Every few weeks some researcher comes out and says that we're a nation of celebrity gossip consumers, we don't read properly anymore and our attention spans are the same as a gnat's, so why then are 1.33 million more of us now in possession of a shiny new Kindle?

That's right, an estimated 1.33 million eReaders were unwrapped on Christmas day in Britain, with many referring to it as a "Kindle Christmas."

We're not suggesting everything on a Kindle is insightful and a joy to read, you can still download trashy eBooks and magazines, but they also open up a whole new world of easier (and often cheaper) access to all kinds of novels, reference books and news publications. So maybe we're not going to all get dumber and forget how to string together a sentence because of Twitter after all.

According to YouGov's Technology and Telecoms analysts, 1 in 40 adults received an eReader for Christmas (or bought one for themselves), with 92% of the devices being of Amazon's Kindle brand.

Despite the digital jump, the gift recieving demographics seem to fall in line with regular book buying habits, with 61% of Kinde's received by women, and over 55 year olds twice as likely as 18-24 year olds to receive one.

Check back soon for our top recommendations about how to carry, protect and look after your lovely little Kindle.

[Via our sister site Tech Digest]

We love Spotify here at Shiny HQ and spend far too much time putting together playlists to match our mood. Luckily it can sneakily be filed under research! There is an upbeat one, an indie one and an angry one...

Yet again the conversation moved on to music today and more precise motivational songs. We got onto this topic as we've just finished reading this new book called Stop Thinking Start Doing which is all about... well stop putting things off and following your dreams. If you want to do something but secretly fear you're never going to do it, whatever that might be, then this book might help you (it's only in paperback now but will be available on the Kindle very soon!)

So we set the Shiny team to the task of collating a motivational Spotify playlist for those times when you need a bit of uplifting music, whether it is a 20 mile jog in the freezing cold, keeping your blog up to date or just doing whatever it is you've been putting off for weeks.

Check out ShinyShiny's cheesetastic motivational Spotify playlist here.

Now the list is nowhere near complete so have a listen and let us know what is missing. And yes we are well aware that there are some cringe-worthy choices in there... Motivational music might make you cringe at times, but there is nothing like a bit of Bon Jovi or Survivor to lift your spirits.

Today high street favourite WHSmith announced it would be selling its first eReader range, the cutely named Kobo.

The popular stationery and book shop has added a new page to its website which claims it's been looking for the right fit for some time now and thinks Kobo is the best option for browsing, buying, reading and storing eBooks.

WHSmith now sells two versions of the new eReader, both with an anti-glare eInk screen and adjustable fonts, the touchscreen Kobo Touch, as well as the basic Kobo Wi-Fi,

Both eReaders will give users wireless access to the Kobo online store which has more than 2.2 million titles (1 million of which are apparently free) and it'll come pre-loaded with 100 classic titles too.

They look a little different to other eReaders on the market and although we can't quite decide whether we love or hate the pearlescent finish and quilted back, it's nice to see something that looks more unusual.

The devices will be available from the 17th of October and The Kobo Touch will be £109.99 and the Kobo Wi-Fi will be £89.99.

As you already know Amazon is set to ignite the tablet PC market with its very aggressively priced 7inch Kindle Fire.

As you already know too the Fire is US-only for now. There are however ways of getting your mitts on one when they arrive on November 15th. One is to grab one from eBay - cheapest price so far is a model with a buy now tag of £179.99 (plus a whopping £39.99 for postage).

The other is to buy one from Bundlebox, a company that specialises in getting US products like the Kindle Fire to the UK. BundleBox basically provides you with your personal USA parcel forwarding address. With your BundleBox address, you can shop at any USA website, using your BundleBox address as your delivery address. No one knows for certain if you'll be able to download apps or even access your Amazon content on it for now. But at the very least you'll be able to use the web browser.

Britons who bought the iPad before it launched in the UK were able to access some apps (essentially free ones and those designed for the iPhone) so maybe it will be the same for the Kindle.

Sony's new e-Reader, the Reader Wi-Fi or PRS-T1, has just been announced at IFA. Sony is dubbing it "the world's lightest e-Reader" and at a mere 168 grams no one's arguing with them just yet.

As well as being light, it's super thin at 8.9mm and boasts Wi-Fi connectivity alongside the ability to borrow ebooks directly and wirelessly from local libraries.

The e-Reader has an "enhanced" touchscreen, although we're not quite sure what that means just yet, as well as an even more advanced kind of E Ink Pearl electronic paper, for clearer reading.

Like Sony's older eReader model, the PRS-350, there's choice when it comes to colour (black, white or red) and according to Engadget, it'll be available in the UK and most of Europe at some point this year. Let's begin that Christmas list...

There's not been any definite indication of price just yet, but the PRS-T1 has popped up on the Sony website already, so expect it to follow soon.

[Via Engadget]

Hard at work on your novel? Angling for a book deal? Well now there's another place online where you can share your wise words with others. Movellas is a Danish based start up that has expanded its offering to include English language books. The format is simple - you write your novel - or at least part of it - upload it to the site and then share it with others on the site as well letting all your friends know via Twitter and Facebook.

It is not a new idea. In fact you can also upload your wise words to Figment, Protagonize, WeBook and WritersCafe too. Or there's also Amazon's self-publishing options too and Lulu also has an ebook facility.

The big question though is whether publishing your book online or creating an ebook will ever mean that your book is read by more than just a few like-minded literary fans. There are of course some very high profile examples of authors who hit the big time after self-publishing. Amanda Hocking's sold millions of ebook via Amazon which ultimately lead to her securing a big money deal with an established publisher. Similarly thriller writer John Locke recently announced he had sold over a million ebooks via Amazon and then produced another ebook, How I Sold 1 Million eBooks, to explain how he did it.

The bit that must start to worry the publishing industry is the plans of writers like Barry Eisler,who turned down a six-figure contract earlier this year as he felt he would make momnoey and have more flexibility if he published the books himself.

Eisler won't be the last either. There is something very attractive about not having to pay money to agents and publishers while at the same time not having someone pushing you to finish a book.

Which brings us neatly back to Movellas and its rivals. I do think it could turn into a kind of MySpace for books. That means two positive things. Firstly anyone who has an idea and can string a sentence together can share their content in the same way that bands do/used to do on MySpace, which is great as it gives would be writers a platform for their work. The sites then might yield a few high profile success stories as publishers pick up on new talent. Perhaps more likely will be people developing ideas and then self-publishing successful ebooks.

The book industry not surprisingly remains sceptical about self-publishing. One of the big criticisms of the format is that it negates the opportunity for an editor to brush up the author's manuscript. This is standard practice within the industry and I am sure that many thousand of novels have been massively improved in this way.

However what about the wisdom of the crowds. Could sites like Movellas mean that readers help shape the work of aspiring novelists? In some ways no one knows better than what is likely to sell and how books can be improved than by people who are likely to buy the books themselves.

E-readers don't fit very snugly in the back pocket now do they, but that may be set to change with the invention of the bendy e-reader.

Researchers at the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan have figured out a way to make bendable electronics out of silk, with the potential of incorporating this into displays. The technology turns liquid silk into membranes that function as insulators for flexible thin-film transistors, and the inventors are now in talks about commercialising the system.

"We didn't know at first that it would be the best material, but after a few months of tests we realized it was quite viable," said university professor Hwang Jenn-Chang. "No one else has thought to try this, or at least no one else has succeeded."

A company called Eleksen a few years ago tried to make electronics controllers out of fabric, but failed to gain traction for the idea despite initial excitement. But technology changes quickly, so maybe the time has come to get bendy.

Sony has just announced that they are launching a reader for both iPhones and Android next month.

The app will bring the same functionality of the Sony eBook to your phone, and has a number of familiar features. You get access to books that you have already purchased from the reader store or can purchase new ones, as well as making bookmarks, notes and highlights on your mobile device.

The reader does not bring anything new to the table and is really just Sony's attempt to play catch up with competitor Amazon, who already has e-reading apps for the Android and iOS platforms .

What? you thought there already was a UK Kindle store? Well actually no there wasn't. Before today UK Kindle owners get routed to the US store when they wanted to buy books. They had to pay in dollars and they didn't have access to the full selection of titles available, only a smaller number that were importable to Britain.

That changes today as the UK Kindle store goes live.

It will mean pricing in pounds, a greater selection and access to some British books that wouldn't be on sale in the US store. We can expect Amazon to start opening country-specific stores all over the world.

Add in the Kindle store Android app that lets you import your books to your phone, and it would establish Kindle as the number one platform for book sale internationally. That's a left hook aimed straight at Apple.

If there's one thing Amazon know how to do well it's sell things internationally so this could see them become the dominant world platform for eBook sale.

These are some sample book prices from the UK Kindle store:

Below are Kindle book prices for a selection of Amazon.co.uk's current Bestsellers:

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest Stieg Larsson £2.70
The Help Kathryn Stockett £2.79
One Day David Nicholls £2.79
The Lost Symbol Dan Brown £3.41
The Legacy Katherine Webb £3.35
Eclipse Stephenie Meyer £3.14
I Shall Wear Midnight Terry Pratchett £8.54
Artemis Fowl and the Atlantis Complex Eoin Colfer £5.84
Eat, Pray, Love Elizabeth Gilbert £3.58
The Third Man Peter Mandelson £11.25

Related: Amazon's new Kindle: cheaper & better

Techie gadgets are often seen as the preserve of the young and hyperactive. But eReaders could be really good for the older generation, even though they're the ones that probably are most attached to the paper and card format.

Apologies to the eagle-eyed, wired-up, Nexus One toting oldsters - but a couple of features on the new electronic readers like the Kindle could make them easier for more elderly readers. They could actually benefit more from the technology than younger people.

Advantages of the Kindle for older people:

Large Text. Of course, a pair of glasses will sort this out too, but one advantage of an electronic reader is that you can make the text as large as you like. If you need large text to read books then limited supplies of large text books in libraries does restrict you to quite a small selection.. An eReader means you can read whatever book you want in whatever size you want.

Text to Speech. The Kindle has an experimental text-to-speech feature which means that the Kindle can read you any English language book out loud. We're not saying it will be good, and of course will come across more like the robo voice on your GPS than like a good audio book, but it's still a nice option for those who tire of reading.

Then add in the e-Ink screens - which means reading from the screen should be as nice as reading off paper and the fact that you can download any book from a vast selection - not limiting you to the local library.

Commenter StephSchriff mentioned the benefits of the simple web browser on the Kindle too - for using as GPS or a quick reference point.

Someone with a smartphone would find that a bit less useful - we'd already have a GPS on the phone, but if, say, you didn't, it's a nice little extra. Bigger screen than the iPhone too..

[thanks to Richard of BBC Northumbria]

This new Kindle. It's half the price it was a month ago and going by the specs, it's way better. What can we say except that we're seriously considering it.

I only wish the exchange rate with the dollar were better so it dipped below £100. The two American versions are priced at $189 (with wifi+mobile internet on 3g) and $139 (just wifi) with the British ones coming in at £149 and £109.

The price drop significantly differentiates it from the iPad, which obviously has more functions but is several price brackets ahead at £429 for the cheapest model. However it's likely that the new cheap Kindle will hit smaller-name brands hardest, particularly where their main advantage was the price.

It's now £10 cheaper than the Barnes&Noble Nook for example.

Why's it better than the old Kindle? With the same screen size, it's smaller and lighter. Books will download quicker - in 60 seconds and pages turn quicker. The battery lasts longer, Amazon promises up to a month if you keep the wifi receivers off and

There's now a web-browsing kit onboard too which will let you look at websites on the easy read screen, read articles for example.

Quick specs:
All-New, High-Contrast E-Ink Screen - 50% better contrast than any other e-reader
New Sleek Design - 21% smaller body while keeping the same 6" size reading area
17% Lighter - Only 241 grams, weighs less than a paperback
Battery Life of One Month - A single charge lasts up to one month with wireless off
Double the Storage - Up to 3,500 books
Built-In Wi-Fi - Connect at home or on the road
Books in 60 Seconds - Download books anytime, anywhere
20% Faster Page Turns - Seamless reading
Enhanced PDF Reader - With dictionary lookup, notes, and highlights
New WebKit-Based Browser - Browse the web over Wi-Fi (experimental)

New Kindle released on 27th August, £139, register on Amazon.co.uk

We may be lukewarm about them over here, but eReaders could revolutionise education in Africa.

A batch of Kindles has been shipped out to a school in Ghana as part of a test by Worldreader.org, a European charity that aims to use Western technology to boost literacy in tropical and third world countries.

When it comes to teaching classes in this Ghanian school, Kindles have big advantages.

1) Kindles are capable of holding up to 1500 digital books. Instead of buying several different text books per student, it can hold books for different subjects and different classes. More for less money.

2) Books can be kept up to date because of the digital download facility.

3) Textbooks can reach new audiences and books by local authors, often in local languages can be read and used. Paper publishing costs make that difficult.

4) Long battery life and negligble amount of electricity needed to charge mean it's a practical gadget

The founders of Worldreader.org believe that e-readers could follow the example of mobile phone which have leapfrogged landlines in developing countries.

Worldreader.org say: the initial Kindle e-readers for the trial phase have been donated by Amazon. However, in order to progress the project, worldreader.org believes that the critical price for the e-readers would need to be around $75 and the foundation is actively seeking corporate partners to help subsidise the cost of the early units.

See also:

As newspapers and magazines rush to create iPad editions for Apple's sleek multimedia device (which we hope will arrive in the UK some day), it seems their efforts at readable e-editions have been pretty poor to date.

Flipping through reviews of newspapers for the Kindle on Amazon it seems that papers haven't really grasped how to make the e-reader editions that are worth the money they are charging for them.

Newspaper websites which are nearly all free seem to provide much better services than the paid-for eReader editions on the Kindle. Particularly poor seems to be British paper The Times which gets a measly 2.5 stars out of 5 for its Kindle offering.

Criticisms include:
a) poor design - the front page only has one story on it
b) UK subscribers have to pay $22 a month to subscribe, US readers only $9.99 - bizarre for a UK newspaper
c) UK subscribers don't get pictures with the stories
d) A lot of content from the print edition, arts coverage for example, doesn't end up in the Kindle version
e) The section divisions are too big and not useful for finding content

We've rung up and asked about the weird subscription model that penalises UK readers, but have received no answer.

Comments from the Amazon page of the The Times' Kindle:

from Robert D Glover: "I had high expectations for The Times when I subscribed. Now after two weeks, I've canceled my subscription. Astonishingly, reading The Times feels like reading a tabloid paper sprinkled sporadically with occasional real news items. [...] In the Kindle edition it is impossible to know which headline refers to a meaty article versus which headline when clicked will lead to a dumb little blurb about a pig farmer who did something interesting with or to his pig."

from Gav: "I live in the UK and use the kindle most days. I've been trying out the Times subscription for a while, but i find it lacks a little something. Pictures. [...] come on news international, i think you need to start delivering the pictures as it helps with the experience and engages your audience.."

from P. McLachlan: "This UK paper is $9.99 a month for Americans but over twice the price if you live in the UK, plus Americans get images but UK customers do not."

Some review are much more positive - highlighting how convenient it is to receive the paper everyday without having to go to a shop to get it, but most agree that the conversion to the Kindle format has been half-hearted.

We hope newspapers get their act together in designing good e-Editions for tablet and eReaders. Given the emphasis on devices like the iPad it seems silly they have put so little effort into making them work.

Turning an inch-thick hinged eBook into the world's largest newspaper kiosk, newspaper and magazine distributors Newspapers Direct have done a deal with eBook the Entourage eDGe to bring hundreds of newspapers to the device.

Subscribers to the PressDisplay.com service can download over 1500 titles to the device from today, over wifi or usb.

Available titles include: The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Globe and Mail, National Post, The Guardian, Daily Mail, International Herald Tribune, Irish Independent, Le Figaro, The Australian, New Zealand Herald, Gazeta Wyborcza, Marca, Bangkok Post, and Kommersant.

A subscription to pressdisplay costs $29.95 a month for unlimited personal use or $199.95 for unlimited business use.

The Entourage eDGe is a netbook-cum-ereader with two 9 inch touch-screens, a battery that lasts for 6 hours of reading and 3GB of memory plus an SD card slot.

Entourage eDGe - $500 on entourageedge.com

An eBook reader on your browser? Yes, that's what we've got here in Monocle, an online e-Reader that lets you embed books on your website in an easy-to-read form.

It works well on mobile too - running from a browser on any internet-enabled smartphone

Monocle is open-source and run under the MIT open license. You can embed a 'book' on any webpage with two lines of code - one to include the library, one to initialize the reader.

"We're concerned that the current ebook landscape is dominated by large companies trying to lock publishers, authors and readers into their devices and distribution models", Monocle's Jospeh Perason said. "We suspect this might be good for those companies, but no good for everyone else. There's a need to open up these fields to smaller players, and to give the consumer -- the person who loves to read books and to 'have' books -- better choices."

Having a browser-based eBook may seem to make a mockery of the whole eBook idea: now it's all just text on a screen innit? However though the difference between Monocle's eBook and a standard screen of text online may seem to be small, it is actually significant. Genuinely quite easy to read and the page-turning clicks are useful and smooth. And as their CEO points out, its open-source, embed-anywhere options will be good for readers.

See more on Monocle

Do you really need to buy a eBook? We looked at the eBook versus iPhone debate earlier, and here we review three e-Reading apps for iPhone.These will also work for iPad of course - when it comes out.

Kobo
www.kobobooks.com
Cost: free on iTunes, various prices per book
What it does: A multiplatform book store. Buy a copy of a new book on your iPhone, then you can also read it on your computer or your eBook, providing it allows Kobe. A good but not complete selection of books - they don't have everything (Generation X for example).
USP: Most other books are bound to one platform, this sensibly lets you take it with you. They also have deals on book prices: all NYT bestsellers are $9.99 and one new book each week is free.
Usability: simple and pleasant.
Wow factor: 3/5 yeah, it's nice. More complete book coverage and guaranteed compatibility with all devices would make this better.
Comment from iTunes: none as yet. Average rating 3 stars.
What to say: "£8.50? I'm not used to paying more than £1.59 for anything on my iPhone."

Free Books
www.freebooksapp.com
Cost: £0.59 on iTunes
What it does: Lets you download any of 23,469 classic books and read them on your iPhone or iPad. Also the option to email it to yourself (or indeed anyone) so you can read it on a computer.
USP: Free books! these classic out-of-copyright books are free, ftw! You're not going to find the latest Harry Potter but lots of 19th century classics.
Usability: You can adjust font size and screen colours, has been upgraded to make navigation simpler.
Wow factor: 4/5 - free is always wow.
Comments on iTunes: "I used it. I've read four books on it so it was worth it. Like finding a library in your basement."
What to say: "only 2,567 pages of the Three Musketeers to go!"

eReader
www.ereader.com/iphone
Cost: free on iTunes, various prices for books
What it does: Lets you download books from a range of stores - out of copyright ones are free, others cost Stores include the proprietary eReader/Fictionwise store, also manybooks.net (for old ones). There seem to be problems with publisher deals on the eReader store however:
USP: In theory this offers both old books and new ones within one app.
Usability: Design is a bit cheesy and slightly too complicated, there's also a compulsory log-in for the eReader store which is a pain to tap in.
Wow factor: 2/5 The complicated design and hitches using the book store set this back.
Comment on iTunes: "eReader for iPhone is better than on any other platform I've tried. If you have a library of eBooks with eReader/Fictionwise then it's well worth installing. If you don't have such a library, then don't bother with this."
What to say: "Argh, I've forgotten my eReader password again."

This has been touted as the year of the e-Book, but e-Books and Readers are still relatively niche products in terms of sales. Many more people will have smartphones than specialised reading gadgets, meaning that they have to carry (and buy) fewer gadgets. So is reading on a phone an acceptable alternative to eBooks or paper? Would you get stuck into Lord of the Rings on your phone? Taking the iPhone as an example of a popular smartphone, let's run-down the pros and cons of reading on your phone.

Three reasons why reading on the iPhone is good enough:
1. It's a nice screen - app developers know exactly what screen their app is going on to and custom build it to fit. A simple layout means that it is a-okay to read a column of text.
2. Pulling an iPhone out on a busy bus or train is so much simpler, it's a one hand job, you don't need to cup it with both. Getting an 10" device out of your bag is more fiddly.
3. It's got 3G, it has got wifi, if you've got signal you'll always be able to get the internet, there's a well set-up connection with iTunes (or other app stores for different phones) you don't need to fiddle around trying to download books from different stores, or pay for a separate 3G subscription if you want internet on the move.

Three reasons why reading on the iPhone is a pain in the ass and you'd be better with an eBook:
1. E-readers use ink substitute e-ink, the screen doesn't glare and it's much easier on the eye. On yes and the screen is bigger.
2. The battery goes on smartphones very quickly, particularly if you're using a lot of functions.
3. Someone texts you while you're reading on your iPhone and you reply or take a call and you have to shut the books application down, go back open it again having lost your place. Grr etc. Okay, multi-purpose gadgets save space but it can get really annoying.

Any thoughts? Vote below:

Related: Samsung eBooks are great: paper-like and pleasurable to use