Touchscreen

Amazon released a software update for the Kindle Touch (V5.0.3). Amazon says it includes "general software improvements" - no new features, and probably some bug fixes. You can just wait for it to download over Wi-Fi over the next few weeks, or you can do it yourself via USB (here's how).

Amazon reports good Black Friday Kindle sales - in fact they say total Kindle sales increased 4X compared to last year. The Kindle Fire is still Amazon's best selling product - for over 8 weeks in a row (since its introduction on September 28th).

Amazon wouldn't release any figures, but they did say that even before the weekend they sold "millions of the new Kindle family and Kindle Fire". Interestingly, they say that a lot of customers are buying multiple Kindles (some probably as gifts to others).

The Boox M92 is a fast (800Mhz processor) 9.7" (1200x825) E Ink pearl e-reader with a touch display (with Wacom input). While waiting for this reader to launch on December 8th, here's a long (17 minutes) hands on video from Boox:

Engadget posted two reviews - of the Kindle Touch and the Kindle Fire. The Touch is deemed as a good e-reader, but they say the touch functionality isn't so good as to make them want to replace the older Kindle keyboard or Nook reader - "The Kindle Touch is as good as any touch reader out there, but there's nothing particularly exceptional about it...the Kindle Touch isn't the steal it appears to be on paper".

The Fire gets a more favorable review. While the Fire can't compete with other tablets as it's slow, the interface is sluggish and the functionality is restricted, but "The Kindle Fire is quite an achievement at $200. It's a perfectly usable tablet that feels good in the hand and has a respectably good looking display up front". So at this price point, the Fire is a great value and has a great integration of content acquisition into a mobile device.

Kobo announced a new ad-supported version of the Kobo Touch - which will save you $40 ($99 instead of $139). The ads will appear when the device is locked and in the homepage - but not within e-books. This is pretty similar to Amazon's ad-supported Kindle.

B&N launched the Nook Tablet today, but they also announced a price cut for the Nook Touch: now $99 down from $139. They also changed the device's name to the Nook Simple Touch. This e-reader has a 6" 800x600 Pearl E Ink display that supports touch, 2GB of internal memory, a microSD slot and a micro-USB connector. It supports ePub and PDF file formats and weights 226 grams.

There are reports that on November 16th Barnes & Noble will launch a new Tablet/E-reader called the Nook Tablet. This Android based device will have a color 7" IPS LCD (1024x600), a 1.2Ghz processor, 1GBN of RAM and 16GB of flash memory. B&N sees this as an upgrade to the Nook Color, and obviously as a competitor to the Kindle Fire.

The same reports suggest that on the same date B&N will lower the price of the Nook Touch from $139 to $99 - the same price of Amazon's Kindle Touch (with ads).