In an attempt to increase sales of its popular e-book readers, Amazon will now be making them available to purchase from Best Buy. Amazon will offer both kindle WiFi and Kindle 3G at Best Buy stores, and they will add the larger Kindle DX at a later time. It had previously only sold the Kindle though its online stores.

With many other e-book readers available in a variety of stores, this is a smart move for Amazon, It will allow them to compete in the offline market and get more sales.

Amazon.com released an announcement on Wednesday bragging up sales of its new generation Kindles along with touting earlier-than-planned shipping which started Wednesday, two days ahead of schedule. Unfortunately Amazon didn’t exactly say how many of the new Kindles they have sold, but they seem to be pretty sure it’s a lot.

What they did say is that they’ve sold more of this new version in the first four weeks of pre-sales than they have with any other new version. Amazon also reports that the Kindle was still the best-selling item for Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk overall. No doubt this must be partly because the Kindle seems to be the most advertised item on Amazon’s home page.

Amazon says the newest version of the device is smaller, lighter, turns pages faster, can hold twice the number of books and …

According to the New York Times’ Bits blog, some “people with direct knowledge” of Amazon’s plans say that Lab 126 (the division of the company which designed the Kindle) is looking into other hardware. One source reports that such devices are meant to enable easy purchasing of Amazon’s content, which currently includes music, movies, and digital books.

The source also says that CEO Jeff Bezos’ intent for Lab 126 was initially to build multiple devices. They even toyed with the idea of entering the mobile phone market, but Kindle eventually became the focus. Apparently, Amazon’s hardware division currently has about 80 job openings, which would give this some weight.

Amazon still has a comfortable lead over Apple and other competitors in the US e-book market, according to an analysis by RR Bowker. The group claims that Amazon’s Kindle Store controlled 61 percent of e-book downloads.

Barnes & Noble’s store has 20 percent while Sony has five percent. Apple’s market share for the iBookstore wasn’t published at the time of the study, but was less than five percent. Amazon also has the largest device market share, at 40 percent, and reading directly on a computer comes in second.

Amazon.co.uk has started to ship its recently announced Kindle to those living in the UK, and while they were at it, they have also opened the UK Kindle Store. £149 will get you the 3G model, while for £119 you can get the Wi-Fi-only model. Digital books range from £3 to £11.

The UK Kindle Store will have a wide range of titles, with the usual New Releases and Bestsellers. You can pick from more than 170 top UK and international newspapers and magazines. All subscriptions will be delivered automatically to your Kindle, and there’s a free 14-day trial.

Well, that didn’t take long. Amazon only announced the third generation Kindle last week, and started selling it, now it seems that this new lower priced Kindle has been extremely popular as it is now sold out until September. Both the WiFi and 3G models of the new Amazon Kindle are ‘temporarily sold out’ and new orders may not ship until the 4th of September 2010.

Obviously the big draw is the new price. The WiFi only model retails for $139 and a 3G model retails for $189 and the new Kindle is thinner and lighter than the previous model.

Along with new Kindles, come new accessories. Some cases are already showing up for the new Kindle. Both are made of genuine leather and available in a folder-style design with an elastic strap to keep the Kindle safe.

These are lined with soft grey microfiber and since the new Kindle is thinner and lighter, the case is also a little slimmer and easier to carry around. One of these new cases even has a swivel out light allowing you to read in the dark.

Today Amazon set some tongues wagging by running out of stock of the six-inch Kindle. In the first shortage since 2009, the reader is listed as unavailable but more interestingly doesn’t have an estimated in-stock date. Shoppers are simply told that they will be e-mailed when Amazon learns more.

It could just be due to the price drop to $189. The Kindle device did see sales spike after the cut. The timing is curious though, since the next-generation Kindle is rumored to be shipping in August. Hopefully the next Kindle will have more in common with the iPad.

When a better gadget comes along and you are stuck with the old and less flashy version, do you feel ashamed? Richard Stephenson over at Folio recently wrote about how magazine publishers are getting their content onto the iPad, and shared an interesting anecdote about how the shiny, sexy iPad has made some Kindle owners feel ashamed of their “relic.”

I can see that. Feeling frustrated at least. You want the sexy model, but there you are stuck with this old has-been. The iPad is a sleek, full-color touchscreen device where e-reading as just one of its abilities. But to really be ashamed of your Kindle? It’s just a device.

According to a survey, when you compare the reading speed of a paper book with the Apple iPad and Amazon Kindle 2, those devices will slow you down by as much as 10.7%.

The participants took an average of 17 minutes and 20 seconds to read each story, but were found to read 6.2% slower than printed paper when using an iPad and 10.7% slower on the Kindle. The participants apparently complained about the iPad’s weight and the Kindle’s weak contrast.

I just mentioned that the original Kindle was the deal on Woot today. Amazon has also announced a new Kindle DX with a big screen in a new graphite color. The new DX has a 9.7-inch screen and offers 3G connectivity.

Like previous DX models, that wireless connectivity is free. The device has a screen with 50% better contrast than previous models and the screen can be read in direct sunlight. The overall size of the device is 10.4″ x 7.2″ x 0.38″.

Ok, this has been on Woot all day so far, so I’m not sure how much longer you have. If you want a Kindle and want to save $40 off the normal price, you need to hurry. The original Kindle is the deal on Woot today.

You can grab up the original Kindle for $149.99 plus $5 shipping. That is a steal considering the price was only dropped to $189.99 not long ago. This is a real Kindle, not a knock off and it’s not a refurb either.

Sadly, Amazon didn’t just release a new Kindle that does motion video with embedded audio. But Amazon did just update the content for the Kindle app running on Apple devices, which will give a few books some multimedia.

As an example, Rick Steves’ London Kindle Edition with audio/video features walking tours with Rick narrating. Meanwhile recipe books could feature video tips etc. Unfortunately, right now it looks like there are only about a dozen titles classified as “Kindle Edition with Audio/Video”. Amazon seems to be testing the waters here.

Look at this. Just hours after Barnes & Noble came out with a $149 WiFi-only version of its Nook and a $199 3G Nook, here comes Amazon hitting back in a move that should cut into B&N’s sales.

Now the $259 Kindle 2, with global 3G and the 6-ink E Ink display, is now the $189 Kindle 2. Aside from that you can also enjoy free 2-day shipping. Which will you go for? A nook or a Kindle?

It’s been a long bumpy road for the 2.5 update, but Kindle owners in the US can finally have it. The Kindle 2.5 firmware update has been available for international users for a few days and now it’s available for US Kindle owners.

Just leave the wireless on your Kindle turned on, and the magic will happen. The 2.5 firmware update includes the following. Collections: To help you organize your books and documents. Facebook & Twitter Posts: Allows you to share your notes and highlighted book passages with friends on Facebook and Twitter. You can also see what the Kindle community thinks are the most interesting passages in the books you’re reading and now you can zoom into PDFs and pan easily. There’s also Password Protection and more font sizes with improved Clarity.