“These two companies wanted to show the market that they would be competition to Amazon for the 2009 holiday season and now they have to face the consequences of that strategy and apologize to consumers for empty boxes under the tree,” said Forrester Research analyst Rotman Epps.

Analysts in general think electronic ink readers are the hottest devices this runup to the Christmas holidays, and it is Amazon who is most prepared, having enough Kindles so far fr the e-reader-craving public. The Digital EReader from Sony is out of stock as well.

The Barnes & Noble Nook is a dual-screen electronic ink reader, including a touchscreen colors LCD navigation, with WiFi and 3G and 24-hour continuous reading time. It sells for $259.

[more]

Well, today that’s finally changed. The Amazon Kindle is now also available for Canadians and will feature some local content such as The Globe and Mail and The National Post apart from their wide selection of international newspapers. Amazon was a little bit late in offering up the Kindle to those residing in Canada, but as they say, it’s better late than never. The Kindle is retailing for $259 or $275 in Canadian Dollars. Of course, feature-wise, it’s no match for the newer Barnes & Noble Nook e-ink reader, but with the Nook still on a pre-order status, the Kindle has the edge especially for customers who just can’t wait to get their hands on one.

[via bgr]

The 7-inch touchscreen Cyberus ID700WTA is, practically speaking, a PMP but it does support eBooks, which the company is touting as an alternative to the E-Ink readers like the Amazon Kindle and the Barnes and Noble Nook. It also has WiFi connectivity and a user-interface that resembles the iPhone UI. Movie support is a big one on the Cyberus: AVI, MPEG4, DIVIX, XIVID, WMA, JPG, BMP, TIFF, PNG. As for eBooks, you have PDF support and TXT. For a product like this one, user-friendliness means a lot. Unfortunately, Sungale hasn’t accompanied their press release with a demo video. Suffice it to say that the $279 price tag is hardly reasonable if it didn’t come with leather case and support for YouTube, Picasa and GMail.

[via engadget]

No photos of the hardware yet. Other known features of the Zii MediaBook: Internet-capable, SD card, text to speech feature, and multimedia support.

[via gmp3]

Hello,

Good news! Due to strong customer demand for our newest Kindle with U.S. and international wireless, we are consolidating our family of 6″ Kindles. As part of this consolidation, we are lowering the price of the Kindle you just purchased from $279 down to $259. You don’t need to do anything to get the lower price–we are automatically issuing you a $20 refund. This refund should be processed in the next few days and will appear as a credit on your next billing statement.

We’ll also send you a follow-up e-mail to confirm the refund once it has been completed.

We hope you enjoy your new Kindle. Please send us your feedback at: Kindle-feedback@amazon.com

Sincerely,

The Kindle Team

On a related news, web browsing is now possible, albeit very very limited, in the Amazon Kindle [reference]. Will this pave the way for full Internet connectivity in future Amazon e-Readers?

[via engadget]

It’s also $259! Priced on the same level as the Kindle but offering more features. We all know this is coming, a Barnes and Noble ebook reader, officially Nook, but we didn’t know they’re going to make it a color reader. Just imagine the potential: e-books, e-newspapers and now e-magazines. The B&N Nook boasts two screen–a 6-inch diagonal e-ink screen and a 3.5-inch below for navigation. Unlike the Amazon Kindle, the Nook has WiFi, besides AT&T’s 3G antenna. On a full charge, the battery will give you reading time of up to ten days, though we’re not sure if this means it’s turned on a continuous 24 hours x 10. Storage is 2GB with the inclusion of a microSD slot. Definitely a more complete e-reader than its famous rival.

More information: Nook allows you to read where you left off with your markings and highlights on your your phone (Engadget mentions iPhone and BlackBerry) with the Barnes and Noble free e-reader. You can lend e-books to friends using the Nook, sample ebooks and Nook settings allow you to customize the Nook, and there’s a screensaver. You can have magazine and newspaper subscription and this goes to your “inbox.” Video at Engadget.

[barnesandnoble via gizmodo]

Other specs: Linux OS, music playback (MP3, WMA, WAV), photo viewer, optional FM tuner, card slot and document support for  txt, pdf, doc, html, fb2, epub, pdb, chm, rtf, djvu, dvi, ps with zoom out and in. No pricing has been announced. It’s available in 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB versions. A good alternative for the Amazon Kindle? Assuming it will come at a very affordable price, I would say so.

[source via clonedinchina]

Amazon has announced that they will now be making the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX available in 100 countries en route to world domination. Interested buyers can now start pre-ordering the Kindle with US & International Wireless today for $279 while shipping will begin on October 19th. It wasn’t mentioned when the international version of the Kindles DX will be made available, but we’re hoping it will make it in time for the holidays. Those looking to just get the standard Amazon Kindle package also have a reason to smile as its price has also been lowered from a high of $299 to just $259.

So, with Amazon’s latest move to make their premium e-book reader more accessible to a larger audience, will you be jumping on-board the Kindle bandwagon anytime soon?

[amazon via crunchgear]

I wouldn’t call it a Kindle clone just yet, pending official price announcements. there are differences to the keyboard. The iRiver Story supports txt, PDF and EPUB files as well as DOC, Excel and PowerPoint. It also features a Comic Viewer with Zip file support. It can view in JPG, GIF and BMP. It plays MP3, WMA and OGG music files as well. The lack of WiFi or 3G means you will need your PC to download reading materials. Oh, well, it should also make it very affordable.

[via engadget]

[via digitimes]