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Amazon: the Kindle Keyboard is sticking around
Old habits can be hard to break, and while Amazon made the point pretty clear that it's shifted toward a world of touch controls on its devoted e-readers, the company hasn't completely abandoned the Kindle Keyboard. The reader formerly known as the Kindle 3 is still available on Amazon's page in its 3G form and will continue to be so, at least for the time being, at $139 for the Special Offers version and $189 without. An Amazon spokesperson told us that part of the justification for continuing the offering is the device's accessibility features.
Kindle 3 gets software upgrade, ready to soar into the cloud
Amazon has pushed out a new update for the Kindle 3, now operating under the alias of the Kindle Keyboard. This gives the well-buttoned e-reader access to some of the cloud features found on its freshly unboxed younger brother, and includes the ability to view any archived documents, notes and highlights you've added to that intangible pile of books and articles. You'll need to tether the Kindle to your PC, point your browser towards Amazon, and download the file corresponding to the right region and model. Excitable annotators can grab the upgrade now at the source link below.
Self-published Kindle author breaks one million in sales, legs might have something to do with it
Our big, bad digital era's been caught red-handed overturning media industry business models before, so it comes as no surprise that publishing houses have a new headache on-hand. Straight outta sunny Seattle comes word that Amazon has welcomed its first self-published author to the "Kindle Million Club." John Locke (so this is where he wound up after going to that quasi-'heaven') is the lucky dude who gets to claim the prize, and that's not all -- Mr. independent-author-from-Kentucky now shares bold-face status with the likes of Stieg Larsson and Nora Roberts. By churning out action / adventure novels on the $0.99 cheap and making heavy use of some leggy lady models, Locke easily blew past the one million mark, and even has a book to tell you how he did it. Take that evil publishing overlords. Hit the break for Amazon's official PR spiel.
Amazon celebrates its first '$10 billion quarter' in sales, finds Kindle books overtaking paperbacks
July 19, 2010 marked the day that Amazon's digital book sales eclipsed the sales of hardcover books, and it barely took half a year for those e-book sales to also overtake the sales of paperbacks. According to the ouftit's latest earnings release, "Kindle books have now overtaken paperback books as the most popular format on Amazon.com." The company had surmised that this would happen by Q2 of this year, but it clearly went down a lot earlier than even it expected. Bezos and co. also sold through $12.95 billion worth of goods, representing The Jungle's first "$10 billion quarter." That came up to $416 million in net income, representing an eight percent uptick year-over-year. Of note, operating income slipped from $476 million in Q4 2009 to $474 million this year, with the unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates generating a staggering $18 million hit. When looking at 2010 as a whole, Amazon's sales were up 40 percent over 2009, with operating income rising some 25 percent to $1.41 billion compared to the whole of 2009. Speaking specifically of the Kindle, the company is now moving 115 Kindle books for every 100 paperbacks sold, but this obviously only takes into account the US book business. We're still no closer to finding out exactly how many Kindles have been moved, but we're told that "millions" of the third-gen model were moved in Q4 2010, and the Kindle Storeitself has over 810,000 books on its digital shelves. Head on past the break if you're thirsty for more, Sir Economist.
Amazon's third-gen Kindle is now its best-selling product... of all time!
Consider all the things you've bought from Amazon, all the things you wanted to, but couldn't afford to buy from Amazon, all the wildly popular fashions and fads that have gone through that online store's brief, but torrid history ... each of those has now been overshadowed by the mighty sales of the third-generation Kindle. Jeff Bezos and team have today announced that their latest and greatest Kindle has become their bestselling product of all time, thanks in no small part to an aggressive price that's been "low enough that people don't have to choose," as Jeff puts it, between an e-reader and a tablet -- they've just gone and bought both, apparently. Alas, we're still no closer to knowing the exact figure of Kindle sales, but who really cares at this point, the thing's looking like a runaway success.
New Kindle sells 'millions,' bests all 2009 Kindle sales
Amazon has left us with no choice: making sales conclusions based on a single additional letter. The company, notoriously vague on Kindle sales, has announced that "in just the first 73 days of this holiday quarter, we've already sold millions of our all-new Kindles." In other words, at least two million, and more for Kindle overall if you consider DX (still on sale) and the recent lightning deal blowout of the Kindle 2. Amazon's Department of Creative Statistics also noted that this elusive sales figure is greater than all its Kindle sales in 2009. How many is that, you ask? No idea -- we know "millions" were sold between 2007 and 2009, but parsing it out further would only unravel a mystery Encyclopedia Brown has been spending pages and pages to solve -- and still has a ways to go.
New Kindle gets jailbroken, same as the old Kindle
Well, it looks users of the latest Kindle have more than just an official software update at their disposal these days -- the device has also now been jailbroken. That will let you take advantage of the various hacks that have been available for the previous generation Kindle, including USB networking, additional font options, and some exciting screensavers. Of course, like all jailbreaks, you should proceed at your own risk -- hit up the source link below for the necessary details if you're ready. [Thanks, ChrisC]
Early third-generation Kindle software update improves web browser, provides new way to feel e-litist
What better way to read up on your Republic of Gilead lore (whether or not such country allows you to read in the first place) than on a digital screen via firmware that's just a tinge futuristic. Amazon is offering an early preview of software update 3.0.2 for the latest generation of its Kindle reader. It's as simple dragging-and-dropping a file onto your device, jumping through the right menus, and waiting patiently for several minutes. What does it offer? "Web browser and general performance improvements," according to the site, and while the browser did seem a tad snappier, that could very well be a phantasmagoria of our optimism. Still, you do get to show all your friends you've got a newer version, and that's what really matters, right?
Amazon Kindle demo unit arrives in Best Buy, should populate shelves soon
Last week, Amazon decided to expand the B&M presence of its famed e-reader by throwing Best Buy the same bone already thrown to Staples and Target, and it looks as if "this fall" is about to get going. We've received word that demo units are already popping up in Best Buy locations (for running advertorial loops to entice you and yours, we're surmising), and mere mortals should be able to procure them starting next week. We suspect the $139 Wi-Fi and $189 3G model will both be making their yellow-tag debut, and we fully expect this ad right here to be looped ad naseum in whatever aisle BB decides to slot these in.
New Kindles are Amazon's fastest-selling yet, start shipping today
It's hard to begrudge Amazon this smug bit of PR it pushed out this morning, crowing over the sales success of its new Kindle line. The third-generation Kindles have more sales in the first four weeks of sales than any previous generation Kindles over the same time span -- not exactly a surprise, but Amazon certainly isn't off its game here. The new Kindles also maintain the e-reader's two year reign as the best selling product on Amazon.com. As if in celebration of this continued success, Amazon says it's starting to ship the new Kindles out today, two days earlier than the published released date. "You're welcome," Jeff Bezos mouths, soundlessly.
Amazon's third-generation Kindle 'temporarily sold out,' bookworms curse the universe
Gone so soon, Kindle? Due to what we can only assume is unprecedented demand or a terrible shortfall in supply, Amazon's third-generation Kindle (you know, the one with 3G and WiFi) is already sold out. Just days after being pushed into the world, the $189 e-reader is now hoisting a "temporarily sold out" sign, with Bezos and Company urging prospective consumers to place their order now in order to "reserve a place in line." So, what'll it be? Reserve now, or throw a temper tantrum? Tough call, we know. [Thanks, Philip]
Amazon job postings ask for display and wireless experts, hint at Kindle things to come?
So, we already assume Amazon's thinking touch for the Kindle, what with that recent Touchco acquisition and word of similar behind-the-screen touch tech being on PVI's roadmap. PVI owns E Ink, and is naturally bullish about its upcoming products, but what about E Ink in the new Kindle? If you're into reading the tea leaves of job postings, Amazon might be telegraphing its intentions. It's looking for a "Hardware Display Manager" who, among many other things, is supposed to have "Significant exposure to high volume manufacturing environments; you will know the LCD business and key players in the market." That might have you thinking the next Kindle will go LCD, but the requirements also mention a "deep knowledge of current display technology and potential future technologies," and nothing about the role seems exactly prescriptive of an LCD expertise -- more of a general focus on displays and product design, whatever tech might come. Pixel Qi or Mirasol, anybody? Amazon's also looking for all sorts of software expertise, including a "Software Design Engineer" who will be responsible for radio stacks "including but not limited to" 3G and WiFi. Again, these are requirements (among many) for a role, not necessarily implications of a Kindle 3 spec sheet, but there's one thing clear: Amazon's gearing up for something.
NYT: Big-screen Kindle coming from Amazon "as early as this week"
Go ahead and grab the salt shaker, 'cause this one's nowhere near carved in stone... or is it? A breaking report from The New York Times has it that Amazon will introduce a larger version of its Kindle e-reader "as early as this week," one that's tailored for "displaying newspapers, magazines and perhaps textbooks." If you'll recall, magazine publisher Hearst made its intentions public to produce such a device earlier this year, noting that a larger panel would be more conducive to traditional print media layouts, and thus, additional revenue from ads. The article also notes that Plastic Logic will "start making digital newspaper readers by the end of the year." Coincidentally (or not), the Wall Street Journal also published a report this evening that dug deeper into the aforementioned Hearst deal. As the story goes, a number of big-shots in the publishing industry are banding together to set their own subscription rates (rather than go through a middleman such as Amazon), and this writeup asserts that Plastic Logic's reader won't actually roll out until "early next year" (as we'd heard previously). If you're seriously able to handle yet another twist in this madness, WSJ also points out that "people familiar with the matter" have stated that Apple is "readying a device that may make it easier to read digital books and periodicals," but it's hard to say if this is simply regurgitation of unfounded rumors already going around or something entirely more legitimate. All in all, it's clear that flagging print publications are desperate for a device that caters to its layout and allows them to regulate rates -- only time will tell if there's room for two, three or possibly more of these so-called "big-screen e-readers" in the world, but this week definitely just got a whole lot more interesting.Update: Press event invite just received, it's on for Wednesday! Read - New York Times reportRead - Wall Street Journal report
Is Amazon developing a larger screen Kindle?
With raging success, you can always count on one thing: copycats and rivals. Okay, so maybe that's two, but you catch the drift here. Not long after Amazon launched its Kindle 2 to much fanfare, Hearst confessed that it was looking to produce a competitor with a screen that was about the size of a standard sheet of paper. In a presumed effort to keep up with the Joneses, The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that Amazon is looking to develop yet another Kindle (something we've definitely heard before) with "a larger screen," which would obviously help it appeal to newspaper companies looking to easily transition their content to a large form factor e-reader. Not surprisingly, Amazon refused to comment on the "speculation," but the report did note that there was at least some chance that the newfangled device would debut before the 2009 holiday season.[Thanks, bo3of]
Kindle 3 rumor with touchscreen 8.5 x 11-inch display returns
Now that the Kindle 2 is out, it's time to get back onto the Kindle rumor mill. You might recall that in addition to the early leaks of the device that become the Kindle 2, a bigger screened Kindle mimicking an 8.5 x 11-inch sheet of paper for students was rumored. According to DigiTimes' sources apparently within Prime View International (PVI), the makers of the Kindle's electrophoretic display (EPD), Amazon's next Kindle will launch by the end of this year and will be "larger in size and equipped with touch functions." Of course, that's no big stretch to the imagination -- Plastic Logic has been kicking around its 8.5 x 11-inch touchscreen eBook reader ('Shopped with a Kindle logo above) for months now with a plan to launch in 2010. Let's just see if Amazon can get this out in time for the back to school selling season.[Via Mobile Read]
