The site Boy Genius Report has a number of photos asserted as prototypes of the next edition of Amazon’s Kindle (which Amazon officials have said would not be released until some time next year). If authentic, Amazon is staying with the “my brother-in-law designed it” template, and the changes are only incremental. They are improving the page forward/page back navigational flippes, and the flimsy back panel that falls off turns into a mostly metal back. The person who took the pictures reports that the new edition will charge via a USB cable (so no separate charger is required) and indicates […]
Kindle
First Lady Bios, First on Kindle
Globe Pequot is releasing biographies of the two potential First Ladies Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama as Amazon Kindle exclusives in advance of the print releases. Elizabeth Lightfoot‘s Michelle Obama: Grace and Intelligence in a Time of Change is available electronically today, with an announced print release date of November 26. Alicia Colon’s Cindy McCain: Elegance, Good Will and Hope for a New America will be available on Kindle on September 15, but “will only go to print if John McCain wins the election.” Amazon release
Amazon's Election-Year Promise: No New Kindle in 08
Perhaps they are worried about inhibiting current sales, but Amazon spokesman Craig Berman provided a direct answer to a NYT blogger’s question: “One thing I can tell you for sure is that there will be no new version of the Kindle this year. A new version is possible sometime next year at the earliest.”Item
An Analyst with Some Sense on Kindle
McAdams Wright Ragen Tim Bueneman said on Friday in an e-mail that based on his meetings with management at Amazon, “There are already several new, improved versions of the Kindle in the works. But Amazon has no plans, however, for an MP3 music audio version. We guess the new version will have improved interface operating controls. This has been an issue with some buyers.” Bueneman’s letter notes that Amazon sees an opportunity to market Kindle to college students “market its e-book reader to college students” and it’s this threat that most of the press jumps on. Amazon’s Heather Huntoon comments […]
Another Kindle Guess
If you did had a dollar for every reporter with an inside source who tells them how many Kindles have really sold, you’d at least be able to buy some Amazon stock. Now TechCrunch has decided their source isn’t playing them, and declares in a headline: “We know how many Kindles Amazon has sold…. 240,000 Kindles have been shipped since November, according to a source close to Amazon with direct knowledge of the numbers.” Not even a source at Amazon, but “close to Amazon.”TC
Mitch Albom's Kindle Exclusive
Amazon started selling bestselling author Mitch Albom’s “Commencement Speech To His Nephew’s Graduating Class: May 30, 2008, Nice France” today as an exclusive Kindle file, priced at 99 cents. (It’s fewer than 4,000 words.) The AP notes, “proceeds are being donated to a Detroit-based charity for the homeless — but it does offer a test for the digital device that has created a great debate about the future of books and great speculation over how much the Kindle is part of that future.” Amazon pitches it: “Albom created a memorable testament to what we know and what we need to […]