Or, at least, these are the preliminary findings of a small test group comparing how and how quickly people read printed books and ebooks. The research study by the Nielsen Norman Group – who, with a name like that, one assumes is composed of a bunch of guys with bow-ties and tweed jackets – found that the printed paper book lends itself to a faster reading speed than iBooks on the iPad. So, despite all the advancements in technology, the book is still better at conveying information directly to readers. Who knew, right? Surprisingly, the iPad, which was 6.2% slower than the book, proved faster the…

Just a short while ago, we all assumed the Kindle was to be for books what the iPod was to music: the thing that ‘changed everything’ about how the medium was used in modern times. Oh, how times have changed. In the past few weeks, Amazon has dropped the price of the regular Kindle in an effort to combat new competition and price pressure from Kobo, the Nook and the Sony Reader, while tweaking the Kindle DX and chopping its price. The moves are, depending on who you talk to, either aggressive – or just desperate. Some sites have suggested that this is enough to reinvigorate interest in the e-reading device….

Amazon may be working on a third Kindle model with a thinner form factor, sharper screen and more responsive screen. Amazon is putting its fingers in its ears on the subject of color touch-capable screens like the iPads, instead choosing to continue with the concept of a dedicated ebook reader with a paper-like grayscale screen. The Kindle 2 was debuted in February 2009 bringing improved battery life and an updated look, and Amazon continues to refine its only hardware offering. Ironically, the Kindle’s greatest competitor is itself, in the form of the Kindle App for iPad and iPhone. CEO Jeff…

Today the Internet Archive announced a new service that will provide over a million books for the blind and visually impaired. I was so excited, I practically broke the New Post button to tell you all about this awesome new service, before stopping cold to ponder how exactly Internet Archive planned to bring braille to the internet. Seriously. But my idiocy aside, this is a great initiative. The IA folks have been hard at work scanning hundreds of thousands of books to be digitized into DAISY (a text-to-speech format) for consumption by the print-disabled population, at no cost. Their plan is to…

The news that Google will be launching their own Google Editions cloud bookstore this summer promises a welcome shake-up for the world of ebooks. Because, while it’s true the nascent technology has gotten a lot of attention recently, especially with the launch of the iPad, it’s not exactly setting the world on fire either. In fact, even diehard readers are yawning at it a bit. Sure, Google’s new service that will allow you to read a book from anywhere you can log into your account sounds promising – but more needs to be done. Here are 5 things that the ebook world needs if it wants to really excite people…

The Kindle just got some competition Part of designer David Garcia’s Archive series, which showcases some of his truly alternative designs for book-shelves (I think it’s pronounced ‘buhk’. I hear they’re like a series of LCD screens that only display one thing, or something), Archive 2 enables you to bring your entire library with you. For real. This isn’t a Photoshop, this is a man walking inside a freaking bookshelf. He is so going to accidentally murder his cat. In case inquiring minds want to know, Archive 1 is a bookshelf on a seesaw, and Archive 3 is a stand that snaps the book shut as soon as you…

Your favorite eBook reader just became your least favorite game console. Japanese company KLab has successfully cloned the development kit for Amazon’s Kindle and released it open source – meaning developers can start churning out totally wicked sweet homebrew apps, right? Er, not quite yet. Below is a video of …jeez, do I even need to introduce the damn game?… Super Mario Bros, running on an NES emulator developed with KLab’s kit. As you can plainly see, it looks like crap, and runs lower than full speed. So what’s the point? Probably, ‘because we can’. If you’ll recall, the same mantra was…

I’m not going to make a joke about how nobody reads books anymore. But I might end up making some jokes about how nobody’s going to read Vooks, either. What’s a Vook? I thought you’d never ask. No, it’s not a big sweaty Slavic man cursing through his moustache. The posted video describes the Vook experience as…well, basically, an experience. ‘Vook weaves together content from incredible writers and professionally shot and edited videos by filmmakers,’ says Yahoo News about the technology. …Right. ‘Weaving’. ‘Blending’. ‘Seamlessly integrating two mediums’….

Skeptics who don’t believe people will use Apple’s iPad to read books may have to rethink their position today, after Amazon showed off a pretty impressive Kindle app for the iPad and other tablet computers. Kindle for tablets is both a reading app and a bookstore, allowing you to instantly purchase books as well providing a fancy-shmancy touch-screen interface for reading them….

Amazon and Apple may be actively engaged in an eBook war, but that hasn’t stopped Amazon promising a Kindle eBook app for Apple’s iPad. Details of Amazon’s iPad land grab first emerged this morning at the New York Times, which also reports Barnes & Noble to be hatching similar plans – releasing new digital readers and stores for the iPad, in addition to those already offered for the iPhone and iPod touch. …