Amazon estimated to have sold 6M Kindle Fires in Q4

Amazon will reveal its fourth quarter earnings Tuesday and finally put to bed the hottest question of the new year: Just how many Kindle Fire tablets did the company sell?

Can’t wait one more day? You’re in luck. Stifel Nicolaus digital-media analyst Jordan Rohan estimates the Kindle Fire performed better than expected, with Amazon selling 6 million of its affordable tablets in Q4.

The Wall Street veteran upped his fourth-quarter sales guesstimate by one million … Continue Reading

Chegg’s new e-book reader is practical, comfortable, boring

Chegg’s digital textbook reader is the “nice guy:” comfortable, treats you right, but doesn’t come with many exciting twists.

“[E-readers] are built for reading purposes, not studying purposes,” said Brent Tworetzky, product leader for Chegg, in an interview with VentureBeat. “We wanted to create an environment that works where students need it.”

Digital textbooks are quickly replacing the traditional, heavy, and cumbersome books of semesters past. This is especially the case as laptops replace notebooks … Continue Reading

Kindle now has an easy way to download files from your PC

Amazon released a new plug-in for the Kindle Thursday that allows you to “print” files to your e-reader.

In the past, loading files that weren’t from the Kindle e-book store has been a pain. Instapaper, a service that lets you save online articles for consumption later, was really the easiest way to do it. Existing files on your computer, however, required an annoying conversion.

The new plug-in, called Send to Kindle, offers quick file transfer … Continue Reading

Solar-powered Kindle cover means you never have to plug it in again

If you’ve ever wanted a Kindle that you never have to plug in, SolarFocus has the accessory for you with its solar-powered Kindle case.

Green tech has dominated the conversation around cars, but now it seems these eco-friendly trends are edging into mobile at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, where SolarFocus is debuting its Kindle case. Taiwan-based SolarFocus has other solar-panel products that have USB ports, but its Kindle case might be the most interesting, … Continue Reading

Amazon creating digital media technology, hiring developers

Digital media is on Amazon‘s mind. The company is building out a team for an “existing product” in the Amazon Web Services division.

Amazon was born out of e-commerce and has stretched its arms into the computer technology field with its Kindle e-reader and new Kindle Fire tablet. Now that it has a tablet to fill with media other than e-books, the company has to think on a broader digital media scale. Prior to Apple’s … Continue Reading

Amazon: 4M Kindles sold in Dec., e-book sales up 175 percent

Online retail giant Amazon sold over 4 million Kindle devices this month — about a million per week — to help make it the most successful holiday shopping season ever, the company announced today.

Amazon launched a new line of Kindle products in November, which included the Kindle, the Kindle Touch and a seven-inch Kindle Fire tablet computer. Amazon is making little or no money on the devices, but it’s using them as a means … Continue Reading

The Kindle Fire allows third-party e-book apps, starting with Wattpad

After some back-and-forth between Amazon and Wattpad, a third party e-reader app, Kindle Fire owners can now use a different apps to read e-books on their device.

Before now, Amazon had been hiding competitor’s e-reader apps in the Kindle Fire’s Amazon Appstore. The apps still showed up in the web-based Appstore, but weren’t available for download onto the Fire. Hidden e-reader apps included Wattpad, Kobo, and Bluefire, all competitors of the Kindle.

For those who … Continue Reading

Amazon’s “CEO” apologizes for Kindle Fire’s issues on Conan

In this clip from Conan O’Brien’s late night show, “Jeff Bezos” takes a moment to apologize for the Kindle Fire’s poor performance and idiosyncratic touchscreen. In classic tech founder fashion, he bills the bugs as features and offers a few nonsensical fixes.

Of course, this isn’t Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos but an actor. However, the Kindle Fire’s performance issues are all too real.

Amazon did issue an over-the-air update today to squash those pesky bugs. … Continue Reading

Kindle iOS app gets a significant update: refreshed interface, cloud support & more

With all the buzz surrounding Amazon’s new Kindle Fire tablet this holiday season, it’s easy to forget that the company also supports Kindle applications on Apple devices.

Today, Amazon rolled out an update to its Kindle iOS app that brings lots of useful new of features that were previously requested by Kindle customers.

Perhaps the biggest addition included in the update is a new magazine-style view for the iPad, which optimizes content for a larger … Continue Reading

Amazon updates Kindle Fire software to fix performance & touchscreen

Amazon has issued an over-the-air update to improve performance and resolve some touchscreen issues for the Kindle Fire.

Kindle Software Update Version 6.2.1 is available now and will be delivered automatically to connected devices.

If you don’t want to wait for the OTA update to come directly to you, you can also choose to download the update manually right now.

“This update enhances fluidity and performance, improves touch navigation responsiveness, gives you the option to … Continue Reading

Amazon attracts last-min shoppers with free 2-day shipping on all Kindles

In a push for last-minute and impulse buys, Amazon is offering its customers free two-day shipping on the four most-recent Kindle models before the end of the day on Dec. 21.

Amazon has been making an aggressive push for its new Kindle line up, especially with the Fire, which it hopes will be a vehicle for media content sales. Last week, the company said it had already sold “millions” of the Fire, and it was … Continue Reading

Kindlemania! Amazon is selling 1M e-readers each week

Amazon’s Kindle lineup is en fuego and selling at a rate of more than one million units per week.

For three weeks in a row, the Kindle maker has seen this astounding statistic repeat itself.

The Kindle Fire is also the site’s top best seller, its most popular gift and the product that appears on the most wishlists for all of Amazon.com.

“Kindle Fire is the most successful product we’ve ever launched -– it’s the … Continue Reading

Amazon starts $6M fund to boost Kindle’s indie authors and publishers

Amazon has started a $6 million annual fund that seeks to encourage more independent authors to publish their works on Kindle first, the company announced today.

Amazon’s Kindle family is on a roll with strong sales over Black Friday, and the $199 Kindle Fire tablet may already be the number two tablet after the iPad in sales. The next piece of the puzzle Amazon needs to figure out is how to get more authors to … Continue Reading

EU investigates Apple and e-book publishers for “cartel” behavior

Apple is once again in hot water with the European Commission, this time over its pricing strategies with e-book publishers.

The EC announced today that it has begun formal antitrust investigations into Apple and five major book publishers —  Hachette Livre, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Penguin, and Macmillan owner Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holzbrinck — to determine how they arranged e-book prices.

“The Commission will in particular investigate whether these publishing groups and Apple have … Continue Reading

Kindle Fire ships over 3M units, may already be no. 2 tablet after iPad

Amazon’s ultra-cheap Kindle Fire has already shipped between 3 and 4 million units. Combined with news of excellent Black Friday sales last week, the Fire may already be the number two tablet after the Apple iPad.

As far back as August, analysts have predicted that a less expensive, Amazon-made alternative to the iPad could sell up to 5 million units before the end of the year. Amazon appears to be making those predictions a reality … Continue Reading

Amazon: Black Friday Kindle sales up 4X, Kindle Fire tops charts for 8 weeks

We might as well call it Kindle Fire Friday. Amazon revealed today that its Black Friday sales were through the roof for its Kindle lineup, though, as usual, the company didn’t offer any specific numbers.

Amazon said that sales for its entire Kindle lineup were up four times over last year’s Black Friday amount, with the Kindle Fire tablet leading the way. Additionally, the company announced that the Kindle Fire has been its top-selling product … Continue Reading

Nook Simple Touch to match Kindle’s $79 price tag on Black Friday

Barnes & Noble will release a limited edition Nook Simple Touch e-reader with a white border for a bargain-bin price of $79 on Black Friday, the company announced today.

The most basic Amazon Kindle now retails for $79, no matter what day of the week is. However, the Nook Simple Touch has several clear advantages, as the basic Kindle does not have a touch screen and features some advertising.

For Black Friday, Barnes & Noble … Continue Reading

Penguin Group yanks e-books from library lending services

Major book publishing company Penguin Group has pulled all of its ebooks from Amazon’s Kindle Library Lending program today, reports The Digital Shift.

Amazon forged a partnership with e-book distributor Overdrive’s system for its digital book lending program, which allows people to borrow books for a limited time. The Overdrive system is also used for several other e-book lending programs.

Penguin, however, claims Overdrive’s system isn’t secure enough and fears that it would enable piracy … Continue Reading

Bigger Kindle Fires may be coming in 2012

Amazon may be launching at least one larger version of the Kindle Fire in the first half of 2012.

According to DigiTimes, the Taiwanese blog with deep connections in manufacturer supply chains, Amazon is preparing to release the device in new 8.9-inch and 10.1-inch screen sizes. The 8.9-inch size is said to be prepping for launch first.

Currently, the Kindle Fire ships with a 7-inch color touchscreen.

Earlier this month, DigiTimes said the 8.9 inch … Continue Reading

U.S. authors: Kindle Lending Library is breach of contract

U.S. authors are not pleased with Amazon’s recently announced Kindle Lending Library and are claiming the powerful online retailer is “boldly breaching its contracts” with numerous publishers.

Amazon’s new Kindle Lending Library allows Kindle owners who subscribe to the premium Amazon Prime service to borrow one e-book a month for free. With more than 5,000 books to choose from, including big-name titles like Suzanne Collins’ “The Hunger Games” trilogy, Amazon is giving potential e-book buyers … Continue Reading