Submitted by Bibliofuture on March 26, 2009 - 6:01pm
Apparently, today’s a good day for bad news, with Google laying off 200 employees, our own cutbacks here at The NY Times, and now, Amazon.com weighing in with some cost-cutting of its own. Over the next two months, the online retailer will close three distribution centers: in Red Rock, Nev.; Munster, Ind.; and Chambersburg, Pa.
The 210 employees in those three facilities were informed Wednesday. They will get severance packages and an opportunity to transfer to other Amazon shipping locations.
Full story here.
Submitted by StephenK on March 19, 2009 - 3:18pm
Submitted by Anonymous Patron (not verified) on March 18, 2009 - 7:42am
Interactive fiction (or text adventures) seem like a natural fit on Amazon's ebook device, but IF author Howard Sherman finds it a tough nut to crack.
Says Sherman, "The issue boils down to the Kindle being locked up tighter than the technical design plans to the NEXT iPhone Apple is working on. There’s no easy way in there. Even though Kindle runs in a Linux environment it’s far from an open plane to deliver outside titles on.
Submitted by birdie on March 17, 2009 - 4:17pm
Reuters reports: Media company Discovery Communications Inc has sued Amazon.com, accusing the online retailer's Kindle of infringing its patent on electronic book technology.
The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Delaware, marks another blow for a closely watched gadget that has drawn fire from publishers that say Amazon is trying to avoid paying royalties.
The lawsuit claims that Amazon, in two versions of its Kindle, has infringed one or more of the claims on a patent that Discovery founder John Hendricks received in November 2007.
The patent deals with encryption technology for the distribution of digital books.
Submitted by Great Western Dragon on March 9, 2009 - 4:11pm
It's wireless and never needs charging. It has a touch interface and works with that which you have at home.
The good folks over at Penny Arcade offer their take on the latest in bibliotechnological merriment!
Submitted by Bibliofuture on March 5, 2009 - 4:20pm
Submitted by effinglibrarian on March 1, 2009 - 12:14pm
Amazon announced late Friday that the company is modifying systems to allow authors and publishers to decide whether to enable Kindle's text-to-speech function on a per-title basis.
Submitted by Great Western Dragon on February 26, 2009 - 7:31pm
Once again, xkcd whittles things down to their core-
Submitted by birdie on February 25, 2009 - 2:26pm
Where's the beef?
In today's New York Times op-ed. Blount, author of the popular title Alphabet Juice, confirms that "Kindle 2 is being sold specifically as a new, improved, multimedia version of books — every title is an e-book and an audio book rolled into one."
He continues, "And whereas e-books have yet to win mainstream enthusiasm, audio books are a billion-dollar market, and growing." His beef is that the authors and members of the Author's Guild, where he currently holds the position of president, are not receiving audio rights to Kindle 2's robotic audio versions.
Audio rights are not generally packaged with e-book rights. They are more valuable than e-book rights. Income from audio books helps not inconsiderably to keep authors, and publishers, afloat.
Submitted by birdie on February 23, 2009 - 8:05pm
<a href="http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/22/kindle-oreilly-ebooks-technology-breakthroughs_oreilly.html">Why Kindle Should Offer an Open Book Policy</a>...some thoughts from Tim O'Reilly.
Submitted by Bibliofuture on February 9, 2009 - 2:24pm
Gizmodo has a Kindle 2 and they are providing a hands on review.
Some of the comments:
Controls are almost exactly the same as Kindle 1, just slightly re-arranged, for the better. You can still page forward from both sides. Although now, with more non-button room on the sides, you can definitely pick it up without turning the page. They nailed the buttons.
Hey, it's downright iPod Touchy.
I'll bet it kicks butt as a cake cutter.
Submitted by mdoneil on February 8, 2009 - 1:17pm
Michel Cuhaci of Ottawa had received a misprinted copy of <em>A Student's Guide to Maxwell's Equation</em> and he left a bad review on amazon.com.
The author saw the review and decided to make things right. More on this fantastic story at the <a href="http://www.daytondailynews.com/search/content/oh/story/news/local/2009/02/08/sns020809bookinside.html?cxntlid=inform_sr">Dayton<em> Daily News</em></a>
Submitted by Bibliofuture on February 6, 2009 - 2:34pm
More electronic books are coming to mobile phones.
In a move that could bolster the growing popularity of e-books, Google said Thursday that the 1.5 million public domain books it had scanned and made available free on PCs were now accessible on mobile devices like the iPhone and the T-Mobile G1.
Also Thursday, Amazon said that it was working on making the titles for its popular e-book reader, the Kindle, available on a variety of mobile phones. The company, which is expected to unveil a new version of the Kindle next week, did not say when Kindle titles would be available on mobile phones.
Full story in the NYT
Pages
now is the time. The complete series is going for $99.
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