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The potential usefulness of ebook reading devices for travelers has not escaped the attention of bloggers and journalists. For example, we’ve recently noted a review from a Sony Reader user who was about to take the Reader along for a week at the beach, another review about taking an Ectaco jetBook along on a cruise vacation, and the Amazon Kindle’s presence on Time Magazine’s list of “gotta have” travel gadgets.

Concierge.com has also weighed in on the topic of ereaders for travelers. Tom Loftus recently explained why he views the Amazon Kindle as the “most important piece of travel technology since the inflatable neck pillow”:

Say you’re on the road and you suddenly realize that you must have–must have!–Oprah’s new book. All you need to do is turn on the Kindle and connect to the store. (The connection is through Sprint’s EV-DO network. It’s free.) You’ll have to pay for the book, but it will be cheaper than the dead-tree version. Or, if you wish, you can download sample chapters for free.

Earlier, a gear review at Concierge.com discussed the value of the Sony Reader to travelers. Noting a perceived tepid response to the Sony Reader in some quarters, the reviewer had this to say:

To these arbiters of judgment, I offer a single and uncontestable fact: My 80-day circumnavigation would have been much less pleasurable without my Sony Reader. Thanks to it, I was able to take part–whenever I wanted, and for long, memorable stretches–in one of my most favorite of activities: reading.

So if you have a getaway planned for these last few weeks of summer or the upcoming Labor Day weekend, you might want to think about giving the ebook reader of your choice a “field test” during your getaway.

A recent post at Blog Shop Review states a preference for the Amazon Kindle over the Sony Reader.

I have owned the first generation Sony Reader since last December, and read over twenty books on it, and just recently purchased the Kindle. While the Kindle is not perfect, it is superior to the Sony Reader in several meaningful ways that make it a far superior choice[.]

The first reason listed for the Kindle preference is available books: “[T]he number of books available for purchase for the Kindle is at least triple the number available from Sony.” (We have noted here at eReader Central that Sony did recently announce support for the EPUB format in the updated PRS-505 Reader, which serves to increase the number of ebooks that are compatible with that model of the Reader.)

In addition, the Blog Shop Review stated that with the Kindle, “[b]uying books is far easier; they are transferred directly to the Kindle without having to be downloaded first to a computer.” Other features listed as in the Kindle’s favor include screen contrast, available font sizes, the ease of changing pages, and the number of books that can be held in the device’s memory.

“Get set–though I don’t know when–for the era of e-reader/cellphone hybrids,” says TeleRead.

It’s difficult to predict who will win among competing display technlogies, the article says.

Who knows which display tech will be dominant? Or whether another company –Sony, or Apple maybe?–might beat Amazon to the marketplace with a full color equivalent of the Kindle blended in with a cellphone. It’s bound to happen, however.

Correctly, while discussing an extra £25 million that the U.K.-based Plastic Logic won in funding from Amadeus Capital Partners and others, PC Pro News noted the Kindle-related possibilities of flexible screens. Flex plastic would not just be more rugged but also lighter and cheaper, and the company says that phones, along with laptops, are another target beyond e-readers alone.

Over at the Dragonsept Arts & Publishing blog, there’s a user review of the Amazon Kindle. From the blogger’s perspective, the Kindle’s screen is its strong point:

The screen of the Kindle is where it really shines. The resolution is crisp, and it is incredibly easy to read. The text comes out black-on-gray, and very sharp. There is a bit of pixelation at the smallest resolution, but it’s still much better than reading on a small LCD. My preference is settling on the second-smallest text, which is one size lower than the default from the factory. The screen flashes all-black for a moment when changing pages, presumably to reset the electronic ink. It takes less than 1 second to change pages, a very acceptable time.

The weak point identified by the blogger is the lack of open standards compatibility. “Sadly, the only open standards the Kindle natively [are] .txt and HTML. However, it supports Mobi, which you can create from PDFs and other formats without cost. One can also get documents converted to the Amazon format for free by sending them as an attachment to an email address unique to your Kindle.”

Overall, the blogger gives the Kindle a good grade.

I really, really like this device. . . . The electronic ink is a huge improvement over light-emitting screen types. The screen size is wonderful - and this from someone who thought he never cared about the small PDA screen before. The cover that comes with it makes it very easy to hold on to, and protects the screen nicely. It would also be a great place to clip on a book light, if you need to read at night without bothering a bed- or room-mate. I would like it if it supported more formats, but I am content that I am not locked in completely to Amazon’s format.

Do you own a Kindle? We’d love to have your comments and thoughts on. your Kindle experience.

The blogger at The Blue Skunk Blog writes that he’s been using the Kindle “for a solid month. I’d like to be able to say that I either love it or hate it, but I can’t. The reading experience isn’t better or worse than a paper book, just rather different. And there have been some surprises - fewer of a technical nature and more of those that are behavioral or social.”

The blogger notes, among other things, that he’s “amazed at the body of support that has already developed around the Kindle. Stephen Windwalker is releasing the draft of his book The Complete Users Gide to the Amazing Amazon Kindle. Lots o’ blogs, discussion groups, etc. ‘I was so busy learning how to use the book, I never got around to reading it, ‘Groucho might now say.”

With the blogger keep using the Amazon Kindle?

You better believe it - I’ve got $360 wrapped up in this puppy. It works great for trips. It’s much easier to read at a table when eating alone. It has features I’ve not yet explored enough. And it does become transparent when the reading material is compelling. It just needs to be priced much, much lower to find a popular market.

Connecting the Dots takes a close look at issues of textbook affordability, textbook sales, and tools and devices such as the Amazon Kindle and the rumored-to-be-in-the-works Apple Tablet.

It’s not just about the tools and technologies to build and deliver a replacement for highly expensive paper books. It’s all about aligning incentives, but here’s the kicker: I don’t think the solution is going to come from government, advocacy groups, those buying the books, open source/open content initiatives like Wikibooks, or even the backpack police concerned about kids and college students schlepping huge and heavy materials around, but rather from a vendor or vendors who deliver a platform, provide tools, and a device that will capture the imagination of everyone concerned.

The article continues:

Think for a moment about the opportunity represented by a combination of a development platform with tools, a way to combine content that delivers most of it on a device but has connection to the internet and application functionality in “the cloud”. There could be tremendous upside potential in an ongoing stream of content updates, connections with other students . . . and the textbook would become a living, breathing and dynamic offering vs. something the college publishing industry manipulates in order to maintain revenues and gross margin.

The future holds sontinued growth in sales Amazon Kindle and Kindle-compatible digital books, according to a Bloomberg News article at Seattlepi.com.

By 2010, Amazon may get 3 percent, or $741 million, of its revenue from sales of the paperback-sized reader and digital books, according to Citigroup Inc. analyst Mark Mahaney, a Kindle user. That’s up from this year’s 0.3 percent, or $60 million, he said.

The Web retailer cut the price of the Kindle, which Newsweek magazine called the iPod of books, to $359 from $399 in May. Amazon initially sold out of the white, 7.5-by-5.3-inch reader within 5 1/2 hours of its November release, [Amazon vice president Ian] Freed said.

The article noted that electronic books figure in the plans of publishers Simon & Schuster, and HarperCollins.

Kindle users include, the article added, include Martha Stewart, and The Washington Post’s Donald Graham.

Ugolino’s Teeth recently examined e-books and ereading devices, and the effect of PDF book giveaways on hardcopy book sales, from the perspective of the working writer.

E-books, in other words, are not books and those who have suggested that giving away free novels will increase sales have yet to prove their case. Pdfs are like the little samples of food they give away in supermarkets — good for publicity, but not enough by themselves to fill a belly. They are not product.

A real test will come with the mass arrival of e-ink readers. With devices such as the Sony Reader, or the Amazon Kindle, we are entering a world where, for the first time, the e-book experience is every bit as valid as the printed page. Sure, there are a proportion of people who collect physical books and have to have them at any cost. But most of us, just want to lose ourselves for a few hours in Carribean Steampunk. Giving away an e-book to the owner of a Sony Reader, is the equivalent of giving them product and makes it very unlikely that they will buy the real thing. In fact, the offer of a free softcopy of something they had already been considering, might well lead to a slight dip in sales.

The Ectaco jetBook - it’s not just for lovers of the color Burgundy anymore. PR News Now reports that the jetBook is being made available in a variety of colors, and with additional accessories:

As the release of jetBook has become a market success, Ectaco Inc. presents it in new colors. Now, in addition to the Burgundy edition there will be White, Gray and Graphite jetBooks. The line of jetBook accessories has also been extended by the Earlight (a spot-light device which allows reading in darkness with more comfort for the eyes) and the Silicon Sleeve (a skin-thin transparent dust protection cover). More accessories and colors are on the way . . . .

Ebook devices are drawing worldwide attention. CIOL in India views the sales of these devices as driving demand (and vice versa):

Amazon.com’s Kindle has proven there is a viable market for eBooks with shipments expected to reach 1 million units in 2008, according to iSuppli.

“It’s possible that Amazon’s Kindle could do for eBooks what Apple’s iPod did for MP3 players,” said Vinita Jakhanwal, principal analyst for mobile displays at iSuppli. “Indeed, there are indications that Kindle sales in the first quarter of 2008 surpassed its total sales for the entire year of 2007.” Sales of eBooks will be propelled by demand from key markets, including:

* Education, including textbooks, reading and reference material, electronic dictionaries and organizers,
* Consumer markets, such as novels, magazines, guides and newspapers,
* Professional segments, including trade publications, manuals and product literature, and
* Other areas, such as government documentation, military maps and religious books and material.

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