Well a big congratulations and hearty celebrations happening this morning with the announcement that you will have a big ole fat surprise in the mail this week.

Instead of the previously announced November 21st arrival date for the Kindle Touch, you will be seeing your Kindle earlier than expected with a ship date this very week.

On another note the Kindle Fire is expected to be hitting the mail stream on November 15, so all in all, this is turning out to be a pretty positive Kindley week, huh?

If you’ve been waiting with bated breath for a French Amazon Kindle Store, then you can finally let that air back in, it’s here.

Amazon has at long last opened a French Kindle Store that will also cover users in Belgium, Monaco, Luxembourg and Switzerland, so not to worry if you’re outside French lines, dear readers.

And on top of finally opening a French store, Amazon is releasing a French edition of the e-reader, though sadly the version they chose to do so is the lowest model among the non-touch screen Kindles that retails for €99 ($133).

The French Kindle Store will reportedly come stocked with more than 35,000 French-language e-books along with 28 L’Express best sellers, and of course more will be added in time.  Viva la Kindle.

That’s pretty phenomenal given that I see more hard backs in a day than e-books out on the street, but then again, Amazon isn’t Borders, now is it?

Still, assuming Amazon is telling the truth and not manipulating the numbers in some way, this kind of growth is truly phenomenal. In fact, according to the company, e-book sales are on an outright rampage. Over the last three months, the ratio of e-book to hardcover sales was 143 to 100, so the numbers are absolutely skyrocketing now. (Amazon says this is because the Kindle now costs just $189, which has opened it up as a truly mainstream product.)

Overall e-book sales in the first half of 2010 are three times as high as that in the same period from a year earlier.

The Slate 500 runs on Windows 7 and according to HP will give users access to photos, videos and everything on the Web with a mere touch.

It has things that the iPad doesn’t, like: dual cameras (front/back) and Flash compatibility. Both are quite significant advantages, even if we think that the next iPad will have one or two cameras as well. Because it runs on Windows 7, the HP Slate is compatible with all the software that you know and possibly own (for PC folks). The iPad still has the advantage of being available and well alive.

We have no idea why Apple didn’t spend more devo time getting a built-in camera in place with their e-reader, but alas, we can’t go back in time, now can we?  Yet anyway.  Well at least we can attach a Cam-Case to our trusty iPads and almost have a good, integrated camera, that is, if this concept becomes a reality.

This concept iPad Cam-Case, were it turned into a real product, would make many iPad owners out there happy, as it would give the iPad a webcam and microphone, and doubles up as a protective case. The camera itself is located in the corner and can be rotated to keep an eye on your face, which will be useful for video chatting, perhaps even FaceTime.

At $379 the new Kindle DX will ship July 7 and features 50% better display contrast as well as a lower start price.

SEATTLE-July 1, 2010-Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today introduced the new latest generation Kindle DX and new lower price of $379, down from $489, and still with free 3G wireless-no monthly bills or annual contracts. Kindle DX is the 9.7-inch large screen member of Amazon’s family of revolutionary portable readers. The new Kindle DX features a new graphite enclosure and an all new, high contrast electronic ink display with 50 percent better contrast for the clearest text and sharpest images. The new Kindle DX is available for pre-order starting today at www.amazon.com/kindledx and it ships July 7.

“There’s no turning back once you read on our beautiful new Kindle DX screen,” said Steve Kessel, senior vice president, Amazon Kindle. “With 50 percent better contrast and darker fonts, you’ll find it easier than ever to read wherever you happen to be, whether it’s outside in bright sunlight or under the low light of your living room. We’re excited to offer the new Kindle DX with free 3G wireless at the lower price of $379.”

The Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore) now has more than 620,000 books, including New Releases and 108 of 111 New York Times bestsellers, starting at $9.99 or less. More than 200,000 books have been added to the U.S. Kindle Store in just the last six months, including the full selection of John Grisham titles. Over 1.8 million free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books are also available to read on Kindle, including classics such as “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” “Pride and Prejudice” and “Treasure Island.”

All New, High Contrast E-ink Screen: The new, graphite Kindle DX uses Amazon’s all new electronic ink display with 50 percent improved contrast for the clearest text and the sharpest images.

Beautiful Large Display: Kindle DX’s 9.7-inch diagonal e-ink screen is ideal for a broad range of reading material, including graphic-rich books, PDFs, newspapers, magazines, and blogs.

Read in Sunlight with No Glare: Unlike backlit computer or LCD screens, Kindle DX’s screen looks and reads like real paper, with no glare. Read as easily in bright sunlight as in the living room.

Buy Books Once, Read Them Anywhere: Kindle books can be read on the devices people use every day, including Kindle, Kindle DX, PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android phone, and BlackBerry. Plus, Amazon’s Whispersync technology also automatically saves and synchronizes customer book libraries and last page read across all these devices.

Free 3G Wireless, No Monthly Bills or Annual Contracts: Shop the Kindle Store and download new content wirelessly in less than 60 seconds-all without a PC, Wi-Fi hot spot, or syncing. Amazon pays for the 3G wireless connectivity, so there are no monthly fees or annual contracts.

Books In Under 60 Seconds: Kindle books are delivered wirelessly in less than 60 seconds, no PC or setup required.

Global 3G Coverage: Kindle DX offers 3G wireless coverage at home or abroad in over 100 countries.

Long Battery Life: Read for up to 1 week on a single charge with wireless on or 2 weeks with wireless turned off.

Low Book Prices: New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases from $9.99.

Incredibly Slim: At just over 1/3 of an inch, Kindle DX is as thin as most magazines.

Carry Your Library: Carry up to 3,500 books, periodicals, and documents.

Free Book Samples: Download and read first chapters for free before you decide to buy.

Social Networks: New Twitter and Facebook integration enables the millions of Kindle customers to post meaningful passages and share their love of reading instantly with family and friends, and in turn, help them discover new authors, new books, and new ideas.

Built-In PDF Reader: With Kindle DX’s large display and built-in PDF reader, read professional and personal documents with more complex layouts without scrolling, panning, or zooming, and without re-flowing. Zoom capability is now available in Kindle DX for easily viewing small print and detailed tables or graphics.

Auto-Rotating Screen: Read in portrait or landscape mode using Kindle DX’s auto-rotating screen. Simply turn Kindle DX and immediately see full-width landscape views of maps, graphs, tables and images, all displayed in higher contrast on Kindle DX’s new screen.

Read-to-Me: With the text-to-speech feature, Kindle DX can read newspapers, magazines, blogs, and books out loud.

It’s official.  B&N’s WiFi-only Nook is now being priced at a mere $150, with the 3G version getting a price drop, to $199.

Barnes and Noble has now gone fully official with its new $149 Nook. The 3G version has taken a price drop to $199 as well, matching the pricing indicated by Best Buy. B&N is today also outing its firmware version 1.4, which allows the free use of AT&T wireless hotspots everywhere.

Other new features include the ability to make notes in the book, new bookmark ribbon, and a page to display your notes and bookmarks.  WWDC is off to a great start for 2010 and we’re lovin’ every minute of it!

Bezos stated that adding color to the Kindle’s “electronic ink” display is quite an uphill technical battle and that while a color screen is in the works, that it’s “still a long way out.”

The Apple iPad and various other e-readers can support color LCD panels but are harder to read in the sunlight and are hell on battery life.  Let’s hope that the color Kindle gets here before the second coming at least.

This pricing should be able to hold out until April 4, or while supplies last, but if you’ll put a few things together you’ll realize that that’s the dat after Apple’s iPad launch.  Hehe, tricky, tricky Sony.