The images above are not to scale of each other, but the center image is the Kindle DX which you can tell is much larger, just using the scale of the person’s hands (that is unless that got some tiny person to use as a hand model).

The reason I’m more interested in the Kindle DX is because I want the larger format. Although more portable, when I’m reading a good book I prefer a larger format hardback over a smaller paperback.

I also expect to use the larger format to take advantage of reading some PDF manuals and documents as I continue to try and teach myself more about a variety of technologies and other topics.

The challenge though is the significant price difference between the three devices. Here’s a quick comparison.

Images: Product websites

Post from: EveryJoe

Stuck Between a Nook and a Kindle

Another additional product on the Amazon web services is the Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) which Amazon feels would help streamline processes of settings up, scaling and operating relational data over the internet.

Amazon vice president of web services, Adam Selipsky, have noted that they have been working on the relational database for the last two years since many of their Amazon web service customers have given feedback that they require relational database in the cloud. These customers were already using Amazon’s SimpleDB which provides basic, simple and reliable database in the cloud.

Amazon’s relational database offering would include a full features MySQL database which automatically handles common database administration tasks namely: setup, provisioning, patch management, and backup duties. Amazon’s selling point on this is the cheap cost of subscribing to this service as they do not charge customer with upfront fees but are billed based on their actual usage.

I think having a relational database on the cloud is a big boost and selling point for the company. I have been working on SharePoint which is an internet based platform and for the last 8-10 years architects and developers have had challenges on building relational stuff on SharePoint as this doesn’t come out of the box. Amazon’s push to make this a major offering seems to have lots of potential and could get more customers into their services.

I would be watching the progress of Amazon web services closely. How about you? Have you had any experience on their cloud computing services? How did it go?

The Amazon relational database service can be found here – Amazon RDS.

Image from Amazon.

Post from: EveryJoe

Amazon on Relational Databases

Amazon is a company built by Jeff Bezos named on the Amazon river which means they would carry everything on the planet. They launched their company on books but later on ventured on every possible item they can sell off the internet. Most companies start with a cash cow item and diversify but with Amazon it is the opposite. They have diversified from the beginning and have only started seeing a product that could provide a massive cash flow to bring their business to new heights.

Amazon Kindle. I have previously written an article about the Amazon Kindle and the stiff competition they are facing ahead of them (Kindle for Windows 7) but it seems that Amazon is in a very strong position not to be challenged given their revenues from this product.

Amazon has had a big 3rd quarter where their profits have jumped 62 percent that have brought in $5.45 billion dollars in sales in that quarter alone. The revenue shows a 28 percent increase compared to their 3rd quarter profits in 2008 with net income of $199 million dollars. The stocks of Amazon has risen by an eye popping 15 percent to $170.08 dollars.

Kindle is now Amazon’s best selling item on both unit sales and dollars across all product categories and not only on their electronics section. Aside from that, Kindle is their most wished for and most gifted product as announced by CEO Jeff Bezos.

The price of the Amazon Kindle 3G has been reduced to $259 dollars which was a big discount to their previous almost $400 dollar price tag. Accompanied by Kindle for Windows 7 means Amazon should expect increasing sales from their cash cow item.

Image from Amazon and edited by me.

Post from: EveryJoe

Kindle is Amazon’s New Cash Cow Item

Does Barnes & Noble have what it takes to take down the Kindle? If anyone can, it’s B&N, because they’ve definitely got the library of titles to supply an ereader device with the ebooks it needs to stay relevant. What will it take to really challenge the Kindle’s dominance? A superior device that’s touchscreen-capable, and a killer price point. And throwing in some sweet extras — like the ability to surf the Net, perhaps — would be serious gravy.

WSJ claims that at least one of those requisites is sure to be met: they have insider info claiming that the B&N reader definitely has a touchscreen, with its own virtual keyboard. What else do they reveal? How about a planned pre-holiday release this year, a 6″ screen, and the same wireless ebook download capability that the Kindle offers (though there’s no intel yet on who the 3G carrier will be)? Barnes & Noble just relaunched its ebook store in July of this year, and they’re already offering an app for reading their ebooks on PC, Mac, iPhone, or Blackberry as a free download.

Sweetening the deal is an exclusive over at Gizmodo reporting that the device just might run on Google’s mobile OS, Android. Which would be flat-out awesome, because it would surely trump the OS of every ereader that’s been released to date. It would make surfing the Net a definite possibility, and… hey, are those downloadable apps I smell?

Oh, and let’s not forget that Barnes & Noble now offers free wireless in all of its stores. Could there be freebies and exclusives in the works, available for download only if you bring your B&N ereader into your local store? Seems like a no-brainer.

So it looks like we already know quite a lot about B&N’s hush-hush device. The only major question remaining is the price. I’m hoping that that on-the-small-side 6″ screen translates to a desire on B&N’s part to keep the price tag as low as possible. If they go for the jugular with an Android-based tablet that’s touchscreen controlled and priced under the Kindle 2’s current going rate ($259)…

Then it is so on.

Image: Robin Parrish.

Post from: EveryJoe

Barnes & Noble prepping Kindle challenger?

The $40 price drop follows a similar cut back in July that brought the then-$359 device down to $299, a number many analysts expected to place it at a more consumer-friendly, below-$300 price point. I’m glad to see the Kindle continuing to fall in price, though personally I’d rather see it drop below $200. I’ve thought from the beginning that Amazon could make a killing with this thing if it gave the device away at or below manufacturing cost — similar to what Microsoft did with the Xbox — and relied on book sales to recoup the investment. Sure, the Kindle is a very hot “it” item and easily the best-selling ereader out there, but had Amazon sold the first generation device at or below cost, the current-gen Kindle would be as popular as the iPhone, if not more so.

As it stands, Kindle 2 is already the bestselling product at Amazon, and the Global Wireless edition is sure to only add to its success. The Global Wireless version is accessible in over 100 countries outside the U.S. through AT&T, though it can also be used inside the States as well, of course.

Amazon says that more than 75,000 titles have been added to the Kindle Store in the last 5 months alone (a fact I can attest to), bringing its total ebook catalog above the 350,000 mark, which is truly astonishing. In addition to the announcements above, Amazon today has added Lonely Planet travel guide books to the Kindle Store — which might just come in handy when you’re traveling abroad with your new Global Wireless Kindle.

Images: Amazon.com, Inc.

Post from: EveryJoe

Kindle drops to $259, goes international

How they’re going to manage that remains a mystery, but Asus “Eee Reader” is said to have not one but two screens, both with full color displays (the Kindle and eReader both use e-ink that’s black & white only), built-in WiFi for surfing the Web, stereo speakers, a webcam, and a microphone for Skype. To these ears, all those extra features make the Eee Reader sound less like an ebook device and more like a touchscreen tablet — a notion reinforced by rumors that one of the dual screens will also function as a virtual keyboard.

The dual screen displays are connected via a hinged spine, similar to a printed book. It’s a clever idea that should really help to reinforce the feeling of reading a real book instead of staring at a screen, particularly as you use your fingers to “turn” the pages and both screens react to your gesture.

Asus is believed to be aiming for the low end of the pricing spectrum, with two classifications of Eee Readers available — budget and premium versions — with the budget version priced at around $160. I find it hard to swallow that Asus could reasonably expect to offer such a high-tech device, with that huge list of built-in features, at such a bargain-basement price. But Asus is hoping to ship the devices by the end of this year.

Image: Asus.

Post from: EveryJoe

Asus Plans Cheap, Double-Pane eBook Reader

Although, I have noticed my book shelf has dramatically crowded over the past year, I am feeling good on getting a Kindle for myself. Another great case for buying Kindle other than stop crowding my bookshelf is the environmental impact the gadget brings.

According to the study conducted by Cleantech group, the upfront environmental impact of Kindly is significant as it allow you savings of up to 26,098 kg of CO2 when the device is used to it’s full capacity or 1,074 kg if it replaces 3 books a month. The study says that the break even of the Kindle and it’s environmental impact is 22.5 books.

I think people buying a Kindle are bookworms who are finishing up more than 3 books a month which translates to around 36 books in a year. That number should be well over the break even stats of the Kindle.

The Kindle was never marketed to be a environmental device but merely something that could get your clutter away, but given that external research groups have found the benefits of Kindly, more and more devices are going to sprout marketing themselves as environment friendly which could help save the planet.

Image from Amazon.

Post from: EveryJoe

A Great Case for Kindle

The ePub format was created by a consortium of major publishers, including Random House and HarperCollins. Sony will adopt the ePub format for all of its ebook readers — existing and new. The format is an attempt by publishers to create a single ebook format that will work across any number of reading devices, unlike Amazon’s Kindle format, which plays only on the Kindle hardware or Amazon’s iPhone app.

Sony is also planning to release a new ebook device in its Reader series that will let users buy ebooks wirelessly, just like the Kindle. Sony’s also dropping its prices for digital books to a standard $9.99 price point — just like Amazon.

At least they’re being subtle about that whole “competition” thing.

Image: Sony Electronics, Inc.

Post from: EveryJoe

Sony adopts ePub to challenge Amazon Kindle

Oh, didn’t you know? They can do that. (Continues below image.)

The problem stemmed from the fact that one of Amazon’s digital publishers, a company called MobileReference, had placed the two books for sale on Amazon, without actually owning the rights to do so. When they were notified of the copyright violation, Amazon took the extreme action of deleting the ebooks from Amazon’s inventory, and remotely deleting all purchased copies from users’ Kindles.

It should be noted here that Amazon refunded all monies used by readers to buy the deleted books. But to exercise such unilateral power over a product that’s already been purchased and owned by a customer, isn’t just overkill — it’s against Amazon’s Kindle terms of service, which does not grant Amazon the right to remove purchased ebooks from a reader’s hardware. What’s more, according to the New York Times, there have been similar transgressions reported by Kindle users recently, when copies of Ayn Rand books and some Harry Potter books vanished due to similar copyright disputes.

I’ve always been intrigued by the Kindle, and I still think it could represent the future of book reading. But at the very least, this incident demonstrates poor form on Amazon’s part — to take such profound action without alerting users ahead of time. And clearly, Amazon needs a better screening process for the books publishers are able to sell for the Kindle.

But stepping back to take in the big picture, there’s a much more troubling issue here. Why did Amazon retain so much control over a manufactured device after users have bought it, enabling it to manipulate the owner’s personal inventory at will? One wonders how long Amazon has had this little capability hidden in its back pocket, waiting to pull it out “in case of emergency.” It’s like they have their own key to enter your home and violate your personal library. Why would they build such a powerful function into their device — and not tell anyone about it? What gives Big Brother the right to hold onto so much power?

Amazon says that it’s changing its systems “so that in the future, we will not remove books from customers’ devices in these circumstances.” But I can’t help wondering… is the idea of “personal property” becoming a misnomer?

George Orwell must be rolling in his grave.

Image: Zuma Press.

Post from: EveryJoe

Kindle erases George Orwell’s Books

Anyways, go ahead and check Coinstar for locations of these machines where you can exchange your coins for Amazon certificates and keep all the money for yourself. Once you have received enough Amazon points, go ahead and order that favorite PC game of yours.

Image from Amazon.

Post from: EveryJoe

Amazon Certificate for Your Coins