Hasta La Gadget!

A report this morning from the South China Morning Post claims that Amazon’s 3G-boasting Kindle is selling fast on the so-called “gray” market in China because of its 3G internet connectivity and browser. The device, it seems, offers the Chinese a rare opportunity to side-step the “great Firewall” of the Chinese government, which restricts access to sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Amazon does not officially sell the Kindle in China, which has the world’s largest internet-connected population at 420 million. The Kindle, which seems to have been overlooked by the Chinese authorities thus far, makes use of Amazon’s own network, Whispernet.

3G Kindle a hit on the Chinese gray market for its ability to bypass the “Great Firewall”? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Nov 2010 14:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We played devil’s advocate with Verizon’s $599 Galaxy Tab, but it looks like the T-Mobile version of Samsung’s Android 2.2 tablet is going to cost a Benjamin more — it’s ringing up at $699.99 right now at Amazon unsubsidized. If we were you, we’d wait and see what kind of deals can be had in-store come November 10th, but if you simply must have one immediately you’ll be able to use it with one of Magenta’s standard mobile broadband plans. $25 a month gets you 200MB with 10-cent-per-megabyte overage fees, whereas $40 buys you unlimited use with a 5GB speed cap, and you can purchase blocks of prepaid data an 100MB, 300MB and 1GB increments at the usual rates. It’s a bit of a shame we’re paying the price of a decent laptop for a seven-inch smartphone sans cellular calls… but you didn’t really need that rent money, right?

T-Mobile’s Galaxy Tab available for preorder at Amazon, costs $699 unsubidized originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 Oct 2010 16:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon keeps rolling out software applications for nearly every device it doesn’t make itself. Next up is the new player in the smartphone market, Windows Phone 7. The forthcoming WP7 Kindle app has virtually the same function as other mobile Kindle apps, but will have Microsoft’s look and feel.

I may have been the only e-reading-focused reporter at the Windows Phone 7 debut event. I asked everyone I could find about e-reading applications for the device. “Just stay tuned,” I was told.

I still couldn’t believe there wasn’t one or more e-reading apps announced at the launch. It’s become an assumed part of app-capable smartphones and tablets in what has to be record time. Having an app for Kindle is like having an app for Facebook or the New York Times.

Think about it: just a year ago, there were only a few e-book apps, some by companies that are dwindling if not long gone. Now nearly every e-bookstore has a reading app on every screen you can carry.

Kindle joins just one other e-reading application that will be in the application Marketplace: Wattpad. Sometimes called “the YouTube of eBooks,” Wattpad is a service where users share their own original writing; half e-book commons, half social network.

Wattpad looks great — but it’s neither an e-bookstore nor an e-book reading application as we’ve come to recognize it from the Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iBooks, Stanza or MobiPocket smartphone apps (this list goes on and on).

The Kindle app for WP7 may not be ready when the phones are officially ready for sale. If history is any guide, this won’t be the last e-reader app announcement you’ll hear between now and then.

See Also:

• Windows Phone 7 Is the Real Facebook Phone
• Microsoft Announces First Windows Phone 7 Handsets
• Windows Phone 7 Hands-On With LG Quantum, Samsung Focus, HTC …
• Amazon Shows Off Kindle for iPad
• Amazon Brings Kindle to iPhone
• Amazon Updates Mac Desktop Client, Kindle Firmware
• Kindle for Android Joins the E-Book Party
• Kindle for Web, Blackpad, Sure; Amazon Android Tablet, Maybe …

Amazon has its own applied theory of special relativity, in the sense that we never really know definitive sales figures and instead have to rely on the occasional ratio and comparative figure (based upon aforementioned unknown variables) to glean any sense of success. Jeff Bezos and company are happy to announce the latest Kindle has, in its three months or so since release, surpassed sales of the previous device in its 2009 holiday season (the shopping-heavy October through December period) — in other words, it expects even greater sales for this year’s equivalent quarter, but it can’t exactly time travel to report on the future (yet). Ready for more? Amazon’s also boasting that, for its top 10 bestselling books, Kindle digital books are outselling print (both hardcover and paperback combined) at a rate “great than 2 to 1.” We’re going to guess those are better figures than its tipping point back in July, but Mass-Sales Equivalence was never our strong suit in college. More fun factoids and artistic displays of applied statistics can be found in the press release after the break.

Continue reading Kindle books outselling print 2 to 1 for Amazon’s top 10 bestsellers, and other relatively positive sales figures

Kindle books outselling print 2 to 1 for Amazon’s top 10 bestsellers, and other relatively positive sales figures originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Oct 2010 12:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon has good news for Kindle owners that it wanted to share with them first. A post from the Kindle team on Amazon’s Kindle Community forum says that 14-day lending will come to the Kindle sometime this year.

There is a catch: “Each book can be lent once for a loan period of 14-days and the lender cannot read the book during the loan period.” If you’re familiar with Barnes & Noble’s lending feature on the Nook, this isn’t a surprise. “Additionally, not all e-books will be lendable – this is solely up to the publisher or rights holder, who determines which titles are enabled for lending.” Again, to borrow some jargon, this is a known issue.

Books will be lendable both to Kindle owners and users of Kindle apps, which is nice: even if you don’t have your own Kindle, you can borrow an e-book from someone who does.

The Kindle team also revealed that Kindle app users will soon also be able to read Kindle magazines and newspapers through the app. Periodicals had been a Kindle-only feature. Support for newspapers and magazines is coming to iOS “in the coming weeks” and Android and other app platforms “down the road.”

Since there’s so much news about Kindle’s e-reading competition lately, I guess Amazon just wanted to let Kindle users know that the company still loved them — and more importantly, that it’s going to keep giving them reasons to love the Kindle.

Coming Soon for Kindle [Amazon/Kindle Community Forums, via Kindle Review]

See Also:

• Barnes & Noble May Present Nook 2 Next Week
• Report: Nook Color Will Be Android-Based Reader/Tablet
• Kindle for Web, Blackpad, Sure; Amazon Android Tablet, Maybe …
• How to Do (Almost) Everything With a Kindle 3
• Amazon Updates Mac Desktop Client, Kindle Firmware
• New Amazon Ad Shows Kindle As Sexy Competitor
• Despite Reports, B&N Nook Competes Just Fine, Thank You
• How to Root Your Nook and Run Android Apps