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Amazon Releases Kindle For iPhone Application

Dave — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:24:13 +0000

Following on the heels of the Kindle 2’s recent debut, Amazon has released a free Kindle application for the iPhone and iPod touch that will give users access to their vast e-book library.

Dubbed “Kindle For iPhone,” the application will allow consumers to purchase and read Kindle books through an interface that the company describes as simple and easy-to-use. Amazon notes that there are “hundreds of thousands” of e-books that can be wirelessly transferred to the device of your choosing. Unfortunately magazines and Newspapers are not currently supported.

Primary features of the application include:

• Buy a Kindle book from your Mac, PC, or iPhone using a Web browser and wirelessly transfer the books to your iPhone
• Read first chapters of any book for free before you buy
• Download the Kindle books you already own for free — they are automatically backed up on Amazon.com
• Adjust the text size, add bookmarks, and view the annotations you created on your Kindle device

The application also comes coupled with Whispersync, allowing users the ability to seamlessly revert back and forth between your Kindle and Apple handheld, while maintaining bookmarks and reading locations synched between the two devices.

Because purchased items will be linked through an Amazon account, those using the iPhone app will need to make new purchases through the browser or a Kindle itself, which can then be pulled into the application the next time that it is launched. The application can be found here (iTunes link).

Amazon Unleashes Snazzy New iPhone App

Dave — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 21:50:21 +0000

Amazon has recently developed a free application to allow iPhone users the ease of shopping directly from their mobile device. Not only can users browse inventory and make purchase directly from the app, but can also use a photo snapped from the handset’s camera to make visual searches.

Launched earlier this week, the Amazon mobile application allows customers to quickly search and compare prices for products as well as having full access to their existing cart, wish lists and order history. The application takes it one step further by introducing an experimental feature dubbed, “Amazon Remembers,” letting you store photos snapped from your iPhone’s camera. The images are then uploaded to the cloud where they are human moderated to find the closest match. So, in essence, you could snap a shot of any item around you, whether it be a light fixture in a hotel, or a hat adorned upon the head of a complete stranger, and someone will try to find you the closest resembling product for sale.

ArsTechnica notes that this application is practical and consumer-friendly at the expense of brick-and-morter retailers. This can potentially drive away sales as consumers may opt to compare prices from over 9,000 retailers on Amazon while walking around a physical store. However, while retailers will see this as a threat to sales, it is not as though this application alone is gunning to take away their business. A user can easily browse the web looking for a better deal, without the use of this application. The Amazon app just makes this process a bit easier.

Google Teams Up With Amazon for New Mobile Music Store

Dave — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 20:21:51 +0000

Google has set its sights on combating Apple’s iTunes by partnering with online retail giant, Amazon, to announce the launch of a new online music store. Users will have the ability to download MP3s via mobile devices such as the recently launched T-Mobile G1 powered by Google’s Android Mobile OS.

Users will now have the ability to search, preview and purchase music from Amazon’s MP3 store, in similar iTunes fashion, via the device’s WiFi connection. While iTunes remains a dominating force in this market, it would seem nearly impossible launch a brand new music store in this sector. Yet Amazon’s 100% DRM-free stance, may begin to pose a forthcoming threat, which had led Google to decide that it would be far easier to integrate with Amazon rather than single-handedly take on such an endeavor.

“Amazon wants to make it easy for customers to discover, buy, and play their music wherever they happen to be — whether sitting at their computer or on the go,” stated Amazon digital music and video president Bill Carr. “We look forward to the release of the T-Mobile G1, which will put Amazon MP3’s vast selection of low-priced DRM-free music at the fingertips of even more customers in more places.”

While the mobile iTunes Store remains offline until connected to WiFi, users of this new music store will have the ability to queue purchases from even an EDGE network that can later be download via WiFi. This presents an interesting advantage over using iTunes on the go. Additionally, Apple does not allow developers to access the iPod application on the iPhone, leaving them relatively locked out of developing new and intuitive music applications. If Google does allow developers access to design applications that integrate with the new music store and player, Android powered devices may soon present music related advantages over the iPhone.

“For example, picture a mash-up of Shazam, GPS, timestamp and the camera that identifies songs you’ve identified and matches them with pictures taken in a similar time or place with the ability to buy any 30-second samples of unpurchased songs that are in the slideshow and other ideas along those lines.”

While the G1 is no where near mature enough to begin to out perform the iPhone, the Android platform seems to be taking necessary steps in the right direction.

[via Wired]

[pics] Michael Scott shops at Amazon.com !

Aviv — Fri, 16 May 2008 06:13:41 +0000

On tonight’s episode of NBC’s hit tv show The Office, Michael decided to shop at Amazon.com rather than iTunes. hmmmm, I wonder why. Looks like NBC’s not done crying about this one, they seem to be whining to whoever will listen….Oh, by the way, we’re listening.

In case you didn’t know, Apple and NBC have been battling it out for quite some time now about the method and pricing of NBC’s digital content being delivered. Apple says that NBC is asking for higher prices…NBC denies that and says they want piracy protection… Apple sticks to saying NBC wanted higher prices… NBC has removed their content from iTunes and opted to sell it on Amazon.com and Microsoft’s Zune Store? Yup, the Zune Store.

Check out some pics here:

Looks like they’re really hammering this home. NBC really wants to make a statement about their content and iTunes as a whole.