Categories
Accessories Amazon

Kindle Case Stand From Snugg – Review

I’ve owned an Amazon Kindle for over a year now and love the bare look and feel of this device. If you are someone who reads a lot during your daily office commute, it makes sense to invest in a good cover for your Kindle – it protects from the avoidable scratches. While Amazon needs to be commended for providing us with a great device that is mostly resistant to scratches and accidental falls, the scratches caused by the keys and other metal objects in your purse or bag are not always expected. And when the scratches do happen, it simply ruins the reading experience; at least for me.

The Snugg Kindle case is a pretty stylish accessory that you should check out if you own a Kindle. Costing just about $10, this case also acts as a stand if your hands are full and you would still like to read from your Kindle. Snugg were gracious enough to send me a cover for review. Here are some noticeable aspects of the case:

Material : The case is made of genuine leather and comes in a stylish professional looking black color lined with white threaded stitches. While I love my Kindle for the sleek frame, it can be a problem when you are carrying it alongside several other stuffs – many times resulting in me dropping the Kindle. With the stiff cover made with an easy-grip texture, it is really hard to miss the Kindle. You actually can store your Kindle alongside your other paperbacks.

Kindle Case

Easy Read : If you are that guy or girl who loves to read on the move, this is a feature you would love. The inner fold of the Snugg Kindle case comes with a sort of strap where you can let your palms through to keep a firm grip on your Kindle even on the move.

Holding grip on Kindle case

Flip Stand: Like mentioned earlier, the outer case can also be flipped to set your Kindle on a stand and viewed at a convenient reading angle. This is a very good feature if you would like to read while doing things like chopping vegetables or even working on a computer.

Kindle stand for reading

Overall, this is a great product at a very reasonable price. You can check out the Kindle case on the Snugg website here. Would you be buying one? Tell us what you think in the comments.

Categories
Amazon Apple iPad App iPhone App Sony

Apple's App Store Restrictions Not To Hurt Amazon

We received the news yesterday about Apple’s restriction on Sony’s Reader regarding its applications on App store and how it was going to affect Amazon. The restrictions imposed by Apple definitely did not go down too well with Sony as they complained that the restrictions were imposed on a very short notice. However, Apple has come up with a clarification and has stated that there has been no change in developer rules and guidelines. Apple has reiterated that all they need to know about an App, like Amazon is if they have the ability to sell ebooks of their own, which Amazon does any way.

Apple has said that such Apps would be allowed on App store if only these Apps are also ready to list the ebooks available on Apple as well. Sony’s available ebook app is definitely a competitor to Apple and the Inc. is making sure that they hold their grip on the App store.

Categories
Amazon Deals Motorola

The Motorola Atrix 4G Price is 150$?

Earlier, Amazon listed the Motorola Atrix 4G on their portal quoting the price as 150 dollars. Although a few days later, the price of the product was pulled out by Amazon. Now, Costco, the largest warehouse club chain in America has also listed the price of this Motorola Smartphone as 150$ yesterday. But, it is yet not clear, based on what information has Costco quoted the price. Has Costco received any confirmation from AT&T and Motorola about the price or is it banking on the Amazon’s price? Well! Your guess is as good as ours.

Well, if the price is 150$ as seen, then this is going to be a wonderful news to all Android enthusiasts. But, why would AT&T want to sell it for such a low price? May be, this is a catch up game being played by AT&T to catch up on the Android front, smartphones at affordable, if not cheap prices.

Categories
Amazon Business

Amazon Movie Streaming In Europe Expands With LoveFilm Acquisition

We have been talking about this since September of last year. Popular etailer Amazon has finally confirmed these long-standing rumors with an announcement today that they are acquiring the remaining stakes in popular European online movie streaming, LoveFilm. The deal is expected to get all the required regulatory clearings by the end of this quarter.

LoveFilm has a good presence in both movie streaming as well movie rental market in UK, Germany, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The company had also recently announced their foray into alternate movie streaming channels like PlayStation 3 and Blu-ray players. The acquisition will give Amazon a terrific boost in its aspirations to improve its presence in the lucrative European market.

The value of the deal has not been announced although it was learned to be in the range of £200 million last time. Amazon stocks in Frankfurt (Frankfurt: AMZ.F) have fallen 0.12% in the opening hours of trade.

Categories
Amazon Software and Apps

Amazon Kindle App For Windows Phone 7 Launches

After weeks of anticipation, Amazon has finally released their Kindle ebook reading application on the Windows Phone 7 platform. The application, that seems to have been made public just hours ago, will be free to download and measures 1.36MB in size. The Amazon Kindle app for WP7 will give users access to over 750,000 Kindle books that includes new releases and close to 107 of the 111 best sellers from the New York Times list. Amazon also notes on their app description that 550,000 of these books will be priced $9.99 or lower.

Given that the app was only recently released, there are no comments as yet. But if you are looking to download the app or read more about the application, you can do so by clicking this link. As always, let us know your views on this app in the comments below.

Categories
Amazon Gadgets

Amazon Kindle Book Lending Now Available – A Social Network Of Book Readers In The Offing?

Amazon has announced a new feature to Kindle that will let users “lend” ebooks to their friends. The feature is not universal and it is upon the publisher to decide whether or not to allow lending for any particular book. Books that are lending-compatible will now display a new ‘Loan Book‘ that users can click to lend the books to their friends – by entering their name and email address.

The recipient need not be a Kindle owner and can access the loaned book on any Kindle compatible device or application. However, books can only be loaned once and for a period of 14 days – possibly a move to encourage users to purchase their favorite books.

While it is too early to judge the future of this service, there is a good chance that Amazon may be looking at building a “network of book readers” using this feature. By letting book lovers lend/borrow books, Amazon can be mining data of the users’ book-loving friends and this could eventually bring about a social network for book readers.

Would you like to see such a network?

Categories
Amazon Miscellaneous

Can Amazon Bestsellers List Be Gamed? New Kindle Book Tells How

Amazon’s proprietary algorithm that ranks and offers recommendation to book readers has always been a matter of debate. While there has been several accusations in the past about the company turning a blind eye to authors gaming the system to reach the bestsellers’ list, nothing much has come out of it until now. However, a recent book – ironically available for purchase on Amazon Kindle – tells us the exact methodology that one needs to pursue to ensure that their books top the bestsellers chart on Amazon.

In the book, author Thomas Hertog claims to have successfully got his previous book – “Wealth Hazards” – to reach the #1 on the bestsellers’ list in the personal finance category although he barely sold 32 copies in 45 days of launch. Hertog points out that his gaming technique helped him overtake genuine bestselling authors like Robert Kiyosaki, Andrew Tobias and Dave Ramsey who have sold more than 50 million books. How did he do it? Hertog explains,

“I discovered how Amazon ranks book sales, customer reviews, comments on reviews, books that other buyers bought, and creates Amazon recommendations. Then I bought and downloaded to my Kindle one hundred and seventy-three times my own book Wealth Hazards, wrote numerous five-star customer reviews, and voted on how helpful or unhelpful reviews were in making a purchasing decision. I did this everyday on Amazon for nearly five months.”

Hertog has summarized his experiences on his book, “The Day the Kindle Died“, that can be purchased on Amazon by clicking here. It is a real eye-opener to the way Amazon ranks books besides letting us rethink the way Amazon could be violating the users’ privacy to mine valuable data using simple bookmarking tools like WhisperSync.

Did you read the book? Tell us your views on this debate in the comments below.

Categories
Amazon Gadgets

New Kindle 3 Is Now Most Popular Product On Amazon [All Time]

Amazon has announced that its third generation Kindle e-Reader is now the best-selling product worldwide over their eCommerce portal. In a media statement released yesterday, Amazon has said that the device has overtaken “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (book 7)” to create this record.

The milestone comes just five months after the launch of the new generation device. Amazon currently offers two variants of their new Kindle – a Wi-Fi only version at $139 and another 3G-enabled device at a price of $189. Not too surprisingly, a big chunk of the sale appears to have come during the holiday shopping season.

Amazon has revealed that the company sold as many as 13.7 million items across all product categories on November 29th – that’s a massive 158 products sold per second. Amazon is expected to sell out 8 million units of the Kindle by the end of this year.

Categories
Amazon Software and Apps

Amazon Launches 'Give Kindle Books' For Easy Ebook Gifting

Looking to buy a nice book for your friend as a holiday gift? You could get them a Kindle ebook instead. Amazon has launched a new feature that will make it easy for users to gift friends and family members with a Kindle ebook even if the recipient does not own a Kindle device. Apparently, all that the user needs to provide is the recipient’s email address.

The new ‘Give Kindle Books‘ feature will apparently let the recipient download the ebook on any of the Kindle supported platforms including the Kindle eReader,  iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Mac, Blackberry or Android devices. While this is definitely a great way to simplify book gifting, it could prove to be quite a hassle for the recipient if they do not own a Kindle compatible device already. That, in my opinion, brings down the utility of this service.

Nevertheless, if you are keen on giving this service a try, check out this link here.

Categories
Amazon Mobile Samsung

Samsung Focus Price Drops To $49.99 On Amazon

Given that there are not too many Windows Phone 7 handset models available in the market today, one may have assumed that those already out in the wild should be selling at a premium. At least that is how it looked when AT&T launched Samsung Focus on November 8 at a price of $199.99 along with a two year contract.

But perhaps in an indication that the device is not selling all too well, Amazon has now announced that this beautiful WP7 handset will now be available through their online stores at a price of just $49.99. Of course, this is along with a 2 year AT&T contract. But there are just two interpretations to make – Either that Amazon has a lot of more exciting hardware lined up for the holiday season and it wants to deplete their existing inventory (HTC Surround is already available at $0.01)or that the demand for the device has been lower than supply. The third alternative – that of this device being a dud does not simply arise looking at the excellent tech specs.