(Updated Nov 25) MORE eBook Readers for $99 and Below!

Well, for those who aren’t interested in the Black Friday sale of $89 2nd Generation Kindles on Amazon, I’ve found some more eReaders that are just at the magic price of $99 or below.

* Be sure to check out my previous post on eReaders $99 and below also (since that contained Black Friday deals too)!

(Updated Nov 25: New eReaders are on sale! Adding them on this post)

P.S. E-Bay is also selling refurbished units of NOOK by Barnes and Noble Wi-Fi eReader eBook Reader for $99.00 and $79.00 respectively! And over on Overstock.Com, NOOK Wi-Fi and NOOK 3G + Wi-Fi by Barnes & Noble eBook Reader (Certified Pre-Owned – Refurbished) are available for $99.99! (and if you add something cheap to bring up your total to $100, get a $15 off $100 purchase by using this discount code 149418 at checkout!)

BestBuy.Com is offering the “Barnes & Noble – NOOK WiFi eReader – White/White” for just $99.99.

About it (from BestBuy.Com):

This reader’s built-in Wi-Fi wireless networking allows you to download books in seconds so you can enjoy digital books on the go. 2GB of storage space and a microSD memory card slot provide expanded storage.

6″ eInk® Vizplex™ Electronic Paper Display

Borders.Com is offering the “Kobo eReader” for just $99.99.

About it (from Borders.Com):

E Ink Technology means book-quality printing with no backlight, glare, or reflection on a 6-inch screen that makes reading easy.
1 GB Memory: Carry up to 1000 titles wherever you go. If that’s not enough to satisfy your appetite, add an SD memory card for instant access to more books.
Pre-Loaded with Borders eBook App and Books: The Kobo eReader is pre-loaded with the Borders eBook app for your desktop, plus 100 free classics to get your reading started.

Check out more $99 eReaders on sale after the jump!

(Updated) Who’s Interested in eBook Readers for $99 and Below?

So, who’s Interested in eBook Readers for $99 and below? Yeah, it’s a rhetorical question, like duh?

I seriously doubt that Amazon will offer their Kindle for $99, but we can dream, right? In the meantime, I did a search of the net and found quite a few other options that are/will be selling for $99 or below. *Note that I really can’t recommend any of these other readers since the only one I have personal experience with is the Kindle, so be sure to do your research before paying for anything!

(Update) New! Just added (November 19)

Newegg.Com is offering the “Ectaco 5″ High Resolution e-Book Reader (jetBook-Lite)” for just $89.99. This deal includes Free earlight for Jetbook w/ purchase, ends 11/25

About it (from JetBook.Net):

ECTACO is happy to present you its second line of electronic eBook readers: ECTACO jetBook LITE – the most affordable eBook Reader on the market with better performance than in most of its competitors.

Features: Support of ePub, Mobi, PRC, RTF, .txt, .pdf, .fb2, .jpg, .gif, .png, and .bmp file formats

Support of eReader (PDB) DRM format through Ereader.com and Fictionwise.com. Now pre-installed with Adobe DRM support for Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) ePub Files and Barnes & Noble ePub Books.

Newegg.Com is offering the “Foxit 6″ eSlick Reader with Extremely Clear E-ink Screen” for just $49.99.

About it (from Newegg):

The eSlick from Foxit is this generation’s way of reading textbooks, favorite novels, magazines and pretty much any and all documents and images that can be converted to PDF file… It has an internal memory of 512MB and comes with a 2 GB SD card (supports up to 4 GB)… Resolution is 600 x 800 pixels. It uses revolutionary electronic-paper display technology… also provides the best PDF reflow capability that gives a better reading experience. It has a built-in MP3 player and comes with free Foxit Reader Pro Pack, Foxit PDF Creator and earphones at an astounding low price.

Newegg.Com is offering the “ECTACO E-Book Reader White jetBook-Lite” for just $79.99.

About it (from JetBook.Net):

ECTACO is happy to present you its second line of electronic eBook readers: ECTACO jetBook LITE – the most affordable eBook Reader on the market with better performance than in most of its competitors.

Features: Support of ePub, Mobi, PRC, RTF, .txt, .pdf, .fb2, .jpg, .gif, .png, and .bmp file formats

Support of eReader (PDB) DRM format through Ereader.com and Fictionwise.com. Now pre-installed with Adobe DRM support for Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) ePub Files and Barnes & Noble ePub Books.

Buy.Com is offering the “NOOK by Barnes & Noble Wi-Fi eReader (Certified Pre-Owned / Refurbished)” for $99.00.

About it (from Buy.Com):

The NOOK Wi-Fi eReader has built-in Wi-Fi allowing you to download eBooks in seconds… Browse the vast BN eBookstore and sample any eBook for free. Store as many as 1,500 eBooks, eNewspapers, and eMagazines on your NOOK’s 2 GB of internal storage, so you’ll never be without your favorites. Need more space? Just add a Micro SD card. Certified Pre-Owned Nooks undergo a comprehensive 14 point inspection, rework and verification process performed by Barnes & Noble certified technicians. We are confident that the product meets the highest standards of quality.”

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And for those who are willing & able to line up and take their chances, here are the deals for Black Friday!

Black Friday Deals

• From Menards Black Friday Ad (Electronics): Augen 7” Color Screen eReader EARLY BIRD $69.99
• From Best Buy Doorbuster Sale: NOOK by Barnes & Noble Wi-Fi eReader $99
• From Sears on Black Friday: The Aluratek Libre eBook Reader Pro $89
• From Walmart Black Friday (Electronics): Sony PRS-300SC eBook Reader (Pink & Silver) $99
• From Kohl’s Black Friday Deals: The Sharper Image Literati eBook Reader $99

Happy shopping! If I find any more deals for eReaders, I’ll be sure to add them to this post! 🙂

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Does the $139 Kindle Hit the Sweet Spot for You?

My mom is kind of pissed off right now. She’d bought that nice refurbished Kindle 2 for $139, and now Amazon announces a smaller, lighter Kindle 3 with a better screen and better battery life! Plus, has a nifty leather cover with built-in light accessory. Ah, technology! Once you buy something, expect something better (and more reasonably priced) just right around the corner. (*I did not let my mom know about the $109 refurbished Kindle 2 that came and went a while back right after she’d bought hers.)

I had to remind her that unlike her Kindle 2 with lifetime free 3G, the really cheap $139 Kindle 3 just has WiFi. No 3G, unlike with her Kindle 2 so she still had access to her e-mail when the power went out that time during the big the storm or when she got stuck in traffic. Only the new $189 Kindle 3 has both WiFi and lifetime free 3G. And for my mom, her ‘magic price’ was $140, nothing more than that.

Well, of course, there was nothing I could say about the smaller, lighter, better screen, better battery life part 😉

My sister’s suggestion is to just give her the refurbished Kindle 2 as a hand-me-down, and then mom can go buy the Kindle 3 (sis is willing to throw in the extra $50). Why? My sister hates the extra fee she pays for her iPad’s 3G access, and she’s looking if she can just turn her iPad into WiFi only and just read on Mom’s refurbished Kindle 2.

Seems like a good compromise to me. Personally, I’m not replacing my old Kindle 1 (which by the way cost me more than all these new-fangled Kindles!) until it finally decides to go on to Kindle heaven. But as long as it’s running well, I’m happy. I’m not really particular with screens, as I can read just as happily on my tiny iPod Touch screen or even the teeny-tiny Nokia N70 screen. My magic price to upgrade is $99, and maybe that’ll happen next year maybe?

But that makes me wonder about the $50 difference between the WiFi only Kindle versus the WiFi + 3G Kindle. My sister thinks that paying extra $50 for lifetime free 3G access anywhere in the world is worth it (she’s still pissed off that she had to pay for 3G on her iPad). Is it worth it to you? I’m not sure (but I’m not saying this to mom, as I had to defend 3G ferociously to her to make her feel better) – I mean – free WiFi is everywhere these days – as long as there’s a Starbucks /McDonalds right around the corner, you have free WiFi, plus the AT&T WiFi hotspots will also be free – maybe the 3G isn’t really that important?

Update: Mom actually went online to research Kindle 3 some more, and when she found out that it supports Chinese characters, well, that sealed the deal for her. Dad will be pre-ordering it asap!

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Choosing the Right Handheld eBook Reader

Well, I would guess that it’s been hard to be on the fence lately when it comes to buying a handheld eBook Reader, what with the Amazon Kindle, the Barnes & Noble Nook, the Borders supported Kobo and the Sony eReaders slashing their prices. And those are just the ones I know about – maybe the smaller eBook Reader companies have also slashed their prices?

Kindle 2 (Amazon.Com)

For my family, the choice is pretty easy. We are what you might call a Kindle family. When my mom decided that it was time for her to join in the eReader craze, she plunked down $139.99 for a refurbished Kindle 2. I’m not saying that the Amazon Kindle is the best eBook Reader out there, but it works for us. Yes, you get tied into Amazon’s proprietary DRMed Kindle format, but that’s okay for us since 1) we all share the same account, and 2) Amazon has made the Kindle software available on virtually every gadget we own.

What does this mean? Amazon allows you to register any number of Kindle devices to the same account, the only limit is that (due to copyright issues), the same eBook cannot simultaneously be re-downloaded onto more than 6 devices. Therefore, when my dad bought a copy of The Passage: A Novel by Justin Cronin for his Kindle DX, that meant that if we wished, my brother could also read it on his iPhone, I could read it on my Kindle 1 or iTouch and my sister could read it on her iPad. Or any of us could read it on the PC or a Mac or even an Android phone. Which is pretty much the same as buying one hard cover book and then passing it around to family members afterwards. (P.S. I’m still reading The Passage, but I am already highly recommending it!) Yes, in a perfect world, the Kindle would have native support for the ePub format, but I know how to convert eBooks from one format to another anyway so it’s no biggie for me.

Graphite Kindle DX (Amazon.Com)

We (meaning the ‘kids’) have no problem reading on LCD screens (heck, believe it or not, I’ve read entire books on my tiny Nokia N70 mobile phone screen!), but my dad really appreciated the e-ink screen, and he’s actually thinking of ordering the new Graphite Kindle DX since he’s read that it has a 50% better screen (called a ‘pearl’ screen). Needless to say, I’m encouraging him since I’d like to upgrade to his Kindle DX 😉 But I think what sold the Kindle to my dad initially was when he got the audio CD of Stephen King’s UR. For those unfamiliar with this novella, it’s a tale of a professor who buys a Kindle (and yes I know this sounds like a Kindle advertising gimmick, which I guess it was), but since this is Stephen King – this is no ordinary Kindle, the professor discovers an UR option that allows him to read eBooks from parallel dimensions. Anyway, I digress – what won my dad over was the ease of use of the Kindle that the book’s professor demonstrated – just take it out of the box, turn it on, buy the books and start reading (while charging very rarely). No messing around with the computer or cables or figuring how to do this or that.

Now, you may have different needs, so a Kindle may not be the best thing for you. For example, my sister reads a lot of scanned PDF Technical books that are in color. The Kindle can’t deal with that as well as her iPad. Or you may prefer to borrow all your eBooks from the library. In that case, it’s better for you to buy a Nook or a Sony Reader since they have native library book support. I myself used to borrow a lot of books from the NYPL, but although the NYPL has a pretty good eBook catalog, they only lend out 1 copy at a time (so I started to just buy eBooks).

Anyway, whatever your choice in the end, just remember the main point of the eReader, you gotta start reading those books! (ETA : If you want a quick overview of virtually ALL the readers out there, check out this Wiki Ebook Reader Matrix page!)

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