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As a part of the RIS Incubation process, I've been evaluating a number of popular e-book readers to see how viable they might be for classroom and/or library use. The readers I examined are: Amazon Kindle Amazon Kindle DX Sony Reader 300 Sony Reader 600 (aka Sony Reader Touch) Barnes and Noble Nook Apple iPad running Apple's iBooks software, Amazon's Kindle software, and Barnes and Noble's Reader software.

"As the e-reader and tablet wars heat up, Amazon.com Inc. is launching a digital-book lending library that will be available only to owners of its Kindle and Kindle Fire devices who are also subscribers to its Amazon Prime program."

"The mass market paperback is dead. It just doesn't know it yet. Ailing for months, its demise is now all but assured by Amazon's recent bold announcement. Not the over-analyzed, over-iPad-compared Kindle Fire announcement. Rather, by the far less interesting news - to the gadgetphiles - that the least expensive, wonderfully readable and portable Kindle is now $79, a price point matched over the Black Friday holiday by Barnes & Noble for its Nook Simple Touch Limited Edition."

"Two universities running Kindle DX pilot programs have rejected the device as a potential textbook replacement, citing a poor feature set and the controversial accessibility issues. Primary among these is the text-to-speech capability."

"The case for why tablets are ready for the college classroom is pretty simple: they're a great way for students to consume media-rich digital content (the best way out there, in my opinion), they mesh well with students' lifestyles thanks to their small profile and long battery life, and tablets offer access to the world of apps, which includes some of the most innovative educational software around. Like in most other markets, the iPad has so far been the tablet of choice on college campuses. But with today's launch of the Kindle Fire, Apple may have its first viable competitor."

"The first-generation Kindle Fire is a strange combination of both worlds, and while it fails to fully satisfy as either it does promise to leave its mark on our media consumption devices and perhaps even make an appearance in our classrooms or our own toolkits for travel and meetings."

"The wait is over for readers eager to download Kindle books from their local library. Some 11,000 libraries are now offering books for Amazon's ebook platform."

Pew stats

"it's only a matter of time before, for example, a major publishing company sells textbooks through Amazon for use on the Fire and hooks in powerful interactive web applications for assessment, tutoring, or simulations, all on a little 7″ device that fits in any students backback."

Raises concerns about proprietary system that focuses on getting you to buy Amazon content; lack of flexibility: "schools are going to have to look for digital content that is available across platform. That could mean looking for DRM-free resources, or at least for resources that aren't restricted to one particular platform or file format. That could mean turning to Web apps over native apps. Does that mean turning to one big media technology company to handle content delivery (whether it's Apple or Amazon or Pearson)? Man, I sure hope not."

Princeton Kindle studu

"ASU, Case Western Reserve, Pace, Reed College agree not to use Kindle"

""There is no e-reader that supports what we found these students doing," said first author Alex Thayer, a UW doctoral student in Human Centered Design and Engineering. "It remains to be seen how to design one. Its a great space to get into, theres a lot of opportunity.""

"Hartnell and his team aim to harness a web-based platform, using the standardized Web language of HTML5, to create e-books as an alternative to private proprietary formats like Kindle and iBook."

"Textbooks are gaining, though, as publishers take advantage of the popularity of tablets like the Kindle and iPad, expanding their catalogues and offering products like rental digital books that expire after a semester or two. "

Bowdoin makes available Kindles (since 2009)

2009-2010 Kindle tests

"Just one day after the ground-breaking announcement of the new Kindle lineup we got news from the long awaited 35 USD tablet from India."