Amazon have got the eReader market all sewn up with the popularity of their E-Ink Kindle line, and with the continued success of the company's LCD screen Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD tablet line, many thought that the rumoured colour Kindle eReaders had died the death. However, Amazon's latest purchase of display technologies company Liquavista has ignited those rumours once again.

Liquavista (a Samsung subsidiary once owned by Philips) create screens that, despite being full colour, are far more readable in bright light than LCD displays, which suffer from excessive glare in direct sunlight, making them all but unusable. Liquavista screens come far closer to the matte visibility of E-Ink displays, using a technique called electrowetting.

Electowetting uses different voltages to push liquid "pixels" around a display, a similar technique to that seen in LCD. But whereas with an LCD the voltage changes the opacity of the liquid crystal, electrowetting system have beads of black oil that replaces the crystals. Light to shines through with red, blue, and green subpixels used in tandem to create the required colour.

Beyond the clarity of the displays, they've got an added benefit of greatly reduced power consumption over LCD.

It is thought that Samsung's interest in the Liquavista displays waned as its own AMOLED technology grew in popularity and usability.

Liquavista have also been able to make the displays in such a way that introducing them to existing products would be fairly straightforward, with a simple process for manufacturing plants to swap out E-Ink or LCD components.

Amazon's purchase certainly suggests they haven't given up on the idea of a colour eReader device, one that bridges the gap between the flexibility of the Kindle Fire line and the readability and battery life of their eReader line-up. Though Amazon haven't yet revealed how or even if the technology will be implemented in their devices, it's looking as though colour eReaders could indeed soon be on the way.

Microsoft may be looking to bolster their tablet business by buying out the Nook line of slates and eReaders, in an attempt to rival Amazon's Kindle and Apple's iBooks offerings.

According to TechCrunch, Microsoft are looking to double down on the £200 million that they've already invested in the Nook tablets, aiming to buy the company out outright. Microsoft already have a 16.8% stake in the company.

The report claims that Microsoft are looking to spend £640 million to acquire the digital assets of Nook Media LLC, the separate Nook spin-off company that spread out from Barnes & Noble last year.

"In this plan, Microsoft would redeem preferred units in Nook Media, which also includes a college textbook division, leaving it with the digital operation -- e-books, as well as Nook e-readers and tablets," reads the report.

Though Nook devices would live on, internal documents show that the Android arm of the business is set to be discontinued by 2014 in favour of a "third party partner". The obvious partner here then would be Microsoft with a Windows-based Nook, a theory that would be certainly strengthened were Microsoft to complete the buyout of the company.

Barnes & Noble have slashed the prices of their eReader and tablet ranges in the UK.

The headline-stealing price cut is that of the Nook Simple Touch eReader, dropping to a pocket-money price of £29, down from £79, making it the cheapest eReader with any pedigree on the market.

That's followed by the backlit Nook Simple Touch GlowLight (pictured), now priced at just £69 and considerable cheaper than its £109 Kindle Paperwhite rival.

Tablets also get a price cut, with the Nook HD and Nook HD+ now sitting at £129 and £179 respectively, seriously bringing the fight to their Amazon competitors.

"Literacy is at the heart of everything we do," said Jim Hilt, Managing Director, Barnes & Noble.

"We have a passion for everyone to experience digital reading affordably, anytime and anywhere. It was a perfect fit when we had the opportunity to partner on the 'Get London Reading' campaign. We hope to further enrich the minds of readers of all ages across the UK and give them affordable access to the books they love."

Limited time offers to coincide with the "Get London Reading" campaign, now is definitely the time to dive in if you've been holding out grabbing an eReader before now. No word yet on how long the promotion lasts, but we'll keep you posted.

Click here to check out the Nook range.

Colour E Ink, once the presumed Holy Grail of digital eReader display technology, has been more or less pushed under the carpet as LCD tablets have grown in popularity. But that hasn't stopped Russia's PocketBook from putting out a new colour eReader, the PocketBook Color Lux.

An 8-inch eReader with a 600 x 800 resolution Triton 2 E Ink display, the Colour Lux can display colours and many more shades of grey than a standard E Ink eReader, such as those available from Amazon and Sony.

Backlit, turning off the light still leaves you with a greyish screen, but turning on the built in light-source makes colours come to the fore of the device, making it a much better match for magazine and comic book files, or any books that feature illustrations or photography.

There's also the regular benefits of an E Ink screen, which are far easier on the eye for reading over prolonged periods than laptop or tablet LCD screens.

Also offering built in Wi-Fi, the Color Lux has 4GB of space for your eBook files, and a microSD slot for expansion should you fill it up.

Currently only available in Russia (priced roughly around £205), it's likely set to be one of a dying breed - despite the battery and eye-strain avoiding advantages of a colour eReader, the added functionality of tablet devices has so far made them more attractive than products like the Color Lux.

With the London Book Fair in full swing, Kobo have revealed an all-new, limited edition eReader called the Kobo Aura HD.

It's headlining feature is its sharp screen, with a 265ppi - a fair sight sharper than even Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite and its 212ppi screen. There's also a Paperwhite-style backlight.

It's also quite large for an eReader, stretching 6.8-inches across, making for a screen a little larger than your average paperback. Whether this is a blow or a boon is up for debate - we've always liked our eReaders compact enough to fit inside a jacket pocket, but there will be plenty who appreciate a bit more screen real estate to accommodate larger fonts.

Speaking of fonts, the Aura HD offers 10 different text styles in 24 different sizes, as part of a revamped Kobo interface that includes a new homescreen tuned to make the most of the high-definition screen.

Under the hood sits a 1GHz processor and 4GB of storage, which should be more than enough to hold a sizeable eBook library. If you're hankering after more space, up to 32GB can be added through microSD.

All Kobo's is an open eReading platform too, allowing you to easily transfer existing eBook purchases and DRM-protected epub documents to the reader.

"To us, the Kobo Aura HD is the Porsche of eReaders and is designed for those in the driver's seat of their eReading adventures," said Wayne White, EVP and General Manager of Devices, Kobo.

"It's fast, powerful, and sleek and pushes the boundaries of eReading the same way our Readers do - together, they'll know no bounds as they find their next great read."

Working against the Kobo Aura HD however will be its price. Selling for £139.99, that's £20 more expensive than the Wi-Fi Kindle Paperwhite, though Amazon's eReader is considerably smaller.

Hitting stores in the UK and Canada from 25 April 2013, you can pre-order the Kobo Aura HD online now.

Name: Bookeen Cybook Odyssey HD FrontLight

Type: Touchscreen E-Ink eReader with backlight

Specifications: Click here for full specs

Price as reviewed: 166.66CHF (£115.96) direct from Bookeen

The Cybook Odyssey HD FrontLight sees Bookeen add a backlight and an improved screen resolution to the Cybook Odyssey eReader. But has the company fixed the issues that dragged down the last model, and can the HD FrontLight prove itself to be anything more than a knee-jerk reaction to Amazon's Paperwhite? Read on to find out.

We reviewed Bookeen's Cybook Odyssey last winter, and while we praised its design and touchscreen, we also felt some of its software features were a little bit lacking. The Cybook Odyssey HD FrontLight smartly keeps much of their previous eReader model's design sensibilities, but adds a backlight for reading in darker settings, pitching itself as a rival to Amazon's superb Kindle Paperwhite.

Again with a black casing, Bookeen have managed to shave a few grams off the weight of last year's model, with the HD FrontLight weighing just 180g, thanks to less metals used in its construction. Despite that, the HD FrontLight still feels solid in the hand.Measuring 160x120x9.4mm, the HD FrontLight pops in a 6-inch E-Ink touchscreen up front. At a 1024x758 resolution, it's considerably sharper than last year's Odyssey, putting it just a fraction behind the Kindle Paperwhite's resolution (though any difference would be invisible to the naked eye). As a result, the HD FrontLight's screen is incredibly readable, with an anti-glare treatment making it comfortable to read even in direct lighting.However, even if you're not in a well-lit room, a backlighting system built into the edge of the eReader means you can carry on reading through the night. Accessed from a menu option available throughout the eReader's interface, it offers 20 degrees of backlight intensity. And it can be quite intense at the highest levels; the lighting system in the HD FrontLight feels a lot harsher than the glow given off from the Paperwhite, though reining the intensity in a bit makes it useful for low-light reading. Unlike the Paperwhite however, you probably won't feel comfortable with it on constantly unless low ambient lighting really necessitates it. Thankfully, battery life remains superb; excessive use of the backlight will drain it within a few days, but it's easy to squeeze near to a fortnight out of a full charge.As well as offering touchscreen swipe, tap and pinch-to-zoom controls (of the capacitive rather than infra-red kind, meaning gloves will have to be off), the HD FrontLight also has page turn buttons on either side of its casing, with a "back-page" on the left and "next-page" on the right. The lack of additional "back" and "forward" page turn buttons on either side means wont be able to use these physical buttons to navigate a book in one hand as you would with a keyboard Kindle, as you'll have to reach to the other side of the device to go either back a page or forward one depending on your stronger hand. But with a simple tap on either edge of the screen doing the same job, that's not too big a deal. Below the screen is a single physical button that's used to enter menus (the same can be done by tapping in the centre of the screen) and a power button sits on the lower edge, alongside a microUSB port, charging indicator and microSD slot. 2GB of storage is built in, and that'll give you enough room for over 600 eBooks on the device at once.

There are a few omissions though now. Firstly, and most importantly, there's no longer a 3.5mm headphone jack. This was a real boon for those who like listening to audiobooks along with their texts, and was a key advantage over later-day Kindles which have also removed the port. It seems tablets and smartphones are now the primary home for audiobooks. Also gone is the accelerometer which allowed you to easily switch between landscape and portrait orientations. Though some found its activation erratic, we found it worked fine before, and miss it here.Packing in an 800Mhz Cortex A8 Texas Instruments OMAP processor, the device is zippy to use, registering touchscreen keyboard presses at speed and, if you're willing to forego a full screen refresh and put up with some "last page ghosting", can turn pages at an incredible rate. Any lag suffered when using the device here seems to be a limitation of the E Ink screen technology, not the processor.But where the HD FrontLight falls over is with its software, which shares identical problems to its Odyssey predecessor. There's still a nice selection of font size and style options, responsive pinch-to-zoom text resizing and handy note and annotation options. BUT STILL NO ENGLISH DICTIONARY?! It's a basic standard of eReaders, and though Bookeen are a French company if you're going to market to an English speaking audience it's a much-needed feature. When compared to the Kindle's X-Ray feature, which also scans books for themes and characters as well as pulling in data from Wikipedia alongside dictionary definitions, the device seems sorely lacking.The 100 pre-installed books are also mostly in French, as is much of the content on the Bookeen eBook store, with prices listed in Francs. Not only is this an alienating experience for UK users, the catalogue pales in comparison to what's on offer from Amazon's built in store. You'll also need to sign up for Adobe's Digital Editions DRM service before grabbing any purchases, another barrier, but at least the Wi-Fi connectivity remained consistently strong. In order to get books onto the HD FrontLight your best bet then is to check out online stores such WH Smith or Waterstones. A simple drag-and-drop interface makes transferring eBooks easy, though we'd recommend a management client like the superb (and free) Calibre. With support for a reasonable amount of file formats, including EPUB, PDF, Adobe DRM, HTML, TXT, FB2, and picture files including JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, ICO, TIF, PSD, you shouldn't have any compatibility problems when using thrid-party stores.Verdict:

The Bookeen Cybook Odyssey HD FrontLight was a great opportunity for Bookeen to right the mistakes made with preceding eReader, the Cybook Odyssey. However, it's sadly pretty much the same eReader as last time with a light built-in instead. Like the earlier model, it's still a worthy device thanks to its great screen and attractive design, but be aware that you're still lacking standard features such as an English dictionary or a store well-stocked with English language books, while the removal of the headphone jack hurts too. Priced a few quid more expensively than the Kindle Paperwhite, we can't recommend the Cybook Odyssey HD FrontLight over its Amazon rival.

eReader sales are beginning to decline following the rise of inexpensive, high quality tablet devices.

Research by iSuppli suggests that the eReader market peaked back in 2011, when 20 million devices were shipped, with their findings leading to the prediction that sales of eReader devices will drop to just 7 million by 2015/2016. By comparison, the tablet market will swell to an anticipated 340 million sales in 2016.

While the iPad retains its dominance as the single most popular tablet device, the rise of cheaper Android tablets, inclduing the Google Nexus 7 and Amazon Kindle Fire HD, have expanded the reach of the tablet market to those who cannot afford Apple's premium prices.

It's a shame really. There's no competition when it comes to reading a book on an E-Ink screen like a Kindle when compared to a tablet like an iPad; the E-Ink screen, thanks to its lack of glare and backlight is far easier on the eye for prolonged sessions. But when it comes to value, there's just so much more you can do with a tablet for not a massive amount of money more than you'd spend on an eReader. In a perfect world we'd all have one of each, but its understandable why people are putting up the cash for tablets instead.

Via: iSuppli

Customers who have bought Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite eReader from Waterstones bookshops have had their feathers rustled by the inclusion of a static branded screensaver bearing Waterstones branding.

Whereas Amazon-bought Paperwhite models have rolling pictorial screensavers that change with every shutdown, those bought from Waterstones only have a single one advertising the high street bookstore.

In the US, cheaper models of the Kindle, which also feature rolling advertisements, come at a discount. But with the Waterstones model selling with the same £109 price tag as the ad-free Amazon model, some new owners are feeling a little hard done by.

"This is my second kindle and, whilst I love the device, it seems that if you buy through Waterstones the usual screensaver is replaced with an advert for Waterstones that does not change," reads a purchase review by jrad47 on the bookstore's website.

"I paid the same price as I would have paid buying from Amazon, but have been saddled with this ad which really impacts my enjoyment of the device."

John4 shares similar feelings with his review: "Really a shame to force a Waterstones screensaver on a device that is supposed to be ad free. Whatever they may call this it is still advertising. I will be returning mine and ordering from Amazon."

Another one-star review said: " I really enjoyed reading on it, but after a few days a software update was applied. This replaced the beautiful artwork the device displays when in sleep mode with some ugly advert for Waterstones. I hate it."

Waterstones are now offering refunds to disgruntled customers, though are maintaining that the screensaver does not constitute advertising:

"It is our view that this screensaver does not constitute advertising and differs substantially to the advertising-supported Kindles available to the US market," reads a company statement.

"The Waterstones screensaver is a non-dynamic, static image that will change infrequently and not advertise any specific product, offer or website. It is not possible to remove the Waterstones screensaver to replace it with the former Amazon screensaver.

"We apologise that this change was made without consultation, and hope it does not detract from or alter your reading experience."

Waterstones screensaver placement is understandable. Though themselves offering an online digital eBook portal, the bookchain has suffered in recent times from falling sales, no doubt in part due to the growing popularity of eReaders. If a small screensaver/advert on the Kindle in anyway helps slow the decline of the veritable high street chain, that's no bad thing in our opinion.

Via: The Bookseller

RELATED
REVIEW: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (Wi-Fi and 3G)

They've been a long time coming, but Barnes & Noble's Nook eReader range has finally hit the UK.

The Nook Simple Touch and Nook Simple Touch Glowlight with built-in light are on sale now for £79 and £109 respectively, available from John Lewis, Argos, Blackwell's, Waitrose, Asda and Sainsbury's.

A new UK-orientated Nook site has also launched at uk.nook.com, and reveals that the company's tablet line will also hit the UK by November. Through the page you can pre-order a 7-inch Nook HD for £159 or a 9-inch Nook HD+ for £229.

"We're thrilled to be able to bring our award- winning products and expansive NOOK Store to the UK's discerning customers," Jamie Iannone, President of NOOK Media.

"The Nook brand was created for people who love literature and reading, which is why the UK was a natural place for us to begin our international expansion. Our extensive content catalog, intuitive shopping and reading experience, and breakthrough discovery tools like Nook Channels are a perfect fit for UK digital book readers."

The NOOK readers face stiff competition in the UK at the moment, with Bookeen and Amazon both offering back-lit eReaders, as well as new cheaper tablets from Google, Amazon and Apple. Our recent review of the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite saw us herald the eReader "without doubt, the best eReader ever made".

RELATED
REVIEW: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (Wi-Fi and 3G)

Name: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite

Type: Touchscreen E Ink eReader with built-in light

Specifications: Click here for full specs

Price as reviewed: £169 for Wi-Fi and 3G version direct from Amazon
£109 for Wi-Fi only version direct from Amazon

Does the inclusion of a built-in light make Amazon's latest Kindle E Ink eReader, the Paperwhite, their best yet? Or do a few omissions over earlier models drag it down? Read our full review to find out!

It's been just six short months since Amazon introduced their first touchscreen eReader, the Kindle Touch, in the UK, but the launch of the new Kindle Paperwhite sees the Touch sent away for an early retirement, pulled from Amazon's online store. Does the Paperwhite improve upon its most recent predecessor enough to justify yanking the market leading dedicated electronic reading device so quickly from sale? Yes, and comprehensively so.At first glance, the Paperwhite seems almost identical to its predecessor. Light and perfectly pocketable at 16.9cm x 11.7cm x 0.91cm and 222 grams in weight for the Wi-Fi and 3G version (it's a marginally lighter 213 grams for the Wi-Fi only version), it's design again is dominated by a large touchscreen that measures 15.5cm on the diagonal. It sits slightly higher in the device's chassis than with the Touch which is great, as the screen in the earlier eReader sat so low in the device as cause shadows to be cast around the edge of the screen. The casing, which features a slightly rubberised feel for improved grip and a little protection from bumps and drops, is now a dark charcoal shade, which makes the screen seem brighter by comparison, and has well-sized bezel that makes the Paperwhite very comfortable to hold in one hand around the edge without activating touch features.The headline feature here is the Paperwhite's built-in light however.Sitting invisibly around the inner edge of the bezel, it bathes the E Ink display in a cool white light, adjustable by 25 different brightness levels through a menu option. Paper-like E Ink screens have always been far more comfortable to read over long periods of time than back-lit LCD tablet screens whose brightness can cause eye strain, but for late night reading (as with a standard paper print book) E Ink displays are difficult to read without a light source. The Paperwhite then represents the best of both worlds; you get a comfortable daytime reading experience with the light dialled down, and the ability to keep reading into the night with the built-in light turned on.

Even with the light turned on and dialled up to its maximum intensity, the Paperwhite feels more comfortable to read than a tablet device. Though retaining the grey-hue of all E Ink screens with the light turned off, with the Paperwhite's light turned on, electronic eBook pages feel closer to the off-white colour of most printed paperbacks. For the most part, the light source is distributed evenly around the screen, though the lower down the brightness scale you turn the light, the more likely you are to experience slight shadowing on the lower edge. It's hardly noticeable in our opinion, and a fair trade for a comfortable late-night reading experience.The actual E Ink screen itself is improved over previous models too. With 62% more pixels than the Touch and with a new pixel density of 220ppi, the Paperwhite's screen is notably sharper, especially at larger font sizes, and offers an improved contrast ratio.

But along with the excellent addition of a built-in light, Amazon have also pulled a few features from the Paperwhite, and these namely come in the form of audio support. Gone are the built-in speakers found in previous models, and along the bottom edge now sits only a microUSB charging port and a power button. No headphone port this time sadly. This means that audiobook lovers will miss out on hearing their favourite tales spoken aloud, while those with visual impairments can now longer make use of earlier model's text-to-speech features. The Paperwhite also doesn't come with a wall charger, but instead ships with a microUSB charging cable to plug into your computer. A wall charger, if needed, has to be bought seperately. It's a shame to lose these features in a device that now sits as Amazon's premium dedicated eReader.Storage space is also down from 4GB to 2GB. With larger audio files and MP3s unsupported by the Paperwhite, this isn't too much of a loss; you'll still get enough room for around 1,000 eBooks on the device, enough for a lifetime of reading for most people. If you still need more space (which is possible if you read lots of large PDF files, which are supported natively by the Paperwhite) Amazon offer free cloud-based storage of any files bought from their store.Considering you're using an E Ink touchscreen, Amazon's touch-based Kindle software is far more comfortable to use than it has any right to be. Instead of using the sometimes-clunky Infra Red touch system found in the Kindle Touch, the Paperwhite now uses a capacitive touch hardware system. This results in a far improved response to touch inputs, and while you wouldn't want to be tapping out lengthy documents like you would on a physical laptop keyboard or even a tablet display, the little text input or page scrolling you'll be doing on the Paperwhite is a far more pleasant experience than on any previous touch-based eReader we've used, from any brand.

Navigating books via the touchscreen is simple and comfortable. A large section of the right hand of the screen is dedicated to going forward a page, with a thinner strip down the left used for going backwards a page. A simple tap on either section or swipe across the page will activate the respective page turn, which happens almost instantly.To achieve this speedy page turning, Amazon have tweaked the way that page turns work on the Paperwhite, performing a "full" refresh of the E Ink screen (which takes a fraction longer and causes the screen to flash black momentarily) only once every five page turns. This can sometimes result in a slight ghosting effect being left over from a previous page, but its only really noticeable when you get really close to the screen, making the fast page turns worthwhile. Either way, if you'd prefer a full refresh on every page, you can set the Paperwhite to do so in its settings area.

When in a book, hitting the top area of the screen brings up a control panel. Here you have options to change between six different font styles, eight different font sizes, three different line spacing and margin settings, 25 levels of brightness for the built in light, as well as options to jump to specific pages or chapters in a book, visit the Amazon eBook store, access a landscape reading view, book descriptions, author details and more. These options are neatly housed in intuitive subcategories, meaning it's easy to find the option you're looking for and keeping the interface from getting too cluttered by keeping icons to a well-selected minimum.If you'd like to look up a definition, you can hit the search button in the top menu area, which brings up a responsive software keyboard overlay on top of the book. Alternatively (and more intuitively) you can long press on a certain word, and a short dictionary definition will appear, with the option of jumping to a more comprehensive definition within the built-in dictionary. Hitting the "More" button also gives the option of checking out any related Wikipedia pages if you're within range of a Wi-Fi connection, or have bought the premium 3G option. It makes reading more challenging texts a real joy, knowing that the answers to your word-meaning questions are a single press away.

Making highlights and notes works in a similar way by long-pressing on a word and then dragging across the area of text you'd like to highlight. You can even add a note to highlights, and all your annotations are logged in a separate "My Clippings" document stored in your library. If you chose to connect a Twitter or Facebook account to the eReader, highlighting a passage also gives you the opportunity to share your favourite quotation online on the social networks.Also housed in the top area is the much-touted X-Ray feature, described as an "enhanced" reading experience by Amazon. In certain eBooks, the X-Ray feature highlights key characters, locations or terms within a book, and jump to passages where they are mentioned. We'd imagine it to be particularly useful when reading an educational textbook, but at the time of writing very few eBooks seem optimised with the feature, meaning for the majority of your purchases you're unlikely to have this feature.

Getting books onto the Paperwhite is easy, thanks to the eReader's deep integration with Kindle's online eBook store, which is the largest digital book store around, housing over one million books, as well as offering subscriptions to Kindle optimised versions of many newspapers, magazines and blogs.The store can be accessed from the homescreen, which as well as showing a swipeable row of your library of books (which can also be popped into a list if that's more convenient) also has a row of recommended titles based on what you've previously bought. The store can also be accessed through a shopping trolley icon within the top menu area of an eBook. The store is neatly broken down into genres for browsing, or can be searched for a specific title. New releases are highlighted, as are the regular deals that Amazon offer. Tied to your Amazon account and associated credit card, you can conceivably switch on the eReader, search for a book, purchase it with a single tap and be reading it on the Paperwhite within a minute. If you opt for the 3G version, which offers a lifetime's worth of free mobile data, you can even do this when out and about, waiting for a bus or lining up at the supermarket check out. It's great, and with books significantly cheaper than their print alternatives (not to mention the thousands of free books on offer through the store) it offers great value.If you've already got a collection of eBooks downloaded to another, older Kindle, they can be put onto the new device at no extra cost. Also, if you've got a library of eBooks stored on a computer, they can easily copied over to the Kindle via USB, providing they're in Kindle Format 8 (AZW3), Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI and PRC formats. HTML, DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG and BMP files are also supported, though you'll have to fiddle with them a little bit, using Amazon's conversion instructions. The Paperwhite is recognised by a computer as a removable storage device, and it's simply a matter of dragging a supported file into the "documents" folder that's found on the Paperwhite. Each Kindle is also assigned it's own email address, and sending a document to it can send the attached file wirelessly to the eReader. There are also plug-ins available for Windows and Mac OS X operating systems from Amazon that let you right-click a file and send it straight to the eReader. Whichever option you choose, it's a simple process. We'd also recommend the Calibre eBook management software; it's free, and lets you take full control over how to get files onto your Kindle, no matter what the format.

Battery life is excellent too. A full charge, even with Wi-Fi constantly connected and the built-in light blasting out at full brightness will last around a week and a half. Amazon state that with Wi-Fi switched off, the light at a third of its maximum brightness level and an average of 30 minutes reading a day, you'll get eight weeks per charge from the Kindle Paperwhite. Though we didn't have our review sample long enough to confirm it, that claim seems to tally up with our own observations of the device's battery life, which is great.

Verdict:

The Amazon Kindle Paperwhite is, without doubt, the best eReader ever made. The legibility of the E Ink screen on Kindle devices has always been far ahead of the competition and is far easier on the eye for extended reading sessions than backlit tablet devices. The one reading advantage tablets used to have was during late night sessions thanks to their back-light, but the Paperwhite again bests them thanks to its adjustable built-in light; even with it on, it's still a more comfortable reading experience than with a tablet. eBook pricing from the Kindle book store is affordably low, and the touchscreen software is far more useable than it has any right to be, given the E Ink screen. It misses a perfect score for dropping the headphone jack, which audiobook enthusiasts will sorely miss. But apart from that omission, it comfortably sits at the top of the pile as the eReader leader.

Wikipedia have added a handy new feature to their online, crowd-sourced encyclopaedia, allowing users to download pages in eBook formats for offline reading.

Users now have the option to export pages in EPUB, PDF, OpenDocument and OpenZIM files, meaning that basically any eReading device (including Amazon Kindle's and smartphone's such as the iPhone) can grab Wikipedia pages as offline books. It's an option that's been available to signed Wikipedia members for a while, but the first time its been opened up to all comers.

"EPUB files can be used very easily in an offline environment," Tomasz Finc, Director of Mobile at the Wikimedia Foundation, said in a statement.

"They can be opened and distributed just like normal files. Plus, there are readers for almost every platform."

To create an eBook, simply click on the "Create a Book" option in the side bar, then tag articles you want as you browse the site. Once you've selected what you want, hit the "Manage Your Book" option, and click export options. Here you can arrange articles into chapters before exporting them in your favoured format.

If you're a traditionalist, Wikipedia also offer a print service, via PediaPress too.

We're all waiting with baited breath for the launch of the Kindle Fire 2, Amazon's tablet successor and iPad rival that's expected to land at a San Diego press event on September 6th. It now seems all but certain that it'll be joined by new eReader models, including the Kindle Paperwhite, rumoured to be a backlit E-Ink reader device.

A picture of the Paperwhite made its way onto The Verge, looking very much like the button-free Kindle Touch, but boasting an edge-lit display while still retaining the easy-on-the-eye, paper-like E-Ink screen. In other words, it'll work as great during the night as it will in direct sunlight.

The images leaked show some French text onscreen, which also hints at a few of the improvements made to the Kindle device. Contrast ratio should be slightly higher, leading to darker text on a lighter background, and the resolution should be improved too. That lighter background will no doubt be elevated by a slight illusion, with a new darker chassis making the digital pages appear lighter too. Battery life is expected to be still around 8 weeks long, regardless of whether or not the light is being used or not.

With September 6th just a week away, we'll soon have confirmation of the device's specs, and indeed whether or not it exists at all or is coming to the UK.

Following last week's announcement that Barnes & Noble would be bringing their Nook eReader range to the UK for the first time this Autumn, the company have now revealed that John Lewis will be the first UK stockist of the devices.

The biggest competitors to the Amazon Kindle eReading throne in the US, Barnes and Noble will be bringing their Nook Simple Touch and Simple Touch with GlowLight to the UK first. Both products are touchscreen devices, with 6-inch E Ink screens running at 800x 600 resolution. They also feature Wi-Fi connectivity, and are light and almost-pocketable at 212g and 165.1 x 127 x 11.9mm.

Of the two, the GlowTouch is likely to be the most sought after, thanks to its edge-lit screen making it the perfect late night reader.

"John Lewis is where knowledgeable customers turn for trusted advice on the best products to purchase, and they are a perfect partner to help launch NOOK in the UK," said Jamie Iannone, President of Digital Products at Barnes & Noble.

"We look forward to bringing more choice and convenience to discerning UK customers with our critically acclaimed line of reading devices and expansive selection of content."

Ed Connolly, director of buying for electricals and home technology at John Lewis, added: "Always first with the latest technology, John Lewis is thrilled to be chosen as the premier UK launch retailer for the NOOK. This award-winning line of eReaders adds greater choice to this expanding category. We think our customers will love NOOK's adaptability thanks to its E Ink display and unique built-in GlowLight, perfect for day or night time reading."

Barnes and Noble are to bring their Nook eReader range to UK shores for the first time this October.

The only real competitors to the Amazon Kindle in the US, Barnes and Noble will be bringing their Nook Simple Touch and Simple Touch with GlowLight to Blighty. Both products are touchscreen devices, with 6-inch E Ink screens running at 800x 600 resolution. They also feature Wi-Fi connectivity, and are light and almost-pocketable at 212g and 165.1 x 127 x 11.9mm.

Of the two, the GlowTouch is likely to be the most sought after, thanks to it's edge-lit screen making it the perfect late night reader.

Barnes and Noble will also be launching Nook.co.uk, an online storefront where users will be able to buy both the eReaders themselves and digital reading materials. Barnes and Noble will also supply their Nook devices through "well-known" UK retailers too.

"We are proud to be able to offer our top-rated line of NOOK reading devices and our award-winning digital bookstore to the discerning and highly educated consumers in the UK," said William J. Lynch, chief executive officer at Barnes & Noble.

Barnes and Noble tease that this will be just the "first products" to hit the UK, and with the Nook Color and the Nook Tablet devices missing from this line-up, it's a fair guess to say these devices may follow shortly.

No pricing or exact availability details to share just yet, but we'll pass them on as we get them.

Sony may not have had much luck denting the Amazon Kindle's stranglehold on the eReader market in the UK, but the company's latest reader has a few tricks up its sleeve to make it worthy of the attention of anyone currently on the market for an eBook reader.

The Sony Reader PRS-T2 is the follow up from last year's PRS-T1, and brings with it a number of improvements over its predecessor. A touchscreen E-Ink Pearl reader, it's headline feature is Evernote integration. The PRS-T2 uses the cloud-based note taking service to let you sync highlighted passages from books across any over device on which you may use Evernote, be that your computer, smartphone or tablet, meaning you can access your research notes or favourite quotes anytime the PRS-T2 is within reach of a Wi-Fi connection. Likewise, if you've used the smartphone, computer or tablet versions of the app to upload other web cutting, documents or notes, the PRS-T2 can access them over Wi-Fi too.

Battery life doubles from last year's model to two months per charge (with Wi-Fi off), while the 6-inch touchscreen also works with pinch-to-zoom gestures, and taps for dictionary, Google or Wikipedia look-ups. You can also share what you're currently reading with pals over Facebook.

Sweetening the deal is a voucher for a free digital copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, while those with a library card can also visit their local library to grab digital loans on the device too. Sony's Reader Store for eBooks can also be used to grab books from as little as 20p, with the device housing 2GB of storage, expandable by up to 32GB with microSD cards.

Priced at £119, it's not massively more expensive than the £109 Kindle Touch from Amazon. So long as its core reading experience is good, the PRS-T2's Evernote functionality could make it the eReader of choice for academics and students.

Available in red, white or black and up for pre-order from today, you can grab one here.

Amazon are now selling more eBooks in the UK than they are printed books, the online retailer revealed today.

After overtaking hard-back book sales in 2011, 2012 has seen 114 Kindle books sold for every 100 print books in the UK, both paperback and hardcover.

Though Amazon have not revealed specific sales figures, they have stated that today's milestone does not include the many free eBooks distributed through their Kindle store, which would propel the numbers dramatically.

"Customers in the UK are now choosing Kindle books more often than print books, even as our print business continues to grow. We hit this milestone in the US less than four years after introducing Kindle, so to reach this landmark after just two years in the UK is remarkable and shows how quickly UK readers are embracing Kindle," said Jorrit Van der Meulen, vice president, Kindle EU.

"As a result of the success of Kindle, we're selling more books than ever before on behalf of authors and publishers. And thanks to Kindle Direct Publishing, thousands of self-published authors have also been given an outlet to share their work with the millions of Kindle readers worldwide."

The Kidwell-e Festival, a literary festival aiming to promote eBooks and self publishing, has closed its doors early after only 100 of the 25,000 expected attendees turned up.

Opening its doors at Ffos Las racecourse in Carmarthenshire last Saturday before closing early the following day, it was looking to capitalise on the growing interest in self-publishing with digital formats following the success of the Kindle and E. L James' saucy Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy.

However, clashing with the Olympics opening last weekend combined with the remote, poorly signposted location, severely affected attendance numbers.

Speaking to the BBC, self-publishend Swansea author Ann Marie Thomas (one of the few festival attendees) described her experience at the event:

"Ffos Las is only signposted when you're nearby and there were no signs saying: 'Kidwell-e Festival this way'," she said.

"Once inside the festival there was no signage and there was quite a dash between the venues. There was no choice of food either, just a burger van. If 25,000 had turned up there would have been quite a queue for food."

It's a bitter blow for Kidwell-e Festival founder and author Julian Ruck, who had hoped to inspire young authors with the event.

"I invested my own money in this festival. In my own humble way I was looking to put something into the Welsh economy," said Ruck.

But Ruck vows to return next year:

"We are back next year. We have had a punch in the face, but we're not knocked out."

Via: BBC

Harry Potter's spell over the UK reading public has been broken, as Amazon UK have announced that all-time sales of J.K Rowling's entire seven book wizarding series have now been eclipsed on the website by sales of E.L James' Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy.

The saucy books have sold over four million copies in print and on Kindle since hitting the UK Amazon store in March 2012, making it James the most successful author of all time on the British site.

The first book in the series, Fifty Shades of Grey, has been outselling the final Harry Potter book Deathly Hallows by a factor of 2-1 over the past few weeks.

"If JK Rowling was the literary phenomenon of the last decade then EL James looks certain to take that mantle in the current decade," said Gordon Willoughby, Director EU, Kindle.

"In just four months, EL James has become Amazon.co.uk's biggest selling author of all time which is truly remarkable when you consider that we've been selling books for almost 14 years."

The Fifty Shades of Grey books are doing similarly well in the US, but have yet to beat American sales records.

Ah, Qualcomm's magical Mirasol displays; we never really got a chance to become better acquainted? The e-reader displays which were capable of showing colour as well as greyscale in direct sunlight just like regular Kindle e-ink screens, will no longer be worked on by Qualcomm who have conceded that they're just too difficult to effectively
(read - profitably) deliver inside e-readers and tablets.

A glimmer of hope remains of Mirasol however, with Qualcomm CEO Paul E. Jacobs stating that the company has plans to license the screen tech elsewhere.

A Mirasol-powered e-reader had been in the works, but was cancelled roughly a year ago.

We had high hopes for Mirasol e-readers, being able to display full colours without straining the eyes in the same way LCD panels do. Here's hoping someone else licences the technology and has more luck popping them into a device than Qualcomm had.

A British hotel is giving its bedside reading material a 21st century makeover. Hotel Indigo in Newcastle have announced that they are swapping out their traditional paperback Bibles for an Amazon Kindle in each of their 148 guest rooms.

£5 worth of credit will be popped onto each device so that members of other faiths can download their religious tome of choice too. Guests will also be able to download further titles, with the charge being added on to their final stay fee.

On trial in the hotel until 16th July, with a possible roll out across the entire Hotel Indigo chain, it'll be great news for those looking for a good read while away, without having to bring their own valuable devices of weighty hardbacks. What with all the free reads available on Kindle, it needn't cost guests a penny either.

"In the 18th Century, Newcastle was one of the largest print centres in Britain and we're in Grainger Town, close to the Literary and Philosophical Society," said Adam Munday, the hotel's general manager.

"We wanted to reflect this literary history in a very contemporary way, so are offering guests the use of cutting-edge Kindles pre-loaded with The Bible, instead of the more traditional hardcopy Gideon's Bible that they would expect to find in a hotel."

Sounds like a great idea to us. So long as visitors don't use that £5 credit to download Fifty Shades of Grey instead of the "good book" of course. Cleaning staff have enough to be getting on with as it is...

Via: Telegraph