A busy day in e-reader announcements. Some highlights:

—Barnes & Noble: Barnes & Noble event is hosting an event in NYC Tuesday—and the bookstore chain is expected to unveil its first e-reader there. Some additional details on the device, from a WSJ report: It’s priced at $259, will feature a color screen, and has been coined the Nook. There’s also speculation that the device will allow users to lend e-books to each other.

—Plastic Logic: Plastic Logic says it will officially show off its e-reader, which it is now calling the QUE, at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. The startup says it will differentiate the device by focusing on the “lifestyle of the modern businessperson.” So, the QUE will feature “powerful tools for interacting with and managing ... content,” including PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents.

—Spring Design: And then there’s Alex, which could end up being the first Android-based e-reader. Spring Design says the device (pictured above) will have two screens—one where users will read texts and a second one below which could be used to access internet content linked to in the main text. The company says it is talking to “major content partners” and plans to release the device by the end of the year.

Not e-readered out yet? For our complete coverage, see our archives for eReaders.

In its first month on the market, The Beatles: Rock Band jumped to the top of the music video game charts. It was the top selling music video game in September, according to the NPD Group, beating out rival music video game Guitar Hero 5. The Rock Band spin off sold 464,000 copies for the Wii and Xbox 360 alone, meaning the title brought in at least $27.8 million in sales. That, however, does not include sales for the PS3 or of associated accessories, which likely raised the total take substantially.

The research firm says the success of the title helped drive a 72 percent year-over-year increase in dollar sales of music and dance games. That was a stark contrast to overall video game sales, which posted a paltry one percent year-over-year sales increase. Overall, the title was the third top game in terms of units sold, with only Halo 3: ODST and Madden NFL 10 selling more copies.

In a release, MTV Games President Scott Guthrie calls the response “extremely gratifying.” The title—which was initially announced a year ago—had been available for preorder online since March. It was the culmination of more than a year of negotiations between MTV’s Harmonix games studio and The Beatles’ Apple Corps label.

Related

• Beatles Game Due September; Rock Band Tie-In; Pricey Instruments
• Beatles Game Confirmed: Has Yoko's Blessing, Due Out By Next Christmas

In its first month on the market, The Beatles: Rock Band jumped to the top of the music video game charts. It was the top selling music video game in September, according to the NPD Group, beating out rival music video game Guitar Hero 5. The Rock Band spin off sold 464,000 copies for the Wii and Xbox 360 alone, meaning the title brought in at least $27.8 million in sales. That, however, does not include sales for the PS3 or of associated accessories, which likely raised the total take substantially.

Fighting questions as to whether Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) would be able to continue to beat analyst expectations, the Cupertino, Calif.-based reported stellar results for its fiscal fourth-quarter today that blew even the loftiest of forecasts.

Apple has a history of being conservative and then easily beating both internal and external estimates. Today was no different. Apple maintained its two-year record of exceeding expectations by posting revenues of $9.87 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.67 billion, or $1.82 per diluted share. Even the most bullish of analysts anticipated profits of around $1.60 a share. UPDATE: Apple was rewarded handsomely by investors today for doing so. In after-hours trading, the company’s stock jumped 6 percent or $11.45 a share to more than $200 a share.

In a statement, CEO Steve Jobs said they sold a record number of Macs and iPhones during the quarter. Apple sold 3.05 million Macs; 10.2 million iPods and 7.4 million iPhones. In the year-ago period, Apple sold 6.9 million iPhones and Wall Street was expecting sales of about 7.5 million, Reuters reports. In September, Apple reported sales of more than 30 million iPhones to date, which some analysts say translated into about 3.5 million so far for the quarter.

Release | Webcast.

The company’s quarter results are even more impressive when you take into account that it recognizes revenue and cost of goods sold for iPhone and Apple TV over their estimated economic lives, rather than during the same quarter. When Apple eliminates the impact of subscription accounting, it said revenues increase to $12.25 billion and net come soars to $2.85 billion.

Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2010, the company expects to do well during the holiday period. Revenues are expected to range between $11.3 billion and $11.6 billion and earnings per share will range between $1.70 to $1.78.

Fighting questions as to whether Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) would be able to continue to beat analyst expectations, the Cupertino, Calif.-based reported stellar results for its fiscal fourth-quarter today that blew even the loftiest of forecasts.

Apple has a history of being conservative and then easily beating both internal and external estimates. Today was no different. Apple maintained its two-year record of exceeding expectations by posting revenues of $9.87 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.67 billion, or $1.82 per diluted share. Even the most bullish of analysts anticipated profits of around $1.60 a share. UPDATE: Apple was rewarded handsomely by investors today for doing so. In after-hours trading, the company’s stock jumped 6 percent or $11.45 a share to more than $200 a share.

In a statement, CEO Steve Jobs said they sold a record number of Macs and iPhones during the quarter. Apple sold 3.05 million Macs; 10.2 million iPods and 7.4 million iPhones. In the year-ago period, Apple sold 6.9 million iPhones and Wall Street was expecting sales of about 7.5 million, Reuters reports. In September, Apple reported sales of more than 30 million iPhones to date, which some analysts say translated into about 3.5 million so far for the quarter.

Release | Webcast.

The company’s quarter results are even more impressive when you take into account that it recognizes revenue and cost of goods sold for iPhone and Apple TV over their estimated economic lives, rather than during the same quarter. When Apple eliminates the impact of subscription accounting, it said revenues increase to $12.25 billion and net come soars to $2.85 billion.

Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2010, the company expects to do well during the holiday period. Revenues are expected to range between $11.3 billion and $11.6 billion and earnings per share will range between $1.70 to $1.78.

UPDATE: I’m checking with Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) right now to clarify whether this is a new product, or just an existing product that will have to be shipped more heavily in order to keep up with demand (Apple wasn’t willing to say—they did say it was not iPhones). A post at 9to5mac.com does a good job of detailing the back-and-forth conversation between Apple and analysts, but they don’t come to any better conclusions either.

Apple surprised analysts today by saying it will have to pay to ship extra products to stores in time for the holidays, but wouldn’t say what it was shipping. During the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call, Apple COO Tim Cook said: “I can’t be specific about the product,” but it will result in an “abnormal and substantial increase” in shipping costs for the company. Cook apologized he couldn’t be more specific, but added “you have to have some fun on these calls.”

Release | Webcast.

UPDATE: An Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) spokesman never returned calls to clarify whether this is a new product, or just an existing product that will have to be shipped more heavily in order to keep up with demand (Apple wasn’t willing to say—they did say it was not iPhones). UPDATE 2: On Tuesday, Apple announced a new iMac, MacBook and Magic Mouse that will ship in time for the holidays, but nothing as exciting as a tablet, netbook or e-reader device. 

Apple surprised analysts today by saying it will have to pay to ship extra products to stores in time for the holidays, but wouldn’t say what it was shipping. During the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call, Apple COO Tim Cook said: “I can’t be specific about the product,” but it will result in an “abnormal and substantial increase” in shipping costs for the company. Cook apologized he couldn’t be more specific, but added “you have to have some fun on these calls.”

Release | Webcast.