GelaSkins Now Sells Matte-Finish Skins for eReaders

I received an email from GelaSkins the other day about how they now sell all their ereader skins with a velvety matte finish instead of the usual gloss finish.

The matte finish helps to eliminate glare, of course, an always important factor with ebook readers. The change only affects ereader skins; all the other skins from GelaSkins still have the glossy finish like always.

This is a good change because that was one of my concerns with the GelaSkin that I put on my Sony PRS-T1 awhile back to help eliminate the glossy finish on the PRS-T1's frame. The skin helped minimize glare somewhat, but the skin itself was glossy so light still reflected off of it enough to make the difference negligible.

Now with the new matte finish skins glare should be a non-issue. And GelaSkins has skins for the major brands of ereaders: Kindle, Nook, Sony, and Kobo. I think I might try to snag one for the Kindle Touch to see what the new matte finish looks and feels like.

I never got around to putting together an official review for the Sony PRS-T1 skin, but I did post this review of the Kindle Fire Steampunk skin.

The problem is skins don’t mix well with the Sony PRS-T1's lighted cover. The cover wraps around the edges slightly so it pushes up the edges of the skin on the front of the device so I had to take it off. Plus I wasn’t a fan of the pink coloration on the design that I picked (choose carefully!). However, I really like the skin on my Kindle Fire and it’s still in great shape.

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Firmware Update for PocketBook Pro eReaders Adds Multitasking and Other New Features

Earlier in the week, PocketBook’s RSS feed pinged about new firmware for the PocketBook Pro line of ebook readers. The actual news article is dated December 16th and the firmware is dated December 15th, so who knows why they waited so long to announce it officially.

The new firmware, version 2.1.2, is for the PocketBook Pro series and includes the touchscreen models and non-touchscreen models—the Pro 602, 603, 912, and 902. The new firmware adds some significant changes. Mostly good.

I have the PocketBook 602 and haven’t used it in several months so I thought I would bust it out (surprisingly the battery was still over half charged) and give the new firmware a test drive.

Here’s a quick overview of the new features:

Multitasking: hold down the back button to bring up a list of recently open books and opened apps to quickly move between them. This works especially well for jumping back and forth between books, and it does it as fast as turning a page. You can have as many as 10 ebooks or items open at a time.New homescreen icons and library view. The library view is much less confusing than it used to be, with more sorting and searching options. The menu fonts and homescreen icons are much darker now too, and operation is generally faster.“Open page” feature shows a preview of the last four opened pages.Touchscreen devices get a new web browser and some new annotation features and can double-tap words to hear them read aloud.Here’s the link to the release notes (PDF) for more complete details.

Overall the new firmware is a nice improvement. However, my PocketBook 602 has frozen up a couple a times while testing it and it sometimes takes forever to initially open an ebook.

Other than that, the new firmware has given me an opportunity to remember just how nice the PocketBook 602 is. It’s built really well and offers a ton of features, including some that no other ereaders have. About the only thing PocketBook’s Pro line doesn’t offer is a Pearl screen. It’s odd that they’re are still using the older Vizplex screens, even if the difference between Pearl and Vizplex isn’t that significant.

To get the new firmware, hit the PocketBook support page and choose your model. The install directions and user guides can be found there as well. Basically, just download the new firmware to your computer, extract it, then drag and drop the contents to the root of the PocketBook drive or memory card. Power off the PocketBook, then turn it back on and hold down both page-turn buttons to prompt the firmware update screen. Then follow the on-screen directions to apply the update.

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Sales and Deals: Tablets and eReaders (1/31/12)

It’s been a while since I’ve done a sales and deals post. Aside from a few deals here and there, since Christmas there really hasn’t been very many sales on ereaders and tablets.

Today there seems to be enough going on to scrape out a daily deals post. If you happen to find a good deal not listed below feel free to add it to the comments.

Also, I stopped by a local Target store yesterday and they had the Sony PRS-T1 on sale for $99. Target’s online price is $129 so it must be an in-store only sale. They also had the Kobo Touch for $99, but it may have been the Special Offers model.

Nook Color and Nook Touch

Once again Barnes and Noble is selling refurbished Nook Colors directly from their eBay store for $129. This is the second lowest price (it was $119 on Black Friday/Cyber Monday), aside from the ongoing $99 bundle deal for a new Nook Color with a year subscription to the New York Times.

The refurbished Nook Touch has resurfaced on Barnes and Noble’s website for $79 after having disappeared for several weeks. The Nook Touch can also be had new for free with a year subscription to the New York Times with the aforementioned bundle deal.

$99 Kindle Keyboards are Back!

A couple of months ago Amazon stopped selling the $99 Kindle keyboard, and then they ran out of $139 Kindle keyboard model too, both Wi-Fi only. I thought that maybe Amazon would stop selling them in favor of the 3G keyboard Kindle and the newer Kindles.

And now suddenly the $99 Kindle Keyboards are back in stock! But Amazon is still out of the $139 model without special offers. It looks like maybe Amazon isn’t doing away with the Wifi-only Kindle keyboards after all.

Cheap Tablets

Here are some tablets on sale. I listed them in order of goodness.

ASUS Transformer – Walmart has refurbished ASUS Transformers for $298. The Transformer sells for about $100 more new. It should be getting a software upgrade to Android 4.0 in a couple of weeks.

ViewSonic ViewPad 10s – TigerDirect has a 10? ViewSonic tablet on sale today only for $249. The ViewPad has a lot of extras like cameras, Bluetooth, microSD card slot, Android 2.2, and a 1024 x 600 screen. The main downside is it has a single core 1GHz processor that is slower than you’ll find on more expensive tablets.

Velocity Micro Cruz T301 – Walmart has the Cruz Tablet T301 for $89. It’s the one I reviewed about a year ago. It has a 7? capacitive touchscreen, comes with the Kindle for Android app, and runs Android 2.0 (there may be a newer version by this time).

PocketBook IQ – For some time now the PocketBook IQ has been selling for under $100. It’s not a bad basic tablet for that price; it’s built better than most cheap tablets like the Pandigitals. It has a resistive screen and runs Android 2.1.

Pandigital Star – Walmart has the Pandigital’s cheapest and crummiest tablet among their new line for $89. It is cheaply made but it has a lot of features for the price, including Android 2.2, an HDMI port, front camera, and it works with Barnes and Noble’s ebookstore.

Cheap eReaders

Here are a few ereaders on the cheap:

Sony PRS-T1 – If your local Target doesn’t have any for $99, $119 is about as low as it has gotten since the new year. B&H has red ones for $118.

Kobo Touch – Buy.com has the Kobo Touch with Special Offers on sale for $79. That’s $20 off the regular price. Special Offers are advertisements that appear on the homescreen and screensavers.

Kobo Wi-Fi – Best Buy has refurbished Kobo Wi-Fi ereaders for $49. This is last year’s Kobo Reader.

5? Astak EZ Reader – Geeks.com has an ereader I haven’t seen in a while, the Astak EZ Reader Pocket Pro. It has a 5? E Ink screen and supports several formats. It sells for $54.99.

Aluratek Libre PRO – Geeks.com has the Aluratek Libre PRO refurbished for $45.99. It has a 5? LCD epaper screen.

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