(Amazon Kindle News) Here are your Kindle News Briefs for January 1, 2010

Kindle Blackberry App Coming Soon
Blackberry owners will be pleased to learn that a new app is coming their way that will allow them, with their Blackberry, to download Kindle books, read Kindle books, and synchronize their Kindle and Blackberry so that bookmarked pages, etc. carry over between devices.

Top 12 Kindle Books are All Free
Amazon.com publishes a regularly updated list of which Kindle books (and non-Kindle books for that matter) are the top sellers. Ironically, the top 12 bestsellers are all free, meaning that neither the publisher or Amazon.com make any money from it. The list includes books like The Crossroads Cafe, Exposure: A Novel, and Dark Pursuit. Many times, giving a book away for free helps promote it and spread word of mouth or “hook” an audience for future books.

Apple’s Tablet Aims to Topple Kindle
According to the Apple Insider, Apple is expected to sell 1.4 million units of its new ebook reader in the first nine months. Apple has been hush about its plans to compete with Amazon.com’s Kindle and hasn’t given any official release date or even confirmed it is working on a tablet project. Apple Insider quoted Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster as saying,

“For purposes of sensitivity, assuming the tablet comes out in March 2010, we believe Apple would sell around 1.4 units at a $600 [average selling price] in 2010. The tablet is not yet included in Street models, so we expect the multiple to expand as tablet hype builds ahead of the announcement, and numbers to go up once the device is announced.”

(Amazon Kindle News) Here are some Amazon Kindle News briefs for November 5, 2009…

Kindle DX Needs Improving
College students at the University of Washington that were given a free Kindle DX a month ago say the Kindle DX needs some improvements before they can use it on a regular basis to replace textbooks.  According to an article on TechFlash titled “Kindle on Campus: Reality Check” one of the biggest complaints is the inability to write notes on the Kindle DX or underline text. College students often find the need to make annotations and with textbooks or printouts, that is easy to do. However, with the Kindle DX, making annotations isn’t possible. Many of the students given the free Kindle DX don’t use them now. Hopefully the tests and comments provide valuable feedback for Amazon’s next edition of the Kindle DX.

Washington Post Reviews Kindle DX
The Washington Post has written a review about Amazon’s Kindle DX. In the review, the paper praises the design, screen size, horizontal and vertical viewing options, and functionality of the Kindle DX. The biggest complaint is the price ($489). The positive review concludes, “The more multipurpose Kindles can become without detracting from or minimizing their primary mission as electronic readers, the better-positioned they will be going forward.”

New Kindle Competitor in 2010
According to GadgetTell, Asus is releasing it’s new ebook reader in 2010. The reader will have a dual display and will open like a book, displaying pages on both the left and right side, much like when you have a book open that you’re reading.

(Amazon Kindle News) Here are the latest Kindle News Briefs, highlighting some current Kindle news.

RIP Hardcovers
Fauzia Burke, a writer for The Huffington Post, recently wrote an article for the publication titled RIP Hardcovers which questioned whether hardcover books will soon be a thing of the past thanks to technology like the Kindle. She says, “As a Kindle user I am noticing more and more that I am no longer buying hardcover books. I recently realized that I may never need to buy a hardcover book again, and this is shocking to me! I love books!”

CREATIVE Entering eReader Marketplace
Creative, the company most known for its computer sound cards, plans on soon entering the eReader marketplace, competing against giants like the Amazon Kindle. CREATIVE fan site epiZENter says that the new eReader, with a working titled of MediaBook, was displayed at CREATIVES annual general meeting. According to the site, “it features a touchscreen, text-to-speech function and an SD memory card slot.” It will also apparently allow users to surf the Internet.

InformationWeek: “iPhone Threatens Kindle”
According to InformationWeek, the iPhone poses a real threat to the dominance of the Amazon Kindle in the eReader marketplace. In an article titled, “iPhone Threatens Kindle”, InformationWeek says, “The number of e-books available for Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch through the App Store surpassed the leading category, games, in September for the first time, an indication that the devices could grab market share from Amazon’s market-leading Kindle reader, a research firm said.”

The Again…
PC World covered the same Flurry study mentioned in the above brief about the iPhone threatening the Kindle due to the popularity of ebooks on the iPhone. Only PC World came to a different conclusion. In an article titled, “iPhone E-books Don’t Threaten Kindle or Nook,” the publication said, “Because of its small screen, I cannot imagine reading hundreds of pages on an iPhone, something the Nook and Kindle make quite pleasant.” The article also said that its not surprising that ebooks outnumber game apps since a game app has to go through a difficult development process.