Sales of e-book readers, also known as e-readers, are way up and prices are dropping. Consumer Reports has tested a wide variety and has advice if you’re in the market for an ebook reader. [More]
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Amazon Locks You Out Of Kindle Account, Ignores You For A Month
By 9.1.10
E-readers have a definite advantage over traditional dead-tree books when you’re going on vacation: you can bring a wealth of reading material in one small device. One difference, though: your analog bookshelf can’t lock you out. Your Amazon account can. That’s what Natalia writes happened to her. No one at Amazon has been able to fix the problem for more than a month now. [More]
Connecticut AG Investigating Apple & Amazon Over E-Book Price Fixing
By 8.3.10
Amazon’s Kindle e-reader is the online retailer’s top-selling single item, and the company recently announced that its sales of e-books has outpaced sales of hardcover titles. Meanwhile, Apple has jumped into the e-book market with both feet, selling titles for reading on its iPad tablet computers. But now the Attorney General in Connecticut has launched an investigation into the pricing plans that both companies have hammered out with book publishers. [More]
Apple Sued Because iPad Does Not Work "Just Like A Book" As Claimed
By 7.28.10
A new class action suit filed in California takes issue with how the iPad shuts off automatically if it overheats. In particular, however, the suit claims that the marketing phrase “reading on the iPad is just like reading a book” is misleading, and that Apple is therefore engaging in fraud and misleading consumers. This is great news for me, because I was thinking of suing Apple for not providing dustjackets for iBookstore titles but my friends told me I shouldn’t. [More]
E-Readers Getting Rolled Under Tablet Juggernaut
By 7.25.10
Remember when e-readers like the Kindle came out and everyone got all excited and companies jumped in to copy them and make their own e-readers? Yeah, turns out that wasn’t such a good idea. Seems if you’re not Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Sony, your e-reader model won’t survive the onslaught of tablets like the iPad.
Wired.com has assembled a list of a few of those e-reader manufacturers struggling against the tide of tablets. Those in trouble include Audiovox’s RCA Lexi e-reader, iRex, Plastic Logic and Cool-er. [More]
Amazon Now Selling More Kindle Books Than Hardcovers
By 7.20.10
Hardcover books have a lot going against them — they’re expensive, often unwieldy, easily damaged. And now Amazon.com, which first made its name by selling books at deep discounts online, says it sells significantly more titles for its Kindle e-reader than it does in hardcover. [More]
No, Amazon, I Will Not Pay For Repairs To My Defective Kindle
By 7.15.10
Michael tells Consumerist that he’s disappointed in his Amazon Kindle, but really disappointed in Amazon and their lack of support for his problems with the device. The company admitted that his Kindle malfunctioned because of a product defect…but want Michael to pay the $89 fee for having his Kindle serviced out of warranty anyway. He’s not really interested, since he could buy a new Kindle for almost twice that. [More]
Kindles Will Be Available At Your Local Target Next Week
By 6.3.10
After a pilot program selling Kindles at some Targets succeeded back in April, Amazon is ready to spread the Kindle virus to all Targets starting Monday. But it might not be the best time to buy one, since there’s reportedly an updated model on the horizon. [More]
Google To Join The E-Book Fray With New Store
By 5.4.10
Because there apparently aren’t enough gunslingers at the e-book OK Corral, Google announced today that they plan on joining the battle royale when they open their online e-book store sometime this summer. [More]
Kindle Update Includes Folders, Passwords, Twitter
By 4.30.10
Kindle owners may have had to sit by for a while as iPad owners got all the cool toys like Netflix, games and, oh, a color, backlit screen. But the latest software upgrade for the Amazon e-book reader promises a handful of niceties, including a Twitter client, password protection and better fonts. You can even — drum roll please — organize your books into folders. [More]
Kindles To Be Sold At Some Target Stores Starting April 25
By 4.21.10
Now that the iPad is upon them, Amazon has finally made a deal to unleash their popular Kindle e-reader to the bricks-and-mortar retail market. Amazon has made a deal with Target that will have Kindles in some of their stores as early as this Sunday. [More]
Boxing iPad Takes On The Kindle
By 4.3.10
You don’t have to go very far to find plenty of videos of iPads being unboxed. But if you want to see an iPad in a boxing match with an Amazon Kindle, there’s only one place to go: the streets of New York, where these two dudes battled it out to entertain the masses waiting outside the Apple Store (and promote electronics recycling business YouRenew). The winner? The guy in the Pink Floyd shirt, who managed to get himself into every shot. [More]
Could Next Generation Of Kindles Have Color Displays?
By 3.25.10
Apple’s full-color iPad tablet thingy is set to launch in the coming weeks and it’s predicted that the device will eat away at the huge e-book market share enjoyed by Amazon’s Kindle e-readers. Among the knocks against Kindles by some has been that their E Ink display — while much easier on the eyes than a traditional backlit screen — does not display color images, text or video. But that may change in the next year. [More]
Amazon Releases Kindle For Mac
By 3.18.10
Until now, if a Mac owner wanted to read a Kindle e-book on his computer, they were out of luck (or used something like Parallels and had the Kindle for PC app running on Windows). But that all ended today, with the release of Kindle for Mac. [More]
Publisher: "If You Can Afford An Ebook Device, You Can Pay More For Ebooks"
By 2.19.10
Imagine trying to buy a book from Big Generic Bookstore and watching the cashier add $5 to the sticker price. “What are you doing?!” you cry out, waving a fist menacingly at him. “You look like you can afford it,” he says back to you with a hint of entitltement. That’s basically what a publishing industry expert said in a piece he wrote last week about ebook pricing. [More]
Six e-Readers Compared
By 2.1.10
If you’re thinking of buying a digital reader in the next six months and you’re wondering what device to get, here’s a handy chart that compares six of the most highly publicized models side by side. As you might guess, bigger screens and more flexibility with file formats means higher prices. Also, the iPad is sort of a misfit here as it’s the only device that’s not a dedicated ebook reader. [More]
Macmillan E-Books Will Now Cost $15 On Amazon
By 1.31.10
After refusing to sell any Macmillan books or ebooks for three days, Amazon.com today gave in to demands by the publisher that it start charging $15 for Macmillan ebooks, rather than Amazon’s customary $9.99. In a statement, Amazon warned that customers might “rebel against such a high price for books that cost far less to distribute than physical books.” Will they also rebel against a $259, black-and-white, DRM-laden e-reader that doesn’t let you share or re-sell books that you “own,” and can yank them back without notice at any time? [More]
My Kindle Breaks, Amazon Overnights Me New One, Lets Me Take Time Returning Old One
By 1.28.10
Sam is so elated with the way Amazon handled his broken Kindle complaint that he’s almost happy it broke in the first place. The CSR overnighted a new device to him and gave him 30 days to return the busted one. [More]
