David Pogue heads to the beach to "curl up with a good electronic book." In the video, The New York Times tech columnist points out that Barnes & Noble’s new electronic book store of 750,000 ebooks is not exactly what it seems.

Pogue also notes that Amazon.com still has a better selection of books you actually may want to read, not to mention cheaper prices on books such as "Dune" and "Freakonomics."

But Pogue does like the fact that you can read ebooks from Barnes & Noble on a Mac or PC, and notes that company’s iPhone app is ‘very nice" since it allows you to change the colors and font and perform other tasks not possible on Amazon’s app.

"So, even if Barnes & Noble’s 1.0 ebook store is a little flawed, it is a good enough start, and competition is always good," says Pogue as he puts on suntan lotion.

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and MRI startup Confirma purchased by Merge for $22 million  

Bellevue-based Confirma, a maker of MRI imaging analysis products, has been acquired by Merge Healthcare in a stock deal valued at $22 million.

Confirma’s CADstream product — with 1,200 systems implemented at facilities throughout the world — provides more detailed analysis and reporting for MRI studies related to breast and prostate cancers.

Last year, Confirma scored $17.5 million in venture financing from Telegraph Hill Partners, Fluke Venture Partners, Northwest Venture Associates, Prism Ventureworks and Versant Ventures. The company — which has partnerships with McKesson, GE Healthcare and Philips Medical — is led by Wayne Wager, a former venture capitalist at Encompass Ventures.

“By combining our patented CAD applications with Merge’s broader health IT solutions and global presence, we can better take advantage of current and future growth opportunities and, thus, extend our solutions to more clinicians,” Wager said in a release.

John Cook is co-founder of TechFlash. Follow on Twitter @johnhcook.

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and Scout blazes trail with Windows 7  

Some aspiring Eagle Scouts clean up parks, run safety campaigns, or refurbish hiking trails to complete the leadership service project required to achieve the Boy Scouts of America’s highest rank.

David Browning, of Troop 600 in Bellevue, is installing Windows 7.

To be sure, this is no simple project. The 16-year-old technology enthusiast, who happens to be the son of a Microsoft employee, is overseeing the deployment of Microsoft’s new operating system across 67 computers at Eastside Christian School in Bellevue — managing a team of fellow Boy Scouts and overseeing a complex software duplication process to help the school make a much-needed technological upgrade.

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First glimpse of a Microsoft store  

Through its official Twitter account this afternoon, Microsoft released this photo of the location of one of its first retail stores. The company announced previously that it would open stores in Scottsdale, Ariz., and Mission Viejo, Calif., this fall. There are no big secrets in the picture — the brands on the sign are the ones you’d expect the company to promote — but it’s notable nonetheless.

As noted by TechCrunch, leaked renderings of the insides of the stores were published by Gizmodo recently, but the company said at the time that the designs weren’t final.

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