Whew! Fresh off CES and the army of ebook readers there, we’ve headed right into Apple Tablet madness. But, as always, there’s more to the ebook world than just the GIANT APPLE LOGO elephant in the room.

It has been a busy start to 2010 for the ebook world. Let’s start with the content news!

(image courtesy Villanova)

I know we’re all sick of hearing about the Apple Tablet/iSlate/iPad/Unicorn, but it’s inevitable; whether you plan to buy it or not, whether you’re already stuffing cotton in your ears to avoid hearing about it, it is the cloud hanging on all ebook news right now. So if you don’t want to read about the Apple tablet, please skip to the last paragraph. You’ve been warned.

First of all, if you haven’t kept up with the news this week, here’s a quick recap. Apple is rumored to have been negotiating with publishers to distribute “enhanced” ebooks, which caused Amazon to be spooked enough to restructure their royalties program to give a bigger cut to authors. And then for good measure, Amazon announced a Kindle Developer’s Kit to roll out apps for the Kindle.

My take is that this is leading up to a few things. One, Amazon is maneuvering to keep the Kindle ahead of its ebook reading competitors, even if they cannot beat the Apple hype machine at its own game. Two, we will most likely see a color Kindle within a year. Of course, the big wildcard is what Apple has planned. The Boy Genius Report caught an article on the Wall Street Journal about Apple’s plans to integrate several forms of media consumption, from ebooks to movies, making the tablet the go-to device for everything. It’s an interesting and ambitious plan, and with the entire world anticipating the announcement of this device, the expectations are running very high. Look for more commentary and news from Gear Diary leading up to (and of course after!) Apple’s event!

Ok, we’re past the Apple tablet, so you can start reading again. I just wanted to end this week with a bit of silliness, courtesy of Mobileread:
“Offline Book Lending Costs Publishers Nearly $1 Trillion” It’s a MUST read.

So are you saving your pennies for an Apple tablet? A new Kindle? Some other device? Share below!