The future of hardware is a tight symbiosis of hardware, software and connectivity and content as a service. Whether it is apps, books, movies or anything else -- the more you engage with a platform, the more likely it will beat rivals. Amazon is a good example.…
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At $1.7 billion, Nook is worth more than Barnes & Noble itself
Microsoft and Barnes & Noble are teaming up to take on Amazon and Apple. The $300 million investment in the Nook subsidiary of Barnes & Noble gives Microsoft about 17.6% ownership of this business unit and values it at about about $1.7 billion, more than Barnes & Noble itself.…
Read MoreAmazon offers free 2-day shipping on all Kindles. Cool!
Amazon (s AMZN) is now offering free, two-day shipping on all Kindles including the Touch and Fire. To take advantage of this offer, customers…
Read MoreVerizon confirms family data plans coming in 2012
Verizon Wireless customers can expect data plans supporting multiple devices on a single account in 2012. It's about time, as kids are getting smartphones and more connected devices are finding their way into our lives. One plan for all devices is a good fit for families.…
Read MoreVideo look: Kindle Fire vs. Nook Tablet
I've spent nearly a week using the latest 7-inch tablets (or are they e-readers?): the Nook Tablet and Kindle Fire. In this video, I share an overview of both devices and I offer a purchase recommendation: The device choice depends on what you want to do.…
Read MoreMobileTechRoundup podcast episode 253: Kindle Fire vs. Nook Tablet
This week's audio podcast is all about the Amazon Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet: our likes, dislikes, tweaks and who should (or shouldn't buy) one of the two new low-priced e-reading tablets. Plus: a secret on how Amazon built their interface atop Google Android!…
Read MoreFirst Impressions: A Kindle worthy of Touch
If Kindle Fire is a disappointment as a tablet, then Kindle Touch is the epitome of e-book reading experience It's simple, elegant, easy, lightweight and just great at what it's supposed to do: offer up reading pleasure. I was impressed in the first couple of hours.…
Read MoreWhat media companies can learn from the book industry
The forces that are driving the disruption in traditional book publishing are the same as those affecting other media as well, whether it's newspapers and magazines or virtually any other publishing-based business. So what can publishers and content companies learn from what is happening to books?…
Read MoreYet another eReader launches, this time for Google
The crowded e-book market has just squeezed in room for one more contender, as iriver has created an eInk reader that works with the Google Books store. Priced at $139.99 and available from Target, the iriver Story HD can access 3 million free titles plus various paid content.…
Read MoreMirasol Displays Coming to an eReader Near You, in 2011
Qualcomm, the San Diego-based chip maker is going to finally see its much vaunted Mirasol color displays come to market in early 2011. The displays were supposed to launch in 2010.…
Read MoreThe Book is Dead! Long Live the Book
Did you hear that Barnes & Noble is up for sale? The sale is a watershed event in the history of modern publishing. It foretells a future where the book of yesterday and today will look very different from book of tomorrow. And I love it.…
Read MoreWhy Amazon's Kindle Will Eventually Win the e-Book Wars
Despite the threat of competing e-readers such as the Nook, an impending price war and the omnipresent threat of iPad, Amazon's Kindle will be the winner of the e-book war. All Amazon has to do is stay true to its technology roots and focus on users.…
Read MoreHow a Startup Wants to Change Higher Education — What You Need to Kno!
Kno, a device maker, wants to reinvent the college textbook experience by marrying books, services, micro-content and apps to a dual-screen networked device and an e-platform for higher education. In doing so, Kno is taking on Apple and Amazon. Good news: It has deep-pocketed backers.…
Read MoreiPad or Not, Amazon Will Still Make a $1 Billion From e-Books
The iPad, some say will kill Amazon's Kindle Reader and setback its e-book efforts. Analysts at JP Morgan think otherwise. They believe that despite increased competition from not only iPad but other devices, Amazon can still make a $1 billion from its e-books business.…
Read MoreBooks Are Becoming Fringe Media
Of all the books I’ve read in my life, a shockingly small percentage have been read in the past several years. The big threat to Amazon’s Kindle isn’t people reading e-books on the iPad or the Nook. It’s that books are becoming fringe media.…
Read MoreKindle DX Goes Global
Amazon is going to start selling a global version of Kindle DX for about $489 starting Jan. 19. The device will sell in over 100 countries. It uses GSM technologies -- GPRS, EDGE & 3G -- to power Amazon's global WhisperNet for free downloads.…
Read MoreJeff Bezos on Kindle & e-Books
Amazon.com's chief executive officer, Jeff Bezos, in talking about the future of Kindle says he thinks it won't be long before Amazon is "selling more electronic books than we are physical books." He shares his Kindle ambitions with The New York Times. Here is a summary.…
Read MoreKindle Gets Battery Boost, PDF Support
Amazon (s amzn) has released a series of software upgrades that make its Kindle eReader even more useful. The new software upgrades…
Read MoreThe Next Hot e-Reader: The iPhone
Yesterday at the urging of a friend, I ordered “Your Brain at Work” by David Rock on my iPod touch via the…
Read MoreHey Mom, Even You Can Get a Kindle
The blogosphere is abuzz with the news that Amazon (s AMZN) is cutting the price of the Kindle by $40, to $259.…
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