Tag Archives | Amazon Kindle

Amazon To Offer Kindle Local Library Lending

Posted by Ed Oswald on April 20, 2011 at 12:30 pm

It’s a sign of the times. Amazon on Wednesday said that it will allow Kindle users to borrow e-books from their local libraries. The service would be available at about 11,000 locations nationwide, and will also be open to those using Kindle applications.

The offering is part of a partnership with OverDrive, which already offers digital content solutions for libraries (and which has had a similar relationship with Sony for the latter’s Reader e-readers since 2009). Head to OverDrive’s website to see if your local library may be one of them — mine is!

Unlike regular library books, you’ll be able to annotate titles just like you can with purchased Kindle books. The notes will not appear to the next person checking out the book. But if you check it out again or even purchase the title from Amazon, your notes will still be there.

Amazon doesn’t have a solid release date for this, only saying in a press release that it would be available “later this year.” We’ll keep an eye on this and let you know when its available.

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A Slightly Cheaper, Ad-Supported Kindle

Posted by Harry McCracken on April 11, 2011 at 4:52 pm

Back in August of last year, Slate’s Farhad Majoo predicted that the Kindle–$139 as of the time he wrote his story–would be $99 by the holidays. His prognostication that didn’t pan out: the Kindle’s price stayed put at $139. But Amazon just announced a new Kindle at a lower price. It’s called the Kindle with Special Offers, and it’s the $139 Kindle with the new twist of promotions for deals at the bottom of the home screen and on the screen saver (but not within books themselves). It sells for $114, or $25 less than its ad-free counterpart.

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I Own a "Vast Kindle Library," and I'm Worried

Posted by Harry McCracken on February 5, 2011 at 7:49 pm

Today, I wanted to buy a book. I did what I usually do these days before I plunk down my money for one: I checked to see if it was available as an Amazon Kindle e-book–one which I’d be able read not only on a Kindle but also on an iPad, an iPhone, an Android phone, a Mac, or a PC. It was. My finger instinctively lunged towards the 1-Click button.

And then it dawned on me: With the recent development that Apple is going to require creators of e-reader apps to sell books using its in-app purchasing feature, it’s not the least bit clear what the fate of Kindle books on Apple devices will be. (Apple says that as long as e-readers support in-app purchases, they’ll be able to retain access to digital books bought elsewhere–even though this violates the App Store approval guidelines.)

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E-Readers: They're All Selling Like an Unspecified Number of Hotcakes!

Posted by Harry McCracken on December 30, 2010 at 10:04 am

Back in August, I wrote about Amazon.com’s odd habit of frequently bragging about sales of its Kindle e-reader without ever providing explicit numbers. It continues to do so–and it’s inspired its competitors to do some similarly evasive crowing of their own.

Barnes & Noble issued a press release today that it had sold “millions” of Nooks since the first version’s release in December of 2009. But it mostly bragged about Nook sales without disclosing them, by saying that Nooks are the company’s best-selling products ever, and that the Nookcolor is its best-selling gift this holiday season.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today announced that with millions of NOOK eReading devices sold, the line has become the company’s biggest bestseller ever in its nearly 40-year history.  The new NOOKcolor Reader’s Tablet, introduced just eight weeks before Christmas, is the company’s number one selling gift of the holiday season. Barnes & Noble also announced that it now sells more digital books than its large and growing physical book business on BN.com, the world’s second largest online bookstore.

[snip]

Demand for the critically acclaimed NOOKcolor remained high following the product’s introduction in late October through the holidays. Sales have continued to exceed the company’s high expectations.

The only hard number in the release is the “millions” of Nooks sold; we can apparently assume that B&N has sold at least two million devices. (A few weeks ago, it was a minor news story when an Amazon staffer said that “millions” of third-generation Kindles had been sold in 73 days; I wonder if B&N would have been even this specific if Amazon hadn’t made the leap first?)

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Kindle Magazines and Newspapers Finally Move Beyond the Kindle

Posted by Harry McCracken on December 17, 2010 at 4:31 pm

Whenever I write about the reading materials that are available for Amazon.com’s Kindle, I have to remember to be precise. A very good selection of magazines and newspapers exist in Kindle form, but you’ve only been only to read them on Kindle hardware, not on the Kindle apps available for the iPhone Android, and other platforms.

Today, that’s changed–not completely, but quite a bit. Amazon has updated its Kindle app for Android to version 2.0, and the new version lets you buy magazines and newspapers, in both single-copy and subscription form.

Amazon says more than a hundred publications are available. That’s an impressive start, but there’s further to go–by my count, folks who own the Kindle e-reader have access to 238 magazines and papers. For now, the Android app’s selection is spotty (you can get Newsweek but not TIME; The New York Times but not The Wall Street Journal).

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