A year ago, there were really only two kinds of devices on the market: basic ereaders like the Kindle, the Nook and the iPad. Today, Amazon alone offers six different versions of the Kindle (twelve if you distinguish the ad-supported versions from the more expensive ad-free models).

The choices this holiday season can be overwhelming, but that’s why we’re here to help you pick the perfect ereader.

Understanding the Basics

On the lower-priced end, ereader devices use e-ink, a black and white-only display technology that looks like paper and offers amazing battery life, which can be measured in weeks, not hours. However, since the devices are unlit, you’ll need a reading light at night just like with a real book, so keep that in mind when shopping. Quick tip: A lighted case makes a great companion gift!

Higher-end ereaders with full color screens are essentially seven-inch tablet computers. While some people don’t mind reading for hours on computer monitors, others may find that a tablet-style reader fatigues the eyes. I recommend going to a store and test-driving the technology; that way you can get a real sense of how the device operates. Also, be aware of is battery life — the color versions have about eight hours of juice. On the whole, however, these devices not only offer an exceptional reading experience; they also provide video playback, color magazines, web browsing and email. So how do you choose? First, you need to understand what you’re up against.

The Contenders

Basic Readers: The three basic ereaders all have six-inch e-ink screens, but they feature some important differences. The cheapest is the ad-supported $79 Kindle, a basic WiFi-only ereader with buttons to turn pages. While some may say that ads are tacky (the ad-free version costs $109), the fact is that no other ereader can compete price-wise.

Next up is the Kobo WiFi, a similarly configured reader that sells for $99. Like the low-end Kindle, the Kobo WiFi has physical buttons to turn pages and requires a WiFi connection to connect to the Internet and download books. Barnes & Noble remains a huge competitor at this price point: The $99 Nook Simple Touch offers a touch-screen to help you turn pages and enter text. As an added bonus, B&N devices are all ad-free.

Finally, although it gets far less publicity, the Sony Reader WiFi has a special $99 holiday price through Christmas Eve. Sony’s reader offers a touchscreen, comes in great colors and offers a stylus as an optional accessory.

The Middle Ground: In the ereader middle-ground, things can get confusing. Amazon’s Kindle Touch starts at $99 with ads, and $139 without. Additionally, you can get the 3G version for $149/$189 with/without ads. The 3G version is useful for buying and browsing content when you are traveling, commuting or hanging out on the beach away from a WiFi network.

In general, though, if web browsing is really important, you need to look towards a tablet to get the best experience, for instance, the Barnes & Noble ereader/tablet hybrid, the Nook Color. With an 800Mhz single-core processor, the Color is underpowered by tablet standards, but it nevertheless provides a full-color device with a touchscreen.

Finally, Kobo’s middle-of-the-road option, the Kobo Touch, comes in two options: with ads for $99, or without for $129.

High-End Readers: In terms of high-end ereader devices, the Kindle Fire has gotten all the press for good reason, and it’s not just due to its $199 price point. Unlike the competition, Amazon not only features a full-fledged bookstore, but also music and video stores. Existing Amazon Prime customers will love the Fire since they’ll get free Amazon Instant Video on the device. I’ve tested the Kindle Fire extensively and am really impressed by the experience and the ease-of-use — no manual needed to start using. Many people may gripe about not having 3G, 4G or a camera, but you can always add 3/4G later with a mobile broadband hotspot device. And really, the camera is a non-issue for me.

Apps

Hearing talk about apps? Don’t assume that all ereaders can run them. E-ink ereaders might offer you some light web browsing, but you certainly won’t be playing Angry Birds on your black and white Kobo WiFi.

Both tablets can access Android video apps like Hulu and Netflix, send email, browse the web over WiFi, and let you check in with your friends on Facebook, Twitter and social networks. Beware, however, that while these tabs are great for content consumption, they’re underpowered for content creation. That’s the exclusive domain of the fully-featured iPad, and its $500 price tag.

Consider the Ecosystem

Perhaps the single most important question to ask when considering an ereader gift is whether your recipient already uses one of the platforms. Someone who already owns books on the Kindle or Nook will want to stay within the same ecosystem, rather than re-buy her content in another store. Asking someone to switch from, say, Kobo to Sony is the quickest way get your gift returned. Do your homework, investigate what the recipient needs, and don’t assume that just because you like a particular device, your giftee will want to switch over.

Avoid Like the Plague

Black Friday may be over, but cut-rate deals on media tablets will continue throughout this holiday season. My number one rule: If you are buying a tablet and it costs less than $199, it’s not a tablet — it’s junk. At the $199 range, the only two tablets you should be considering are the Kindle Fire and Nook Color. They’re able to offer you serious hardware at reasonable prices because they make money on the sale of content like books, etc.

What to Buy

I know this is a lot to take in, so I’m going to make it simple. Here are three recommendations that can’t go wrong.

• The discount shopper: The $79 Amazon Kindle WiFi with offers. Sure, it’s going to display ads. And no, it doesn’t have a fancy touchscreen. Maybe it’s not the absolute latest in tech, but the fact is that a lot of people find clicking a button an easier way to read a book than putting their fingers on a screen. It may be the cheapest model, but make no mistake: For its price, the Kindle WiFi can’t be beat.
• Touch It: The $99 Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch. For an ad-free, touchscreen ereader, this thing can’t be beat. Barnes & Noble is a major name with a huge selection of 2.5 million books. Plus the device features a newer e-ink display and long battery life (two months for one hour of reading per day).
• Jaw Dropper: The $199 Kindle Fire. While it’s not as powerful as the Nook Tablet, it’s also not as expensive. For under $200, Amazon managed to produce a real tablet computer — no small feat! Just last year a tablet this size cost twice as much. Amazon’s device carries a rich ecosystem of apps, music, films and books. The Fire is guaranteed to impress.

The new challenger, which has been under development for years, promises sharp colour and reduced screen power consumption that could be used in devices in a matter of months.

The company is primarily focusing the screen technology on e-readers, but Mirasol displays have also been shown on tablets.

Extended battery life

“We have partners who are really excited about the kind of capabilities that Mirasol brings – the ultra low power, sunlight visibility, the fact that we can do video on these things. So the devices are coming out, we’re feeling good about where we’re headed,” Jacobs said.

Displays are the biggest power hog on devices and Mirasol’s low-power attribute is its biggest advantage, Jacobs said.

“If you have an Android phone you’ll generally see it’s the display that’s using most of the battery. We have just got to deal with the issue,” Jacobs said.

Tablets use backlit LCD screens, which can burn a lot of power, especially when displaying video. Qualcomm has said that a Mirasol display can provide more multimedia playback in a day on a single battery charge than an LCD.

An iPad 2 can provide up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music. According to a study published by Pike Research last year, a device with a 5.7-inch Mirasol display can provide 9.9 hours of battery compared to 4.3 hours on a 6.1in fully backlit LCD screen.

LCD screens are used in some colour e-readers such as Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color, which also has some tablet features. But most e-readers such as Amazon’s Kindle use grayscale e-ink screens, which are highly power efficient. Colour e-paper is also under development for e-readers, and one screen that can display 4,096 colors is being used in an e-reader from hanvon.

Sunlight absorbed

Mirasol is built around bouncing light of mirrors to display colours on the screen. Ambient light striking the surface is modulated and sent back to the screen to show effects in colour, and black and white. The screens absorb sunlight, unlike like LCD screens, which create glare in sunlight.

Qualcomm declined to provide further details on the colour depth and resolution rate of the initial Mirasol screens. A Mirasol device playing video in colour was demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics Show early this year, but the refresh rate seemed to lag.

But after years of display and a long wait, the screens are almost ready to roll out of a factory in Taiwan.

“We know you guys are waiting for devices, and devices are coming,” Jacobs said.

We’ve been tracking mirasol for several years now, Qualcomm’s color display technology that promises color, video-capable e-paper with battery life akin to monochrome E Ink screens. This particular panel is a 5.7-inch, 1024 x 768 display using Qualcomm’s front-light technology that uses LEDs to make the eReader usable in darkness. There’s also a projected capacitive touchscreen, as on the Nook, and WiFi, though no 3G.

Kyobo – Korea’s leading bookstore – will offer 90,000 ebooks for the mirasol eReader, as well as video education content, integration with social networking services and English text-to-speech support. There’ll also be a searchable dictionary, along with magazines and other content for “downtime” between classes. The retailer is expected to lock down its Gingerbread install, but we can’t imagine that will dissuade the legion of Android hackers likely to find the slate appealing.Part of that appeal is lengthy battery life, likely to exceed three weeks of regular use. Unfortunately there’s no word on when – or if – the Kyobo eReader might go on sale outside of South Korea, but we wouldn’t be surprised if Qualcomm had some further mirasol announcements to make at CES 2012 in January.

Source : Slashgear

To help you sort out the good from the bad, we’ve rounded up our favorite Black Friday eReader deals on Kindles, Nooks and other brands, so you can get a good deal in 2011.

Keep in mind that many new devices like the Kindle Fire and the Nook Tablet won’t be drastically discounted, but we will expect to see sales on other versions of these popular eBook readers and their accessories.

We even have a few deals you can get right now, so that you don’t have to line up on Black Friday.

Kindle Black Friday Deals

The Kindle is one of the most well known eBook readers out there, with access to millions of books, newspapers and other periodicals. Select models come with free 3G cellular connectivity that allows you to download eBooks anywhere your cell phone has service.

Kindle Keyboard 3G w/ Special Offers – $90 – NOW

You can go to Best Buy today and save $50 on the Kindle Keyboard with 3G eReader. This is the special offers model, which shows ads on the display when you are not reading. This is a very good deal, especially since you don’t have to wait for Black Friday lines. The deal is available in Best Buy Stores only.

Kindle Keyboard 3G w/ Special Offers – $85 

Target is offering the Kindle Keyboard with 3G and WiFi for just $85 on Black Friday. This deal is currently set up for in store only, but you may see a small quantity available for purchase online on Black Friday. This Special Offers version shows ads on the sleep screen.

Kindle WiFi w/ Special Offers – $79 + $15 Gift Card  

The Kindle WiFi with Special Offers also shows ads when you are not reading, but unlike the deals above, you can only download books when you have a WiFi connection available. This will be sufficient for many people. The $79 price is the everyday price, but with $15 in Staples gift cards, makes for an attractive price.

Kindle WiFi with Special Offers – $79 + $10 Gift Card

Radio Shack offers the Kindle WiFi with Special Offers for the retail price of $79, but offers a $10 gift card with purchase, and 50% off of an accessory bundle. Not worth waiting in line for alone, but if you are going to Radio Shack for another Black Friday deal.

Kindle Fire $199 + $20 Off any M-Edge Case

The Kindle Fire isn’t discounted on this deal, but if you purchase your Kindle Fire on Black Friday, you will be able to purchase a M-Edge case for $9.99 (savings of up to $20). The deal is good on Black Friday at Office Depot. M-Edge makes nice cases, and several are included in our 25 Hot Kindle Fire Cases roundup.

Kindle Fire Black Friday Deals

In the end, if you want a deal on the Kindle Fire, you should keep an eye out for limited run deals on Amazon.com and on Woot.com during Black Friday. We don’t expect many sales on the Kindle Fire because it is so new, but Amazon may surprise us.

Nook Black Friday Deals

Nook eBook readers connect to the Barnes and Noble bookstore, and offer access to millions of books. You can find deals on the eInk Nook SimpleTouch and on the color screen Nook Color. eInk books are best for outdoors, while those who like to read at night or in dark locations will enjoy the screen on the Nook Color.

Nook Simple Touch Reader – $79.99 

You can get the latest Barnes and Noble Nook Simple Touch for $20 off at Best Buy on Black Friday 2011. This deal gives you an eInk reading experience that B&N claims is 25% faster than the competition. With sharp text and long battery life this is a good deal, but probably not worth waiting for in line unless you are buying something else too.

Nook Color – $150 (Refurbished) – Now

If you are OK with a refurbished Nook Color, and really there’s nothing to worry about, you can score a great deal right now. Barnes and Noble sells refurbished Nook Color eReaders on eBay for just $150. This is the best price we have seen on the Nook Color by $50, and there’s no need to wait in line. The Nook Color comes with a one year limited warranty.

Nook Color  - $199 + $25 Gift Card

Don’t get fooled by the $50 price drop printed next to the Nook Color on the Staples ad, this eReader/Tablet is already $199. What makes the deal attractive is the $25 Staples Gift card that you will get at checkout. The Nook Color is great for reading in dim light, reading magazines and a software update should give you access to Netflix and Hulu soon.

Nook Color – $199 + $20 Gift Card

The 7″ color screen on the Nook Color makes it a very attractive eBook reader, and this deal includes a $20 Radio Shack gift card. This is the same model available at Staples with a $25 gift card.

Nook Tablet Black Friday Deals

So far, we haven’t seen any Black Friday deals on the Nook Tablet, but we may see Barnes and Noble offer some last-minute discounts on a select number of Nook Tablets.

As you know LCD need a backlight system, OLED need NO backlight because it is self emitting. So all products can be developed much thinner.

The solution from Apple is to use OLED for the backlight in the LCD Display.
In one embodiment, an OLED backlight may include one or more OLED pixels disposed between two glass substrates. The OLED backlight may be optically bonded to the back of an LCD, which may prevent contamination between the LCD and the OLED backlight and increase the mechanical rigidity of the display device. So with OLED backlight instead of LED backlight the devices get thinner and we got improved light uniformity without the use of light guides or additional brightness enhancing films.

Further, the OLED backlight may also be electrically connected with light modulating portions of the LCD, such that information transmitted to selected pixels of the LCD active matrix may also be transmitted to areas of the OLED backlight electrically connected to the selected LCD pixels. For example, grayscale information transmitted to selected LCD pixels may also be received by corresponding areas of the OLED backlight.
Source

It’s been a wild ride these past few weeks with surprising early launches for both the Amazon Kindle Fire and the B&N Nook Tablet, making the market that much more competitive for Kobo’s social e-reader tablet, the Vox. The holiday season is also prime time for price-slashing deals, and AT&T’s ahead of the curve with a special deal for a Samsung tablet and smartphone bundle. LG iss also hoping to broaden its Android devices, revealing plans to launch a Google TV at CES next year. It’s certainly a wide world for Android, as the platform supports a blooming array of gadgets.

Kobo Vox

The Kobo Vox is entering a crowded market with its social tablet, hoping that its sleek design and networking capabilities will help it stand out from its rivals. The Vox was first leaked a few months ago, driving curiosity around the device’s looks and functionality. It’s turned out to be a 7-inch tablet with a 1024×600 pixel display and 512MB of RAM. The Vox also features an 800MHz processor, putting it behind the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet, which both run 1GHz dual-core chips. With Android 2.3 Gingerbread, the Vox comes pre-loaded with software for playing music, videos and reading e-books. There’s also featured apps for Facebook and Twitter, as well as news readers for traditional publication lovers.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 & Galaxy S II Skyrocket

Samsung and AT&T have teamed up for a bundle offer. They’re selling the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and offering a Galaxy S II Skyrocket for free with the deal (you can actually choose between the Skyrocket and the regular Galaxy S II). Starting Nov. 20 the Galaxy Tab 8.9 4G will cost $479.99 with a new two-year contract from AT&T, and the bonus is obviously the free smartphone, which also comes with support for AT&T’s LTE 4G network. The Galaxy Tab 8.9 is thin at 8.6mm, weighing less than the iPad at 0.985 pounds. Running Android 3.1 Honeycomb and Samsung’s new tablet version of TouchWiz, the Galaxy Tab 8.9 also comes with some enterprise-friendly features like software from Cisco, Sybase, SAP and Citrix. The tablet is powered by a dual-core T250S processor, with a WXGA TFT display at 1280×800 pixels, all protected by Gorilla Glass. There’s a 3-megapixel primary camera and a 2-megapixel front camera, and a slew of other features for connecting to other Samsung gadgets (like your TV).

The Skyrocket is a younger, larger version of the original Galaxy S II, boasting 1GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, 1080p video capture and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. There’s a WVGA Super AMOLED Plus display with a 4.5-inch screen. With its dual-core processor, the Skyrocket is indeed built for speed. The best part about this deal is that you’re getting two fairly new Samsung devices in a package deal, making it worth a second look.

The Lenovo IdeaPad is the sleeper pick for 7-inch Android tablets this holiday season. It has the same $199 price as the Kindle Fire, Nook Color, and Kobo Vox, and comes with features all of those lack.

Like its similarly-priced competitors, the Lenovo IdeaPad has a 7″ 1024 x 600 pixel resolution display, it runs Android 2.3, has 512MB of RAM, Wi-Fi, and supports Adobe Flash.

What sets the IdeaPad apart is its 16GB of memory, Bluetooth support, front and rear facing cameras, microSD card slot, and offline GPS. It’s also the lightest of the bunch at just a hair over 14 ounces. But the battery life is a little less than other tablets at five hours.

The IdeaPad has a single core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, which is faster than the Nook Color and Kobo Vox’s 800MHz processor, but slower than the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet’s dual-core processors.

I posted the specs and a quick comparison of the Lenovo IdeaPad versus the Kindle Fire and Nook Color last month. At that time, Lenovo briefly had the 2GB IdeaPad up for pre-order for $199 on their website and the 16GB version for $249. Right after that they jacked the price of the 2GB version up to $229. Now it’s missing entirely and the 16GB version is still $249.

At that price it is hard to justify compared to the others, but over on Amazon the 16GB version of the IdeaPad is up for pre-order for $199, making it a compelling choice given its features. Too bad it doesn’t have a dual-core processor and an HDMI port, though.

It turns out the rumor about Amazon introducing Prime eBooks was true. Amazon has launched a Kindle Owners’ Lending Library for U.S. Amazon Prime members that allows Kindle owners to borrow ebooks for free, up to one ebook per month per account.

The selection is surprisingly plentiful. There are already over 5,000 Kindle ebooks to choose from across various subjects and genres, including more than 100 current and former New York Times Bestsellers. It shouldn’t be too hard to find one interesting ebook to read each month.

The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library is accessible from all Kindle devices. Open the Kindle Store, then select “see all” under Browse, and it’s at the bottom of the list. You can choose to sort by sub-categories too.

But for some reason Amazon makes it difficult to find the actual list of eligible ebooks on Amazon.com. So here’s the link for the list of Prime Eligible Kindle ebooks at Amazon. Make sure to bookmark the page because I can’t find any obvious way to get to it from the Kindle Store. It makes it easier to browse by categories and to add ebooks that can be borrowed to your wish list for future downloading. And if you don’t have an Amazon Prime membership you can see if the ebooks are worth it.

What is Amazon Prime?

Amazon Prime membership costs $79 per year, and Kindle ebooks are the latest addition to the benefits. Prime members get free two-day shipping on most items from Amazon.com and unlimited access to Amazon’s streaming video service, which is essentially a trimmed-down version of Netflix.

By the way, if you are getting or plan on getting a Kindle Fire, it comes with a free 30-day trial of Amazon Prime.

What You Need to Know About Borrowing Prime Eligible eBooks

• Requires Amazon Prime Membership.
• Must own any Kindle device; doesn’t work on Kindle apps.
• Available to U.S. residents only.
• Borrow one ebook per calendar month. No “roll-over” or accrual of unused borrowing time.
• The Kindle has to be registered to the same Amazon.com account as the eligible Prime account.
• No due dates.
• No waiting lists, borrow ebooks instantly.
• Borrowed ebooks can be read on multiple Kindle devices on the same account.
• Any bookmarks, notes, and highlights added to borrowed ebooks gets saved to your Amazon account so that they are accessible if you buy or borrow the ebook at a later date.

How to Return a Borrowed eBook

To return a borrowed Kindle ebook, just select a new Prime Eligible ebook to borrow from your Kindle device and you’ll be prompted to return the book you are currently borrowing.

Another way to return a borrowed ebook, and this goes for lendable and library ebooks as well, is to visit the Manage Your Kindle page. From there you can choose to return it from the Actions menu.