Kindle Will Bypass New York Times Paywall

PCWorld: "When there's a paywall, there's a way, and there are no shortages of methods to dodge or dissemble The New York Times' new content subscription paywall. Even as the Old Gray Lady attempts to shut down loophole-exploiters, like the renegade Twitter feeds reposting NYT content so readers don't have to pay, more procedures sprout by the day. ... "

Amazon courting Apple's iOS developers to port apps to Kindle

AppleInsider: "Amazon is actively enticing Apple's iOS App Store developers to bring their efforts to the Kindle platform, particularly educational apps, in a strategy that attempts to push ebook readers up into competition with more sophisticated, general purpose tablets. ... "

Audible.com Audiobooks Now Available (For Real - aka, via WiFil) On Kindle

CrunchGear: "You can now download more than 50,000 Audible.com audiobooks on your Kindle via your Wi-Fi connection. You’ve always been able to download Audible audiobooks from the site itself, then transfer them to your Kindle via a USB, but now you can do so wirelessly."

Amazon Reinstates Kindle-Lending Startup Lendle

Business Insider:: "After a bit of press and consumer outrage, Amazon's team got in touch with them [Lendle] and they're back. They had to remove their book sync feature to get into the terms of service. It's hard to know whether Amazon's crackdown was just a fluke or was pushed on them by publishers or what. In any case it's impressive how fast they responded."

Amazon stymies Lendle e-book lending service

In the long run, Amazon is doing Lendle, eBook Fling and BookLending a favor, because they had shit business models anyway. That being said, I think it may be a strategic mistake for Amazon to look like it is trying to stifle lending. Carnoy, CNET: "It may be game, set, and match for Lendle. No, not Ivan Lendl, the former tennis great. Lendle, the newly hatched e-book lending service. Lendle first reported the news via Twitter: 'Amazon has revoked Lendle's API access. This is why the site is down. It's sad and unfortunate that Amazon is shutting down lending sites...According to Amazon, Lendle does not 'serve the principal purpose of driving sales of products and services on the Amazon site.''"

What if Amazon released Android Kindle tablet?

Tech Gear: "Firstly, in the short term, any Android-based Kindle isn't about Amazon competing with iPad or other Apple iOS devices. Amazon's ambitions are much larger: Capitalizing on the enormous Android ecosystem of applications and devices and extending its core competency as a retailer. Amazon already does this on Android and other mobile operating systems with the Kindle app. But Amazon sells more digital content than just ebooks. Android Kindle -- as device or app -- would allow Amazon to better bundle other digitally downloaded products, like movies, music and TV shows."

Is Amazon working on an Android Kindle?

Nick Bilton of NY Times via NDTVGadgets.com: "Although Jeff Bezos, Amazon's chief executive, has said in the past that a color Kindle is 'multiple years' away, new job listings on the Lab 126 Web site, the division of Amazon that makes the Kindle, show that the company is building up its team of Android developers, which might involve developing software for a color screen. At least five new jobs were added in the last week alone seeking developers with Android programming experience. Now this could simply mean that Amazon is hiring engineers to work on new software for other Android devices. But it could also pave the way for a Kindle that runs Android, which would in turn be a color device. The current Kindle runs the Linux operating system. It's still up for debate whether an Android Kindle would be good for Amazon, or better for Google. With tablets becoming a competition over the number of apps available for the platform, Amazon would have a lot of catching up to do if the company decided to introduce an entirely new tablet operating system."

Kindle to move to Android? [Rumor]

Android Community: "There’s talk going around that Amazon may be looking to take completely redesign the Kindle platform and base it on the Android OS. According to posts in the New York Times Blog, Amazon is looking for Android developers for 'Lab 126' which is Amazon’s Kindle development unit. That would make for a very interesting development and may signal Amazon’s concern that the NOOKColor is suddenly very popular with Android geeks looking for an affordable tablet option. There’s also the fact that with Amazon’s Android App Store that the book seller may simply be looking to evolve the Kindle to take advantage of Android apps they sell."

Kindle’s "Real" Page Numbers - How They Did It

Per Amazon:

... With our massive selection and knowledge of print books, we were excited to be in a position to help solve this problem. We had to invent an entirely new way to match the streams of text in a print book to the streams of text in a Kindle book, and assign page numbers in Kindle books. There are hundreds of thousands of Kindle books (and growing every day), so to handle a job of this size, we turned to our Amazon Web Services computing fabric. We created algorithms to match the text of print books to Kindle books and organized all of this in the cloud, using our own AWS platform. The results of this work are stored in Amazon’s Simple Storage Service, where we track the complete history of every page matching file we’ve produced. We even found a way to deliver page numbers to books that customers had already purchased – without altering those books in any way, so customers’ highlights, notes, and reading location are preserved exactly as they were.

Some other e-bookstores have added virtual “page numbers” to e-books, but we’ve found that these approaches can be confusing and often inconsistent – they don’t map to the page numbers in physical books, and in some cases they don’t account for title pages, blank pages, and other nuances that we see in print books. We’ve already received a lot of great feedback from customers who like our approach. Real page numbers are already available in tens of thousands of our most popular Kindle books, including the top 100 bestselling books in the Kindle Store that have matching print editions, and we’re adding page numbers in more Kindle books every day. We want you to lose yourself in the reading, so page numbers are only displayed when you push the menu button. ...

Apple Keeps Right On Approving Amazon And Netflix Updates Without In-App Purchases

TechCrunch: "Remember when everyone was freaking out over the Apple in-app subscription changes? You should. It was just a month ago. And while some of the fears that arose do appear to be very real, the two things most people focused on were Amazon’s Kindle app and the Netflix app. Well guess what? Both received updates today [March 15th], and neither includes the supposedly mandatory changes."

Kindle 3 Catapults Amazon to 48% eReader Market Share in 2010

IDC via Reviews Of Electronics: "Amazon scooped up 48% of the eReader market [in 2010], thanks predominantly to the Kindle 3."

AT&T stores to carry Amazon's Kindle 3G

Reuters:

AT&T will begin carrying online retailer Amazon.com Inc's market-leading Kindle electronic reader next week, expanding the device's availability in stores.

AT&T said it would start selling the Kindle 3G at its stores across the United States beginning on Sunday and feature it in its device displays.

Amazon, whose Kindle competes with Barnes & Noble Inc's Nook and Apple Inc's iPad, has been trying to make the Kindle more widely available for sale beyond its own web site on the assumption shoppers prefer to try e-readers before buying them.

Last year, office supplies retailer Staples Inc, discount chain Target Corp and Best Buy Co Inc all started carrying the Kindle.

Forrester Research estimated in December that about 6 million Kindles had been sold at that point since its launch in 2007, far ahead of the Nook and other devices.

Kindle for the Web - or - Why Amazon Isn’t Worried About Apple’s In-App Purchasing Rules

Chuck Toporek @ chuckdude: " ... the reason we haven’t heard Jeff Bezos screaming about this recent change to the IAP rules is because Amazon isn’t worried. They have a solution already in beta testing and it works just fine. Instead of using the Kindle app, iOS users can just point Safari to Amazon’s site, buy the Kindle ebook, and read it right there in Safari. No app required. Again, Kindle for the Web is just a beta right now, so full text isn’t available at the moment. You can bet Amazon will make a big splash about this, though, once they have all the publishers lined up and ready to go."

Amazon's delivery fees for Kindle books putting a hurt on publishers of graphic novels, comics

PW: "However, while there is a nascent market for comics on e-book readers like the Kindle and B&N’s color device, the Nook, Amazon’s recently introduced digital 'delivery fee,' charging publishers 15 cents per megabyte to transfer a book’s file to the Kindle, has forced some comics publishers to rethink using the Kindle platform. While novels are text-based and unlikely to run up a delivery charge much over $0.02, graphic novels have a much higher bandwidth, and could be forced into a lower payment/royalty rate and higher list price because of their file size, directly because of these Amazon fees. In addition, Amazon also has a recommended file size which affects graphic novel pricing."

Amazon’s New Kindle Commercial Jabs At iPad Again

SlashGear: "The Kindle commercial also accentuates the fact that their device can run up to a month on one battery charge and comes at you with a relatively affordable price point of $139. These advantages plus their overall feel-good message of 'The Book Lives On' should appeal to the true book enthusiasts. And for those book lovers considering an iPad instead, Amazon warns you again in this commercial of the imminent glare."

Amazon pushes out Kindle update

TechCentral: "US e-retailer Amazon.com has released the first major software update for its popular Kindle e-reader since it unveiled the Kindle 3 last year. The new software introduces real page numbers that match the pages in printed books, a feature long requested by users of the popular device. The software update, version 3.1, will be pushed to SA Kindle users in the next few days. A Wi-Fi connection is needed to download and install the update. It will not be made available over the cellular networks. ... "

Why Innovation Doffs an Old Hat

NY Times: "Just as the average human carries around the remnants of a prehistoric tail and a useless appendix, the tools we use also bear marks of the evolutionary process from which they arose. Add to that list Amazon’s e-reader, the Kindle, which will now supplement its 'location numbers' with page numbers that correspond to physical books. The change, announced last week, does have a practical purpose — especially for book clubs, whose digital readers presumably will no longer have trouble looking up the same page as analog readers. But there is also a sense of absurdity here. E-books, by definition, do not have pages. Depending on which size font someone uses, she may have to advance the screen many times before 'turning a page.' Then there are the questions of how to approach books with many physical editions, or texts that exist only in digital space. ... "

Kindle Books on Linux

Amazon Kindle 3 and Kindle DX Review and News Blog: "As of recently it is possible to run Kindle for PC application via Wine on Linux. I tested it on 64-bit install of Ubuntu 10.10 and put together this step-by-step instructions and a short review. Enjoy! ... "

Page Numbers for Kindle Books an Imperfect Solution

But imperfect is all we can hope for - so says Dave Pogue in the NY Times.

Amazon adds "real" page numbers to Kindle eBooks

PC Pro:

... At the moment, Kindle eBooks show the percentage of a book a reader has finished, as well as the 'location' - usually a number reaching into the thousands.

Because the location number doesn't correspond with page numbers in physical printed copies of books, it makes it difficult to use the Kindle as part of classes or book groups.

"Our customers have told us they want real page numbers that match the page numbers in print books so they can easily reference and cite passages, and read alongside others in a book club or class," the company said in a post on the Kindle blog.

"Rather than add page numbers that don’t correspond to print books, which is how page numbers have been added to eBooks in the past, we’re adding real page numbers that correspond directly to a book’s print edition." ...