Until relatively recently, buying music meant going in to a shop and picking up a CD. Now, all you need is a computer, an internet connection and an MP3 player to instantly download any song you like.

The revolution in the music industry has been driven in part by the success of devices such as Apple’s iPod, which made it easy to download music from iTunes and transfer it on to a device.

Amazon has been leading the charge with its Kindle range in the US, which have won plaudits from the likes of Oprah Winfrey. A large-screen Kindle, dubbed the DX, was launched last month, and is aimed at students who can load electronic textbooks on to a single portable device.

None the less, for some people, the dog-eared paperback cannot be bettered. Many ebook readers are expensive, and getting novels on to the device can be tricky for the less technically minded.

That’s where a British company is hoping to change things. Interead, based appropriately in Reading, has launched a range of colourful, easy-to-use readers that might just persuade people to start dabbling with electronic books.

At £189, its Cool-er is substantially cheaper than Sony’s Reader, which costs around £220. It’s also available in lots of funky colours, and even has its own bookstore, meaning purchasing books and loading them on to the device is as easy as dragging and dropping a file on your computer.

The Cool-er looks rather like a giant iPod, is available in many of the same stylish shades as Apple’s music players, and has a familiar click wheel to flick through pages and navigate menus. It’s thinner than an iPhone, and, at 178g, it’s half the weight of many other ebooks, including Amazon’s Kindle.

Neil Jones, Interead’s founder, believes this portability could be the key to its success: “We have created a reader that is light enough to fit into a jacket or a purse and attractive enough to be reading it publicly.”

Jones says the idea for the Cool-er was born from the frustrating experience of getting a book published. He found himself caught up in endless bureaucracy, and believed not only that there must be a quicker way for authors to get work published, but also that there was a more elegant way to deliver that content to readers.

It took just six months to take the Cool-er from drawing board to production line, but Jones believes it meets the needs of ”normal’’ people, not gadget fiends. “Cool-er has been designed to fit the requirements of a reader. They want it to be portable, light, to fit in a jacket pocket or purse, and they want it to do what they want to do in a simple manner.”

This, he confidently says, could be the “iPod moment that ebook readers have been waiting for,” while he believes that over the next year, his company will be able to build a significant user base that will see behind only Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader in terms of sales.

In time, says Jones, Cool-ers will boast wi-fi, so that users can download books straight on to the device, rather than transferring them by USB or memory card. Likewise, the price, too, should drop.

In fact, he believes the Cool-er could be the start of a new chapter for the publishing industry. “This is not just about technology,” says Neil Jones. “It’s about being a lifestyle accessory.” Well, it worked for the iPod; who can blame publishers for taking a leaf out of Apple’s book?

Cool-er ebook reader: is this the iPod for books?

Jitterbug sells bare-bones handsets and no-contract service plans geared toward seniors and other consumers who don’t make heavy use of cell phones. One of its phones, the Jitterbug OneTouch, has dedicated buttons for the Jitterbug operator, one preset number, and 911 in place of a numeric keypad. Jitterbug has service and roaming agreements with many CDMA (Code-Division Multiple Access) operators around the country.

That phone, as well as the standard Jitterbug phone with a keypad, have been recalled because they can’t be used to call 911 emergency lines in some areas where they should be able to. Manufacturer Samsung Telecommunications America is recalling about 160,000 of the phones for a free software upgrade that can’t be done over the air, according to Jitterbug Founder and Chairman Arlene Harris. There have been no reported accidents or injuries caused by the phones, according to a notice by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Users would only run into the problem in rare circumstances, according to Harris. In an area where there is a CDMA network but Jitterbug doesn’t have a roaming agreement with the carrier, the phones can’t be used for regular calls and users receive an “out of range, try again later” message on the handset’s screen. While the phones should still be able to reach 911 through the local network, the recalled handsets cannot.

Customers could only encounter this problem in a few small areas of the country, Harris said. Samsung is conducting the recall voluntarily and is helping Jitterbug reach its customers by letter. Phones purchased from Jitterbug today don’t have the flaw, Harris said.

Samsung recalls 160,000 Jitterbug phones

Rubin claims the releases will come from 8 or 9 manufacturers with faster adoption seen in Europe as US carriers try to “create highly distinctive versions of the Android phone to give themselves an edge.” Sure, edge, if that’s what you want to call the US cartel of hoops and handcuffs then go right ahead. Interestingly, Rubin also further clarified the three flavors of Android which break down as follows:

• Google-free: Free to download version of Android without Google applications like Gmail or Google Calendar. Access to Android applications is at the whimsical fancy of the manufacturer.
• Strings attached: Same as above but manufacturers sign a distribution agreement with Google and pre-install the Google applications. Of Rubin’s possible 20 phones, 12 to 14 fall into this category
• The Google Experience: Phones featuring the Google logo with all Google apps installed and includes unrestricted access (neither the carrier nor handset maker can block applications they find objectionable) to the Android market. 5 or 6 of the 20, Android phone mentioned by Rubin will deliver the full Google Experience as god and Sergey designed it.