B&N seems to have finally started shipping demo and pre-ordered Nook Color units. It’s no wonder a ton of unboxing and review pieces covering Nook Color have been published just in the past couple of days. Nook Color is a very interesting device. It may not have an E-ink screen, but it does offer a better Android experience over its predecessor and does not cost too high. The color screen should make a lot of e-book fans happy (as long as they don’t plan to read a whole lot under direct sun light).

Most of those who have had a chance to review this unit are in general impressed with the device. Many were impressed with the improved LendMe feature. The larger screen does make a difference as does the color on it. The battery life has been surprisingly good considering the circumstances (some have gotten a day or two of work per charge).

While Wired.com was impressed with the device, it did see room for improvement for Nook Color:

NOOKcolor may not make anyone with skin in the mobile media reader game happy. It doesn’t have the 3G connectivity or battery life of the Kindle, which makes it harder for road warriors. Even though it’s an Android tablet, it doesn’t have full access to the Android market. It doesn’t have the giant screen and computing power of an iPad.

Do you know who that leaves? Everyone else. Millions and millions of people — who have a phone and a PC, who don’t scour the web for tech news, and for whom a device that costs $250 that does a little bit of everything pretty well and a subset of things extremely well is extremely compelling proposition.

Computer World was also impressed with Nook Color. But it put its fingers on the right issue (lack of an E-ink screen):

NookColor makes a strong case for the color e-reader, and it does so in a far more compelling way than any other device has so far. Still, for all of its screen enhancements, I wouldn’t suggest an LCD e-reader like NookColor if you will primarily use it outside in direct sunlight.

Nook Color does seem to have a lot of potential. It will never be a traditional e-ink type e-reader. At the same time, once B&N allows developers to develop third party applications for the device, the sky will be the limit.

What is your take on NookColor?

Apple is great at hyping up its devices. Sometimes the hype is justified and sometimes it is not. It seems Apple has done more than enough with the iPad to make its hype justified. The device has already received rave reviews from multiple sources. USA Today has already declared the first generation iPad a winner, and it is not tough to see why:

Apple has pretty much nailed it with this first iPad, though there’s certainly room for improvement. Nearly three years after making a splash with the iPhone, Apple has delivered another impressive product that largely lives up to the hype.

Considering that not all gadget blogs received review units from Apple, it’s tough to find negative reviews of the device. That does not mean that the device is perfect. In a matter of week, we’ll have a better gauge for the public’s reaction to the iPad. But so far Apple has gotten the boost it was hoping for from those early reviews.

I don’t know about you, but more can be learned from negative reviews than positive ones. The iPad is a first generation gadget, and it will have glitches and hardware issues (let’s hope battery issues are not among those). Regardless, it has put pressure on Amazon and other e-reader makers to step up their game. The iPad does not take advantage of e-paper technology, so let’s hope these other companies finally make those color e-paper devices we all have been craving for.

How do you like your iPad?

eSlick is another new player in the e-book industry. In the past few weeks, we have heard how so many companies are thinking about getting involved in this market. But eSlick is coming to stores soon, which is why I decided to preview it. eSlick is designed by Foxit and is already available for pre-order online. Dubbed as “this generation’s way of reading textbooks, favorite novels, magazines,” eSlick is a super thin reader (0.4″). It only weights 6.4 ounces which is even lighter than Kindle 2.0. So if you are looking for a super portable gadget, eSlick fits the bill.

I wasn’t too impressed with the internal memory. 128 MB is not merely enough. But the good news is that unlike Kindle 2.0, you can use 4 GB SD cards with this device. The battery seems to be decent as it allows you to flip 8,000 pages before you need a recharge.

Here is what I love about eSlick. It fully supports PDF. Foxit has understood that beating Kindle in its own game can be difficult. That is why it has put all its chips on PDF. And the fact that eSlick uses Linux as its OS is a pleasant surprise. It’s certainly refreshing to see an e-book reader manufacturer fully embrace open source technologies. But I am afraid that alone won’t help eSlick too much. The 4-level gray scale screen is only as good as the first Kindle, and there is no color screen on this device. There is no wireless connection either, which is disappointing.

If this device was going for $100-$200, it might have a chance to take some customers away from Amazon. But priced at $299, eSlick is going to find it difficult to gain any traction in this market.

What’s your take: is eSlick e-book reader worth a try? What do you like about it?

Kindle is a cool gadget. I think people have realized that after it has been around for over a year. But it’s really more than a gadget. It’s a game changer. Have you ever bought a book on Amazon and felt that you could write a better book on the same topic? But what are the chances that you can write a book and have Amazon sell it for you? The chances are very good in the Kindle era.

Kindle has somewhat leveled the playing field for independent writers and publishers. The Kindle platform allows you to create and sell your own books on Amazon, as long as you know your way around the technicalities. Publish Your Book On The Amazon Kindle is just the book to help you publish your book in a flash.

The book is written for folks who want to learn their way around Amazon’s DTP platform. DTP has a long way to go to reach its full potential, but even in beta phase, it works in a decent fashion. The book also covers how you can use mobipocket to get your book to the Kindle store. What I love about this book is not only great content but also the resources provided that you can refer to get things done fast. There are many pitfalls and misconceptions along the way, and I rather know them beforehand. Don’t you?

My favorite part of this book was the coverge of blogging for the Kindle platform. Have you wondered what it takes to make your blog available to Kindle holders through the Kindle store? You’ll learn all about it in this book.

Publishing books on Kindle is a wonderful achievement. And it is not really that hard as long as you know what you are doing. By knowing what to look out for when writing your Kindle book, you can save yourself a lot of headache and get published fast!

Get your copy here.