Aggregator and reading service Readability has rolled out a new feature for its platform, one that allows users to share their own reading lists with others in a variety of ways. The new Readlist feature works as a sort of mixtape for reading, bundling content that users save from the web into a package deliverable to Kindles, iPads, and smartphones.
Amazon is engaged in talks with a number of advertising agencies in the hopes of getting them to sign on in backing an ad-supported version of the retailer's Kindle Fire tablet, a source familiar with the discussions has told AdAge. If implemented, the ad-supported model could push prices even lower for Amazon's already budget-priced tablet.
Amazon is preparing to release a front-lit version of its Kindle e-reader and a new, bigger version of its Kindle Fire tablet, a source tells Reuters. The source claims to have seen prototypes for the devices, and says they will likely be released in July. A front-lit Kindle e-reader would allow users to read in the dark without the need for an external light attachment.
Despite the popularity of Apple's iPad and competing tablets such as the Kindle Fire, some consumers still pine for color e-readers. Amazon, maker of the Kindle, top seller among e-readers, has flirted with the idea, but previously maintained that the technology wasn't ready yet for a quality color reading device. Now, sources tell Digitimes, color E Ink technology may finally have reached a satisfactory level of sophistication, and Amazon is said to be preparing to roll out a color Kindle in the second half of 2012.
First introduced at Mobile World Congress, Nokia's Reading app and related e-bookstore for the Windows Phone-powered Lumia range of smartphones will launch in Europe. The two will reach users in France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, and the UK, PaidContent reported. The idea is to bring local-language e-books to markets that haven't yet seen a widespread adoption of the medium.
Amazon will be providing the Harry Potter series of books to users of the Kindle Owners' Lending Library in the near future. The all-time bestselling book series has been licensed from JK Rowling's Pottermore, and joins the existing 145,000 titles already available for reading.
Boutique gaming PC manufacturer Alienware users with outstanding laptop orders were informed by email today that the placed order is being upgraded to Ivy Bridge processors at no extra cost. No further delay in the placed order is expected. The Ivy Bridge upgrade is exclusive to Alienware orders, and will not apply to parent company Dell's orders placed before the Ivy Bridge announcement.
Although Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet achieved a quick rise in the tablet market, Android tablet shipments have continued to slide, according to a report published by research firm IDC. As expected, Apple has solidified its dominant position with 68 percent of the tablet market.
Retail chain Target has confirmed that it will stop carrying Amazon Kindle e-book readers online and at its stores, along with getting rid of all Amazon-branded accessories and gear. The news comes from a leaked internal memo obtained by The Verge and a further confirmation from the retailer. There are no specific official reasons given as to why the move is happening, citing only a "conflict of interest."
The insistence on having no lower prices at e-book stores has had a conspicuous if brief casualty, according to an account. Friday Night Lights author Buzz Bissinger shared with the New York Times that he had had his sequel book, After Friday Night Lights, pulled by Amazon after it was chosen by Starbucks as a Pick of the Week and given away through Apple's iBookstore for free through redemption codes. Amazon's automatic price check forced the Kindle price to zero, leaving online publisher Byliner.com no choice but to pull the book if it didn't want Bissinger to lose money and jeopardize the Starbucks deal.
Amazon on Thursday recorded a significant hit to its profit for the first quarter of 2012. Its net income dropped 35 percent from year-to-year, to $130 million. Net sales were still up 34 percent to almost $13.2 billion, setting a new high.
Expanding the Send to Kindle line started by Send to Kindle for PC, Amazon today unveiled Send to Kindle for Mac. Send to Kindle for Mac is a lightweight application occupying 18.5MB of hard drive space. A user drops supported documents on the dock item to automatically send them over Whispernet or WiFi to a registered Kindle device or iOS application.
Amazon gave a minor treat to readers by shipping the Kindle Touch 3G to international buyers a week ahead of the official April 27 date. A total of 175 countries, including Canada, European countries, and most others worldwide, can have the e-paper reader shipped locally. Every country gets free 3G, although book prices usually carry a slight price hike when bought on 3G outside of the US.
The US lawsuit over e-book pricing was quietly preceded by civil lawsuits in Canada. An interview with Quebec attorney Normand Painchaud confirmed to the Montreal Gazette that he had asked for class action status on a lawsuit against Apple and the same five major publishers targeted by the US government. Other lawsuits have been filed in the provinces of British Columbia and Ontario.
Apple on Wednesday stated that its confronting a Department of Justice lawsuit over e-book pricing was deliberate. Attorney Daniel Floyd told Judge Denise Cote that Apple believed the lawsuit was "not an appropriate case" and wanted to prove itself in court. The company wanted this to be "decided on the merits," Reuters heard while observing Floyd at a hearing.
The cross-platform Read It Later mobile app, which allows users to save web content for offline reading, has now been renamed to Pocket. What's more, the app has become free in the process. The app is available for Android and iOS devices as well as a version optimized for the Kindle Fire's version of Android.
Apple after silence through the past two days responded Thursday to the Department of Justice lawsuit over alleged e-book pricing collusion. Spokesman Tom Neumayr flatly rejected the accusations when asked for comment by AllThingsD, recapping the company's objections to the European Union that the iBookstore was beneficial as it was created. The iPad-focused store kept Amazon from having excessive control and improved e-books themselves, Neumayr said, pointing out that the move beyond the Kindle format also upgraded books themselves.
Barnes & Noble leapt quickly on rumors by unveiling the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight. The reader is the first to merge e-paper with edge lighting that evenly illuminates the screen in the dark without needing an add-on or an outside light. The trick is meant for couples that don't want to interrupt a sleeping partner, but it also has an advantage for anyone that doesn't want to buy a clip-on reading light.
Amazon has a hefty update available for the Kindle Touch. The upgrade to 5.1, released today, enables switching from portrait to landscape orientation and Bing powered language translation of highlighted text.
The Australia Competition and Consumer Commission is considering taking the same path that the US Department of Justice did in confronting Apple and publishers over e-book pricing. Regulators have been asking Australian retailers whether they thought publishers were rigging pricing in the country. There were "competition concerns" whenever a company wanted to curb the ability to put a product on sale, the agency said.
Barnes & Noble looks likely to preempt Amazon's front-lit Kindle with an e-reader of its own. A leaked instance of in-store signage at The Digital Reader shows the Nook Simple Touch getting "GlowLight," a nickname for a system that evenly illuminates the display despite coming from the edges. Although not mentioned in the ad, the effect is easier on the eyes than an LCD backlight.
(Updated with settlement news) As suspected, the US Department of Justice has sued Apple and publishers over claims of unfair e-book pricing. The complaint accuses Apple of colluding with publishers by both requiring a switch to an agency model, where publishers set the prices and ask for more, as well as demanding "most favored nation" status where no rival could have a lower price than the iBookstore. Some publishers are believed to have settled, but Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin, and Simon & Schuster are all targeted.
Macmillan CEO John Sargent in an open letter blasted the Department of Justice for its e-book antitrust lawsuit. He insisted that his publishing company had "done no wrong" and that he, alone, had Macmillan switch to an agency model that hiked e-book prices. Revealing more than the DOJ had mentioned itself while confirming rumors, he said talks had broken down after "months" and that the DOJ's terms would allegedly let Amazon go back to the wholesale model and unfairly dominate through artificially low prices.
A pair of sources said Tuesday that the Department of Justice may sue Apple over its e-book pricing concerns as soon as tomorrow, April 11. Deals were being wrapped up with "several" publishers this week, Reuters had heard, but Apple wasn't in discussions and could face legal action soon. No final decision had been made, which given the timing could see a lawsuit moved until later.
The combination of a leak and discoveries has revealed that Amazon is likely developing a unique illuminated E Ink screen. A source showing a disguised prototype in person to TechCrunch had an adjustable screen that evenly lit up with a cool light. The effect was like that of a white LED, but softer and easier to read, according to the anecdote.
Amazon has created a new offshoot in its Kindle Store dedicated to Spanish-languague eBooks. Appropriately named eBooks Kindle en Español, the site offer just Spanish eBooks and new features that are meant to cater to Spanish-speaking, US-based customers. These include help pages, phone, and e-mail support in Spanish.
Some progress has been made on trying to negotiate a settlment on e-book antitrust disputes in the US and Europe, insiders disclosed Wednesday. Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster have reportedly agreed to terms that would dissolve the iBookstore deals they struck, the Wall Street Journal said, which gave them control over pricing and required that they offer no lower price than at Apple's store. Apple, Macmillan, and Pearson, however, were claimed to be "reluctant" to make a deal.
The iBookstore is set to expand to Brazil within 30 days, claims a local magazine, Veja. No other details of the arrangement have been revealed, but the publication is the same one that roughly predicted when Apple would bring the iTunes Music Store to Brazil, and correctly stated that the first digital catalog by Roberto Carlos would be a highlight. The Music Store launched a few days after Veja's December 8th target.
Apple may be ready to make important concessions to settle a possible Department of Justice lawsuit over e-book pricing, a pair of sources claimed Friday. Although not concrete, a deal could come "in the next few weeks," the Reuters insiders said. The core of the deal would revolve around Apple dropping its "most favored nation" clause, which bars publishers from offering a lower price at other stores.
Amazon has released yet another software update for its Kinde Fire tablet. Version 6.3 adds several new features, including sharing capabilities that allow users to send favorite passages and notations to other users and social networking services such as Facebook and Twitter.
In February, Amazon began shipping a special international Wi-Fi version of the Kindle Touch from its US operations to several foreign countries. At the time, the online retailer chose not to make it available at several locales where it had foreign operations, including the UK, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy. Amazon is now taking pre-orders in those countries for both the Wi-Fi and 3G models, with a promised ship date of April 27.
New rumors have surfaced claiming that Amazon will have a much wider strategy for its next-generation Kindle Fire tablets than thought. Taiwan Economic News claimed that the 8.9-inch version would be joined by two seven-inch models. One would have the 1024x600 display of the original, while a high-end version would get a 1280x800 display; the 8.9-inch version would supposedly have a 1920x1200 screen and thus compete even with the new iPad for pixel density.
JK Rowling's own Pottermore store became the first to carry Harry Potter e-books on Tuesday. The shop has all seven novels in ePub format. The files are unprotected and will work with iPads and other iOS devices along with Android hardware and anything else that takes standard ePub files; Kindle users get their own file format for support.
A possible DOJ antitrust lawsuit against Apple and book publishers may swing too much power towards Amazon, Authors Guild president Scott Turow said in the combination of an open letter and editorial Wednesday. He likened Amazon to a "Darth Vader" for Bloomberg, calling it a very successful company but a "frequently unscrupulous" firm. Until Apple's entrance and demands for an agency model in the iBookstore, where publishers set the prices, Amazon was pricing Kindle e-books below cost, both accelerating the death of physical bookstores and making it difficult for other e-bookstores to fairly compete.
Amazon has released a minor update of the Kindle iOS app, bringing it up to v3.0.1. The new version nevertheless makes a significant change, allowing iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users to play audio and video embedded into some Kindle titles. Previously iOS reading was limited to text and images.
Last-minute prep for the new iPad's North American launch has seen Apple create a new sub-section (App Store) for the new iPad. The new sub-section, just known as "Great Apps for the new iPad," currently includes about two dozen apps optimized for the new iPad's much higher-resolution screen. Among the examples are Flight Control Rocket, Sketchbook Pro, and Tweetbot.
Two popular iOS apps have just been updated to take advantage of the new iPad's 2048x1536 display. The Evernote (free, App Store) update to version 4.1.9 and Kindle (free, App Store) version 3.0 both have been upscaled for the greater resolution, though there are other changes too. The Kindle app also gets a new library design and a Cloud view that shows what content users have stored in the cloud and locally. The iPhone app will get a choice of a grid view, and the update is 18.3MB in size.
The very first reviews have surfaced for the third-generation iPad and have provided an early look at the real-world experience of owning one. A look from Josh Topolsky at the The Verge showed that Apple was being honest with its claims of battery life while using LTE. While he got eight hours and 15 minutes, this was only after hiking the brightness above Apple's own tests, showing that the much larger battery capacity was working.
European Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia in comments Monday said his agency was willing to settle with publishers over an e-book price fixing investigation. He was willing to put an end to possible penalties for Hachette Livre, HarperCollins, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan if they addressed "all our objections [at the EC]" over the group allegedly raising prices unfairly, Reuters heard. The European regulator was working in tandem with matching US investigators, although he didn't directly confirm leaks of a possible Department of Justice lawsuit.
Apple on Thursday hoped to rebut claims that its late CEO Steve Jobs had admitted to collusion with publishers as part of a class action lawsuit filed against it. It believed that the lawsuit's view that comments Jobs made on publishers being "unhappy" with Amazon and iBookstore pricing leveling costs weren't the surefire evidence the plaintiffs thought it was. The beliefs of a pact against Amazon's low prices was just "antitrust buzzwords" that belied steps Apple had taken to level the playing field, as well as the nature of the iPad itself.
The US Department of Justice is readying an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and publishers unless they change their pricing strategy for e-books, leaks revealed Wednesday night. Agency officials reportedly slipped to the Wall Street Journal that both the iPad designer as well as Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin, and Simon & Schuster would face legal action for possibly having colluded on e-book pricing. DOJ prosecutors objected to Apple's since confirmed insistence on an agency model, where publishers set the price, as it allegedly kept e-book prices artificially inflated.
Amazon may have reshuffled its Kindle Fire sequel plans again to drop an 8.9-inch model. A rumor Wednesday night spread to Digitimes had Amazon instead planning a straightforward seven-inch sequel to the current model as well as the alluded-to 10-inch version. Success with the tablet was leading Amazon to drift from e-readers to tablets, prompting the larger model, the sources claimed.
The USPTO has granted several Amazon patents that relate to a digital stylus input system that can be used to add annotations to documents. One patent focuses on the wireless input device itself—a large pen that tracks handwriting movements—while a second patent describes the necessary software components that make use of the input.
Amazon is making a rare effort to branch out in its e-book publishing beyond the Kindle through a new deal with author James Atlas that was outlined on Friday. A new 12-book biography line, Amazon Lives, will be edited by Atlas and published in e-book form in other stores, the New York Times was understood. Which stores would get it weren't mentioned, although it's unlikely to involve the Nook store given active bans on Amazon material over Barnes & Noble's objection to digital exclusives on the Kindle.
AT&T's CTO John Donovan in an interview Monday raised the prospect of an alternate if controversial model to footing the bills for 4G data use. The plan mentioned at Mobile World Congress to the Wall Street Journal would let a company volunteer to pay for some or all of the data usage of an app. It would theoretically let users get data-heavy apps like streaming media guilt-free, knowing that they wouldn't run over their cap or face throttling for using it.
Amazon has taken almost 5,000 Kindle e-books from distributor Independent Publishers Group (IPG) off its web store after a disagreement between the two on renewal terms. IPG wouldn't agree to Amazon's new terms, and was warned of the consequences, IPG President Mark Suchomel told PaidContent. The distributor's offer to Amazon is the same it has been in the past, but Amazon reportedly wanted more.
A pair of leaks Sunday night have pointed to Amazon both growing its tablet line and dipping into color e-paper for the firs time. E Ink is supposedly getting orders for a six-inch, color e-paper display, Taiwan's Economic Daily News said. The production would start very quickly, in March, with production scaling up to as much as three million a month.
Amazon might bring the Kindle to Japan and overturn the status quo for e-readers in the country, according to claims made Friday [account required]. Japanese business paper Nikkei heard that the mid-tier Kindle Touch would be the flagship and could come as soon as April. Pricing at 20,000 yen ($258) would be steep relative to the $150 US Kindle Touch 3G, although it would include native, free 3G through NTT DoCoMo instead of roaming on AT&T.
Penguin's recent decision to pull its e-books and digital audiobooks from libraries is because it didn't have permission to distribute the borrowed books by forwarding users to Amazon, INFOdocket said. OverDrive only had relationships in place with publishers, who can store and serve library end users' e-books. It doesn't have the authority to send users to Amazon or any other retailer to actually check out the book, the report continues.
Amazon has started running one of its first TV ads for the Kindle Fire this week in a conspicuous jab at Apple. The spot (below) recalls Amazon's earlier ads criticizing the poor readability of the iPad but, this time, has an answer to the regular Kindle's lack of features. The $79 Kindle, combined with two $199 Kindle Fires, lets a mother at the beach give herself and her children a device each at under the price of an iPad.
