All Articles Tagged kindle

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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Join Dieter and Rene for Apple’s Q3 iPhone results, and Chris, James, and Rene for App Store redux, more third gen iPod touch, and iTablet rumors. Listen in!

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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…

Amazon has gone and updated their iPhone Kindle App [iTunes link] to version 1.1 and added in some nifty new features to boot:

• Read in portrait or landscape mode.
• Select alternate background and text colors to improve reading comfort in low light conditions.
• Tap on either side of the screen or flick to turn pages.
• Pinch to zoom images in books.

Still free but also still requiring purchases through Amazon’s web-based Kindle Store, it’s never the less a good point release and overall improvement. And our resident Chadman was kind enough to provide some screenshots, so check out the gallery after the break!

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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!

So. Funny. Maybe the Audio Book industry was right to be worried, but for the wrong reason. With the iPhone rumored to be getting voice control in 3.0, how long will it be before we get to see our signature device turn up as Sam Jackson in Pulp Fiction… or doing it’s own into at Macworld 2007! The comedy potential is limitless, we tell you, limitless.

Once you’ve had your fill with Pod Vader, be sure to check out the Wrath of Kindle and iBlade Runner.

Every week a few of us from team TiPb, bloggers and forum crew alike, will bring you our current favorite, funnest, most useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone (or iPod touch) related, they’re fair game.

So who’s on deck this week and what are our picks? Find out after the break!

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Our best frenemy forever, CrackBerry.com’s Kevin sent us word that Canadians currently excluded from all the Amazon Kindle E-Book app goodness may just have an alternative. Seems Chapters/Indigo (think Barnes and Nobles with maple syrup, eh?) is getting into the game, and onto the devices, with a new service called Shortcovers.

While Kevin was sickened by the prominence of the iPhone in the above video, we thought it was fantastic. (And if the fugly look of the BlackBerry app compared to the hot sexay of the iPhone version is any indication of how this whole BlackBerry App World vs. iPhone App Store sitch will work out for RIM…)

Any of our readers to the north going to check it out?

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Last night’s iPhone Live! was pretty darn good — so good, in fact, that it created a cross-border, pan-dimensional bug that kept us from recording the first 20 minutes properly. We recapped it a bit, but those who it hit it up live got a special treat. Rest assured, though, we have more than enough to talk about with the new Kindle iPhone App, what it means for Apple, Amazon, and when it might go international – so if you missed iPhone Live!, go ahead and check out this here podcast.

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Jennifer, from our sibling site PreCentral.net is a recent Kindle 2 adopter and so eager is she to get her geek on the Pre and it’s potential Kindle App, she decided to take the iPhone version for a test drive. What were her thoughts? Looks great! More:

I was just starting Chapter 11 in my eBook “Terminal Freeze” on the Kindle, but when the iPhone version of the book opened, it was on a different page. I noticed that I had the wireless on my Kindle 2 turned off, so I turned it on. As soon as I did that and rebooted my iPhone, a message popped up asking if I wanted to sync to the furthest page read, and of course I clicked “Yes”. And sure enough, the page went to the beginning of Chapter 11. So it looks like the Whispersync works pretty good.

Head on over to read the rest of her hands on, and maybe encourage her to keep that iPhone groove going…