When the news broke that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will acquire the Washington Post, people from around the publishing industry speculated about what it could mean for publishing and journalism.

Over at Thin Reads, Howard Polskin wondered if the new acquisition could boost Kindle Singles production at the storied newspaper. Check it out:

The Washington Post is already in the e-book single business with projects on Osama Bin Laden, President Obama and a compilation of Watergate-related story by Woodward and Bernstein. It seems like the ingredients are all there for The Washington Post to emerge as a bigger player in the fledgling e-book single market under the direction of Bezos.  If that happens – and it’s a big if at this point – here’s how both players could benefit.

If you were one of the unlucky few Kindle owners that had a copy of George Orwell’s 1984 in 2009, you probably know exactly how little ownership you have over your files. Further, you probably know exactly how intangible eBooks can be. What’s a reader to do? Make back-up files of course. For digital media artist Jesse England, the backup file happened to be a paper copy made with a photocopier.

In most instances, I think new electronic media is wonderful. For all their disadvantages, streaming and on-demand media has enabled young or amateur content creators to compete with established publishers unlike ever before. Older or out-of-print works can be newly disseminated with little overhead. I do not fear electronic media; I fear an invisible hand ever at the ready to pull back what I have already purchased for my self.

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The force is with this eBook: William Shakespeare Star Wars. Iambic Pentameter? Check. Elizabethan inspired drawings? Check. Kindle Version? Check. Unfortunately, this book does not double as a light saber, but I know where to get one.

Return once more to a galaxy far, far away with this sublime retelling of George Lucas’s epic Star Wars in the style of the immortal Bard of Avon. The saga of a wise (Jedi) knight and an evil (Sith) lord, of a beautiful princess held captive and a young hero coming of age, Star Wars abounds with all the valor and villainy of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. ‘Tis a tale told by fretful droids, full of faithful Wookiees and fearstome stormtroopers, signifying…pretty much everything.

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Children in Africa, a phrase that often stirs the guilt strings of the heart and often accompanied by photos of sad, hungry faces. Books, a word denoting the common, yet powerful tool that enables limitless hours of learning and entertainment. Combine the tool and you have a great nonprofit in the form of Worldreader.

Naturally, Worldreader’s heartwarming mission is worth writing and reading about – since our first story about the nonprofit in 2012, the group has manged to distribute over 10,000 kindles to 3,000 word-hungry kids and are on their way to sharing nearly half a million ebooks to those eager, young readers. Read more

To celebrate the fifth birthday of the Kindle, Amazon has released a list of the most popular free apps of all time on the Kindle Fire. We’ve linked to the free apps below–how many have you played?

Top 5 Free apps of all time on Kindle Fire

1. Angry Birds Free

2. Netflix

3. Temple Run

4. Solitaire

5. Fruit Ninja Free

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Amazon’s new Android tablet comes with a lot of apps which will help you buy stuff from Amazon, but it’s not so good at letting you get content elsewhere. They’ve even taken pains to make sure you cannot install competitor’s reading apps from the Amazon Appstore.

That’s why you have to find the apps elsewhere, which fortunately is not all that difficult. Here are a few reading apps which you can find as free downloads on various websites. Read more

When Amazon  launched the Kindle Fire HD last week they made a big deal out of its new location services. One of the ways the KFHD was a step up on its predecessor was that the new tablet could use Wifi to identify its location, a piece of info that could be used to offer services like local searches, directions, and more.

Today Amazon decided to draw more attention to the abilities of the KFHD by formally launching the Maps API. This is a new tool kit which developers will be able to use with their Android apps.  Once they have, the apps will be able to integrate mapping functionality into apps that run on the all-new Kindle Fire and KFHD.

The Amazon Maps API is in beta, so deliverers will need to apply to get accessit,

via

Amazon started shipping the 7″ Kindle Fire HD in the middle of last week so it would get into the hands on the early adopters on Friday, a mere 8 days after it was unveiled to the world. But Amazon also started shipping the new Android tablets to some of their retail partners even earlier. Reports came in on Friday that both Staples and Best Buy were carrying the Kindle Fire HD in store.

The tablet isn’t available in all stores, with at least my local Staples not having it in stock. But if you want to see what Amazon has pulled off, it’s well worth a trip to find out.

When Amazon announced the Kindle Fire HD last week, and it immediately caught everyone’s attention. The new tablet had a great set of specs for the price and  everyone wanted to buy it. That presented something of a problem for most of the world because Amazon is only planning to sell the Kindle Fire HD in the US and parts of Europe.

Luckily for Australians, one retailer is stepping forward to fill in the gap. Readershop has recently announced plans to import both the new Kindle Paperwhite as well as the update Kindle Fire. At a later point they will likely import the 7″ and 8.9″ Kindle Fire HD, but those models won’t even be shipped by Amazon for another couple months.

“They’ll be available between 8- 11 of October,” Readershop’s Leonardo Crespo told Australian Business Traveller, with next-day delivery, “but we don’t know the prices yet. We’ll know around 3-5 October.” Readershop is also offering their standard 1 year warranty and an accessories bundle which includes a power adapter, in car charger, and a DVD filled with 30 thousand free ebooks.

The rumored launch of the new Kindle Fire is only 6 days away, and in spite of the leaked images we don’t really know much about it yet. But according to Reuters the new Kindle Fire is going to have location capabilities, so it will be able offer directions and ads based on your current location.

But most importantly, Amazon didn’t go with either Open Street Maps or Google Maps. Instead the retail giant teamed with Nokia, and according to sources the KF’s mapping ability will be provided in partnership with Nokia.

The exact details of the deal haven’t been explained, and that tends to make me doubt this rumor. While Nokia makes smartphones of all sorts, they don’t strike me as the company who would provide this single service for the Kindle Fire. To me it feels like there’s either more or less to the story than we are being told, and until the new Kindle Fire is launched we won’t know which option is the real one.

In any case, I’m looking forward to Thursday. All will be revealed then.

via Reuters