Touchscreen News

Engadget posted a review of the new Kindle Paperwhite - and they say it's the best e-reader available today. The display is excellent - good resolution, improved contrast and evenly-distributed front light. The new software is also very good.

It's not perfect of course - they say it's not as easy and pleasant to hold as the Nook simple touch, and it's got only 2GB of on-board storage (with no expansion option). As a reminder, the Kindle Paperwhite is now shipping: the Wi-Fi model costs $139 (or $119 with ads) and the 3G model costs $199 (or $179 with ads).

Kobo announced two new E Ink e-readers today. The first is the Glo, Kobo's first backlit e-reader that features a 6" XGA (1024x768) touch E Ink Pearl display (seems to be the same display used by Amazon in their Kindle Paperwhite), Wi-Fi, 2Gb of internal memory and a microSD slot. The Kobo Glo will launch soon for $129.99, you can already pre-order it.

The second e-reader is the small Kobo Mini that sports a 5" E Ink touch display, Wi-Fi and 2Gb of internal memory. The display is an E Ink Vizplex, the older generation technology. The Mini costs $79.99.

Amazon announced a new Kindle e-reader today, the Kindle Paperwhite. It's a 6" touchscreen E Ink e-reader with a new display that features better contrast then ever (25% better than on the Kindle Touch), 1024x768 resolution and built-in light. The Paperwhite has 2GB of internal memory and Wi-Fi (and 3G on the 3G model). It will ship on October 1st 2012. The Wi-Fi model costs $139 (or $119 with ads) and the 3G model costs $199 (or $179 with ads).

The Kindle Touch is no longer available, but Amazon did also reduce the price of the non-touch Kindle 2011 to $69 with ads (and $89 without).

Update: the 3G model is now back in stock, the Wi-Fi is still listed as unavailable...

Amazon's Kindle Touch is now out of stock (both the 3G and Wi-Fi models), and Amazon says it's "Currently unavailable, We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock". This may be just an inventory issue, but it maybe that Amazon is getting ready to release a new model (they do host a press conference on September 6) - but it's strange that they'd stop selling the model just like that even if they plan to replace it soon...

Amazon announced today that it will launch the Kindle Touch in Europe on April 27th. You'll be able to buy this e-reader in the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy. In the UK it will cost £109 for WiFi model and £169 for the 3G model (no ad-supported models available in Europe). You can pre-order your Kindle Touch now.

There are reports that Amazon started to order 6" color (Triton) touch E Ink panels from E Ink. E Ink will ship over 3 million displays a month to Amazon - starting next week - which probably means Amazon will soon announce the new e-reader.

E Ink is already shipping 9.7" Triton displays to Ectaco, used in their Jetbook color e-reader, which is already shipping in eastern Europe. They are also shipping the same displays to Hanvon for their Chinese market reader.

There are reports that Amazon plans to launch the Kindle Touch in Japan in April. They will team with NTT DoCoMo to offer the 3G version for ¥20,000 (about $260). This is considered a competitive pricing compared to other 3G e-readers in Japan.