Kindle

As far as media delivery goes, e-books are pretty flat. You get the book and maybe some notes or background info from the publisher, and that’s pretty much it. That’s not good enough for Amazon. The company was just awarded a patent, which it originally applied for on November 24, 2010, describing a way to Continue Reading →

Months after being apparently retired from Amazon’s e-reader line, the 9.7-inch Kindle DX is back in stock. Amazon has brought back the DX for $299, reflecting the price drop that was implemented late last year. The Kindle DX was apparently discontinued back in October of 2012, shortly after Amazon announced the backlit Kindle Paperwhite e-reader Continue Reading →

Amazon continues adding new features to its Kindle for iOS app that make it easier to use for blind and visually impaired users. Features like X-Ray, End Actions, sharing, highlighting and bookmarking have all been tweaked to give visually impaired users easier access to the nearly 2 million titles in its catalog that feature text-to-voice Continue Reading →

Amazon announced a new publishing platform on Wednesday called Kindle Worlds, which will give both established authors and aspiring fan fiction writers the chance to earn royalties based on their work. Fan fiction is a rather murky topic, given that it often combines beloved characters and franchises in rather unusual scenarios. Regardless, the medium has Continue Reading →

E-commerce leviathan Amazon is taking a step into social gaming: Amazon Coins, its new virtual currency, is now live in the U.S. To kick it off, Amazon announced that it would put $5 worth of the currency — equivalent to 500 Coins — into all Kindle Fire users’ accounts to use on apps and in-app Continue Reading →

Amazon announced a number of new features for its Kindle for iOS app that aim to make it easier to use for blind and visually impaired users. Wednesday’s update, Amazon says, will make it easier for these users to use features like “X-Ray, End Actions, sharing, highlighting and bookmarking.” Amazon says these new features are Continue Reading →

The number of device installs for free apps in the Google Play store is over ten times bigger than the Amazon Appstore in the United States, according to new research conducted by Distimo. The mobile app store analytics company found that the top 200 free apps in the Amazon Appstore were downloaded 16 million times Continue Reading →

On Wednesday, Amazon released its annual list of the “most well-read cities in America.” The ranking is established using the total sales of books, magazines and newspapers, both in print and in Kindle formats, since June 2012. The list works on a per-capita basis in cities that count more than 10,000 residents. Just as last Continue Reading →

Comparing books to ebooks is like comparing mechanical watches to digital watches, or manual cars to automatic cars. No one doubts the convenience, reach, and flexibility of the ebook format, but it will never convincingly replicate the experience of a paper book—nor does it need to. Ebooks are a fundamentally new medium, stuck in an Continue Reading →

Amazon has announced that it is acquiring social book recommendation site Goodreads, an obvious move that should offer strong synergy with its ecommerce business. “Amazon and Goodreads share a passion for reinventing reading,” Russ Grandinetti, Amazon Vice President, Kindle Content, said in a statement. “Goodreads has helped change how we discover and discuss books and, Continue Reading →