Amazon has gone one step further in its newly established video streaming service. They bargained with Disney ABC to get Prime Instant short term access to some of their broadcast channels as well as their cable channels. They have also worked out deals with CBS, Sony, ABC Universal, Fox and Warner Bros. This is a good move on their part as it should help boost Fire sales.
As further incentive to get their tablet going, Amazon has "opened" a Lending Library. Kindle owners are allowed one title per month. Although the "Big Six" publishers have not signed on because of pricing disagreements, there are still over 5,000 books that can be downloaded. The bad news? Borrowers have to subscribe to Amazon Prime, a service that costs $79 yearly.
Okay, like most of the world we want an iPad, but we gotta admit, Amazon has a whole lot of PR going for it with their Fire commercial, so much so that between that and the price, guess what we want for Xmas/Kwanza/Chanukah this year...
We want the full color experience along with the ability to escape into a movie, game, magazine or simply being able to check our email. The Fire features Amazon Silk, their cloud-accelerated browser that supports flash. And with 17 million tunes, millions of books and 1,000s of movies/TV shows, we might never get to those to-do lists.
If you opted for the least expensive "special offers" Kindle but they are driving you bonkers, Amazon will let you give them an additional $30.00 and wipe them out. Go to the Manage Your Kindle page, click Edit in the Subscribe column and follow the instructions. This upgrade is much easier than trading up just when you got used to the device you have now. So far the option is only for the latest keyboard-free Kindle, but should be available for the Touch when released.
With 'nary the hoopla that other companies display, 4 new Amazon eReaders are now upon us. The latest Kindle is available now and holds 1,400 books, weighs less than 6 ounces, has a 6" screen and can fit in your pocket or backpack. The Touch and Touch 3G have text-to-speech and, in addition to being a reader, can play audio books and MP3s. The literally colorful Fire can handle books, games, movies, TV, music, surfing, magazines and apps. We shall see if the inexpensive reader can contend with its Appleish competition. The Touches and Fire can be preordered for a November release.
iRiver has just released its Story HD with Google eBook integration. This means you can purchase several thousand titles as well as having access to 3 million freebies. The eReader has a convenient QWERTY keyboard, a 6" high res e-ink screen, a battery life of about 6 weeks and can hold up to 1,500 titles in its mere 7.3 lb. weight. Libraries can also be stored on a cloud once WiFi is connected. No doubt Google eBook capability will soon become available in other devices.
Still haven't joined the e-Book craze or are looking for a gift for mom? The Nook Color is now allowing authors to sign their books with a stylus. While we don't think the ability will add to its value all that much, you can now get apps, games, socialize and run video in color.
On the other hand, if you are on team
Kindle, you can get an ad-supported model for $25.00 less that the least expensive model. (Amazon calls it "Special Offers & Sponsored Screensavers.)
Amazon plans to open its own service later this year that can access over 11,000 US libraries. The Kindle Library Lending works on all generations and apps and once you check out a book, it will save all your annotations and bookmarks. Whispersync allows highlighting and margin notes that will show up only for you should you reborrow or purchase.
If you love your Kindle (or thinking about taking the Amazon plunge,) keep it protected with M-Edge's ultra-slim, lightweight Cover that, using a photo sublimation process, looks like fabric on the front and has a micofiber interior. The front is Bob Knox's 'Sunday in the Central Park' New Yorker cover (which spawned an entire Broadway musical (but that's another story.) M-Edge has other famous art covers for this generation's Kiindle and an e-Luminator book light is available as well and sold separately.
It's Archos' turn to release an e-book. The Android run 70c eReader has a 7" TFT display, 4 GB memory, accelerometer, a 600MHz processor and SD card slot and built-in WiFi. The screen rotates in portrait or landscape mode, decodes HD, plays and stores video, music and text. You can preorder now and look forward to 10 hours of ePlaying before needing a charge.
If you want to give an ebook to someone this year, Amazon's "Give as a Gift" button lets you do that for anyone who has an email address. While they can be read on Kindles, they can also work on other eReaders, Apple, Blackberry and Android mobile devices, or PC and Mac.
Seeing as though Black Friday has become Black Week (and in some cases Black half-month) we have decided to seek out some of the best online deals from all over the Net. So in addition to our Holiday Gift Guide, stay tuned this week for steals and deals.
Amazon is offering a huge week with savings all kinds of electronics through Nov. 29. Certain items will only be featured during certain hours, so check out their DVDs, Blu-ray Movies and TV,and CDs.
Word on the Interweb street is that the 3G Kindle can still access sites that China has blocked such as Facebook and Twitter. Further speculation seems to be whether they exempted it from censorship or just didn't notice. While the e-reader has not yet launched officially, they are available on the country's grey market. What we figure is that with all the online mention, China will certainly notice and the knowledge will affect legal sales on their mainland.
Barnes & Noble plans to release Nook Kids, a digital library for kidlets that will consist of over 12,000 books, 100 picture books and 30 enhanced picture books. The collection is aimed at ages 3 to 8 and should be available next month. The site is already up with quick peeks at an enhanced 'Jamberry' and 'Go Dog Go.'
Wait, you say. the nook's display is in black and white. Pshaw, we say. B&N is releasing the nook Color, an e-reader with 7" screen that can also browse and integrate with such apps as Facebook and Twitter. Pre-order for $249.00.
Just as Barnes and Noble allows sharing of ebooks with their LendMe app, Amazon has announced that soon you will have the ability to loan some of your Kindle ebooks for up to 14 days. The determination is up to the publisher or rights owner and the catch is that you won't be able to read it while the loanee is doing so. Look for the new feature to launch in the next few weeks.
Amazon Adds Disney to VOD, Offers Lending Library
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