Amazon and Barnes & Noble may be swiping the limelight, but it didn’t stop Sony to take a page from Amazon in the intensifying competition to dominate the fast-growing e-book market, and it added a few chapters of its own.

The electronics giant introduced the Reader Daily Edition, its first portable reader, which will use AT&T’s 3G network to wirelessly download books, newspapers, magazines and other text. It is similar to Amazon’s Kindle, which uses Sprint’s network. But unlike the market leader, Sony’s unit will have a 7-inch monochrome e-ink display and will accommodate several e-book formats, including ePub, which many libraries use for the electronic editions that they lend. You can highlight blocks of text and add notes with the included stylus, or use the on-screen keyboard if your handwriting is illegible. All notes can be exported and printed out for easy reference. There’s also an onboard Oxford American English Dictionary that allows you to look up a word by simply tapping on it.Measuring just 0.6″ thin and weighing only 12.75 ounces, the Reader Daily Edition joins the already announced Touch Edition PRS-600 ($299) and Pocket Edition PRS-300 ($199), with the exception of the wireless connection and larger screen. Battery life is rated at up to 2.5 weeks from a single charge, though you’ll only see that sort of longevity if the wireless is shut off. Switch it on and you’re looking at more like a week’s worth of use.

This latest e-book reader will cost $400 when it hits the shelves before Christmas. It would be a pricey gift, but for now, it’s not really an option at all without a guarantee to arrive before the end of the year. Maybe they should take a cue from B&N and have those e-readers ready to ship and under the tree by December 25.

e-book readers have become popular since the introduction of Amazon’s Kindle. Just count how many new e-book readers we have seen recently and how many new companies have stepped into what used to be [almost] Amazon’s advantage. And now, here’s another company called Spring Design offering us another e-book reader. It is called Alex and it is very similar to Barnes & Noble’s nook. Its 6-inch display is monochrome e-ink [not colored], yet it also has a secondary 3.5-inch color screen, it is also based on Google’s Android platform and it comes with 3G and WiFi.

Moreover, the LCD touch screens on both turn off when you start reading on them. And they have similar dimensions. They both have a speaker, support MP3 playback, support EPUB and PDF and a multi-touch touch screen that supports gestures. Then there are the dissimilarities. First, the nook is actually out and you can check it out at Nook.com, while Alex is still in the labs without any word when the thing will be released. Second, B&N charges for RSS feeds, while Alex will get them to you for free because it has a more flexible Android.

There are also page turn buttons on the sides of the Alex, rather than running along either side of the e-ink display, while the usual Android keys are clustered around the lower LCD. Bottom line, it all seems a lot more flexible than Barnes & Noble’s nook – even though they’re both Android-based. This could be one killer device. No idea on pricing details, but you can expect the Alex e-book reader from Spring Design to be released to the masses before the year is over.

US bookstore giant Barnes and Noble jumped into the electronic book reader market dominated by Amazon’s Kindle, unveiling a week ago, a wireless touch screen device called the “nook.” This latest gadget may not be the first wireless ebook reader we’ve seen, but with its dual display, color touch screen, compact form-factor and Android OS, it is perhaps the most distinctive. Let’s talk about its features thoroughly, shall we?

nook, the first e-book reader to run Android, Google’s operating system written for mobile devices, features not only a 6-inch E-ink screen but a color touch screen that allows you to navigate content and also can turn into a virtual keyboard for searches. Nook is also the only e-book reader to offer both 3G and WiFi. In a neat trick that takes advantage of Barnes & Noble’s brick-and-mortar stores, the nook lets you read entire e-books for free in-store.

Meanwhile, you can also send your own copy of an e-book [which can be accessed through PCs or smartphones] to other users for two weeks at a time, using the LendMe feature. The nook will integrate with Barnes and Noble’s eReader app for iPhone, iPod Touch and BlackBerry, saving not only your place in the e-book but showing any notation or markings you’ve left on any platform. Those notations can include bookmarks, notes from the on-screen QWERTY keyboard or highlighting.

With nook, you can also get endless shelf space. With 2GB of memory, you can store up to 1,500 e-books, newspapers and magazines. Need even more space? Just add a memory card for storage of up to 17,500. An entire library light enough to take with you everywhere, so you’ll never be without your favorites.

Priced at $259, the nook is expected to begin shipping next month, you can pre-order it now!