The Amazon Kindle been the dominant brand of eBook reader, but the Barnes & Noble Nook family has been gaining popularity. I’ve my reasonably happy with my third-generation Kindle, though its user interface has some really annoying stupidities. (Simply typing in a number is pointlessly hard, for example.) Lately I’ve been thinking about getting a Kindle or Nook tablet computer, since they’re much cheaper than an iPad, and while they’re not as capable, I’m not sure I’d use a tablet all that much anyway.

In the past few days there have been some interesting developments. The discount store chain Target (which happens to be where I bought my Kindle) is going to discontinue Kindle sales, instead offering only Nooks and iPads. Meanwhile, Microsoft, which had sued Barnes & Noble for supposed violation of Microsoft patents, has made friends with them. It’s not clear whether this means a Windows-8-based Nook is in the offing.

Meanwhile, Google is supposed to release its own Android-based tablet sometime this summer.

I’ve no idea where all this is headed. In the meantime I’m still mucking about getting my new smartphone working the way I want…

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