Electronics, Amazon Kindle | featured news

Amazon will lower the price of its electronic reader by showing ads as screensavers and at the bottom of the home screen, and by selling special offers.

One month after Amazon announced that its third-generation Kindle "eclipsed 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' as the bestselling product in Amazon’s history," CEO Jeff Bezos announces: "Kindle books have now overtaken paperback books as the most popular format on Amazon.com."

Amazon.com Inc said sales of its Kindle e-reader were strong over the holiday season amid competition from devices such as Apple Inc's iPad, a computer tablet that also has e-reader capabilities.

Amazon's Kindle is proving popular in China because it allows users to log on to banned websites.

The Kindle is no longer an ebooks-only device; developers have just released two Kindle-ready games, thanks to the Kindle Development Kit (KDK).

Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos cut prices and added features to the Kindle to defend it against a threat from Apple Inc. in the fast- growing market for electronic readers. Amazon introduced two new versions of the device today, including a $139 model that works with Wi-Fi. A second version, with 3G mobile technology as well as Wi-Fi to download books, costs $189. Bloomberg News reported details in May about Amazon’s plans for the Kindle, its bestselling product.

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 e-reader's introduces a new social features. PCMag takes it for a for a test drive.

Borders just announced that they're selling the Kobo eReader, an $149 ebook touted, by Wired, no less, as a Kindle killer. This device isn't formally Border's only ebook reader. Instead, they will sell multiple readers online and in stores and the real news is that they're creating an ebook store that will act as their default spot on the interwebs for ebooks and content.