A Silicon Valley product development consulting firm called the Nielsen Norman Group (not to be confused with the Nielsen ratings company) published a study last week comparing reading performance with a book to reading with an e-reader. The results--which are suspect because there were only 24 people in the test group--find that users of the Kindle 2 and iPad read 10.7 percent and 6.2 percent slower, respectively, than on paper or with books.
Apple's iPad goes on sale April 3 in the US triggering a challenge by Amazon to keep customers interested in buying its Kindle e-book reader and e-books.
If the iPad doesn't succeed as a consumer electronics device--its initial target market--it may find a successful second career as an electronic textbook reader.
Taiwanese e-reader makers jockeyed to show off new technologies at the Taipei International Book Exhibition over the weekend and said the emerging model for the devices is to sell them as part of a content bundle.
If you're concerned about the privacy implications of reading digital books, take a look at a nice guide put up yesterday by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
It appears the holiday season was a very, very good one for e-reader sales. According to Amazon, the Kindle was the "most-gifted product" in the company's history. And for the first time ever, the online retailer's customers bought more Kindle e-books than physical books on Christmas day.
Amazon's extending its electronic bookstore onto your desktop. The company announced plans for a Kindle for PC desktop application at Microsoft's Windows 7 launch event Thursday.
All of Silicon Valley may be Cupertino dreamin' of Kindles and other tantalizing tablets, but Microsoft says it wants nothing to do with the ever-expanding electronic reader market.
If the excitement leading up to the introduction of the Kindle DX is any indication, you'd think Amazon would have the e-book market wrapped up and ready to deliver with a tidy pink bow.