Last fall when Amazon first announced the Kindle International, it was mentioned that they’d soon bring the Kindle to the Amazon UK store, and now they intend to do just that with the release of the new Kindle WiFi and Graphite Kindle 3G.

Until now, all Kindle purchases had to be made from the Amazon US site and paid for in US dollars, which required various extra conversion fees and shipping charges. But now, both new Kindles can be ordered directly from Amazon UK, with free shipping to boot. The Kindle WiFi sells for £109, and the Kindle 3G sells for £149.

Those prices are very low compared to what other devices with far less features are selling for in the UK. For instance, the Sony 600 is currently listed at £171, the 300 at £129, the Cybook Opus at £189, and the new WiFi iRiver Story just went on sale for £199.

The Kindle UK store will officially launch on August 27th, the same day the new Kindles start to ship.

On the Amazon UK homepage, Amazon has a note about the new Amazon UK Kindle store. It says there are over 400,000 titles to choose from, and that newspaper, magazine, and blog subscriptions are also available. The specs even list the web-kit browser as being free to use with WiFi and 3G (when the Kindle International initially launched, internet browsing and blogs weren’t available for UK customers).

Interestingly, Amazon UK doesn’t currently list the Kindle DX for order or the white Kindle 3G. Perhaps those will be added when the UK Kindle store officially launches on August 27th.

Filed under: Amazon Kindle, News | Tags: amazon, kindle 3, kindle wifi, uk, uk ebook readers | 2 Comments »

Amazon has just announced two new 6-inch Kindles, the Kindle WiFi and a new Kindle 3G. The WiFi only model costs $139 and the 3G plus WiFi version costs $189.

Both models are now available for pre-order and will ship to 140 countries beginning August 27th. The WiFi model comes in black (graphite) and the 3G model is offered in black or white.

The new Kindles come with hardware and feature upgrades compared the now out-of-stock Kindle 2. Most notably, they come with the new Pearl screens from E Ink that have 50% improved contrast, the same screen that the new Graphite Kindle DX has (here’s some photos and video reviews of the new higher contrast screen on the Kindle DX review page; it’s quite an improvement, especially when reading in lower light).

The new Kindles are smaller than the previous Kindle 2, with a 21 percent smaller body and 15 percent lighter build. Despite the smaller size, they’ve managed to cram a lot more battery life into the device: up to 1 month with wireless off and 10 days with it on. They’ve also doubled the internal memory to 4GB and have improved the page refresh rate to make it 20 percent faster.

And that’s just getting started. Here’s a list of the other most interesting new features mentioned in the press release:

New WebKit-based Browser (experimental): The new Kindle uses a new web browser based on the industry-leading open source Web browser engine, WebKit. The updated browser is faster, easier to navigate, and provides a new “article mode” feature that simplifies web pages to just the main text- based content for easier reading. Web browsing with Kindle over 3G or Wi-Fi is free.

Improved PDF Reader: The new Kindle uses an improved built-in PDF reader with new dictionary lookup, notes and highlights, and support for password protected PDFs.

New Lighted Leather Cover: The all-new Kindle cover features an integrated, retractable reading light that lets you read comfortably anytime, anywhere. The light is a permanent part of the cover, so it’s always with you, and hides away into the cover when not in use. The high-quality LED light illuminates Kindle’s entire paper-like display, adding brightness without adding glare. Amazon’s patent-pending hinge system secures Kindle in place and conducts electricity from Kindle’s battery to the reading light, eliminating the need for batteries. The conductive hinges are gold-plated to ensure a reliable electrical connection. Gold is used because of its ability to make good electrical contact even with low force and for its corrosion resistance. The Kindle cover is sold separately.

New Voice Guide: With Text-to-Speech, Kindle can read out loud to you. New Text-to-Speech enabled menus allow customers to navigate Kindle without having to read menu options. In addition to listening to books aloud, users now have the option of listening to content listings on the home screen, item descriptions, and all menu options.

Quieter Page Turn Buttons: Quieter page turns means you can read all night without disturbing your partner.

Filed under: Amazon Kindle, New eBook Readers, News | Tags: amazon, kindle 3g, kindle wifi | 2 Comments »

Amazon issued a press release today saying that Kindle sales have increased each month in the 2nd quarter and that sales have tripled since the $70 price-cut down to $189.

Even bigger news, Amazon is now selling 43% more Kindle Books than hardcover books over the past 3 months. As always, they haven’t revealed any actual overall sales figures, but there is quite a lot of interesting information in the press release minus the sales speak:

“We’ve reached a tipping point with the new price of Kindle–the growth rate of Kindle device unit sales has tripled since we lowered the price from $259 to $189,” said Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “In addition, even while our hardcover sales continue to grow, the Kindle format has now overtaken the hardcover format. Amazon.com customers now purchase more Kindle books than hardcover books–astonishing when you consider that we’ve been selling hardcover books for 15 years, and Kindle books for 33 months.”

Recent milestones for Kindle books include:

• Over the past three months, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 143 Kindle books. Over the past month, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 180 Kindle books. This is across Amazon.com’s entire U.S. book business and includes sales of hardcover books where there is no Kindle edition. Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the number even higher.
• Amazon sold more than 3x as many Kindle books in the first half of 2010 as in the first half of 2009.
• The Association of American Publishers’ latest data reports that e-book sales grew 163 percent in the month of May and 207 percent year-to-date through May. Kindle book sales in May and year-to-date through May exceeded those growth rates.
• On July 6, Hachette announced that James Patterson had sold 1.14 million e-books to date. Of those, 867,881 were Kindle books.
• Five authors–Charlaine Harris, Stieg Larsson, Stephenie Meyer, James Patterson, and Nora Roberts–have each sold more than 500,000 Kindle books.

Filed under: Amazon Kindle, News | Tags: amazon | 1 Comment »

The new Graphite Kindle DX arrived today. And it’s the first ebook reader to feature the new screen technology from E Ink, the leading supplier of epaper screens for most current ereaders.

Update: Several more pictures and a video review have been added to our new Kindle DX PDF review page.

First thing, I’m not a professional photographer—hardly an amateur one—so the pictures don’t do the new Pearl screen and Kindle DX any justice.

I tried doing some comparison photos with a regular Vizplex screen, but they just don’t come out displaying the difference in appearance accurately. I’ll try using a different camera for the main Kindle DX 2 review that I’ll be posting within a week, along with a video review.

The main thing that jumps out about the new Kindle DX and Pearl screen is that the text appears much darker, bolder. Blacks are blacker, and images are more rich and defined—Jules Verne’s jacket, for instance.

The screen background isn’t necessarily a whole lot whiter than the original E Ink screens—they’d probably be too bright in direct sunlight being any whiter—but the difference is definitely noticeable, and especially in lower lighting environments.

The claim that the new Pearl displays have 50% increased contrast over current displays seems a bit much. It’s an improvement for sure, but it isn’t any reason to trade in your old Kindle unless bolder fonts and better contrast are really, really important to you.

If you took someone off the street that didn’t know anything about ebook readers and showed them the Nook, then took it away and showed them the new Kindle DX, the contrast probably wouldn’t be one of the first things they’d notice.

It’s when a Pearl screen and Vizplex screen are side-by-side that you can tell the most difference. And there’s little doubt that all the companies will start using the new Pearl displays in favor of the old ones. It probably won’t be long before Sony and B&N start using them.

Aside from the screen, the graphite Kindle DX has all the same features and functions as the 1st generation model, with some subtle upgrades to speed and performance, and of course the black color instead of white.

I’ll be posting a full review soon. Subscribe to The eBook Reader Blog’s RSS Feed to receive notification when the finished Kindle DX review goes live.

Filed under: Amazon Kindle, Reviews | Tags: amazon, e ink, kindle dx, pearl | 7 Comments »

Price wars between Amazon and Barnes and Noble are one thing, but now it’s really going to get interesting. Amazon was just granted a patent that was filed in 2006 for ebook readers with a secondary LCD display.

Yeah. You read that correctly. Amazon holds the patent for the design of ebook readers like the Nook and the Alex Reader that have a smaller LCD screen next to an E Ink screen.

And according to the article over at Engadget, Amazon didn’t file for any corresponding foreign patents during the approval process, so they weren’t required to publish the patent application, which means that this is likely a complete surprise to the entire industry.

Here’s the salient points from the patent:

“A handheld electronic device comprising: a housing; an electronic paper display disposed in the housing and having a first surface area; and a liquid crystal display (LCD) disposed in the housing proximate the electronic paper display, the LCD having a second surface area that is smaller than the first surface area of the electronic paper display.”

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to see how this one plays out. Amazon is ruthless. B&N has some legal tiptoeing to do, that’s for sure.

Via: Engadget

Patents: suppressing technological advancement and competition for 536 years and counting.

Filed under: Amazon Kindle, News | Tags: amazon, BN | 1 Comment »

This is absolutely classic. Barnes and Noble officially announced the release of their new WiFi-only Nook today for $149, and at the same time dropped the price of the 3G Nook down to $199.

If you do a news search for the term ebook reader or ereader, you get pages and pages all about the new WiFi Nook and lower Nook prices. The buzz is all over the web because, up until yesterday when Engadget first leaked the story, Barnes and Noble did a great job of keeping the actual release of the new Nook quite. So good in fact that they even managed to announce this before Amazon could preempt the new Nook’s release with an announcement of their own, as they are famous for doing.

So how does Amazon respond to this? Less than six hours after B&N issued a press release announcing their new plans, Amazon goes and drops the price of the Kindle 2 from $259 to just $189, beating the 3G Nook by $10.

The Kindle 2 originally retailed for $369 when it was first released back in February of 2009. Then they dropped the price to $299 around Summer. And then right about the time the Barnes and Noble Nook was first introduced in Fall of last year, Amazon dropped the price to $259, and announced the release of the Kindle International.

A Kindle at $189, with free 2-day shipping no less, is another huge step forward for the advancement and proliferation of ebook readers.

Filed under: Amazon Kindle, News | Tags: amazon, kindle 189, kindle 2 | 1 Comment »

Taking a page from the Apple iBooks store, Amazon has finally created a separate list for the top 100 free ebooks so that they no longer clog up the top 100 Bestseller ebooks list. Take a look at the new layout for the Bestsellers in Kindle store lists.

The top 100 free and paid lists also extends to the some of the various genres. So if you look up science fiction or mystery you can see the top paid and free ebooks in separate lists for that category. It makes browsing through ebooks much easier. Now if Amazon would just add some more sorting and filtering options . . .

Filed under: Amazon Kindle, Free eBooks | Tags: amazon, free kindle ebooks, kindle ebooks | No Comments »

Amazon released a shopping app for the iPad today so that they can further profit from Apple's newest creation.

From the press release . . .

Key features of the Amazon App for iPad include:

• Purchase using Amazon's 1-Click ordering and Amazon Prime
• Track packages or modify orders using the Your Account feature
• Receive personalized recommendations
• View editorial and customer reviews
• Browse Amazon's Bestsellers, Gold Box Deal of the Day and Lightning Deals
• Access Wish List and Universal Wish List
• Watch movie trailers and listen to song samples

The Amazon App for iPad is available for free on the iPad App Store or at www.itunes.com/appstore.

Filed under: Apple iPad | Tags: amazon, apps | No Comments »

A couple of weeks before Barnes and Noble officially announced the Nook last year, Amazon casually announced Kindle International, making it available to over 175 countries.

And now that Apple has released the iPad, Amazon is again taking steps to make the Kindle more widely available. First, of course, the new Kindle iPad app. And today it was officially announced that Kindles will be sold from Target stores.

“As the first brick-and-mortar retailer to carry Amazon's Kindle, Target will make Kindle available at its flagship downtown Minneapolis store and 102 south Florida stores beginning April 25, rolling out to more Target stores later this year.”

Filed under: Amazon Kindle | Tags: amazon, target | No Comments »