[Update, May 2023: Amazon has added several features not available when this original story was published, including lasso select, cut, copy, and paste, and the ability to add and move… Read More
Audible, the audiobook company owned by Amazon, is launching a new option for its customers to talk with a live customer service agent via Amazon Alexa devices. The hands-free service… Read More
The European Commission has decided that terms offered up by Amazon sufficiently address concerns raised in a 2015 antitrust investigation over contracts between the Seattle retailer and e-book publishers. The European… Read More
Updated on Friday morning with more information from Amazon. Amazon’s Kindle Write On author community, billed as a “story lab” for authors to test ideas and get feedback from readers,… Read More
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said earlier this year that the company’s goal is to make the benefits of its $99/year Amazon Prime program so numerous and valuable that it’s irresponsible not to be a… Read More
Booktrope plans to go out of business at the end of May, bringing an end to its “team publishing” platform used by ad hoc groups of authors, editors, marketers and designers to create and market print books… Read More
The word “lopsided” was used to described Amazon’s new Kindle Oasis after images of the e-reader leaked online earlier this week in advance of the official unveiling. But within a few moments of picking up… Read More
Web publishers embed video and audio all the time. So why not books? Amazon is answering that question with the rollout this week of a new feature, Kindle instant book previews… Read More
This week on the GeekWire radio show and podcast, we talk about our favorite apps for book lovers, gamers, photographers, home cooks, people who like to send holiday cards, and… Read More
When you’re developing technologies that sound like science fiction, why not use science fiction stories to show what you’re up to? That’s the motivation behind “Future Visions,” a free e-book from Microsoft… Read More
Sales of e-books, which were expected to overtake print by 2015, have suddenly slowed sharply, leaving industry observers to wonder the digital apocalypse was largely exaggerated. The New York Times reports that e-book sales… Read More
Oyster, the Netflix-like subscription service for books, has announced via a blog post that it’s closing up shop. But as Re/Code reports, many Oyster staff members — including its CEO… Read More
A year ago, Amazon was looking pretty good after Apple was found guilty of overcharging consumers by millions of dollars for e-books. But a handful of organizations are now pushing regulators to investigate… Read More
The European Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation into Amazon’s e-book contracts with publishers, examining whether their terms give the Seattle-based company an unfair advantage over its competitors in the… Read More
A new Microsoft patent shows how a head-mounted display could transform the experience of reading books — synchronizing a virtual character’s movements and lips to match the words being read aloud from… Read More
Amazon’s book publishing business is turning a page to a new chapter on growth. In 2016, the company’s publishing division plans to release 2,000 titles, up from 1,200 this year, and today, it ranks as the second-largest publisher… Read More
Amazon has struck a deal with HarperCollins that sets the terms for selling the publisher’s print and digital books on the influential e-commerce site, avoiding the type of dispute that Amazon had… Read More
Oyster launched a new version of its e-book platform today that puts it in even closer competition with Amazon. The New York-based startup introduced its own e-book store to augment its… Read More
A European high court has ruled against France and Luxembourg, saying that the two countries cannot charge lower value-added tax rates for e-books because they are “services,” not books. France… Read More
Amazon this morning named the first 10 digital books to be published through its “Kindle Scout” program, which lets customers nominate their favorite unpublished titles from a collection of manuscripts submitted for consideration by… Read More
Amazon has gone public with new details about its high-profile standoff with book publisher Hachette, confirming that the e-commerce giant is trying to lock in a standard price of $9.99 for e-books — and making… Read More
I’m a big fan of subscription services for media. While there are certain items that I get a ton of value out of owning, I’m perfectly fine paying a… Read More
A top executive for Amazon’s e-book business is defending the company’s tactics in its high-profile dispute with publisher Hachette, saying that it’s “acting in the long-term interest of our customers.” “This discussion… Read More
For book lovers, one of the great things about the explosion of the e-book market is the ability to put hundreds of tomes on a single device and read them whenever possible.… Read More
Barnes & Noble laid out a new plan for its Nook e-reader business this morning, announcing plans to partner with Samsung on a Nook-branded Galaxy Tab 4 tablet. So what does this… Read More
What is it like to run an independent bookstore in the age of Amazon? Our guest on this week’s GeekWire radio show is Danielle Hulton, the co-owner of Ada’s Technical… Read More
If there’s one big winner in the ongoing e-book antitrust mess, it’s Amazon and their customers. According to an email sent out by Amazon over the weekend, customers stand to… Read More
It’s a big day for Apple in court today, as the Cupertino-based company remains entangled in a massive web of litigation that seems to have ensnared the entire tech sector.… Read More
The U.S. Justice Department’s proposed remedy in the Apple e-book price-fixing case, made public this morning, includes a key provision that could put Amazon.com in a better position to sell… Read More
Along with the announcement today of the new Nexus 7, Google said it will be making a play for a share of the e-textbook market. The company plans to have… Read More