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Getting the best Amazon deal

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Source: www.macworld.com

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Although I’m the guy others come to for answers, there are times when I have questions of my own. For instance, while discussing beloved movies with a friend I was reminded that I don't own copies of Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest movies. Hoping to remedy that I dashed to Amazon and found Alfred Hitchcock: The Master piece Collection [Blu-ray], which includes the greatest hits of Hitchcock’s later work. The collection looked great, but the price did not—$178.96 as I write this.
Reviews indicate that the collection has been sold for as little as $120—a price I would be willing to spring for. But how am I to know when it becomes available at such a discounted price? I turned to Twitter for answers.
Follower John Coxon (@johncoxon) told me about camelcamelcamel. This Web-based service allows you to enter the URL for the item you wish to track. You can then view a history of the item’s price to get a ballpark idea of how low it’s been priced in the past. Then just enter the price you’re willing to pay ($120, in my case) and choose how you wish to be alerted—via email or Twitter.

Mike Hoffman (@MikeHoffman) pointed me to Delite Studio’s free Mac application Price Drop Monitor For Amazon. Download and install it and a shopping cart icon appears in the Mac’s menu bar. In your Web browser just navigate to the item you eventually wish to purchase and drag its URL to this menu bar icon. It will be added to a list of watched items. When the price of a watched item drops you’ll be notified (you can choose from among a sound, notification center, Growl, and email). To track more than 20 items you must pay $3.99 for monitoring of up to 50 items at a time.
Both Chris Lehmkuhl (@ChrisLehmkuhl) and Dave Packard (@cpadave) informed me that all I had to do is add the item to my cart and leave it there, unpurchased. When the price changes you'll see a notification in your Amazon shopping cart.
And finally, I have a solution of my own. With Safari go to the item’s Amazon page and choose File > Open in Dashboard. This is the means for creating a Web clipping. Select the item’s price area and click Add. That clipping will appear in Dashboard. Because Dashboard clippings update whenever you switch to Dashboard, all you need to do is invoke Dashboard to view the item’s current price.

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Cover via Amazon

Amazon launches Kindle integration with public libraries

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Source: macworld.com

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Amazon on Wednesday announced the launch of its previously-promised Kindle library lending, which will allow Kindle and Kindle app users alike to borrow ebooks from 11,000 local libraries in the United States.
Kindle book borrowers can use all the features they’re accustomed to when reading Kindle Store-purchased books: notes, highlights, bookmarks, real page numbers, Facebook and Twitter integration, and Whispersync, which syncs your current page across any Kindle device or app you use.
To borrow Kindle books, you must visit your local library’s website. As Amazon notes, the service is only available if your library uses OverDrive’s digital offering. Once you’ve logged into your library’s website, you click Get for Kindle, sign into your Amazon account, and the book gets delivered to your Kindle (or Kindle app) wirelessly or over USB.
At least, that’s the theory. My own local library uses OverDrive, but at this writing, no Get for Kindle button was available. Amazon spokesperson Kinley Campbell told Macworld, “OverDrive is rolling out [Kindle integration] to the majority of their libraries today, and the rest in the next couple of days.” So if you don’t see the Kindle button yet, check again soon.
If you later purchase a book that you’ve previously borrowed, any notes or highlights you made while the book was on loan come along for the ride.

Borrowed Kindle books can be read using hardware Kindle readers, along with the iPhone or iPad apps, Kindle Cloud Reader, or apps for other devices.

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Apple Mac Tablet rumors: February production start, 10-inch LCD screen

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Source: appleinsider.com

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Checks within Apple's supply chain have led to a new round of tablet-related rumors from one analyst, who believes the device will launch in March or April of 2010 with a 10.1-inch LCD screen.
Yair Reiner, analyst with Oppenheimer, revealed his latest tablet news in a note to investors issued Wednesday morning. He also said that Apple has been reaching out to book publishers with a "very attractive proposal" for offering content on a forthcoming ebook platform.
Reiner believes the tablet could provide an additional 50 cents to 75 cents in earnings per share for AAPL stock.
"Our checks into Apple's supply chain indicate the manufacturing cogs for the tablet are creaking into action and should begin to hit a mass market stride in February," the note said. "At this stage Apple appears to be sizing its supply chain to support production of as many as 1M units per month."
Reiner said Apple would likely need at least five or six weeks of inventory built up before it can release the product, positioning a likely launch in March or April. Such a launch would assume there are no production issues, like the one believed to have led to the last-minute removal of a camera from the latest iPod touch.
He also said that the device will have a 10.1-inch multi-touch display using LTPS LCD technology, the same as on the iPhone. He specifically disputed an earlier report that a high-end model would sport an OLED display.
Apple is also said to be offering publishers a deal that will allow them to release their content on other online stores, such as for Amazon's Kindle, or for new, forthcoming digital storefronts from major publishers. But Apple could sweeten the pot by offering a better deal than some companies, like Amazon, currently offer.
"Contacts in the U.S. tell us Apple is approaching book publishers with a very attractive proposal for distributing their content," Reiner said. "Apple will split revenue 30/70 (Apple/publisher); give the same deal to all comers; and not request exclusivity. We believe the typical Kindle split is 50/50, rising to 30/70 if Kindle is given ebook exclusivity."
He went on to say that the Kindle has "disgruntled the publishing industry" by strong-arming companies into exclusivity through a "wolfish cut of revenue" taken if they sell their content elsewhere. The Kindle also does not allow advertising in content it sells for its device.
"The tablet is set to change that," Reiner said. "It should also make ebooks more relevant for education by simplifying functions such as scribbling marginalia."
Oppenheimer predicts that the company could sell between 1 million and 1.5 million devices per quarter at an average selling price of $1,000. The company has a price target of $235 for AAPL stock.

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Kindle DX: Amazon’s Back Door to the Future

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Source: Reuters

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Kindle DX: Amazon’s Back Door to the Future

At first, they hyped it as just a new way to read books. Then, three months ago, Amazon (AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos paced the stage to announce the second-generation of the Kindle. Its primary purpose, too, was to read books. Sure, it could also deliver blogs, magazines, and newspapers, but just like Amazon's original business model for its Web site, the Kindle would focus on books first and expand from there.

Wednesday, Bezos was back onstage to announce a new incarnation of the Kindle, just three months after unveiling the previous one. The new device is called the "Kindle DX"-which gives the device the unfortunate and impersonal naming convention of both video games and cars-and it's meant to do a whole lot more than read books. It's a wunderdevice that can display textbooks, newspapers, and personal documents.

But couldn't the old Kindle do all of that too? Yes-but you wouldn't know it from today's debut. On paper, the big differences are that the Kindle DX is 4 inches larger than the one you bought last month and comes installed with a PDF reader. But that's not the point. The point is that Jeff Bezos wants you to do something different with it.

Here's the Amazon spin, paraphrased: With the PDF reader you can better scan all those documents you would otherwise print out and lug around with you. Since newspapers are printed on big pieces of paper in the analog world, they should be displayed on bigger screens in the digital one. Textbooks, with all their graphics, diagrams, and charts, wouldn't look any good on a 6-inch screen. But that 10-inch screen will really make the black-and-white images pop off the digital page.

For those extra 4 inches and a PDF reader, you'll pay $130 more for a DX than a regular second-generation Kindle-$489 total.

So why did Amazon bother? To make money, of course. The new features-though mockably sparse-offer subtle clues to how Amazon revenue plans for the next decade. Each of the DX's prospective growth areas needs either the PDF reader or a bigger screen to generate revenue. Here's how:

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