Click here for Kindle with global wireless - now available to customers outside the US.

Prior to today Kindle has been available only to U.S. customers. Now for the first time Kindle wireless reading device is available to customers around the world.

With this new Kindle you can think of a book and be reading it in less than 60 seconds.

Kindle utilises the same 3G wireless technology as advanced mobile phones, with coverage in over 100 countries worldwide, so you never need to hunt for a Wi-Fi hotspot. Unlike mobile phones, there are no monthly data charges and no yearly contracts. There is no software to install and no syncing required. You shop and download books wirelessly right from the device.

Kindle is as thin as a magazine and weighs less than a paperback, but can hold 1500 books. Its electronic ink display looks and reads like real paper without glare - even in bright sunlight. A long battery life means you can read for up to two weeks on a single charge.

The Kindle Store has more than 250 000 books available to UK customers, plus UK and international newspapers, including The Times, Telegraph, Daily Mail, and The New York Times. You can expect to see many more books from UK publishers available in the coming weeks and months. Soon you will have every book ever printed, in any language, all available in under 60 seconds.

Click here for Kindle Wireless product specification.

The IREX DR800SG e-reader with 3G connectivity for over the air book borrowing has just been announced Stateside, but there’s good news for us folks in UKadia too: it’s coming to Europe, potentially making it the first 3G e-reader to hit Britain. A strong contender to Kindle!

The IREX DR800SG is an 8.1-inch e-reader with support for a ton of formats, including PDF, EPUB, eReader and TXT, and it comes with a 3G connection to download books wherever you are. It’s headed to Europe in 2010 for around $399 (£245).

Inside the IREX DR800SG is 2GB of shelf space, and while there’s no finger friendly touchscreen, IREX promises one for next year, and a colour model for 2011.

Key product specifications:

• Big screen, compact design - some competitive devices offer a similarly‐sized device but with a much smaller display area. IREX’s 8.1‐inch screen is ideal for books, magazines and newspapers with detailed graphics.
• Purpose‐built device - the DR800SG uses the latest electronic paper display technology to deliver an experience that is closer to reading ordinary paper than possible with a netbook or tablet device. It also has longer battery life and is lightweight.
• Easy navigation - the device turns pages faster than competing products, and navigation is easy with an interactive touch screen and straightforward buttons. Users can search their library or add a bookmark with a tap of a stylus or skim an eBook with a touch of a thumb.
• Customized reading - users can enlarge or reduce text size and margin widths or select portrait or landscape mode to suit their preferences.

Via www.electricpig.co.uk

Sony has new ebook readers - the Reader Pocket (£180) designed with commuters in mind, and the Reader Touch (£250) that’s packed with features and navigation tools.

The Pocket fits comfortably into a jacket rather than jeans pocket but, with a 4-inch screen, it’s about as small as you can co with such a device. If you need to zoom in fully, you won’t fit many words on a page. But, with good eyesight, text is as clear as any reader we’ve seen.

Content is uploaded via a micro USB connection (cable is provided) - you get up to 350 standard eBooks, according to Sony, and up to two weeks of reading time per battery charge.

Handy for commuting, many controls are laid out for single-handled operation. However, scrolling through pages on the Pocket is slower than on the Touch, and turning to a page with an illustration can cause quite a delay.

It has a connection for a wrist strap and this model comes in silver or pink.

The slightly larger Touch - in silver or black - has a 6-inch screen and also shows text as clearly as any other eBook reader.

Navigated using buttons, or via the touch screen for most functions, this reader is one of the quickest we’ve seen. You may need to apply a little more pressure when swiping than you think, however. There is also a stylus in the spine, which can be used to handwrite notes of highlight text - but you can use the touch screen keyboard for this if you prefer.

Other features include the ability to bookmark, add sticky notes and find out the meaning of words with the Oxford Dictionary.

In addition to a micro USB port and cable, there is a Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo slot and a standard SD card slot. It also features a 3.5mm headphone socket, so you can listen to music and audio files when reading.

Verdict: Both (Pocket and Touch) models have useful features and are more compact than previous Sony versions.

Which? magazine

Asus wishes to extend the Eee line of things, as it has done it on numerous occasions with notebooks and PCs. Now, however, the maker hopes to do it with an e-book reader.

If the company’s president Jerry Shen is believed, then we could have the Asus e-book reader anytime by the end of the year. The project isn’t a bad ploy from Asus; market for e-books is steaming, anyone can tap in with the best possible product.

Asus is planning to do the same for the e-book reader market that it did for the netbook market, and is currently said to be working on a lower cost version of such a device for a UK launch.

Asus claims its ebook reader will be cleverer and more versatile than the current crop available from companies such as Sony and Amazon. Can’t wait to see that! Allegedly, the device will give the user the option of seeing the text on one screen while browsing a web page on the other. One of the screens could also act as a virtual keypad for this ereader to be used like a laptop and will boast a full colour screen. It may also have speakers, a webcam and a mic for use with Skype, allowing cheap phone calls over the internet.

Are we on the way to see yet another multi-purpose device? Looks like there will ultimately be a convergence between e-readers and other portable devices - right up to netbooks and laptops. The source does not specifically say if the eInk technology will be employed by the Eee Reader, but we wonder it may become the preferred one for all laptops in future.

Asus is planning to launch two e-book readers in the UK, one a budget, most likely Eee-branded model around the £100 mark, and one a higher end effort based on the dual-screen prototype e-book reader Asus has previously demonstrated.

Responding to The Times report an Asus spokesperson told Pocket-lint that it is likely they will show a working concept of the high end dual-screen model in the UK by the end of the year, but says the "Eee Reader", as the budget version is as yet unconfirmed.

Watch this space!

The Times has more info direct from Asus insiders. Read more...

Via TimesOnLine

Asus, which shook up the laptop market in 2007 with the introduction of the first inexpensive netbook, is planning to launch an electronic-book reader this year that would challenge the most popular e-readers on price.

Without offering much in the way of details, Asus President Jerry Shen told the Times of London that the company is planning to offer a budget and a premium version. Prices could start as low as £100, or about $165.

If the final product resembles a prototype developed by Asus research and development department, then it would include a wireless connection and dual screens separated by a hinged spine, so the e-reader could open up like a book. Asus could choose to include a Web browser, Webcam, microphone and other PC-like features, the newspaper reported Tuesday. The e-reader's screens would support colour, unlike the black-and-white displays used on e-readers today.

If the Asus device offers colour, then it won't use the same high-definition technology from E Ink that makes it possible to read on the Sony and Amazon devices even in sunlight. E Ink does not make colour displays.

Nevertheless, the high price of today's e-readers is a problem, if manufacturers hope to penetrate the mainstream market. Asus' device would be less than the $200 and $299 starting prices of Sony's and Amazon's e-readers, respectively.

However, even at the lower Asus price, the device might still be too expensive for most consumers. A recent study by Forrester Research found that e-book readers would have to be priced a $50 in order to reach the widest range of U.S. consumers. Such a price, however, would be less than the cost of components used in today's products.

Asus introduced the Eee PC netbook two years, launching a sub-$300 mini-laptop that became the fastest growing category of the PC market.

By Antone Gonsalves, InformationWeek