Amazon buys touchscreen startup Touchco, merging with Kindle division

In what we’re hoping bodes well for future Kindle iterations, Amazon‘s pulled out its credit card and picked up New York-based startup Touchco, who specializes in — you guessed it — touchscreen technology. The company will be merged with Lab126, a.k.a. the Kindle hardware division. Here’s why we’re excited: the startup claims its interpolating force-sensitive resistance tech can be made completely transparent, works with color LCDs, and can detect “an unlimited number of simultaneous touch points” as well as distinguish between a finger and stylus. Current cost estimates put it at less than $10 per square foot, which The New York Times says is “considerably” less expensive than the iPad / iPhone screens. We’re not expecting to see immediate results with this acquisition, but given the proliferation of touch in the latest batch of e-book readers, it’d be foolish of Amazon not to join in on the fun. Ready for the Kindle 3 rumor mill to start up again?

Amazon buys touchscreen startup Touchco, merging with Kindle division originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rupert Murdoch: Amazon now ‘willing to renegotiate’ e-book prices

You didn’t think the price hike would stop at Macmillan, did you? In today’s News Corp. earnings call, chairman Rupert Murdoch gave indication that his HarperCollins would also soon be changing its e-book prices with Amazon. As relayed by All Things D, the mogul has been unhappy with the $9.99 tier, that Apple’s iBookstore “does allow some flexibility and higher prices,” and here’s the kicker: “And now Amazon is willing to sit down with us again and renegotiate.” Nothing’s changed yet, but we gotta imagine it’s only a matter of time — not just with HarperCollins, but probably all “big six” publishers before too long.

Rupert Murdoch: Amazon now ‘willing to renegotiate’ e-book prices originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Macmillan books gone from Amazon.com, Steve Jobs grins wryly from his throne of golden iPads

We hate to iPad-ify the news so bluntly (matching lower back tattoos aside), but the timing of this one is uncanny. Mere days after Apple’s announcement of a deal with Macmillan for its new iBooks store, and right after a shakycam video of Steve Jobs predicting some publishers would be pulling books from the Kindle due to a lack of satisfaction with Amazon’s prices, Macmillan’s books have mysteriously disappeared from Amazon.com. Even the paper ones, like the new Wheel Of Time book, pictured to the right. You can of course buy books from the other retailers that Amazon’s systems support (along with Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.ca), but there’s no getting a Macmillan publication straight from Amazon.com. Without a peep about the issue from Amazon or Macmillan, it’s easy to see this as some sort of wild glitch — after all, what could possibly cause such a rift between these two companies to end sales of all Macmillan books, instead of just the e-books for Kindle? Hopefully we find out soon, before our heads implode conspiratorially.

Macmillan books gone from Amazon.com, Steve Jobs grins wryly from his throne of golden iPads originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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

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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‘Millions of people’ now own Kindles, says Amazon in its most non-vague sales statement yet

Amazon has been notoriously and aggravatingly mum on releasing concrete sales figures for its Kindle series. Last tidbit we heard was that it was the most gifted item in the retail company’s history. Or maybe there was some indication by AT&T’s note today that 1 million non-phones have been activated, which at this point includes newer Kindles, Nooks, and Sony Readers. At any rate, CEO Jeff Bezos let out the tiniest smidgen of Kindle’s sales today in its fiscal report, saying that “millions of people now own Kindles.” If we’re lucky, next earnings call we’ll get to play a “higher or lower” guessing game. Maybe.

‘Millions of people’ now own Kindles, says Amazon in its most non-vague sales statement yet originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kindle’s active content given 100KB free monthly bandwidth allowance

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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E-reader privacy policies compared: Big Kindle is watching you

It’s definitely shaping up to be the year of e-book readers: the Amazon Kindle is flying off (virtual) shelves, and we’d expect the Barnes & Noble Nook to start moving at a decent clip once the kinks get worked out. But any device with an always-on 3G connection to a central server raises some privacy questions, especially when it can broadcast granular, specific data about what you’re reading — data that’s subject to a wide spectrum of privacy laws and regulations when it comes to real books and libraries, but much less so in the digital realm. We’d say it’s going to take a while for all the privacy implications of e-books to be dealt with by formal policy, but in the meantime the best solution is to be informed — which is where this handy chart from our friends at the Electronic Frontier Foundation comes in. As you’d expect, the more reading you do online, the more you can be tracked — and Google Books, the Kindle, and the Nook all log a ton of data that can be shared with law enforcement and various other third parties if required. Of course, we doubt the cops are too interested in your Twilight reading habits, but honestly, we’d rather users weren’t tracked at all. Check the full chart and more at the read link.

[Thanks, Tom]

E-reader privacy policies compared: Big Kindle is watching you originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Dec 2009 16:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kindle most gifted item in Amazon’s history, e-books outsell physical tomes on Christmas Day

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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Hearst launching Skiff distribution system and Kindle competitor ‘by publishers, for publishers,’ thinks you’ll want it too

Hearst Corporation creating a Kindle competitor 'by publishers, for publishers,' thinks you'll want one too

Despite all the problems with the Kindle — poor PDF support, low-contrast screen, Orwellian fears — it makes for a mighty-fine reading experience for users. From a publisher’s perspective it stinks, with Amazon reportedly sucking down 70% of a sale’s proceeds. Hearst Corp. (owner of the Houston Chronicle, Oprah Magazine, and many others) wants to set things right. For two years the company has been developing a digital content publishing and distribution service called Skiff, and it’s nearly ready for its christening. Publishers will be able to render and ship their content to a number of devices, including the iPhone, but Hearst is also working on its own Kindle competitor that will be the flagship of the Skiff system (we’ve created an artist’s mock-up above). Skiff promises better graphics and better layouts of digital content, which is encouraging, but it’ll also allow the easy injection of advertising into paid content — something we’re less happy to see making the transition over from print. As rumored many publishers are said to be signing on soon, with Sprint providing connectivity. That’s great, but will you be coming aboard?

Update: We have a few more details courtesy of the official press release, most interesting being news of a partnership with Marvell to develop a system on a chip for e-readers. Given that Spring Design’s Alex and the Entourage Edge are both using Marvell chips, we wouldn’t be surprised to find they’ve both been given a berth on this new venture. Also, Skiff is confirmed to be launching sometime in 2010.

Hearst launching Skiff distribution system and Kindle competitor ‘by publishers, for publishers,’ thinks you’ll want it too originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Dec 2009 07:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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

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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