Rumors of Kindle upgrades are a dime a dozen, and many aren't from the most reputable of sources. But one new report sounds quite likely: Amazon will launch a front-lit version of its Kindle eReader in July, and a new model of its Kindle Fire color tablet closer to the holiday season, Reuters reports.

Online retail titan Amazon.com has seen its stock price soar after the release of quarterly earnings figures that trounced forecasts, with sales skyrocketing in the first three months of the year.

You may have seen people with a Kindle device reading their favourite books at a café or on a train, but you can do can do the same with the Kindle app on your smartphone.

Will the next generation of Amazon's Kindle eReaders feature a dramatic innovation, possibly a color or lighted display? Recent rumors suggest significant changes are coming for the venerable e-reader, which currently has an e-ink display without backlighting or color.

Product names are tricky, there's no doubt about it. If you're not going to use a meaningless string of characters such as "X77-P73" then you've got your work cut out for you because it's hard to find a good name that isn't already taken by some other company. Even internal project names have to be researched, checked that they are OK to use and vetted by lawyers for liability.

Breaking a tradition of sales figure secrecy, Amazon announced that it has sold more than 1 million Kindles per week over the last three weeks.

The Kindle Touch (Wi-Fi + 3G) is the flagship of Amazon's Kindle e-reader line. The addition of touch navigation aligns Amazon's Kindle with its competition, but a few debatable interface and physical design choices reduce my enthusiasm for this product. Still, if you want a connected-anywhere dedicated e-reader, the Kindle Touch (Wi-Fi + 3G) is the way to go; no other e-reader maker currently offers a 3G version.

Ladies and gentlemen: we have a winner in the much ballyhooed tablet war - and it's not a strictly a tablet. Without a doubt, the winner is the old-school, E Ink-based e-reader.

The consensus of most reviewers of the Kindle Fire is that it's useful as a media consumption device, but not as an erstwhile laptop replacement like the iPad. While that may be the case, the Kindle Fire is cheaper than its Apple counterpart, and it still supports a wide range of productivity apps--especially when you take into account that you can sideload any Android application that you want.

Are you still holding out to see what happens with this whole ebooks "fad" before deciding whether to embrace it for your business? Well, the times they are a changin' and there are a variety of reasons that ebooks are outpacing printed books.

If the iPad doesn't succeed as a consumer electronics device--its initial target market--it may find a successful second career as an electronic textbook reader.

If you're concerned about the privacy implications of reading digital books, take a look at a nice guide put up yesterday by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

E-books may have been a niche technology so far, but Google Inc.'s entry into the market could burst the online business wide open.

Move over, Kindle, a new e-book reader is in town -- and it's coming from a newcomer to the consumer electronics universe. Britain-based Interead is the first company beyond heavyweights Amazon and Sony to offer both a hardware reader and a sales pipeline for acquiring ebook content.

If the excitement leading up to the introduction of the Kindle DX is any indication, you'd think Amazon would have the e-book market wrapped up and ready to deliver with a tidy pink bow.

Is Apple's rumored "mediapad" entertainment device a threat to Amazon's Kindle e-book reader? I think it is, but the only people who may care are current Kindle owners, some of whom may end up wishing they had waited on their purchase.