MANILA, Philippines — BARNES AND NOBLE NOOK 

 

First released in 2009, the Nook includes both Wi-Fi and AT&T 3G wireless connectivity, a six-inch E Ink display, and a separate, smaller color touchscreen that serves as the primary input device. A Wi-Fi-only model of the original design was released in June 2010. 

 

The original line of Nooks was followed in November 2010 by a color LCD device called the Nook Color, and in June 2011 by a second-generation E Ink device marketed as the Nook Simple Touch.

 

The Nook Color has 8GB of storage and retails at US$249, or approximately P11,000.

 

To be released in November, the Kindle Touch retails at US$99, or P4,400 with ads built-in. It has 4 GB of internal memory, which equals to about 3,000 books, and can wirelessly download content from the internet. The Kindle Touch will also feature “X-Ray”, a feature that the retailer says will help readers explore the “bones of the book”. 

 

With a single tap, readers can see all the passages across a book that mention ideas, fictional characters, historical figures, places or topics of interest, as well as more detailed descriptions from Wikipedia and Shelfari.

 

 

An Android-based tablet with a color touchscreen, the Kindle Fire has a color 7" multi-touch display and access to the Amazon Appstore, streaming movies and TV shows, and Kindle ebooks. The device, which is set to come out in the US by mid November, is priced at US$199 or roughly P8,900. 

 

The device will include 8 GB of internal storage — said to be enough for 80 applications, plus either 10 movies or 800 songs or 6,000 books. A built-in email application allows webmail (Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail, AOL Mail, etc.) to be merged into one inbox.

 

 

Available to buy right now, the eInk Kindle is basically the existing Kindle but 18 percent lighter at under six ounces. It has 2 GB of internal memory but only has 1.25 GB that you can load your own content onto it. 

 

Its low price of US$79, or roughly P3,500 is supported by Amazon's decision to add advertising to the device. The US$79 eInk Kindle will also come with the Amazon Special Offers and Amazon Local service.

 

 

Released n 2010, the Kindle DX Graphite is priced at US$379, or roughly P17,000. The new Kindle DX has an E-Ink display with 50 percent better contrast ratio and comes in a “graphite” case color. 

 

However, the Kindle DX only has 128 MB of system memory, half of the Kindle 2's 256 MB. The Kindle DX is also unable to display international fonts like Cyrillic and Chinese, and the PDF and web browser features are limited to the Kindle 2.

 

 

While Sony was an early player in the eBook game – releasing the Sony Librie in 2004, three years ahead of Amazon's Kindle – the company's line of eBook Readers has never captured the public's attention. Its latest line, the Sony Reader Wi-Fi PRS-T1, has 2 GB of internal storage and wifi connectivity, and retails at US$299 or P13,000. 

 

Earlier reports that the prized ebook versions of J.K. Rowling's novels would be bundled with these ebook readers were scuttled by the announcement of the delay in their release.

 

 

While not technically an ebook reader, the iPad's iBook application has proved to be one of the more popular features of Apple's tablet computer. A free application that can be bought from the Apple Store, the iBook also allows users to change the font and text size displayed.

 

Users can adjust screen brightness from within the application, with greater range than available from the Settings app and the multitasking bar. Words can be selected and searched throughout the book, and pages are turned by tapping or dragging the page. Each copy of iBooks comes with a free copy of Winnie-the-Pooh, the 1926 book by A. A. Milne, in order to get the user's library started.