Amazon has just gone live with its own digital currency dubbed Amazon Coins. Announced in February 2013, Amazon Coins is described as a new way to buy Kindle Fire apps, games and in-app items from the Amazon App Store and on Kindle Fire. To kick off the launch of Coins, Amazon also announced that they are giving away 500 coins for free to existing and new Kindle Fire customers in the U.S. Said free coins have a store value of $5, which will be deposited into your Amazon account today, assuming they're not there already. Not only is Amazon Coins a new...

When I stopped by Amazon this morning to check the Daily Deal, I saw something cool for you Kindle Fire owners. You've got free Amazon Coins! In case you missed the announcement of Coins earlier this year, they were supposed to start in May, and it looks like this announcement is the launch. What can you do with Coins? Buy Kindle Fire apps, games and in-app items at a discount. I dropped by the Coins page, and it looks like the discount ranges from four percent (if you buy 500 coins) to 10 percent (if you buy 5,000). 100 coins equals $1. Since I...

As if to confirm a 10-inch Kindle Fire tablet is in fact in the works and coming our way soon, Amazon has decided to slash the prices of the thing’s existent smaller siblings, namely the 7-inch Fire HDs. However, the promo likely has nothing to do with the alleged coming of the 10-incher, being instead a special, time-limited Mother’s Day offer. Well, who cares why is Amazon doing it, right? As long as they’re comfortable with shaving a cool $20 bucks off the slates’ prices, we’re comfortable with paying just $179 for the entry-level model. Be careful though, because the $20 discount applies only...

You're familiar with the saying “Go big or go home?” Well, it doesn’t exactly apply to the tablet market nowadays, but the tide could turn soon enough. One of the biggest ongoing battles is for the small tab crown, with Google, Asus, Amazon, Apple, but also Acer fighting each other guns blazing. Meanwhile, the bigger throne remains in Cupertino, Calif., with only Samsung (timidly) trying to steal the 9.7-inch iPad’s thunder. However, if we are to trust newly emerged online reports, Amazon is planning to spread its Fire instead of cooling it down. The next generation of the company’s Kindle Fires will...

This story has been making the rounds of tech blogs today, and it's interesting to watch the reactions. First, the story: Amazon announced today that developers can now submit their apps for distribution in nearly 200 countries. As I've said before, I think competition is a good thing, and the more competition Google has with its apps, the better it is for consumers. Android phones are doing well in other countries, and it's a logical move for Amazon to tap into that market. So much for the story. Now for the interesting reactions: One of the Android blogs was quite lukewarm about it, and obviously...

This is the era of bits and bytes and multimedia and 3D printing, not just books and other texts. But Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan’s Five Laws of Library Science would still apply today in spirit even after more than eighty years. Educated originally as a mathematician, S.R. Ranganathan was a library-science genius who studied librarianship in Great Britain and worked as the librarian at the University of Madras. Accurately or not, he is said to have beaten out 900 competitors for the job. He peppered his writings with Indian philosophy, dressed Ghandi-simple, and avoided coffee and tea. His laws, spelled out in a 1931 book available from the Hathi Trust in full text, are: 1....

Kindle Fire to Now Accommodate Video-Enhanced E-Books (Good e-Reader) Why Microsoft's new 7-inch design specs will help Windows 8 tablets succeed (Computerworld) Why ebooks are a different genre from print (The Guardian) The Role of Reading in Growing Asian Economies (Publishing Perspectives) Kindle Daily Deals: 6 Twilight novels by Stephanie Meyer (+ 3 others)...

It's interesting to me how often people misunderstand the appeal of Amazon and its products. Over at Digital Book World today, Beth Bacon asked, "When will Kindle's become free?" While it's not a bad question—and I do think the day of the free Kindle (or another brand of e-reader) is coming—I think she missed an important point. Consumers who think about their hardware purchases this way (do I want an e-reader, a tablet, or both?) are probably more likely to spring for a tablet with an Android, MacOS, or Windows OS if they can possibly afford it. Those who are looking for...

Flipboard made my list of great productivity apps in a previous post I wrote for GadgeTell (one of TeleRead's sister sites), but until today I only used it on my iPad. Why? Because the New York Times was only available in the iOS version. Not only that, but previously, if you logged into Flipboard on Android, you lost Times access on your iOS device. No longer! As of today, you can get the Times in the Android and Kindle Fire versions as well. I just downloaded it and tested it out. The articles look great on my Nexus 7. Flipping is smooth. In fact, I think I like it better on Android. The Times in the iOS...

Pitchers and catchers report to spring training this week. For baseball fans, this marks the beginning of a rocky ride with tumultuous feelings that crush or elevate you throughout a season. And it’s wonderful. But what baseball fans love are ways to show their pride. Nothing says you’re a big New York Yankees fan than having an outlandish tattoo somewhere on your body. However, there are easier and less painful ways to show off your team pride. Companies have created several types of baseball-themed e-reading accessories, including covers for some of the more popular tablets. Look at this hard shell case for Kindle Fire...

“You may not be able to tell the difference,” says the advertisement’s narrator, as both the iPad and the Kindle Fire HD sit side-by-side displaying the same images. “But your wallet definitely can.” Amazon’s new 30-second ad draws the comparison in screen resolution between the iPad and the (new, larger) Fire HD 8.9-inch screen. Visually, the Fire looks awesome. Actually, both tablet screens do. I feel that strictly based on just screen clarity, sure, either would be a sufficient choice for new tablet owners. But the Kindle Fire HD's $299 price tag sure does appear as the ‘nice price’ alongside Apple’s $499...

This is an idea that's been needed for a long time: Amazon will soon be adding the ability to make purchases of apps and games with a virtual currency known as "Coins," according to this Amazon press release. Here's a question I see parents asking all the time: "How can I limit the purchases my children make on their new Kindle Fire?" It looks like Coins will be the answer. We don't have a lot of details just yet, but according to the release: Amazon today announced another new way for app and game developers to make money on Kindle Fire—introducing Amazon Coins—the...