Amazon debuted a new pair of Kindles today, and instead of taking shot directly at the iPad, it chose to focus on improving its market-leading design–at least for now.

The new Kindle moves into one-handed territory, shrinking down by nearly a quarter while maintaining the same six-inch reading area. Amazon dropped the weight down to just 8.7 ounces. The new Kindles keep the same e-ink display that true readers tend to prefer over LCDs, and Amazon claims that the new generation offers 50 percent better contrast than Kindles of old.

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E-reader prices have recently been going down faster than Paris Hilton after a couple of adult beverages, and for a limited time, you can enjoy the biggest price break yet. Woot has the Amazon Kindle for a bargain-basement price of $150. If you’ll recall, Amazon recently dropped the official price of the Kindle down to $189, so without trying too hard you’ll save about 40 bucks. $35 once you get past Woot’s standard $5 shipping costs.

Woot’s price puts the Kindle at the same price as Barnes & Noble’s cheap, Wi-Fi-only model. In other words, you’ll get the Kindle’s 3G coverage for the same price.

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Well, that was fast, wasn’t it? Earlier today, B&N dropped the price of the standard Nook down to $199, and the very same day, Amazon has done them one better: the Kindle is now $189, down from $259. So it looks like the e-reader market is officially a little more wallet-friendly. No news of a Wi-Fi-only Amazon Kindle to compete with the $149 model that B&N introduced today, but Amazon has done a nice job of offering a 3G-equipped model that much cheaper than the Nook.

I feel bad for anyone that dropped $259 on a new Nook or Kindle within the past month or so. E-reader price wars have really heated up and promise to spark some new interest in the devices. [via CrunchGear]

I’ve long thought that what the e-reader market really needs is a solid selection of cheap, easy-to-use devices that do no more than display book text, and display it well. The likes of the iPad and color touchscreen tablets and dedicated readers can keep the technologically-obsessed market covered, while cheaper devices can appeal to those that actually enjoy simply reading books. People like your mom, grandma and Uncle Walter don’t need all the bells and whistles. They’re used to paying five or ten bucks for a simple paperback book, why would they want to spend $250 or $500 for that privilege?

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The Kindle came to Target a few weeks ago, but it didn’t come to all Targets. It’s been slowly infiltrating retail locations around the country, and Target announced today that the Kindle will be go nationwide beginning this week on June 6. Target is selling the Kindle for the same lovable $259 price that it costs on Amazon and will give customers a chance to get hands on before they buy.

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Amazon CEO Jeff  Bezos was quoted at a shareholder’s meeting yesterday as stating that a color version of the Amazon Kindle is still a “long way out.” Despite making some early moves that appeared like it was going to try to compete on the iPad’s turf, Amazon looks like it will retain the Kindle’s classic, black-and-white e-ink display for the forseeable future.

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Amazon will be releasing an update for Kindle software. The v2.5 update brings a variety of new features that Kindle users may or may not love.

Like every other electronic device out there, the Kindle is now more social thanks to the addition of Facebook and Twitter features that let you share parts of books via the social media sites. A similar feature called Popular Highlights lets you view what passages other readers from the Kindle community liked in the book that you’re reading–sounds kind of like when you’d buy a used book in college and have to read through multi-colored highlighter marks.

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Shortly before the iPad was trouncing both of them, the Nook had a strong month of March and beat out the Amazon Kindle in terms of e-readers shipped. According to numbers by Digitimes, B&N took 53 percent of e-readers shipped in March. Analyst Mingchi Kuo said that the strong showing was due in part to general consumer interest in new products, so the Nook won’t necessarily continue such strong numbers.

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With the recent launches of the Barnes & Noble Nook and Apple iPad, the e-class-leading Amazon Kindle is at a distinct disadvantage: there’s no where for potential buyers to get their germ-infested hands on it and try it before buying it. And there’s no way of comparing it with those other two devices, so if you like one of them, there’s really no reason to consider the Kindle.

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