Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on TwitterBe a Facebook FanTumble us!

30 Dec 2011 11:48

tags

Tech: Amazon sold a bunch of Kindles, but don’t expect a specific count

  • 4 million Kindles sold in December … well, at least we think so source
  • » It’s an estimate based off of Amazon’s evasiveness. They said that customers “purchased well over 1 million Kindle devices per week” in the month of December. Sales of Kindle e-books were up 175% from last year’s period between Black Friday and Christmas; so while Amazon may not give us clear numbers, the company seems to be doing well in the fields it created.

03 Nov 2011 23:19

tags

Tech: Ever wanted to rent a book on your Kindle? Well, now you can!

  • Kindle and Kindle Fire to have a lending library: The program, which launched today, allows readers to borrow one title at a time per month; when they rent a new title, the previous one will leave their device. Sounds like…not the best plan in the world. The library has over 5,000 titles for readers to choose from, so it’s a little limited. Also, the service is only available to users of Amazon’s Prime service, which costs $79 a year. Stock up! source

16 Oct 2011 23:47

tags

Biz: Publishers freak out because Amazon’s cutting into their territory

  • cause Amazon, with its growing clout as an e-book outlet and ability to work around the traditional system, has made significant inroads as a publisher of books, with at least one bestseller to its name. They will publish 122 books this fall in electronic and physical form.
  • reaction Large publishers and agents are starting to freak out. In one case, Hawaiian writer Kiana Davenport angered the publisher of a forthcoming book and got sued because she dared use Amazon to self-publish an old anthology no publisher wanted. source

28 Sep 2011 23:56

tags

Tech: Voltaire? Really, Kindle? That’s how you’re gonna play this?

  • “Fire” still looks cool, though: We kind of hate the pretentiousness of this entire ad. Amazon just released this ad to promote the new Kindle Fire … which appears to imply that a Voltaire quote inspired the name. Steve Jobs is probably cursing the hipster marketers at Amazon for just being so dang indie. How can the iPad compete with that?! source

18 Jul 2011 14:19

tags

Tech: Smart idea: Amazon offers rental textbooks on the Kindle

  • before Amazon wanted the Kindle to be able to replace textbooks for college kids. They even made a model — the Kindle DX — to appeal to college kids more. But the problem was that the e-textbooks often cost about as much as a used copy of the book.
  • now Amazon has decided to fix this problem by allowing students to rent textbooks on their Kindle, and pay for how long they rent it. Not only is this really cool and a lot more practical, but it will save students money and seems like it could really take off. source

20 Apr 2011 23:48

tags

Tech: Soon, your Kindle will replace your library card

Amazon is rolling out some great new features to Kindle users, including book lending and access to 11,000 public libraries. No word on when they’ll be out, though. source

11 Apr 2011 22:23

tags

Tech: Amazon drops its Kindle price again … well, kinda

  • deal Amazon just dropped the price of its low-end Kindle by $25, from roughly $139 to $114 … making it an even easier impulse buy.
  • catch The cheaper Kindle will have ads — which will show up in menus and screen savers, but not while you’re actually reading a book. source
 

04 Feb 2011 21:43

tags

Tech: A Kindle + A Moleskine + An Etch-A-Sketch = The Noteslate

  • Take the advantages of the Kindle. Add writing. Take out the Internet. Make it like a Moleskine that’s perfect for notes. What do you get? If you answered “the coolest Etch-A-Sketch ever made,” you’re a little more than halfway there. (via Hacker News) source

08 Jan 2011 12:24

tags

Tech: This is what color e-ink looks like, guys. Whaddya think?

So, here’s a shot of a color e-ink screen from a Chinese manufacturer who isn’t Amazon. Cool, but not super-high-contrast. Will Amazon eventually go for this, anyway? source

27 Dec 2010 13:54

tags

Tech: Amazon has record-setting holiday season, led by the Kindle

  • 158 units sold each second, and 13.7 million overall source
  • » And the key factoid? Amazon’s best-selling item of all-time is the third-generation Kindle, which only came out a few months ago. That’s not the best-selling technology item. No. It managed to top the final book in the “Harry Potter” series for the mantle of Amazon’s biggest seller of all-time. At $139, guess they found their price point. And guess we have egg on our face.