Kindle For The Web

How To Do (Almost) Everything With A Kindle 3

Photo of third-generation Kindle. Courtesy Amazon.com

From Gadget Lab:

Amazon’s Kindle can do a lot more than just buy and read Amazon-sold e-books. This is often a surprise. I usually wind up in conversations where someone says “I’d like to try a Kindle, but it can’t _______.” Usually, it can.

I was actually surprised when I bought my Kindle not just by how much it could do, but by how well it did it. The Kindle suffers from two things: 1) it’s never going to do everything that a full-fledged computer or even a color touchscreen tablet can do; and 2) the Kindle 3 has improved on a whole slew of features that were either poorly implemented in or entirely absent from earlier iterations of the Kindle.

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Amazon Is Building A Better Browser For Kindle

From Web Monkey:

Browsing the web on one of Amazon’s Kindle e-readers is like taking a step backwards in time. It’s clunky and has only limited support for web standards and bare-bones JavaScript capabilities.

But now Amazon may be looking to add browser engineers to the Kindle team, according to the job listings on the company’s website.

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Amazon Acquires Touch Screen Startup; Souped Up Kindle Being Planned?

From ZDNet:

Amazon is reportedly buying Touchco, a start-up focused on touch screen technology, in a move that may signal a multi-touch Kindle in the future.

According to the New York Times, Amazon is acquiring Touchco, a New York-based company with a handful of employees and technology that was never commercialized.

Touchco was a project at New York University’s Media Research Lab. Terms of the deal weren’t available, but it doesn’t appear to be material enough to warrant much disclosure.

What does this deal mean?

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Kindle vs. iPad: It's Not Zero Sum

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From CBS News:

Amazon provided its most detailed figures on sales of its Kindle, putting the units in the marketplace in the millions. The big questions: How long can Amazon defend its turf vs. Apple's iPad? And will consumers consider the iPad and Kindle to be two completely different devices with different use cases?

The e-commerce giant on Thursday reported another strong quarter, but the highlight of the financials and the call may have been at least some detail on Kindle sales. Due to an accounting change where Amazon can recognize more Kindle revenue up-front, the company had to offer a little more detail than usual about sales. Granted, Amazon didn't offer much, but CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement:

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Why Amazon Won't Launch Its Own Tablet, But Will Use Apple's

From ARS Technica:

The Kindle game is up, and Amazon knows it. In 2010, the world plus dog will be hawking an E-Ink-based e-reader, and major distribution and publishing houses like Barnes & Noble, Google, and Hearst will be offering their digital content on everything with a screen. That's why Amazon gave up some royalty money to e-book publishers on Wednesday, and announced a SDK and app store for the Kindle on Thursday.

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Amazon Prepares For Apple Tablet With Promise Of Apps For Kindle Ereader

Amazon's Kindle: soon with apps. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

From The Guardian:

Developers are being sought to produce iPhone-style apps as Kindle faces Apple tablet challenge in ebook market.

Amazon is inviting developers to build iPhone-style apps on its Kindle ebook reader, in what is seen as a pre-emptive strike against the expected launch next week of an Apple tablet computer.

Developers are promised the capacity to "build and upload active content that will be available in the Kindle Store later this year". The first developers will be allowed to join a test programme – a limited beta – from next month.

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Tablet Wars: Amazon Adds Apps to Kindle

From Gadget Lab:

Amazon has announced that it will open up the Kindle e-reader to third party developers, allowing applications, or what Amazon calls “active content”, to run on the device.

What kind of apps could run in the low-fi Kindle? Well, you won’t be getting Monkey Ball, but interactive books, travel guides with locations data, RSS readers and anything that brings text to the device would be a good candidate. This could even include magazine and newspaper subscriptions.

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Skiff E-Reader And Amazon Kindle DX

From The Next Big Future:

The Skiff Reader, the first e-reader to integrate the upcoming Skiff Service, is a state-of-the-art device that is simple and easy-to-use.

It features the largest and highest-resolution electronic-paper display yet unveiled in a consumer device, at 11.5" in size (measured diagonally) and a resolution of 1200 x 1600 pixels (UXGA). Skiff has signed a multi-year agreement with Sprint (NYSE:S) to provide 3G connectivity for Skiff’s dedicated e-reading devices in the United States. Plans are underway to have the Skiff Reader available for purchase later this year in more than 1,000 Sprint retail locations across the U.S., as well as online at www.sprint.com. Availability, pricing, additional distribution channels and other details will be disclosed at a later date. the Skiff Reader will also support wireless connectivity via Wi-Fi.

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