The tablet market is still a one-horse race, but e-readers continue to ramp, and Walmart wants another piece of that precious pie at big box retail. Starting this week, the online retailer will deliver shipments of Amazon’s mighty Kindle 3G and ad-supported Kindle to over 3,200 Walmart stores across the US, where it will join the Nook and Kobo e-readers in competing for shelf space. Could this be the beginning of another e-reader price war? Perhaps not yet, but it could be one more retail channel for Amazon’s ethereal tablet.

Kindle joins Nook and Kobo on Walmart store shelves originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 May 2011 02:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re thinking of a brand-new set of wheels, then this information on inexpensive sports autos will help you make a better choice. Many deals can be had if you look around the internet, as there are dealerships that offer inexpensive sports autos and other forms of used cars. What are among the hottest, yet most inexpensive sports autos on the market? Your imagination is the only limit on the used cars, especially sports autos, you can find.

During an economic downturn we all have to make a few cut backs in some places, which is probably why used cars have been in such high demand recently. By most accounts, the MX-5 Miata is rated at the top or near the top of every pick of inexpensive sports autos. Small, inexpensive sports autos from businesses such as Toyota, Mazda & Mitsubishi are getting very popular because of their value. These are some examples of inexpensive sports autos – the Nissan 350z, Holden SV6 Commodore, Alfa Romeo 156, Peugeot 206Gti180, and the Mini Cooper S.

The Mitsubishi Eclipse has consistently been one of the most inexpensive sports autos on the market and the introduction of a hybrid version could make it even more so. If you take into consideration all of the money you will be saving on gas because it’s a hybrid car, then the fact that you’re paying a little bit extra for the sportiness does not sting quite as much.

The fact is, even with an affordable sports vehicle, you’re going to end up laying out some serious cash for your purchase. I mean, a sports vehicle is a sports vehicle, regardless of regardless of whether it’s labeled an affordable sports vehicle. It’s really only an affordable sports vehicle relative to other sports autos, which are much more expensive. You’re never going to measure a sports vehicle, even an affordable sports vehicle, up against an economy vehicle and win a price war in that deal.

A benefit of buying an affordable sports vehicle is that all of your friends think that you spent quite a bit more on it than you actually did. Particularly for guys, but often for ladies as well, there is an implied status that comes together with possession of a sports vehicle that does not accompany any other kind of vehicle, even a luxury vehicle. Sports autos are very distinctive in that way.

That is why, if you’re thinking of getting a great sports vehicle for lifestyle reasons, searching for inexpensive sports autos can be a great option, one which addresses all of your requirements.

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It’s so, so easy to hate on Wal-Mart, what with destroying this country’s mom and pop culture, importing cheap junk from China, and freaking out whenever employees mention the word “union.” But if you’re a gamer, you really ought to cast aside your prejudices, brave the crowds, and find the games you’ve always wanted for a good $10 less than what you’ll find elsewhere. That’s right: we’re having ourselves a good old fashioned price war.

Wal-Mart has taken it upon itself to sell video games this holiday season (not sure if it’s a permanent thing or not) for $10 less than you’ll find at GameStop, Best Buy, Amazon, etc. Sixty dollar games become $50, $50 games become $40, and so on.

I don’t know if there’s any $40 games any more.

And credit to PC World for using the word “rubbish,” which is right up there with my favorite words this years, in describing the games you won’t find. You will find Halo: ODST for $10 less, but you won’t find Barbie Goes to Hollywood and Gets Mixed Up With the Wrong Crowd.

How have the likes of GameStop responded? Oh, by seeing the value of their stock go way down. GameStop stock tumbled 8.26 percent after word got out that Wal-Mart was meaning to eliminate the so-called “next-generation tax.”

In conclusion, if you’re so viciously anti-Wal-Mart that you won’t shop there for any reason whatsoever, then it may make sense to do your video game shopping there.

And if Wal-Mart is good enough for Ric Flair, then it’s good enough for me.

We may have all hoped for a price war, but that has certainly not been the case.

Books, books, books! The American Booksellers Association, a trade group that represents small bookstores (not Barnes and Noble and the other big guys), has asked the Department of Justice to investigate whether or not Amazon, Wal-Mart, and Target have “[devalued] the very concept of the book” with their ongoing price war. Well, they’re actually asking for an investigation into their selling practices. That is, because Amazon wants to outsell Wal-Mart, and Wal-Mart wants to outsell Amazon, they both sell the latest book (think Stephen King, Dan Brown, etc.) for some really low price, like $10. When you consider that the average hardcover “should” cost something like $20-$30, just based on the wildly outdated economics of book-selling, then you understand why the ABA is so upset.

Here’s what the ABA is thinking: it represents The Little Guy, the indie bookstore on Main Street, USA that doesn’t have the clout of Barnes and Noble or Borders. If these big guys keep trying to undercut each other, it lowers the price Main Street can set for a book. Why would someone pay $30 for a book when they can buy it for $10 from Wal-Mart? The problem becomes, after Main Street goes out of business, that limits the amount of information (books) out there. And what if some author releases a crazy book about some controversial topic, one that Wal-Mart refuses to carry because it doesn’t want to “offend” its customers or whatever? Now there’s no Main Street bookstore to turn to, and that information never gets out there. Then the marketplace of ideas suffers, and we’re all worse off. That’s the ABA’s thinking, at least, and it’s not entirely unreasonable, I don’t think.

If you want, this topic could easily balloon into a much deeper, philosophical discussion on the entire book industry—remember, Barnes and Noble said the other day that the book industry is still bigger than Hollywood, video games, etc.—but other, better people have already begun to tackle that debate.

And why is this on CrunchGear? Yup, e-books. You can make the argument, and the ABA has done just that, that it was the initial release of the Kindle that got this whole dangerous price war started. Amazon needed to jumpstart the public’s acceptance of e-books, so they did the inverse of what game companies do when they release a new system: game companies make money on the software and lose money on the hardware (at least initially), while Amazon was selling these e-books for something like one-third their “actual” value. Gotta get those Kindles out there!

So that’s basically it. The ABA is concerned that a price war, started by the introduction of the Kindle, will eventually limit the number and quality of ideas available to y’all. You’re free to disagree, and I get the feeling that many of you will.

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