So, I read the live blogs of the Amazon announcement and, as expected, new Touch Kindles as well as the Amazon Fire tablet were launched. The entry level Kindle is now only $79 US. That is a steal. I really hope it will encourage more people to read ebooks. For the full range of new Kindles, please check out Amazon's web page. Engadget posted a live blog from the event, so I'm not going to repeat all the tech specs. From my own perspective, my predictions from yesterday's entry were confirmed. The Amazon Fire tablet looks to be a nice media consumption unit, and at just $199, a wonderful entry tablet. If I were not already in possession of an iPad, based in the US and not hooked into iTunes/iOS I'd certainly consider it. The announcement of the Kindle Touch was what I'd been hoping for and I immediately went online to place my order… only to see that it's only available to US users, as are all other models except the current versions and the new $79 entry one! Thanks, Amazon. That is one way to generate interest and then kill it off. This is not the first time…
Amazon recently announced a press conference to take place tomorrow, September 28th. It is widely expected to introduce the Kindle Fire, Amazon's long expected entry into the tablet market. As per Time, the specs are: based on Android 2.1, but modified to the point of being unrecognizable, Siegler reports. The software will emphasize Amazon's own digital content—movies, TV shows, music, e-books and the Amazon Appstore—with a carousel view of all content on top and pinned app icons on the bottom. The idea is to make content purchases and consumption as simple as possible. In terms of hardware: According to Ryan Block at gdgt, Amazon's tablet will look a lot like Research in Motion's Blackberry Playbook tablet—a 7-inch slab with sharp corners. That's because Amazon reportedly hired manufacturer Quanta, which designed the Playbook, to "shortcut" the Kindle Fire's development process. Naturally, everything is speculation until Jeff Bezos gets up on stage and introduces the new product. Many believe that it will be the first tablet offering to be a serious competitor to Apple's iPad. Rumour suggests Amazon will be pricing this most aggressively – below cost at $250-$300. That is half the price of the lowest spec iPad. Equally importantly, it…
Further to my blog entry yesterday regarding ebook borrowing from the BAnQ in Montreal, I received a very useful and informative reply from them which I would like to share with you: Thank you for sharing your comments regarding our ebook collections. We recognize that the process includes numerous steps and can be cumbersome at some times. Please find below some information about recent developments in our services. Finding ebooks on our portal Regarding the visibility of our ebook collections on our website, we have recently implemented a new page entirely dedicated to ebooks. There is a link to it on our homepage, at the right side (where it says Livre numériques on a green banner). The page has not been translated into English yet, but we hope that our subscribers will be able to navigate our ebook collections easily from this page and will find answers to most of their technical difficulties in the page’s FAQ (Foire aux questions) :http://www.banq.qc.ca/ressources_en_ligne/livres-numeriques/index.html. This page is updated regularly. Once you are on the Livres numériques page, you may use the search box to search for ebooks in the Iris catalogue (it is a different search box from the one that you have used on our Online Resources pages)….
Amazon recently announced that their flagship Kindle ebook reader was now capable of borrowing from public libraries. As my ebook budget is a source of, um, friendly banter between my husband and me, this is one functionality that was very welcome to me. However, at this point, this ability is only available in the US. I know from past experience that the Montreal public library, of which I am a member, does have some limited ebooks to borrow, so I decided to check it out. When I last checked several months ago, the selection available, at least in terms of my preferred genre of fantasy, was extremely limited, especially in English. Well, it is the main city of Francophone Canada, so I guess I’ll forgive it for having most books in French. In all fairness I believe their selection has improved markedly since my initial investigation 18 months or so ago. My experience borrowing from the library was painful and I felt it would have been easier to write the darned book. I am no technophobe by any means, in fact more the opposite, but I found the numerous stages ponderous and unnecessary. I really hope Amazon’s process is much easier….
So, today Amazon announced the Kindle web based cloud reader. Currently, it’s available for the Safari and Chrome browsers and the iPad. It is interesting to note that this is not yet available for the Microsoft browser Internet Explorer. This allows users to read and download their Kindle content directly from Amazon’s website without going through an app. Clearly, this is a hitback at Apple who last month forced Amazon to remove the link to the Kindle store from within the Kindle apps available on iOS and Mac. By developing their own web based app and bypassing the Apple Store apps, Amazon is effectively giving Apple notice that they will not be bullied. Personally, I say you go, Amazon! Now, I am a huge fan of both Apple and Amazon, but I really did not appreciate Apple’s tactics here, especially coming as it did after the e-book price fixing debacle several months ago. Apple and Amazon both have an intensely loyal customer base, and with good reason. I am very happy to see Amazon defending its territory in this manner. I am, and will remain, a loyal Amazon Kindle customer and look forward to see what innovations they come up…