Feb 06

Peacock feathers form basis for reflective displays, could bring color to e-readers soon

Posted in: Today's Chili

color ereaders

Structural color — that’s engineer speak for a reflective display that mimics iridescence. And tech of that very sort could be trickling down into future generations of e-readers, thanks to current research by the University of Michigan. Using the “refined hairline grooves” of a peacock as a template, a research team led by Professor Jay Guo has found success in creating a prototype of one such high-res display by crafting nanoscale metallic grooves on silver-plated glass. Using the CMY color model (cyan, magenta and yellow) as its basis, the team was able to produce blues with a groove measuring 170 x 40 nanometers, reds at 60 nanometers wide and yellows at a width of 90 nanometers — all with reflected sunlight and unaffected by viewing angles. At the moment, only static images can be reproduced, but Guo and his crew hope to add moving images to the format soon. If and when this reflective display makes it to market, you can surely expect e-reader battery life to go even more of a distance.

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Source: University of Michigan

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Feb 05

Apple adds Breakout Books to the iBookstore to spotlight the self-published

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Apple adds Breakout Books to the iBookstore to give the selfpublished their due

As glad as we are that digital bookstores let authors skip the usual gatekeepers, that doesn’t help much if they can’t get noticed. Apple is giving those self-publishing writers more of a chance to shine with the launch of a permanent Breakout Books section in the US iBookstore. The section highlights hot-selling and well-reviewed independent books, many of them from distributors like Smashwords. Don’t see the placement as a purely altruistic gesture, though: many of the books sell for significantly less than their peers from major publishers, which might help Apple snag a few more impulse purchases than it would otherwise. We doubt there will be many complaints when the category could pad both sides’ wallets.

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Via: New York Times

Source: iTunes, Smashwords

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Feb 01

Google backs French digital publishing innovation initiative with €60 million incentive

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Libert, Egalit, Payday Google backs French digital publishing innovation initiative with 60 million incentive

Google’s long had a contentious relationship with France. But it seems the Mountain View-based company has come up with a way to squash that problem: by throwing money at it. Taking to the company’s official blog today, Chairman Eric Schmidt announced the creation of a €60 million Digital Publishing Innovation Fund, in cooperation with French prez François Hollande, that will help “stimulate innovation and increase revenues” for the country’s publishing houses. And in a move that’s in no way self-serving as a gesture of goodwill, Google’s also pledging to partner with those publishers to help monetize their digital offerings using AdSense. In the search giant’s defense, it had begun to work more closely with La France back in 2011, even going so far as to create a cultural center in Paris; a city it once described as “one of Europe’s fastest-growing Internet economies.” So, okay, maybe there’s more to this investment than beefing up the bottom line. Now, if only Google could talk to Hollande about the hashtag…

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Source: Official Google Blog

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Jan 29

Amazon posts $21.27 billion in 2012 Q4 revenues, makes tinier profit of $97 million

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STUB Amazon posts $22 billion in 2012 Q4 revenues, makes net profit loss of $TKTK million

It’s still the same old story, really. Amazon pulls in revenues equal to a small nation’s GDP and makes a small profit for itself in the process. In this case, particularly small. Jeff Bezos’ little company that could has posted fourth-quarter turnover of $21.27 billion, a 22 percent increase, but a net profit of $97 million that’s down 45 percent from a year earlier. The discrepancy is attributed to a shift in reading habits that Bezos claims the company was expecting. Kindle downloads have been growing quickly, but old-fashioned paper book sales grew just 5 percent in December — the lowest in company history, Bezos says. That’s not surprising when you look at Amazon’s bestseller charts, as the Kindle Fire HD and three other Kindle devices led the ranks. Most of the concern centers on the future. Amazon expects its operating income to dip from $405 million to anywhere between a $285 million loss and a $65 million profit, which doesn’t exactly set a high bar for post-holiday performance.

Daniel Cooper contributed to this report.

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Amazon.com Announces Fourth Quarter Sales up 22% to $21.27 Billion
Operating income up 56% year-over-year – above high end of guidance

SEATTLE, Jan 29, 2013 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN +11.16% today announced financial results for its fourth quarter ended December 31, 2012.

Operating cash flow increased 7% to $4.18 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $3.90 billion for the trailing twelve months ended December 31, 2011. Free cash flow decreased 81% to $395 million for the trailing twelve months, compared with $2.09 billion for the trailing twelve months ended December 31, 2011. Free cash flow for the trailing twelve months ended December 31, 2012 includes fourth quarter cash outflows for purchases of corporate office space and property in Seattle, Washington, of $1.4 billion.

Common shares outstanding plus shares underlying stock-based awards totaled 470 million on December 31, 2012, compared with 468 million one year ago.

Net sales increased 22% to $21.27 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with $17.43 billion in fourth quarter 2011. Excluding the $178 million unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales grew 23% compared with fourth quarter 2011.

Operating income increased 56% to $405 million in the fourth quarter, compared with $260 million in fourth quarter 2011. The favorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter on operating income was $2 million.

Net income decreased 45% to $97 million in the fourth quarter, or $0.21 per diluted share, compared with $177 million, or $0.38 per diluted share, in fourth quarter 2011.

“We’re now seeing the transition we’ve been expecting,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “After 5 years, eBooks is a multi-billion dollar category for us and growing fast – up approximately 70% last year. In contrast, our physical book sales experienced the lowest December growth rate in our 17 years as a book seller, up just 5%. We’re excited and very grateful to our customers for their response to Kindle and our ever expanding ecosystem and selection.”

Full Year 2012

Net sales increased 27% to $61.09 billion, compared with $48.08 billion in 2011. Excluding the $854 million unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the year, net sales grew 29% compared with 2011.

Operating income decreased 22% to $676 million, compared with $862 million in 2011. The unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the year on operating income was $14 million.

Net loss was $39 million, or $0.09 per diluted share, compared with net income of $631 million, or $1.37 per diluted share, in 2011.

Highlights

— For the second year in a row, Amazon’s tablet was the most popular item for customers – Kindle Fire HD continued its run as the #1 best-selling, most gifted, and most wished for product across the millions of items available on Amazon worldwide. At year-end, Kindle Fire HD, Kindle Fire, Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle held the top four spots on the Amazon worldwide best seller charts since launch.

— Amazon announced the launch of AutoRip, a new service that gives customers free MP3 versions of CDs they purchase from Amazon. Additionally, customers who have purchased AutoRip CDs at any time since Amazon first opened its Music Store in 1998 will find MP3 versions of those albums in their Cloud Player libraries – also automatically and for free.

— Amazon introduced Kindle FreeTime Unlimited, bringing together for the first time all of the types of content kids and parents love – books, games, educational apps, movies and TV shows – into one simple, unlimited, easy-to-use service for kids ages 3-8.

— Amazon’s digital media selection has grown to over 23 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, books, audiobooks, and popular apps and games in 2012, an increase from 19 million at year-end 2011.

— Amazon.com announced new licensing agreements with Turner Broadcasting, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, and A+E Networks, for popular television series including Falling Skies, The Closer, Pawn Stars, Storage Wars, and Dance Moms, expanding its catalog of title offerings for Prime Instant Video to more than 36,000 movies and television episodes.

— Amazon launched Kindle Stores for Brazil, Canada, China, and Japan, with a large selection of the most popular books, including thousands of local-language books.

— Amazon announced that 23 KDP authors each sold over 250,000 copies of their books in 2012, and that over 500 KDP Select books have reached the top 100 Kindle best seller lists around the world.

— Amazon announced that for the eighth consecutive year, the company ranks #1 in customer satisfaction during the holiday shopping season according to the ForeSee annual Holiday E-Retail Satisfaction Index. ForeSee surveyed over 24,000 customers between Thanksgiving and Christmas, asking them to rate their satisfaction with the top 100 retailers. For the second year in a row, Amazon’s score of 88 is the highest ever attained by any retailer in the study.

— Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced the launch of its newest Asia Pacific Region in Sydney, Australia, now available for multiple services including Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), and Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS). Sydney joins Singapore and Tokyo as the third Region in Asia Pacific and the ninth Region worldwide.

— AWS announced that SAP Business Suite is now certified to run on the AWS cloud platform. Enterprises running SAP Business Suite can now leverage the on-demand, pay as you go AWS platform to support thousands of concurrent users in production without making costly capital expenditures for their underlying infrastructure. AWS also announced that SAP HANA, SAP’s in-memory database and platform, is certified to run on AWS and is available for purchase via AWS Marketplace.

— AWS continued its rapid pace of innovation by launching 159 new services and features in 2012. This is nearly double the services and features launched in 2011.

— AWS has lowered prices 24 times since it launched in 2006, including 10 price reductions in 2012.

Financial Guidance

The following forward-looking statements reflect Amazon.com’s expectations as of January 29, 2013. Our results are inherently unpredictable and may be materially affected by many factors, such as fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, changes in global economic conditions and consumer spending, world events, the rate of growth of the Internet and online commerce and the various factors detailed below.

First Quarter 2013 Guidance

— Net sales are expected to be between $15.0 billion and $16.6 billion, or to grow between 14% and 26% compared with first quarter 2012.

— Operating income (loss) is expected to be between $(285) million and $65 million, compared to $192 million in the prior year period.

— This guidance includes approximately $285 million for stock-based compensation and amortization of intangible assets, and it assumes, among other things, that no additional business acquisitions or investments are concluded and that there are no further revisions to stock-based compensation estimates.

A conference call will be webcast live today at 2 p.m. PT/5 p.m. ET, and will be available for at least three months at www.amazon.com/ir . This call will contain forward-looking statements and other material information regarding the Company’s financial and operating results.

These forward-looking statements are inherently difficult to predict. Actual results could differ materially for a variety of reasons, including, in addition to the factors discussed above, the amount that Amazon.com invests in new business opportunities and the timing of those investments, the mix of products sold to customers, the mix of net sales derived from products as compared with services, the extent to which we owe income taxes, competition, management of growth, potential fluctuations in operating results, international growth and expansion, the outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment and data center optimization, risks of inventory management, seasonality, the degree to which the Company enters into, maintains and develops commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, and risks of fulfillment throughput and productivity. Other risks and uncertainties include, among others, risks related to new products, services and technologies, system interruptions, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. In addition, the current global economic climate amplifies many of these risks. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com’s financial results is included in Amazon.com’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.

Our investor relations website is www.amazon.com/ir and we encourage investors to use it as a way of easily finding information about us. We promptly make available on this website, free of charge, the reports that we file or furnish with the SEC, corporate governance information (including our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics), and select press releases and social media postings.

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Jan 26

Macmillan tests selling e-books to libraries in two-year stretches

Posted in: Today's Chili

Macmillan tests selling ebooks to libraries in twoyear stretches

Major publishers are taking wildly different approaches to resolving the woes surrounding e-book lending at libraries: they’re experimenting with both the short-yet-cheap subscription as well as an expensive option to pay only once for perpetual use. Sure enough, we’re now seeing the middle road. Macmillan plans to run a pilot project in the first quarter of the year that will charge libraries $25 per copy for a selection of 1,200 back catalog Minotaur Books titles, but give buyers better than usual lending rights for either two years or 52 loans, depending on the popularity. They’ll only have permission to lend to one person at a time for each copy, although Macmillan’s comments to LibraryJournal leave the door open to changing terms should the pilot struggle to gain traction. As it stands, the strategy could be expensive for libraries if they have to pay over and over again for a perennial favorite. It might, however, be palatable for those book lending outfits already planning to go all-digital.

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Via: Ars Technica

Source: LibraryJournal

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Jan 24

Amazon buys text-to-speech software company Ivona

Posted in: Today's Chili

If you go buying a text-to-speech software maker, you’re not exactly going to stay quiet about it, right? Amazon this morning announced its acquisition of Ivona, the company behind the Kindle Fire’s Text-to-Speech, Voice Guide and Explore by Touch features. Ivona, currently carrying the tagline “an Amazon company” on its site, offers its technology in 44 voices in 17 languages. It also works closely with organizations for the blind and visually impaired. More information on the acquisition can be found after the break.

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Amazon.com Announces Acquisition of IVONA Software

Amazon.com, Inc. today announced that it has acquired leading text-to-speech technology company IVONA Software. IVONA delivers world-class technologies that power the “Text-to-Speech,” “Voice Guide” and “Explore by Touch” features on Kindle Fire tablets. Additionally, IVONA delivers text-to-speech products and services for thousands of developers, businesses and customers around the world.

“IVONA’s exceptional text-to-speech technology leads the industry in natural voice quality, accuracy and ease of use. IVONA is already instrumental in helping us deliver excellent accessibility features on Kindle Fire, including Text-to-Speech, Voice Guide and Explore by Touch,” said Dave Limp, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “The IVONA team shares our passion for innovation and customer obsession, and we look forward to building great products to deliver world-class voice solutions to customers around the world.”

“For more than ten years, the IVONA team has been focused on creating innovative text-to-speech technologies,” said Lukasz Osowski, CEO and co-founder of IVONA. “We are all thrilled that Amazon is supporting our growth so that we can continue to innovate and deliver exceptional voice and language support for our customers.”

IVONA offers voice and language portfolios with 44 voices in 17 languages and more in development.

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Jan 23

Amazon’s new Kindles now available in Canada, Paperwhite starting at CAD $139

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Amazon's new Kindles now available in Canada

Despite being our neighbors to the north, Canadians have had to sit patiently and wait for Amazon’s refreshed line of e-readers to make their way to retail — even the UK’s had access to the E Ink slates. Now, just over five months later, the Paperwhite and latest generation Kindle will finally be available for purchase on Amazon.ca and at select retailers. For CAD $199, customers can choose between the top-of-the-line 3G Paperwhite and the WiFi-only model for $139, or opt for the low-end with the $89 latest gen Kindle. Support for French-language (Bonjour, Quebec!) is also included in the hardware, as well as direct access to the Canadian Kindle store. So, if you’ve been holding out hope that Bezos’ latest e-reading trio would arrive in the Great White North, well, now’s the time to submit your orders.

Show full PR text

Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Now Available on Amazon.ca

Kindle Paperwhite, the most advanced e-reader ever constructed with higher resolution, 62% more pixels, 25% higher-contrast, patented built-in front light, 8 weeks of battery life and an even slimmer and sleeker design-only CAD$139

Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi + 3G-the top-of-the-line Kindle with free 3G wireless-only CAD$199

Latest generation Kindle-small, light and even faster-only CAD$89

Kindle and Kindle Paperwhite also available at over a thousand retail locations, including Staples, The Source and Shoppers Drug Mart

Canada Kindle Store on Amazon.ca offers the largest selection of the most popular books, including the most best sellers from the Globe and Mail and Le Devoir best seller lists, winners of the Giller prize, and over 50,000 French-language titles

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jan. 23, 2013– (NASDAQ:AMZN)-Amazon.ca today announced that the new family of Kindle e-readers is now available to customers in Canada. The all-new top-of-the-line Kindle Paperwhite is the most advanced e-reader ever built with 62% more pixels and 25% increased contrast compared to the previous generation Kindle, a patented built-in front light for reading in all lighting conditions, up to 8 weeks of battery life, a thin and light design, and is available in both Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi + 3G models. Never pay for or hunt for a Wi-Fi hotspot with the free 3G wireless Kindle Paperwhite for just CAD$199 or choose Kindle Paperwhite with Wi-Fi for only CAD$139. The new latest generation Kindle, the lightest and smallest Kindle ever, with new, improved fonts and faster page turns at the low price of CAD$89. Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi + 3G support multiple languages, including French, and are available starting today at www.amazon.ca/kindlepaperwhite.

In addition, Canadian customers can now access the Canada Kindle Store directly from their Kindle. The Kindle Store offers the largest selection of the most popular books, including the most best sellers from the Globe and Mail and Le Devoir best seller lists, winners of the Giller prize, and a broad selection of works from leading Canadian publishers and authors, including Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro and Yann Martel. The Canada Kindle Store has over 1.5 million Kindle books, including over 250,000 exclusive books customers won’t find anywhere else, over 35,000 free books, and over 50,000 French-language titles. Visit www.amazon.ca/kindlebooks for more information. All Kindle books are “Buy Once, Read Everywhere”-customers can read their Kindle books on Kindle devices and on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Android and Windows phones and Android tablets using the free Kindle apps.

“We’re excited to make the best-selling and most advanced e-readers in the world available to our Amazon.ca customers for the first time, making it easier and more affordable than ever for Canadian readers to own a Kindle,” said Dave Limp, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “With a Kindle in their hands, Canadian customers can now directly access the Kindle Store with the largest selection of the books people want to read, including the largest selection of best sellers and over 250,000 titles that are exclusive to the Kindle Store.”

“E-readers have found their place in today’s digital lifestyle by providing users with a unique reading experience,” said Mark Shanahan, senior technology merchant at Staples Canada. “Our goal is to help people choose a device that’s right for them by offering a broad selection of popular e-readers like the Kindle and Kindle Paperwhite in one convenient place, making it easy for customers to see, touch, and try the product.”

Kindle Paperwhite-The World’s Most Advanced E-Reader

Most Advanced E-Reader Display, 62% More Pixels, 25% More Contrast

Kindle Paperwhite’s display is the most advanced e-reader display ever constructed. Featuring a 212 ppi display, Kindle Paperwhite has 62% more pixels than the previous generation Kindle, making text in books and periodicals crisp and clear at any size. Images are sharper, richer and show even more detail. Kindle Paperwhite’s screen has 25% higher contrast than the previous generation Kindle- the blacks are blacker, and the whites are whiter.

Innovative Built-In Light

Backlit LCD displays direct light up through the display into the user’s eyes. Kindle Paperwhite’s patented front-lit display guides light underneath an anti-glare layer and down toward the display, away from the reader’s eyes. This means a reader can read for hours with less eye fatigue and strain. The screen brightness is easily adjusted for reading in any light. The Paperwhite display provides an incredible experience in the dark and in direct sunlight.

Breakthrough Battery Life

Kindle Paperwhite’s built-in front light is designed to be used at all times-both in daylight and in a dark room-for the clearest, crispest reading experience. In order to use the light at all times, Kindle Paperwhite requires exceptional power management to maintain the battery life that customers love about Kindle. Amazon’s light guide technology precisely diffuses the light across the screen and only requires four LEDs to light the entire screen (unlike LCD screens which can use up to 50 LEDs). The light guide is so efficient that Kindle Paperwhite has a remarkable 8 weeks of battery life, even with the light on at all times.

Free 3G

Kindle’s free 3G connection means customers never have to hunt for or pay for a Wi-Fi hotspot-they simply download and read books anytime, anywhere. Amazon pays for the 3G connection on Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi + 3G, so customers pay no monthly fees and sign no annual contracts.

Built-In Wi-Fi

Kindle Paperwhite comes with built-in Wi-Fi, letting readers discover new content at home or on the road anywhere you can access Wi-Fi.

Books in 60 Seconds

Find a book and start reading in seconds with our fast, free wireless delivery. No computer required to download content.

New Touch Technology

Kindle Paperwhite’s new capacitive touch technology is uniquely integrated into the Paperwhite display, allowing for a thinner form factor for Kindle Paperwhite and even better touch accuracy.

Slim and Sleek Design

At just over a third of an inch thin and weighing 213 grams, Kindle Paperwhite is thinner than a magazine and weighs less than a typical paperback. The bezel height between the side of the device and the display itself is 77% thinner.

Hand-Tuned Fonts

Every font on Kindle Paperwhite is hand-tuned for maximum readability. The Amazon typography team worked at the pixel level to ensure consistency of stroke thickness and shape profiles across all individual glyphs, aligning each size to the specific grid of the new Paperwhite display. This allows for unprecedented sharpness of fonts. Kindle Paperwhite’s higher resolution display also allows for new elegant typeface options, such as Baskerville and Palatino, which use thin stems that would not render well on a lower resolution display.

“Buy Once, Read Everywhere”

With free reading apps, customers can read their Kindle books on a large number of devices and platforms, including any Kindle as well as on iPhone, iPad, Android devices, Mac, PC, or Windows Phone.

Whispersync

Amazon’s Whispersync technology synchronizes a customer’s last page read, bookmarks and annotations across all of their devices, so they can always pick up where they left off.

Time to Read

Time to Read is a new feature for Kindle Paperwhite that helps readers know the amount of time it will take them to finish a chapter or a book. This feature is smart-it personalizes the time for each customer based on their reading speed and is constantly updated as the reader’s speed and habits change. With Time to Read, it’s never been easier to decide when to start a new chapter or finish the chapter you’re reading.

Explore the “Bones of a Book” with X-Ray

With a single tap, readers can see all passages across a book that mention ideas, fictional characters, historical figures, places or topics that interest them, as well as more detailed descriptions from Wikipedia and Shelfari, Amazon’s community-powered encyclopedia for book lovers. Amazon built X-Ray using its expertise in language processing and machine learning, access to significant storage and computing resources with Amazon S3 and EC2, and a deep library of book and character information.

Features Built Just for Readers

Each Kindle offers a variety of font styles and sizes, so customers can easily customize their reading experience. Kindle Paperwhite also comes with built-in dictionaries for instant lookup of words, Real Page Numbers, support for bookmarks and annotations, and more.

Worry-Free Cloud Storage

Customers’ Kindle books are automatically backed up in the cloud, so they can re-download their books wirelessly for free.

Sharing

Customers can share highlighted sections, notes and meaningful quotes on Facebook and Twitter directly from Kindle without leaving the book.

Parental Controls

Parental Controls allow parents to restrict access to the Kindle Store, Cloud Archive and the Experimental Web Browser so they can give their Kindle to a child worry-free.

Top-Rated, World-Class Customer Service

Whenever customers shop on Amazon, buy a Kindle, or buy Kindle content, they know that they are also getting Amazon’s world-class customer service. Customers have been shopping on Amazon.ca for 11 years, and they continue to do so because of the unparalleled, end-to-end customer experience.

Beautiful Leather Covers with Auto Wake and Sleep

Covers for Kindle Paperwhite feature a premium textured leather exterior and a subtle woven nylon interior to provide the lightest and thinnest form of protection. The integrated magnetic clasp ensures the cover remains securely closed while in a backpack, purse, or briefcase. The cover automatically wakes Kindle Paperwhite upon opening and puts it to sleep when closed, making it easy to dive right back into the book.

Latest Generation Kindle-Small, Light and Now Even Faster-only CAD$89

The smallest, lightest and most affordable Kindle ever is even better, with new improved fonts, 15% faster page turns and a new, unbelievably low price: just CAD$89. In addition, the new Kindle now supports children’s books and comics, and includes new parental controls. Weighing just 170 grams, Kindle is small and light enough to fit easily in a pocket and take everywhere, and still features the same 6-inch electronic ink display that reads like real paper. At just CAD$89, the new Kindle is the perfect entry Kindle for young and adult readers alike.

Kindle Direct Publishing

Independent authors and publishers can make their books available in the Canada Kindle Store using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) at http://kdp.amazon.ca. Canadian independent authors and publishers can utilize the English- or French-language KDP website to make their books available in Canada and more than 175 countries worldwide. They can also price their books and receive payments in Canadian dollars, earn up to 70% royalties on each book sold, all while retaining control of their content and copyrights.

Thousands of authors in Canada are already using KDP to make their books available in Kindle stores around the world, including Montreal resident Matthew Mather, the best-selling KDP author of the Complete Atopia Chronicles.

“My experience self-publishing with KDP has been nothing short of amazing,” said Matthew Mather. “Within weeks of publishing, my book climbed to #1 on the science fiction best sellers list, and now I’ve sold tens of thousands of copies. I’ve just finished my second novel, “CyberStorm,” and look forward to the idea of writing for a living, something I hadn’t imagined possible just six months ago. The best part, though, has been the interaction with readers. I get emails from every corner of the world, contacting me to say how much they liked my work. This is an amazing feeling!”

Pricing & Availability

The Kindle family is available at Amazon.ca and at over 1,000 retail locations across Canada.

Kindle is available for CAD$89 at www.amazon.ca/kindle.

Kindle Paperwhite is available for CAD$139 at www.amazon.ca/kindlepaperwhite.

Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi + 3G is available for CAD$199 at www.amazon.ca/kindlepaperwhite3G.

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Source: Amazon.ca

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Jan 23

E-book prequel to BioShock Infinite announced

Posted in: Today's Chili

Having a book tie-in with a video game is nothing new. There are a complete series of books that have to do with the Halo universe and there are also a number of books that follow Mass Effect and other video game franchises. If you’re a fan of the BioShock franchise, Irrational Games has announced an E-book prequel to BioShock Infinite is in the works.

bioshock_infinite_1-580x435

The book will be called BioShock Infinite: Mind in Revolt. The book will be offered at no cost when bundled with pre-orders of the video game on Amazon. If you didn’t pre-order the video game on Amazon, you can still get your hands on the book starting February 12 for $2.99.

The E-book is available for Kindle users and promises insight into the mysterious sky city of Columbia. The book is set before the events that take place in BioShock Infinite and was written by Irrational Games writer Joe Fielder and creative director Ken Levine. This book is another nice bonus for people who pre-order the video game.

People who pre-order the game also get the Industrial Revolution Pack and access to three in-game items to boost your fighting ability. Pre-ordering also gets 500 bonus in game currency bucks, five lock picks, and more. The game is rated M for mature by the ESRB and will launch on March 26 for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC gamers.

[via BioShock Infinite]


E-book prequel to BioShock Infinite announced is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

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Jan 18

Amazon quietly introduces Kindle rentals for US readers, bases prices on duration (updated)

Posted in: Today's Chili

Amazon quietly introduces Kindle rentals for US readers, bases prices on duration

Think you can finish a 168-page novel in a month? It might pay to opt for Amazon’s new Kindle rental feature, now available on an incredibly limited number of titles. A few options published by Princeton University Press appear to represent the site’s introductory offering. The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking isn’t exactly a bestseller — we weren’t able to locate any eligible books from that list — but it’s a popular enough title, with a current rank of 1,432 (if the rental option takes off, that position’s likely to change). You can buy it outright for $9.99, or you can instead opt for a 30-day rental. Prices there start at $5.50, increasing by pennies each day until you reach the buy price (in this case, that’ll happen at the end of June).

This new rental option certainly seems appealing, unless you’re the type who slowly makes your way through a text over the course of a year. The feature appears to be open to any US-based Kindle owners, though you’ll need to do quite a bit of digging before you locate any titles with the rental option affixed. In fact, if you wouldn’t mind, do us a favor and share your findings in the comments section after the break — we have quite a few bookworms on staff who wouldn’t mind saving a buck or two.

Update: It’s likely that the book rentals currently available have been internally categorized as textbooks, which is prompting such an offer to appear. We’ve reached out to Amazon and are awaiting confirmation.

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Via: Zatz Not Funny

Source: Amazon

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Jan 16

Kobo touts ‘millions’ of sales in 2012

Posted in: Today's Chili

Kobo’s starting its post-CES 2013 (the year doesn’t really start until after the Consumer Electronic Show, right?) with a little bit of sales-inspired back patting. Apparently the company managed to bring 4 million folks on-board to its e-reading ways over the past six months, bumping up its registered user number to 12 million. Kobo’s also calling last month its largest yet, thanks in no small part to the release of a number of new devices, including the Mini, Glo and Arc. All of offer up a reminder that, while the company doesn’t have much of a foothold here in the States, it’s pushing for a much larger presence in places like its home country of Canada and Japan, where its owner Rakuten is a retail powerhouse.

Continue reading Kobo touts ‘millions’ of sales in 2012

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