Amazon.com

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Americans Read Over President's Shoulder

Obama's vacation book list drives leaps in Amazon sales rankings

(Newser) - President Obama’s poll numbers are faltering, but his summer reading choices are getting rave reviews, Politico reports. A survey of the Amazon.com standings of the five books the White House announced he would take with him on his Martha’s Vineyard vacation show a drastic improvement in sales....

Sony Challenges Kindle With $199 E-Reader

Company angles for bigger share of fast-growing market

(Newser) - Sony plans to fire up competition in the E-reader market with a pair of affordable releases next month, Bloomberg reports. The Sony Reader Pocket Edition, with a 5-inch screen, will be priced at $199. A touch-screen version will sell for $299. Amazon dropped the price of its Kindles to $299...

Kindle Users Sue Over Amazon's Orwellian Deletes

(Newser) - Customers who had their paid-for copies of 1984 and Animal Farm yanked from their Kindles over a copyright issue are taking Amazon to court, InformationWeek reports. The company has apologized for its action and vowed not to repeat it, but the plaintiffs, who include a high school student whose homework...

Amazon Goes Orwellian on Kindle
Amazon Goes Orwellian
on Kindle
Jul 18, 2009 6:45 AM CDT

Amazon Goes Orwellian on Kindle

Company deletes customers' downloads of 1984, Animal Farm

(Newser) - Amazon turned into Big Brother this week after mistakenly selling pirated copies of George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm to Kindle users, Ars Technica reports. The company, without warning, remotely deleted the books from customers' devices after discovering the publisher didn't have the rights to sell them. Customers who lost...

Weird Stuff for Sale on Amazon
 Weird Stuff for Sale on Amazon 
Jul 15, 2009 7:05 PM CDT

Weird Stuff for Sale on Amazon

Buy the world's largest book, or a life-size grim reaper statue

(Newser) - Amazon.com long ago expanded beyond books and now offers appliances, musical instruments, and as Random Good Stuff points out, some decidedly odd items:
  • The world’s largest book. At 5 by 7 feet, the photographic book Bhutan includes lifesize portraits of its subjects. It's a steal at $30,000.
...

Competition Spurs Amazon to Slash Kindle 2 Price

(Newser) - Amazon has lopped $60 off the price of its Kindle 2 ebook reader in a move that looks like an effort to gain iPod-like dominance in an increasingly crowded market, Melissa Perenson writes in PC World. The Kindle is way ahead of the competition, but Sony's ereaders are gaining traction,...

Amazon: 'Ham-Fisted Error' Caused Gay Glitch

Company promises to restore gay, lesbian titles to ranking system

(Newser) - Amazon.com says “an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error” caused thousands of gay and lesbian-related titles to be removed from sales rankings and some searches, the New York Times reports. The company—the target of online outrage after the changes came to light—says the "glitch" has now...

Amazon Drops Gay Titles From Sales Rankings

Company blames glitch for shunting innocuous gay titles to adult list

(Newser) - Amazon is facing a backlash for yanking hundreds of gay and lesbian titles from its sales ranking system, CNET reports. The bookseller has a policy of excluding material deemed "adult" from the sales and bestseller lists, but critics say its exclusion of titles like The Well of Loneliness—a...

Kindle Devotees Rip Rising E-Book Prices

Digital books should cost $10 or less, they say

(Newser) - A small but vocal group of Kindle owners has banded together to protest upward-creeping e-book prices, Wired reports. Around 250 disgruntled Kindle devotees have tagged more than 7,200 titles on Amazon priced higher than $10—the most they argue an e-book should cost. "On material items, prices can...

iPhones Turn Into Kindles, With Free App

Amazon hopes to corner iPhone's eBook market

(Newser) - Amazon’s widely praised digital book reader is getting a second home on the iPhone, reports the Washington Post. Amazon is launching a free Kindle app today that has most of the Kindle functions. Though it won't have the Kindle’s ink-and-paper-like screen, the iPhone version will allow users to...

Authors Can Silence Talking Kindle: Amazon

(Newser) - Amazon has bowed to pressure from the Authors Guild and will allow authors and publishers to disable the controversial text-to-speech feature on its Kindle e-reader, the Los Angeles Times reports. Authors contend that the function essentially turns the e-book into an audio book, a contract violation. “They created a...

Kindle 2 Worth It for 'Serious Book Readers'
 Kindle 2 Worth It 
 for 'Serious Book Readers' 
PRODUCT REVIEW
Feb 26, 2009 2:16 PM CST

Kindle 2 Worth It for 'Serious Book Readers'

(Newser) - Amazon’s new Kindle e-reader offers vast improvement over the previous model, writes Walter Mossberg in the Wall Street Journal, and “is finally a pleasure to use.” Faster page-flipping, sleeker design, tons more memory, and a digital audio feature are just some of the advances. But hardware is...

Kindle Leads Boom in E-Books
 Kindle Leads Boom in E-Books 
Feb 7, 2009 4:09 AM CST

Kindle Leads Boom in E-Books

(Newser) - Amazon is widely rumored to be releasing a new version of its Kindle e-reader next week, and the e-book industry appears to be growing, Fortune reports. Sony is pushing its own device, Google has opened up access to millions of books online and for download to mobile devices like the...

Dow Off 149, Down 8.8% for Month
 Dow Off 149, 
 Down 8.8% for Month 
MARKETS
Jan 30, 2009 3:18 PM CST

Dow Off 149, Down 8.8% for Month

GDP report ends month of layoffs, losses

(Newser) - Stocks extended losses today off the news of a 3.8% decline in US GDP for the fourth quarter, ending a turbulent month, MarketWatch reports. The report capped a week of widespread layoffs and poor earnings at major US firms. Amazon.com was a rare exception, up 18% on strong...

Here Comes the New Kindle (Probably)

(Newser) - Tech bloggers reading their tea leaves say e-book fans can expect the new version of the Kindle on Feb. 9. Though maker Amazon has made no announcement, the company has scheduled a major press conference that day with chief Jeff Bezos. And, notes Brad Stone of the New York Times,...

Obama Speeches Teach English, Hope to Japanese

Dem's speeches good for language-learners, more inspiring than local pols'

(Newser) - The Japanese version of Amazon.com features an unlikely bestseller: the collected speeches of Barack Obama, with Japanese translation and accompanying CD, Reuters reports. Obama’s inspiring but straightforward rhetoric is perfect for teaching English in a country that hankers to learn the language. He “uses words such as...

EBay Denies Involvement in Typosquatting

Crooked affiliate was redirecting 'amazon.cm' visitors to auction site

(Newser) - EBay claims it’s not responsible for a “typosquatting” scam that redirects browsers who head to amazon.cm (a frequent misspelling of its proper .com URL) to eBay.com. “We saw this a while back,” a spokeswoman tells Silicon Alley Insider. “We noticed there was an...

Sold-Out Kindles Still Available—for a Price

Amazon loses out as savvy buyers trade e-book for big returns

(Newser) - Amazon.com has run out of Kindle e-book readers, sending their prices soaring on the second-hand market and on sites like eBay, reports Bloomberg. Ever since an Oprah endorsement in October cleaned out the online retailer’s stock, those with Kindles in hand have sought to secure a return on...

No More Kindles for Christmas
No More
Kindles for
Christmas
Dec 4, 2008 6:21 PM CST

No More Kindles for Christmas

Amazon's ebook reader sells out again, thanks to Oprah

(Newser) - Thanks no doubt to an endorsement from Oprah—who described Amazon.com’s Kindle as her “new favorite gadget”—the ebook reader is once again out of stock for the holidays, the Wall Street Journal reports. In fact, the $359 device won't be available again until February at...

Slashing Prices Online May Kill Etailers

Price wars sure to kill off some struggling e-tailers

(Newser) - Online retailers’ response to their first dreary holiday season is a price war so fierce many won’t see the new year. Web shoppers are trained to search for deals, and 75% say they would leave a site that doesn't offer free shipping, the New York Times reports. Fine for...

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