The Japanese consumer electronics giant, Sony, has announced new upgraded ebook reader devices. The Pocket Edition PRS350 with a 5 inch display will be available in pink and silver (priced at $179) and Touch Edition PRS650 with a 6 inch display will be available in black and red (priced at $229). Both of which are only currently available in the United States at the Sony Style website. I order to keep up with the widely available Amazon Kindle, both new Sony models feature improved Pearl E-Ink screens with clearer displays and improved contrast, slimmer designs and anti-glare touchscreen controls.

As well as having a touchscreen, another advantage that the Sony ebook reader devices have over the Amazon Kindle is that the former devices have note taking  capabilities and provide a platform for reading open format ePUB files. However, the lack of wireless connectivity in both of the new Sony ebook readers is currently a major disadvantage for consumers who want to purchase ebooks directly to their devices, in which case the Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook are more suitable and therefore offer greater convenience.

What remains to be seen is whether or not Sony will follow suit with Amazon and Barnes and Noble to develop a Sony Reader application for the iPad and other mobile/smartphone devices in the future.

Well after so many months of longing for the No.1 bestselling product at Amazon.com, my friends and family in the UK can at last buy the Kindle ebook reader in the UK as the online store Amazon.co.uk releases a sleeker, smaller and lighter version of the must have gadget that folks in the US have been flaunting for the past 2 years.

Yes, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has announced two new 6-inch Kindle ebook readers, the Kindle WiFi-only model costing £109 and a new Kindle free 3G + WiFi model costing £149. Both Kindle models are now available for pre-order at Amazon.co.uk and will ship on 27th August 2010. The Kindle WiFi-only model and the Kindle free 3G + WiFi models are offered in graphite.

The latest generation Kindle devices come with hardware and feature upgrades compared with the now out-of-stock Kindle 2 from Amazon.com. Most notably, they come with the new Pearl display from E Ink that have 50% improved contrast for a crisper display. The new Pearl display which has been used in the latest Kindle DX (which is unavailable in the UK) is an advancement on the Vizplex screen technology, which comes courtesy of E Ink, that has been used for all of the major ebook readers currently on the market e.g. Amazon Kindle 2, Barnes and Noble Nook and Sony. With the Pearl display, the contrast between the background and the text now resembles the appearance of a paperback book unlike the Vizplex display which resembles a typical newspaper. The adoption of Pearl should be more widespread as ebook reader manufacturers upgrade devices in the future.

The new Kindle ebook readers are smaller than the previous Kindle 2, with a 21 percent smaller body and 15 percent lighter mass. Despite the smaller size, they have managed to squeeze much more battery life into the device: up to 30 days with wireless off and 10 days with wireless on. They have also doubled the internal memory to 4GB thereby allowing storage of 3,500 books (just like the Kindle DX with free 3G) and have improved the page refresh rate to make it 20 percent faster.

From the press release by Amazon.com, some of the salient features of the new Kindles are as follows:

New improved PDF Reader: The new Kindle uses an improved built-in PDF reader with new dictionary lookup, notes and highlights, and support for password protected PDFs.

New WebKit-based Browser (experimental): The updated Kindle uses a new web browser based on the industry-leading open source Web browser engine, WebKit. The new browser is faster, easier to navigate, and provides a new “article mode” feature that simplifies web pages to just the main text-based content for easier reading. Web browsing with Kindle over 3G or Wi-Fi is free.

New Voice Guide: With Text-to-Speech, the Kindle can read out loud to you. New Text-to-Speech enabled menus allow customers to navigate Kindle without having to read menu options. In addition to listening to books aloud, users now have the option of listening to content listings on the home screen, item descriptions, and all menu options.

New Proprietary Screen Technology–Faster Page Turns, New and Improved Fonts: The Kindle’s all-new, high-contrast electronic ink display is further optimized with Amazon’s proprietary waveform and font technology to make pages turn faster and fonts sharper. Waveform is a series of electronic pulses that move black and white electronic ink particles to achieve a final gray level for an image or text. Amazon tuned the new Kindle’s waveform and controller mechanism to make page turning 20 percent faster. In addition, this waveform tuning combined with new hand-built, custom fonts and font-hinting make words and letters more crisp, clear, and natural-looking. Font hints are instructions, written as code, that control points on a font character’s line and improve legibility at small font sizes where few pixels are available. Hinting is a mix of aesthetic judgments and complicated technical strategies. Amazon designed its proprietary font-hinting to optimize specifically for the special characteristics of electronic ink.

For further details of Kindle Latest Generation visit Amazon.co.uk.

Following much anticipation and rumors of the next generation Kindle being named Shasta, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has at last announced two new 6-inch Kindle ebook readers, the Kindle WiFi-only model costing $139 and a new Kindle free 3G + WiFi model costing $189. It is interesting to note that compared to the Barnes and Noble Nook WiFi-only and Nook 3G + WiFi models, both of the new Kindle versions have a $10 lower price point.

Both  Kindle models are now available for pre-order at Amazon.com and will ship to over 100 countries on 27th August 2010. The Kindle WiFi-only model comes in graphite and the Kindle free 3G + WiFi model is offered in graphite or white.

The latest generation Kindle devices come with hardware and feature upgrades compared with the now out-of-stock Kindle 2. Most notably, they come with the new Pearl display from E Ink that have 50% improved contrast. The new Pearl display which has been used in the latest Kindle DX is an advancement on the Vizplex screen technology, which comes courtesy of E Ink, that has been used for all of the major ebook readers currently on the market e.g. Amazon Kindle 2, Barnes and Noble Nook and Sony. With the Pearl display, the contrast between the background and the text now resembles the appearance of a paperback book unlike the Vizplex display which resembles a typical newspaper. The adoption of Pearl should be more widespread as ebook reader manufacturers upgrade devices in the future.

The new Kindle ebook readers are smaller than the previous Kindle 2, with a 21 percent smaller body and 15 percent lighter mass. Despite the smaller size, they have managed to pack much more battery life into the device: up to 1 month with wireless off and 10 days with wireless on. They have also doubled the internal memory to 4GB thereby allowing storage of 3,500 books (just like the Kindle DX with free 3G) and have improved the page refresh rate to make it 20 percent faster.

From the press release by Amazon.com, some of the salient features of the new Kindles are as follows:

Improved PDF Reader: The new Kindle uses an improved built-in PDF reader with new dictionary lookup, notes and highlights, and support for password protected PDFs.

New WebKit-based Browser (experimental): The new Kindle uses a new web browser based on the industry-leading open source Web browser engine, WebKit. The updated browser is faster, easier to navigate, and provides a new “article mode” feature that simplifies web pages to just the main text-based content for easier reading. Web browsing with Kindle over 3G or Wi-Fi is free.

New Voice Guide: With Text-to-Speech, Kindle can read out loud to you. New Text-to-Speech enabled menus allow customers to navigate Kindle without having to read menu options. In addition to listening to books aloud, users now have the option of listening to content listings on the home screen, item descriptions, and all menu options.

New Proprietary Screen Technology–Faster Page Turns, New and Improved Fonts: Kindle’s all-new, high-contrast electronic ink display is further optimized with Amazon’s proprietary waveform and font technology to make pages turn faster and fonts sharper. Waveform is a series of electronic pulses that move black and white electronic ink particles to achieve a final gray level for an image or text. Amazon tuned the new Kindle’s waveform and controller mechanism to make page turning 20 percent faster. In addition, this waveform tuning combined with new hand-built, custom fonts and font-hinting make words and letters more crisp, clear, and natural-looking. Font hints are instructions, written as code, that control points on a font character’s line and improve legibility at small font sizes where few pixels are available. Hinting is a mix of aesthetic judgments and complicated technical strategies. Amazon designed its proprietary font-hinting to optimize specifically for the special characteristics of electronic ink.

LG Display, the Korean company which is the world’s second largest LCD maker after Samsung Electronics, is one of the major suppliers of flat screens used in Apple’s iPad and iPhones. Kwon Young-Soo, the CEO of LG Display, announced on 22 July 2010 that it could not currently meet the huge demand for iPads and would invest $513.5 million in an LCD production line to boost capacity for its mobile phone and tablet flat screens in order to meet the worldwide demand, and hoped to get back on course by the 2nd quarter of 2011.

On 23 July 2010, Apple launched the iPad in retail stores in 9 new countries-Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore-thus making the iPad available in a total of 19 markets worldwide.

Since its initial US release in early April 2010, Apple has sold approximately 3.3 million iPads and 8.4 million iPhones in the quarter ending 26 June 2010. iPhone 4 has been the most successful product launch in Apple’s history.

If you have bought an iPad, you’ll definitely need to protect the magical glass touchscreen so check out our Top 10 iPad Covers and Cases before taking any risks and lending your precious tablet to your children!

On 19th July 2010 Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, announced, “We’ve reached a tipping point with the new price of Kindle–the growth rate of Kindle device unit sales has tripled since we lowered the price from $259 to $189.”

He further added, “In addition, even while our hardcover sales continue to grow, the Kindle format has now overtaken the hardcover format. Amazon.com customers now purchase more Kindle books than hardcover books–astonishing when you consider that we’ve been selling hardcover books for 15 years, and Kindle books for 33 months.”

Over the past three months, Amazon.com sales of Kindle ebooks have outstripped sales of physical hardcover books by 43%. Over the past 4 weeks, for every 180 Kindle ebooks Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 100 physical hardcover books . This is across Amazon.com’s entire U.S. book business and includes sales of physical books where there is no Kindle edition. Free Kindle books are excluded and if they had been included would make the number even higher.

Amazon.com sold more than 3 times as many Kindle ebooks in the first half of 2010 as in the first half of 2009. The Association of American Publishers’ latest data reports that e-book sales grew 163 percent in the month of May 2010 and 207 percent year-to-date through May. Kindle ebook sales in May and year-to-date through May exceeded those growth rates.

Currently, some of the top 5 authors in the bestselling list include Charlaine Harris, Stieg Larsson, Stephenie Meyer, James Patterson, and Nora Roberts; each have sold more than 500,000 Kindle ebooks.

This news sounds very encouraging and it shows that the shrewd decision to lower the price point of the Kindle ebook reader to $189 has removed the potential threat of the “Kindle-killer”, Apple iPad. It is very interesting to note that Amazon did not waste any time to release the Kindle application for the iPad when the iPad had its debut and due to very clever marketing it appears that they have successfully poached many customers from using iBooks in favor of Kindle ebooks.

The Kindle device differs from the Apple iPad mainly in the screen technology, battery life, capabilities, price and weight. The Kindle uses an e-Ink screen which is black and white, it has no backlight, and it’s meant to provide the experience of reading a normal book. The e-Ink screen is low power, giving the Kindle weeks of battery life, compared to up to 10-hours of battery power for an Apple iPad. The iPad uses LCD technology in its touchscreen and has LED (light emitting diode) backlights, which utilize more power. In addition to its use for reading ebooks, the iPad is also a small tablet computer with internet surfing and video capabilities.

If you decide to invest in a Kindle this summer for an absorbing read outdoors, be sure to invest in a Kindle cover or case to protect your device. Take a pick from our Top 10 Kindle Covers and Cases. On the other hand, should you decide to use the Kindle app on the iPad, come and check out the Top 10 iPad Covers and Cases.

The JavoEdge Axis Case is a well padded iPad case to guarantee full protection for the whole device whilst also being light and comfortable to hold for an enjoyable read. When this case is opened up, the rear panel of the case allows the iPad to be tilted at 3 viewing angles in landscape mode. Also, in addition, a rotating mechanism on the rear cover allows the iPad to be tilted at 3 viewing angles in portrait mode. The case provide good stability for the iPad in all of the different positions as there are 3 sets of rubber steps on the inner part of the front panel to prop up the tilted iPad. A magnet flap closure conveniently secures the the cover in the closed position. This case passed the eBookReaderGuide.com flip upside down ‘n’ shake test to make sure that the iPad stayed put in it’s form fitting enclosure on the rear panel. As there is full accessibility to all controls and charging ports there is no need to remove the device from the case.

Well done JavoEdge you’ve given a great deal of thought to designing this case for hands-free viewing. There are now 6 smart designs to choose from:

• JAVOedge Poppy Axis Case for iPad (Sunny Yellow)
• JAVOedge Cherry Blossom Axis Case for iPad (Twilight Purple)
• JAVOedge Cherry Blossom Axis Case for iPad (Ocean Blue)
• JAVOedge Plaid Axis Case for iPad
• JAVOedge Charcoal Axis Case for the Apple iPad
• JAVOedge Fiber Axis Case for iPad

At eBookReaderGuide.com we have researched iPad covers and iPad cases that provide you with the best hands-free iPad viewing experience, so check out our latest and greatest compilation of the Top 10 iPad Stand Case Review. If you would like further reviews on our selection of the best protection products for the iPad, check out our Top 10 iPad Covers and Cases. If you are looking for an iPad cover or case that can be converted into a stand for hands-free viewing, you must check out our Top 10 iPad Stand Case Review.

Designed for the Amazon Kindle 2, this cover’s trendy design along with a smooth finish and contrast stitching makes your Kindle 2 stand out from the rest. This cover offers full device protection with a stylish weave combination of luxury Italian leather; while the soft microfiber interior ensures your Kindle will always be cushioned in comfort. Holding the Kindle 2 in this case, feels much more like a real book and is perfect for those longing to recapture the feel of reading. The cover is light, adding minimal bulk yet offers superior protection for your Kindle. The inside is completely flat which allows the cover to fold back flawlessly, allowing the user to read with one hand. Whether at the office, on the subway or in your home, this cover will protect your Kindle 2 from scratches and dings and features a small elastic band on the inside back cover (bottom right) to ensure your Kindle is securely held inside the case. The cover also utilizes the Amazon mounting system to secure the Kindle firmly in place and the cover is contoured to fit the Kindles smooth, rounded edges. Reading with the cover on, you can easily access all the Kindles navigation features and power switch, while still enjoying a perfect fit in your hands.

Available in two contrasts – Black/Brown & Green/Brown.

Here are some comments of owners of these covers:

• The pictures do not do this cover justice.
• It has great supple leather and protects my Kindle well.
• The weave style makes it more more tolerant to wear and tear.
• It’s thin but feels slightly padded by the woven leather.
• The smell of the leather is divine.
• The black portion of the cover is one piece of leather! It is then die cut and the contrasting brown pieces are woven through the cuts.

See Octovo Kindle Cover for other articles about the Octovo Kindle Cover range. Also,  take a look at our Top 10 Kindle Covers and Cases to help you make the right choice about protecting your Kindle from bumps and scratches.

The Macally BOOKSTAND case was in the No.10 position of our Top 10 iPad Stand Case Review until 20th June 2010, but it now out of our list because we found that the case got easily scratched and scuffed after heavy useage and is unlikely to be durable due to its relatively flimsy construction.

This case has a lightweight, plastic construction and it is comfortable to hold due to the gray microfiber overlay on the exterior and interior of the case. The front and rear panels are fastenened together with a leather-like strap that inserts into a compatible leather-like holder.

The iPad device is secured into the rear panel of the case by rounded reinforcements on all four corners which allow the device to clip into place; when the case was turned upside down and shaken, the device (..thankfully) did not fall out. Also, this design avoids the iPad being framed in on the 4 sides of the screen. The aluminium edges of the iPad appeared a little exposed on all 3 edges of the case when it was closed.

For hands-free viewing and on screen typing, this case is transformed into a stand by flipping back the front panel of the book style cover, folding it along the scored part and securing it in place by tucking the leatherette strap into the holder. Surprisingly, the Macally functions reasonably as a stand in the horizontal mode and is just about stable, contrary to what had been expected.

If you are contemplating carrying the iPad loosely in your rucksack, this is not the right case for you as the microfiber is likely to get stained easily and this case offers minimal protection for your iPad under such rough conditions as it has no padding. However, the Macally iPad case does a good job in protecting the device from scratches.

Check out our buyers guide that details the factors to consider when Choosing The Best iPad Case.

Amazon today announced that it will take pre-orders for it’s sleek, new graphite Kindle DX latest generation device at a lower price of $379 compared to the original Kindle DX which was priced at $489. The latest Kindle DX boasts free 3G wireless connectivity in the US and in over 100 other countries and 50% improved display contrast for sharper images and clearer text.

The new Pearl display which has been used in the latest Kindle DX is an advancement on the Vizplex screen technology, which comes courtesy of E Ink, that has been used for all of the major ebook readers currently on the market e.g. Amazon Kindle 2, Barnes and Noble Nook and Sony. With the Pearl display, the contrast between the background and the text now resembles the appearance of a paperback book unlike the Vizplex display which resembles a typical newspaper. The adoption of Pearl should be more widespread as ebook reader manufacturers upgrade devices in the future.

The price drop for the new Kindle DX reinforces Amazon’s position as a strong competitor in the ebook reader market following the worldwide iPad consumer frenzy.

Shipping for the latest Kindle DX commences on 7 July 2010.

Just remember that if you decide to buy a Kindle DX, you’ll definitely need a protective cover or case for your device, so come and browse through the ebookreaderguide.com Best Kindle DX Covers and Cases to help you select the best product for your needs.

Designed for the Amazon Kindle 2, the OCTOVO Vintage Leather Kindle 2 Book Cover with Hinge combines excellent craftsmanship, rustic character along with a smooth grain finish and contrast stitching to make your Kindle your best-dressed companion. This Kindle cover offers full device protection with a stylish luxury Italian leather exterior; while the soft microfiber interior ensures your Kindle will always be cushioned in comfort. Holding the Kindle in this case, feels much more like a real book and is perfect for those longing to recapture the feel of reading. The cover is incredibility light, adding minimal bulk yet offers superior protection for your Kindle. The inside is completely flat which allows the cover to fold back flawlessly, allowing the user to read with one hand. Whether at the office, on the subway or in your home, this cover will protect your Kindle from scratches and dings and features a convenient interior pocket for storage of notes and other essentials. The cover utilizes the Amazon Kindle-compatible mounting system to secure the Kindle firmly in place and the cover is contoured to fit the Kindle’s smooth, rounded edges. Reading with the cover on, you can easily access all the Kindle’s navigation features and power switch, while still enjoying a perfect fit in your hands. The smooth, grain like finish, allows the absorption of moisture spots, which allows for a unique, dynamic appearance over time.

OCTOVO Vintage Leather Kindle Cover is about twice the price of the standard Amazon Kindle cover but has received extremely positive feedback from owner:

• The case has received many compliment.
• The beautiful leather is a delight both to touch and see.
• The distressed brown leather will pick up scratches, scuffs, and moisture easily but these will blend in.
• The cover is made out of a brushed leather that marks easily, but I feel only adds to the appearance.
• The leather is very soft and warm feeling, not shiny or hard like many electronics cases.
• A single retaining strap secures the Kindle to the back cover. Most complaints regarding the hinge system seem to be caused by the Kindle falling forward away from the back of the cover and placing stress on the casing causing cracks.
• Does not fasten in closed position.
• The cover is not super slim and is very slightly bulky compared with other covers.

Also take a look at our Top 10 Kindle Covers and Cases to help you make the right choice about protecting your Kindle from bumps and scratches.