Today I was watching the news and they were giving money-saving tips for the holiday shopping season. One of the tips was saying ‘No!” to extended warranty plans that many stores try to talk consumers into when buying electronics. This got me thinking about ebook reading devices and whether or not it’s worth the extra money for an extended warranty.

Personally, I’ve had a good experience in the past with an extended warranty. When I bought my first laptop in 1999 (a Compaq Presario) I purchased the extended warranty, not really knowing any better. Little did I know this would pay off big time. A few years later the screen on my laptop suddenly stopped working.

I took it into the store where I purchased it and they replaced the screen for free. My laptop also had other problems that required lengthy and expensive repairs – at no cost to me thanks to the extended warranty I purchased.

I calculated the cost of the repairs to be about as much as the laptop was worth when I bought it.  I really lucked out. Since then I’ve had a pretty good feeling about these warranties because, let’s face it, electronics can be fragile and tend to break down at the worst possible times.

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If you find yourself needing to write on the go, but lack a solution that doesn’t involve napkins and back of receipts, then you’re in luck. Now there’s a high-tech solution that allows you to write all you want on your iPhone or iPod Touch (aff link) with an app called My Writing Nook.

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Ebook readers appear to be on the minds of a lot of people this holiday season. The Barnes & Noble Nook won’t be shipping until January 4 now because of unexpected demand. And Sony can’t guarantee shipment of their new Sony Reader Daily Edition for Christmas. If you’re going to buy an e-reader for yourself or someone else, you need to act fast.

The popularity of ebooks is definitely on the rise. There are a lot of newcomers to the world of ebooks and they are finding it a daunting task to choose a device that best fits their needs. I have been getting a lot of questions about which ebook reader is best. While I can’t speak for everyone, I can give some practical advice for those seeking to make ebooks a part of their daily lives.

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With the holiday season in full swing I thought it might be a good idea to give a quick overview of some of the most popular ebook readers on the market. I’ve included some important specs and the price of each unit.

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At my local B&N store there has been a lot of interest in the new e-reader Nook. I’ve heard more about this device since it has been announced than I ever did about any of the Sony Readers or the Amazon Kindle. Something about Nook is resonating with the reading public and the device won’t even ship until the end of November.

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Ebooks are only a part of the digital revolution we are seeing in the world. Everything is becoming digitized; from literature to music and video. Computers are the new entertainment centers. Access to vast amounts of information is now at our fingertips and it’s only going to increase over time.

There’s one new literary magazine start-up that is helping take literature into the future. The quarterly publication is called Electric Literature Magazine. They are using more than just ebooks to help sell literature to a wider and more diverse audience.

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The Barnes and Noble Nook digital reader has officially been released. I know this news has been bubbling all over the interwebs for the last day or so, and I’m a little late. But I still wanted to jump in with my two cents (for whatever that’s worth). Overall, I think the Nook is great for the ebook industry. It is one more choice for consumers and gives much needed competition for all the other e-reading devices on the market.

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In an earlier post I wrote (Should ebook readers be multifunctional?), I argued that for the most part, when I sit down to read, I want to read with few distractions. I don’t a bulk of my reading on my Sony Pocket Edition Reader and have found myself doing less reading on my iPhone. Call me a purist, but sometimes I just want to read.

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When a new ebook reader hits the market, or I browse through forums, blogs, comments and the general discourse about ebook readers, there is a small undercurrent that I find interesting: People want ebook readers to have more functionality than just reading ebooks. At the very least, most want to browse the internet. Let’s also not forget that many readers today are able to play MP3s as well.

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Earlier in September I purchased the new Sony Pocket Edition (PRS-300), which I gave a detailed review of here. The Reader itself is great. It sports a crisp display with plenty of contrast between the text and background. I love it! But the software Sony makes you download to buy their ebooks and load them onto your Reader is a totally different story.

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