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Amazon introduces free lending library for Prime members
If you own a Kindle -- the hardware device, not the software app that runs on your iPhone or iPad, and you're an Amazon Prime member, you can now borrow thousands of books to read on your device. The equation goes like this: Kindle + Prime = about 5000 titles include a hundred or so current and former NYT best sellers. This move leaves Apple's iBooks initiative further behind in terms of innovation and trailblazing. The Kindle app runs on most computers and devices, including OS X and iOS. iBooks is limited to iOS platforms only. Kindle has long provided person-to-person lending and other advanced reading features that set their platform apart. The ball is in Apple's court. Surely it's time for Apple to step up with new media authoring tools and a Mac reader at least. Today's announcement demonstrates that Amazon knows what sells Kindles -- traditional and fire.
Steve Jobs biography released early for Kindle, iBookstore (updated)
Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs has been released a couple hours early on the Kindle Store, and its release in the US iBookstore is expected at midnight. The US iBookstore is still showing the book as available for pre-order as of this writing, but it should be available for download within the next couple of hours. Multiple details of the biography have leaked out over the past week via multiple media outlets, and a 60 Minutes interview with Walter Isaacson provided some fascinating insights into both the biography itself and the man who was its subject. Along with many other members of the Apple-loving world, I am very much looking forward to reading it, and I will have a review of the work up on TUAW as soon as I've finished reading it. Look for that review later on in the week -- with a print length of 656 pages, it might take me a day or two to read through the whole book. Thanks to the readers who tipped us! Update: The biography went live on the iBookstore an hour earlier than expected, so it's now available.
Kobo quietly launches Vox Android tablet with 7-inch display, Gingerbread, $200 price tag
Canadian retailer Future Shop gave us an accidental sneak peek at the tablet last month, but now Kobo is making Vox official, complete with a 7-inch 1024 x 600 resolution AFFS+ display with multi-touch, a 7-hour battery and 8 gigs of internal memory with support for up to 32GB of SD storage. The $200 tablet is running Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and is powered by an 800 MHz processor and 512MB of RAM. There's also a built-in speaker and 3.5mm headphone jack, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and a variety of pre-loaded apps (naturally you'll have access to Android Market as well). Vox is listed as in-stock on Kobo's online store, though you'll have to wait until October 28th for yours to ship. It'll also be available at Best Buy and Fry's Electronics stores in the U.S., and Best Buy, Future Shop and Indigo in Canada. Jump past the break for the PR from Kobo. [Thanks, Mankie]
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.
Velocity Micro Cruz T408 review
It's no secret that the market for Android tablets is crowded – and getting more so every day. Just ask Samsung, Acer, HTC, Huawei, Lenovo, Pandigital and, oh yes, Verticool. We could keep going, but you get the point: it's a big market out there, one with wildly varying prices and features. And just recently a little company called Amazon made its move in a big way with the Kindle Fire, an Android-powered $199 portal to its corner of the cloud. The world's largest online retailer clearly thinks competing on price is a way to stand out from the pack. Velocity Micro, maker of the 8-inch Cruz T408, wholeheartedly agrees. It's coming to market with a $199 slate, hoping to capture some attention of its own. Can it succeed? Read on to find out. %Gallery-135786%
Pandigital Supernova available mid-October for $230, is an eReader in Android tablet disguise
Pandigital hasn't made much of an effort to swathe its Supernova tab in mystery. When the 8-inch LCD slate swept through the FCC earlier this summer, we were privy not only to images of the device and its internals, but also to the apps that'd be pre-loaded on purchase -- GetJar and Barnes & Noble's Nook app amongst others. So, what can you expect for $230 when it lands this month? Well, the company's forsaken Honeycomb for the soon-to-be outclassed Gingerbread OS, tossed in a single-core 1GHz A8 processor, 4GB of storage (expandable to 32GB via microSD slot), WiFi and Bluetooth. It's a cheap, me too Android tablet entry, for sure. And with the recent outing of a certain budget-priced, ecosystem-friendly tab, we might suggest you hold off for the higher-specced goods. Official PR after the break.
Ad-supported Kindle 4 has built-in $30 "upgrade", gets rid of embedded special offers
Was it too cheap? Well, here's some great news for fourth-generation Kindle users already tiring of its embedded ads looking cheap alongside their Vertu phones. You can now pay Amazon the requisite fee and unsubscribe from built-in advertising and offers. Visit the Manage your Kindle webpage and you can edit your subscriptions for the newest entry-level e-reader. There seems to be no option, however, to do the reverse just yet. Would Amazon hand over $30 to push those special offers into our currently ad-free Kindle?
Steve Jobs in 1995: "I've got a plan that could rescue Apple"
Yesterday we told you that Fortune was publishing a Kindle ebook called "All About Steve." The ebook is a collection of 17 stories and interviews with Steve Jobs drawn from Fortune's articles. Now, while it's nice that Fortune is collecting all their interviews in one place, its no shock they are doing this either. After all, its previous Kindle-only, Apple-themed title, "Inside Apple," landed on the Kindle top ten bestseller list and earned a boatload of money. For those of you who don't want to shell out $10.99 for an ebook of reprinted articles, Apple 2.0 editor Philip Elmer-Dewitt has pulled some choice clips from some of the Fortune interviews. The best quote, however, is one that have heard before. In 1995 Steve Jobs told Fortune's Brent Schlender, "You know, I've got a plan that could rescue Apple. But nobody there will listen to me..." As was always the case, Steve Jobs wasn't just blowing smoke. Just two years later Jobs was back at the company and led the greatest turnaround in corporate history. Apple was transformed from a company on the brink of self-destruction into one of the most respected, recognizable and valuable companies in the world.
Fortune publishes 'All About Steve' ebook featuring Jobs
If you can't wait another two months for Walter Isaacson's official Steve Jobs biography, Fortune has you covered with All About Steve, a collection of 17 stories drawn from Fortune's articles. Available as a Kindle ebook at a list price of US$10.99, the collection features stories that "are the product of deep reporting" according to Fortune's description, including some which are the product of interviews with Jobs himself. While this ebook is available exclusively from Amazon, it's not just viewable on Amazon's own Kindle. Downloading the free Kindle app for the Mac or iOS devices will allow you to read All About Steve on the Apple hardware of your choice. As this collection is "drawn from the pages of Fortune" it's unlikely to contain any brand-new content, but it should nonetheless be a diverting read for those interested in the man who played such a huge role in reversing Apple's fortunes over the past decade. Meanwhile, Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs should be released on November 21.
Michael S. Hart, e-book inventor and Project Gutenberg founder, dies at 64
There's some sad news coming out of Illinois today, where Michael S. Hart, the e-book inventor who founded Project Gutenberg, has died at the age of 64. Hart's literary journey began in 1971, when he digitized and distributed his first text, after being inspired by a free printed copy of the Declaration of Independence he found at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. That same year, the Tacoma, Washington native founded Project Gutenberg -- an online library that aims to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks" and to "break down the bars of ignorance and illiteracy." By 1987, he'd already digitized a total of 313 books, including works from Homer, Shakespeare and the Bible, before recruiting more volunteers to help out. As of this June, Hart's pioneering library housed about 36,000 works in its collection (most of which are in the public domain), with an average of 50 new books added each week. Described by Project Gutenberg as an "ardent technologist and futurist," Hart leaves a literary legacy perhaps best summed up in his own words. "One thing about eBooks that most people haven't thought much is that eBooks are the very first thing that we're all able to have as much as we want other than air," he wrote in July. "Think about that for a moment and you realize we are in the right job." Michael S. Hart is survived by his mother and brother.
Boogie Rip eWriting pad stylus-on (video)
Hey, remember that new product from Improv Electronics that we told you about yesterday? We managed to sneak in some time with the device today at IFA, and we have to say, we like what we see. The Rip (that's "Record. Image. Preserve.") is the latest addition to the Boogie eWriter line, devices that let you scribble notes and drawings and can be wiped away with the press of a button (think a more legible Etch A Sketch). The Rip ups the ante with the addition of a microUSB port, which lets you transfer notes as PDFs to your computer. Improv was careful to point out that the device is currently in prototype mode, so we won't hold too much against the company for the product's plasticy feel -- though, if its predecessor is any indication, the final version likely won't be too far from this one, and the company confirmed that the final version will have the same charcoal color. And while the product is indeed plasticy, it certainly feels sturdy. More after the break.%Gallery-132358%
Amazon's @author lets you tweet, pester your favorite writers via Kindle
If the Amazon Kindle's passage-sharing Twitter integration wasn't social enough for you, the outfit just unleashed a new option: @author. The new feature uses Twitter as a springboard to connect writers to their fans, giving users a chance to nitpick their favorite authors line-by-line. If you've ever shared a quote using the Kindle, you know the drill: highlight some text and type out your tweet -- just make sure you preface it with the @author marker. This limited beta is launching with only a handful of writers, but between Robert "Rich Dad" Kiyosaki and Brad "Identity Crisis" Meltzer, we're sure you can find something to ask.
Hands-on with the Sony Reader Wi-Fi (video)
The Sony Reader doesn't have all that large a presence here in the States, where the market is largely dominated by Amazon, and, to a lesser extent, Barnes & Noble. The Sony Reader Wi-Fi does go a ways toward keeping up with the competition, offering up WiFi (as advertised), an infrared touchscreen, and the Pearl E-Ink display seen on past versions. The hardware is nice, though it doesn't feel quite as natural in the hand as the Nook or Kobo -- it did indeed feel light, as advertised, though it's hard to get a final judgement, seeing as how the demo product on the show room floor was all wired up. The software also zips along quite nicely, and pinch to zoom functionality is certainly a welcome addition in the e-reader market. Unlike many other Sony Readers, the thing also does well for itself pricewise, at $149. Hands-on video after the break.%Gallery-132193%
Amazon grabs two more Kindle related domains, keeps gadget writers in work
Amazon is sending book-loving gadget fans into a frenzy with another round of domain name buys. It registered KindleScribe and KindleScribes.com to go along with the KindleAir and KindleSocialNetwork addresses it picked up earlier this month. All that's left to do is speculate wildly on what they could represent (Thin and light e-reader? Tablet-style touchscreen? Kindle that comes pre-loaded with the Social Network?) and hope the new devices come packing Jeff's newly patented mobile airbags.
Barnes & Noble offers back to school Nook deal, adds more to your reading list
Thinking about getting an e-reader before you head back to school this fall? Barnes & Noble surely hopes so, and to sweeten the deal it's offering 12 free classics along with study guides and apps if you register your freshly unboxed Nook before October 31st. That's right folks, over $100 worth of e-books can be yours with the purchase of the new Nook, the Nook Color or even the first edition Nook. While it must be said that most of the available titles are out of copyright and so are already available for free download elsewhere (we're looking at you, Gutenberg.org), you can at least select from a dozen Spark Notes of time-consuming reads such as War and Peace. So if you're looking to take a break from all that Organic Chemistry mumbo jumbo, you can catch up on A Tale of Two Cities in your spare time.
Amazon tablet rumors flare on leaked supplier parts list
Last time on Days of our Rumored Amazon Tablets' Lives: Bezos teased us with a "stay tuned" cliffhanger, but shook his head at the notion of a color E Ink Kindle this year. While DigiTimes spilled its cup of beans about the devices' possible use of Fringe Field Switching displays and fabrication by Quanta Computer, the Wall Street Journal threw its two cents in with a report pegging a couple of new Kindles for Q3. Now loose-lipped sources are feeding the DigiTimes hearsay flames with a leaked supplier parts list that has Wintek, J Touch and CPT providing touch panels with NVIDIA processors at the tabs' cores. The Seattle-based company also purportedly plans to ship four million of these 7- and 10-inch slates by 2011's end. So, what to believe? We'll find out in due time, but with all this gossipy buzz you can place your bets on something.
Kindle ebooks: How to buy and install them now that the store is gone
Since Amazon acquiesced to Apple's onerous rules and removed the one-click buy button from the Kindle apps for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, a couple of mainstream websites have whined that it's "too hard to buy ebooks on your iPad now." Yes, it is horribly difficult -- you now have to click or tap twice to buy and download a book instead of just once. I'm going to take you through this back-breaking and time-consuming process, just to show you how hard Apple has made it for us to buy ebooks from anywhere but the iBookstore. To start, launch Safari on your device and navigate to the Kindle bookstore. To keep from wearing yourself out doing this in the future, add a button to your iPad or iPhone home screen by tapping the Share button in Safari and then tapping the "Add to Home Screen" button. Make sure you're logged in with the account that you use for your Kindle purchases, and then find the book you want to purchase in the Kindle Store. Now, here comes the hard part, so be sure to pay attention. Over on the right side of the screen is a button marked "Buy now with 1-click." Just below it is a drop-down menu listing all of your Kindle devices, which in my case consists of the Kindle app on two Macs, an iPad 2, and an iPhone 4. Select the first device you want to have the ebook delivered to, and then click (or tap) the Buy now button -- that's the first tap, and in the old days before Apple made our lives difficult with their burdensome rules, that would be the only tap you'd have to make. Instead, now a new page appears thanking you for your purchase. In my example, I picked my iPad 2 as the target for the book, and the web page asked if I wanted to open Kindle for iPad to begin downloading the book. With a tap of the "Go to Kindle for iPad" button, the Kindle app launches and the ebook is downloaded. What??? I have to make a second tap to download my book? I demand that Apple make retribution for this oppressive over-control of my life! It's not as easy as just tapping one button in the Kindle app and having the ebook automagically appear on your bookshelf, but once you've found the book, it just takes two taps for it to show up. And yes, I am being totally sarcastic with this post.
Amazon rolls out textbook rentals for Kindle, promises discounts up to 80 percent
Students can already save a few bucks by opting for a digital version of a textbook over a hardcover, and they can now save even more courtesy of Amazon if they aren't too intent on hanging onto the book after they're done with it. The company has just announced textbook rentals for Kindle, which promises to let students save "up to 80 percent" off the list price of those often pricey textbooks. That discount varies depending on the rental period -- which can be anywhere from 30 to 360 days -- and the option is already available on "tens of thousands" of textbooks from a number of publishers including John Wiley & Sons, Elsevier and Taylor & Francis. What's more, you can also rest assured that all of your annotations will be saved even after the rental has expired, and be accessible at any time on the Kindle website (or in the book itself if you ever decide to rent it again for old time's sake). Press release is after the break.
Mysterious Battlefield 3 paperback/eBook spotted online
Listings for a book (potentially) based on Battlefield 3 have started cropping up at various literary outlets around the web, in both paperback and eBook flavors. Amazon lists the book as a 400-page "Mass Market Paperback" by Andy McNab, an author and war-vet who, according to Gamersbook, has been advising BF3 developer DICE on their motion-capture techniques. Barnes & Nobel also has a listing for Battlefield 3, this time in as a Nook eBook, with both McNab and BF3 Executive Producer Patrick Bach cited as authors. We can also assume that these listing aren't for a strategy guide, as the "Mass Market Paperback" classification is reserved for novels and the like, whereas strategy guides are classified as "Paperbacks." The tremendously tantalizing tome is available for pre-order at both outlets, with Amazon listing the release date as October 25 and B&N reporting a November release window. We've reached out to the book's registered publisher, Grand Central Publishing, for more information.
PSA: Got a Nook Color? Then you can get dual-booting Nook2Android
Here comes a public service announcement: Eat slower and you'll feel fuller. Oh sorry, wrong one. We meant: Nook Color owners, you can now dual-boot your slate using the specially-created Nook2Android SD card. The card makes installing Android 2.3 a snap and it's now shipping with a dual-boot file courtesy of XDA developers, which means you can choose to boot into the original Nook OS without having to remove the card. You're looking at $35 for an 8GB card, rising to $90 for 32GB. Alternatively, if you're happy to get a bit of oil on your hands, you can try the manual approach. Mmmm, Gingerbread, chew every mouthful.
