readers

Whoa! Amazon is selling the refurbished Kindle with Special Offers for $69. And if you claim a free voucher from Amazon Local (available today only), you can get it for $49!

Start by heading to Amazon Local (the city doesn't matter) and clicking Get Voucher. Make sure to complete the process of "placing your order" (an Amazon account and credit card are required), keeping in mind that you won't be charged anything for the voucher.

When that's done, click Your Vouchers (top-right corner of the page). It may take a few minutes to finish processing … Read more

The tablet wars are on.

Just last month, Amazon slashed the refurbished Kindle Fire to $139 (it's now back up to $169). Today, Barnes & Noble (via eBay) is offering the refurbished Nook Tablet for $149 shipped. Just to clarify, that's the Nook Tablet, not the older Nook Color -- which is what you usually see selling at this price.

Update: Yikes! Big goof on my part: this Nook is new, not refurbished!

What's the difference? Physically, they're just about identical, but the Nook Tablet features a faster processor, more RAM, and a microphone. The Nook … Read more

Audiophiliac readers have strong opinions about the gear I cover in this blog, so last month I asked for Readers' Choice nominations in a variety of categories, including headphones, speakers, receivers, etc.. I've sorted through all the comments, and here's what I found: there's a wide range of gear you love, but it was in the headphone category where the clearest winners stood out.

The Klipsch Image S4 in-ear headphones were the single most popular product in the survey, you people really love 'em! Grado SR60, SR80, and SR225 full-size headphones also drew raves, and Koss' PortaPro … Read more

In today's show, Google takes the wheel, Microsoft listens to your movements, and 'resumegate' fires up:

Yahoo's "resumegate" has claimed it's first victim -- but it's not the CEO. Yahoo board member Patti Hart said she plans to not seek re-election to Yahoo's board. She's tied up in the drama because she was in charge of the search to hire the chief executive and vet his resume. The scandal, which has been developing for nearly a week now, surrounds Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson and his bios that claimed he had a computer … Read more

If you hate Facebook social readers as much as the next guy, you'll probably love hearing that the tools, which let you share articles you're reading, are tanking.

In a post on BuzzFeed today, we find that social readers from publications as diverse as The Washington Post, The Guardian UK, Daily Motion, and others, are collapsing. Essentially, users are abandoning the tools in droves. For example, The Washington Post, which grew its social reader to nearly 18 million users last month, has subsequently seen that number crater -- it's sitting at 9.2 million today, according to … Read more

There's something wonderful about gifting someone with a book you read and loved, knowing they'll dive in to the same world you explored through text on a page.

These days, you're likely to find that friends are instead reading their books on an e-reader like the Nook, Kindle, or iPad, a transition that seemingly makes book-gifting a challenge. After all, you can't put a bow on an intangible file.

Gifting someone with an e-book is a lot easier than it seems, but will vary depending on which e-reading device he or she owns. Once you find … Read more

It was just over a month ago that Amazon slashed the refurbished Kindle Fire to $139. Since then, it's been selling for $169 -- still a great deal, but not this great.

Today only, and while supplies last, Amazon once again has the refurbished Kindle Fire tablet for $139 shipped.

Now's the time to score Mother's Day gold. Or Father's Day gold. And don't forget about graduate gold. By which I mean: awesome gift item!

Like last time, the sellout potential here is huge. Even at the new price of $199, the Kindle Fire is … Read more

Barnes & Noble has a plan to attract more in-store use of its Nook e-readers, and it involves near-field communication chips.

The technology -- known mostly for allowing consumers to use their phones to make payments -- will soon be embedded in the bookseller's Nook devices, Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch revealed during an interview with Fortune magazine.

"We can work with the publishers so they would ship a copy of each hardcover with an NFC chip embedded with all the editorial reviews they can get on BN.com," Lynch said in the interview. "And if you had your Nook, you can walk up to any of our pictures, any our aisles, any of our bestseller lists, and just touch the book, and get information on that physical book on your Nook and have some frictionless purchase experience." … Read more

The announcement that Microsoft & Barnes and Noble are going in together on what essentially amounts to a spin-off of B&N's Nook business could prevent an ugly divorce in my household. For those who know me personally, don't worry, my wife and I are getting along just fine, but I can't say the same for me and my Nook Tablet.

Shortly after the Nook Tablet -- an updated version of the popular Nook Color e-reader -- was released in November, one showed up on my doorstep as an early holiday gift from a family member.

At first, I was swept off my feet -- as a writer, I'd resisted the temptation to buy an iPad or comparable Android tablet, holding firm to the close relationship I've developed over my career with hard-wired keyboards, so this was essentially my first relationship with a touch screen. … Read more