I’m going to keep this short and sweet because it’s the 4th of July weekend here in the US.

Amazon is making the news again after releasing a newer, upgraded version of their Kindle DX (aff link) which is priced at $379 (down from $489). I’m predicting we’re going to see a lot of e-reader upgrades between now and Christmas – most of which will be released around the holiday season.

That’s it. I hope everyone has a happy and safe weekend. Be careful with those fireworks!

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Reading books was a large part of my childhood. My parents not only encouraged me to read, but also set a good example. To this day, I still have vivid memories of the books I read during my younger years.

One of those books I really enjoyed (and read multiple times) was Hatchet (aff link) by Gary Paulsen. In the novel, a young boy named Brian Robeson finds himself having to survive on his own in the Canadian wilderness after the pilot of the single-engine plane he’s flying suffers a fatal heart attack.

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There is a myth that still prevails among writers and other artistic types: That in order to produce quality, creative work, one must be under the influence of drugs/alcohol. I don’t buy it. Rather, I believe that good writing is a combination of a little inspiration and a lot of perspiration. Hard work is often the key.

I’ve never written under the influence of any drug (except for the caffeine I get from my morning coffee), so I can’t speak from personal experience. However, I have talked to people who have written while high on marijuana and they say at the time, they think their writing is pure genius. But after sobering up and reading what they wrote while high, it’s mostly gibberish.

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I recently got a chance to do a side-by-side comparison of the Nook and my Sony Reader. My main interest was in the speed and smoothness of the page turns.

My (un)scientific experiment showed that the Sony Reader is slightly faster than the Nook. However, the difference is so small that it would be a non-issue if I had to decide between the two.

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Barnes & Noble shook up the ebook world this week by lowering the price of their WiFi + 3G device to $199 and introducing a WiFi-only device at $149. To further stir the pot, Amazon reacted swiftly by lowering the price of their Kindle to $189.

I imagine much of this has to do with the perceived threat of Apple’s iPad. But as I have maintained, B&N and Amazon cannot compete with the iPad on features, they can only compete on price.

Hopefully these lower prices will entice people to embrace ebooks who otherwise would not because of the high cost of the e-readers. I know that once they buy a Nook or Kindle, they’ll be hooked.

That’s all I have for today. As always, have a happy and safe weekend.

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Yes, I watch ‘Family Guy.’ Call it a guilty pleasure, but I’m not apologizing. It’s one of those shows you can sit back and watch without having to do a lot of thinking and get a few cheap laughs.

Believe or not, however, a recent episode I watched dealt with (in the beginning) self-publishing. To give you a brief synopsis: Peter Griffin is disappointed by the quality of the erotica at his local adult bookstore. So he writes a letter to the publisher expressing his views and also writes an example of how he would write an erotic novel.

Peter shows the letter to his friends and they are very impressed with his writing. He writes a little bit more and again, shares it with his friends and with his wife Lois. Everyone loves his work. Then, Lois suggests he self-publish his writing and tells him to ask her father, Carter Pewterschmidt (a billionaire industrialist), for some seed money. Carter gives Peter five bucks.

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The day after Father’s Day, Barnes & Noble drops the price of their Nook to $199 and releases a WiFi-only Nook for $149. Likewise, Amazon dropped the price on their Kindle to $189. I suspect that Amazon lowered their Kindle price in response to B&N’s own Nook price decrease.

Of course, I find it strange both decided to lower their prices after Father’s Day, especially considering how both Amazon and B&N went on an advertising blitz that marketed their respective e-readers as the perfect gift for dads. I wonder how many of these dads who did receive an e-reader will be slightly annoyed that their loved ones overpaid for their new toy.

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I happened to stop by my local Borders store today while running some errands and saw their display for their upcoming selection of ebook readers. Borders already sells the Sony family of e-readers (although the display was quite small and they didn’t have any demo units out).

On July 2 Borders will begin selling 2 more ebook readers. I grabbed some information from the small display and decided to present it here to compare both readers and what they off to you.

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Today’s Friday Link Love is sort of an abbreviated version because I have family visiting from out of town. Hopefully the below links will keep you reading happily throughout the weekend. Next week things should return back to normal here at Brad’s Reader.

That said, have a safe and happy weekend.

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A new post on the Ars Technica blog is making waves around the ‘net today among us ebook enthusiasts. The post, Whatever happened to the e-reader tsunami of 2010? asks where some of these new devices are – most notably the Plastic Logic Que and the Sprint/Hearst Skiff. The post floats one theory, that the iconic iPad has forced new devices from entering the market.

Ars Technica points out that this is only a theory, and there is no way to tell for sure what is responsible for keeping the the Que and Skiff from entering the market.

It was always going to be very difficult for these commoditized products to differentiate themselves from each other, and the fact that they’ll now be competing for whatever is left of the e-reader market after Apple takes its chunk may have been the last straw for some would-be entrants.

No one can deny that Apple’s iPad has had a huge impact in many areas of the tech market, with ebooks being one of them. But as Ars says, we can’t say for sure whether or not the iPad derailed these other products.

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