eReader News: Kindle For PC Beta Out, Nook Shipments Pushed Back

Good news for Kindle users who are eager to read books on their PCs: the Kindle software beta is out. Readers with Winodws XP, Vista or 7 can download the software and start enjoying their Kindle books today. Kevin at JKOnTheRun reports that it even runs well on a netbook. While the software performs pretty much as one would expect, Kevin noticed a few annoying drawbacks: users can’t make notes or highlights from the PC software though they will sync from the Kindle and there’s no zoom or image rotation yet. Sync to the last page read does work, though, which is my favorite feature on the iPhone app as well. Read Kevin’s full thoughts here and download the beta there.

Bad news for nook users — or, I should say, nook pre-orderers. It seems that the new eReader is so popular already that Barnes & Noble is pushing back the ship date from late November to the second week of December. This appears to only affect recent pre-orders. Those who jumped on the bandwagon a few weeks ago will still get theirs at the promised time. Mary Ellen Keating, senior vice president of corporate communications and public affairs at B&N said: “Like with any hot, new consumer device, the sooner you order it, the sooner you receive it.” Indeed. At least the nook will still be out by the holidays. (Thanks, CrunchGear)