Thursday, November 19, 2009
Library in a Pocket
With Amazon’s Kindle, readers can squeeze hundreds of books into a device that is smaller than most hardcovers.
With Amazon’s Kindle, readers can squeeze hundreds of books into a device that is smaller than most hardcovers.
Two high-profile electronic-book readers seeking to challenge Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle could be scarce under the Christmas tree.
Sony Corp. Wednesday said orders for its new Daily Edition Reader–which the company said in August would arrive in time for the holidays–are now expected to ship Dec. 18 through Jan. 8. It added that the actual delivery date can’t be guaranteed.
A new electronic book reader is expected Tuesday from book seller Barnes & Noble Inc. that will challenge readers from Amazon.com Inc. and Sony Corp. with a color touch-screen and $259 price, according to a planned ad for the device.
The rising popularity of electronic book readers such as Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle bodes well for Taiwanese electronics companies that make the key components and are investing to grab an early lead in the market.
Taiwan’s long history in manufacturing consumer electronics, its aggressive low-cost strategy and closer ties with China gives the island’s companies an advantage over Japanese and South Korean peers, analysts say.
The e-reader is going home-shopping for the holidays.
Shortly after Amazon cut the price of its Kindle e-reader, Interead, maker of the rival Cool-er device, said it has signed on with home-shopping network QVC to help it launch Cool-er in the U.S.
When the University announced its Kindle e-reader pilot program last May, administrators seemed cautiously optimistic that the e-readers would both be sustainable and serve as a valuable academic tool. But less than two weeks after 50 students received the free Kindle DX e-readers, many of them said they were dissatisfied and uncomfortable with the devices.
Amazon.com, which wants to be the Internet’s general store, is adding one more category to the range of private label products it sells online: electronics accessories.
The “Amazon Basics” line launched on Saturday with products like audio-video cables and blank DVDs–all sourced and designed by the e-commerce company.
Amazon.com Inc. is quietly expanding its private-label business in a bid to diversify away from its online bookstore roots and become more like a general retailer.
The latest sign: The Seattle-based e-commerce giant–known for high-tech innovations like one-click checkout and the Kindle e-reader–last month received a U.S. design patent for a wooden chopping block.
It could change–and probably will when the first flurry is over–but, as I type, the Kindle edition of Dan Brown’s latest thriller The Lost Symbol is outselling the hardback on Amazon.
One sign that Steve Jobs is back to his old self: He’s already sniping at rivals.
The printed word has always had an Achilles heel: factual mistakes. Can the electronic reader help? Anthony Gottlieb investigates …
Amazon took a lot of heat in July when it wirelessly deleted copies of two George Orwell titles from the Kindle e-readers of some customers. CEO Jeff Bezos eventually apologized for the incident, calling it “stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles.”
Discovery Communications has filed for a patent on an e-book reader, the Baltimore Sun reported over late last week.
The Sun notes that Discovery, which owns Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and other cable properties, filed a patent for the device in February; but the Sun notes that the patent filing was not made public until last Thursday.
Many publishers were eager to see if Random House would challenge Amazon’s strategy of pricing the book industry’s most successful titles at $9.99 for the Kindle e-reader by withholding the e-book edition of Dan Brown’s upcoming novel, “The Lost Symbol.”
So you’ve got a Kindle, and you have books on it, and you want to keep those books–no matter what Amazon or a publisher decides you deserve in the future. Your legal options are limited, but you do have some.
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