We knew that the Nook would shake up the e-reader market, but it looks like it is having a major effect very quickly. Amazon will be canceling the US-only Kindle by consolidating their family of 6″ Kindles, lowering the price to $259 from $279.

On top of that, in some countries limited web surfing has been unlocked on the device so that they can take full advantage of the Kindle. The competition is heating up.

Amazon is preparing to launch its Kindle application for Windows PCs. The app will let you download and read content that was previously available for the Kindle. There’s also an iPhone app already available. You don’t need a Kindle to use the Kindle app for Windows, but you will need to create an account.

The thinking is that Windows 7’s new touch features might make it a good reading platform, plus it gets the content into more hands. Don’t worry Mac users, yours is coming soon. Maybe on a Mac Tablet.

I am not a big fan of alternative OS’; I prefer to use what I know and what my software works with in the form of one flavor or another of Windows. I do admit that Android has my interest piqued and I would like to play with the OS a bit. If you feel the same way, the Acer Aspire One with Android and Windows XP is available for pre-order now.

Amazon.com is offering the netbook for pre-order at $349.99 with free shipping. That is a great price considering the machines has both Android and Windows. Other specs include a 10.1-inch screen, Intel Atom N280 processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 160GB HDD.

The Archos 5 Internet Tablet has been available for just a couple of days, but now Amazon has stopped all orders for the 160GB hard drive-based Archos 5 device, placing the item “under review.”

Amazon says that “customers have told us there may be something wrong with our inventory of the item”. This is not good news for Archos. However, the 32GB flash-based version is still available for pre-order. Hopefully the issues, whatever they are, can be fixed quickly.

Well look what we have here. Archos has finally released their latest PMP, with the Android-based Archos 5 Internet Tablet now available from Amazon here in the U.S. and from other retailers the world over.

Right now, only the 160GB ($389.99) and the 32GB ($369.99) models are available for purchase. The 500GB ($499.99) model is still in pre-order limbo. The other capacities that were previously-announced will presumably come later.

After months of waiting and some competitive pressure from other e-reader players, Amazon finally goes international with the Kindle. Now you will be able to wirelessly download content in over 100 countries. Other than that the 6-inch device is the same. The $279 price tag on the Kindle U.S. & International Wireless is $20 more than the standard Kindle.

Speaking of the standard Kindle, the price has fallen from $299 to $259 and is now called the “Kindle U.S. Wireless”. You can place your pre-order now, and figure out what books will read well in foreign lands on October 19th.

You’ve probably been thinking about getting yourself Nokia’s E71. If so, hang on there partner. You may want to take a moment to consider the E72. Might as well since Amazon has now started to take pre-orders for the Nokia E72.

All signs point to the E72 being just as successful as the E71. Looks like it will cost you $469 unlocked, and it will be available in Zodium Black, which is way better than plain black or even pitch black. Besides, that’s your only choice.

The online retailer is getting into the consumer electronics market with the AmazonBasics line, a line of low-cost accessories. No worries, the products all come in “frustration free” packaging. Those products include HDMI cables, Ethernet cords blank DVDs and more.

Jeff Bezos has committed to expanding the line “in the coming months” and the products will be eligible for free shipping if you order $25 or more. Americans can begin ordering today, but the international scene will have to wait a bit.

They may have taken the first steps in Frustration-Free Packaging last November, but now Amazon is ready for the next phase. I think we can all appreciate this one. Most of us are tired of struggling with the packaging that our gadgets come enshrined in.

Amazon is making good on their promise to kill clamshell plastic cases and other annoyances. With partners like Fisher-Price, Mattel, Microsoft and Transcend, Amazon has now announced that Kingston is also getting behind the initiative. David Sun, co-founder and chief operating officer of Kingston is also pointing out the eco-friendly benefits of the decision. Awesome news.

If you’ve been putting off that pre-order for the new PS3 Slim, you might want to get moving on it. Amazon US has warned of shortages for the new slim PlayStation 3 when the system launches next month. It’s limiting Slim sales to just one per person per household.

It’s five-Slims-per-person in the UK, which doesn’t seem fair to us. Sony in Europe isn’t worried, since it has “trucks and trailers” of the new console already on the road . Are they taking a page from the Wii playbook and spiking demand? We’re not sure. All we know is that you best get your order in.

Panasonic is making a lot of people happy today. This morning it gave all of its Viera Cast Blu-ray players support for Amazon’s Video On Demand service. The feature lets the company’s more advanced disc readers from 2009, stream purchases and rentals directly from the reader without needing storage for a complete copy. You don’t need a matching Panasonic TV and it supports HD with a fast connection.

An update to add Amazon’s service should be available for free today and will go well with existing support for Picasa photos, YouTube videos and the other services already available on the Blu-ray players.

In the old days we blamed it on the dog, but today we can blame our gadgets. In this case, the Kindle. When Amazon pulled the novel 1984 from thousands of Kindles earlier this month, Justin Gawronski’s electronic notes for a summer assignment instantly became useless.

So now a class action lawsuit has been filed that seeks punitive damages for those affected by the deletion as well as an injunction that stops Amazon from improperly accessing Kindles in the future. Despite the fact that Bezos did apologize after the 1984 fiasco, most will likely agree that they had this coming.

I am not a big fan of buying new mobile phones. I am with AT&T and I think that the sales people at my local store are mentally deficient. Every time I have ever been in the store it takes a good hour, most of which is waiting for one of the goons to stop harassing the person there before me to buy a memory card and a case with their phone.

Next time I need to upgrade, I might just go online and order. Amazon has launched a new wireless phone offering called AmazonWireless, which is in beta right now. The site offers mobile phones and plans for sale without having to mess with rebates and all phones include free two-day shipping.

How time flies. It’s been about five months since Amazon introduced the Kindle 2 e-reader. To celebrate, or maybe just to move more units, the company has slashed $60 off of the price tag, giving it a US price of $299.

Now that it’s under $300, they should be able to move more of the devices. The e-reader market is getting more competitive, so it’s a good move. Question of the day. Now that the Kindle 2 is under $300, does it make up your mind to get one?

Jeff Bezos wants the Kindle to have some healthy competition. That’s why Amazon just released their source code for all the Kindle devices. It’s basic Linux underneath (kernel 2.6.22 on the latest 2.1 software), but includes E Ink drivers and other hardware support.

We don’t know whether Amazon stripped out its various DRM and licensed codec support, MP3 and Audible seem very likely candidates for explosion, even if turns out Amazon did leave in its own Kindle Book DRM. Hopefully manufacturers can take and repurpose this code to build their own Kindle clone.