E-Books

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 →

If you were banking on hacking a new Kindle Fire to take advantage of cheap hardware without Amazon’s modded Android OS, you perhaps better think again. Developers over at XDA are speculating that they expect the new range of Fires to be too sophisticated to hack. In particular, a forum post provides evidence which suggests Continue Reading →

Amazon has called its new Kindle Fire HD “The best tablet at any price.” But that’s far from the truth. Here are five reasons the Google Nexus 7 beats the Kindle Fire HD. Use both devices for a little while, and it’s clear that the Google Nexus 7 is zippier than the Kindle Fire HD. Continue Reading →

Just as Amazon’s Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos confirmed that the company is likely to go up against competitor eBay in delivering some products in one day, supply chain sources are stating that Kindle Paperwhite shipments could be in trouble. According to DigiTimes, the second half of the year could be difficult for Amazon to Continue Reading →

Amazon has released a new version of its Kindle app for Macs, bringing support for Lion’s multi-touch gestures, such as panning and swiping. Version 1.10.3 also brings support for Kindle Format 8 books (which means richer formatting) and larger libraries, as well as the usual bug fixes and performance improvements. The update should be welcome Continue Reading →

Amazon doesn’t want to drive even more customers Apple’s way, so it has done an about-face on its decision to include ads on the lock screen and main home screen of its new Kindle Fire tablets and is letting buyers opt out — for a $15 upcharge. Last week, Amazon introduced a slew of new Continue Reading →

There’s a certain amount of self-contradiction going on if you’re visiting a brick-and-mortar store to pre-order a device that’s all about e-commerce. If you relish the irony, Best Buy will gladly let you reserve Amazon’s $69 Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, upgraded Kindle Fire and both sizes of the Kindle Fire HD (including the LTE model) at Continue Reading →

The next time you deliver a PowerPoint presentation that matters—a product launch, investor pitch, new client meeting— take a cue from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and ditch the bullet points. When Bezos unveiled the all-new new Kindle Fire HD this week, his presentation slides were light on text and heavy on images. It’s a new Continue Reading →

The new Kindle Fire range was barely out of the oven before Amazon drew flak for its plans to include Special Offers on the lock screen for US models. In plainer language, the tablets ship with ads built-in — and unlike e-paper Kindles, there’s no option to pay for an ad-free variant from the start. Continue Reading →