With Amazon’s (AMZN) Kindle, readers can squeeze hundreds of books into a device that is smaller than most hardcovers. For some, that’s not small enough.

Many people who want to read electronic books are discovering that they can do so on the smartphones that are already in their pockets–bringing a whole new meaning to “phone book.”

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Two high-profile electronic-book readers seeking to challenge Amazon.com Inc.’s (AMZN) Kindle could be scarce under the Christmas tree.

Sony Corp. (SNE) 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.

Barnes & Noble Inc. (BKS), which is racing to enter the market with an e-reader called Nook, last week said the latest orders for the product will ship Dec. 18, though it stated it expects those products to arrive by Christmas.

The projections, which both companies linked to strong demand, underscore the difficulties of forecasting orders and coordinating a supply chain that includes component makers, manufacturing services and others.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

A new electronic book reader is expected Tuesday from book seller Barnes & Noble Inc. (BKS) that will challenge readers from Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and Sony Corp. (SNE) with a color touch-screen and $259 price, according to a planned ad for the device.

The price for the reader, called the Nook, matches that of Amazon’s Kindle. The Kindle controls about 60 percent of the burgeoning e-book market, according to Forrester Research.

Details of the reader appear in a full-page advertisement viewed by The Wall Street Journal in the New York Times Book Review section dated Sunday, Oct. 25. The advertisement says the Nook will enable its owners to “Lend eBooks to friends.”

A spokeswoman for Barnes & Noble declined to comment.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

The rising popularity of electronic book readers such as Amazon.com Inc.’s (AMZN) 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.

Liquid-crystal-display makers AU Optronics Corp. (AUO) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp. and e-paper maker Prime View International Co. are hoping that the shift to digital books will help boost their revenue in the long term and help them diversify into other segments.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

The e-reader is going home-shopping for the holidays.

Shortly after Amazon (AMZN) 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.

QVC will offer the e-reader, at an undisclosed price, as part of its “Today’s Special Value” program, commonly referred to as “TSV,” in early December.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

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.

On Wednesday, the University revealed that students in three courses–WWS 325: Civil Society and Public Policy, WWS 555A: U.S. Policy and Diplomacy in the Middle East, and CLA 546: Religion and Magic in Ancient Rome–were given a new Kindle DX containing their course readings for the semester. The University had announced last May it was partnering with Amazon.com, founded by Jeff Bezos ’86, to provide students and faculty members with the e-readers as part of a sustainability initiative to conserve paper.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Amazon.com (AMZN), 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 says its range will grow but its focus, for now at least, is on inexpensive accessories, not TVs and other high-end gadgets. (One exception, of course, is Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader, which it launched in 2007.)

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) 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.

The $24.99 Pinzon bamboo cutting board is being sold as part of a line of Amazon’s own kitchen products on its Web site. It features two surfaces, one flat and the other curved. A curved blade, designed for chopping herbs, is stored inside the block.

In June Amazon launched a new collection of private-label kitchen utensils, designed by Seattle Chef Tom Douglas and sold under his name.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

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 (NSDQ: AMZN). Meanwhile, Ted Kennedy’s True Compass, the other hot book release this week, can’t be bought via Kindle or Sony (NYSE: SNE) or as an e-book at all.

Read the rest of this post at the original site

One sign that Steve Jobs is back to his old self: He’s already sniping at rivals.

After Apple’s (AAPL) iPod launch event on Wednesday, the New York Times’ David Pogue asked the CEO whether he has doubts–as he’s expressed in the past–about the market for e-readers, especially Amazon’s (AMZN) Kindle.

Read the rest of this post at the original site

The printed word has always had an Achilles heel: factual mistakes. Can the electronic reader help? Anthony Gottlieb investigates …

Nietzsche famously said that there are no such things as facts, only interpretations. Be that as it may, every writer knows that there are certainly such things as factual mistakes. Errors are common in all forms of media, but it is mistakes in the printed word that are perhaps the most pernicious. Once a “fact” has been pressed onto paper, it becomes a trusted source, and misinformation will multiply.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Amazon (AMZN) 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.”

On Thursday, Amazon went a step further by e-mailing an offer to return the deleted books to effected Kindles–or to give owners a $30 Amazon gift certificate.

The incident prompted a class action lawsuit, filed in part on behalf of a student who said the deletion rendered useless the notes he had taken for a school assignment.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Discovery Communications (DISCA) 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.

The story reports that “diagrams included with Discovery’s patent application…depict a rectangular device with physical controls for user navigation.” The device would be for reading e-books and “providing for e-commerce.” As the Sun notes, Discovery already holds a patent on some security and copy protection features, and earlier this year sued Amazon.com (AMZN) for alleged infringement by the Kindle.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Many publishers were eager to see if Random House would challenge Amazon’s (AMZN) 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.”

They got their answer Thursday, when Random House announced “now that all of our security and logistical issues surrounding the e-book of ‘The Lost Symbol’ have been resolved, the e-book will be released simultaneously with the hardcover on Sept. 15.” Random House’s Doubleday imprint is printing 5 million hardcover copies for the U.S.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

So you’ve got a Kindle, and you have books on it, and you want to keep those books–no matter what Amazon (AMZN) or a publisher decides you deserve in the future. Your legal options are limited, but you do have some.

Read the rest of this post on the original site