color e-reader

The Nook Simple Touch is out, and while it's touted as Barnes & Noble's simpler, bare bones e-reader, we think it's nonsense to call any gadget "simple." Nook Touch (and Nook Color) owners should know that their devices can do a lot more than just read books from B&N--we're here to show you how.

With your Nook in front of you (and an enthusiasm to get creative), follow this guide to make your Nook a little more useful, fun, and worth every penny you spent.

Barnes & Noble announced today that its new "reader's tablet," the $250 touch-screen Nook Color, has begun shipping slightly ahead of schedule to customers who preordered the device. Some may even receive their units as early as today.

As for us, well, we picked up a review unit the other day at the company's headquarters in New York and put it through its paces over the last few days. While we still think Barnes & Noble has some work to do with adding more apps, all in all, the Nook Color is a very capable e-reader … Read more

Last week, CNET broke the story that Barnes & Noble would be introducing a $249 Android-based color e-reader for the holiday buying season. That product, the Nook Color, has just become official, with Barnes & Noble showing off the new device at a press conference at its flagship Union Square store in New York City today.

After a picture of the Nook Color was leaked to CNET, the biggest mystery surrounding the product was what type of screen it would sport. As we anticipated, the screen is a 7-inch touch-screen LCD, and not something more exotic like a color e-ink or a Mirasol display, which won't be available until next year. Barnes & Noble told CNET that this is a next-generation LED-backlit display supplied by LG, which is bright yet energy efficient. The product's designers added a special layer of laminate to the glass that covers the display to help cut down on glare and improve off-axis viewing.

A lot of people wondered whether this would be classified as an Android tablet, and while the device does run on Android 2.1 (it will be upgradeable to Android 2.2 next year) and offers additional functionality such as Web browsing, audio and video playback, and some basic games, Barnes & Noble is spinning it as a "reader's tablet." The Nook Color has built-in Wi-Fi but no 3G, and comes with 8GB of internal memory, plus the capability to expand capacity via a microSD expansion slot tucked into the bottom of the device near its "corner slot."

Here are its key specs:… Read more

The Literati, a Sharper-Image-branded color e-reader, was officially announced a few weeks ago, but I spotted one out in the wild last night at a tech event in New York.

Due to hit stores in October, the Wi-Fi-enabled Literati has a 7-inch LCD screen, an affordable $159 price tag that's expected to drop with special promotions during the holiday season, and it's being targeted squarely at the mass market with distribution in such stores as Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, JC Penney, Kohl's, and Macy's. MerchSource, the company that's behind the product, says it … Read more

If you know of Pandigital, you probably know it for its photo frames. However, the company is moving into the hot e-book reader market with a device that a lot of people have been waiting for: an affordable color-screen e-book reader with ties to a major bookseller.

Integrated with the Barnes & Noble's e-book store, the Pandigital Novel is an Android-powered e-book reader that has a full-color 7-inch touch-screen display, Wi-Fi connectivity, and multimedia capabilities. On the surface, this all sounds pretty good and when we first saw a picture of it it, we thought it looked a lot … Read more