When Amazon shipped its first Kindle three years ago, among the most common gripes from reviewers (including me) was that there was no way to give a Kindle e-book to a Kindle e-reader as a gift. Now there is, just in time for the holidays. You don’t need to own a Kindle to give Kindle books, and they can be read on Amazon’s hardware or any of its apps. And if your recipient is an unappreciative jerk (or already owns the book in question) he or she can “return” your thoughtful present to Amazon in exchange for a gift card.
Tag Archives | Amazon Kindle
Kindle for Windows Phone 7 Coming Soon
Looks like Amazon has some confidence that Windows Phone 7 stands a chance: It says it’ll release a Kindle app for it this year.
No comments
Kindle to Get Lending
One of the key advantages that Barnes & Noble’s Nook e-reader has over Amazon’s Kindle is a lending feature that lets you temporarily transfer a digital book you’ve bought to another Nook owner. But Amazon says it’s readying something similar for Kindle users.
No comments
An Indie Developer Makes a Kindle Game
Games for Amazon’s Kindle e-reader are trickling in. First came a pair of word games from Amazon itself, then came Solitaire and Scrabble from megapublisher Electronic Arts. Now, Spry Fox is stepping in with Triple Town, supposedly the first Kindle game from an independent studio.
Triple Town is a “match-three” game similar to Bejeweled, requiring the player to shuffle icons into rows of three or more. The twist is that each successful combo creates elements of a city, such as cathedrals and castles, which increase your score at the end of the game. Meanwhile, enemy icons can block you from making combinations.
Sure, Triple Town isn’t terribly innovative, but it’s definitely a sign of evolution for Kindle games. On any other platform, Triple Town would be another match-three game. On Kindle, it’s pretty unique. And that’s the point.
In a blog post, Spry Fox Chief Executive David Edery explained that Kindle gaming seemed like an untapped market. All of his developer pals either had no plans to create games for the device, or didn’t even know they could. He guessed that the Kindle has at least 2 million potential customers (Amazon doesn’t disclose sales figures), all of whom are inclined to spend lots of money on digital content, as demonstrated with e-books.
The question is whether a significant number of those customers view the Kindle as a device for anything besides reading. EA’s presence suggests that there’s a market, but Triple Town is the true test. If one indie game developer can make money on Kindle, expect lots of others to follow. I’ll be interested to see how this turns out.
No comments
Kindle Singles: Long Articles, or Short Books?
Whenever people ask me how long articles should be on the Web, my answer is always the same: “as long or as short as the idea warrants.” Looks like Amazon has decided that the same thing is true for Kindle books.
No comments
Amazon Puts Kindle on the Web
Another day, another piece of Kindle news: Amazon has introduced Kindle for the Web. When I heard the name, I thought it would let me read all the Kindle digital books I’ve bought in my browser. It doesn’t do that. But it does something else that’s cool: It lets bloggers embed sample chapters of Kindle books, YouTube-style, so visitors can check them out then and there. (Here’s an example.) Pretty handy when a book is the topic of discussion–and it should come as no surprise that it’s easy to buy the entire book from Amazon if you like what you read.
I still want to read Kindle books I already own on any PC with a browser and an Internet connection, though, without having to download them. Now that Amazon’s built Kindle for the Web, it would presumably be pretty simple to introduce such a feature. I wonder if it’s on its way?
No comments
With Kindle App, Amazon Buys the Blackberry PlayBook Hype
Amazon is picking winners and losers in smartphones and tablets, and it’s already deemed the Blackberry PlayBook a winner by promising a Kindle app.
The news of Kindle for Blackberry PlayBook landed within hours of Research in Motion’s big tablet reveal, as Harry just noted, even though the PlayBook won’t arrive until early next year. Amazon says the upcoming Kindle app supports the mantra of “Buy Once, Read Everywhere.”
But as I look over the list of platforms Amazon already supports — iOS, Android, Blackberry, Mac, PC — I think that mantra needs tweaking. With no support for WebOS, no promises of support for Windows Phone 7, and native e-reading duties on Samsung’s Galaxy Tab going to Kobo, let me propose a new slogan for Amazon’s Kindle platform: “Buy Once, Read On the Devices We Believe In.”
2 comments
Amazon to Offer Kindle App for BlackBerry PlayBook
Okay, the BlackBerry PlayBook will have at least one third-party app: Amazon’s already announced Kindle for it.
No comments
Mossberg on iPad E-Reading
The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg prefers to do his e-reading on an iPad. (So do I, most of the time.) And he’s reviewed iPad e-readers: Apples iBooks, Amazon’s Kindle, and Barnes & Noble’s Nook.
2 comments
Best Buy to Sell Kindle
It’s hard to judge an e-reader without seeing and touching it in person. And Best Buy may be the best place to do that-with the news that it’s going to sell Amazon’s Kindle, it now stocks nearly every major contender.