With Amazon announcing the price drop in their new version of the Kindle other companies are in a frantic race to the bottom for the cheapest eBook Reader. The first to go as low as possible is this new Copia Ocean Reader. It will have a 5-inch LCD screen, which will allow it to have some tablet functionality. There are also social networking features included with the ability to update your Facebook and Twitter accounts. Does the $99 price tag do it for you or do you see this one as an underpowered device that tries to do too much without enough hardware? [CrunchGear]
Some people saw it as a bad thing when Amazon announced they were out of stock of their Kindle and would not be restocking that model anymore. Of course Amazon is much smarter than that and they are rolling out some brand new models instead. This new model will be 21 percent smaller, 15 percent lighter and will have a 20 percent faster refresh rate. It will come in two different colors, white and graphite and have two different versions, one with 3G capability and one with only WiFi. The new model will cost $189 for the 3G model and $139 for the Wifi model. [SlashGear]
Barnes & Noble is working on getting their new NOOKstudy dual screen eReader into schools. It will allow to keep all of your ebooks, digital class materials, textbooks and notes all sorted neatly in oneplace. It of course will be highly integrated with Barnes & Noble’s ebook store which currently boasts over 1 million titles. The dual screen can be used for a more “book-like” reading experience or it can also display pages from two books at once. [SlashGear]
Kakai is a California based company that has just unveiled a new tablet PC/eBook reader that will feature two 14.1″ touchscreens, to make the eBook reading experience much more interactive and akin to reading an actual book. It is designed to act as a textbook replacement for students allowing them to carry around this one device instead of lugging around multiple books. At just 5.5 pounds it weighs less than most single text books, and has 16GB of internal memory and supports both Bluetooth and WiFi. Each screen will feature a separate battery allowing for up to 8 hours of use and it will come with a stylus as an added bonus. A price point has yet to be determined though the company states that they are aiming to release it for under $1,000. Watch the video after the jump. Read more
While there are many different types of eBook readers out there to choose from these days, there is still lot to consider when choosing one to suit your individual needs. The kind of eBook readers with full on LCD displays are capable of displaying much more vivid and lively colors allowing you to do many of the same functions that you would be able to do with a small computer or tablet PC. Those can get a little strenuous on the eyes though after long periods of reading and that is where the e-ink readers come out on top. Problem with the e-ink though is that the refresh rate is very slow and incapable for using for something gaming. With this new Acer Lumiread eBook Reader though, the reader will come bundled with Opera browsing software which will let you check e-mails and surf your favorite websites in a pinch. Hopefully this will help to bring together the best of both worlds and inspire other manufacturers to do the same. [UberGizmo]
The guys over at MobileRead Forums has posted several leaked informations including picture of iRiver’s upcoming eBook reader called the Story. Although not yet officially announced, it’s said that the 6-inch reader will feature a full QWERTY keyboard, a memory card slot (up to 32GB), a comic book viewer and support for PDF, epub, txt, ppt, xls and other popular book formats without requiring their conversion. The iRiver Story eBook Reader will likely go on sale starting on September 16th for around $300. [SlashGear]
Samsung has showed off their latest eBook reader ‘SNE-50K’ for the South Korean market. Measuring only 9mm thick and weighing just 6.5 ounces, this portable device offers a 5-inch touchscreen display and a 512MB of storage capacity. Sadly, there’s no WiFi or 3G connectivity included. No details on pricing or worldwide availability just yet. [MobileWhack]
The Pixelar e-book reader is now available in the UK for 220 pounds each. In case you din’t know, the Pixelar is famous for their range of digital picture frames and baby monitors. The Pixelar e-book reader supports most of popular e-book formats. [Product Page]
