eNews

Amazon celebrated the holidays with a bounty of Kindle-related press releases: Since Amazon already told us December was their biggest month for Kindle device sales, it stands to reason that when many of those Kindles were unwrapped on Christmas day the etailer sold more electronic books than physical books “for the first time ever.” Let’s put out a release. Random House’s units in other English-speaking territories have made their titles available for sale in the international Kindle stores.Release They have added more books for kids, now offering approximately 390,000 titles in the US. So much for publishers withholding titles.Release In […]

Big Screen Maker Readies Plastic Screens for 2010Plastic Logic’s lightweight oversized reader has long been slated for release in early 2010 (and will debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in January) but market-dominating screen-maker Prime View International is fast on their heels. PVI tells the FT they will have a big 9.7-inch (measured across the diagonal) plastic screen ready by spring. The FT speculates it “would probably weigh about a third less” than a comparable glass screen–like the one currently used in the too-heavy-for-most SuperKindle. PVI chairman Scott Liu says it’s targeted at the student/educational market, and will be available […]

Consumerist reported on an e-mail sent to customers who ordered Barnes & Noble’s Nook in which the retailer reassures that they “are aiming for your order to leave the warehouse” in time to arrive December 24–and promising that if it doesn’t, a $100 BN.com gift certificate will be sent in its place. Spokesperson Mary Ellen Keating told the WSJ “there may be a very small percentage of customers who may not receive” their units in time for the holiday.Consumerist Also Engadget cites a reliable tipster who tells them that Nook will get its promised software update later this week. “The […]

French publisher La Martiniere’s Editions du Seuil unit, joined by the French Pulishers Association and authors groups, has prevailed in their copyright infringement suit against Google Books in France, where today a court found the search company “violated author copyright laws by fully reproducing and making [books] accessible on the site.” Google owes La Martiniere a 300,000 euro-fine (far less than the 15 million euro damages sought in the suit) and will pay a token one euro fine to the two associations, and was ordered to stop displaying copyrighted material by French publishers. Google attorney Benjamin du Chauffaut said they […]

iRex had initially promised their new readers would be on sale in Best Buy by October. They have encountered so many “unexpected delays” the company has stopped promising new delivery dates.MocoNews Amazon’s secret monthly sales record for Kindle, which reached a new mark just last month, has rather predictably ridden holiday sales interest to another new, still secret record.Release Their site seems to be down this morning, but yesterday Quill and Quire confirmed in an interview that Kobo intends to launch their own ereading device internationally in 2010, reaching all major markets through the partners who joined in the recent […]

Sony announced that their Reader has partnered with News Corp. to sell subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post (an exclusive), along with summaries from the WSJ and its Marketwatch service. They say their delayed new Reader Daily Edition “will offer a more intuitive newspaper-reading experience to go with features like a touch screen.” It has not been revealed if Sony is giving newspapers more than the 30 percent share of revenue provided by Amazon, but Rupert Murdoch “indicated that a partnership with Sony would include other favorable terms, like sharing the names of subscribers, which […]