Reading e-books on tablets can be very convenient. You get to interact with your e-books and won’t have to carry heavy books around. But did you know that these devices could cause us neck pain? A study done by The Harvard School of Public Health suggests that tablets could end up causing neck pains for many of us over the long run.

Tablets are very convenient devices to use. But the way people hold them when using them can be problematic. If you are using your neck muscles heavily to support the weight of your head, you are going to end up with neck pains in the future.

If you think about your position when you are hunched over looking down, your head is hanging out over space, so you are using your neck muscles to support the weight

explained lead writer of the Harvard study Jack Dennerlein. The good news is the study found out that people who use tablets do move themselves more often than people who rely on laptops and desktop computers to get things done. The eye strain caused by tablets is much less as people spend less periods of time looking at tablets.

Tablets are not really to blame here. Just like any other gadget, people need to pay attention to how they use their iPads, Kindle Fires, and NOOKs. Picking up a decent stand or mount for your tablet would help too. It will be interesting to see how tablets affect other parts of human body.

We have covered DODOcase products for tablets and e-readers here in the past. They are quite solid and elegant. Just in time for Valentine’s day, DODOcase has released new special edition cases for the iPad and Kindle Fire. These “Love Me” cases are a tad bit more expensive than regular cases by DODOcase. The iPad versions set you back $79 whereas the Kindle Fire versions cost $69.

The artwork of the Love Me cases is courtesy of of Curtis Kulig. The Vintage Love cases have an ornate gold design and look quite sophisticated. These cases offer decent protection for your tablet. They are handcrafted in San Francisco. DODOcase products are not very cheap but they do offer you a good bang for your buck. The special edition cases by these folks look even more sophisticated.

With this app installed on your computer, you can send documents to your Amazon Kindle devices much faster (with a right click on your computer). This app also lets you print any document to your Kindle. Planning to send multiple documents to your Kindle? Send to Kindle provides support for that.

Send To Kindle is not available for Mac OS at the time of this writing. Amazon is expected to offer that in the near future. With this app on your computer, you can send your documents to your Kindle and archive them conveniently. There is a lot to like about this app.

Do you like Send to Kindle? How would you improve it?

To access the Kindle store on your iPad, just log on to www.amazon.com/iPadKindleStore using your Safari browser. You can then start buying and synching your content using the Kindle Cloud Reader. The company was forced to rely on HTML5 based solutions to target iOS users due to Apple changing its policies towards publishers. The current store looks sleek and is very user friendly. Cloud Reader syncs your content across all your Kindle apps.

The iPad owners do have other e-book stores to count on. But Amazon does have some of the best prices around when it comes to e-books (even though publishers are trying so hard to make e-books even more expensive). With the Kindle store for iPad, Amazon won’t have to give Apple a cut of its sales.

Amazon Kindle offers a long battery life. The device can go for weeks without having to be charged. Having a way to charge your device anywhere you are is ideal though. That’s exactly what the SolarFocus case for Kindle 4 offers. It is a solar lighted case that not only provides you with a portable light, it also includes a reserve battery that can power your Kindle or e-reader light.

The case has a 800L bright LED reading light. It comes with a 1500 mAh battery inside which extends your reading time and powers the light. Its LED indicator shows you how much battery you have left.  Owners not only get to use the power of the sun to charge the battery inside their case, they can also use a USB connection to get the job done. One hour of charge under the sun gives you up to 3 days of reading time.

This solar-powered Kindle case is only compatible with the latest generation Kindle. It should be available for the Kindle Touch later this year. The SolarFocus case will set you back $80 though.

Those of you who own a Kindle Fire won’t need a reading light to read on your device in dark areas. But that is not the case with other Kindle devices. The Kapsule Lightstand is a cool accessory that completes your E-ink Kindle. It provides you with enough light to get your reading done anywhere. It has a slide-out kickstand that holds your Kindle Keyboard and lets you go hands free.

The Kapsule Lightstand has a retractable gooseneck which lets you adjust your light. It does not consume too much energy which is nice. It also has a power management chip that keeps your Kindle from losing battery charge when it is turned off. This light goes behind your e-reader so you barely see it when using your device.

If you are looking for a unique Kindle light, The Kapsule Lightstand is well worth checking out. How would you improve it?

The business of making cases and accessories for devices such as Amazon Kindle can be quite lucrative. It is no secret that Amazon sells a ton of Kindle units each and every year. M-Edge Accessories is behind some of the most popular add-ons available for Amazon Kindles. M-Edge is now complaining that Amazon is using its power to bully the company and even hijack its products.

M-Edge developed a very successful product line: personal electronic device jackets with multiple features for the Kindle and other e-readers. Amazon thereafter repeatedly sought to hijack the product through threats, deceit, interference with M-Edge’s customer relationships, and patent infringement.

Amazon is seemingly demanding an increased commission rate on M-Edge Kindle cases. The folks at M-Edge claim that Amazon executive Jay Marine threatened to de-list M-Edge from Amazon.com if the company did not pay up.

M-Edge had to retroactively pay the difference between the 8% fee and the 25% fee for all of January, 2010. That amount was approximately $600,000; a sizable sum to M-Edge. M-Edge refused, pointing to its existing, three-year contract which it had just signed in November of 2009.

Amazon is one of the most innovative companies around. But it has acted like a bully in the past. In fact, most large companies do that once in a while. It will be interesting to see how successful this lawsuit will be. M-Edge products continue to be listed on Amazon.com at this point.

Amazon used to completely block the Android Market on Kindle Fires in the past. That has changed with the recent Kindle Fire update. That does not mean you can start downloading apps from the Android Market on your Kindle Fire though. It will be only a matter of time before hackers release a solution to get around this. The good news is rival e-reader apps are showing up in the Amazon App store.

You can now use Kobo, Wattpad, and Bluefire apps on your Amazon tablet. It is not clear why Amazon was hiding or blocking some of these applications. It is nice to know that Amazon is listening and taking steps to make its device more customer friendly.

Kindle for iOS is now integrated with the Amazon Cloud service. Users can send documents to their Kindle using their Send-to-Kindle email address. The documents get archived in the cloud and can be downloaded on iOS and regular Kindle devices. Last but not the least, the Kindle PDF reader lets users to open PDFs from Mail or Safari.

The updated app is now available for download in the App Store. The app did crash on us a couple of times when browsing through it. The PDF reader is fast but the app seems less stable than before.

How’s been your experience with the new Kindle App?

SwingHolder Floor Stand for iPad: you can use this stand to hold your iPad anywhere in your house. You can use this to read while you exercise, cook, or lie in bed.

padHolder stand for iPad/iPad 2: has an adjustable 40 inch base and works for both iPad and iPad 2. It does not take a whole lot of space which is nice.

Levo Kindle/iPad Stand: the ultimate floor stand for anyone who owns a Kindle and an iPad. You can use this to watch videos, read, or surf the web on your device. When you are done with it, just push it out of your way. It feels quite solid too.

TaoTronics TT-HS01 Rotatable Floor Stand: works for tablets, e-readers, and everything in between. It has a super flexible neck. The 360-degree rotatable aluminum bracket is pretty helpful too.

Brainy Tablet Desk/Car Mount Holder: holds your tablet in your cubicle or car. It has a stretchable and adjustable swiveling gooseneck. Works in your bedroom too.

These stands hold your tablet/e-reader for you and make your experience using them more enjoyable. They are worth checking out if you plan to use your e-reading devices hands-free.