The U.S. Justice Department is already studying the Google Book Settlement and a board overlap with Apple for possible antitrust actions. But could Amazon, too, be about to show up in Justice’s crosshairs? I keep rooting for a multi-gazillion lawsuit against Jeff Beozs and friends if the facts merit that. Now Christine Varney, head of Justice’s antitrust policy, is about to give a speech promising tougher antitrust enforcement. And if you go by today’s New York Times, Jeff Bezos might want to start treating small-fry less shabbily than he so often do these days: ...

Lexcycle COO Neelan Choksi, a former MIT chemistry major and Blackjack Team member, is  relatively new to e-books. But he’s a very fast learner, as depicted in a profile in Xconomy Seattle. Excerpt: “Interestingly, Choksi says that just a year ago, he barely knew anything about the e-book industry. Let’s just say the man has gotten up to speed fast….” Meanwhile we read that Neelan and Lexcycle Principal Developer and Founder Marc Prud’hommeaux (left) will be living in Seattle. Xconomy speculates they’ll be part of a “innovation team” to help set the pace for...

This is such a minor change I almost hesitate to bring it up, but given the recent Amazon acquisition of Lexcycle, people may be on a hair trigger and willing to jump to conclusions about possibly-lost features. In the most recent version of Stanza, the “Newspapers & Magazines” option is no longer listed as one of Stanza’s on-line catalogs. However, the feature has only been moved into the Feedbooks on-line catalog, under “News”—not removed. I checked with Stanza via Twitter message and they confirmed they “made a decision with Feedbooks” to consolidate the categories. So, if you...

As most of our regular readers know I generally refrain from making too many editorial comments. I feel that presenting the news speaks for itself in most cases. But not in this case. While I bemoan the general "Amazon bashing" that goes on by some of our other contributors, I think that it is quite justified in this case. While the Lexcycle people, whom I know and respect, say that business will continue as usual, I'm afraid this is either naive or wishful thinking. As a corporate lawyer for the last 40 years, I can assure you...

I’ve got nothing against Amazon prospering---in fact, I want it to thrive since my publisher is selling my novel there. Just the same, in the wake of Amazon’s acquisition of Stanza, a leading e-reader for the iPhone, do we really want this one company to dominate so much of the book business? I’ve already documented how difficult Amazon is making it to find the nonKindle version of my book via the company’s search engine if you omit the “the” in the title. And speaking of baffling search results, how about my frequent problems using my iTouch’s Safari browser...

Hmm. Just the other day I was speculating that Lexcycle---the developers of Stanza for the iPhone---might be fodder for an acquisition by Adobe or Google. Was Amazon reading the TeleBlog just then? Guess who’s just snapped up Lexycle, perhaps in part to forestall the possibility I had in mind. Yes, we’re past April 1. This is da news, really. It is, frankly, too early to say what will happen to Fictionwise, Adobe and other partners of Lexcycle. The New York Times quotes a Lexcycle blog post: “We are not planning any changes in the Stanza application or user...

This is certainly a surprise, especially since Amazon has its own iPhone/iPod application. From the Lexcycle blog: We are very excited to announce that Lexcycle has been acquired by Amazon.com! It has been an amazing experience to see Stanza grow out of our brainstormed ideas into one of the most downloaded iPhone applications. Throughout this period we have attempted to listen to and innovate for our customers to provide a great ebook reading experience. We are not planning any changes in the Stanza application or user experience as a result of the acquisition. Customers will still be able to browse, buy, and read ebooks...

Psst! Lexcycle updated it Stanza e-reader to version 1.8.1 this week, although it would have been nice if the company had put out an announcement. I didn’t see anything from @stanza_reader. The new version, about which I found out through addicted2iphone’s Tweet, includes these wrinkles: Chapter position is now correctly restored when starting in the landscape mode. Added the ability to disable tap & hold functionality for word definition Fixed font aliasing problem when reading in a landscape mode ...

Imagine paying just $100-$200 for an Android laptop-tablet that could run apps like a future version of the Stanza e-reader. That could be on the horizon if the current rumors are on the mark. See Techmeme roundup with links to Computerworld, Wired’s Gadget Lab, PC World, Slashdot and elsewhere. The vendor is Skytone, and the relevant page is here. Vaporware or the real thing? While the spec are weak---limited memory and storage and and a far-from-optimal screen---I’m reminded of Boswell’s quote about a dog walking on hind legs. It’s remarkable the creature walks, period. If $100-$200...

The best keep on getting better. Both Bookshelf and Stanza have come out with new versions that add some useful new features. Bookshelf 2.0 This actually hit a few weeks ago, and I had not gotten around to reviewing it until now. It adds a number of useful new features, most notably the ability to download compatible e-books directly from Mobile Safari. It accomplishes this by means of a new Javascript bookmarklet that rewrites webpages within Mobile Safari’s memory, replacing “http:” with a new prefix to tell Safari to let Bookshelf download them. I tested this...

Apple’s OS 3.0 preview event has just ended, and brought to light some very interesting new features. There is no shortage of coverage of the event; here is Ars Technica’s recorded liveblog and their post-event wrap-up. Gizmodo offers a “definitive guide” to 3.0’s features. OS 3.0 will ship this “summer”. (My guess is June, to coincide with any new hardware introductions made then.) It will be free for iPhone 3G users, and $9.95 for iPod Touch users. It was not mentioned whether it would be free or $9.95 for first-gen iPhone users, but it will work on those...

As I'm lying in my hospital bed, recovering from the surgery on my leg, I came across a story on Amazon's recent action in asking that Mobileread take down information relating to the Python scripts for putting other vendors' books on the Kindle. I noticed David Rothman's piece on it a couple of days ago, though given that it was the day of the surgery I was not exactly in the best condition to give it much attention at the time. But now that a few more articles have come out, a few more days have passed, and I am thinking...