbook to get in on the action. Pixel Qi is releasing DIY Kits later this year that will let you swap out your laptop screen with a 3Qi Display. And, according to Pixel Qi’s Mary Jensen, “It’s only slightly more difficult than changing a lightbulb.” The future is bright my friends – and yet still readable!

When Macmillan, a large international publisher with a substantial number of textbooks (among other types of books), pressured Amazon to bring its pricing and revenue share in line with Apple’s future iBook store, we found out. The initial response? Take your ebooks and see how well they do without the Kindle and support from Amazon. Both electronic and physical book titles were yanked from the Amazon marketplace. The message to Apple? We’re the big dog in online book sales, and you won’t get any without a fight.

The New York Times is now reporting that Amazon is grudgingly backing away from that position. Macmillan ebooks will now retail around $15.99, rather than the $9.99 they’ve encouraged for new release and best-seller ebook titles. Calling the new prices “needlessly high,” Amazon could also be upset that the 70/30 revenue split that previously favored them will likely now flip the other way to pose formidable competition to Apple, who will leave publishers with 70% of revenue from sales.

There are many who think the Kindle (and possibly the Nook {previous coverage}) will survive the iPad because of e-ink, which is easier on the eyes than a backlit LCD screen for extended periods of reading. Additional points in favor of e-readers: the 10-hour iPad battery life isn’t that great when you compare it with the days long battery of the Kindle; the Kindle also comes with free 3G wireless which easily beats the $30/month you’ll spend with AT&T for the same on the iPad. Those in the iPad camp remind us that even though the LCD touchscreen might not be the best choice for frequent readers, the applications will make it the choice for so many things besides reading that it could still be a great replacement device.

In the end though, no matter how hard they compete, two major ebook distribution points mean publishers win. And if the iPad and eReader market grows large enough, authors who self-publish and are willing to compete on price with major publishers could win big. Throw in whatever Barnes & Noble has cooked up for the Nook, and there’s real competition. Considering that there’s no single formidable competitor to iTunes or the App Store, we think it’s also a good thing for consumers that Amazon is keeping their hat in the ring.