A shot fired by Apple in the ongoing e-magazine controversy could end up having profound implications for reading non-iBooks e-books on iOS devices. It’s no surprise that speculation has been rife about whether Apple was going to kill other e-book apps on its iOS platform ever since in-app purchases were first made available, and again when Apple launched iBooks. After all, apps like eReader and Kindle and Nook and Kobo allow people to buy and download content completely outside the auspices of its in-app purchase store, without Apple getting its 30% cut of the take. So far all our...

Bloomberg has a report from anonymous sources close to Amazon who are shedding some light on how well the Kindle devices have been selling. If the figures can be trusted, Amazon sold 2.4 million Kindles in 2009, and expects to have sold more than 8 million in 2010. That’s 3 million units or 60% higher than the 5 million sales analysts estimated. Of course, as the article points out, the millions of devices Amazon is selling are only part of the story. Amazon has also been coming out with software for just about every other hand-held device operating...

Up to now, only owners of Kindle hardware devices have been able to read the electronic newspapers and magazines Amazon makes available for Kindle. However, this is starting to change, as the Android Kindle app receives the capacity to read newspapers and magazines, either singly or in subscription form. Amazon calls this “the first Kindle app” to get this update, implying that others—such as the iOS versions—will receive it, too. It seems fairly obvious that the impetus for this is to compete with Rupert Murdoch’s forthcoming iPad newspaper, and other iPad paper and magazine publishing projects. Apple is still...

E-self-publishing evangelist Joe Konrath has posted again to his blog about his sales figures for last month and his predictions for e-books in 2011. He sold 266 self-published print books in November (though as he notes, most of them weren’t available until the middle of the month) for total royalties of $1,000, but he sold 300 e-books per day for royalties of over $26,000. And his new title Shaken, published by Amazon Encore, reportedly “puts my self-pubbed sales for November to shame,” though he isn’t allowed to go into specifics by his contract. Konrath expects sales to increase in...

If you’re looking for a cheap tablet as an inexpensive e-reading alternative to the iPad, you might want to look a lot further than the Maylong M-150 Android tablet selling for $99 at Walgreens. Jacqui Cheng at Ars Technica has a review of the tablet that might better be called a defenestration—for judging by her description, after dealing with this tablet your first impulse might be to throw it out the window. Among her list of reasons are that the construction is flimsy, the touchscreen (which is resistive like the old Palm PDAs, rather than capacitive like the iPhone...

CNet has reposted an article from the Asian edition of its “Crave” gadget blog in which blogger Damian Koh compares the reading experiences from the Kindle 3 and the iPhone 4. Koh says that he finds it “tiring” to read on an iPhone-sized display, and prefers the Kindle’s bigger, easier-to-read screen. Of course, as the comments on the CNET and original blog posting demonstrate, reading comfort is often (literally) in the eyes of the beholder. As one person points out “the best e-reader is the one you have with you.” And an iPhone or iPod Touch is a lot...

Business Wire is carrying an Amazon press release indicating that Windows Phone 7 will be the next mobile operating system to obtain a Kindle Reader app, later this year. The app will include the standard Kindle features, such as whispersync to keep your place in the book you’re reading on whatever platform you’re reading it, and will also incorporate personalized book recommendations and the ability to send a recommendation to a friend without leaving the app. Amazon certainly isn’t letting any grass grow under its feet when it comes to targeting the most commonly-used mobile platforms. It’s just...

The LA Times reports on a Cowen & Co. survey that says Amazon’s Kindle has 76% of the e-book market, and is expected to have sold $701 million worth of Kindle e-books by the close of 2010—up 195% from the previous year. The report notes that the iPad (and other platforms that have the Kindle Reader app) has helped Amazon by making it possible to buy Kindle e-books without having to own a Kindle itself. In fact, the survey notes that 20% of Kindle e-book purchasers don’t actually own a Kindle. The "iPad is not having a...

Amazon video - NOT impartial review Did Amazon tuck away a microphone in the Kindle 3 with the idea of adding a phone option later, not just for possible fun with a voice navigation option? That’s my guess, after having read Andrys Basten’s mention of the “’not currently enabled microphone provided for future use.’” A phone option for the Kindle would be Jeff Bezos’s way to weaken the iPhone’s multi advantage. Yes, maybe just one gizmo to tote after all---the K machine rather than an iPhone. Perhaps you would pay extra for a wireless connection that worked with the phone. Presto! New...

Well, right now it’s snowing down below and the devil is skiing to work. I was convinced that there was no way a version of Fictionwise’s eReader would come out for iPad, now that Barnes & Noble was busy trying to push the Nook and its own tied-in eReader at all costs. In April, Fictionwise’s customer service outright said there were then “no plans to update the iPhone eReader app for iPad.” But in the last couple of weeks, surprise surprise, out came a new iPad-compatible eReader. I’m still not entirely sure why. Are Barnes & Noble still...

Recently, Valve took a page from stores that release free e-books, such as Baen or Amazon: it released a complete game, and all necessary development materials for the game, entirely free through its Steam digital distribution system. Alien Swarm, from the development team hired to work on Left 4 Dead and Portal 2, does for the Ridley Scott/James Cameron bug-hunt genre what Left 4 Dead did for George Romero and zombies. Players take on the role of one of four space marines investigating a colony overrun with slimy alien creatures. It is a complete, if short...

Diversified market or not, there are those who think that Amazon is still the big e-book winner, now and for the foreseeable future. On AllThingsD’s “MediaMemo” blog a few days ago, Peter Kafka discussed a note from Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney: Mahaney points out that Amazon, with its long-established relationships with publishers, still offers book buyers a wider selection of e-books than Apple does. And it sells its books for less. He cites figures from the report that show Amazon has more New York Times bestsellers and a lower average book price, and predicts...