Hasta La Gadget!

Hey, remember back when Steve Jobs said “people don’t read anymore” when discussing why the Kindle would be a failure? Heh, funny story: turns out Apple just released a device called the iPad and, at its unveiling, spent an awful lot of time showing off what a great reader it is. However, when comparing it to Kindle (as we did here) you have to think about that battery life figure: 10 hours vs. seven days. When Walt Mossberg caught Jobs after the unveiling for a little gonzo-style interview he asked about this, and Jobs said “you’re not going to read for 10 hours…you just end up pluggin’ it in.” So, Steve now concedes that people do read, but apparently they don’t do it for long without coming close to a power receptacle. When asked about price differentials between books on the devices, rumored to be as much as $5 more than on Kindle, Jobs somewhat reluctantly states that “publishers are actually withholding books from Amazon because they’re not happy,” and that “the prices will be the same” — but doesn’t indicate whether Amazon’s prices will be going up or that rumored $14.99 price point is going down. It’s all in the video after the break, including plenty of face time with Walt.

Continue reading Steve Jobs compares iPad battery life to Kindle’s: ‘You’re not going to read for 10 hours’ (video)

Steve Jobs compares iPad battery life to Kindle’s: ‘You’re not going to read for 10 hours’ (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 09:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We were wondering how Kindle’s impending active content (read: apps) would be harnessing that free Whispernet bandwidth. As it turns out, there’s just a smidgen allowed for gratis. According to the terms laid out by Amazon, there’s a 70 / 30 revenue split, with that smaller percentage going to Bezos and co. “net of delivery fees of $0.15 / MB.” The price tiers is a little simpler: apps can be free if their download over 3G is less than 1MB and they use less than 100KB per month, per user. Apps between 1MB and 10MB require a one-time purchase fee that offsets the bandwidth usage, and likewise a subscription fee is needed for those that plan on allowing over 100KB of a monthly data streaming. (To put that in perspective, this post — just the copy — is 4KB. That image above is 120KB.) Anything over 10MB requires a download over WiFi, and the maximum file size is 100MB… and if anyone manages to justify a 100MB app that runs on a greyscale E Ink display, color us impressed.

Kindle’s active content given 100KB free monthly bandwidth allowance originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re still not about say the e-book reader industry has branched out beyond the infancy stage, but one of its flagship products certainly has reason to celebrate. Amazon has announced it’s hit some pretty big milestones with the Kindle. The two bullet points it’s currently touting loudest is that the reader has become “the most gifted item” in the company’s history — quite an achievement given the size of the online retailer, but what’s missing here is any quantitative sales data to give us even a ballpark of the number of units sold. The other big news is that on Christmas Day (we’re guessing not Christmas Eve, else the press release surely would’ve mentioned it, too), e-book sales actually outsold physical books. Those brand new Kindle owners needed something to read, right? It’ll be interesting to see if that momentum is maintained through next year, especially with some major publishers starting to show some teeth with digital delays.

The Kindle bits were all part of Amazon’s annual post-holiday statistical breakdown, so in case you’re wondering, besides Kindle, the company is claiming its other top-selling electronics were the 8GB iPod Touch and Garmin nuvi260W, and in the wireless department the honor goes to Nokia’s unlocked 5800 XpressMusic, Plantronic’s 510 Bluetooth headset, and AT&T’s edition of the BlackBerry Bold 9700.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Kindle most gifted item in Amazon’s history, e-books outsell physical tomes on Christmas Day originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Dec 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Recession? Not if you’re the Amazon Kindle, it turns out — it’s currently the bestselling product across all categories at Amazon. Yes, that means it’s outselling the robotic hamsters, the t-shirts with wolves howling at the moon, and the limited edition Snuggies. November, when people traditionally start trampling each other in the name of gift giving and holiday cheer, has also been the best single month of sales ever for the e-reading device, in spite of the fact that there’s more competition than ever for it — so that’s good news for them, right? Amazon hasn’t released any actual numbers, of course, so it’s hard to say what it all means. The other good news is that as far as we can tell, it doesn’t look like they’ll sell out anytime soon. Full press release is after the break.

Continue reading Kindle is the biggest selling item on Amazon, bests sliced bread

Kindle is the biggest selling item on Amazon, bests sliced bread originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 09:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’ve found yourself somewhat irked by the Kindle‘s lackluster organizing abilities, you clearly aren’t alone. A post by The Kindle Team over on Facebook has made clear that Amazon is aware of the shortcoming, and it’s currently toiling away on a “better way to organize your growing Kindle libraries.” No details are given about the forthcoming solution, but the team does confess that it’ll be released as an over-the-air update “in the first half of next year.” Huzzah?

[Thanks, Anthony]

Amazon promises update to better ‘organize Kindle libraries’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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