Get 'em while they're hot. Amazon has its Kindle e-book reader back on sale, finally following up on that 5.5 hours of stock available the first time around. Of course, that $399 pricetag isn't budging, so if you were looking for a cheaper way to get into this racket, you'll have to look elsewhere. Or just squint really hard and pretend those two nines are zeros.

[Via GizmoScene]

The AP has a story out on the Amazon Kindle's impact on the teensy tiny e-book market. It hasn't been insubstantial, with some reporting double digit increases in e-book sales since the Kindle's release, and it hasn't hurt the competition either -- Sony numbers were apparently doubled or tripled from what they were before the Kindle arrived. Opinions are still torn as to whether the Kindle is really the right device for the job, but the press buzz around the device has certainly impacted the struggling e-book market, which is hovering around $33 million of the $35 billion publishing business. Some analysts are fairly certain e-books will remain a small niche, similar to audiobooks, but we think everybody's missing the big picture here: direct-to-brain downloads. Get on it, people.

Sure, Philippe Starck may not care for the Kindle, but an open letter posted on Amazon's front page suggests he's in the minority. We already knew that the company was having a difficult time filling orders, but we had no idea the wait for buyers would warrant what amounts to a public apology from Jeff Bezos. Apparently, the online superstore is drawing heat for six-week delays on delivery for some customers, and is scrambling to get itself into an "order today, ship today" scheme. The original release of the device sold out in just 5 1/2 hours says the letter, which might explain why no one is hacking it -- no one has it.

[Thanks, Michael]

Sure, it might not be as filling as the Skoda cakemobile, or as family oriented as Martha Stewart's Wii cake, but do those contain the thrilling tale of The Light Beam Rider? Yeah, we thought not.

Paul: "Unfortunately the screen refresh times of '30-35 minutes at 350 degrees' is just plain unacceptable."
Chris: "Moments later, a naked Jeff Bezos burst out, ready to greet everyone at the shareholders' meeting."
Richard: "Philippe Starck calls the Kindle 'a little delicious.' "
Sean: "No friends, that's not the iCing phone, tis the Kindle Cake and it serves 12."
Don: "You can never be too careful buying gadgets on eBay."
Josh: "The Light-Beam Rider was surprisingly short."
Ross: "The book is a lie."

[Via The Raw Feed]

You know, the Kindle runs Linux, has USB, uses all standard processors and chipsets, even comes with free built-in EV-DO -- you'd kind of think that stuff (and all the rest) would make it about as high a profile target for hardware modders and hackers as there are. So what gives, why hasn't the hacker community glommed onto this thing? Hit the poll: anyone can answer, but we really want to hear from the über-geeks in the house why the call to Kindle has gone unheeded.

Update: Good news! Reader Thomas did us a solid with some obscure links on how to get hardware access to the Kindle's console (some soldering req'd), where you can muck around with the bootloader. Also found: the complete and impressively extensive list of keyboard shortcuts. Now, let's parlay this stuff into something useful, shall we? And by "we" we mean, "you", since we're merely editors of a gadget site.

It's likely that the Kindle's popularity is going to spawn a whole slew of e-books vying for the eyes of readers. A concept from a student named Nedzad Mujcinovic at Monash University could very well stoke the fires of competition if his Livre ever makes it to store shelves. The system uses an e-ink screen overlaid with a touch surface, thus forgoing the multitudinous buttons of the Kindle for an ultra-simple, gesture-based input scheme. Pages can be turned by sliding your finger from corner to corner, though double- and triple-finger gestures will advance the book by ten and 50 pages, respectively. Most notable for real book fans is the inclusion of a leather stitched cover, meant to evoke the look and feel of the device's analog counterpart. Amazon's designers would be wise to, uh... take a page from Nedzad's book for the Kindle 2.

[Thanks, Nick B.]

While executives can blow-hard the success of their goods 'til blue in the face, one of the best measurements of market acceptance is the appearance of the third party accessory. Here's the first we've seen: Kindle Cases from WaterField. Starting February 12th you'll have your choice of a $27 slip case, $39 sleeve case, and $49 travel case offering varying degrees of protection unmatched by any dust jacket. Then again, a book doesn't require much protection does it?

Truth be told, only a portion of the world was totally shocked when FCC documentation gave us all reason to believe that Amazon was indeed diving head first into the hardware biz, but even now, it still seems a touch awkward to see a label most commonly spotted on corrugated boxes plastered on an e-book reader. Nevertheless, Bezos' baby did indeed take on the aforementioned sector, though it took an outlandishly long time to go from FCC-approved to bookworm-ready. After missing a gazillion (give or take a few) proposed due dates, the cleverly-named (and questionably designed) Kindle finally made itself available on -- gasp! -- Amazon.com some 14 months after its original coming out party.

As with most highly-anticipated devices, this particular one was also met with its fair share of critics and proponents, but judging by the initial difficulty it had remaining in stock, it seemed well on its way to e-reader stardom. Granted, we've no clairvoyant on staff, but we're guessing a few of those orders went to a few of you all. Assuming that's the case, why not give ole Jeff and company something to think about for Kindle v2.0? Yeah, we know you've been enjoying those unannounced easter eggs and whatnot, but now that you've had ample time to flip through a few paperless pages and really get a read (ahem) on this thing, what alterations would you make going forward? How's about a color screen, for starters? Maybe a little more responsiveness? A little less '80, a little more '08 in the design? Or, say, native Engadget support in the RSS reader? We're only partially kidding on that last one, but feel free to agree and tack on a dozen more worthwhile changes in comments below.

Jobs to NYT on Kindle: "It doesn't matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don't read anymore. Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don't read anymore." Yes, it's true, the only books Steve thinks we need are MacBooks.

Irony: You're reading right now.

Further irony: You're probably not reading Engadget on a Kindle (at least not through its regular RSS reader).

Is this like geeky Koan or something? Does this mean Engadget doesn't exist? Either way, we get his point. It's a damn shame fewer people aren't reading real books.

Apparently, Amazon's wondrous e-book reader, the Kindle, has more than meets the eye -- not unlike some fictional, alien, robotic characters which shall not be named. Users of the device have been plumbing its depths, and have uncovered a handful of easter eggs which will make current owners extra happy, and might push potential buyers over the edge. Amongst the hidden features are access to Google Maps coupled with CDMA-based location-finding, which also allows you to quickly locate nearby gas stations and restaurants (as well as your own custom searches). In addition to the GMaps integration, the Kindle also comes equipped with a hidden picture viewer and slideshow functionality, the ability to snap a screenshot, a clock quick-look, plus everyone's favorite time-wasting game: Minesweeper. Hit the read link to learn all about the unrevealed guts of the innocent little reader.

[Via interface]

We knew the Kindle's DRM would be cracked the minute we heard about it, and it looks like the first chink in the armor is here courtesy of Igor Skochinsky: he's discovered the algorithm the Kindle uses to turn regular Mobipocket books into Amazon's proprietary .azw format. The hack involves replacing a Mobipocket file's PID with one generated from your Kindle's serial number, and then setting a Kindle-specific flag that allows it to be opened. Igor's posted a couple little Python scripts to handle both of these tasks for you, and it looks like sites like Fictionwise already support the hack. That's all well and good, but we're still waiting patiently for the day when we can tether to that free EV-DO.

Quite a few people have weighed in on the Kindle's retro style, and we're sure the lot of them felt a little vindicated when superstar designer Philippe Starck straight-up called the device's design "almost modern" and "a little sad." Speaking at the LeWeb 3 conference in Paris, Starck said he'd have put the minimum amount of plastic around the screen, but that it looked like Amazon's designers weren't "courageous" enough to take that step. He also harshed on the ridiculously easy-to-press page buttons, saying that the physical interface just "wasn't well done." All excellent points, we have to say -- although you'd think that a guy rocking shoulder pads like that would be down with the Kindle's totally-80s effects.

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.

Last week''s Switched On discussed some of the similarities and differences between Amazon's Kindle and the Sony Reader. Where the Kindle really sets itself apart, though, is more in the buying of books than reading them..

The sleek Sony reader costs $100 less than the Kindle and relies on PC software for book purchases.The model for the Sony Connect integrated software and bookstore was the pairing of the iPod and iTunes, a system that has worked so well for Apple's digital music players that the Cupertino-based company made it the basis for all media downloads with an inherently connected device, the iPhone. But just as Apple brought the sensibility of desktop software to cell phones, Amazon has brought its legacy of convenient online retail experience to bear on its reader.

As with its Web-based store, Amazon has stressed the value of a broad selection of content. This is critical in a device that features access to books (or commercial video), since consumers don't have easy and legal access to this content the way they did with CDs for the iPod. The Kindle store has about 90 percent of the New York Times' top 100 bestsellers, and over 90,000 titles in all. This dwarfs the selection available in Sony Connect bookstore. And the purchase process is as smooth as a paperback book cover. Amazon has been such an innovator in online commerce that Apple licensed its patent for one-click purchases on its Web-based store and in the iTunes store.

What is it with this sick pleasure we derive from watching beloved devices torn to pieces by ruthless uber-nerds? Who knows, but it certainly isn't getting old just yet. Amazon's Kindle got just such treatment at the hands of RapidRepair, and if you're one of those doubters that was never quite sold on the Kindle's quirky 90's aesthetic, maybe this will change your mind. Or not.

[Via The Raw Feed]