Amazon starts offering Kindle e-books via subscription

Technolog - Amazon starts offering Kindle e-books via subscription

"Amazon.com is rolling out a new “Kindle Owners’ Lending Library” — a virtual book-borrowing service for its Kindle devices. Not for Kindle apps on other devices, but only for Amazon’s own Kindle e-readers and Kindle Fire tablet.

It’s a no-extra-charge addition to the company’s existing Amazon Prime subscription service, adding digital-book lending to streaming video and free shipping as a benefit of the $79/year subscription.

Amazon says the available library for lending consists of more than 5,000 titles, including more than 100 current and former New York Times bestsellers."

'via Blog this'

Amazon unveils four new Kindles

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Kindle Fire - Full Color 7" Multi-Touch Display with Wi-Fi - More than a Tablet

Kindle Fire - Full Color 7" Multi-Touch Display with Wi-Fi - More than a Tablet:

$199.00 Free Super Saver Shipping Details
Pre-order now to reserve your place in line

Our all-new Kindle Fire will be released on November 15, 2011. Orders are prioritized on a first come, first served basis.

Ships from and sold by Amazon Digital Services. U.S. only.

Movies, apps, games, music, reading and more, plus Amazon's revolutionary, cloud-accelerated web browser
18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books
Thousands of popular apps and games
Ultra-fast web browsing - Amazon Silk
Free cloud storage for all your Amazon content
Vibrant color touchscreen with extra-wide viewing angle
Fast, powerful dual-core processor
Amazon Prime members enjoy unlimited, instant streaming of over 10,000 popular movies and TV shows

Amazon Kindle Fire looks like a WINNER!

Amazon Kindle Press Conference - September 28, 2011, New York City

Why Amazon Is Happy to Burn Money on the Kindle Fire

By Peter Kafka via AllThingsD

Yet another big-name Internet stock got punished for missing Wall Street’s expectations yesterday. This time it was Amazon, which reported lower operating margins for Q3 and — presumably more worrisome — the possibility of an operating loss in Q4.

But Amazon isn’t Netflix, which has to convince investors and consumers that its business isn’t fundamentally broken. Jeff Bezos and company have a much easier story to sell: Profits are down because they’re spending money on expansion.

A lot of the money is going into Amazon’s old business, CFO Thomas Szkutak explained on yesterday’s conference call — the company is building out dozens of new distribution centers to help it ship all the physical stuff its customers still order. And a lot of the money is going into its new digital business — in particular, the new Kindle Fire.

Digital grudge match: Tablets vs. eReaders

From Kindles to iPads, MSNBC's Wilson Rothman discusses the pros and cons of ebook readers.

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CNET Top 5 Must-Have Holiday Gadgets

CNET's Senior Editor, Molly Woods, walks through the Top 5 must-have gadgets for the holiday season, including the $139 Kindle and Microsoft's Kinect motion detection gaming device for the XBox 360.

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Clearance Sale: Barnes & Noble Didn't Evolve Enough

Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

"How did Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS - News) fall so far so fast?

The giant bookstore chain, whose superstores once struck fear into the hearts of independent booksellers everywhere, put itself up for sale this month, rendering it the corporate equivalent of the remaindered books it sells at a discount.

The company said it made the move because its shares are undervalued, but to me there was an air of desperation about it.

The simple explanation for Barnes & Noble's decline is the Internet, which spawned Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN - News), e-readers and digital books. But that didn't have to be the end for B&N, which had a dominant market position and should have out-Amazoned Amazon, leveraging its brand and innovating when it began marketing and selling books online.

I know exactly when B&N lost me as a customer. Some years ago, to compete with Amazon, B&N began offering free same-day delivery in Manhattan if you placed your order over the Internet by 11 a.m. I did so several times -- and not once did the books arrive when promised. Everything I have ordered from Amazon has arrived on time or earlier. Then came Amazon's game-changing Kindle, and instant delivery. Nothing I've read about B&N's belated rival Nook has tempted me to try it.

My hunch is that B&N never really embraced the Internet or e-books, tied as it was to the old-fashioned world of physical books and stores. As B&N focused on managing decline, a much more nimble Amazon could concentrate exclusively on the new world it was forming. B&N needed to destroy its business model to prevail. Now it is probably too late. There is a lesson for all businesses here.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Self-Publishing: Who Needs a Publisher Anymore?

Self-Publishing: Who Needs a Publisher Anymore? - Newsweek: "Boyd Morrison was finishing a Ph.D. in industrial engineering when he wrote his first novel. Five agents rejected it. Nine years later he tried again, and this time he did get an agent—after nearly three years and three novels. But that turned out to be some kind of cosmic tease, because 25 publishers turned down The Ark. With nothing left to lose, Morrison uploaded The Ark and his two other unpublished novels to Amazon’s Kindle store in March 2009. Within three months, he was selling books at a rate of 4,000 a month—a number that attracted the attention of the same publishers who had rejected him. This May, when The Ark was released in hardcover from Simon & Schuster, it became the first self-published Kindle book to be picked up by a Big Six publisher. Morrison says that the phone call from his agent telling him he’d finally see his book in print was “one of the most amazing moments of my life.”

Until recently, reviewers and booksellers looked down on self-published authors the way Anna Wintour scorns Dress Barn. Now new writers and established authors alike are increasingly taking publishing into their own hands, and the publishing establishment is paying attention. According to a recent Bowker report, the market for “nontraditional books” in the United States grew by more than 750,000 new titles in 2009—a 181 percent increase over 2008. Five of the top 100 bestsellers in the Kindle store—which now produces more sales than Amazon’s hardcover list—are currently self-published.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Amazon's new plan—Ebooks for free

NerdBoyTV NOTE: I just picked up the Barnes and Noble "Nook" for my dad—great device (and many more coming from the looks of things at the 2010 CES). So, it's really not surprising that Amazon.com is looking for more ways to keep all these other units into playing catchup. Free ebooks is a smart "marketing" idea. What do you think?

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E-reader boom kindles a variety of new options

By Rachel Metz / Associated Press (CLICK to read more)

"When most people think of electronic book readers, Amazon's thin, white Kindle probably springs to mind. But that could be about to change.

A cascade of e-readers will hit the market this year, taking the devices far beyond gray-scale screens with features like touch navigation and video chatting — and probably lowering prices, too.

It's happening as other gadgets, such as mobile phones and tablet computers, give people even more choices for diving into their favorite books. Perhaps the only downside is worrying you might buy an e-reader from a company that won't stick around.

This week, nearly two dozen companies that make the devices or deliver reading material to them are showing products at the International Consumer Electronics Show, the first time it has devoted a section to e-books.

In a good sign for the mainstream status e-book companies hope to achieve, they are clustered at a prime location in the Las Vegas Convention Center often taken over by the likes of Microsoft Corp. And Amazon isn't even at the exhibition.

E-books make up a tiny portion of book sales, but their popularity is growing rapidly. According to the Consumer Electronics Association, which organizes the trade show, 2.2 million e-readers were shipped to stores in 2009, nearly four times as many as the year before. This year, the group expects 5 million will be shipped.

'It's an incredible growth category,' said Jason Oxman, senior vice president of industry affairs at the electronics association."

Apple set to take on Amazon, Kindle with (rumored) tablet

By Ben Patterson : Yahoo! Tech (CLICK to read more)

"We've seen neither hide nor hair of the oft-rumored Mac tablet, but at least one analyst claims that not only will the device launch next spring, but also that Apple is positioning it to book publishers as a Kindle killer. What's the supposed killer feature, you ask? Apparently, it's all about the money.

AppleInsider reports that Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner told investors in a note Wednesday that production is ramping up for the long-rumored but as yet unseen Mac tablet, which could arrive in stores with a 10.1-inch LCD screen (not OLED, as some have speculated) and a $1,000 price tag (ouch) as soon as March or April.

Of course, Apple tablet rumors are a dime a dozen; by now, we've heard that the tablet (which Apple hasn't even announced yet) could be anywhere from $500 to $2,000, run on Verizon Wireless (or not), rang in size from four to 11 inches, and even potentially sprout wings and fly. (The tablet-looking thing pictured here is just clip art, by the way.)

More interesting, though, is Reiner's claim (according to AppleInsider) that Apple is actively shopping around a 'very attractive proposal' for a new 'e-book platform' to take on the Kindle."

Amazon cuts Kindle price, adds global version

By Rachel Metz / AP: Yahoo! Tech (CLICK to read more)

"Amazon.com Inc. is cutting the price of its Kindle electronic-book reader yet again and launching an international version, in hopes of spurring more sales and keeping it ahead of a growing field of competitors.

With Wednesday's $40 reduction on the Kindle, the device now costs $259. It debuted in 2007 at $399 and started this year at $359, before another price cut in July.

In an interview, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said the company can now afford to reduce the price because of the increased number of Kindles the company is making — and selling.

Bezos called it Amazon's best-selling product, but Amazon has not disclosed sales figures for the Kindle, which has a 6-inch screen that displays shades of gray, room to store 1,500 books and the ability to download books wirelessly."

Verizon Wireless to support e-book reader

By Wireless- msnbc.com (CLICK to read more)

"Verizon will be providing wireless book downloads for an electronic reading device, joining AT&T and Sprint in supporting electronic books.

IREX Technologies, a Dutch company, said Wednesday that it would start selling an e-book reader this fall for $400. It will have a screen with an 8.1-inch diagonal, in between the size of the two models of Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle.

The Kindle was the first e-book reader on the U.S. market with a cellular Internet connection, supplied by Sprint Nextel Corp. AT&T's network will support upcoming readers from Sony Corp. and Plastic Logic Ltd."

Sony's E-Reader vs. Kindle: 5 Reasons Amazon Should Worry

By Jared Newman / PC World (CLICK to read more)

"Sony has been all about the e-reader lately, announcing the Digital Reader Pocket Edition and Touch Edition earlier this month, then follsony reader kindleowing up yesterday with the Digital Reader Daily Edition, a high-end product with a touch screen and 3G connectivity. It's clear that Sony's approach is anything but half-hearted, and I think the company is in prime position to knock Amazon's Kindle e-reader of its perch. Here are five reasons why."

Newspapers 2.0

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Amazon Kindle DX: 9.7-inch Screen For $489

Amazon’s third incarnation of the Kindle is here, folks. All 9.7-inches of it. Specs and info leaked about the now official Kindle over the last week and they seemed pretty much dead on. It comes packing with the larger screen, auto-rotating screen, and finally supports PDF files fully with a native PDF reader. This larger Kindle also ups the storage capacity from 1,500 books on the Kindle 2 to 3,500 on the Kindle DX. The pre-order is up now and will ship shortly if you’re willing to drop $489 on one.

Amazon's Kindle 2 a smash hit

Has Amazon finally hit on the right formula with its second version of the Kindle e-book reader? According to TechCrunch, the company has already sold 300,000 of the devices (in less than two months) and expects to pump out 500,000 more before the end of the year. (Some analysts have even higher hopes for the device, with sales projections topping 1 million units.) Either way you cut it, that's a huge win for Amazon.

Sony e-book reader gets 500,000 books from Google

"Google Inc. is making half a million books, unprotected by copyright, available for free on Sony Corp.'s electronic book-reading device, the companies were set to announce Thursday.

It's the first time Google has made its vast trove of scanned public-domain books available to an e-book device, and vaults the Sony Reader past Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle as the device with the largest available library, at about 600,000 books.

The scanned books were all published before 1923, and include works like Charles Dickens' 'A Tale of Two Cities' as well as nonfiction classics like Herodotus' 'The Histories.'

The books are already available as free downloads in the Portable Document Format (PDF), which works well on computer screens but not on e-book readers. Google will provide the books to the Sony Reader in the EPUB (electronic publication) format, which lets the lines flow differently to fit a smaller screen."

Hands on with Amazon's Kindle 2

Hands on with Amazon's Kindle 2 : Christopher Null : Yahoo! Tech: "The long-awaited Kindle 2 began shipping on Monday, and I've now had enough time with a demo unit to offer some initial impressions. Bottom line: If you liked the Kindle 1, you'll love the Kindle 2.

As has been previously discussed, the Kindle 2 is the same general concept as the original ebook reader, just amped up a notch all around. The new design is its most striking feature. While I sort-of liked the old Kindle's retro-jaggy form factor, many felt it was horribly ugly. The modernized Kindle 2 will generate no complaints from anyone. Like an overgrown iPhone, it's sleek and sophisticated and truly as thin as a pencil -- almost impossibly slim."