You’ll be forgiven for just glazing over during CES and ignoring all those ebook readers that were raining down , but Liquavista ’s attempt at marrying the endurance of e-paper with the desirability of color is well worth another look . The company has now furnished its LiquavistaColor dev kit with a QWERTY keyboard and also recruited Texas Instruments into the fold, whose OMAP system-on-a-chip is doing the grunt work under the hood. The video after the break indicates that touchscreen interaction is also planned, but the most impressive thing has to be the total lack of any redrawing pauses, which may be the considered the biggest drawback to the many E Ink devices out there. For the more conventional monochromatic crowd, we’ve also grabbed video of the LiquavistaBright, which replicates the rapid refresh skills, but omits the keyboard and OMAP in favor of a more compact form factor and Freescale iMX5x hardware. Slide past the break to see it all

It was threatened , and thus now available. Hit up the BlackBerry App World to download the free Kindle app now—but only if you live in the US. And are happy paying up to a tenner to read a book on a 2.44″ screen. [ THINQ ]

We know that some of you chaps are still waiting for your Barnes & Noble Nook to arrive, but by now, we’re hoping that the vast majority (read: all) of you that were jonesing for one can finally say that yours is in-hand . For those that got one during the madness that is the holiday rush (or yesterday… that works too), we’re interested to know how you’d do things differently. Are you kosher with the dual-screen approach? Is the user interface smooth enough? Would you tweak the e-book buying process?

TechCrunch has run a dubious-sounding piece , quoting sources as saying Amazon’s working on a scheme to give each Amazon Prime user a free Kindle. With an annual membership to Prime costing $79 for extra-fast shipping, they’d be losing $120 from the retail value of the first-gen Kindle. While I don’t think it’ll be offered to the one-month trial members, it would definitely encourage more Prime sign-ups—and therefore, more Amazon purchases. Still, to give away a free Kindle sounds way too generous, even for Amazon. [ TechCrunch ]

Hey, that Nook reader thing? From Barnes & Noble? You can actually buy one now. At least, starting this week. Probably! You can check here starting Wed

Yinlips is jumping on the e-reader bandwagon with a 6-inch, touchscreen E Ink reader all its own. While we don’t have full specs for this think-looking little guy yet, we do know that it supports a wide array of file formats, supposedly gets around 20 hours of battery life, and that it’s got an FM radio with recording functions. There’s no word on pricing, other specs, or even the official name of this product yet (possibly just ‘E-Book’?), so make your suggestions in the comments, and we’ll try to get word to Yinlips for you. Yinlips busts out a 6-inch, E Ink-boasting e-reader originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds

The company that supplies Amazon with its Kindle displays is working on touchscreen electrophoretic panels according to Digitimes. This doesn’t necessarily mean Amazon will be using them, considering their recent snap-up of Touchco . Scott Liu, chairman of PVI (which bought e-ink mid last year) reckons their color pressure-sensitive touchscreen EPDs will support animation this year, hinting at the possibility of being able to do more with e-ink than read books. Full of grandiose plans, Liu also hinted at flexible EPDs using TFT LCD components—something we’ve already looked at previously .

Pre-ordered Nooks have only just started arriving on people’s doorsteps, but already Barnes & Noble is planning firmware update 1.2 for new units, with already-bought models having to wait a little while longer. No clues on what 1.2 will hold for the ebook reading-customers, but it’s apparently being released “this week.” Tick, tock. [ Engadget ]

The pair of Samsung-borne e-book readers we espied at CES just became a trio. E6 and E101, please give a round of applause your new on-screen brother, the E61 (pictured next to Kindle). What sets this guy apart from the rest is a physical QWERTY keyboard, but otherwise boasts a 6-inch, 600 x 800 resolution screen and all other amenities found in the E6, including a removable battery should you find yourself thousands of pages into a book and no charger in sight. PC Professionale was on hand to get hands on with the device, and we also spotted a touchscreen keyboard on the E101 — nothing to write about, but it’s good seeing just how we’ll be navigating the dictionary when needed.

In what we’re hoping bodes well for future Kindle iterations, Amazon ’s pulled out its credit card and picked up New York-based startup Touchco, who specializes in — you guessed it — touchscreen technology. The company will be merged with Lab126, a.k.a. the Kindle hardware division. Here’s why we’re excited: the startup claims its interpolating force-sensitive resistance tech can be made completely transparent, works with color LCDs, and can detect “an unlimited number of simultaneous touch points” as well as distinguish between a finger and stylus. Current cost estimates put it at less than $10 per square foot, which The New York Times says is “considerably” less expensive than the iPad / iPhone screens.