Looks like we have some early images of Barnes and Noble’s e-book reader. As we covered before, this thing is supposedly set for a Spring 2010 release, with a color display.

Then there was word that it would not have a color screen. But it looks like there is truth to both of those rumors. Apparently the dual-panel device will feature a typical e-ink display on top with a multitouch panel underneath. Think of it as a Kindle/iPhone mashup.

Sony just released its Reader Daily Edition wireless model that sports 3G. The Daily Edition is the latest in its line of Readers, along with the Reader Pocket Edition and the Reader Touch Edition. The Reader Pocket Edition has a 5″ electronic paper display and comes in navy blue, rose and silver for $199.

The Reader Touch Edition sports a 6″ touchscreen panel in red, black or silver for $299. The newest, the Reader Daily Edition lets you stay connected wirelessly through AT&T’s 3G mobile broadband network to Sony’s eBook store. The Daily Edition Reader will be sold through a bunch of retailers incuding Best Buy, BJs, Borders, Sam’s Club, Staples, Target, Toys “R” Us and Wal-Mart.

Jointech has announced their new JE100 ebook reader, a 7-inch device that uses an LCD touchscreen instead of an e-ink display. Based on Windows CE 5.0, the Jointech JE100 will not only boast Mobipocket Reader, MSReader and eReader support, but also likely play back video and audio files together with viewing and editing Microsoft Office documents.

Inside it features a 400MHz CPU, 128MB of flash memory and 64MB of RAM. Transflash cards up to 4GB in capacity can be used to boost storage, and it rocks two USB ports: one a host, for plugging in external peripherals and the other a slave, for hooking up the JE100 to a computer where it presumably mounts as an external drive.

E-reader maker iRex promises to deliver a high-tech color, writable ebook reader by 2011. They claim that this device would have a brightness level three times that of the existing additive color electrophoretic displays, thanks to a system of subtractive color mixing.

Subtractive e-ink technology is compared to physical printing whereby colors act as filters to absorb portions of white light striking them and reflect back the desired hue. The additive system mixes together backlit or illuminated colors to create hues, often requiring filters that can reduce overall quality.

It hasn’t really been a secret that Google wants into the ebook market. Now it’s happening. Tom Turvey (Google’s director of strategic partnerships) says that the program will be ready by the end of 2009. Details are still a bit scarce, but according to The New York Times, the plan involves selling the books at prices set by the publisher.

This is a departure to the rather strict Amazon pricing guidelines that sees most Kindle titles selling for $9.99 (Many publishers don’t like that). Also, the company will be selling readers online access to the titles. This means that access to your books won’t be limited just to a specific device, but it will require Internet access and some sort of off-line caching.

Here’s an e-book reader that does things that the Kindle 2 won’t. Like fit in your pocket and have built in PDF support. The reader weighs in at just 5.3 ounces and packs a nice resolution of 200 DPI. Some other features include a 6″ display, 1GB of flash memory that can accommodate ePub, PDF, HTML and text formats. You’ll also have access to a catalog of 150,000 books.

Software features would let users pick one of 12 font sizes for readability as well as let owners organize e-books by folders. Battery life will give you about 8,000 page flips, which is quite a few novels(Or one Robert Jordan Wheel Of Time novel.) No 3G wireless feature, but you’ll get 21 days at standby.

Here’s yet another E-Book contender. Much Cool-er than the Kindle if it’s name and fancy color is any indication. The Cool-er is by Neil Jones, an avid reader and entrepreneur. It boasts a larger selection of titles and will target an early June release date.

How many titles? It comes complete with 260,000 paid-for titles at launch from all the major publishers. 60,000 of those will be available in the UK and Europe initially. You also get a choice of eight different colors and languages for the Coo-ler.

If you’re paranoid about your credit card info while shopping online, (And who isn’t?) it just got a little safer thanks to the SmartSwipe credit card reader. You might think you’re safe online as long as that padlock icon is displayed in your browser. And you are pretty safe, but not completely, hackers can still access your personal information while it is being entered into your computer and while it is still in memory.

With this SmartSwipe card reader your info is safe becaue your card information is never stored on your computer. The device uses Dynamic SSL technology and the same level of encryption used in bank machines and ATMs.

Peer pressure. It affects companies too. And since everyone else is getting in on the e-book reader craze, why not Barnes & Noble too? That’s the rumor anyway. Why wouldn’t they want a slice of that action? Some “insiders” have supposedly been talking about the possibility.

Just like the Kindle, it would supposedly be connected to a cellular carrier for some connectivity. According to one mysterious someone, Barnes & Noble had been in talks with Verizon, but that didn’t pan out. Now it would seem that Sprint is a possibility. Some aren’t ruling out AT&T.

Here’s a new USB memory card reader from Buffalo that looks nice and offers a faster transfer rate.

The BSCRA49U2 Turbo USB memory Card reader is a 49 in 1 card reader that offers UDMA 8bit High-Speed transfer rate. Pricing and other specs are still unknown, but it obviously comes in four colors.

So simple a solution, that it’s brilliant. Why we have never seen it before now, I have no idea. This mini-USB cable with an inline SD card reader from Brando combines the USB cable and the SD card. In doing so, it wins over our hearts, our minds and various other bodily orifices. The $12 cable will help you transfer files and photos from the SD card and will also assist you in charging your portable devices via USB.

Inserting an SD card will disable transfers from whichever device is hooked up to the mini-USB end to make way for SD card transfers, but the cable will keep charging the device. Once the card is removed, you’ll again be able to shuttle files between point A and point B.

It used to be that bar codes were just for use in grocery stores. That’s not the case anymore. Grocery cashiers have hogged all of that swiping bar code glory for long enough. Personal bar code readers, like ScanLife’s latest for Android phones, allows you to quickly visit Web sites, phone numbers or videos.

It’s a shortcut for typing on your keypad or browsing. You can even create your own bar code on ScanLife’s Web site for quick access to functions that you use on a daily basis. The software has been available as a free iPhone app since August, but now you can download it for Android phones as well.

If you do a lot of cooking, you’ve probably thought about getting a laptop or other device just for your kitchen so you can always have recipes on hand. The Demy Digital Recipe Reader is all you need for your recipe needs. It will show you all of your ingredients so you can make light Martha Stewart. The device is small so it won’t take up much room and it has a touchscreen display.

If you’re looking for something new to eat, it features a recipe database as well. The built-in memory will let you store 2,500 recipes. You can transfer them via USB. As you might expect, it’s splash resistant and even has three cooking timers, a substitutions database and a conversion tool. You can pre-order it for $299 and it will be available by the end of the month.

Boy Genius has some pics of what is in all likelihood the Kindle 2. You’ll notice that this follow-up to the original reader is more rounded, more iPod-esqe, but still in boring white with the same screen. The LCD status bar is nowhere to be seen and a joystick replaces the clickwheel, and so you can avoid accidental page turns, it sports smaller buttons. The SD slot is gone too, since there’s 1.5 gigs on-board, along with grills on back that may mean stereo speakers.

Basically, it’s a lot less ugly. Current Kindle owners can probably skip the upgrade unless the ugliness of the original is really bugging you. No word on the availability yet. Hit the link for more pictures.

This new 3M Mobile ID Reader could soon be used at events or in situations that require tight security. The idea is that it would scan your identification quickly to prove that you are who you say you are. Then you can be on your way in no time. It works like a credit card scanner and it would be used to scan things like your Visa card or passport, cross checking that info with watch lists of those who are threats.

It runs on Windows Mobile 6 and features WiFi, GSM/GPRS EDGE and a fingerprint sensor. It also has 8GB of storage for keeping track of those that have been scanned. That way they can leave all of that data sitting around somewhere and screw us all. Let’s hope not.