The Wall Street Journal filed more details on Barnes & Noble’s own ereading device that we told you about previously, which “could begin selling the device as soon as next month.” (The launch has already slid from the information we were originally provided.) Then Gizmodo followed with a “leak” from “someone who claims to work for BN developing mobile apps” that says the reader could run Google’s Android as its operating system. Meanwhile, the in the UK the Telegraph is trying to figure out who is partnering with Amazon to provide wireless delivery to Kindle, since AT&T doesn’t work there–and […]
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Kindle Goes International; Now Comprises 48 Percent of Amazon's Sales for Titles Available
The so-called “UK Kindle” turns out to be an international Kindle sold via Amazon’s US site, as the company announced this morning. They will start shipping the new Kindle, now with international wireless capability, starting on October 19, priced at $279. At the same time, the domestic-only Kindle has been reduced to $259. AT&T is providing the wireless global service, said to be available in “over 100 countries.” But not yet in one of the biggest English-language markets, Canada, according to an AP account. They received this message instead: “Unfortunately, we are currently unable to ship Kindles or offer Kindle […]
Kindle Launches Head-Spinning International Questions, Too
Kindle’s international availability, along with the forthcoming iRex reader with its own version of international wireless connectivity, will bring to the forefront a variety of knotty questions about rights, release timing, and pricing. In an interview with Wired, Amazon indicates that they will “pay royalties depending on the territory of purchase” (so if a customer purchases from the UK, regardless of where they live, the UK publisher is credited with the sale.) It’s not clear yet, however, how Amazon will handle open-market territories. Selling the US edition can in many cases save customers VAT. On the other hand, many UK […]
Amazon Settles Kindle-Deletion Suit
Amazon has reached a settlement agreement with the Michigan teenager who sued the retailer over the deletion of unauthorized editions of two George Orwell ebooks from Kindles in July. The suit was designed to acquire class-action status, but that became less of an issue “because of Amazon’s offer to fully reimburse affected consumers for all works previously removed by Amazon from devices and to restore notes and annotations.” Amazon will pay $150,000 to settle the suit–somewhat better than the $30 gift certificate offered to those who didn’t sue–but the law firm agrees to donate its portion of the award to […]
First Look at Vook, from Atria
Look, up on the interweb: it’s a video book, it’s a v-book, it’s a digi-novel. No, it’s a Vook, or rather four of them, in the first co-publishing partnership between entrepreneur and Turn Here founder Brad Inman’s new start-up Vook and Atria Books. Releasing Thursday and priced at $6.99, the two fiction and two nonfiction titles are meant to represent a range of experimentation with the form, which embeds original video clips within a browser-based version of a digital book. Titles will be sold through a dedicated section of S&S’s web site and Vook’s site, though the primary driver–and most […]
Borders to Offer Free Wi-Fi, Too
Matching the recent rollout from AT&T at Barnes & Noble stores, Borders will provide “virtually all of its more than 500 Borders stores” with free wi-fi from Verizon, “expected to be available by mid-October.” Users will start with a promotional Borders splash page.