Step 1: Market a device for two whole years
Step 2: Issue a price drop a few months before the holiday season
Step 3: Remain the exclusive retailer for said device
Step 4: Profit! (To an extent that is completely and intentionally unclear to everyone!)

When Amazon tells you that the Kindle is the highest-selling product on Amazon, you're supposed to think of it as you'd think of anything else: as a strong, reliable metric in gauging how well a product is doing in general. The thing is, there is no "in general" for the Kindle. There is only Amazon. Anyone who wants a Kindle and doesn't normally shop at Amazon has to make an exception. Anyone who wants a Kindle and doesn't normally shop online has to make an exception. The Kindle didn't outsell the iPod Touch—not even close.

It's worth noting that, as always with the Kindle, Amazon is not giving us any sales numbers to look at. They've consistently claimed this is to protect competitive interests, which led journalists, and the public, the consistently believe that the figure must be kind of embarrassing. But with this exceedingly proud announcement, Amazon has revealed at least part of their reasoning: good PR. To proclaim that the Kindle has outsold every other product in the world (on Amazon!) makes it sound like the device is, at the very least, not a failure. Which it probably isn't! But let's look at what we really, honestly know: The Kindle outsold every other products in its parent company's online store, which has an exclusive on the device. We have no idea how many units are sold, nor do we have any idea how many Amazon expected to sell, or how many they'd need to sell for Kindle to be considered successful. We know that sales have gone up during a heavy shopping period, but that's about it. It's a closed system.

In other words, we know nothing new. Well, except that a certain other book store with a noticeably similar strategy and much hotter hardware is just about to show up piss-drunk at the Kindle's Christmas party, to try to steal its girlfriend. [Press Release]

Here's the rundown:

Kindle (Global Wireless) and Kindle (U.S. Wireless)

* Longer battery life for Kindle (Global Wireless): You can now read for up to 1 week on a single charge with wireless on. Turn wireless off and read for up to 2 weeks.
* Built-in PDF reader: Your Kindle can now display PDF documents without losing the formatting of the original file. Send PDF documents directly to your Kindle (via your @Kindle address) or drag and drop PDF files from your computer to your Kindle (when connected via USB). Learn more.
* Manual screen rotation: The Kindle screen can now manually rotate between portrait and landscape views so you can see the entire width of a web page or magnify the page of a PDF file. The page-turn buttons work the same in either orientation, and the 5-way controller movements are switched to match the orientation. Learn more.
* Option to convert PDF files to Kindle format. If you prefer to have your personal PDF documents converted to the Kindle format (so that they can reflow), type "Convert" in the subject of the e-mail when you submit your personal document to your @kindle.com address.

Kindle (U.S. Wireless) and Kindle (Global Wireless) users can go to Archived Items on their Kindle and download the Kindle User's Guide, 4th Ed., which now documents all the features of Kindle Software 2.3.

Kindle DX

* Better cropping of PDF files: In landscape orientation, white margins of PDF documents are automatically cropped to maximize the amount of content shown on the screen.
* Option to convert PDF files to Kindle format. If you prefer to have your personal PDF documents converted to the Kindle format (so that they can reflow), type "Convert" in the subject of the e-mail when you submit your personal document to your @kindle.com address.
* View pages longer: We've extended the time before Kindle DX switches into screensaver mode - from 5 minutes to 20 minutes - giving you more time for reviewing your content.

You should get the update automatically via your wireless connection, so you don't need to do anything special to get this stuff. [Amazon]

It also gets a native PDF reader, previously only found in the Kindle DX. The total battery life for the international version measures at seven days with wireless on (up from four days), and two weeks with wireless off (same as before).

It looks like Amazon just improved the wireless usage, which might have come as a result from switching from using Sprint as the provider to AT&T as a provider? Probably not, seeing as previous Kindle users also get the 85% battery life from a firmware upgrade delivered automatically. PDF support comes over OTA upgrade as well, but no timeframe was announced for either. [Press Release]

As many Kindle owners already know, keeping a large number of books on the device can get a bit unruly—so this would be a welcome update. It's also good news for people on the fence about whether or not to get a Kindle or a Nook over the holidays. It appears that the Kindle is going to be the only game in town until after the new year. [Kindle Facebook via Gadgetell]

Qualcomm says it'll be up to the various manufacturers to create devices built on this reference design, but Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity would make multiplayer gaming pretty interesting. Just depends if ARM-based operating systems, like Android, get the right games.

The concept has a 5.7-inch display that uses Qualcomm's "mirasol" screen technology that provides better battery life and smooth video playback. Problem is, for now, this reference is just a static-image prototype. Yet another eReader angle that we'll be watching for you, though. [SlashGear]

The "mirasol" technology mimics iridescent butterfly wings by deploying charged, color-inducing membranes over a layer of mirror. It's a technology that, if integrated into Kindles today as-is, would increase battery life by an estimated 20%.

Instead, Qualcomm uses that extra power efficiency to drive color and higher refresh rates for smooth video. They contend that a Kindle with their more media-capable display could run about a day with its current battery.

The catch? The lead photo is a non-functional prototype (housing a functional, frozen-image display). Qualcomm is offering the tech to third party partners, and they expect you to see mirasol tech on the market by late 2010. [SlashGear]

As for the Mac version? We're still told that's coming soon. [Beta Download | Press Release]

Kindle For PC Features:
• Purchase, download and read hundreds of thousands of books available in the Kindle Store
• Read the beginning of any book for free before you buy
• Access your library of previously purchased Kindle books stored on Amazon's servers for free
• Read books in full color including children's books, cookbooks, travel books, textbooks and graphic novels
• Choose from more than 10 different font sizes and adjust words per line
• Add and automatically synchronize bookmarks and last page read
• View notes and highlights marked on Kindle, Kindle DX, iPhone, and iPod touch
• Zoom in and out of text with a pinch of the fingers (Windows 7 users only)
• Turn pages with a finger swipe (available in a future release for Windows 7 users)

Case-Mate, the people who used to make zipper booklets for CDs, built the $80 Enlighten case that lights up the Kindle at night by way of an LED-illuminated acrylic overlay. So basically they pulled a Sony: Taking what's right about e-ink, and screwing it up. You don't put anything on e-ink, for the same reason you don't read paper through a film of plastic. We typically don't write up cases, but despite its unique gimmick (okay, because of it) this one looks exceptionally pass-worthy. [CNet]

It's bad enough when pompous over-the-hill watchmakers think they can get into the cellphone business, like Tag Heuer did when it introduced the luxury-for-luxury's-sake $6000 Merediist. It's worse when they team up with an extreme car company to release a still more ridiculously irrelevant phone, like Tag Heuer did when it called up its friend Lamborghini and cooked up the, yep, special edition Merediist Automobili Lamborghini. For $8000, you get the same crappy phone as before, but with the signature angry cow shield on the keypad, and a plaque in place of the crocodile skin. Yes they'll sell a handful to bald Italian billionaires over 60, but how many of those can there be? [Tag Heuer via Gadgetell]

I love when the age-old bicycle gets a redesign, and points go to Joey Ruiter for thinking through the needs of the urban bicyclist, trading speed for agility, and stripping the bike to its simplest parts. But I never thought bike seats could look any more uncomfortable than the borderline rectal probes out there now, until lo, I spotted this rectangular sucka. Joey, you're clearly talented, but I gotta ask, how can that seat be copacetic to the culo? [Core77 via The Awesomer]

As much as I want alternative energy ASAP, I am worried about wind farms. First, they're killing off flocks of birds or at least scaring them the hell away, and now they're making air traffic control jumpy too. Because of their flailing metal blades, radar waves get super screwy around them, and sometimes cause airplanes to disappear from radar. (Cue gulp of fear.) For this problem, a firm called Qinetiq built a seemingly decent solution, layering blades with sheets of radar-slurping glass-reinforced epoxy and plastic foam. It's nice, especially because you can pretty much replace the blade and leave everything else as is. But it's just coming out of the trial phase, and will take some time before it's ready for turbines that are now in place or being built. While we wait, let's talk about them birds... [MIT Tech Review via PopSci]

Creative is also talking with publishers, a la Apple, although in their case the talks are primarily in Singapore, where they already have a number of e-learning initiatives.

Images were unavailable, although Engadget did manage to snag a source who snapped a blurry pic of the Creative UI reveal (pictured) earlier today. There will be a touchscreen, which would make this slate/tablet markedly different than an ebook like the Kindle, although somewhat similar to the Nook. That's all for now. [Epizenter via Engadget]

Okay, so now we just saw the app running on an Acer tablet. Apparently it'll use an accelerometer to rotate pages, depending on the orientation of the tablet. It'll work on XP and Vista too.

Here's the full press release (thanks Dan!).

With Kindle for PC, readers can take advantage of the following features:

* Purchase, download, and read hundreds of thousands of books available in the Kindle Store
* Access their entire library of previously purchased Kindle books stored on Amazon's servers for free
* Choose from over 10 different font sizes and adjust words per line
* Add and automatically synchronize bookmarks and last page read
* View notes and highlights marked on Kindle and Kindle DX
* Zoom in and out of text with a pinch of the fingers (Windows 7 users only)
* Turn pages with a finger swipe (available in a future release for Windows 7 users)

Update: You can sign up here, to be notified when the download is ready.

It's cost-effective. Yeah, at $260 it's the same price as the Kindle 2, but you're getting so much more for your money: Wi-Fi, native PDF support, an SD slot and that crazy second screen makes it seem out of the Kindle's league. It makes the Sony Reader and iRex look absurdly overpriced and the Plastic Logic Que look like a shot in the dark.

Lending and Sharing. One of my main objections to the Kindle and other readers is that most of my books come from friends, rather than bookstores. The Nook realizes that and integrates a 2-week lending period—plenty of time for a quick read. Plus, you can lend to tons of different devices: Mac, PC, iPhone, iPod Touch, PC, Mac, BlackBerry, or Windows Mobile (soon).

Sharing is also done really well: As opposed to the Kindle, which only lets you read purchased ebooks on a same-account iPhone or iPod Touch, the Nook lets you read on any device supported, the most important of which are PC and Mac. So you and your significant other could read the same book at the same time, on whatever devices you each prefer. The Kindle, in contrast, doesn't support PC and Mac at all—but we'd be willing to bet Amazon is rethinking that decision right about now. Plus, the Nook syncs both your place in the book and any highlights or annotations you've made, which could be great for students.

Free in-store reading. You'll be able to take the Nook to any of Barnes & Noble's gajillion stores and read one ebook, for free, each time—the same way you might wander into the store, pick up a book and read it for an hour or two. Barnes & Noble is really thinking about how people actually read, which is a great sign: This kind of feature makes the Kindle feel like it's forcing you to change your reading habits rather than adapting to them.

And potential Nook customers will be able to go into a retail store with which they're comfortable and play around with the actual device, an advantage not shared by the Kindle. Given Matt's impressions of the Nook, I think seeing the hardware in person will convince a lot of people to buy it.

Head-turning looks. The Kindle 1 was, um, distinctive, and the Kindle 2 is inoffensive and sleek enough, but the Nook has legitimate style. As Matt said, "it makes even the relatively benign-looking Kindle 2 seem like it was beaten with an ugly stick." It was clear from the first leak that we were dealing with something very different.

Android. There are two things to be excited about when it comes to Android. First is the legit apps, which B&N seems open to—in today's presentation, John wrote "They, ahem, 'haven't announced' anything about app development, but they're comfortable using the phrase "when we do," which is veeeery promising." My personal most-wanted app? Pandora (or Slacker, or Last.FM).

Secondly, there's the more, well, illicit possibilities: The Nook both runs Android (which we already know is easily and enthusiastically modified) and has a microUSB jack, which should make for easy hacking. Imagine user-created skins, apps, games (in case reading gets boring)—the possibilities are just about endless. The Nook already supports PDF natively (yes!) but we could definitely see it hacked to embrace other formats like Word docs.

The second screen. Yeah, it's weird, and we wouldn't have believed it if it didn't, you know, exist, but it just makes so much sense: Browsing for books on e-ink is an exercise in frustration, and touchscreen e-ink is even worse. With its capacitive touchscreen, the Nook offers a keyboard and Cover-Flow-esque browsing without the awkwardness and lethargy of e-ink, but it also opens the door for multitasking. You'll be able to read a book and control your music at the same time, and because the music browser will be on the LCD screen, it won't look like e-inked crap. It should also support photo browsing and the ability to set your own wallpaper.

Battery life. The Nook's 10-day battery life may not be quite as long as the Kindle 2's 14 days, but 10 days is still insane—especially if we think about the tablets that will vie to make ebook readers obsolete. Whenever the Apple tablet is announced, you can bet its battery life will be measured in hours, not days. Plus, the Nook's battery is replaceable, always a welcome decision (you could have a spare battery, and when yours does eventually die, it's easy to replace).

Both 3G and Wi-Fi. I'm not exactly sure about the benefits of Wi-Fi right now (besides international travel, where AT&T may not work), but given the possibilities of Android, it's essential that the Nook includes it. In the future, we may want to download files bigger than ebooks—apps, games, videos, whatever—and Wi-Fi will be vital once the potential of the Nook is unlocked. Plus, there could well be Wi-Fi-only features of the kind AT&T wouldn't support: Streaming content, web browsing, VoIP, whatever. Wi-Fi is a killer feature not for what it does right now, but for what it could allow the Nook could do in the future.

Click the image for a larger version:

As you can see, Barnes & Noble boasts a lot of Nook's on-paper advantages, not just a second screen and Wi-Fi, but native PDF support, an SD card reader and a replaceable battery. B&N also points out that brick-and-mortar means try before you buy. Lending between friends is downright awesome, if it works. And a huge advantage is being able to read books on your PCs and Macs. I own Kindle books, but as I currently don't have a Kindle, the ownership concept is a little bit abstract.

There are some more vague advantages: What exactly does an Android OS do for the user in this split-screen unique device? Surely apps or "user-generated improvements" are out of the question. And what early adopter really sweats the dilemma to go with colorful back covers or not?

Not much here makes Nook look bad, though there are no major specs missing. It's a little thicker than Kindle 2, but it's also substantially shorter, which may be a more significant physical advantage. Max battery life is 10 days, rather than Kindle 2's 14, but we still need to know what that means for the LCD screen. There's no text-to-speech, but maybe B&N just wanted to avoid the lawsuit Amazon got hit with, because the text-to-speech wasn't accessible to blind people. And darnit, no support for Word documents. Guess you'll have to Save As... PDF.

To be clear, this is the same device we saw before—a smallish (7.7 x 4.9 x .5, it turns out) e-reader with two screens, a 6-inch E ink display up top for displaying book text, and a 3.5-inch touchscreen LCD down below for navigation.

Connectivity comes by way of free AT&T 3G as well as 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, while storage duties fall to the 2GB of internal memory, as well as an microSD expansion slot. Barnes & Noble claims charge time of 3.5 hours—by microUSB, thankfully—which'll let you read for "up to ten days," which is a curiously indirect way of describing battery life, and doesn't really say much about what "reading" means. With constant LCD use? Occasional? None? Audio playback seems limited to MP3s, with a 3.5mm headphones jack taking care of output. Say what you will about the design, but you can't fault B&N on ports.

Naturally, the main content source is the B&N ebook store, which has a reasonable—though not spectacular—selection of magazines and newspapers too. What the Nook has that other B&N-compatible readers don't, though, is sharing. As with Amazon's Kindle iPhone app, the Barnes & Noble's reader can be synced with the company's various mobile apps. Even better is the user to user sharing, which sounds an awful lot like the Zune's old "Squirting" feature, which let people sharing DRM-wrapped songs for a limited time. That said, the sharing terms are pretty generous:

Share favorite eBooks with your friends, family, or book club. Most eBooks can be lent for up to 14 days at a time. Just choose the book you want to share, then send it to your friend's reader, cell phone, or computer.

Avid readers can easily plow through all kinds of books in 14 days, so this is a pretty sweet deal.

And in a deprecating nod to the Kindle's notorious durability issues, Barnes & Noble is pushing extended warranties right out of the gate: a $70 protection plan stretches the stock warranty to two years, and throws in accidental damage coverage, meaning you don't have to worry too much about pulling a Matt, which given that this thing has two freakin' screens, is a very real worry.

So let's just get this out of the way. "Hi, I'm Kate, and this is my Nook!" Ha. Ok!

The above video does give a better sense of how the reader's control scheme works than words ever good, but I'll give it a go anyway: the only hardware buttons you'll really use are the right and left page switchers. The rest, from book library navigation to settings menus to book sharing, is managed through a separate menu system on the much more responsive (though from the looks of it, kinda jerky) color LCD. One one hand it's a clever workaround for E Ink's horrendously slow refresh rate; on the other, it's kind of hilarious. I mean, really? [B&N]

Preorders are live on B&N's site, and units should hit mailboxes on November 30th. [Last Week's Exclusive First Look]

UPDATE: Err, looks like B&N's web guys jumped the gun a little bit, and they've pulled the site. But ha, not soon enough. Eyes, feast:

Google's come forth with a few more details about how their store, called "Google Editions" and now slated for the first half of 2010, will work. It'll open with a staggering 400,000 to 600,000 books to Amazon's 330,000 and Sony's 100,000 (though the latter is supplemented by nearly a million public domain books, courtesy of Google, of all companies). 55% of the fees, which will be set by publishers—Google's already got 30,000 partnerships in place, evidently—will be skimmed off the top, then given to retail partners. If this sounds weird, that's because it is—Google Editions isn't quite like the Kindle store in one major way. From Google 's Tom Turvey:

Google Editions allows retail partners to sell their books, especially those who haven't invested in a digital platform," he said. "We expect the majority (of customers) will go to retail partners not to Google. We are a wholesaler, a book distributor.

Another way it's not the Kindle store? From the sounds of it—and inline with what he heard before—it's a browser-based shop:

The books bought from Google, and its partners, would be accessible on any gadget that has a Web browser, including smartphones, netbooks and personal computers and laptops. A book would be accessible offline after the first time it was accessed.

In-browser book buying with Google Gears support sounds like a nice feature to add to a book store, but what about the basics? ePub? PDF? I mean, they've got to be planning on including some kind of eBook format support, but they haven't mentioned any at all.

Perhaps the announcement of a certain Google Android-powered, dual-screen eBook reader would be a good chance to clarify. [AP]

Click through the gallery for a blow-by-blow of e-ink's strengths and failures:

E-ink is a great digital tool for emulating what books were. But a horse with rollershoes can't keep up with the automobile, so why should we expect a digital book to keep up with modern media habits?

I fell in love with the Kindle last year, but I think you're a fool to buy one now—let alone any of its lesser competitors—when so much new technology is about to hit over the next six months. I'm giving up on it. I am waiting for a tablet. Same size, different priorities. And unless you love novels and non-fiction more than TV, movies, cookbooks and glossy magazines all together, you should, too. [Fantastic rendering above by Rob Beschizza]

Marge Simpson is going to be on the cover of Playboy on Oct. 16, and I don't know whether to laugh, puke, subscribe, or shake my head in utter dismay. What I do know is that this is proof the magazine industry as a whole, and the formerly dignified adult magazine industry in particular, has lost it. And I think it means The Simpsons has finally officially jumped the shark, too. (Confession: I have the first 8 or 9 seasons committed to memory, but I haven't watched it in years.) [SF Gate]

Kindle revelation of the day: While there may not be any extra service charges for the international edition (which costs just $20 more), the books themselves will cost more. This makes sense for roamers, certainly, since that effectively is the extra service charge, but it doesn't make as much sense for people who live in other countries. In its defense (or should I say defence?) Amazon cites higher EU taxes on ebooks as a reason. [Guardian UK]

TechCrunch caught this great Fox News blip where some guy (former Bush Deputy National Security Adviser Mark Pfeifle) said that the founders of Twitter should be up for the Nobel Peace Prize next time around. And we all had a good guffaw. And then we realized, whoa, wait a minute, why shouldn't this be taken seriously? It's not always about Michael Jackson, folks. [TechCrunch]

Engadget reported that a leaked slide from a Microsoft Office presentation mentioned the eagerly awaited Windows Mobile 7 would be released to manufacturing as early as "Spring 2010." Never mind that the Office team is in a completely different division of Microsoft than Windows Mobile, and that the company is not known for strong internal communication. If this is accurate at all, what it does (as Engadget also notes) is affirm what we basically already knew, that Windows Mobile 6.5 is a stop-gap and that WinMo 7 would come out as soon as developmentally possible, sometime in mid to late 2010. I don't care when it gets here as long as it's not a total piece of crap. [Engadget]

The video was shot by IntoMobile. As they describe it, the tech sounds like a massive DLP chip—that is, a panel covered with tiny reflective mirrors. Each mirror can change color but it's a passive screen, with no backlight (like most LCDs) and no self-illumination (a la OLED). They get lit up by whatever light is in the room. Saving energy is the key here—anytime you eliminate a light source, you cut way down on the juice. No word on when this will appear on devices, but it's Qualcomm, so you can bet there will at least be some experimental products before too long.

Speaking of experimental products, Time's Josh Quittner points out, on his blog, that several of Qualcomm's components could go together to make a formidable ebook device. Besides this screen, they've got the multi-network mobile chipset (Gobi), a respectable mobile CPU (Snapdragon), and a powerful media delivery system (MediaFLO). Forget the Kindle—who needs Amazon? Oh right, books. [IntoMobile via Netly]

The international version will work in "over 100 countries and territories", but Amazon doesn't specify if there are any additional charges for using it in a place other than the one where you bought it. It also looks like AT&T is the one that will be providing overseas roaming coverage for the GSM version. [Amazon]

Update: Ah, here's the bonus price.

Low Book Prices: New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases are $9.99, unless marked otherwise. When traveling abroad, you can download books wirelessly from the Kindle Store or your Archived Items for a fee of $1.99

Here's how it'd work: There'd be a new company running a digital store for all of the publishers where people could buy and manage their magazine subscriptions that would be delivered on "any" device. Supposedly, Time Inc's gotten Conde Nast (publisher of Wired, Vanity Fair, etc.) and Hearst (Popular Mechanics, Esquire, etc.) ramped up about the idea as well, which would launch in 2010.

Great, except that it's not going to work. As Peter Kafka points out, they have to convince people to sign up for another service—not an easy feat if they're already tangled up with a Kindle or Apple. Especially if this new service will be just magazines, and not include newspapers. And there's no way Amazon or Apple will let the publishers tie a separate service into their devices, pissing in their pool. The whole point of the Kindle is that Amazon controls the delivery method, and that's likely how Apple's tablet will work—downloading magazines and newspapers and textbooks through iTunes, just like iPhone apps or iTunes music.

Which basically leaves the the publishers with a handful of generic readers they could get their goods on, meaning they're screwed. At this point it looks like all roads to ereaders people will actually buy to pass through Amazon or soon, Apple. Sorry magazine dudes: Give in, give up or get out. [All Things D]

Yep, remember the kid who had his notes from George Orwell's 1984 deleted along with Amazon's mass eradication of the work from all Kindles? That little mofo just won in court, splitting a $150,000 settlement with a co-plaintiff and the law firm, which will be donating its portion to charity.

As much as this sounds like a Disney live action film from the 1990s (you can just see Jeff Bezos portrayed caricature-like by Paul Giamatti, can't you?), the real outcome is that Amazon no longer can just do what it wants to content on Kindles, just because it owns that content. According to the settlement:

Amazon will not remotely delete or modify such Works from Devices purchased and being used in the United States unless (a) the user consents to such deletion or modification; (b) the user requests a refund for the Work or otherwise fails to pay for the Work (e.g., if a credit or debit card issuer declines to remit payment); (c) a judicial or regulatory order requires such deletion or modification; or (d) deletion or modification is reasonably necessary to protect the consumer or the operation of a Device or network through which the Device communicates (e.g., to remove harmful code embedded within a copy of a Work downloaded to a Device).

TechFlash has more details and links to a ton of bonus legal mumbo jumbo, so check it out. [TechFlash]

This is a found photo from a Facebook album, without context, which leaves some nagging questions: Is it a Kindle, or a Kindle 2? (The coloration up top screams Kindle 2 to me, but it's blurry.) Did the couple know their nuptials would be blessed with the presence of His Holy Whispernet? Was the priest using the Kindle's text-to-speech function? Why not? [9Gag via MakeUseOf via Digg]

Students taking part in the pilot program have all sorts of complaints about the device, mostly centering around the fact that it's a huge pain to take notes and "interact" with the text. Here's what student Aaron Horvath has to say about it:

"I hate to sound like a Luddite, but this technology is a poor excuse of an academic tool. It's clunky, slow and a real pain to operate. Much of my learning comes from a physical interaction with the text: bookmarks, highlights, page-tearing, sticky notes and other marks representing the importance of certain passages - not to mention margin notes, where most of my paper ideas come from and interaction with the material occurs. All these things have been lost, and if not lost they're too slow to keep up with my thinking, and the ‘features' have been rendered useless.

Yee-ouch! Further complaints include the fact that the lack of concrete page numbers make citing sources a huge pain in the ass and the fact that you need to charge up the battery for it to work. I guess physical textbooks will be around for a while longer, eh? [Daily Princetonian via Engadget]

Read more about our Giz Gallery 09 here, follow @gizgallery on Twitter and see what else we'll be playing with at the event. And special thanks to Toyota's Prius — without their sponsorship, there would be no Gizmodo Gallery.

B&N has about 750,000 titles, including new releases at $10. The DR800SG will also be able to download over 1,100 newspapers from Newspapers Direct, and supports the open ePub book format (along with PDF, TXT, eReader, and Fictionwise). The device has 2GB of memory, enough to store about 1500 books, but no additional memory card readers.

And while the Kindle's CDMA connectivity ties it to Sprint, the DR800SG's Qualcomm Gobi chip means it will work on overseas HSDPA networks: Not only will the same product ship in Europe, but the press release promises international roaming sometime next year. Yes, the included 3G data is unlimited (no contract required), but there's no browser—so it'd take a lot of books to freak Verizon out.

In use, your thumb turns pages using a button on the left, but since the DR800SG uses a Wacom tablet layer under the E-Ink display, you can't use your finger to touch, just the stylus. Pages do turn quickly, though, and you can rotate text into landscape mode.

A leather cover and stylus (pictured) will be included when the DR800SG hits Best Buy in October, and Europe by mid-next year. [iRex Technologies]

That's half the price of a new Kindle 2 (or $70 less than a refurb Kindle 2), with all of the same core functionality (like Amazon's wireless Whispernet) intact.

So is $150 cheap enough to tempt you? Or is your ebook pricepoint lower, say, $100 or $50 or free with X amount of book purchases? Inquiring minds want to know!

Personally, I'm a big enough tech whore that I'd only buy the latest model of Kindle for that much, partially for the tiny improvements, largely so people ask me, "Is that a new Kindle??" And I say, "Sorry, I don't associate with the type who doesn't know whether or not this is the latest Kindle. Nothing personal. Just a simple code by which I live my life." [Amazon via blog Kindle via mobility site via CrunchGear ]

What is an ebook reader? It is your relaxation companion, the screen you will stare at when the laptop is closed and the TV is off. In that sense, the ability to provide tranquility must always trump the latest trick. Pack in touch screens, pack in SD card readers, search, dictionary, library-book borrowing. You can pack it all in, but never, ever at the cost of that primary role. With the $300 6" resistive-touchscreen Touch Edition, Sony fails to heed this simple agenda. With the super-simple $200 5" Pocket, Sony seems to be flaunting it.

Mind you, neither are Kindle killers, but they never were supposed to be. They are cheaper than Kindle, in a niche all by themselves. They represent Sony's third try at elusive ebook reader success, using its own bookstore and the necessary computer connection instead of pairing with a retail giant and a 3G wireless provider. Speaking of that, Sony takes on the now $300 Kindle with its $400 3G-capable Daily edition, which we hope to review in the coming months.

Touch Edition Up Close

The Touch, which I've been using primarily, has a lot of flaws but battery life isn't one of them: I charged it 11 days ago, and it's only now starting to die. The touch interface provides a relatively organic way to turn pages, though I always flick in the wrong direction. (You push your finger towards the next page, rather than flicking the current page back.) Update: You can set the turn motion to go either way. Thanks Weatherman!

When you tap words—with a fingernail or the included stylus—you get an instant dictionary definition, and a quick way to search an entire tome. The interface isn't going to win any awards, and the dictionary doesn't know a lot of words that it should, mainly past participles ("overheated") or gerunds ("deteriorating"). But if those were the only issues, I'd say jump in—it's a nice enough player priced well under the Kindle.

But the screen, oh God, the screen. Sony's problem with glare continues unabated, and because the soon-to-be-launched 3G-connected flagship Daily edition also has a touchscreen, the glare problem is likely to sink that as well.

Blinded By The Light

What do I mean by glare? I mean that, lying in bed, with just my reading light on, I can see the perfect out line of my face. Sure, I am handsome, but when I read a book, I expect to be staring only at words on the page, not my own lovely mug. In a well-lit room, the glare from all sides is positively frustrating, and it shifts with every minor adjustment of my hand.

More and more LCD screens on laptops come with glossy finishes, and that can be a pain when you're surrounded by natural light. However, LCD is back-lit. The light coming from within the screen combats the light bombarding it from outside, so you can still see a lot, and you can always jack up the brightness when you can't. E-Ink isn't backlit—that is its benefit. When done right, it looks like paper, with zero eye strain. But if you put a shiny membrane over that E-Ink, as Sony has done here, you get undefeatable glare—and eye strain galore.

Gimmicks Test Well

When I brought up this problem with Sony, they told me that touch was a huge selling point for focus groups. I can appreciate that, and can see how Sony thought this product "tested well," perhaps in a setting where people are not reading for hours (or days or weeks), but are just messing around with the neat-o gadget. Also, anyone who only has the experience of the Touch edition may not realize there's a whole world of glare-free ebook readers, from the Kindle to iRex's Digital Reader, which actually has a touchscreen. It's too bad Sony couldn't figure out (or buy) iRex's secret.

The people in the Touch focus groups should have been given a Pocket Reader too, as I was.

Pocket Edition Up Close

Literally pocketable and way cheaper, the Pocket is far more capable of delivering hours of peaceful reading. As you can see in the images, side by side, the screens couldn't be more different. It's not just relatively glare free, it has better contrast for even easier reading. The Pocket's problem is that it is barebones to an almost insulting degree: No search, no dictionary, no card reader, no nothin'.

I could actually live without all of those features save one: Search. Keyword searching is to future readers what leafing around is to current ones. Don't remember where you last saw the mysterious man in black? Do a quick search. The Pocket has bookmarks, so you can dog-ear the pages you want to remember, but search is about not having to remember—it's about hindsight, not foresight.

Reward for Patience

In the end, I can't recommend either device wholeheartedly, but I can tell you that if you plow through books fast and dirty, without jumping around a lot, you could do worse than drop $200 on the Pocket. It's simple, it's easy on the eyes, and for the time being, it's the cheapest ebook reader out there. Add to that this lending-library feature that hopefully launches soon, and you could get the first reasonably budget reader.

The pricing situation will change dramatically within 12 months, but maybe not by Christmas. The iRex and Plastic Logic news we hope to hear by then is all about 3G Kindle competitors, probably in the $300-$500 range. There's also this little thing about an Apple tablet that I can't seem to forget about. One thing is for sure, no matter who the competition is, Sony is going to have a rough holiday season if that Daily's screen is anything like the one on the Touch. [Touch Product Page; Pocket Product Page; Sony eBook Store]

Sony Touch Reader

Lots of features including one-tap dictionary, super-simple search, SD and MS card readers

$300 price too high for a device with no 3G

Glare glare glare glare glare... and did I mention the glare issue?

Sony Pocket Reader

Great compact size (actually fits in many pockets)

Its screen—unadulterated E-Ink—is as good as Kindle's

Currently the best list price for an ebook reader

No touch interface, which may bother feature hounds

No helpful search function, no dictionary, no SD card reader

The book I was reading is The Magicians by Lev Grossman. Lev happens to be an old friend of mine, but I'd recommend the book regardless, an R-rated post-Potter tale of a teenager's induction into a magical university, fast paced and full of great insider references not just to Rowling but Tolkien and CS Lewis as well.

That means it'll face off against a planned dual-screen Asus reader. And Asus has said it hopes to kick that out the door as early as Christmas.

Interead confirmed it has "big plans" for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January, so there may not be long until the budget color reader showdown begins. [ElectricPig]

This may be reading a little deep, but the presentation entitled "New Platforms & Business Models for Publishers," argues the need to get into the "portable digital reading device" business, as a publisher, and that there is as-yet no clear winner, though the "key components" of winning do seem to include much of what Amazon is already doing. Though it's not quoted, Thomas says the plan is to launch within three months.

Thomas asked a Time Inc. spokesperson what the deal was, and she replied that they were speaking to "a number of hardware and software companies as well as other content companies about various projects." The memo included notes indicating that the publishers Hearst, Conde Nast and Meredith were part of these discussions.

As Amazon is the dominant player at the moment, it's probably safe to assume they're the wrong gang for publishing overlords to try to make a deal with, if they can go it another way for more money. Content is, after all, king. I'd bet money that iRex and Plastic Logic are in on these conversations as well, being smaller players with good access to reader technology, and less brand baggage than Amazon (and Sony). Both iRex and Plastic Logic have hinted at upcoming announcements, so my guess is that, if the three-month window is correct, Time Inc. will be on board with one of those.

Most unintentionally funny bit: The memo itself seems to be a paper copy, with handwritten notes scrawled in the margins. You guys sure you're ready for portable digital reading devices? [NBC]

Reader Shinobiwan wrote in with an e-mail received from "order-update@amazon.com":

Hello,

On July 23, 2009, Jeff Bezos, our Founder and CEO, made the following apology to our customers:

"This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our "solution" to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we've received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.

With deep apology to our customers,

Jeff Bezos
Founder & CEO
Amazon.com"

As you were one of the customers impacted by the removal of "Nineteen Eighty-Four" from your Kindle device in July of this year, we would like to offer you the option to have us re-deliver this book to your Kindle along with any annotations you made. You will not be charged for the book. If you do not wish to have us re-deliver the book to your Kindle, you can instead choose to receive an Amazon.com electronic gift certificate or check for $30.

Please email Kindle customer support at kindle-response@amazon.com to indicate your preference. If you prefer to receive a check, please also provide your mailing address.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

The Kindle Team

Is this little love note enough to make us forgive Amazon for practically stealing books from users? Not really, but we say take the $30 check with grace and buy a used copy of the book for $3. [Thanks, Shinobiwan!]

Make that 4.707 consumers. I have no intention of even considering an eReader until prices drop under $100. I still enjoy reading actual, paper books and I can buy them for next to nothing at a used bookstore or get them free at the library. Plus having a collection of them throughout my home looks good (and it makes me feel smart). eReaders don't have the same appeal as MP3 players—so they sure as hell shouldn't cost me more to buy. But what about you? How low do eReader prices need to be before you would consider buying one? [Forrester]

Vincent called it "a lovely little Linux box" when showing it off at geekfest Foo Camp last weekend. We're not really sure what the practical applications of a Linux Kindle would be, but it's an impressive proof of concept for sure. [Boing Boing Gadgets]

The analysis compared carbon emissions from the production of electronic books to that of traditional book publishing. Despite the manufacturing and mining process required for the Kindles being taken into account, they still came out as the more eco-friendly contender since the Kindle doesn't exactly compare to a single book as Emma Rich, who conducted the analysis, explains:

The roughly 168 kg of CO2 produced throughout the Kindle's lifecycle is a clear winner against the potential savings: 1,074 kg of CO2 if replacing three books a month for four years; and up to 26,098 kg of CO2 when used to the fullest capacity of the Kindle DX. Less-frequent readers attracted by decreasing prices still can break even at 22.5 books over the life of the device,

We found the "fullest capacity" of the Kindle a bit amusing. Sure, the study compares the number of books you can have on a Kindle at a given moment, but what about the infinite number of deletions, downloads, and books stored on your computer for syncing?

Either way, the gist of this is that if you only read 22.5 books or less every four years, then you don't have to feel guilty about mucking up the environment by not using an electronic reader. The rest of us though are going green and ordering a Kindle. Well, at least I am. [CNET]

"Love your Kindle but miss the feel of holding a real book?" asks Busted Typewriter, the manufacturer behind this rather obvious Kindle holder (which itself is a copy of "Buying In:The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are" by author Rob Walker).

The company also sells iPhone and calculator holders (yes, also hollowed out books), which had me wondering whether gadget shame was what was really at work here, or that Busted Typewriter simply hates books.

Either way, these holders will protect your gear with the spilt blood ink of literary works like "Spa Food" for about $25. [Product Page via Book Patrol via BBG]

ePub, a format created by Random House and a network of other publishers, is designed to stop the kind of monopoly on ebooks that Apple enjoys over legal digital music sales. As one of the biggest names to officially jump into the ebook game, Sony throws a lot of weight behind ePub, which is currently supported by Plastic Logic as well. Of course, if Apple gets into the game, all bets are off, but if ePub can get a substantial share in the extremely young ebook market, it could mean a much more interesting future for ebook readers. [New York Times]

The app is free, but you'll need preexisting subscriptions to textbooks in order to access any. It's actually a shrewd, if somewhat obvious move for CourseSmart: lots of college kids have iPhones and iPod Touches, and while taking notes and reading long passages might be a little cumbersome on such a tiny screen, the ability to carry all your books in-pocket, complete with search and bookmarking capabilities, is a pretty big value-add.

As far back as May, it was clear that Amazon was pursuing CourseSmart for e-textbook content, an effort that may have culminated in a wimpy partnership with McGraw-Hill—a CourseSmart partner—which netted the ebook reader, and specifically the textbook-reader DX, about 100 regular old e-textbooks. This looks like something of a snub to me, or maybe just a lack of initiative on Amazon's part, but I get the feeling there's a still a lot going on behind closed doors here.

Anyway, do you want to hear all about this same story again, this time run through cable news' inexplicably tech-illiterate (and possibly word-illiterate) tech reporters? Sure you do! TEXT BOX! I-PHONE! Good lord.
[WSJ, Fox Business]

The device's total size will fall somewhere between the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX, and touchscreen controls come by means of a stylus, as was the case with the company's previous Wacom-infused e-ink displays. Crave's information is coming straight from iRex, who left plenty of blanks for us to fill, and precious few clues. iRex's wireless carrier choice is unknown but probably not that important, but their choice of online ebook store—with "one of the large online e-book sellers," apparently—is going to be crucial. Is this what Bezos meant about giving the Kindle some competition? Will iRex poop all over Plastic Logic's party? We'll find out before Fall, when this this is due to ship. [Crave]