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Amazon Kindle-Gate: Purchased copies of Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984 disappear
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Handhelds, Wireless / WiFi,
I have no idea what to even say about this, other than that we are severely, severely disappointed with Amazon and how they are allowing their publishers to treat Kindle users. In a nuthsell, Kindle users who purchased George Orwell’s 1984 and/or Animal Farm found yesterday that those two titles had mysteriously disappeared from their Kindles, and that they were credited $.99 for each purchase. Why? That’s because the publisher decided that they no longer wanted to sell the books on the Kindle Store. Now, that’s all fine, but did they really have to take it away from those who had already made the purchase?
The Kindle edition books Animal Farm by George Orwell. Published by MobileReference (mobi) & Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) by George Orwell. Published by MobileReference (mobi) were removed from the Kindle store and are no longer available for purchase. When this occured, your purchases were automatically refunded. You can still locate the books in the Kindle store, but each has a status of not yet available. Although a rarity, publishers can decide to pull their content from the Kindle store.
Read More 
| Amazon Kindle Mysterious Orwell Refunds
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Amazon to acquire Netflix to form digital movie powerhouse?
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Home Entertainment, Internet, Movies, Rumors,
Netflix stock is surging today due to a hot rumor that the company may be acquired by Amazon.
To the average Amazon consumer, this may be an odd pairing at first glance. However, as broadband penetration becomes more widespread throughout the US, digital movie download services will slowly drive a nail through physical disk media rental services. Both Amazon and Netflix offer movie streaming services right now. Many users of the Netflix service have complained about the lack of newer content being available. Amazon however, offers new movies for rent and download. Together, though, you have one hell of an offering.
A Netflix acquisition for Amazon would mean up airing of these two services, which in the eyes of many a digital downloader would be perfection.
Of course this is all rumor, and we won’t know for sure until something official comes out of either camp. However, looking at the stock surge, there certainly seems to be something up at Netflix. Do note, however, a similar rumor cropped up about two years ago, and nothing ever came of it.
Read More | Bloomberg
Amazon launches Amazon Wireless, selling mobile plans
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, Hot Deals, Internet, Wireless / WiFi,
Amazon has launched Amazon Wireless beta, an online storefront where you can purchase voice and data plans from AT&T and Verizon, with T-Mobile and Sprint also coming soon. Normally, we wouldn’t give something like this a second look, but it’s Amazon, and they will be pointing consumers to this wireless portal from within the main Amazon site. The nice thing about Amazon Wireless is that you can compare offerings from the carriers in one easy-to-use spot, rather than visiting 2-4 different sites. Even better, all that mail-in rebate stuff goes out the window if you end up buying your mobile phone and plan on Amazon Wireless - all discounts are instant. Amazon Wireless beta is open now, and currently has over 130 phones up for sale.
Read More | Amazon Wireless
Amazon drops price of Kindle 2 by 16% to $299
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Handhelds, Hot Deals,
Amazon has dropped the price of the Kindle 2 e-book reader, as it is now available for $299. That equates to a price cut of $60 off of it’s original $359 price tag that it’s been selling at since it debuted five months ago.With Amazon’s entry level Kindle now being priced under $300, expect to see higher adoption rate, which is obviously Amazons goal with this move.
You can purchase a Kindle 2 for $299, effective immediately.
Read More | Amazon Kindle via Engadget
eReader Lowers Prices
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Corporate News, Misc. Tech,
Fictionwise, in an effort to compete with Amazon, has lowered its pricing in its company eReader. While Kindle customers pay $9.95 for newly released books, Fictionwise, now owned by Barnes & Noble, promises no e-book priced over $12.95, all new and New York Times best sellers will be $9.95 or less and buyers will get a 15% reward on all purchases. Now if they could find a way to incorporate “book smell” we might consider the expense.
Read More | jkOnTheRun
Have An Apple Product? Get AppleCare!
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, Apple, Hot Deals,
Apple has been on a tear lately, releasing product after product in recent months. The newly designed MacBook Pros, the iPhone 3GS, the redesigned Mac mini, etc. We know a lot of you have been picking up this new Apple hardware, and we thought it would be prudent of us to recommend you get AppleCare for the devices you’ve bought. Here’s the trick though—don’t buy AppleCare from Apple. If you buy it from Amazon, you can get up to 30% off of the price that Apple will charge you for the same 3-year warranty. Even better, when you go to resell your Apple hardware, if you have an AppleCare Protection Plan attached to it, you get a higher resale value. We’ve compiled a list of the different AppleCare Protection Plans available for the entire line of Apple hardware, check it out, and seriously, consider an AppleCare Protection Plan:
UPDATE: We've posted the newest AppleCare Protection Plan links here - the following links are for previous gen devices:
- AppleCare Protection Plan for iPod touch/classic
- AppleCare Protection Plan for iPod nano 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G; iPod shuffle 1G, 2G
- AppleCare Protection Plan for all versions of iPhone
- AppleCare Protection Plan - MacBook
- AppleCare Protection Plan - MacBook Pro
- AppleCare Protection Plan - iMac
- AppleCare Protection Plan - Mac Pro
- AppleCare Protection Plan - Mac Mini
Amazon DVD Trade-In Program
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Hot Deals, Movies,
Get rid of some of your old DVDs through Amazon and get a gift certificate. They will accept regular DVDs, HD and Blu-ray movies and TV shows with original container and worth at least $10.00. Shipping is free and your account is credited within a couple of days. Looking at their offer, we found the average price, no matter what format, was about $5.00, depending on age, but some were as low as $2.50. We found a Harry Potter Gift Set, that sells for $112.49, was worth all of $13.50. Still, it will give you the ability to buy a DVD you haven’t seen.
Read More | Amazon Trade-In
Kindle Encourages Bloggers to Join Subscription Service
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Internet, Misc. Tech,
Amazon has unveiled its new beta program that will pay bloggers for turning them into Kindle subscriptions. Although it already offers many of them, the company wants to move the content to the home screen. Subscriptions will run from $.99 to $2.00 per month. Bloggers don’t pay any fees, but Amazon sets the price as well as keeping 70% of the price. Still, if you want new readers and pocket change, this might be an option for your blog.
Read More | Mobility Today
Zune gunning for iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, and file sharers
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Microsoft, Music, Software,
Microsoft is definitely looking to bring it with the Zune in recent weeks. You just know that they have to have something, like the Zune HD, up their sleeves. I mean, they must have something going on, because all of a sudden they are getting bold with their advertising and claims. First came Wes Moss, their smarmy financial planner who explains why the Zune Pass is the best deal in music (even though it truly is.) Now, they’ve set up a section within the Zune Player itself that let’s you grab all the top songs from the top 100 offerings on iTunes, Rhapsody, Amazon, and even File Sharing (how would they know)?
What do you think? What would it take to get you to consider Zune as a music service, if not as a device?
Amazon Kindle DX gallery
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, Handhelds,
Wanna get a getter look at the newly announced Kindle DX? We just put together a gallery of nine images that show off the device from the front, back, side, and even a couple of angles in between. As cool as it looks, it still costs $489, so, you know, there’s that. Still, if you are cool with that, you can pre-order a Kindle DX now.
Read More | Kindle DX gallery
