School computer labs may be turning into tablet labs. In a new report from Piper Jaffray, which includes feedback from 25 educational technology directors, analyst Gene Munster writes, “Within the next 5 years, our respondents expect to have more tablets per student than they currently have computers.”

Munster points out that 100% of those surveyed use iPads, versus other tablets, so to be even more specific, respondents expect to have more iPads per student than they currently have computers. That is impressive. In addition, 44% of those surveyed said, “that a personalized learning tool is the most significant benefit of tablets. This suggests tablets offer something new relative to computers: a more personal, intimate and individualized learning tool.”

Apple Insider has more: “He noted that Ron Johnson, Apple’s outgoing head of retail operations, recently indicated that the current crop of students may be “the last generation with backpacks,” as students use iPads to replace their books. The 25 technology decision makers in education indicated that devices like the iPad allow for individualized learning better than a traditional computer.”

The Wall Street Journal will begin publishing lists of eBook best sellers, beginning this weekend. The New York Times and USA Today both began publishing bestseller lists for eBooks early this year, but the exciting aspect of this news is that Amazon, Apple, Google and Barnes & Noble will be sharing their eBook sales data with Nielsen for the first time to compile the list.

Jonathan Stolper, VP & General Manager of Nielsen BookScan, released this statement: “As consumers and booksellers continue to embrace the potential of e-books, we are very happy to be working with The Wall Street Journal to produce the most accurate best-seller charts available. These new charts uniquely reflect what people are really buying and reading and will most definitely advance the industry’s understanding of e-book best sellers.”

Mashable has more: “…the Journal will display four lists charting book sales: combined ebook and hard copy sales of fiction, combined ebook and hard copy sales of non-fiction, ebook-only sales of fiction, and ebook-only sales of non-fiction.”

The video above is quite clever. As you can see, the costume in the video is based around 2 iPad 2. They’re set up for a video chat on Youtube. Since he paced one on either side of his torso it looks like there’s a hole throw his body.

It’s clever, but I can think of a better use for the $1k that the pair of iPad 2 cost.

via Youtube

Forty-one and a half percent of nurses own eReaders, and 31.4% of nurses have purchased medical related digital texts. This is according to a new survey from Springer Publishing Company. The study — which interviewed nurses, the majority of whom are nurse educators holding advanced nursing degrees — found that the Kindle is more common among this group that the Nook, as 61.4% of nurses have a Kindle versus 16.8% of them who own a Nook.

The survey also found that the nurses 74.6% own a smartphone or tablet computer. In addition, 53.6% of the nurses have downloaded nursing or medical apps.

Pascal Schwarzer, the Vice President of Digital Business Development at Springer Publishing Company, stated: “These findings indicate the rapid growth of mobile technology use among those in the health care industry, as well as the growing demand for eBooks and mobile applications that serve the professional development and reference needs of nurses.”

Our free eBook today is actually an app in the Amazon Appstore. The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin is a children’s story about the adventures of a square pumpkin. “One day in the pumpkin patch the strangest little pumpkin hatched. Spookley wasn’t like his friends—where they had curves, he had ends.”

The app features optional narration, sound effects, and a page turn effect. Kids can also enlarge each page of the book to see highly detailed original artwork. The app was produced by Oceanhouse Media, an established name in the book app niche. You can find OM titles in iTunes, Android Market, and elsewhere.

via Amazon

In a spooktacular, ghoulicious episode of “5 Things You Need to Know This Week,” we count down our five favorite Halloween costumes. With special appearances by Beyoncé, Blake Lively, Brian Williams, and Brian Williams.

For more videos, check out Mediabistro.tv, and be sure to follow us on Twitter: @mediabistroTV

Barnes & Noble has been quiet ever since Amazon’s big press conference last month which introduced a new Kindle Touch and the Kindle Fire, a tablet eReader.

While Barnes & Noble already offers a tablet and a touch screen black-and-white eInk eReader, Amazon has undercut the book retailer on price offering the Kindle Fire for $199, $50 less than the $249 Nook Color, and the Kindle Touch for $99, $40 less than the $139 Nook Touch.

But today Barnes & Noble announced that they will be hosting a press conference next Monday. While they have yet to go into detail about what they will be talking about, the invite (part of which we have posted on the left), has the ‘n’ Nook logo. The last two press events have been to launch Nook products, and in light of Amazon’s recent news, it seems that more Nook news is on its way. And with the holiday shopping season around the corner, we expect that Barnes & Noble will drop its prices at the least.

We will be at the event to let you know the news as soon as it breaks.

Sony still has some of the older Sony Readers in stock, and today it decided to put one on sale. You can pick up a refurbished Sony Reader PRS-350 Pocket Edition for only $70 today, direct from Sony.

This is a 5″ eReader that Sony released last fall. While it might seem out of date due to its age, the Pocket Edition still has decent specs compared to any of the eReaders currently on the market. It has the same annotation options as the new Sony Reader Wifi, the same screen tech and touch screen as the Nook, Sony, and Kobo eReaders, and it has more storage than the new K4.

Admittedly, it’s not the best hardware on the market anymore but it’s also one of the cheapest. Sony is selling it for $70. That’s a fairly good price for what this thing can do, and it’s a better deal than the K4, IMO.

BTW, you’ll need to put the device in your cart before you see the sale price.

Sony

Last week Amazon relaunched its local Chinese website with a new name and a new URL. The last traces of Joyo, a Chinese web retailer Amazon bought 7 years ago, is gone.

The site, which was previously labeled “joyo Amazon” is now simply called Amazon, and it even has a new and spelling.  It’s difficult to convey in English, but the old name used a different phonetic translation of Amazon.  Clearly Amazon is using the change to mark the point where this local site became a true part of Amazon and not just a local sub.

Joyo was launched in 1999 and then sold to Amazon in 2004 as part of its drive to expand beyond the US.  Amazon has ten distribution centers across the nation, and it boats 4.3 million sq. ft of warehouse space. That’s a little under a third the size of Amazon’s US operations.

In other news, Amazon is reportedly in talks to bring the Kindle to China. (It’s actually available there already, but you will need to buy it via third-party importers.) Like all rumors of Kindle expansion, these need to be taken with a grain of salt. These types of negotiations don’t always work out.

via

Disney and Amazon announced a deal this morning to bring nearly a thousand episodes of select TV shows to Amazon Prime Instant Video offering. Amazon Prime Members will soon be able to watch shows like Felicity, Grey’s Anatomy, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, as well as other hit shows produced and broadcast by ABC and Disney.

“We are excited to add some of the very best content available from Disney-ABC to Prime instant video,” said Brad Beale, director of video content acquisition for Amazon. “This includes every episode of past seasons from the ABC hits Lost and Grey’s Anatomy, fan favorites like Felicity and Greek, the popular Disney Channel show Phineas & Ferb and great animated series from Marvel. We’re working hard to add even more selection for Kindle Fire customers and Prime members leading up to the holidays, and expect to have nearly 13,000 titles available in Prime instant video by early next year.”

Amazon Prime members can watch these TV shows on over 300 different devices, including the recently announced Kindle Fire, Android tablets, Roku set top boxes, and more. Prime Instant Video is a free service that is bundled into the cost of an Amazon Prime membership, which costs $79 a year for free two-day shipping, and these videos are available to members at no extra cost. It also includes movies and TV shos from CBS, Fox, PBS, Paramount, and most of the major production studios in the US. Kindle Fire buyers will also get 30 days of Amazon Prime for free.