New Kindles are Amazon’s fastest-selling yet, start shipping today

It’s hard to begrudge Amazon this smug bit of PR it pushed out this morning, crowing over the sales success of its new Kindle line. The third-generation Kindles have more sales in the first four weeks of sales than any previous generation Kindles over the same time span — not exactly a surprise, but Amazon certainly isn’t off its game here. The new Kindles also maintain the e-reader’s two year reign as the best selling product on Amazon.com. As if in celebration of this continued success, Amazon says it’s starting to ship the new Kindles out today, two days earlier than the published released date. “You’re welcome,” Jeff Bezos mouths, soundlessly.

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New Kindles are Amazon’s fastest-selling yet, start shipping today originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sub-$5 iPhone Cases That Will Get the Job Done [Dealzmodo]

Forty bucks for an iPhone case? Scam of the century. Here are seven cases that will keep your new iPhone 4 pristine and cost less than a couple of apps. More »

Entelligence: One device to rule them all — or not

Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he’ll explore where our industry is and where it’s going — on both micro and macro levels — with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.

The introduction of the third generation Kindle has reignites the debate over the role of dedicated vs. converged devices. Five years ago, device segmentation was easy: phones made calls, music players played music and cameras took pictures. Even two years ago, integrated devices remained differentiated from standalone devices that provided greater features and capabilities. But some now feel the market for dedicated e-book readers like the Kindle and Nook will soon disappear, subsumed by devices like tablets and smartphones capable of delivering e-books along with other content, applications and services.

It certainly feels to some degree that converged functionality is replacing the standalone and dedicated device. Look at the state-of-the-art iPod touch today and the state-of-the-art iPod of just three years ago. Compare the camera on your phone to the point and shoot digital of just four years ago. The argument seems strong for converged rather than dedicated and standalone devices.

I think the reality is a little more complicated.

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Entelligence: One device to rule them all — or not originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Aug 2010 17:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Qualcomm building a $2b Mirasol plant after winning ‘major client’?

Well, if this isn’t a statement of intent, we don’t know what is. Those good old market sources are reporting today that Qualcomm has set aside a cool $2 billion to build a new Mirasol display production plant in Taiwan. The chipmaker already has a Mirasol facility in Longtan, a joint venture with Foxlink, but is said to be the sole investor in this new build. The whole thing has apparently been spurred on by a major client having “already started the design-in process” after seeing production samples of the 5.7-inch, low power, color display. We can’t know for sure who that client may be, but Qualcomm’s been doing some real heavy flirting with Amazon and all those overtures might (might!) finally have paid off. Of couse, as Jeff Bezos himself said, a color Kindle isn’t likely to hit the market anytime soon, and this new factory isn’t expected to begin volume production until 2012, but we’ll take a slow and speculative roadmap over no roadmap at all.

Qualcomm building a $2b Mirasol plant after winning ‘major client’? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Aug 2010 05:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba Libretto W100 sells out at Amazon, really was a limited run

We know, we just told you less than 48 hours ago that the dual screen Toshiba Libretto W100 was finally on sale and after $1,100 of your hard earned cash, but it looks like those that didn’t move quick enough are out of luck. Both Toshiba and Amazon list the Windows 7-running Libretto W100 as out of stock at the moment. Now, of course, Tosh has always said the W100 was going to be available on a limited basis so there’s no telling how many of these were actually sold, but it certainly seems impressive for a very niche gadget. We’ve reached out to Toshiba to ask if they plan on refreshing the depleted stock and for a bit of information on how many they had boxed up to begin with — stay tuned, we’ll let you know what we hear.

Update: If you’re still lusting after one of these bad boys there’s still some available through Conics.com and some Japanese retailers.

Toshiba Libretto W100 sells out at Amazon, really was a limited run originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 18:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlackBerry Torch just $99.99 on contract, by way of Amazon’s generous dealings

Amazon’s been known to have some killer deals, and well, here’s another. The new BlackBerry Torch, arguably RIM’s best smartphone to date (for what that’s worth), is just $99.99 on contract. That’s just about half off its usual entry fee with a two-year contract, so if you’re in the market to upgrade your current Bold for something with a little more slide, now’s your chance!

[Thanks, Kramer]

BlackBerry Torch just $99.99 on contract, by way of Amazon’s generous dealings originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 01:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlackBerry Torch 9800 at Half Price After Only One Week [Dealzmodo]

Sales are so disappointing for the BlackBerry Torch 9800 that Research In Motion has decided to halve its price from $199 to $99 only one week after its launch. You can find the deal in many online retailers. More »

HTC Desire HD surfaces on Amazon UK, gets pulled in record time

And this, folks, pretty much seals the deal. If HTC bothers to not ship the Desire HD, it’ll come as quite the surprise. You know — given that we’ve seen leaked specifications, an image from Mr. Blurrycam and even a behind-the-scenes video of it. Now, however, we’ve got a product listing on Amazon’s UK branch to focus on, which prices the handset at £415 ($650). The only other detail gleaned from the page is the “Ace” codename, but given that the whole thing has since been yanked, it’s impossible to know what else was hidden in the code. Still, we highly doubt HTC would bother passing on phone information to Amazon with no intention of ever officially introducing it, you know? Yeah, you know.

HTC Desire HD surfaces on Amazon UK, gets pulled in record time originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Engadget’s back to school guide: E-readers

Welcome to Engadget’s Back to School guide! We know that this time of year can be pretty annoying and stressful for everyone, so we’re here to help out with the heartbreaking process of gadget buying for the school-aged crowd. Today, we have e-readers in our sights — and you can head to the Back to School hub to see the rest of the product guides as they’re added throughout the month.

Engadget's back to school guide: E-readers
Yes, it’s the next round of buying advice for those of you condemned to start hitting the books at the end of the summer. But, with one of these e-readers, you might just have fewer books to hit — or at least lighter ones. Sadly most schools are still dependent on texts of the pulpy variety, but that doesn’t mean an e-reader can’t make your life a lot easier at school, and possibly even save you some money if you’re reading the classics.

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Engadget’s back to school guide: E-readers originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cox to offer retail TiVo Premiere DVRs next year, first with cable VOD & Amazon, Netflix access

TiVo users, even with boxes provided by their cable company in the case of RCN and Comcast, have so far had to make a compromise: Choose their cable company’s video on-demand offerings, or bring their own DVR and access online video from sources like Amazon and Netflix — but that’s no longer the case. Cox and TiVo have reached an agreement — sound familiar? — that will see allow retail CableCARD equipped TiVo Premiere DVRs to access Cox’s VOD, as well as all that over the top internet video we’ve come to love. The SeaChange powered VOD will work similarly to RCN’s, but we’re waiting to see if this can give the new universal search an extra source to pull from as well. The deal also means Cox will cross promote the TiVo in its own marketing, and provide free installs for units purchased at Best Buy and other outlets including the TiVo website.

The only bad news here? While TiVo plans to start testing later this year, it won’t see a wide rollout (in “all major markets”) until 2011. Check out the press release for all the details before calling your cable company, why should Cox customers get to choose between two different modernized, integrated set-top box platforms while the rest of us are stuck with interfaces and access rules that have been around since before the X-Games?

Continue reading Cox to offer retail TiVo Premiere DVRs next year, first with cable VOD & Amazon, Netflix access

Cox to offer retail TiVo Premiere DVRs next year, first with cable VOD & Amazon, Netflix access originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Aug 2010 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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