Not quite sure e-readers are for you? They are a significant expense after all, and not everyone is ready to leave those delicious smelling pages behind. But you're in luck if you live near Bexar County in Texas. They're about to open the nation's first bookless public library system.

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Thanks to another crowdfunding victory, the PengPod, a $100 tablet capable of dual booting Android and a full desktop version of Linux, is becoming reality. The PengPod is expected to start shipping to IndieGoGo contributors next month. Anyone else who wants to get their hands on one will have to wait, but the kind of audience that would want a $100 Linux tablet is probably made up of people who would kick in $100 to an IndieGoGo project to make one happen. I only wish I had heard about this sooner.

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Amazon doesn't seem content to wait until next week to start with the holiday offers. It just released the Wi-Fi enable version of its new Kindle Fire HD five days ahead of schedule. That means that holiday shopping season is officially upon us, and even a little faster than usual. At this rate, we'll all be doing our shopping for next Christmas by sometime around President's Day, and will probably just skip the other holidays altogether.

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The trick to being a drug dealer, or so I'm told, is understanding that one must build a clientele. The key to financial success is to offer a taste for free in order to hook folks. You're want to provide a service, after all, not just score a single sale. This mindset is also apparently shared by Amazon, as they make no profit on the sales of their Kindle Fire HD or Paperwhite. Amazon's profits instead come from the odds and ends purchased via these platforms.

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Amazon's big press conference has wrapped and before you ask, nope, we did not get an Amazon phone. We did get several new Kindle options, including the Paperwhite, which could be the new weapon of choice for users interested in a pure, stripped down, e-reader. Keep reading for specs and impressions on what Amazon is bringing to the tablet party this time around.

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There is no doubt in anyone's mind that after the stupendously successful launch of the Kindle Fire last year -- and the amazing surge in tablet use that followed -- that Amazon will be trotting out new hardware soon. In fact, some reporters have even touched prototype devices. However, the number of new devices has just doubled from previous reports. This could be a big year for Amazon.

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We've been hearing rumblings about a new Kindle Fire for months now, but only little hints of what such a device would look like. Now, some loose-lipped developers are saying that Amazon tipped them off to a device with a nicer screen and slightly different design. That should put some big smiles on the faces of consumers.

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Reporters have held Amazon's forthcoming illuminated E Ink Kindle in their hands, and rumors about three new devices being unveiled this year have been floating around for weeks. Now a new report says that we can look forward to seeing those new products beginning this July when Amazon is rumored to unveil the first of its new reading devices. The sooner we can put an end to doofy Kindle booklights, the better.

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At Geekosystem, we've talked an awful lot about the rising popularity of eBooks which seems to have been driven in some part by the 2011 holiday season, where consumers bought up huge numbers of Kindle Fires and other tablet devices. However, it seems that Amazon's buying frenzy was short lived, with shipping numbers for the Fire tanking in the beginning of 2012.

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We've written about how the 2011 gift-giving holiday season was something of a sea change for tablets and eBooks, but a new bit of research from comScore concluded that it was more one sided than you might have thought. According to them, of all the Android-powered tablets in the U.S., 54.4% of them are Kindle Fires. Though great for Amazon, that could be a problem for Google.

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Back in September of last year, Amazon bucked the trend on eReaders and launched the full-color touchscreen Kindle Fire tablet. Unlike the previous Kindles, which had highly readable e-ink, the Fire was deigned to give users a more functionality -- all backed by Amazon's growing media infrastructure. Now, it seems that the popular Fire might have some new friends coming this year.

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Amazon.com, the go-to online website for discounted products and lazy shoppers (myself included) is about to test out an actual physical store location to sell its products. If successful, you could soon have an Amazon store in your neighborhood. 

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You know, I thought it was kind of funny when Amazon named their latest Kindle, Fire. It made me think about book burnings and specifically, Ray Bradbury's classic dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451. So it was even more interesting when I read the news today that 91-year-old Bradbury finally conceded to transferring his famous novel to the digital format. That's hot. 

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Though analysts had been expecting it, Barnes & Noble booksellers announced a new addition to their eReader line today: The Nook Tablet. However, calling this device an eReader is something of a disservice, as this latest Nook aims to be the hand-held multimedia device that also lets you read books on it. Now where have I heard that before? Here's what you need to know about the new device.

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This morning, editorial director of Marvel.com, Ryan Penagos, live tweeted from Barnes & Noble's NOOK event in New York City. Why was the Marvel employee in attendance? In addition to revealing their new Nook tablet, Barnes & Noble announced they would soon be carrying Marvel digital comics on the device in their first-ever electronic pairing with the bookseller. 

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The Internet has been buzzing about the possibility (the inevitability, really) of a new Kindle-branded Amazon tablet for a while. Now it's finally here. Announced officially at an Amazon press conference this morning, the Kindle Fire is the newest addition to the Kindle family and brings some remarkably new functionality to the Kindle we're familiar with, all for a competitive, come-at-me-iPad price of $199.

So, let's break it down, the Kindle Fire is a touchpad. Although it only has two-finger touch support, it has touch support, which sort of elevates it to the big boy tablet arena. As for physical specs, the Kindle Fire operates on Android, weighs about 14.6 ounces and has a 7-inch touchscreen which clocks in at around 3 inches smaller than competitor iPad. Whether you see that last bit as an advantage or a flaw is matter of preference.

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