Amazon introduced the Kindle in November of 2007, retailing the device for $399. In August 2010, the Kindle 3 debuted in a Wi-Fi ($139) and 3G ($189) version. The Kindle 3 has a 6-inch display with 16-level grayscale, 600 by 800 pixel resolution, 4 GB of memory and can hold 3,500 books. The Kindle 3 is 0.33 inches in depth, weighs 8.7 oz. and has a battery that can last a month on a single charge. The wireless 3G version of the Kindle 3 has no annual contracts or monthly fees and allows you to download books using GSM technology with coverage in more than 100 countries. Download time is usually within 60 seconds, and the Kindle store offers more than 725,000 books for download. Books are downloaded in black and white format only. Kindle also produces a DX version with a 9.7-inch display.
The iPad is a multi-touch tablet computer released by Apple Inc. in April 2010. The iPad 2 ($499) was unveiled in March 2011, with more features and upgrades than the original. The iPad 2 is available with Wi-Fi or with Wi-Fi and 3G in models that feature 16, 32 and 64 GB of memory. Both versions of the iPad 2 are 9.5 inches in height, 7.31 inches in width and have a depth of 0.34 inches. The Wi-Fi version weighs 1.33 lbs. and the Wi-Fi with 3G version weighs 1.34 lbs. Both versions have a 10-hour battery life.
The iPad 2 allows you to download and read books from an iBooks catalog found on Apple's App Store website. To access the e-books, you have to download the free iBooks application, which offers more than 200,000 books. Downloaded books appear in color and can be read one page at a time or with two pages side by side. Features include a touch-activated built-in dictionary, page navigator and screen reader.
The Sony Reader was first introduced in November 2006 and was joined by the Daily Edition in August 2009 and the Pocket Edition and Touch Edition in September 2010. The Daily Edition ($299.99) is equipped with Wi-Fi and 3G technology. It has a 7-inch screen, a depth of 0.38 inches and weighs 9.6 oz. The Daily Edition supports 1,200 books, expandable to 50,000 books with an external memory card. Battery life can last 10 days in Wi-Fi mode and 22 days in normal mode. The Pocket Edition ($179.99) can download 1,200 books, weighs 5.47 oz. and is 0.33 inches in depth. It has a 16-level grayscale display with a 5-inch screen and 14 days of battery life. The Touch Edition ($229.99) weighs 7.58 oz. and has a 6-inch screen and a depth of 0.38 inches. It can hold 50,000 books and has a 14-day battery life. Millions of book titles can be downloaded onto all three devices from the Sony Reader store, your local library and online bookstores.
The Nook is a reading tablet and MP3 player introduced by Barnes and Noble in November 2009 that has two versions: a Wi-Fi and 3G model ($199) and a Wi-Fi-only model ($149). In November 2010, the Nook Color ($249) was unveiled with full-color display. The original Nook is 7.7 inches in height, 4.9 inches in width and has a depth of 0.5 inches. The 3G and Wi-Fi version weighs 12.1 oz., and the Wi-Fi-only version weighs 1.6 oz. Battery life is 10 days in both versions, and there are more than two million titles available to be downloaded from the Barnes and Noble website. The original Nook stores 1,500 books, but it has as an upgradeable memory card.
The Nook Color is 8.1 inches in height, 5 inches in width, weighs 15.8 oz. and has a depth of 0.48 inches. The 7-inch color touch screen displays more than 16 million colors. The Nook Color features Wi-Fi, 8 hours of battery time and can support 6,000 books, 500 songs and 150 photos.