Hasta La Gadget!

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

Amazon’s newly overhauled Kindle application for Mac offers notes, search, two-column reading and a much-improved UI. It might even make me read e-books on my computer again.

It’s funny: I used to read a lot of e-books in client apps on my MacBook and iPhone. Since I got my Kindle 3, I hadn’t read any.

Amazon was frankly slow to bring its e-book software to Macs. The PC desktop client came first, and a pared-down Mac application only eventually followed in March. Meanwhile, Barnes & Noble had already released a Nook desktop app for Mac simultaneously with PC.

B&N’s Mac client offered every feature you could ask for: copy-and-paste, two-column reading, notes and highlighting, text search, built-in dictionary, multiple viewing themes, use of every font on your computer. I still think it might be the most powerful e-reading application available on the desktop.

Even generic readers beat Kindle’s UI. Amazon just didn’t seem serious about Mac support, or desktop readers at all.

A few days ago, I noticed that even though I’d been buying Kindle books again, I didn’t even have the Kindle app on my Mac. I hadn’t bothered to transfer it over from my old machine.

So I go to Amazon’s site and download the application, open it up — and I’m astonished. The Kindle desktop app is so much better than I remember — not quite the equal of Barnes & Noble’s app, but infinitely closer.

I thought I was hallucinating, or my memory was faulty. Actually, I’d just downloaded the brand new app a day before it had been officially announced.

Improved WhisperSync support means that I can read a book on my Kindle, open it on my Mac, and it will open to the last page read on the Kindle. When I open the same book on the Kindle again, I have the option to pick up where I left off either on the Kindle or the Mac. I actually like that it’s a prompt on the Kindle, rather than an automatic sync; on the desktop too, I can toggle between last page read on Kindle or last page read on Mac, but it’s a menu option rather than a prompt.

Just because Amazon’s finally getting serious about the Mac doesn’t mean it’s neglecting software updates for the Kindle; only a week after the 3.02 firmware update graduated from beta, Amazon’s offering the 3.03 version for download as a preview release.

As you might guess from its version number, it’s a minor release, offering some performance improvements (moderately faster page syncing and page turns, mostly) and reportedly plugging some security gaps. 3.02 seemed to improve the Kindle’s performance in direct sunlight. 3.03 is download-only for now, but will be available as an over-the-air update soon, probably in a few weeks.

Kindle for Mac — Read Kindle eBooks on your Mac [Amazon.com]

See Also:

• Barnes & Noble May Present Nook 2 Next Week
• First Look: Kindle for Mac
• Kindle for Android Joins the E-Book Party
• Slack-Off in Meetings With Kindle for Blackberry
• Amazon Shows Off Kindle for iPad
• Despite Reports, B&N Nook Competes Just Fine, Thank You
• How to Transfer Your Stanza E-Book Library to iBooks for iPad …
• How to Do (Almost) Everything With a Kindle 3

Archos swore up and down that this one was set to ship in “mid-October,” which means that the pre-order link at Amazon should switch over in a matter of nanoseconds, minutes or hours. For those in need of a refresher, the Archos 43 is an Android-based portable media player with a 4.3-inch touchpanel, support for a zillion (give or take) file formats, an HDMI output and integrated WiFi. The 16GB model is available to claim for $249.99, so if you’ve been waiting for your chance to hop in the purchase line, this is it. Don’t blow it.

[Thanks, Zayne]

Android-based Archos 43 PMP up for pre-order, should ship out soon originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Oct 2010 15:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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