Amazon Tablet & rumors: DO WANT!

I've been somewhat following the rumors that have been floating about the potential Amazon tablet. Jeff Bezos has been rather coy about any potential tablets, never really giving out a definite answer as to when or how their own tablet will be released.

It's pretty much a given as to whether or not it will happen. After all, tablets are the "it" thing right now & it'd be incredibly foolhardy for amazon to pass up an opportunity to offer their own version. They're well known for successfully introducing their own ereader into the general public during a time where ereaders were pretty much a non-mainstream item. Even with the strong competition from Barnes & Nobles, Amazon has still managed to keep the kindle relevant, so I'm not surprised that they'd try to repeat this success with a tablet.

But what type of tablet? The rumors have ranged from the following:

*It'll run on android. (Not really a surprise. Android is really popular.)
*It'll have streaming movies. (Again, not a surprise. I expect that the AT will try to do everything the iPad can do.)
*Amazon is expecting to ship between half a million to a million units a month. (This is a little extravagant but I can see high amounts being shipped, especially if pre-existing kindle users get offered a special deal.)
*There are going to be 2 tablets offered. (Sort of doubting this, but it might be a good idea if amazon were to offer a cheaper, simpler tablet for people on a budget. It'd definitely take some wind out of iPad's sails since one of the biggest complains about the iPad is that it's too expensive.)

Supposedly we can expect the AT to appear sometime towards the end of the summer or mid-fall. I have to admit, I'm definitely intrigued. I've been wanting an iPad for a while but the price really deters me from purchasing one. If I could get something that's just as good for half or a third of the price, I'd probably go for it.

Now I need an iPad: Viz releases a manga app!

Hi everyone! I've always thought that we needed more mangas available in ebook format & while this isn't exactly the "manga released for my sony ereader" I was hoping for, it's still a whole lot of awesome.

Viz Media has decided to jump on the app bandwagon, releasing an app that will allow you to download hundreds of volumes of their manga at the touch of a button. So far this is only available for iPad, iPhone, & iPod Touch, although I'm sure it won't be long until this shows up on some of the other products out there. (Or until someone finds a way to upload this app onto their phone.)

As an extra bit of awesomeness, Viz has lowered the prices of some of the first volumes of the offered manga to $2.99, which any manga lover can tell you is pretty dirt cheap.

Not only can you read a ton of their biggest series, but you can also download samples, which is an awesome feature. No longer will you have to fight past the hordes of teenagers that have decided to camp out on the floors in front of the bookstore's manga section. (By the way, this actually happens. I've actually had to step over someone in order to put books away.) Now you can show all of them up by looking up these titles on your phone while you sit in the cafe sipping your coffee. Or on the bus. The sky's really the limit as far as "places I can read manga" goes.

Own more than one i-product? You can bookmark & browse on any of your devices without having to sign up with various different accounts.

While I don't (yet) have any of these products, this gives me a new reason to want one & I can't hope that Viz branches out to the various ereaders. I know that I love reading mangas on my ereader since it's sometimes easier to collect things digitally to save on room. There are some titles I want to collect in paper format but there's just as many that I'd rather have on my ereader to peruse at my leisure. Hopefully this app will show Viz & some of the other publishers out there (for both manga, graphic novels, & "regular" comics) that there is an ereader market to be seized.

(Info taken from Viz's site as well as from the ANN news article)