Hasta La Gadget!

So, Amazon has a reading platform called Kindle. Goodreads has a platform that makes fairly excellent suggestions when it comes to reading materials. You probably see where this is going. This evening, Amazon announced that it was acquiring one of the more popular reading recommendation engines, and while the outfit isn’t making clear what it plans to do with the technology, it shouldn’t take a scholar to see how it’d bolster Amazon’s Kindle reader line as well as its array of Kindle apps. (What’ll happen to Shelfari, however, is perhaps a bigger mystery.)

Russ Grandinetti, Amazon’s vice president of Kindle Content noted that “Goodreads has helped change how we discover and discuss books and, with Kindle, Amazon has helped expand reading around the world — together, we intend to build many new ways to delight readers and authors alike.” It’s entirely likely that this will add another social angle to the Kindle framework, further establishing an ecosystem where friends could see suggestions based on what they’re independently reading through their own Kindle accounts. The companies are expecting the deal to be finalized in Q2, which suggests that we’ll see a proper integration just as back-to-school season begins. Right, guys?

Filed under: Amazon

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Source: Amazon, Goodreads

Americans love a good bargain — especially, when it’s a twofer. Barnes and Noble, arguably the only real competitor to Amazon’s Kindle juggernaut, has just announced a promotion to get as many of its Nook readers into consumers’ hands as possible. Starting March 24th and running until the end of the month, consumers that purchase the Nook HD+ online, in-store or at select big box retailers will also be given a free Nook Simple Touch. The limited promotion comes hot on the heels of rumors that B&N would start to de-emphasize hardware production for the Nook line in favor of its content services; a rumor the company publicly shot down. Still, there’s no denying e-reader market share’s been an uphill battle for B&N, even if the segment is seeing marginal year-over-year increases. Numbers aside, if you’ve been holding out on joining the digital reading fray because of cost, now’s the time to make the switch.

Filed under: Tablets

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Via: The Next Web

Up until now, if you wanted to send content from a website directly to your Kindle for later reading, you had to install a browser extension. Now, however, you don’t necessarily have to if the site in question has implemented Amazon’s new “Send to Kindle” button. Made just for web publishers and WordPress bloggers, you can already see it on The Washington Post, TIME and Boing Boing websites. Publishers can design how they want the button to look to a certain degree via limited customization of the font, color, size and theme. Like all the other Send to Kindle shortcuts, all readers need to do is select the article they want to ship over, hit the button and they’ll see it on their favorite Kindle reader, be it the app or the device. Site owners can head over to the sources below to see how they can participate.

Filed under: Software, Amazon

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Via: PaidContent

Source: Send to Kindle for websites, Send to Kindle WordPress plugin, Kindle Daily Post

Publishers represented by the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers have filed objections to Amazon’s pursuit of new generic top-level domains “.book,” “.author” and “.read.” While some of those gTLDs have already come under fire from entire countries, the influential book groups told gatekeeper ICANN that “placing such generic domains in private hands is plainly anticompetitive,” adding that it would allow “already dominant, well-capitalized companies” to abuse their market power. ICANN plans to assign rights to organizations or companies to manage domain suffixes like the current “.com” or “.org” and firms like Google, Microsoft and Amazon have sought names like “.app” and “movie,” often in competition with each other. Competitor Barnes & Noble filed its own protest, saying that Amazon “would use control of these TLDs to stifle competition in the bookselling and publishing industries.” If such protests are persuasive enough, companies could lose not only the domain name in question, but 20 percent of the $185,000 application fee — admittedly pocket change for outfits like Amazon.

Filed under: Amazon

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Via: WSJ (subscription)

Source: ICANN (1), ICANN (2)

Anyone that calls the UK home will know that Tesco is a retail behemoth and, like many other supermarkets, has turned into a one-stop shop for everything from a pint of milk to the latest video game releases. It’s grown into much more than a store, however, running an MVNO (although it sometimes gets confused about hardware) and the subscription-based video streaming service Blinkbox. Last year, Tesco let its wider digital ambitions be known, acquiring both a music streaming service and an e-book publisher. We’ve now been told these companies are the primordial soup from which its new online content emporiums will spawn later this year, known as Blinkboxmusic and Blinkboxbooks, respectively. And who’ll be responsible for these new ventures? Well, they’re somebodies — Gavin Sathianathan, who was previously Head of Retail (EMEA) at Facebook, will head up the e-book offering, while Mark Bennett, formerly Head of Digital & Cross Channel at rival super-supermarket Sainsbury’s, will run the musical endeavor. Tesco also announced that former Blinkbox exec Scott Deutrom is taking the reins of Clubcard TV, a new ad-supported video streaming service currently being tested. So, what’s next for Tesco, apart from world domination? If industry trends are anything to go by, a mobile OS, most likely.

Filed under: Internet

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Via: The Telegraph

Source: Tesco (Blinkbox)