Once upon a time, you could go into a Target store and purchase an Amazon Kindle or a Fire tablet. Then a spat between the two companies led to Amazon products vanishing from Target shelves and its website. Looks like the two have kissed and made up, with Amazon items making their return after four years away. [More]
kindle
Got An Older Kindle? Update Your Device By March 22 Or It Won’t Connect To The Internet
By 3.21.16
Unless you’re happy reading the material that’s on your older Kindle right now forever and ever, you’ll want to heed Amazon’s advice, and quick: some e-readers will need to be updated by March 22, or they’ll lose the ability to connect to the Internet. [More]
Amazon Puts Mini E-Book Stores In Drugstores In Washington State
By 1.25.16
Back in November, Amazon did something unexpected: the company opened a real-life bookstore in its hometown of Seattle. The company also has a Kindle and Fire showroom at its new package pickup point at UC Berkeley. Amazon clearly wants to move into real-life retail, in some ways, and they have an intriguing new product spotted on drugstore shelves in Washington state. [More]
Man Orders Kindle, Receives Someone’s Tumor Instead
By 1.11.16
Two important packages traveled the United Kingdom via FedEx recently, but one was arguably more replaceable and less important than the other. One package contained a Kindle headed for a residential address in Bristol, and the other contained part of a tumor bound for a hospital in London, about 120 miles away. The Amazon customer who found a tumor instead of an e-reader was understandably rather confused. [More]
Amazon Lays Off Engineers Behind Fire Phone, Reorganizes Hardware Division
By 8.27.15
You’ve probably never heard of Lab126, but you’ve definitely heard of their parent company and their products. They’re a division of Amazon, started in Silicon Valley eleven years ago to create the e-reader that we now know as the Kindle. They also created some projects that haven’t caught on quite as well, like the Fire Phone, and engineers who worked on that projects have reportedly been sent on their way. [More]
Amazon Will Reportedly Pay Self-Published E-Book Authors $.006 Per Page Read
By 7.2.15
Last month, Amazon revealed it planned to begin a new payment system that entailed paying some authors per page read instead of per book purchased. Today, we know a little more about those impending payments, including the dollar value that Amazon intends to associate with each turn of the page. [More]
Amazon To Start Paying Some Authors Per Page Read
By 6.22.15
Less than a week after Amazon announced it had reached a deal with the world’s largest book publisher over sales, the company announced it would begin a new payment system for some authors: paying by the page read rather than the book purchased. [More]
Amazon’s Deal With Marvel Adds 12,000 Comics To The Kindle Store
By 6.19.15
Kindle users who’d rather pick up a comic book than a literary tome will now have 12,000 more options with a new deal between Amazon and Marvel. The e-commerce giant announced a partnership last night that will allow fans to download single issues of the publisher’s comics directly from its store. [More]
Amazon’s In-House Kindle Scout Publishing Platform Set To Release First 10 Books Next Month
By 2.24.15
Four months after Amazon launched a crowdsourced publishing platform that allows Kindle readers to kind-of, sort-of have a say in what unpublished books and hopeful authors reach their devices, the company is set to release the first 10 Kindle Scout titles next month. [More]
Can’t Go To Sleep At Night? It Might Be Your iPad, Kindle Or Nook’s Fault
By 12.23.14
If you’re having a difficult time falling asleep after reading a few chapters of the latest can’t-put-it-down book, the bright light emitted from your eReader may to blame. [More]
Amazon’s Kindle Scout Give Readers The Choice In Which Authors Gets Published – Kind Of
By 10.27.14
Despite its decidedly unfriendly-to-authors feud with a major publishing company, Amazon is touting a new program that provides an outlet for hopeful authors, while letting readers maybe, sort-of decide who’s worthy of being published. [More]
Amazon Still Not Interested In Reuniting Lost Kindles With Owners
By 7.24.14
Two years ago, we tried to reunite a Kindle left behind on a plane with its owner, and we didn’t succeed. The reader who found it didn’t trust the airport lost and found, and Amazon wasn’t any help. Even though Amazon knows full well who each Kindle belongs to, with their e-mail address and even their credit cards and billing addresses. That doesn’t matter, though. When Steve called about a Kindle that he found, Amazon told him to throw it away. [More]
Amazon Unveils Subscription E-Book Service For $10/Month
By 7.18.14
After accidentally posting info about the service to its site earlier this week, Amazon has officially unveiled “Kindle Unlimited,” a $9.99/month subscription service that offers users access to a library of e-books. [More]
Amazon Begins Issuing Credits From E-Book Price-Fixing Lawsuit
By 3.25.14
While Apple is still fighting the court’s ruling that it was involved in e-book price-fixing with America’s largest book publishing companies, those publishers have all reached settlements with the various regulators, attorneys general, and others over the same allegations that they colluded to set an inflated price on e-books. Today, Amazon began issuing credit to its customers who paid too much because of the publishers’ actions. [More]
Are Small Bookstores Committing Suicide If They Join Amazon’s New Kindle Program?
By 11.6.13
A common refrain among people in the book business — especially those in the independent bookselling market — is that Amazon is “out to kill small bookstores.” Depending on how one looks at it, the latest scheme from the online retail giant either bolsters or calls BS on that statement. [More]
Amazon Thanks FAA For Lifting Device Restrictions With A One-Day Sale On Kindles
By 11.4.13
It was just about time for kicking off shoes and reclining in the comfiest chair (I call him Fergus) at Consumerist HQ when a one-day only sale caught my eye. Because it’ll be over by tomorrow, the time to spread the news is now. [More]
Amazon Offering Discount E-Books On Previously Purchased Books (But The Selection Is Wanting)
By 10.29.13
Back in September, Amazon gave a vague launch window for its new MatchBook program, which allows customers who bought printed books from the e-tailer over the years to now have the option of buying an e-book version of those titles at a discount. Today, MatchBook finally launched, though only with around 75,000 titles included. [More]
FAA Panel To Recommend Allowing Use Of Electronic Devices During Takeoff & Landing
By 9.24.13
Since last June, a Federal Aviation Administration Panel advisory panel has been gearing up to finalize its recommendation on how the agency could maybe perhaps allow the use of personal electronic devices during flights. That means you could be listening to music, texting, emailing and otherwise tapping away on your whathaveyou during landing and takeoff instead of gripping the armrests like your life depends on it. If that’s your thing, that is. [More]
