Kindle

'Kama Sutra' most pirated e-book of 2009

Illegal activity can sometimes be an excellent barometer of a society's soul.

You might, therefore, either leap dangerously close to your chandelier or bang your forehead against your winkle pickers in despair when I reveal to you the list of most pirated e-books of 2009.

I am grateful to the hardened aesthetes at Freakbits who have obtained this list from someone they met on a street corner. Wait, no. This list actually comes from BitTorrent's tally of nefarious downloads.

You will, no doubt, be expecting that the pirates of the Nook and Kindle would have reached for novels … Read more

The secret behind the Kindle's best-selling e-books: They're not for sale

One big reason readers choose e-books over ink and paper versions: The digital ones are cheaper.

That wasn't the case when e-books first appeared a decade ago. But Amazon has made a point of selling its Kindle titles at a discount to physical editions, even if it means losing money.

And then there are the titles that Kindle owners really, really love--the ones they get for nothing. As the Washington Post noted earlier this week, the list of best-selling Kindle titles is dominated by free books:

Amazon's customers have made it clear that $9.99 is still too … Read more

Kindle is most gifted Amazon item, ever

Amazon.com on Saturday released its annual post-Christmas statement on holiday sales and made one thing clear: the Kindle was king, perhaps fueled by continued shifts in plans for shipments of Barnes & Noble's competing Nook e-reader.

"We are grateful to our customers for making Kindle the most gifted item ever in our history," said Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.

In another milestone for the e-reader, the company noted that on Christmas Day, for the first time ever, Amazon customers bought more Kindle books than physical books. The company didn't offer specific numbers for either category.

The peak shopping day for the online retailer was December 14, when customers ordered more than 9.5 million items worldwide, "a record-breaking 110 items per second."

Among those items bought between November 15 and December 19, the top electronics, following the Kindle, were Apple's iPod Touch 8GB and the Garmin Nuvi 260W GPS.

In the video game category,… Read more

Hackers claim to crack Kindle copyright armor

A not-so-merry holiday gift for Amazon.com: hackers say they've successfully cracked copyright protections on the company's Kindle e-reader, making it possible to export e-books to other devices.

One hack reportedly resulted from a Kindle DRM challenge issued on Israeli forum Hacking.org. On that site, an Israeli hacker known as Labba claims to have created a tool that lets e-books stored on the Kindle be transferred as PDF files.

A U.S. hacker who goes by the name "i♥cabbages," meanwhile, created a program called Unswindle that promises to convert books stored in the Kindle for PC application into a different file format.

The free Kindle for PC app lets book buyers read their books right from their PCs without having to buy a Kindle reader. Unswindle has to be used in conjunction with MobiDeDRM, a program by another hacker named "darkreverser."

Posters on i♥cabbages' blog give Unswindle mixed reviews, ranging from "works like a charm" and "worked flawlessly" to descriptions of various errors. … Read more

Buzz Out Loud Podcast 1131: The last Word from Microsoft?

Breaking news right at the top of the show as Microsoft loses its appeal and the court rules they have to stop selling infringing copies of Microsoft Word by January 11, 2009. We also welcome the new White House security czar and the Google Yelp drama plays on. We're on break now, but we do have special episodes in the feed. We'll be back on January 4! Have a a great holiday!

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Microsoft loses Word patent appeal http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BL3FV20091222… Read more

Entourage Edge combines Netbook, e-reader

Entourage Systems, Inc. is a first-time CES exhibitor readying its release of the Entourage Edge, a hybrid gadget combining two trending technologies: e-readers and Netbooks.

Asghar Mostafa, president and CEO of the McLean, Virginia-based company, has a strong entrepreneurial background, mostly building technology businesses. Although a variety of people might find it useful, Mostafa sees the Edge catering to college and high school students who could benefit from a lighter backpack.

Amazon vied to fulfill the same need with its Kindle DX, but college students are reluctant in accepting the technology, especially because of its price point.

Entourage Edge delivers … Read more

Dear newspapers: I will pay for your content, once

I am a willing subscriber to The Wall Street Journal's online edition. It's $100 a year, which is a lot for online content, especially considering that you can generally find a way to get for free. But I'm a professional writer, and times are hard for all of us. I consider it a professional courtesy to pay, even handsomely, for excellent work. What I won't do is pay for twice. Unfortunately, that's what the WSJ wants me to do:

I recently downloaded the iPhone app for the WSJ, and discovered that getting access to the … Read more

Buzz Out Loud Podcast 1126: Microsoft plucks Plurk

Among the news of new URL shorteners and Australian Internet filters comes one of the darkest moments in microblogging: Microsoft has pulled down its new Twitter-like site in China because it turns out it wasn't Twitter-like at all. It was, in fact, more like Plurk. In fact, it looked like maybe Microsoft stole Plurk's code. We also get morally outraged at good business plans. Or stupid people. Or something. Just watch. Or listen.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 1126

URL shorteners suddenly hot commodity http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-10415148-248.html… Read more

Plastic Logic still vague, plans for color e-reader

Plastic Logic, the maker of the much anticipated, vaguely understood Que e-reader, will finally announce availability, pricing, and design at CES 2010.

Although its business division is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., Plastic Logic's technologies were born in Cambridge, England. The research team spent 10 years finding ways to use plastic transistors for the e-reader screen instead of silicon.

Professors at the Cavendish Labs in Cambridge eventually came up with a flexible e-reader, one that can't shatter, unlike the Kindle's and Nook's glass screens.

Manufacturing is commissioned to a company in Dresden, Germany, and for all … Read more