New Nook Is Latest Entry in Tablet Wars

Barnes & Noble answered Amazon’s challenge in the tablet wars on Monday, introducing a $249 color device called the Nook Tablet.

Speaking at Barnes & Noble’s store in Manhattan’s Union Square, William Lynch, the company’s chief executive, set the new Nook directly up against Amazon’s recently released Kindle Fire, promoting what he described as the Nook’s advantages in memory and multimedia capability.

“The Kindle Fire, and they do a lot of things well, is a vending machine for Amazon services,” Mr. Lynch said. “We’re going to partner with the world’s most popular music services. We’re going to let the consumers choose.”   Full story

In E-Reader Battle, a Superhero Slugfest Among Booksellers

Jim Lee, co-publisher of DC Entertainment, showcases the graphic novel "Superman: Earth One" on the Kindle Fire.

The tablet wars have begun. Superheroes are the prize — or perhaps the victim.

Amazon, seeking to make its coming Kindle Fire tablet as appealing as possible, negotiated a deal with DC Comics for the exclusive digital rights to a hundred popular graphic novels. Among the series: Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, the Sandman and Watchmen.

Barnes & Noble, with a tablet of its own to nurture, did not like this one bit. Two weeks ago it removed all the copies of the physical volumes from its 1,300 stores, saying it would not carry any book if it were denied the right to sell the digital version.

Books-a-Million, the third-largest bookseller with 231 stores, followed suit last week, making the same argument.  Full article

Amazon Cloud Failure Takes Down Web Sites

A widespread failure in Amazon.com’s Web services business was still affecting many Internet sites on Friday morning, highlighting the risks involved when companies rely on so-called cloud computing.

The problems, which began early Thursday morning, affected sites including Quora.com, Reddit.com, GroupMe.com and Scvngr.com, which all posted messages to their visitors about the issue. Most of the sites have been inaccessible for hours, and others were only partly operational.

The Web companies use Amazon’s cloud-based service to serve their Web sites, applications and files. Amazon’s customers include start-ups like the social networking site Foursquare but also big companies like Pfizer and Nasdaq.

Amazon, which is a leader in this business, lets these companies rent space on its servers and take advantage of its big data centers and computing power. But that gives the companies little control if the servers fail.

Full story.

Among E-Readers, Competition Heats Up

WHEN Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, introduced the iPad, he bluntly took aim at the rapidly emerging e-reader market. “Amazon has done a great job” with the Kindle, he said. “We’re going to stand on their shoulders and go a little bit further.”  The iPad’s full-color screen and its ability to browse the Web and run thousands of applications certainly make it more versatile than the Kindle, but Apple is not the only company bringing more than just black-on-white text to readers.
AsusTek, Dell and Hewlett-Packard will soon be following Apple’s lead, bringing to market large-screen tablets that are ideal for reading books and newly formatted digital magazines and newspapers. And unlike Amazon’s and Sony’s stand-alone e-readers, which are limited by monochrome E Ink screens, the new multipurpose devices provide access to the Web and other applications.
Does this mean dedicated digital reader devices will be landing in the grave? Not quite.

Full story continues here.

New Kindle Expected This Summer, Touch Possible Later

Amazon could release a new slimmer Kindle in August, Bloomberg News reports, citing “two people familiar with its plans.”

Bloomberg reports that the new Kindle would be thinner than existing models and although the next model would still offer a black and white screen, it would have a sharper and more responsive display.

Full story continues here.

Amazon’s Best 100 Books of 2009

Amazon.com Book Editors Announce Their Favorite 100 Books of 2009, as Well as Top 100 Customer Favorites, the Majority of Which Are Available on Kindle. Top 100 of 2009

Amazon zaps purchased copies of 1984, Animal Farm from Kindles

“People who bought Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm for their Kindle were surprised to discover that it had disappeared from their devices overnight. It turns out the publisher changed its mind about offering an electronic version, and Amazon caved into their demand to sneak into people’s electronic libraries and take back the book at the publisher’s request.”

Interestingly, as the article mentions, not all countries have the same copyright laws, and in Australia “works of authors, who died before 1955, have expired and are now within the ‘public domain’ and freely downloadable on the net…The works of George Orwell are still under copyright in the United States and the European Union, and therefore users in those countries should not download these works.”  But will people be so respectful of copyright when publishers take purchased books off their Kindles, without warning?    Full Story

Google To Take on Amazon, With Plans to Sell E-Books

“[At the] BookExpo convention in New York over the weekend, Google signaled its intent to introduce a program by that would enable publishers to sell digital versions of their newest books direct to consumers through Google.  The move would pit Google against Amazon.com, which is seeking to control the e-book market with the versions it sells for its reading device.

Google’s move is likely to be welcomed by publishers who have expressed concerns about Amazon’s aggressive pricing strategy for e-books.  Amazon offers Kindle editions of most new best sellers for $9.99, far less than the typical $26 at which publishers sell new hardcovers.  In early discussions, Google has said it will allow publishers to set consumer prices.”   Story

(Something to consider: If Google charges more than Amazon for the same ebook (because Amazon takes a loss on each $9.99 sale) this could make the Kindle seem like a bargain to heavy readers.  Only time will reveal how this all works out. )

Fmr Librarian, Top Amazon Reviewer

At 54, Klausner, a former librarian from Georgia, has posted more book reviews on Amazon.com than any other user—12,896, as of this writing, almost twice as many as her nearest competitor. That’s a book a day for 35 years.    Full Story

Seems the lowest review she gives a book is 4 stars out of 5.  No wonder publishers send her 50 free books a week. – Ed.

Amazon Debuts $489 Kindle DX

“Amazon on Wednesday launched a next generation Kindle, an e-reader with a large, textbook and newspaper-friendly screen dubbed the DX.  With a screen that measures 9.7 inches diagonally — two-and-a-half times the size of the current-gen Kindle 2 — the DX is aimed squarely at penetrating for the first time the potentially massive and untapped market of textbooks, as well offering some life support for the struggling business of subscription-based electronic newspapers.”    Story