Rim (who produce BlackBerries) have unveiled their new tablet – the Blackberry PlayBook. It will be officially launched in December 2010. It has a seven-inch screen with touchscreen and WIFI, with 3G and 4G capabilities on the cards. Amazon and Kobo have both launched ebook reading apps for the Playbook.

http://bit.ly/cJ8dAb

Primarily intended as a marketing tool, Kindle for Web beta has been launched, which allows you to try out first chapters of Kindle books on a web browser, without having to download or install any software.

The link below has it embedded, so you can sample the various display options; the same as those available on most Kindle platforms: ability to change font size, words per line, line spacing, choice of background colour of white, black or sepia.

http://bit.ly/cXSaIr

This week brought the official launch of Blio, a free multiplatform ebook reader from KNF-B Reading Technology, a company founded by futurist Ray Kurzweil in cooperation with the National Federation of the Blind in the US.

Unfortunately, it’s not yet available in the UK – the launch was for North America only. Also, though it is supposed to be accessible, the website claims that an accessible version will be available in October. More to follow as and when.

http://bit.ly/9qxcqn

Speaking as a UN Ambassador for Peace to WIPO, he launched his “declaration of freedom for people with disabilities”, challenging delegates to make an agreement to boost access for VIPs by the end of the year, and promising a celebration concert if it is achieved. He said: “We must declare a state of emergency and end the information deprivation.”

http://bit.ly/b8e6pw

Amazon have released an updated version of their Kindle app for Android. New functionality includes the facility to speak a word or phrase to search within a book.

http://bit.ly/9qqlrO