When I first read the new that Amazon would begin selling an ad-supported Kindle, my heart sank. This is the beginning of the end, I thought. But that was only because the Businessweek article about the change left out one key detail: the ads will not be shown during the reading experience. Jason dug up those details.
Amazon will only be showing the ads on the Kindle home screen and on the screensavers, which is great. In exchange, people will be able to buy a Kindle for $25 cheaper — $114. An attractive price, no doubt. But it’s also ones that begs the question: why on Earth not go to the killer $99 price point?!
Imagine a Kindle for $99. There would be a frenzy. Amazon would sell so many of them. → Read More
Amazon’s Personal Document Service has mainatined a $.10 fee for every document transfered via Whispernet since the device was launched, but the service will now cost at least 50% more. Starting May 4th, Amazon will charge $.15 per megebyte rounded up to the nearest whole megabyte for each document transfered. Basicaly, the base fee will soon be $.15 and it goes up from there. It’s not all sour grapes though. → Read More
The good folks at iSuppli took it upon themselves to rip apart the Amazon Kindle 2 Great, right? What’s not great is knowing how much of a premium you’re paying for the device; ignorance is bliss here. The Kindle 2, for which Amazon wants $359, costs approximately $185 to build. That is, when you take all the Kindle’s parts and add them together, you get a total of $185. So where does the extra $174 come from? → Read More
Randall Munroe of xkcd fame has been looking for a way to comfortably read books in bed with very little effort for decades and thanks to the Kindle 2, he’s finally found book reading bliss. And the steel coat hanger he mangled as a stand certainly helps. → Read More
A USA Today advertisement in today’s paper proves once and for all, the print media is slow to react and update by using a Kindle 1.0 instead of the new version. Can you believe it? Did none of the marketing gurus know that that Amazon announced the new and improved model almost two months ago? Doesn’t look like it. Full size image of the atrocity after the jump. → Read More
The Kindle 2 is hot in the US, but in Japan color e-paper is the major topic in the blogosphere. The black and white Sony e-reader was a gigantic flop and Amazon Japan hasn’t said yet if it will sell the Kindle here in Nippon.
Fujitsu will attempt to fill the void by offering its FLEPia color e-book (pictured) next month, but now Ricoh claims it has developed a technology that makes it possible to produce color e-paper, which is 50% brighter than conventional devices. → Read More
Jakob Neilsen, usability guru extraordinare, examines the usability of Amazon’s Kindle 2 and comes away with mixed impressions. For linear reading — the primary function of the Kindle 2 — Neilsen says it’s the bomb. For other uses, it falls short of the mark. → Read More
Wil Wheaton AKA the guy on Star Wars recorded himself reading from his own book and then recorded the Kindle 2 reading the same passage. The result, as you’ll hear on his blog, is inconclusive (what if TTS gets so good it will sound JUST LIKE WIL WHEATON? WHAT THEN?) but it kind of shows where everyone’s head is at in terms of the Authors Guild. → Read More
If this job posting by lab126.com, Amazon’s secret hardware skunkworks, is any indication there will be an International version of the Kindle sooner than later.
The candidate will be a senior and experienced software engineer or manager with a background in wireless. You will have worked on one or more baseband /radio solutions for wireless devices. You will have led or managed a SW development team and be proficient a recruiting and selecting top engineers. You will have a complete understanding of the communication stack from layer1 and drivers through protocol and framework. As the first person in this team, as well as recruiting up to four engineers through 2009 you will need to be a self-starter and hands-on to be able to set up the tool chain and development environment to start work before your team is on board.
Psyche!!!
Originally slated to ship on the 24th, Amazon has officially said that the Kindle 2 is shipping a day earlier to meet demand. → Read More
It’s getting close to the Kindle’s February 24th launch date and Amazon has made the official manual available a head of time. There isn’t anything special within that wasn’t previously announced, but don’t let that stop you from pulling up the PDF and pouring over the text anyway. Hopefully it will tide you over until your K2 arrives. → Read More
Mmm… bright candy colors. M-Edge is cashing in on the Kindle Kraze(TM) with their new Executive Jackets for Kindle 2. These sassy, multi-hued jackets have a built-in booklight and start at a mere $29.99.
Don’t have hands? Try the Platform Jacket that keeps your Kindle 2 upright while in its sexy protective case. It also starts at $29.99. → Read More
There is always someone ready to take advantage of unknowing peeps but you know what, whoever hands-over $600 for a pre-order of a $359 device probably should lose the money. Besides the obvious price difference, the auction seems legit; after all, he is an ebay power seller. → Read More
At one point in Jeff Bezos’ presentation he mentioned WhisperSync, a system for syncing all of your Kindles. This means if you’re reading a book on one of your Kindles and pick up another Kindle registered to your same account, it lets you start reading where you left off on the first Kindle. It’s kind of a smart bookmark so you never have to lose your place if, like many folks who are interested in this thing at all, you own a K1 and K2. But Jeff said something very special. He said this works with other Kindle devices or other “mobile devices.” → Read More
