All Entries Tagged With: "Amazon"
Start holding your breath: New deal could lead to color Kindles by 2010
Despite Jeff Bezos’ claim that color wouldn’t be coming to the Amazon Kindle anytime soon, a report from AP is that a new deal could make it happen by the end of 2010.
Want a Color Kindle? Don’t Hold Your Breath
Jeff Bezos told investors yesterday that a Kindle with a color display “multiple” years away. Bezos also declined to share Kindle sales numbers at the annual shareholders meeting.
While many Kindle users are perfectly happy with the device’s black and white display, I think the Kindle needs to turn to color if it wants to survive over the long term. Amazon partnered with several Universities and publishers to offer students Kindles loaded with textbooks. Science, engineering, history and other textbooks are loaded with color illustrations and photos, which means students will have to give up something when making the switch.
Amazon Makes it Easier to Buy Kindle Books on the iPhone
Huzzah! Amazon has put up an new web interface for the Kindle Store optimized for the iPhone that should make purchasing Kindle books a little easier. Purchasing books before was a bit of a chore (and in a way still is) and one of the annoying facts about the iPhone’s Kindle app when it recently launched. You couldn’t purchase a book on the iPhone from the Kindle app, instead having to use Safari and make the purchase through the web. The next time you opened up the Kindle app (or your Kindle for that matter) the book would be loaded in.
Amazon Looks to Launch Bigger Kindle on Wednesday
Savior or dud? If you read the commentary this morning the rumored larger Amazon Kindle that is supposedly being announced at a NYC press conference this week will be both. Apparently Amazon has partnered up with the New York Times and will be unveiling a larger version of the Kindle tailored to deliver newspapers and periodicals over its Whispernet service. Some see it as a potential savior of the sagging newspaper industry, some see it as a dud or a ‘Hail Mary.’ We’ve been seeing talk of these larger devices for some time now. (pictured is the PlasticLogic device.)
Rumor: Barnes and Noble Getting into eBook Reader Biz
When Barnes and Noble purchased eBook retailer Fictionwise it sort of presaged this move. Now the rumors are running that Barnes and Noble is readying its own eBook reader to compete with Amazon and the Kindle. Chances are B&N will use some one else’s device and word is they’ve talked with all the major carriers and that Sprint may have the inside line.
If the eBook reader business continues to take off, it is beginning to look like like we’re going to have a period where devices are tied to sellers, formats, and DRM.. If this goes the way that history seems to indicate, somewhere down the line, we’ll standardize on formats that can be read on multiple devices.But then look how long it took to get rid of DRM on music players.
Via The Street.com
Amazon, Walmart and Others Up Digital Music Prices
You kind of knew it wasn’t going to last and that this would happen. The day after iTunes put its price increase into effect (some songs for as high as $1.29, some as low as $.69), the other big online music retailers followed suit. Amazon, Wal-Mart, Lala, and Rhapsody, have now raised their prices as well.
iTunes Drops DRM Adds Variable Pricing
As expected and talked about previously, Apple’s iTunes has dropped the dreaded Digital Rights Managment (DRM) and added variable pricing to the iTunes store. There are now a range of prices ranging from $.69 a song up to $1.29. Of course the $1.29 price tag is for songs deemed hot and in demand, while the $.69 are for those deemed, well, not so hot and not so in demand. Of course there are still a slew of songs available for the familiar $.99. The New York Times Bits Blog has a good run down on how the pricing structure works.
Amazon Backs Down on Text-To-Speech Feature
Well, that was quick. A little too quick, if you ask me. Only a week after the Kindle 2 was released, Amazon has decided to do an about face on its Text-To-Speech feature given the pressure from the Author’s Guild. The Author’s Guild maintained that Amazon was in essence creating a third market (the Text-To-Speech market) that had no licensing provisions, and therefore no compensation to the publishers or authors. They also maintained that this would hear the growing audio book market.
Instead of blanketly enabling the feature that would allow the text of any e-book to be read through the computerized speech feature, Amazon will now allow each publisher to decide if they wish that feature enabled for its books. Of course that means that some publishers will probably exact a price for doing so and we’ll have to wait and see if Amazon will eat that cost or pass it on to customers. I’m sure we’ll hear some protests on a number of fronts about this, especially from those with disabilities that would benefit from this as an access feature.
You can read the full text of Amazon’s statement after the jump, and here’s a link to an interesting interview with the CEO of the Author’s Guild on Engadget that obviously was conducted before the settlement.
Kindle 2 Arrives and I Break It
Well, that didn’t last long.
Not five minutes after posting up about my Kindle 2 arriving, it slipped from my fingers, fell three feet, and gave the hardwood floor a great big smacker.
Now the upper right hand corner of the screen is frozen, providing me with a constant view of smeared ink and the battery indicator. Fortunately, I also bought the two year extended warranty which covers one replacement unit due to accidental coverage / user stupidity. Yes, I had temporarily removed the Kindle from the protective case…don’t ask me why….
My replacement unit (a brand new Kindle 2) will be here on Thursday. I highly recommend purchasing the extended warranty and leather cover.
Signed,
A Sad Kindle 2 Owner
My Amazon Kindle 2 Arrives, Totally Rocks
I am one happy fella right now!! Amazon has done an absolutely fantastic job improving upon the original Kindle with the new Kindle 2. I will definitely share more later, but the three big improvements that I notice right off the bat are:
1) no accidental page turns due to the buttons pressing in rather than out. I can now comfortably place my hands on the reader
2) the book cover now snaps in to the side to prevent it accidentally falling out of the cover. The original cover was problematic in that area.
3) much brighter screen.
More later
5 Last Minute Gift Ideas From the Comfort of Your Keyboard
I hope you are not frantically searching for last minute gift ideas for that special geek on your list. But in case you are, here are a quick five hints that you can take care of right from your keyboard.
Most of them are gift cards, but then everybody knows geeks love to do their own shopping anyway.
More Folks Picking Up Electronic Books
Good article from the New York Time on the popularity of electronic book readers. Between the Kindle and the iPhone, I can’t of another set of devices that have so captured the attention of my friends and family. Is an eBook reader on your Christmas list?
For a decade, consumers mostly ignored electronic book devices, which were often hard to use and offered few popular items to read. But this year, in part because of the popularity of Amazon.com’s wireless Kindle device, the e-book has started to take hold.
The $359 Kindle, which is slim, white and about the size of a trade paperback, was introduced a year ago. Although Amazon will not disclose sales figures, the Kindle has at least lived up to its name by creating broad interest in electronic books. Now it is out of stock and unavailable until February. Analysts credit Oprah Winfrey, who praised the Kindle on her talk show in October.
via More Readers Are Picking Up Electronic Books - NYTimes.com.
Should Enterprises Be Wary of Cloud Computing?
Ovum, a tech analyst consulting firm, is recommending that enterprises take a cautious approach to Cloud Computing, citing outages from Amazon and Google, as well as management challenges, as examples.
“Enterprises are right to be cautious about relying on such consumer/SME-oriented suppliers for anything resembling a mission critical application or service,” said research firm Ovum in a report.
“A spate of service outages on the Amazon and Google platforms has increased enterprise caution about the reliability of consumer-market-oriented cloud providers.”
Personally, I see Cloud Computing taking a few hits on the chin next year as firms take a wait-and-see on what Web 2.0 firms will make it. Trusting data to a company that might not see the end of 1st quarter 2009, is enough reason to hold on to that precious data and keeping it local.
Amazon Releases iPhone App
I figured this would happen someday and I’m glad to see it has occurred. Amazon has released a shopping app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. I haven’t given this a try yet but according to Gear Diary the app allows you to shop the site, read reviews and use the iPhone camera to take pictures of items you’d like to remember for a possible purchase. The photo goes to your Amazon account where ‘Amazon Remembers’ will alert you when a match is found. The app is currently available on the App Store for free.
Congratulations GBM Contest Winners
Congratulations to the following GBM readers on winning these contests:
- MarkP - winner of a $50 Amazon Gift Certificate for helping out the high school student with his mobile research
- Mario Filipe - winner in our Checkpoint Flyer contest and soon-to-be proud owner of a Tom Bihn Checkpoint Flyer laptop bag