News tagged ‘Amazon’

This video from CNet compares two iPad apps for book purchasing and reading - iBooks and Amazon Kindle:

Last week Alexander Vaughn from the AppAdvice.com resource had a chance to take a first look at the iBookStore. As you see from the screenshot above, late rumors about higher e-book prices for iPad are confirmed to be false. Moreover, 27 of the 32 books presented in the NYT's Bestseller section cost $9,99 which is exactly the same price as for Amazon Kindle versions.

To expand their market share Amazon chose a strategy of selling the most popular and newly released books at a loss. Now it seems that such a serious concession won't take a proper effect.

iBookStore is a platform for selling iPad e-Books. The working scheme is the same as for iPhone developers - publishers are free to set the prices they want, but Apple keeps 30% of it.

Here is an interesting video from CNN about iPad, Kindle and publishers:

Here's a link to youtube.

iSMEStorage is the first application for iPhone with cloud storage virtualization service that allows users to manage more than 10 different storage clouds from their device in 1 Cloud file. Clouds include Google Docs, FTP-as-a-cloud, Email-as-a-cloud, Gmail-as-a-cloud, Miscrosoft SkyDrive and LiveMesh, Apple Mobile Me and Amazon S3 and other.

SMEStorage CEO says:

"We are very happy to add the iPhone to the list of clients that users can use to get access to their files from our platform... It is the first [application] to virtualize storage clouds and make them available from one Cloud File System, and it is the first App of any kind in the App Store that enables access to Microsoft SkyDrive files."

iSMEStorage v1.01 is available here in the Productivity Category from the AppStore only for 0.99$.

9to5mac found several interesting facts from Apple's iPad commercial.

The first one is about iBookstore pricing. They to be below hardcover books, audiobook, paperback prices and even Kindles's pricing. For example, Ted Kennedy's memoir, True Compass costs $23 for the hardcover, $19.25 for the B&W Kindle version and $14.95 for the iPad version. Other books show similar prices.

It looks like Apple will store documents on the iPad in a "My Documents" folder, at least for iWork touch. This is funny that Apple had chosen this name. This perhaps will make life easier for PC people. You can see that on the screenshot below:

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(different search engine strings on SDK on the left, Firefox 3.6 for Mac on the right)

Here's some more interesting information from the iPhone OS 3.2 SDK. Users will be able to set search to something besides Google in the search bar of the iPad's Safari in upcoming iPhoneOS releases.

Right now, the two options besides the current default Google are Wikipedia and Yahoo, but plugins could be developed to do things like Amazon and Bing searches directly from the search bar in the Safari browser.

There is even a suggestion manager for both Google and Yahoo depending on which search engine you choose. Unfortunately, no Bing… yet.

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TruePower iV Pro is a backpack 3100 mAh battery for iPhone and 1G iPod Touch. Its main advantage is simplicity of use - just slip your device and it will automatically start charging. CultOfMac calculated iV Pro allows you to use your iPhone for 1,5 times more after the built-in battery is depleted. In turn it will take 1 h 20 min for recharging backpack battery to 3/4 full (and almost 11 hours for complete recharging).

TruePower claims the iV Pro improves performance of the iPhone's wifi and cellular radios. It also has USB port to charge other devices.

It is available now from Amazon for $99.99. More pictures are under the cut.

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Steve Jobs’s attempts to convince publishers to provide the content in a useful digital form were not that successful and the negotiations initiated in February have "stumbled."

Some newsmakers report of "friendly" talks, but speak of Apple's business model as a crucial change for the publishing business. They aware of the impact iTunes had had on the songs industry in 2003. Then the number of downloads of single songs from Apple influenced the resulting purchases of the singers’ albums.

Apple has been conquering the e-reader market long before the new iPad was on offer. So that is not a surprise that such companies as Amazon, which previously dominated the market have to increase their prices in response to the iPad’s outbreak.

Darren Beckett created a small table, comparing the entry-level iPad's cost and functions with popular e-readers like the Amazon Kindle DX, Fusion Garage JooJoo, Sony Reader and others.

While the iPad is as the most expensive on the list, it's fairly obvious if you need anything more than a simple e-reader, the iPad offers the most bang for your buck.

After the iPad presentation on Wednesday Walt Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal journalist, had a conversation with Steve Jobs who revealed interesting information about the new product.

Books for the iPad were rumored to cost between $13 and $15, and Mossberg asked, why customers will purchase books on this price if Amazon charges only $9.99. Jobs answered: “The prices will be the same”.

Later Mossberg inquired Steve whether he can use Pages application to write his review and then send it to his editors in the Microsoft Word format, as his colleagues doesn't know anything about Pages. Jobs told that the mobile version of Pages allows saving files as Word documents.

The journalist also asked about battery life on the device, and Jobs answered that iPad offers 140 hours of music playback with the screen off or 10 hours of reading. It seems not so much in the comparison with e-books, but Jobs revealed that 10 hours is enough, as nobody reads for 10 hours, and plugging the device or docking it in the end is "not a big deal".

Here is our live blog from Apple's event:

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MarketWatch reports that Apple will begin mass production of its much-rumored iTablet in February ahead of a launch in late March or April.

The report claims that the device will include a 10.1" multi-touch LCD screen. There were rumors that iTablet will have OLED screen and therefore delayed till the second half of 2010.

Current rumors also say that Apple has begun contacting book publishers about distributing their books through Apple for consumption on the new device. Apple is reportedly proposing a similar business model to its App Store, where Apple would retain 30% of each download's sale price with 70% going to the publishers. Amazon, for example, uses 50/50 model.

The estimated cost of the future device is $1000. Apple may sell 1-1.5 million tablets per quarter. The name of the future device is still unknown. Rumors say different vartiants: iTablet, TabletMac, MacTablet or just Apple Tablet.

DoubleTwist is the iTunes-replacement created by DVD Jon for music syncing to a multitude of devices, including the iPhone. It has built in integration for the Amazon MP3 Store. There are 5 million songs currently available.

Unlike iTunes, doubleTwist with Amazon MP3 support is Mac and US-only right now with a PC version coming soon. Sounds like iTunes needs some competition.

via theiphoneblog

The CydiaStore is open for business. Below you can find purchase process so you can see how it works.

Cydia store packages are going to be in blue writing. when you click on one, your install button says “purchase” instead of “install”.

The Cydia store uses two layers of authentication: 1) Authentication 2) Payment. Currently, amazon is used for payments and you can use either facebook or google for authentication. If you have an existing amazon account, facebook account, or google account, this is easy.

You can choose to have this automatically remembered so you don’t have to go through these steps again if you want. Also you now need to link the device you’re using to your account:

After this is done, you now need to setup payment. There are steps to take on teh very first time, but if you allow it to be kept, it will be remembered for the second purchase. Note you can also set pay limit for one-click installs without having to reenter a password in the future:

After, sign in with your Amazon password and finish checkout:

After this, you hit the “close” button and wait. It took about 20 seconds for me. Now the package shows that it’s purchased and ready for download:

After this, updates and such are treated normally. If you selected the correct options, it will be very easy to purchase the next item.

UPDATE: you can use paypal now

via thebigboss

iTunes Store now use variable pricing, Amazon still sell for $0.99...

via engadget