Books

“Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling’s new book for adults, The Casual Vacancy, was published today to great fanfare and decidedly mixed reviews. Some ebook readers are holding on off on purchasing the digital edition because it’s priced at $17.99 (here’s why), but Kindle e-reader owners who did buy it right away are in for a Continue Reading →

Consumers aren’t nearly excited about Amazon’s latest tablet as they were for the original. The Kindle Fire was the first tablet aside from the iPad that saw widespread success, capturing 14% of the tablet market in its debut quarter. The Kindle Fire HD doesn’t seem to have the same effect on consumers, though. According to Continue Reading →

Late last week Wal-Mart announced that it will no longer sell the Amazon Kindle and Kinde Fire in its stores, joining Target in in rejecting the devices. While the argument could be made that the razor-thin margins on those products contributed to that decision, the real reason is clearer: Amazon’s tablets are a gateway to Continue Reading →

Amazon added a new developer feature called “device targeting” on Monday, which will making it easier for device owners to find the right applications for their particular smartphone or tablet. Mobile app developers can use device targeting to build multiple versions of their software so that the correct version is installed from Amazon’s Appstore for Continue Reading →

Last week, when I wrote How to decide: should you buy a big Kindle Fire HD or an iPad?, I mentioned that I wasn’t sure what happens to the price of 4G after the end of the first year of the $49 4G deal that Amazon is offering. Well, it turns that out reader Bruce Continue Reading →

Enormous retail chain Walmart will cease selling all Amazon Kindle products, reports Reuters. The initial report is a brief that is based on an internal company memo. Reuters on the memo: “We have recently made the business decision to not carry Amazon tablets and eReaders beyond our existing inventory and purchase commitments,” Wal-Mart said in Continue Reading →

App discoverability is a constant thorn in the side of developers. It’s also an obvious annoyance for consumers who have to spent time sifting through app store chaff to find the bits of software really worth downloading. Amazon looks to be considering both sides of this problem with a new feature — called Billboards — Continue Reading →

We were worried there, for a minute. After code explorers found that Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD 7-inch had both a locked bootloader and extra security measures, there was a brief concern that the pseudo-Android tablet might be very tough to hack. As it turns out, there was no reason to lose faith. Hashcode, Justin Case, Continue Reading →

Days before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos were due to launch a partnership, to promote US culture and provide English lessons to young learners around the world via 35,000 Kindle e-readers, the event was quietly cancelled. The proposed partnership with Amazon to develop the Kindle Mobile Learning Initiative was Continue Reading →

Microsoft hasn’t been very forthcoming about what it plans to charge customers for its soon-to-be-released Surface tablet, but CEO Steve Ballmer told the Seattle Times that the device will be priced more to compete with Apple’s iPad than with low-cost tablets such as the Kindle Fire HD or the Google Nexus 7. Specifically, Ballmer said Continue Reading →