Barnes & Noble clarifies battery life on new Nook, calls out Kindle

Wondering which electronic reader reigns supreme when it comes to extreme battery life? If you ask Amazon, it's the Kindle, but Barnes & Noble begs to differ -- and it has some numbers to back that up. Earlier today we received a statement from the company explaining just how thrifty the new Nook is when it comes to sipping from cells. With WiFi disabled on both devices, B&N says it managed 150 hours on the new Nook when turning a page every minute. The current-gen Kindle, meanwhile, petered out after 56. That's almost three times as long and maybe, just maybe, enough to finally get you through Anna Karenina on one charge -- or at least through the Cliffs Notes version. More details on the testing overview below, which we promise can be rather more rapidly ingested.

With up to two months on a single charge, the All-New NOOK has the longest-battery life in the industry and superior battery performance to Kindle 3. In our side-by-side tests, under the exact same conditions, continuous use of the device resulted in more than two times Kindle's battery life. While reading at one page a minute, the All-New NOOK battery lasts for 150 hours where the Kindle battery, using the same page-turn rate, lasts for only 56 hours (both with Wi-Fi off). We've also done a continuous page turn test and at one page turn per second, the All-New NOOK offers more than 25,000 continuous page turns on a single charge.

Barnes & Noble announces new touch-enabled Nook for $139

Not to be outdone by Kobo which just unleashed it's latest E Ink reader yesterday the folks at Barnes & Noble are back with the latest update to their line of Nook devices. The "all new" Nook is touch enabled and lasts up to two months on a single charge. The Pearl E Ink screen boasts "80-percent less flashing" during page turns, something that many fans of the devices have resigned themselves to having their eyes assaulted by. And B&N is quite proud of its streamlined interface which it brags has 37 less buttons than the Kindle 3. Around the back is a soft-touch rubber surface that should feel great in the hand while reading, though, we'll have to wait to manhandle one ourselves to be sure.

The new Nook has a redesigned home screen with your current reading list and suggested titles and adds a few features like FastPage Zoom forward, which lets you jump to any page in a title, and (finally) displays the number of pages left to go. Inside is a microSD slot and a WiFi radio, but sadly no 3G. You'll also be able to share quotes, lend books, and update your status on social networks using Nook Friends, which debuted last year with the Nook Color.

You can pre-order online and in stores now and the updated Nook should start shipping to customers June 10. You'll also be able to pick one up at BestBuy, Walmart, Books-A-Million, and Staples for $139 at the same time.

Barnes and Noble BEA Event 2011

Barnes & Noble selling Nooks for $99 on eBay

What do you do just before you decide to upgrade your old device with some new hotness? You sell the old stuff on eBay, right? Well, B&N doesn't seem to have any better ideas than you as it's started offering its classic Nook e-reader for $99 on the online auction site, undercutting its own price by $50. This is the WiFi-only dual-screen unit, as you might surmise, not the Color tablet that's been treading dangerously close to being a fully fledged Android slate. If you're an E Ink loyalist on a budget, this might just be the opportunity you've been waiting for, though don't blame us if Barnes & Noble comes up with a fancier, more lustworthy model in the time it takes for that free delivery to reach your door.

eBay

Sony shows off, folds up super flexible organic TFT display

E-reader manufacturers are doing their darnedest to get their devices to behave more like the old fashioned books we've all since abandoned, but we won't be happy until we can roll one up and stuff it in our back pockets, paperback-style. Sony's working hard to make that dream a reality -- the company showed off some new bendable display technology behind closed doors at last week's SID conference in LA, including a color unit and the extremely flexible black and white e-paper display seen above, which can be bent to a 5mm curvature radius. The 13.3-inch sheet has a 1,600 x 1,200 (150ppi) resolution and is powered by organic TFTs. Sony showed off and bent the thing at the show, reportedly to the cheers of the crowd in attendance. Clearly they're all as excited as we are to make some really expensive e-paper airplanes. For more shots of the bending process, consult the source link below.

E-Ink-Info

Tech-On

Kobo unbuttons for $129 eReader Touch Edition, hands-on

Kobo today kicked off Book Expo America with the launch of a new six-inch, one-button touchscreen e-reader -- named, appropriately enough, the Kobo eReader Touch Edition. Priced at $130 -- $10 cheaper than Amazon's Kindle -- the pocket-sized device strives for a reading experience more akin to that of old timey paper books, courtesy of a Zeforce infrared touchscreen, new Pearl eInk technology, and a freescale i.MX507 processor for faster page turning. Click on through for more details and our impressions of this little reader.

Kobo eReader Touch Edition Hands-on

The WiFi reader has a new search tool accessible through the virtual keyboard and highlighting technology, which makes it easier to look up words via the built-in Merriam Webster dictionary. This is the same Pearl display found on the latest Kindle, so you should know what you're getting into for contrast, but the responsiveness here is hugely improved thanks to that freescale processor. Page turns are quick and, more impressively, you can open a PDF, zoom in, and scroll around. Sure, it isn't exactly hyper-responsive, but it sure beats PDF reading on the competition and it'll help you save a few reams of paper when reviewing technical documentation. And, since that touch screen is built using IR tech that's built into the bezel, the contrast of the screen doesn't suffer -- a common complaint on the Sony Reader Touch Edition.

Kobo's Touch Edition features syncing bookmark technology lets you pick up where you left off on multiple devices. The Touch Edition has 1GB of built-in memory, expandable up to 32GB with the microSD slot that's easily accessible on the sid. The device supports ePub, PDF, and open standards, so you can take it with you on the next trip to the library. It'll ship next month, in black, silver, blue, and white, dropping the price of its predecessor down to $99. You can pre-order it now from Borders, Best Buy, and Walmart, in both the US and Canada.

Kobo eReader Touch Edition official pictures

Bookeen does real time web browsing and scrolling on standard E Ink screen (video)

Bookeen has already taunted us with an E Ink Pearl display hacked to playback clips of chubby bunnies without so much as a hicup, now it's showing off web browsing and scrolling on the same screen. It's a little stuttery, as you can see in the video below, but considering this is the same tech found in the Kindle it's quite impressive. The trick is accomplished using custom software and off the shelf hardware -- in other words, nothing terribly fancy. So, while we sit here letting out exasperated sighs with every digital page turn, we'll just keep hoping Bookeen gets this in something we can buy soon.

E-Ink Info

Cybook (YouTube)

NEC's dual-screen LifeTouch W tablet shipping in Japan this June

NEC caught our attention at CES with a dual-screen Android tablet / e-reader that, at the time, it was calling the LT-W Cloud Communicator. Well, it's since been rebranded the LifeTouch W and it will officially hit shelves in Japan this June. Under the hood nothing has changed -- it's the same pair of 7-inch, 800 x 600 resistive touchscreens, 384MB of RAM, and Cortex A8 CPU of unspecified speed we played with in January. Sadly, that also means we're looking at the same dated Android 2.2 OS and paltry five hour battery life. No word on cost or whether this will ever appear outside of Japan, but we'd be surprised if this ugly stepsister of the Kno actually makes its way across the Pacific.

Akihabara News

NEC

E Ink shows concepts galore at SID 2011: snowboards, radios, thermostats, oh my!

E Ink's 300ppi 9.7-inch panel -- touting "laser print quality" and a ridiculous 2400 x 1650 screen resolution -- was just the tip of the e-paper iceberg here at SID 2011. The aforesaid display isn't shipping in any commercial products just yet, but given that OEMs are already accepting 'em, we were told to expect ultra-fine print devices in the not-too-distant future. The screen, which was jointly developed by Epson, truly did look astonishing up close, forcing us to get awkwardly close to see the pixels behind the pictures. Outside of that guy, though, the outfit's booth was splattered with concepts -- everything from an E Ink-infused snowboard (shown above) to a rugged radio. There was even a prototype sheet music reader (dreamed up by Lenart Studios) that looked downright outstanding, not to mention a thermostat that would have any Home Depot junkie swooning. Have a gander at the galleries below, and peek past the break for a brief video tour. Oh, and Burton -- you should seriously get on this.

E Ink snowboard concept eyes-on at SID 2011

E Ink's concept sheet music holder at SID 2011

E Ink's 9.7-inch 300ppi display at SID 2011

 

Kindle books officially take over print sales at Amazon, pulp starts making retirement plans

The Kindle has been a huge success, no doubt about that, but we are continually amazed at just how big a success it has become. Amazon too, apparently. The company just issued a press release to announce that digital book sales have now exceeded sales of all print titles, both hardcover and paperback combined. As of April 1st, for every 100 print books that Amazon has sold (of any kind) the company moved 105 Kindle books, and no that doesn't include downloads of free titles. Also of note: the ad-supported reader that's shipping for $114 is now selling more quickly than the normal, $139 version. Proof, then, that people will put up with more ads in more places for 25 bucks.

Amazon

Toshiba Write-Erasable Input Display hands-on at SID 2011 (video)

Sure, we've seen oodles of light pen drawing boards, and e-readers that support doodling, but Toshiba's "R&D project" at SID Display Week just... struck us. Weighing far less than the notepad used to jot down notes about it, this encapsulated device evidently sports a built-in battery, E Ink tendencies, a microSD card slot, proprietary charging port, an on / off toggle switch and support for stylus input. Drawing on it was both enjoyable and simple, and we were actually able to erase our typos with the press of a button (and a bit of eraser work with the pictured pen). Enough chatter -- have a look yourself in the video past the break.

Toshiba Write-Erasable Input Display hands-on at SID 2011