E-books aren't just becoming increasingly popular. They also appear to be promoting reading habits among American adults.
Are you reading this article on your cell phone or tablet? These days, that makes you pretty normal, especially if you're American, according to a recent report from comScore.
Amazon's fourth-quarter sales results weren't awful, but investors went ahead and punished the stock severely anyway.
A new report from one of the Web's leading researchers spells out what news reports have suggested: that tablet computers and e-readers made a huge leap in popularity this holiday season.
As the tough economy drags on, cost remains a leading consideration that people use to decide which mobile devices and wireless services they'll purchase.
I've never had a choice like this before.
Amazon.com, the world's largest online retailer, said its series of Kindle e-readers and tablets were the top three most-popular purchases in December.
It's one of the tech industry's greatest guessing games: How many Kindles has Amazon sold? The company has always refused to say -- but on Thursday, it offered its first-ever glimpse into actual sales numbers.
Digital gifts may be tough to wrap. But they can be more convenient for both givers and recipients.
Kindle Fire, the stripped-down tablet computer that is emerging as perhaps the most popular rival to Apple's iPad, will be getting an update soon to address some early user complaints, Amazon said.
Although it has been on the U. S. market for just three weeks, Amazon's Kindle Fire is expected to become the second-most popular tablet in the world by the end of this year, according to the research firm IHS.
If you view a tablet as a guilty pleasure, like I do, then buying the Kindle Fire should make you feel a little less guilty.
The rivalry is so intense that Barnes & Noble actually spoke its competitor's name:
Amazon's third-quarter earnings sharply missed Wall Street estimates, sending shares 17% lower in after-hours trading on Tuesday.
From humble feature phones to souped-up tablets, mobile devices have become a major player in America's media landscape. New research from comScore shows that nearly half of all Americans now access some kind of mobile media: browsing the mobile Web, using mobile apps or downloading content via a mobile device.
Don't share with Barnes & Noble, and you'll face the book behemoth's wrath. One week after DC Comics handed over exclusive digital rights for some of its comic books to Amazon, B&N fired back by yanking physical copies of those books off its store shelves.
Amazon has clarified that the next generation of its 3G Kindle, the Kindle Touch 3G, will not be able to browse the Internet without a WiFi connection. Users will still be able to use 3G to sync book and document purchases, but anything beyond Wikipedia will be off-limits.
updated: Mon Oct 03 2011 09:54:00
CNN's Nina dos Santos talks to Sarah Shearman on Amazon's release of the Kindle Fire.
When Amazon launched the first ad-supported Kindle in May, it was something of an afterthought -- a cheaper alternative. But last week, Amazon made clear that ad-supported Kindles are the new standard.
Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos borrowed from Dr. Evil's master plan for the technology behind his newly announced Kindle Touch e-reader: It uses frickin' laser beams.
After months of speculation, it's here: Amazon's tablet, the $199 Kindle Fire, was unveiled Wednesday.
It's an e-book perk that often flies under the radar: Many bricks-and-mortar libraries are now lending out electronic editions.
Amazon, the online retailer that ignited demand for electronic readers with its Kindle, might be entering the increasingly crowded tablet computer market.
Google has announced its plans to launch a Google eBooks-optimized e-reader on July 17.
Amazon's recent ad-supported Kindle isn't just the future of e-readers. It may also be a look at the future of how people buy electronic gadgets: with a reduced price, subsidized by advertising.
updated: Fri Jul 01 2011 10:07:00
A Florida high school is outfitting its students with Kindles instead of traditional textbooks.
Ads touting Apple's iPad seem to be everywhere, but e-readers such as Amazon.com's Kindle and Barnes & Noble's Nook are actually more popular with consumers, according to a new report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
The new Nook is barely better than the Kindle.
Apple and Amazon are barreling toward a showdown -- and neither side wants to talk about it.
There are no two ways about it: E-books are here to stay. Unless something as remarkable as Japan's reversion to the sword occurs, digital books are the 21st century successor to print.
Amazon and Barnes & Noble are duking it out over the respective battery lives of the Kindle and the new touch-screen Nook.
As further proof of how digital media dominate today's entertainment, Amazon announced Thursday that its customers now buy more e-books for its Kindle device than all print books -- hardcover and paperback -- combined.
Want to check out e-books from the library and read them on your Kindle? That will be possible later this year as Amazon announced Wednesday that it would join a library loan program for electronic books.
The publishing tide is shifting fast: E-book sales in February topped all other formats, including paperbacks and hardcovers, according to an industry report released this week.
We wrote a story on Tuesday about a new version of the Kindle that will be $25 cheaper because it's supported by ads.
Seeing ads on portable devices is nothing new. Open a smartphone app, and you're likely to get hit with ads on the screen. Same for mobile browsers.
Amazon has sold loads of cheap Kindles ever since it decided to introduce a WiFi-only model and drop the price to just $139.
Would you buy a Kindle with on-screen ads in order to knock $25 off the price? Amazon hopes so.
E-books are revolutionizing the publishing industry and reader preferences, and Amazon might be in a unique position to hasten that change -- if they decide to start giving away their popular Kindle e-reader for free.
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson called Amazon's Kindle e-reader app the "gutsiest and savviest business decision of the past decade" during a keynote address on Tuesday.
Apple is tightening its App Store policies on e-books -- a move that has the stalled the release of Sony's e-reader app and threatens trouble ahead for Amazon's popular Kindle app.
OK, bookworms, now you can declare Armageddon: Kindle e-books have overtaken paperback books as the bestselling type of content in Amazon's bookstore.
When this year began, we were feverishly speculating about an Apple tablet, looking forward to 3-D TV sets, and optimistically waiting for the end of the cable companies' cruel grip on our wallets.
This holiday season, many people received e-book readers as gifts -- but what about the books?
Politics is serious business -- but not all of the time. From the halls of Congress to the campaign trail to the international stage, there's always something that gets a laugh or a second glance. Here are some of the things you might have missed:
Google on Monday launched what it says is the largest digital bookstore on the internet -- a site called the Google eBookstore.
More cell phones have more features and capabilities than ever -- but often the tradeoff is shorter battery life. This is especially true of smartphones. I know many, many users of all kinds of smartphones, and it's rare that they get a full day of use out of a full charge.
Newspaper publishers no doubt long for the days of black-and-white packages on most doorsteps and corporate earnings "in the black," as they say.
Barnes & Noble unveiled a new full-color, touchscreen version of its Nook e-reader Tuesday in New York City.
Amazon's new commercial for its Kindle e-reader is using some exposure to go after Apple's iPad -- and not just the bikini-clad actress in the ad.
Amazon.com's new Kindle is outselling previous versions in the first month of its launch, the company said Wednesday. But Amazon still won't reveal sales figures for its popular e-book reader.
Amazon unveiled its long-awaited Kindle 3 on Thursday, slashing the price to $139 and setting the tech world abuzz about what the move means for the ongoing e-reader wars.
Prices in consumer electronics tend to fluctuate wildly.
Several years ago, I was invited to Amazon.com headquarters. After signing a legal promise of secrecy, I was taken into a special room. Someone came in carrying a package containing Amazon's secret weapon ... the Kindle.
Amazon has sold out of its least expensive Kindle, perhaps providing further evidence of the e-reader's popularity or signaling a new device in the offing.
The iPad is about to have its academic chops put to the test this fall in a number of programs around the country.
Amazon recently has been touting the growing popularity of its Kindle e-reader and mobile apps.
Amazon shares plunged 13% in after-hours trading Thursday after the company's second-quarter earnings came up far short of analyst expectations.
Call them the new hardcovers -- without the covers.
In the latest sign that readers are flocking to e-books, Amazon.com said Monday that it is now selling more Kindle books than hardcovers.
It takes longer to read books on a Kindle 2 or an iPad versus a printed book, Jakob Nielsen of product development consultancy Nielsen Norman Group discovered in a recent usability survey.
In its latest move in the e-reader wars, Amazon slashed the price on the supersize version of its Kindle by more than $100 on Thursday.
Price wars may be great news for consumers but they are the worst enemy of investors. Just ask any shareholder of an airline.
Take that, Kobo. As e-reader competition heats up, Barnes & Noble responded Monday by cutting the price of its flagship Nook to $199 and introducing a low-cost, Wi-Fi-only version for $149.
Recently, I bought an iPad -- but only to try it out.
On June 6, Target will become the first brick-and-mortar retailer to sell Amazon's Kindle electronic reader at its stores across the United States, the company said on Wednesday.
The industry-wide struggle over e-book formats continues, despite the fact that publishers are inundated with choices over how and where to distribute their e-books.
Amazon plans to unveil a thinner Kindle with a sharper picture in August, according to a Bloomberg News report on Saturday citing anonymous sources.
Google will begin selling digital books through an online bookstore in the middle of the year, according to a company spokesman.
Amazon.com posted first-quarter earnings Thursday that topped Wall Street's expectations, but the online retailer's outlook was less rosy.
You've seen the television commercials and the product reviews.
1. Kurt Andersen, novelist and public radio host
Why would anyone buy a Kindle for $259 when they can have an iPad for $499?
Now that they've gotten a peek at it, publishers of books, newspapers and magazines are hoping Apple's forthcoming iPad tablet device will breathe new life into their struggling industry.
Kyle Aevermann of Seattle, Washington, is a young, tech-savvy, Apple product-consuming kind of guy. Despite his love of his iPhone and everything else "i," the iReporter says he won't be picking up an iPad.
Topping Amazon's best-seller list for the past week and a half has been Game Change, the salacious account of the 2008 presidential campaign complete with scenes from John Edwards' affair and Sarah Palin's mood swings.
When Dan Brown's blockbuster novel "The Lost Symbol" hit stores in September, it may have offered a peek at the future of bookselling.
Did Cyber Monday outshine Black Friday this year?
Not satisfied with your holiday weekend shopping? Don't worry, it's Cyber Monday.
The e-reader market is diversifying, and people who want devices to display digital books now have several choices: Amazon's Kindle, Sony's Reader and, as of last week, Barnes & Noble's Nook.
It may not have won the book price war (yet), but Amazon defeated Wall Street expectations on Thursday, reporting a 69% surge in third-quarter profit, led by strong sales of its Kindle e-reader.
Barnes & Noble's Kindle competitor may have been the worst-kept secret since balloon boy's disastrous appearance on CNN last week.
Amazon is cutting the price of its Kindle e-book reader in the U.S. and launching a version that can be used worldwide, the company said Wednesday.
Paul Jessup is an avid reader who is increasingly turning to e-books to feed his love of the written form. It's not just ease of use that draws Jessup to books in a digital form, it's the potential e-books represent.
After letting Kindle dominate the e-book reader market for two years, Sony has fired a huge salvo in return.
On a bright May morning Jeffrey Bezos descended from atop Mount Seattle unto the press corps. He appeared casually on stage in a standing-room-only theater in New York City. Like another messenger of long ago, he carried a tablet. And he said unto the people: "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm excited to introduce Kindle DX." Keyboards tapped. Shutters clicked. And as the Amazon founder and CEO turned a 9.7-inch display toward the masses, they saw an inscription: The New York Times.
I'm not blogging as much as I used to. Part of it probably has to do with the job - it's just tough to find the time. (Despite what J.J. Cale might tell you, it's not easy to let it all hang out after midnight.) But I think a bigger reason simply might be that I have literally been Facebooking and Twittering (some say frittering) all my content away! I get a thought, I meet someone interesting, I go somewhere cool, and then snap crackle pop, I put it up. Crazy right? But more than that, what are the implications? As Joni Mitchell might say: "Well something's lost, but something's gained."
The question of whether Amazon's Kindle will overhaul the news industry in the same way it has already begun to shake up book publishing may soon be answered.
Everyone knows traveling can be stressful, but having a smartphone along can make the trek a little more enjoyable.
Amazon's new Kindle 2 has a synthetic voice that can read aloud e-books, articles and blogs. Described as an "experimental" feature, it has surprisingly good command of nuance and inflection, but some people are voicing concerns.
Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel. Mark Twain's advice was apt in its time but sounds downright quaint these days. The ink-stained publishing world is battling against companies like Google and Yahoo that sell ads via any Internet-friendly gadget. And we know how that fight is going: The buy-ink-by-the-barrel types are struggling.
Against a backdrop of plummeting ad revenue for newspapers and magazines, and rising costs for paper and delivery, Hearst Corp., is getting set to launch an electronic reader that it hopes can do for periodicals what Amazon's Kindle is doing for books.
While traveling in China, Genevieve Bell figured she'd have no trouble getting a cell phone. With cash, a passport and official documents from her employer, she went to a local shop where phone packages lined the walls, and asked for one.
On this month's CNN Business Traveller, Richard Quest gets to grips with the electronic book, road testing the Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle.
It has the curves of a Lamborghini, looks like something an astronaut might take into space and weighs only 10.3 ounces.
The notoriously tight-lipped, online bookseller indicates that things might be looking up for the under-the-radar e-book gadget
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