Thanks to Nate at The Digital Reader for alerting me to some reports from dissatisfied Canadian customers alleging that Amazon is trying to force them them into leaving the Kindle store now that Amazon.ca has launched its own storefront. From his write-up: "Over the past couple days several of those readers have reported that many Kindle titles are showing up on Amazon.com as not being available to Canadian customers even though the same titles will show up on Amazon.ca as being available." Anecdotally, I can confirm that this is true. A few books on my wish list mysteriously became unavailable, and a...

By Joanna Cabot and Chris Meadows Our friends over at Good E-Reader have come out with their holiday shopping recommendations for the e-book fan. We here at TeleRead have some holiday shopping suggestions for you as well. What's the best e-book gadget for the reader on your list? Check out our recommendations below.  * * * For the aspiring tablet owner  Kobo Arc This is like a budget version of the Google Nexus---cheaper, but about on par in terms of weight and size, and with access to the Google Play store (unlike the Kindle Fire). Early reviews are favourable, with people nothing smooth operation and a...

"E-Reading Isn't Reading:" A GIF Response (Book Riot) Kim Dotcom's plan to give New Zealanders free Internet could just work (The Next Web) Amazon Prime monthly rate was a test, and it's over (GeekWire) Amazon sellers complain of tied-up payments, account shutdowns (The Seattle Times) What's on Malcolm Gladwell's Bookshelf (Farnam Street) The Biblio-Mat is a custom-built vending machine for random second-hand books (The Verge) Kindle Daily Deal: Silent Tears by Kay Bratt {and} Between by Jessica Warman ♦ ♦ ♦ The BIBLIO-MAT from Craig Small on Vimeo. * * *        ...

Reed Hastings says that, one day, Amazon will provide real competition for Netflix. But the Netflix CEO says Jeff Bezos will have to spend a lot of money before that happens: Hastings says Amazon is losing between $500 million and a $1 billion a year as it acquires streaming video content rights. Hastings says he generated those numbers based on the value of the content deals that Amazon won when the two companies competed head to head. Read Full Article ... Source: All Things D * * * Follow us @TeleRead  Join us on Facebook...

It’s an Amazon roundup! Here are some Amazon stories from the last few days that might not deserve full pieces by themselves, but are nonetheless interesting tidbits. Wired reports Amazon has released a firmware update for the Paperwhite that will allow readers to enlarge panes in manga novels—undoubtedly aimed mainly at the Japanese market, but potentially useful over here, too, for translated manga. And perhaps also for those single-issue DC comics, if DC decides to allow reading them on black and white devices after all. It also fixes some issues with novels that only filled half the screen, and improves handling...

Amazon Unveils Monthly Prime Membership (Good E-Reader) Nearly 1 in 4 Computers Sold Last Quarter were Tablets (GigaOM) Why did Publishers Get so Big? (The Scholarly Kitchen) Study: Paywalls Work Better if You Beg (Techdirt) Kindle Daily Deal: The American Patriot's Almanac by William J. Bennett {and} Women Heroes of World War II by Kathryn J. Atwood * * * Follow us @TeleRead  Join us on Facebook  ...

[From Digital Book World] In response to the growing library of exclusive content Amazon offers its Prime customers who also own Kindle devices, Barnes & Noble will launch Nook Video this fall. The largest bricks-and-mortar bookstore chain and second-largest e-book retailer in the U.S. will add a large collection of streaming video for sale to its large catalog of e-books. The company has not yet responded to Digital Book World’s request for comment on how much the content will cost and whether there will be a subscription service like Amazon Prime. * * * [Press Release] NOOK Video™ to Premiere This Fall Coming Soon: Shop Popular...

As someone looking to join the e-reader world, I feel cautious about which device to choose. What with the new lines of Amazon and Kobo e-readers that just launched, and the fact that new tablets are coming out quicker than most people can keep track of them, there almost seems to be too many options. There are backlit and front-lit devices to think about; there are E Ink screens and LCD screens; there are touch-screens and page-turning tabs and ads and perks ... the task feels daunting. Thankfully, I recently stumbled upon a Tech News Daily article that helps consumers choose which...

paidContent has talked to Charlie Redmayne, the CEO of Pottermore, about the deal Amazon announced to add the Harry Potter titles to the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, the program that lets Prime-subscribing Kindle owners check out one e-book per month for free. Redmayne admits that the deal may cannibalize some sales, but he believes it will drive even greater sales as readers check out the first book and decide they want to read them all right away. And Amazon is paying “a large amount of money” for the right to lend the e-books, which will also help make...

Self-publishing author Will Entrekin has written a very interesting blog post about his participation in Amazon’s “Kindle Select” program, in which his books are made available exclusively on Amazon and are part of the Amazon Prime Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. In the first part, he talks about why he made the decision to go exclusive with Amazon. It boiled down to having greater comfort developing for Amazon’s platform, and liking the kind of control Amazon gave him over the presentation of his book that he didn’t feel he could get with Barnes & Noble. (And also, he never...

According to an anonymous source, Amazon is inviting self-published authors to make their works available in Amazon’s Kindle Prime lending library, for checkout to owners of Kindle devices who subscribe to Kindle Prime. The invitations are going out to individual authors now, but Amazon will reportedly go public with the offer on December 1. Here’s their offer: If I agree to make my ebooks available exclusively in the Kindle store and participate in the Kindle Lending Library, I will earn fees from a fund they have set aside ($500,000 for the first five months). ...

A few days ago we reposted the Authors Guild’s screed against Amazon Prime’s Kindle lending program, in which Prime subscribers can download one free e-book per month to a Kindle device. For publishers who did not sign on to take part in the program, Amazon actually buys the copy of the book that the subscribers download each time it is checked out. The “Big Six” publishers are exempt from this program, because the agency pricing agreements restrict Amazon from doing that sort of thing to their books—but since Amazon doesn’t have those agreements with any publishers except the...