Hasta La Gadget!

Amazon made a fairly big splash in announcing that the standard-issue Kindle would finally be available in an international edition, but it’s now also rather quietly confirmed that the larger Kindle DX will be soon become a bit of a globetrotter as well. Unfortunately, it’s also considerably more light on details this time around, although Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener does say that the international Kindle DX will come out “sometime next year,” and we can only presume that it’ll demand a similar premium to its smaller counterpart (which is $20 more expensive than the US-only version).

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Amazon confirms international Kindle DX is on the way too originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon might have been extremely contrite about remotely deleting 1984 from Kindles, but a Jeff Bezos apology and an offer to restore the book doesn’t necessarily add up to a meaningful change in policy. As part of the settlement with that student who sued over the 1984 situation, Amazon’s had to clarify its remote-deletion guidelines, and they’re pretty much the same as ever: they’ll hit the kill switch if you ask for a refund or if your credit card is declined, if a judge orders them to, or if they need to protect the Kindle or the network from malware. Sounds simple, right?

Well, sort of — saying they’ll delete content at the behest of judicial or regulatory decree pretty much leaves the door open to exactly the same situation as the 1984 debacle, just a couple procedural steps down the line and with less blame placed on Amazon. If you’ll recall, 1984 was deleted after the publisher was sued for not having the proper rights, and Amazon took the proactive step of deleting the content — and although Amazon won’t do that on its own anymore, all it takes now is one strongly-worded motion before a sympathetic judge and we’re back at square one. That’s pretty troubling — no judge can order a physical bookseller to come into your house and retrieve a book they’ve sold you, and saying things are different for the Kindle raises some interesting questions about what Amazon thinks “ownership” means. We’ll see how this one plays out in practice, though — we’re hoping Amazon never has to pull that switch again.

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Amazon clarifies Kindle book-deletion policy, can still delete books originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With the Sony Reader Daily Edition, the 3G-enabled ebook reader battle is pitched. At the end of this year, it’ll fight Amazon’s Kindle 2 and DX and Plastic Logic‘s eReader to the death. Here’s how they all stack up now:

Aaaand we can’t not do a proper sizemodo, naturally:

Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he’ll explore where our industry is and where it’s going — on both micro and macro levels — with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.

I like books. No: I actually love books. In virtually every room in my home there are bookcases that are filled to overflowing. I like to purchase them, hold them as I read words written to inform, delight, and transport the reader into different times, new experiences, and enlighten them in ways they could not have imagined. Like the worst hot dog I’ve eaten and the worst beer I’ve drunk, the worst book I’ve read was wonderful… but books do have a downside. They’re bulky to store, hard to travel with (paper is really, really heavy), and paperbacks in particular tend to not hold up well over time. So, in addition to books, I’ve been a fan of e-Books. My former venture capital firm did one of the first investments in Peanut Press (long sold and re-sold many times and now owned by Barnes and Noble) and more than a decade ago I struggled with reading fiction by Dan Brown on a Palm V device with low resolution and on backlight. It was a struggle — but it was better than schlepping paper.

Continue reading Entelligence: Two strikes for Kindle is enough for me

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Entelligence: Two strikes for Kindle is enough for me originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re into keeping tabs on irony, check this out. Amazon apparently sent out its robotic droogs last night, deleting copies of the George Orwell novels Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four from Kindles without explanation, then refunding the purchase price. As you can imagine, a lot of people caught in the thick of Winston and Julia’s love story aren’t very happy — and rightfully so — the idea that we “own” the things we buy is pretty fundamental to… ownership. We’re not sure exactly what happened, but it seems that the publisher of said novels, MobileReference, has changed its mind about selling content on the Kindle, and poof! Amazon remotely deleted all previously purchased copies. It’s all a bit Orwellian, is it not? Good thing we “permanently borrowed” hard copies of both from our middle school library, huh? Let Hate Week commence.

Update: According to commenters on Amazon, this message was sent out from the company’s customer service department:

The Kindle edition books Animal Farm by George Orwell. Published by MobileReference (mobi) & Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) by George Orwell. Published by MobileReference (mobi) were removed from the Kindle store and are no longer available for purchase. When this occurred, your purchases were automatically refunded. You can still locate the books in the Kindle store, but each has a status of not yet available. Although a rarity, publishers can decide to pull their content from the Kindle store.

While that publisher’s version of the book may have been removed, it appears other versions of the novels are still available.

Update 2: Drew Herdener, Amazon.com’s Director of Communications, pinged us directly with the following comment, and now things are starting to make a lot more sense. Seems as if the books were added initially by an outfit that didn’t have the rights to the material.

These books were added to our catalog using our self-service platform by a third-party who did not have the rights to the books. When we were notified of this by the rights holder, we removed the illegal copies from our systems and from customers’ devices, and refunded customers. We are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers’ devices in these circumstances.

Still, what’s upsetting is the idea that something you’ve purchased can be quietly taken back by Amazon with no explanation and no advance notice. It’s a rotten policy, regardless of the motivations behind this particular move.

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Amazon remotely deletes Orwell e-books from Kindles, unpersons reportedly unhappy (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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