Considering the growing amount of credit card fraud, it’s not surprising that banks are becoming more and more vigilant about identifying suspicious transactions. It’s too bad they haven’t been as successful at filtering out false positives or promptly notifying customers, as James Fallows at The Atlantic recently discovered when he got his account frozen for sending files to his Kindle.
By October 23, 2009
Kindle coming to a PC near you next month. Amazon’s Kindle software will be available as a free download for PC users starting next month. Versions for Macs and BlackBerrys will be available next year. All will have DRM, though users will be spared the pain of having to download their locked-down lit via AT&T’s 3G network, which has replaced Sprint’s more reliable data network in recent hardware Kindles.
B&N Ebook Reader Lets You Loan A Book Just Once
By October 23, 2009
One of the big selling points about the Nook, the new ebook reader introduced this week by Barnes & Noble, is that unlike Amazon they’ll let you virtually “loan” your ebook to a friend for up to 14 days (if the publisher allows it). What they don’t tell you–some smart readers over at MobileRead sussed it out–is that you can only do this one time per book. You’d better lend wisely–and your friend had better finish that book within 14 days.
Epic: Kindle 2 Fails Man's Drop Test, Forces Amazon To Pay Him $400
By October 20, 2009
Paul bought a Kindle 2 from Amazon. He dropped it one day, and it sort of broke but not entirely, and Amazon wanted $200 to replace it. Instead, he got them to send him a $400 check, while still keeping the device. How? [More]
Man Twists Amazon's Arm, Gets It To Accept Money It Gave Away
By October 14, 2009
Joshua had a problem with Amazon. He and his wife bought Kindles, broke one and went for a return/exchange, in which the couple ended up with a new Kindle and $300 of Amazon’s money in its account.
Amazon Is Just Giving Money Away Now
By October 13, 2009
It’s not often that we get an email from a reader complaining about a company that gives him money and won’t take it back, but with Amazon, anything is possible.
Amazon Clarifies When It Will Remove Kindle Books
By October 2, 2009
As part of a settlement with the customer who sued Amazon over the 1984 fiasco this past summer, Amazon has clarified under what circumstances it can delete your books. Notably, Amazon is not saying that it will never again delete books, which keeps the Kindle in the “do not buy” list for consumers who want unequivocal ownership of the items they purchase. In fact, despite the muted praise Amazon is receiving for doing this, the best we can say about the clarification is that it’s about time, but that it still doesn’t address the fundamental ownership issues raised by the Kindle licensing system.
Amazon Offers $30 Credits To Orwell Kindle Swindle Victims
By September 4, 2009
A post on Amazon’s Kindle support forum yesterday says the company is sending out emails with offers of $30 to customers who had their George Orwell purchases erased from their devices earlier this summer.
Amazon Answers My Questions, Sort Of, About Kindle Licenses
By August 27, 2009
Let’s get straight to the bad news: although Amazon did answer my questions, their answers included “we’re working on that,” “I don’t know,” and “I don’t know (but it’s the publishers’ fault).” To be fair to the “Kindle Specialist” I spoke with this morning, he has promised to talk to the Kindle marketing department—why marketing? these are DRM issues!—and get back to me with better answers. Until then, this is what the average consumer can expect from a Kindle ebook license.
By August 5, 2009
Later this month, Sony will start selling a $199 ebook reader through Walmart and other retailers ($100 less than the Kindle). They’re also dropping the price of new releases to $9.99, which is what Amazon sells ebook licenses for. [Consumer Reports]
Bezos Apologizes For Kindle's Orwellian Moment
By July 24, 2009
Nearly a week after Amazon remotely deleted 1984 and Animal Farm from customers’ Kindles because they weren’t licensed, head Kindle-cheerleader Jeff Bezos posted this statement on the Kindle Community discussion board on Amazon.com.
Get Ready For More AT&T Data Slowdowns
By July 22, 2009
Oh jeez, AT&T, don’t you have enough on your plate? You can’t handle your iPhone customers as it is. TechCrunch says some customers’ voicemails go missing for days or even weeks, you can’t enable MMS because there’s no room for it on your system, and the “faster” 3GS isn’t any faster at all on your network. Now comes word that you’ll be the one providing so-called “connectitivty” for Barnes & Noble’s new ebook reader coming out next year. The result: more congestion for every AT&T customer.
How To Load Up Your Kindle With Non-Amazon Ebooks
By July 20, 2009
So you’ve got a Kindle, and you have books on it, and you want to keep those books—no matter what Amazon or a publisher decides you deserve in the future. Your legal options are limited, but you do have some.
Amazon Deletes Your Books, Has Always Been At War With Eastasia
By July 17, 2009
Sure, electronic books are portable and have all sorts of advantages. But Borders has not, to date, broken into my house and stolen back my copy of The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide.
Recent Kindle Purchaser? Ask About The Rebate
By July 14, 2009
Received my new Kindle today, same day I heard about their price drop to $299. Obviously I wanted to see if I could get some cash back. Did their customer callback and got a call as soon as I hit OK. CSR said the shipping cutoff for a partial refund was July 8th and that they’d be crediting me $60 in 2-3 days.
By July 10, 2009
Everyone keeps reporting it, so we feel like we should also mention it here: Amazon has dropped the price on its normal-sized Kindle to $299. [Consumer Reports]
Amazon Tries To Clarify Download Limits For Kindle Books, Doesn't Quite Succeed
By June 23, 2009
Dan, the Kindle owner who last week found that some of the books he’d purchased were no longer available to download due to unspecified limitations set by the publisher, spoke to more Amazon reps on Sunday. They clarified the DRM policy. Well, sort of.
Amazon Kindle Books Can Only Be Downloaded A Limited Number Of Times, And No You Cannot Find Out That Limit Before You Hit It
By June 22, 2009
[The CSR said] that there is always a limit to the number of times you can download a given book. Sometimes, he said, it’s five or six times but at other times it may only be once or twice. And, here’s the kicker folks, once you reach the cap you need to repurchase the book if you want to download it again.
