For today’s portable gadgets, finding the best case can be an important quest.  The Speck iGuy is a truly unique iPad and iPad 2 case that’s really just for fun.  The iGuy is a freestanding foam case that has personality to spare.  It’s lightweight and easy to hold and is sure to get noticed wherever it goes.

Speck makes a variety of gadget cases, including cases for iPods, Kindles, Smartphones, GPS devices and laptops.  They also make custom gadget cases with personalized printing and styling.

Find out more on the Speck Products website.

Amazon.com has just announced that it is reducing the price of its best-selling Kindle e-book reader. The discount of $25 comes with a catch – the Kindle will display special offers and screensaver ads. For $114, readers will see advertisements in screensaver mode instead of portraits of classic authors like Jules Verne and Virginia Woolf.

Other than the ads, the aptly-named Kindle with Special Offers is identical to the $139 Wi-Fi only third generation Kindle, which is the bestselling product in Amazon’s history. Consumers who buy the Kindle with Special Offers will have some control over which ad they see. They can visit the Kindle website and indicate what type of ads they want to see (humor, scenery, etc.). The e-book reader market has become very competitive between the Sony Reader, the Barnes & Noble Nook and the Apple iPad2. Some experts are predicting the Kindle’s price tag will drop below $100 by the end of the year in order to continue as a leader in the e-book field.

Read more about Kindle with Special Offers on Amazon.com.

The ZuniConnect Travel from ZuniDigital is a super-portable device that can turn a wired Ethernet connection into a secure WiFi hotspot, allowing intrepid travelers to share a single Internet connection with multiple devices. It also provides multiple USB ports for recharging all of a traveler’s gadgets. With many travelers carrying smart phone, laptop, iPad and maybe even a Kindle, there is a growing need for multiple Internet connections while away from home.

The ZuniConnect is only $60, a small price when you consider that in-room Internet connections run $10 – $15 per day per gadget. Find out more in this PCWorld article and on the ZuniDigital website.

After months of secrecy and speculation, Apple has finally officially announced its latest gadget – the iPad tablet. Steve Jobs himself unveiled the 10” touch screen device today at an invitation-only event in San Francisco. The iPad is expected to be a player in the e-book market which is currently dominated by Amazon’s Kindle. At the same time, it will serve as a larger version of the iPod Touch and be able to run the hundreds of thousands of apps in the iTunes App Store. Amazon seems to have anticipated this by putting out a call for developers to create applications for the Kindle.

The iPad also has a built-in iPod and can play iTunes music and video content. At $499, it might just give the Kindle a run for its money. You can see Jobs and the iPad in this YouTube video of today’s presentation. For a different take on the subject, see this blog post from The Onion.

A new e-book reader called the Nook had its debut last week, and it may just give Amazon’s Kindle, the leading e-reader, a run for its money. The Nook is from Barnes & Noble. Some of its unique features include a full-color strip of book covers at the bottom of the display that allows you to pick a book to read.

The Nook also supports sharing e-books with friends, which Wired magazine says may be the feature that makes the device go viral.

The Nook will be sold in Barnes & Noble stores as well as online, meaning customers can use B&N’s free in-store Wi-Fi to demo the look and feel of the product before buying. On sale at the end of November, the Nook is available now for pre-order at $259 (which is very close in price to the Kindle-2).

Readers who want to access electronic books currently are limited in their choice of electronic reading devices. There’s the Kindle from Amazon, which retails for around $360, and Sony’s Reader, which sells for $270 to $350. Now there’s a new option. The Cool-ER from Interead.com was introduced a few months ago for $249. It’s currently available on the Coolreaders website. The Cool-ER uses the E-Ink display and has the same screen size as the other readers, but is lighter and more compact. There are fewer features, such as no wireless Internet adapter and no Bluetooth connection or keyboard, but it’s still nice to have another option available when it comes to readers.