In reference to last week’s news that Amazon pulled copies unlicensed copies of 1984 and Animal Farm off users’ Kindles and iPhone Kindle apps, Jeff Bezos proves that sometimes the buck still stops at the top:

This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our “solution” to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we’ve received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.

With deep apology to our customers,

Jeff Bezos
Founder & CEO
Amazon.com

Nice.

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Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Apologizes to Kindle (and iPhone Kindle App) Users

UPDATE: Engadget heard from Drew Herdener, Amazon.com’s Director of Communications:

These books were added to our catalog using our self-service platform by a third-party who did not have the rights to the books. When we were notified of this by the rights holder, we removed the illegal copies from our systems and from customers’ devices, and refunded customers. We are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers’ devices in these circumstances.

Good on them for coming clean and changing the policy going forward. Though it would have been nice to have the candor and insight up-front.

ORIGINAL: According to Engadget, Amazon has remotely wiped copies of George Orwell’s classics, 1984 and Animal Farm from Kindles, refunding the purchase price of affected users.

We’re not yet certain, but users of the iPhone Kindle app are probably similarly effected.

It remains unlikely that Amazon broke into any houses, repossessed any copies of same, and left change on the bureau.

By contrast, when Apple removed NetShare from the App Store, already purchased copies remained — and remain to this day — on the devices of whomever purchased them.

Takes a lot of wrong to make App Store policy seem right these days, so way to go, Amazon. You’ve either redefined ownership in the DRM age, or broken faith with any customers thinking of owning any more Kindle content…

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UPDATED: Amazon Remote Wipes Kindle Copies of 1984, Animal Farm — Redefines Irony

Amazon, citing new provisions of their API/data terms of use, informed Delicious Library developer Wil Shipley that if he didn’t immediately remove Delicious Library for iPhone from the iTunes App Store, they’d remove his ability to use Amazon APIs and data from all of his products, including the long-standing Delicious Library for Mac.

Just when we thought Apple had a hold on mind-boggling app blocking. Sigh.

TUAW quotes the relevant new passage:

(e) You will not, without our express prior written approval requested via this link , use any Product Advertising Content on or in connection with any site or application designed or intended for use with a mobile phone or other handheld device.

So, according to Shipley:

Delicious Library for iPhone isn’t coming back as long as we’re using Amazon’s APIs, unless they decide to make an exception to section 4e.

Which he says he’s been told they aren’t going to do at this point.

Is this just another big company stumbling around in confusion about new mobile technology and how it’s used, ready to rectify it when public outcry makes them aware and uncomfortable. Or is this a sign that Amazon has big plans for this new mobile technology themselves, and they don’t plan to share?

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Amazon Spits Delicious Library for iPhone Out of App Store

Back in March, Apple’s App Store was blessed with the free Amazon Kindle iPhone application. One of the biggest gripes that we had with it was the inability to purchase new books right from the app itself. While we still did not get that ability, Amazon has done the next best thing: last night they flipped the switch on an iPhone optimized Kindle store.

This freshly optimized store is nice to have but what, if anything, will change when iPhone OS 3.0 is released? If you remember, 3.0 has the ability to make in-app purchases. Will Amazon finally allow in-app purchases and give Apple a 30% cut off the top, or will Amazon stick with the current arrangement to avoid paying Apple for every book that is sold?

So what do you, our readers, think about this one? Either way, it should be interesting!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone Optimized Kindle Store Now Live

Amazon liked the iPhone E-Book Reader Stanza so much, they didn’t just buy the app, they bought the whole company! That’s what the New York Times makes it sound like, quoting Amazon spokesperson, Cinthia Portugal:

“It’s very early days for e-books, and we believe there is a lot of innovation ahead of us. [...] Lexcycle is a smart, innovative company. and we look forward to working with them to innovate on behalf of readers.”

Translation: Amazon, not content with Kindle, wants to own the E-Book space. All books space, actually. All space in general, pretty much.

Lexcycle, for their part, claim not to be making any changes to the Stanza iPhone users all know and love.

But how do we feel about putting all our E-Books in one megacorp’s basket?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Amazon Buys iPhone E-Book Reader Stanza

Yes, folks, I was one of the suckers eager buyers of the 2nd edition of the Kindle. My pain is your pleasure, though, as you can get some early screenshots of the app already loaded up with books via Whispersync.

As you may have just read in our previous post, Amazon has just released Kindle for iPhone for free in the App Store (iTunes link), you cannot buy Kindle books directly from the app. Instead you can purchase inside Mobile Safari, from your desktop, or from a Kindle

The text is nice and readable (and you can resize as well). The app keeps a “page metaphor,” meaning that instead of being able to scroll up and down, you swipe left and right to switch pages. A single tap on the screen bring up a menu to give you back, bookmark, text-size, and a sync button to sync your last page read with a Kindle.

The Whispersync tech works exactly as advertised — books purchased show up as “Archived” and you can then download them directly to your iPhone.

Head on in after the break for your screenshots!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Kindle for iPhone Gallery

Amazon’s Kindle App for iPhone and iPod touch is now live in the App Store. It allows access to hundreds of thousands of Amazon Kindle format e-books (we assume the whole 200K plus library).

The Amazon Kindle for iPhone app is FREE (iTunes Link), but it looks like books need to be purchased from Amazon directly via PC or Mac and transferred over, or from the iPhone via Mobile Safari. Most e-books should run $9.99. Like with the Kindle device itself, you can sample first chapters for free, adjust text size and bookmark. You can’t annotate but you can view Kindle annotations.

Whispersync is also enabled so you can start reading on the Kindle, switch to the iPhone, and basically go back and forth without losing your place. Books you’ve already purchased for the Kindle, of course, can be placed on the iPhone or iPod touch as well.

Note: Per Dieter, this doesn’t seem to be showing up on the iPhone App Store app yet, and — of course — it’s not available (yet?) in the Canadian App Store (or any international App Store?)

Any Kindle users out there ready to test this out and let us know how it’s working?

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Amazon Kindle for iPhone and iPod touch Now in the iTunes App Store

The techeratti love the Kindle — so what if it’s only available in the US, is selling half-as well as the Zune, Apple targeted “reading” in a recent commercial, and Google just optimized their Books service for the iPhone? It’s not like Amazon is making an iPhone reader too, is it?

Whoops! D – All Things Digital says Amazon may just be doing exactly that:

“We are excited to make Kindle books available on a range of mobile phones. We are working on that now,” an Amazon spokesman told the New York Times, while offering zero other details. [...] I’ve asked for more clarification, but I’m not hopeful–it’s difficult to get Amazon to acknowledge that the sun sets in the West. [UPDATE: Via email, an Amazon spokesman allows that "we are excited" but nothing else.] The big question is whether Amazon intends to sell titles that can be read on Apple’s (AAPL) handsets.

Makes sense. Amazon is essentially a software and services company, books for your shelves, movies for your player, even food for your fridge. They’re not a consumer electronics manufacturer like Apple. Kindle-style E-Books would be a much better revenue generator for them if they — like audio books — could play on a variety of platforms. (We don’t see Audible making their own proprietary MP3 player, do we?)

I’d love to see the Kindle’s market place opened up to the iPhone. How about you? Want the latest best sellers, this term’s text books, and the WSJ all beamed directly to your iPhone?

(Thanks to The Reptile for sending this in!)

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Amazon to Make Kindle iPhone App for e-Book Reading?

UPDATE: Chad here giving Amazon Mobile for iPhone a try!

I am very excited for Amazon’s new native app on the App Store [iTunes Link] for a couple of reasons. Mainly, I like to shop on Amazon, so this offers a convenient tool. Second, it is a really neat experimental feature called “Amazon Remembers”, more on this later…

The app gives you what you would expect in an iPhone app these days: a home screen, search, cart, remembers and more. Let’s discuss each of these briefly.

Home: This is your start page in the app. It displays items from your wish list and search

Search: You um, search for products here

Cart: View any items you have in your cart; items display from the web or the app

Remembers: This is really cool. Basically you take a photo of something you are looking for, and Amazon will find a match. Amazon has real people looking at this stuff, so it can take a day or two to get a result.

More: This is where everything else is placed. Wish lists, account information tracking packages, etc.

I am very impressed with the app. Amazon could have just made a native app that mimicked their web app, but instead they are trying new things (Amazon Remembers) and giving us access to useful tools (Tracking Packages). I have captured several photos, enjoy them below!

Amazon sent me an email telling me they found a matching product for the picture of the Sharpie marker that I took (see screen hot below). Very cool! I can then buy that item directly from the iPhone! Sweet!

Gallery and Rene’s original post after the break!

Sure, Android may have the Amazon MP3 store, but now the iPhone has everything else! Amazon Mobile for iPhone lets you shop quickly (1-Click) and securely (SSL). Will it be as good an experience as the WebApp optimized website version? We’ll see — we still prefer the Facebook WebApp to the native App, but Google’s latest native App is killer. So far, it offers all the usual Amazon goodness, plus a new feature called Amazon Remembers, which lets you snaps photos of things (they use a folding chair in the example) you like, which it then keeps in the App and sends to Amazon, and shows you alongside anything Amazon thinks is similar in their catalog. Seems to be US only at the moment (at least it’s not in the Canadian App store yet, anyone else get it internationally?), but if you grab it, please let me know how it works (and if it stimulates you to spend a little for the economy, ‘natch!)

(Thanks Miguel for the tip!)

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UPDATED: Amazon Mobile for iPhone

A-Day continues! AndroidCentral will have continuing coverage of T-Mobile’s new GooglePhone throughout the day, but we here at TiPb are keeping our eyes peeled for those nuggets that collide (or will collide) with the iPhone.

Okay, so Google’s CEO is on Apple’s Board of Directors, but he recuses himself from meetings about the iPhone. Okay, so Android is technically positioned to compete not against the iPhone but against the wide-range of lower end, multi-form-factor Windows Mobile devices. Okay, so the Android Market isn’t a proprietary, walled gardened like the App Store, which may please the FSF but may also turn off some developers who prefer single device targets. But at least Android is leaving the iPhone’s bread and butter alone right, it’s iPod heritage powered by the #1 music store in the US, iTunes?

Eh… Not so much. VentureBeat (via Engadget) is now rumoring that Google may just have lined up cloud-competitor Amazon to provide not only music, but TV and Movies as well. aTunes much?

What’s especially attractive about Amazon MP3 is that, while the 3@$+@29! record labels (other than EMI) deliberately withhold high quality, DRM free music from iTunes in order to give other vendors a competitive advantage, Amazon gets the good stuff from pretty much all of them. (Albeit it only in the US, but that’s the whole world anyway, right Amazon?)

Will this be announced alongside the T-Mobile G1 today? We’ll soon see!

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Amazon to Provide “iTunes”-Style Media for Google Android?