The first customer lawsuit has been filed against Barnes & Noble over the comprising of customer credit card data following the PIN pad scam acknowledged by the company earlier this month. Chicago customer Elizabeth Nowak filed suit in Federal Court, seeking class action status, alleging “breach of an implied contract to protect that information and violation of Illinois consumer fraud laws.” The customer seeks unspecified damages and three years of free credit card monitoring for affected patrons. Her suit claims that “Barnes & Noble’s security failures enabled the skimmers to steal financial data from within Barnes & Noble’s stores and subsequently […]
eReaders
eNews: Kindle Japan Store Opens on October 25, with Paperwhite and Fire Devices Set to Ship on November 19
Amazon is finally opening its Japan Kindle store on October 25, which includes more than 50,000 Japanese-language Kindle books from publishers such as Bungeishunju, Gentosha, Kadokawa, Kodansha, Shinchosha, Shogakukan and Shueisha, and includes 15,000 manga titles within that total. The Japanese Kindle store outpost will also sell the Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi and 3G for ¥8,480 ($106.31) and ¥12,980 ($162.72), and the Kindle Fire and Fire HD for ¥12,800 ($160.50) and ¥15,800 (USD $198), respectively. The Paperwhite devices will ship from Amazon.co.jp starting November 19 while the Fire devices will be available a month later, on December 19. Retailers K’s Holdings, […]
iPad Mini Starts At $329
As expected, Apple unveiled the new iPad Mini at their event in San Francisco on Tuesday morning. With a 7.9-inch screen, they claim it offers significantly more live display area than competitors like Google’s Nexus 7. Apple will start taking pre-orders on Friday, October 26 and will start shipping wifi models–which start at $329–next week and cellular models two weeks later. Though some erroneous rumors indicated the mini would be significantly stripped down in features, models start at 16GB of memory and it includes a 5MP camera, and the option of full LTE wireless connections. The iPad Mini weighs 0.68 […]
Amazon Posts Additional Paperwhite Info After Some Customers Complain About Screens
At least some buyers of the new Kindle Paperwhite model have been posting complaints online both about screen performance and screen defects–though “professional” reviews of pre-release models were enthusiastic about demand (or supply) that has resulted in a four-to-six week wait for new orders. Earlier this week, Amazon added a link to a new explanatory “We want you to know…” page that some speculate is in response to customer reaction. The page underscores “there are certain limitations and changes from prior generations that we want you to know about.” The company says: “Under certain lighting conditions, the illumination at the […]
Kindle Library Heads to Europe; Nook UK Now Headed Towards End of the Month
Amazon announced yesterday that their Kindle Owners Lending Library will expand to the UK, Germany and France “later this month,” available to Prime members (as is the case in the US). They promise “over 200,000 books to borrow,” which probably means the large collection of exclusive self-published titles (and Amazon Publishing imprint books) that form the core of the program in the US, alongside the Harry Potter books in multiple languages. They promise “thousands of local-language titles” as well, but did not indicate how many European titles are being contributed by publisher license rather than by Amazon paying per “borrow.” […]
Txtr Targets Cellphone Companies with Simple, Lightweight Reader Projected to Sell for Less Than 10 Euros
At the Frankfurt Book Fair, German-based txtr (part owned by 3M) announced an ebook strategy that aims to both shake up and expand the market for eInk readers and ebook sales internationally. While telecoms and cable companies worldwide have been looking at ways of entering the ereader market, txtr has a proposition to make that happen now. “We want to unlock new groups of customers” and “liberate reading,” the company said. They are launching a nearly-free ereader–projected to sell for less than 10 euros–that is also the “world’s smallest” at five inches and what they say is the lightest reader as […]