The good folks of the U.K got some bad news today as Amazon is delaying the release to U.K. Interestingly enough, the problem seems to be the wireless coverage. In U.S., Amazon works with Sprint and its EVDO network. But things are very different in Europe. I don’t think the delay will be for too long, but as someone who had to count days to get my hands on my Kindle, I understand how difficult this news could be to the good folks in London, Manchester, and other U.K cities. Hopefully, Amazon will find the right wireless option for Kindle UK soon.

[story via Telegraph]

Recently, I read an article about Google’s book scanning project (book search) where Google partners up with publishers, libraries, and so on to build its digital library. Google has been at it since 2005, and it has scanned about 1 million books! That got to be alarming to Amazon. Google is known for entering markets that they supposedly don’t belong in by demolishing the barriers to entry. With this huge digital content library that Google is building and with Android phones coming out, it’s not hard to connect the dots and realize that Google will be ready to pounce on Amazon’s success to offer their own e-book solution. Now, it may not be in form of a separate device like the Kindle, but the Google folks certainly left the door open there.

It’s not that surprising that Kindle is getting more coverage these days, but only a few months ago folks didn’t know what Kindle was. I remember talking to the VP of a company about this very issue. It was in May and he called me excited about what he had heard. He asked me if ther “rumors” were true and Amazon indeed had a wireless ebook reader out. The fact is a few months ago, people were still catching up to this whole new thing called “Kindle.” Now, it seems there have been so many searches that Google actually shows Kindle 2 in the related search section of the search engine results pages.

The way I look at it, the more people pick up Amazon Kindle, the longer the device survives. Kindle is an amazing device, but so was HD-DVD. It’s given that HD-DVD lost to Blu-Ray in a very different market, but Kindle, too, could die if there is not enough support for it. Thankfully, Amazon is making enough changes to keep “Kindle 2″ going for quite a while, so I don’t anticipate the device going away anytime soon. The fact that more people are searching for it could be only good news.

According to Wired Magazine, Newsweek is publishing four books on presidential and VP candidates, based on the coverage these guys have gotten in the past few months. These books  of pre-published articles and are tailored towards informing voters about these candidates.

Folks are complaining about the proprietary format of these books, and I am sure Newsweek could’ve gotten these books out in PDF format, but Sony reader does not have enough users to take advantage of these books. Now, if you are a voter, and you are trying to read a book on candidates this late in the campaign, I got to say, you should probably not vote or look for a better way to get informed. After all, it’s been very hard for me to avoid political news these days. You open up Digg.com, and you see 100s of news items on the election. You turn the TV on and it’s all about politics. I think what Amazon and Newsweek are doing is amazing, but people should stop complaining about the proprietary format and get on with it. You can’t have everything in life now can you. Besides, it wouldn’t be fair for Amazon to sell the books for cheap just for people to open them up and share the PDFs on P2P networks, now would it?

[story via Wired]

Rumors are again going around that Amazon may be thinking about rolling the new Kindle out early to combat the launch of Sony’s latest eBook reader. Sony makes major improvements over other Sony eBook readers with the introduction of a finger-touch screen for Sony PSR-700 reader. One thing I like about PSR-700 is the large screen, and it does look to have been designed better than the Kindle. It also comes with the backlit feature that hardcore Kindle fans have been asking Amazon for to no avail.

Now here is the downside. Sony does not have the power of Kindle store behind its product, and the device is going for $399, which is more expensive than the Kindle. I think Sony’s eBook readers have great potential, but Sony needs to think strategically to try and make an ecosystem around their products instead of making minor improvement.

Pictuer courtosy of BGR

I was aware that folks were beta testing Kindle, but I wasn’t aware that pictures of the product were actually out. The good folks at BCG have gotten their hands on the next Kindle. On the surface, it does look slightly more user friendly, but there is no reading size difference. The Adapter seems to have moved away from the “one pin” type. I guess Amazon does listen to folks who have killed their Kindles by breaking the pin inside the power hole. Very interesting.

Don’t forget to check the rest of picture here.

Picture Courtesy of ZDnet

There are a few brave men and women among us that go to uncharted territories to explore the life inside of new gadgets. The folks at Tech Republic are certainly in this category. I just saw inside the Kindle done by these guys, and I got to say that I am utterly impressed by their bravery. The fact that they took it upon themselves to open a Kindle, knowing that it may not work once you put it back together deserves praise.

Now I don’t think Kindle is more of an state of the art than iPhone, but it is interesting to see what makes all this work. Take a peek here.

If you haven’t noticed yet, Amazon has changed their Kindle front page to display the following message:

This tell me two things:

1. Amazon has been working hard to make the Kindle platform more popular, and this announcement shows that Kindle is not going anywhere. So for those who were afraid it’d be discontinued, it seems it will be around for a while.
2. Amazon is getting ready to release the new Kindles soon, and they can use all the promotional boosts they can get. One strong plus would be having a large selection of cheaper book. Rumors are going around that Amazon will announce their next plans by the end of October, early November. I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon lays the ground for their next major announcement.

Now a lot of these new titles are magazine and blogs, but you can almost sense the speedy fashion that Amazon has been bringing books to the Kindle platform. The books that I wanted to buy a few months ago but were not available for the Kindle are now all available for the platform. In addition, many new books come in the Kindle edition as well. Let’s hope Amazon continues this trend to fulfil Jeff Bezos’ original dream for Kindle (digitizing all books in the world).

I know folks like to use “X-killer” to get people to read their articles. We have had so many iPod killers and now Kindle killers that it’s a surprise that Kindle is still alive. But in truth, IREX is a poor attempt to challenge Amazon for the eBook market supremacy. According to Forbes, the screen is much bigger, and the E-ink technology used with this device is more advanced than the one used with Kindle, but IREX is simply more expensive and still doesn’t come with Wireless features (though one is in the works to be released very soon). And the price tag of $700+ is simply very attractive to most eBook users, right? I know how much grief Kindle got for $400 price tag, so I wonder who will pay $800 for a device that is not that much better than Kindle in one area (Ink).

I did like the Plastic eBook reader much better, but I am certainly hoping that Amazon will improve the E-ink technology used on Kindle 1.0 with the introduction of Kindle 2.0 later this year (or early next year). Just out curiosity, how many of you actually would spend that kind of money ($800 or so) on an eBook reader?

[Via Forbes]

I was playing with my iPhone the other day after reading an article about advertising companies that specifically target devices such as the iPhone. So I thought ot myself. Can that be the future of Kindle? There is no question that the potential is there. I have wondered how Kindle can improve their platform to offer more functionalities and make improvements that we are all waiting for such as better design, enhanced Internet connection, and the Kindle SDK. But at the end of the day, in Kindle Amazon has a device that has direct access to you and I, almost everywhere we go. Sure. We don’t take our Kindles everywhere like we do our mobile phones, but that trend is soon going to be changed with new better version of Kindle. Enabling non-intrusive advertising on Kindle can enable Amazon to sustain the platform and push it to the next level, maybe even dropping the price. We are probably a year away from such feature, and Amazon may choose to never introduce it, but I wonder if Kindle users are willing to accept limited advertisement if it means lower book prices or a lower price for the device.