In the past few months, we have heard a lot of rumors about Apple’s plans to bring a 7 inch iPad to the market. We are still not able to confirm any of those stories. But iMore is the latest place to hint such a tablet is in the works. According to the site, Apple will go ahead with its 7 inch iPad plan and will release the device in October 2012. How much will it cost? iMore is suggesting the iPad mini will be priced around $250.

There is no word on the exact dimensions of such device. But it will be a scaled down version of the current iPad with a high resolution display (perhaps 326 ppi). Apple is expected to keep its prices low by offering less storage option on the iPad mini (8 GB for the suggested price). The company has been toying with this idea for some time. While Steve Jobs was not a big fan of small tablets, the current management seems more open to the idea.

The introduction of such a cheap iPad could put a lot of pressure on Amazon and B&N. Google is also expected to release its own 7 inch tablet later this year. It will be interesting to see how Amazon will respond. The company is already thinking about subsidizing the Kindle Fire with ads. There is no question budget tablets need to see a cut in their prices to stay with a $200 iPad mini.

Apple has gotten itself in trouble with the government over price fixing. At least that is what the company and 5 top publishers have been accused of. While HarperCollins Publishers, CBS Corp’s Simon & Schuster and Lagardere SCA’s Hachette Book Group have settled their case, Apple is still fighting back. In fact, the company is calling the lawsuit fundamentally flawed.

Apple’s entry into e-book distribution is classic procompetitive conduct … For Apple to be subject to hindsight legal attack for a business strategy well-recognized as perfectly proper sends the wrong message to the market … The government’s complaint against Apple is fundamentally flawed as a matter of fact and law.

The case is now quite complicated for Apple. Considering that a couple of its partners in crime have already settled with the government, it is going to be very difficult for Apple to get out of this unscathed. Attorney General Eric Holder has alleged that collusion has cost consumers millions of dollars on the most popular e-book titles. It is very likely that Apple will be forced to settle too.

Many e-book consumers have come to love those 6-8 inch e-book readers. I personally prefer to have a larger screen to read books more conveniently. That’s why the Kindle DX is still among one of my favorite e-book readers. The ICARUS eXceL is another 9.7 inch e-reader that makes your e-reading experience more convenient. It also has a Wacom touchscreen so you can take handwritten notes on your device.

The ICARUS eXceL takes advantage of the PEARL display technology with 16 gray scales. It offers a 1200 x 825 resolution screen. You get 4 GB of internal memory which can be expanded with a SD card. Owners can view RTF, Epub, PDF, FB2, TXT, Microsoft, and image files on the device. Its user interface is available in 6 languages.

The ICARUS eXceL has a large screen and seems very interesting. It does cost 349.95 euros though. Considering that Amazon could release the next generation Kindle DX with a color screen in the upcoming months, you may want to wait a bit before giving this e-reader a try.

You can use this service to turn a series of articles, tips, recipes, and documents into an e-book. The e-books you create with this service are compatible with the Kindle, iPad, and iPhone. Ebooks can be exported in ePub format or sent directly to your Kindle. Users can also share their e-books on Twitter and Facebook (or embed it on their website).

The e-books you create with this service are pretty basic but readable. They are powered by Readability’s Iris engine. Readlists picks out the relevant content and gets most distractions out of your way. The idea certainly has potential even though Readlists is far from perfect.

[via Verge]

A couple of months ago, we found out about an exciting case that uses indoor light to charge iPads. The KudoCase, formerly known as the LilyPad, is a hybrid iPad case that gives you a lot of bang for buck. For starters, it lets you use your iPad for 10 days without having to charge it. A plug is included so users can charge this case fast. You get more than a backup battery though. The case has a USB power-out port to charge other small gadgets.

The case looks solid and protects your iPad’s body and screen. It can serve as a stand for typing or viewing movies. It is not the thinnest case we have seen but that is to be expected. The KudoCase is eco-friendly too. It has organic solar panels with a housing from biodegradable grains.

We managed to order one of these cases for our review in April. It seems the company is just catching up with their orders. The demand for these cases has been very high which is not a surprise. Need one? It will cost you $199.95.

Those of you who have tried Kindle models with special offers know too well how Amazon run ads on those devices. The company now seems to be toying with the idea of selling ads on the welcome screen of the Kindle Fire. It is not going to be cheap by any means as Amazon is looking to charge $600k or so for this privilege.  That money would get advertisers a two month run time, covering both the front-page and Amazon’s Special Offers inventory.

It will be interesting to see whether there will be too many advertising agencies interested in such an offer. Amazon does have a new Kindle Fire in the works. But it is not clear whether that will get these front-page ads as well. Not everyone is excited about the idea though:

It’s kind of an expensive buy to not get a guaranteed audience and measurement … It doesn’t comply with a lot of our necessary planning rigor,

one agency executive explained. It will be interesting to see how Amazon approaches this. Will the company offer its customers even more discount to run more ads? That remains to be seen.

Remember Lendle? It is the e-book lending site that got in trouble with Amazon in the past (had its API access revoked). The site is back in the news but this time around for a different reason. It is up for sale. The 3 co-founders are looking to exit this business.

We love being part of an industry on the move and taking on some of the tough issues surrounding ownership and digital content, but our primary goal has always been to create the best social-lending site we could build… With that in mind, we’re looking toward the idea of selling Lendle to someone (or a group of someones) who is interested in building upon our successes, and taking the community to the next level.

There is no question that there is a market for social lending. With the right amount of funds, Lendle could move to the next level in its offerings. But Lendle’s business model needs a lot of work. The site has fulfilled 70k loan requests in the past year. While that is decent, it will hardly impress those interested in buying this business.

We do wish the folks at Lendle good luck with their future endeavors. The idea behind the site was certainly exciting. At this point, it is not clear how much they are asking for their business though.

The Kindle Fire may be an affordable tablet but it is more than capable of keeping you entertained at home and on the go. It’d be useless to you when it runs out of battery though (unless you have a way to charge it fast). The Solio Bolt is an exciting solar charger that uses the power of the sun to charge your Kindle Fire. This charger is compact and connects to your device using the included charging cable. It can hold charge for up to 1 year with its 2000mAh rechargeable/replaceable battery.

The Bolt charges from the sun but you can always use a wall outlet to do the job. It provides up to 2 charges for smartphones. It has 2 rotating solar panels to absorb sunlight. The device won’t overcharge your devices. You get all the cables and add-ons necessary to start using solar power to charge your small handheld devices.

The Solio Bolt is compact and gives you charging options when you are spending some time outdoors. It is available for around $50 at the time of this writing.

[via Red Ferret]

The Nook with GlowLight is a pretty decent e-reader. It is compact, easy to carry around, and does not require you to buy a reading light. We have known for quite some time that Amazon has been working on Kindles with front-lit displays. B&N may have gotten its lighted NOOK to the market first but that does not mean Amazon won’t go ahead with its plans.

According to Reuters, Amazon plans to launch a new Kindle with light in July 2012. The details on this device are very sketchy. But the chances of this device not being a lighted e-reader are slim. Amazon is not stopping there though. The company is expected to bring a larger Kindle Fire model to the market by the end of the year.

The Kindle Fire 2 is expected to have a 8.9 inch display. Amazon will have to step up its game to stay competitive in the tablet business though. Speaking of lighted Kindles, they are expected to be a bit more expensive than the current Kindle models. How much? The Reuters article suggests a $10 price hike could be in the cards though Amazon could surprise us here.

Your take: which one do you look forward to owning the most: a front lighted Kindle or one with a color e-paper display?

Amazon has already released a color-screen e-reader to the market. But that just happens to have a LCD screen. The company was supposed to adopt color e-paper a while ago. It may be ready to do so this year. According to DigiTimes, Amazon could make that move as early as the second half of 2012. It has taken the color e-paper technology a lot of time to catch up though.

E-ink did show its latest color screen at the IFA conference last year. Triton displays are low energy displays capable of displaying 4096 colors. At the time, it did seem the technology needed some work to be ready for prime time. But we have already seen devices such as the JetBook Color that use it.

Amazon has decided to wait before the technology is 100% ready before rolling out color-screen E-ink Kindles. That could very well be later this year. The bad news is we have been hearing these rumors for a couple of years now.