dedicated gadget

It’s the busiest time of year for holiday shopping, and once again ebook readers and tablets are on many people’s lists. But which ones are the most coveted? Both Barnes and Noble and Amazon claim they’ve sold more than double their ereaders and tablets during Black Friday and Cyber Monday than last year (although nobody seems to notice they both have more than twice as many models to choose from this year).readers as gifts this holiday season.

But with all the choices, deciding on the right one can be a difficult decision. It’s not always about getting the best deal on a gadget, it’s about getting the best one for the person you are giving it to. Sometimes getting the cheapest one or the one that’s “on sale” isn’t going to be the best option in the long run.Sometimes it’s better to think about it from a different perspective. One way is to get ideas from other people making the same choice. I’ve already laid out my top picks for ebook readers and tablets for 2012 in previous posts this past week. If I had to narrow it down even further I’d choose the Kobo Glo and Kindle Paperwhite for ebook readers, and the Nexus 10 and Kindle Fire HD for tablets (I’d choose the Nook HD+ over the Kindle Fire HD if custom firmware or sideloading apps was available, though). But what about you? If you had the choice, which ebook reader or tablet would you choose if you could take your pick of any of the devices out there this year?

You may recall earlier in the year I reviewed a cheap tablet called the Ainol Novo 7 Paladin that was among the initial wave of sub-$100 Android 4.0 tablets out of China.This time around we’ve got a user-submitted review of a newer model from Ainol called the Novo 7 Legend. It has some improvements over the Paladin model, and has a 4:3 screen ratio instead of 16:9, and still costs less than $100.

Thanks to James Cloud for the review. Like always, if you have a review you’d like to submit, be it a reading device, an ebook, or ereading software, please feel free to contact me.

One way or another E Ink is going make its way onto smartphones. A couple of months back Onyx International showed off an Android-powered phone with an E Ink screen, and the company E Ink themselves demonstrated a prototype of a dual-sided Android phone with an LCD screen on one side and an E Ink screen on the other side.Now enters popSlate, a case for the iPhone 5 that has a 4? E Ink screen built into it.

With popSlate you can “Pop” images onto the back of an iPhone using the popSlate app, including photos, iPhone screenshots, web images, and it works with photo sharing platforms like Instagram. You can set the images up to remain static or set up a slideshow.PopSlate can also be used as a mini ereader to display text, including notifications, sports scores, maps, notes, calendars, etc. It will also have an open API for developers.

The popSlate case connects through the iPhone’s lightning connector to get power to refresh the screen, to send data back and forth, and to use the iPhone’s accelerometer to detect taps on the E Ink screen because the popSlate case has no sensors of its own. The fact that it lacks any sensors means its usefulness is going to be very limited, however, because you can basically change the screen and nothing else; you aren’t going to be able to interact with the screen to use an app like on the LCD screen. But E Ink does have its benefits since E Ink screens require no power to maintain an image on the screen, and they are a lot more readable in bright light than LCD screens.

And for those of you worried about the E Ink screen breaking, popSlate is supposedly using a “nearly indestructible” E Ink screen.PopSlate is still in the early stages and isn’t in production yet. Right now the makers are trying to raise funding through IndieGoGo. The goal is $150,000. There’s little doubt they are going to achieve that. They’ve already raised over $126,000 in about a week. At this rate they’ll hit their goal by the end of this week.

Sony has released firmware updates for their latest ebook reader, the Sony PRS-T2, as well as last year’s model, the Sony PRS-T1.With the PRS-T2 it will notify you that the update is available after connecting to Wi-Fi and then ask to download and install it. I’m not sure if the PRS-T1 has automatic updates or not (it didn’t used to) so its package may need to be downloaded and installed from a computer.

Regardless, here are the links to the Sony support pages with the firmware downloads and the descriptions of the changes:

Sony PRS-T1
Sony PRS-T2
Note that those links lead to the US versions. If you live outside the US you’ll have to track down the support page from one of Sony’s regional websites.Both updates are dated today, 11/27/2012. The new firmware version for the PRS-T2 is 1.0.04.11081, and the new firmware version for the PRS-T1 is 1.0.05.11130.

The update for the PRS-T1 basically removes the Google Books feature since that is no longer integrated into the Sony’s Reader Store, and it also supposedly fixes an issue for those unable to login to the Reader Store.The update for the PRS-T2 addresses an issue with error messages displaying when going into collections, and login issues with Facebook and the Reader Store.So basically the new updates include some much-needed bug fixes but no new features.

The Kindle Fire HD got some new features via a firmware update yesterday.The new firmware is labeled version 7.2.2, and it’s for the 7? Kindle Fire HD. The 8.9? model has different firmware, and there isn’t any mention of the new features on its software update page yet—it will probably be updated soon.Here are the three new features added with the update:

Camera app. You can now use the front-facing web camera to take pictures of yourself with an included camera app in the Photos library.

Swype. Swype is a keyboard feature that provides a fast way to enter text. It lets you create a word by drawing through letters. Swype also provides additional keyboard functions like copy and paste and the ability to change the keyboard language.

Kindle FreeTime Unlimited. Kindle FreeTime Unlimited is a subscription service you can choose to sign up for within Kindle FreeTime. Parents can subscribe children’s profiles to a wide variety of videos, apps, and games appropriate for ages 3-8. For more information, see http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?&docId=1000863021.

Like usual, the update will download and install automatically to your Kindle Fire HD if it is connected to the internet. You can initiate the update by swiping down from the top of the Kindle’s screen to open the notifications bar and then tap “Sync”.Another option is to download the update to your computer and transfer it to the Kindle via USB. Hit the 7? Kindle Fire HD Software Update page for the directions and download link.