Amazon has joined the trend set by Samsung in knocking Apple in its commercials. Amazon’s latest commercial for its range of Kindle devices goes all out to make the point that you can buy three Kindle devices for the cost of one iPad. That would be two Kindle Fire tablets and one Kindle which would come to a total cost of $477.

This is not the first time that Amazon has made comparisons with the iPad. In a previous Kindle commercial, Amazon made the point that the Kindle was easier to read in direct sunlight, is smaller, lighter and less expensive than Apple’s iPad too. This time it is purely about the price and no mention of feature comparisons.

The Kindle Fire does appear to be the closest competitor to the iPad so far. It is extremely cheap to buy at just $199 however it also lacks a lot of the main features that the iPad has to offer. It will be interesting to see how it is selling if Amazon ever reveals any figures.

Source: TNW

Itching to purchase a new electronic gadget or accessory and wish you could shop from the comfort of your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad? Whether you’re looking to buy a bigger screen TV, some speakers, or even a brand new iPad, there are a ton of apps for just exactly that. Here are some of our favorites.

Amazon Mobile

Everyone who is familiar with online shopping knows that Amazon is one of the primary for just about anything, including electronics. With Amazon Mobile, you can shop for your latest gadget with ease from your iPhone or iPad. Additionally, you can shop for a friend or family member’s a wish list or add items to your own.

Out and about and wish to compare the price of an item in a retail store with Amazon? Scan the barcode with Amazon Mobile to instantly search for the item. Once you place your order, you can also track its status in anticipation for its arrival.

• Free – App Store link

Apple Store

The Apple Store, online or retail, should be your first stop when shopping for Apple products, and the Apple Store app should be your first tap when shopping from your iPhone. In addition to online shopping, you can reserve items for in-store pickup, track your orders, and schedule appointments at the Genius Bar.

While visiting an Apple Store location, you can even purchase accessories on your own with EasyPay, request help, check in for reservations, and meet up with a Specialist at the store. Unfortunately, the Apple Store app is not a universal app, so there’s no optimized version for the iPad. (Get on that, Apple!)

• Free – App Store link

Best Buy

If you have a Best Buy nearby, I’m sure it’s one of your primary locations for picking up anything related to electronics. With the Best Buy app, you can do your shopping from the comfort of your iPhone. Now, if you need an HDMI cable for your Apple TV, you may be wondering why you’d want to shop for that with an app and wait for shipping when you can just drive a few miles down the road and pick it up now. Well, with the Best Buy app, you can verify that your local store has the item in stock, purchase it ahead of time, then head into the store and pick it up in person. You can also look up the Best Buy trade-in value for your Wii, Xbox, Sony and other video games. Shop smarter, not harder.

• Free – App Store link

Ebay

With the eBay apps for iPhone and iPad, you can can bring the word’s largest marketplace with you wherever you go. And as all eBay shoppers know, this can be an essential asset to eBay shopping because you will receive instant alerts when you are outbid or when auctions are ending. In addition to shopping with the eBay app, you can sell your own items and upload photos directly from your iPhone or iPad’s camera.

• Free for iPhone – App Store link
• Free for iPad – App Store link

Newegg Mobile

Looking to build a new PC or upgrade your iMac’s ram? Newegg is likely your first stop for computer hardware or software purchases. With Newegg Mobile, you can shop from your iPhone – read reviews, view photos, and make purchases. You can also keep up with the latest deals, even when out and about.

• Free – App Store link

Your favorite electronics catalog?

So there you have them, our top 5 best electronics shopping apps for iPhone and iPad. Be sure to check out our other Top 5 picks, our Picks of the Week, and iPhone App and Games Forum for more recommendations, and if we missed any of your favorites leave them in the comments below!

Kindle has updated their iPhone and iPad app to version 2.9, which now includes support for newspapers, magazines and textbooks. Here’s the full update log:

iPad:

• New Design for Magazines: Kindle for iPad customers now have access to the huge selection of over 400 magazines and newspapers that are available on Kindle Fire. Magazines such as Martha Stewart Living, Food Network Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health, Popular Science and many more are displayed in rich full-color pages. Customers can buy a single issue or subscribe to popular magazines and leading newspapers and have them wirelessly delivered to the Kindle for iPad app.
• Read print replica textbooks including rich formatting and layout of the print editions and support for notes and highlights, zoom and pan, and linked table of contents.

iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch: – Email documents to your new Send-to-Kindle e-mail address and we deliver them to your device. The documents are automatically archived in the Amazon Cloud and available for re-download on your iOS or supported Kindle devices. – Open PDFs from Mail or Safari, by transferring them from iTunes, or by sending them to your Send-to-Kindle email address. The Kindle PDF reader supports PDF table of contents and thumbnail navigation for quickly jumping through the document. – New library organization allows you to view your Kindle Books, Newsstand, and Docs.

Kindle for iOS is one of the better eBook reading apps out there, which even rivals Apple’s own iBooks in a lot of respects. I, for one, personally prefer iBooks, but this update may give reason for those in similar opinion to make the jump into the Kindle eBook ecosystem.

• Free – App Store Link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

The official biography of Steve Jobs authored by Walter Isaacson has made its way to number one among books sales from Amazon for the entirety of 2011, despite being released late in the year.

Originally slated for release in 2012, the date was moved up to October 24th after Jobs passed away and quickly rose among the ranks. By November it was already the #2 seller for Amazon before taking the top spot in December.



Source: MacRumors via Amazon

Coffee lover, e-reader aficionado, and Instapaper developer Marco Arment put together what he describes as an informal survey of the current library landscape, including iPad and iBooks, Amazon’s Kindle and Kindle app, the Nook color, and Kobo.

If you’re going to primarily read periodicals, get the iPad. If you’re going to read books, all of these platforms look like safe options.

Check out his comparison charts for books, magazines, and newspapers. It’s not so much his results, which he cautions you take with a grain of salt, but the method he recommends for finding which device or app ecosystem is best for you that’s compelling.

Source: Marco.org

Looking for some last minute ways to get your Halloween gruesome on? To zone out with zombies, lose your head with horsemen, read about vampires that burst ever-so-properly into flame, and otherwise get more monstrous this weekend? Well, since you have an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, you’re covered! From App Store to iTunes Store to iBookstore, and with a hellish dose of Netflix and Amazon thrown in, you’ll never go brain-hungry again.

App Store Halloween apps and games

If you’re looking for app-solutely (sorry!) the best way to have fun and get your iPhone and iPad chills and thrills on this Halloween, check out the apps and games. And don’t just check out the Halloween apps and games either, because a lot of developers large and small and holding sales this weekend as well! Note: Neither Plants vs. Zombies nor Angry Birds Seasons are to be missed!

• App Store Halloween link

iTunes Halloween movies

iTunes is having a sale on Halloween themed-movies, starting at $4.99. We’d recommend Sleepy Hollow, because the heads weren’t found at all…

• iTunes Movies Halloween link

Netflix Halloween movies

If you don’t want to buy or rent individual movies, you can subscribe to Netflix and stream all the Halloween content you want.

• Netflix web link

Apple iBookstore and Amazon Halloween reading

The greatest and Halloween stories all time come from the dank, dusty pages of old books, written and read by candles flickering in the chill, dark wind. Apple’s iBookstore has some on sale for both young and old. Not content with just books, After all, it’s never too early to start Halloween off with a good family scream.

• iBookstore Halloween link

Everything else

Not content with apps or games, movies or books? Amazon has a special Halloween page up with everything you could ever possibly want. Ever. Costumes. Candy. Seriously.

Amazon has a special Halloween page up with everything you could ever possibly want. Ever.

• Amazon Halloween link

Your picks?

Got any other great ways to enjoy your iPhone, iPad touch, and iPad over Halloween? Let us know in the comments!

Rumor has it word that Amazon’s rumored 7-inch tablet will be known as the “Kindle Fire”, and in addition to a forked version of Android software, it might also be using a reduced cost version of the BlackBerry PlayBook hardware.

TechCrunch scored the name Kindle Fire, and says Amazon won’t be ready to release it until the second week of November. Ryan Block from GDGT further broke down the reasons TechCrunch felt inclined to compare the form-factor of the Kindle Fire to that of the Blackberry Playbook:

My sources tell me that RIM originally outsourced much of the hardware design and production of the PlayBook to mega-ODM Quanta — a company that builds, and sometimes helps design, hardware for name brands. The time eventually came that Amazon’s executives decided to do an Android tablet — far likelier to respond to the dark-horse success of the Nook Color than to the adjacent success of the iPad — Amazon’s own Kindle group (called Lab 126) apparently opted not to take on the project, in favor of continuing to work solely on next-gen E-Ink-based devices. From there, Amazon’s team determined they could build a tablet without the help and experience of Lab 126, so they turned to Quanta, which helped them “shortcut” the development process by using the PlayBook as their hardware template.

Block seems worried about this “shortcut” move by Amazon on the hardware, but TechCrunch asserts that the user-experience is top notch thanks to custom Android software running the tablet. Regardless, it’s an interesting pedigree to say the least.

Amazon has also apparently been working on last minute content deals with Fox for streaming movies and TV shows, and the tablet is expected to include their MP3 service and Kindle bookstore next to a proprietary Android Marketplace. Additionally, AllThingsD says a few big-name magazine publishers have signed on to provide content for the device.

When Amazon unveils its new iPad-like device on Wednesday, it will have the backing of at least three of the big magazine publishers: Hearst, Conde Nast and Meredith all have deals to sell digital versions of their titles on the new device, according to industry sources.

And then there’s the pricing issue. It was previously speculated that Amazon would price the tablet at around $250 with the inclusion of a free Amazon Prime membership, which comes with their popular streaming video service and free shipping on all products across the site. It’s now believed that Amazon may sell the Kindle Fire at $300 with Amazon Prime included, with another option available at $250 without the service.

We’ll have to wait and see after the announcement on Wednesday, but so far the rumor buildup has my curiosity piqued. Could this actually be the first real iPad competitor everyone has been waiting for, or will it only grow the still maturing tablet market even more?

Source: TechCrunch, GDGT, AllThingsD

Amazon is sending out invites for a press conference on Wednesday September 28 in New York. The word on the street is that Amazon will finally make one of the worst kept tech secrets official and announce its iPad competitor. The invite gives nothing away; it’s just a text based invite with no clues at all.

Rumors have always pointed to Amazon launching a tablet around the October timeframe so this announcement would fit in nicely with that. The tablet in case you haven’t heard yet will be a 7-inch full color affair, built on a heavily customized version of Android and should be available for as little as $250.

One thing is now for sure, we will not have to wait much longer to see exactly how Amazon plans on taking on Apple and the iPad in particular. The next few weeks should be some of the most interesting of the year!

[This is my next]

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Georgia, Seth, and Rene talk Apple’s new Learn commercial, competitors still struggling, Amazon’s rumored Android Kindle tablet, iOS 5 beta 7, Eddy Cue, Netflix without Starz, Facebook for iPad, and more. This is iPad Live!

Hosts

• Georgia @GeorgiaTiPb)
• Rene Ritchie @reneritchie)
• Seth Clifford @sethclifford)

Credits

Thanks to the TiPb iPad Accessory Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

Music Hear me Roar by iPad Live theme song contest winner, DieselJesus!

M.G. Siegler from TechCrunch claims he’s gone hands-on with the future of iPad competition, and the future of Amazon’s Kindle line — a 7-inch full color, touchscreen tablet built on an Android core but entirely Amazon at the interface level. All for $250. If you think it sounds like the Nook Color, you’re not wrong, it just trades the B&N brick-and-mortar shelves for Amazon’s hugely popular homepage.

The interface is all Amazon and Kindle. It’s black, dark blue, and a bunch of orange. The main screen is a carousel that looks like Cover Flow in iTunes which displays all the content you have on the device. This includes books, apps, movies, etc. Below the main carousel is a dock to pin your favorite items in one easy-to-access place. When you turn the device horizontally, the dock disappears below the fold. [...] But the key for Amazon is just how deeply integrated all of their services are. Amazon’s content store is always just one click away. The book reader is a Kindle app (which looks similar to how it does on Android and iOS now). The music player is Amazon’s Cloud Player. The movie player is Amazon’s Instant Video player. The app store is Amazon’s Android Appstore.

With nary a Google app in sight. Phil Nickinson from Android Central says:

It’ll still be interesting to see how a post-Nook Color Amazon tablet will compete. The Kindle’s no longer the only game in town, and Barnes & Noble has a pretty good leg up by being a brick-and-mortar organization as well, plus it’s got its excellent in-store customer training, which has to take a lot of the scare factor out of using the Nook. (One could argue that a proper tablet UI doesn’t need any sort of training, but we digress.)

Everyone and their comment thread seems to be thinking this will be the first real competition to iPad (which is what they said about Xoom, PlayBook, TouchPad… you get the idea.) It well might. It’ll be small. It’ll be light. Amazon has a great checkout system and a compelling content story in the US (international is, as with every platform, a mixed bag of hurt.) Their hardware has never been great, however, and international sales have become increasingly important to Apple and iPad.

People like cheap, but cost and value aren’t always the same thing — as Apple has proven time and again. (Apple’s competition hasn’t, however, so maybe they’ll be in even more danger from the KindleDroid?)

One thing is for certain — Android is the new Linux.

[TechCrunch via Android Central]

Amazon just let us know that their Kindle Cloud Reader is now live, and lets you read any of their over 950,000 Kindle books right in Safari on iPad, Mac, or Windows, or Chrome on Windows, Mac, or Linux, without needing the Kindle app or hardware.

While there’s no iPhone or iPod touch (it tells you your browser isn’t supported and you should download Safari or Chrome, though hopefully a better intercept screen is in the works), it’s a full HTML5 web app and includes offline storage. I’ve tried it out on iPad and it works quickly and cleanly. The Kindle Store is built in, so there’s no jarring transition to the Amazon.com version of the store, and all the menus and options work really well. Likewise, the text is just a legible as it is in the app, and the WhisperSync works perfectly. Hopefully it keeps up that level of performance when personal libraries get really big.

With the controversy that arose in the wake of Apple’s App Store subscription service, and the requirements to match pricing (since dropped) and remove links to external stores (still in effect), it felt like only a matter of time before Amazon would go this route. It will be interesting to see how many others follow.

Details and screen shots after the break. Anyone going to stop using the app and switch to the web app?

[www.amazon.com/cloudreader]

“We are excited to take this leap forward in our ‘Buy Once, Read Everywhere’ mission and help customers access their library instantly from anywhere,” said Dorothy Nicholls, Director, Amazon Kindle. “We have written the application from the ground up in HTML5, so that customers can also access their content offline directly from their browser. The flexibility of HTML5 allows us to build one application that automatically adapts to the platform you’re using – from Chrome to iOS. To make it easy and seamless to discover new books, we’ve added an integrated, touch optimized store directly into Cloud Reader, allowing customers one click access to a vast selection of books.”

Features of Kindle Cloud Reader include: – An immersive view of your entire Kindle library, with instant access to all of your books – Start reading over 950,000 Kindle books instantly within your browser – An embedded Kindle Store optimized for your web browser makes it seamless to discover new books and start reading them instantly – New Kindle Store for iPad is built from the ground up for iPad’s touch interface – Your current book is automatically made available for offline use, and you can choose to save a book for reading offline at any time – Receive automatic software updates without the need to download new software – Select any book to start reading, customize the page layout to your desired font size, text color, background color, and more – View all of the notes, highlights, and bookmarks that you’ve made on other Kindle apps or on Kindle – Sync your last page read across your Kindle and free Kindle apps so you can always pick up where you left off

Kindle Cloud Reader is available for Safari on iPad, Safari on desktop and Chrome starting today. Kindle Cloud Reader on the iPad is optimized for the size and unique touch interface of iPad. Without even leaving the app, customers can start shopping in the Kindle Store and will find a unique and immersive shopping experience built specifically for iPad’s Safari browser.

Kindle Cloud Reader will be available on additional web browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, the BlackBerry PlayBook browser, and other mobile browsers, in the coming months.

We’ve all heard horror stories about Apple’s “draconian” control over the iOS App Store for years, but if developer Shifty Jelly is to be believed, and as the old saying goes, Apple ain’t got nothing on Amazon.

Amazon’s biggest feature by far, has been their Free App Of The Day promotion. Publicly their terms say that they pay developers 20% of the asking price of an app, even when they give it away free. To both consumers and naive developers alike, this seems like a big chance to make something rare in the Android world: real money. But here’s the dirty secret Amazon don’t want you to know, they don’t pay developers a single cent.

So it’s not that they exchange marketing (getting on their features list) for money (getting zero for your app), but that they’re not up front about it before hand. But that’s not all, in addition to Apple-like lengthy review periods, Amazon takes it upon themselves to set or reset a developer’s price, re-write their descriptions, provides fewer reports, and pays later than Google does for the Android Market proper.

This, of course, comes as no surprise to anyone who’s ever dealt with Amazon from an author/publisher point of view. They’ve always made Apple look easy going by comparison. What will be interesting is how developers, media, and enthusiasts respond. They and we, rightly, gave Apple hell in 2008/2009 for their App Store policies. Given the especially harsh contrast between Amazon’s policies for their Android Appstore, and Google’s policies for the “openy” Android Market, there will be every bit as much outrage directed Amazon’s in 2011, right?

Check out the link below for all of Shifty Jelly’s cautionary tale…

[Shifty Jelly, thanks Seth!]

Amazon has released an update to its Kindle app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The update removes the Kindle Store button from the app to meet Apple’s terms and conditions. What is more interesting is that you can now read over 100 newspapers and magazines with high resolution color images.

• This update removes the Kindle Store button from the app.
• Read over 100 newspapers and magazines including The Economist and Reader’s Digest with high resolution color images. Visit the Kindle Store to subscribe to a newspaper or magazine and have each edition automatically delivered, or purchase individual issues.
• Customers who receive newspapers and magazines on Kindle can download recent editions to their iOS devices from Archived Items. Many newspapers and magazines are supported, and more are on the way.
• Share quotes and passages with your friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter while reading.

[Free – iTunes link]

UPDATE: Nook and Google Books apps have also been updated to remove links to their external stores.

Amazon announces Cloud Music. Apple announces iCloud. Apple shows that iCloud is better than Amazon Cloud. Amazon announces some major Cloud Music escalation, including Cloud Player for web getting iPad support, unlimited storage for music, and free storage for all Amazon-purchased MP3s. Yeah.

“Customers are already enjoying Cloud Drive and Cloud Player and now for just $20 a year, customers can get unlimited space for music,” said Craig Pape Director of Amazon Music. “Additionally, we are adding free storage for all MP3s purchased from Amazon MP3, and support for the iPad. Our customers love Cloud Drive and Cloud Player and we’re excited to innovate these services on their behalf.”

It’s the iPad part that interests us the most, of course.

Also new, Cloud Player for Web on iPad. Cloud Player, combined with unlimited space for music in Cloud Drive, enables customers to play music stored in the cloud on any Android phone, Android tablet, Mac, PC, and now on their iPad. Cloud Player for Web has been optimized to offer customers streaming playback of their Cloud Drive music using the Safari browser for iPad. To access Cloud Player for iPad, customers simply open their Safari browser and visit (www.amazon.com/cloudplayer) to start listening to their music.

Apple’s iCloud is in beta right now and will launch this fall alongside iOS 5. Whether or not Apple makes any changes in response to these Amazon’s announcement, iCloud will offer far more services for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users than Amazon can, including backup and restore, apps, documents, and more. But strictly for music, for users in the US, Amazon Cloud might just have gotten a lot more compelling.

[Amazon PR]

Hit and miss rumor site Digitimes is reporting that Kindle-maker Amazon is set to launch their own, fully featured, iPad competitor as early as August/September. That’s to catch the lucrative holiday sales period.

Amazon adopts processors developed by Texas Instruments, with Taiwan-based Wintek to supply touch panels, ILI Technology to supply LCD driver ICs and Quanta Computer responsible for assembly, the sources indicated. Monthly shipments are expected to be 700,000-800,000 units.

Amazon will provide streaming movie services for users of its tablet PCs, the sources noted.

So far no, not Google’s manufacturing partners Samsung or Motorola with the Galaxy Tab or Xoom, not RIM’s Playbook, have come anywhere close to encroaching on iPad’s tens of millions of units sold. HP will be fielding the TouchPad in just over a week, but like TiPb’s been saying from the start — there’s no tablet market yet, just an iPad market.

And with rumors Apple might introduce an iPad 3 or iPad 2 variant this fall, there’s no signs of anyone catching up yet either.

Can Amazon change that? Or would they still just be bringing content to an experience fight?

[Digitimes]

Amazon has an Android Appstore to compete with Google’s Android Market, and according to The Loop they’ve just released a Mac Download Store to compete with Apple’s Mac App Store, so how long until they decide they want to be in the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch space and try to buy Cydia, introduce a Jailbreak app store alternative all their own, or try some fancy HTML5 web app store?

iOS is theoretically a closed garden, yet Jailbreak and HTML5 apps are both alternatives, the latter even officially supported by Apple. Cydia has shown there can be commercial alternatives. Google has shown there can be great web apps. Playboy has shown there can even be subscriptions outside the app store.

Amazon is starting to feel their strength and, like when they launched CloudLocker without label support, they’re getting less shy about showing it. Their international support isn’t great compared to Apple’s, but if they fix that most of the other pieces are already in place.

Would Amazon buy Cydia? I doubt it. But iOS is far too lucrative a market for Amazon not to be considering attacking it in some way.

[The Loop]

Amazon has just added a few new devices to its Electronics Trade-In program, including iPhones and iPads. The Amazon Trade-In Program allows you to receive an Amazon Gift Card in exchange for sending in your unwanted electronics. This could be a viable alternative if you decide you want to cash in on an iPhone or iPad prior to upgrading and really can’t face the shark infested waters of eBay or Craigs List.

Amazon is currently offering prices of up to $69 for an original iPhone 4GB model, $235 for an iPhone 3GS 32GB model and $398 for an iPhone 4 32GB model. iPads are offered at $235 for a first generation 16GB WiFi model right up to $433 for a 64GB WiFi and 3G model. This is just a sample and all models seem to be covered; even the iPad 2. All devices must be in full working order and in good cosmetic condition.

This seems like a good alternative to get rid of your unwanted iOS devices in a safe and responsible way. Have any of our readers used the Amazon Trade-In service? Let us know in the comments!

[Amazon via TUAW]

When Amazon announced their Cloud Drive and Cloud Player music services earlier this week they didn’t mention whether or not it would work on the iPhone, or any other iOS device for that matter. While there’s no app (yet?) and the full site doesn’t seem to want to work on Mobile Safari, single song playback works just fine on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch via Apple’s built-in Quicktime X Player. Just hit the jump to find out how it’s done!

To get started, first visit www.amazon.com/clouddrive and log in to access your free 5GB of storage. From there you can upload music files in MP3 or AAC format for playback on virtually any device with a web browser.

I’ve gone ahead and uploaded a few of my favorite tunes to test playback on my iPhone 4. Just follow these simple steps to get the service running on your own iDevice:

1. Open Mobile Safari and navigate to Amazon’s Cloud Drive website here, then select the Music folder on the left navigation menu.
2. Choose the song you’d like to play by selecting the checkbox next to the track name.
3. Tap ‘Download’ above the track selection list.
   
4. Put in your earbuds and enjoy the streaming music!

As I mentioned before, Safari won’t actually download and store the MP3 to your iPhone, but will instead launch the built-in Quicktime player for streaming playback. The drawback here is that you can only play one song at a time and must go through the steps for each track you’d like to hear. Additionally, Amazon doesn’t have Cloud Drive set up for the iPhone specifically, so navigating the service directly from your iPhone isn’t an enjoyable experience to say the least.

But, as demonstrated, playback works perfectly on any iOS device. Let us know if you plan on using Amazon’s new service or if you’d rather hold out for a more elegant option from Apple, and as always post any issues you run into in the comments below!

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to news@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

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Rene, Chad, and Georgia discuss WWDC 2011, the sellout and the fallout, no new iPhone 5 in June, no iOS 5 event in April, Amazon Cloud Player, updated apps, and how do you IM? This is iPhone Live!

Show notes and all the week’s iPhone news after the break!

No new iPhone

• Apple confirm WWDC 2011 will be June 6-10, future of iOS to be revealed, iPhone 5 to debut?
• UPDATED: Will we get an iPhone 5 in June?
• Why would Apple “delay” iPhone 5, iOS 5 to fall or 2012?
• Poll: If Apple doesn’t release an iPhone 5 this year what will you do?
• WWDC 2011 sells out in 10 hours!

iOS 5

• Could iOS 5 only be coming this fall?
• Apple to include system-wide, artificial intelligence-powered voice control in iOS 5?

Cloud Music

• Amazon Cloud Drive and Cloud Player music services announced
• Amazon Cloud Music launched without licenses, has record labels fuming

News

• Apple airs new commercial – If you don’t have an iPhone, you don’t have Game Center
• Apple releases iOS 4.3.1 for iPhone, iPad
• Apple airs 5th new commercial – If you don’t have an iPhone, you don’t have the Retina Display
• iPhone hit by yet another daylight savings time alarm bug

Apps

• Final Fantasy III for iPhone hits App Store… at $16
• TiPb Asks: How do you IM on your iPhone or iPad?
• Official Vimeo app now available for iPhone
• biteSMS gets updated [jailbreak]

Hosts

• @reneritchie
• @GeorgiaTiPb
• @iChadman

Credits

Thanks to the TiPb iPhone accessory store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

Our music comes from the following sources:

• I Called You — iPhone Remix by Pete Leidy
via Sneakmove iPhone Ringtone Challenge

Turns out Amazon might have beaten Apple in the online music locker race by sprinting off the blocks well before the whistle was ever blown, at least if the stunned reactions by music labels are to be believed. Reuters reports:

Music labels were informed of the plans last week. Only later did Amazon address the issue of negotiating licenses, one source close to the discussions said. That executive called the move “somewhat stunning” and noted that some within the media industry said the service might be illegal.

“I’ve never seen a company of their size make an announcement, launch a service and simultaneously say they’re trying to get licenses,” said the executive, who requested anonymity because the discussions were not public.

I’m no proponent of the music labels, their myopic view of technology, their contempt for their own consumers, and their constant attempts to make us pay over and over again for the same content, but this might just explain how Amazon was able to launch so quickly. If Apple, Google and others are waiting to get licenses — or have been waiting for months or years — Amazon going without them is certainly a head start.

Ironically, the music industry has given Amazon head starts in the past — including early access to DRM-free songs and cheaper price-points — in order to bolster competition and try to reduce iTunes’ market share. That they didn’t this time is interesting, as will be the record labels’ response.

Whether you agree with the music industry’s position or not (and personally I hope they continue sinking into the same Jurassic tar pit their dinosaur brethren did eons ago), does the lack of proper licensing — and any uncertainty it might create — change the likelihood of you using Amazon’s new cloud music service? And if Amazon gets away with it, will Apple decide to skip the process as well and launch sooner rather than later?

[Yahoo!]

Amazon surprised the tech world last night by announcing Cloud Drive and Cloud Player services for streaming music to various platforms. Amazon has stolen a march on Apple after we heard the other day that Apple was supposedly planning to launch a similar service very soon.

The Amazon service will allow you to upload your existing music collection, as well as tracks purchased through Apple’s iTunes or any other medium to the “Cloud Locker.” All Amazon account holders will automatically be given 5GB of online storage which can be increased to 20GB either by paying for more storage or buying an MP3 album from Amazon. Music purchased through Amazon will be automatically added to the Cloud Locker and will not count towards your storage quota. Music can be stored as either MP3 or AAC and in its original bitrate; so there will be no loss in quality. The service also allows you to store other media such as photographs, videos and documents.

The Cloud Player, the playback part of the service, is available either through a desktop web browser such as Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer, or as part of the Amazon MP3 application on Android phones.

Amazon Cloud Drive seems to be accessible internationally while Cloud Player is currently blocked outside the US. (This is likely due to licensing issues and may take a long time to resolve — they’ve barely expanded Amazon MP3 in the last 3 years.)

Amazon does not appear to be allowing access through iPhone, iPod touch or iPad Safari at the moment either. (Some readers are saying you can hit the download link to stream the music via Safari’s built-in QuickTime X player, just like any MP3 link but we can’t confirm that yet — let us know in comments!). Whether Amazon chooses to properly open up access to Mobile Safari, or whether they’ll try to include Cloud Player into an iOS app is unknown. Even if Amazon makes an app, would Apple allow it into the App Store or would it be seen as a direct competitor to iTunes?

What do you think of the Amazon Cloud Locker? Do you think Apple will announce a service as flexible as this? Let us know in the comments!

[Amazon PR]

There’s been talk of an Amazon super-Kindle running Android OS since… about 5 minutes after Steve Jobs left the stage following the original iPad introduction. Now that Amazon has launched their Appstore (TM in contention), that talk is heating up again. And why not? It’s an obvious play. I’d be surprised if Amazon hasn’t had one in the labs for a while now (just like I would have been surprised if Facebook hadn’t been working on a phone…)

Amazon has content like iTunes, including (in the US at least — and more on that in a moment), ebooks, movies, TV shows, music, and now apps. They’ve made hardware before with the Kindle line.

But they’re hardly the only one.

Sony makes phones, owns a movie studio and record label, and almost everything else in place to launch a similarly competitive offering but they’ve been struggling of late and don’t seem to be that Walkman strutting, Trinitron innovating Sony of old. Samsung, however, is coming on strongly with their Galaxy S range of devices in assorted sizes and their Hub media services.

What Amazon has is a single login, credit card holding advantage. Both Google and Facebook could probably match Amazon on logins but they’re internet based advertising companies (what they sell is users’ attention). Amazon is an internet based commerce company (what they sell are goods). That’s an important difference. Most importantly, Amazon has the only checkout system in the world to rival iTunes, in terms of both one-click ease of use (Amazon actually patented one-click) and sheer number of credit cards on file.

Even so, they will be “just another Android tablet”. It’s no coincidence all these competitors — real and rumored — are being built on Android. Google has done to mobile what Microsoft did to PCs — make an OS that’s so great OEMs and VARs can’t justify the effort, investment, and resources necessary to make their own mobile OS anymore. (That’s a good sign for the maturity of the space, though a loss for those of us still hoping to see more innovation like a true Facebook or Mozilla mobile OS.) That means that market, skin, and branding aside, Amazon (and others) will benefit from huge economies of ecosystem but will also have to face competition within their own platform and struggle for differentiation and attention in the market. (They’ll also be facing internal tension since they’re providing Kindle and other apps for their competition — Apple doesn’t make iBooks or GarageBand for Android.)

Let’s say for the sake of argument Amazon’s brand is big and strong enough to really stand out from the pack –it still only gives Amazon some pieces of the puzzle.

Apple is offering an almost 360-degrees of integration. Everyone else has some part of that same story but no one else has all of it yet. RIM and HP/Palm have integrated hardware/software but lack the global checkout system of Apple or Amazon. Google has great services but their checkout is lackluster, their content still in process, and they’re almost always at the mercy of their hardware and carrier partners. Microsoft also has a desktop OS and previous consumer electronics like Xbox that could help with a halo effect, but none of them provided the existing accessory base and upgrade path iPod did, and Microsoft’s entire mobile strategy has been slow to the point of abdication. And almost no one else has anything like Apple’s retail stores.

So while upcoming mobile competitors will be bringing specs to an experience fight, Amazon and their hugely successful ecomm business will at least be bringing content as well. But it’s still an experience fight.

At the end of the day — or more appropriately at the moment of consumer decision making — you can’t match Apple on content any more than you can match them on specs. You have to match them on the feeling of the person in the Apple Store, hands-on with the device, absent any distracting logos on the bezel, easily obtaining and joyously not only using apps, but having the device become the app.

It’s a visceral response from mainstream consumers, an ability to engage with technology in a new, more understandable and incredibly intimate way that’s selling iPads, and that’s what needs to be competed against.

According to the New York Times, Apple has rejected a few apps recently including Sony’s Reader app, based on the way content is purchased for use within the app. Sony’s Reader app is an eBook platform similar to Apple’s own iBooks app and the Amazon Kindle app. Content can be found and purchased outside the app, bypassing Apple’s iTunes Store and therefore bypassing Apples slice of the pie.

According to Steve Haber, president of Sony’s digital reading division, Apple told him that from now on, all future in-app purchases would have to go through Apple and this includes eBooks. Currently the Amazon Kindle bypasses the App Store too; when you select Kindle Store from within the Kindle app, you are taken to a web page where you can select, buy and pay for your book. This happens outside of iTunes and the App Store; Apple does not take any revenue from Kindle book purchases, but that now looks set to change.

Maybe this change is coming with the new magazine subscription service we expect to be implemented in iOS 4.3 and the launch of The Daily newspaper. Either way, this is another blow to the consumer, who will no doubt end up paying more and have less control of their content. What do you think? Let us know in the comments!

[The New York Times]

Wondering how you’ll get through all the Christmas cooking, cleaning, shopping, and entertaining? Luckily there are lots of iPhone and iPad apps for that. Whether you need to take your turkey (or tofu!) up a notch, get the perfect gift for that special someone, or just survive the relatives festivities, read on for TiPb’s top 5 favorite, most recommended, most must-have iPhone and iPad apps to get you through Christmas and into the New Year.

Epicurious Recipes and Shopping List (Universal)

From the famed website of the same name Epicurious brings the best in seasonal recipes to your iPhone and iPad year round, but they really give it their all for Christmas. Currently featured categories include Christmas Cookies, Pies and Tarts, Christmas Dinners, Holiday Desserts, Christmas Cocktails, Edible Gifts, Holiday Sides, and Vegetarian Holiday fare. From full time foodies to those who only cook — and panic about it — this time of year, Epicurious is our go-to app to get our Christmas cheer started in style. Universal app – download once, use on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. [Free - iTunes link]

Also check out:

• iTunes Holiday Cooking Apps [Various - iTunes link]

Gift Plan (iPhone)

Watching Homer Simpson race out the door, hop into the car, and speed off to the gas station because he forgot to buy that all-important Christmas gift may be funny to watch but it’s terrifying when it happens to you. Gift Plan makes sure it never ever does. While it works for birthdays, anniversaries, and pretty much any special occasion, it really shines over Christmas when everyone needs presents all at once. Just enter in who you have to buy for, include all-important metrics like your lady’s dress size or boss’ hobbies, add ideas as you get them, and then let Gift Plan do the heavy reminder lifting. And hey, if it’s too late and you missed a gift this year, whip out Gift Plan and add it in for next year. The app is cheap. Staying off the couch and out of the dog house is priceless. [$1.99 - iTunes link]

Amazon Windowshop (iPad)

Once you know what you want to buy, you still need to buy it. Online shopping offers tons of options from the megamarts to the mom and pops but Amazon is the reigning king of great selection, good prices, and fast delivery. With Amazon Windowshop, they’ve even made it more fun to get your shopping done. It’s a completely custom, totally optimized iPad interface and it makes browsing for items a fast, fluid experience. All the usual product categories are there, as are featured items, best sellers, new releases, most wished for, and appropriately for the season — most gifted. If you’re an Amazon Prime member, or don’t mind forking over the extra cash for next or second-day delivery, it can even rescue the last-minute shopper in you. [Free - iTunes link]

Also check out:

• iTunes Apps for Holiday Shopping [Various - iTunes link]

Scrabble (iPhone/iPad)

Scrabble, the classic word game, is available for both iPhone and iPad, though you have to buy each separately. Each works pretty much as you’d expect — you can play Scrabble on your iPhone or iPad with them, just the way you’ve played the board game for years if not generations. But here’s where it gets especially great for the holidays: If you have an iPad and an iPhone, or especially if a group of you have iPhones, you can use the iPad as the Scrabble board and each keep your individual letter tiles on your iPhone via the free Scrabble Tile Rack app. Then, where you’re ready to play your word, you can flick the tiles from your iPhone to the iPad board. It supports up to 4 friends and/or family members and while gimmicky it’s also a great. [$0.99 on sale - iPad iTunes link, iPhone iTunes link] [Free - Tile Rack iTunes link]

Also check out:

• iTunes Holiday Apps (Games section) [Various - iTunes link]

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Universal)

The classic Dr. Seuss book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas comes to both iPhone and iPad in interactive form. It can automatically read to kids, young and old, read but let you control the page turning, or let you read out loud all by yourself. You can also touch the pictures — all Dr. Seuss originals, of course — and their name will be written, and spoken out loud. There are a half-dozen or so Dr. Seuss books available in the App Store but this time of year none makes our tiny, cold little hearts grow more sizes than the story of the Grinch. Perfect to either help keep the kids busy or to read together for some quality time over the holidays. Universal app – download once, use on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. [$3.99 - iTunes link]

• iTunes Holiday Apps (Books section) [Various - iTunes link]

Your top Christmas apps?

So there you have them, our top 5 best iPhone and iPad apps for Chistmas. Be sure to check out our Picks of the Week and iPhone App and Games Forum and iPad App and Games Forum for more recommendations, and if we missed any of your favorites leave them in the comments below!

Google is expected to launch an online eBook store before the end of the year under the name of Google Editions and that once again puts the head to head against Apple and their new iBooks:

The long-delayed venture—Google executives had said they hoped to launch this summer—recently has cleared several technical and legal hurdles, people close to the company say. It is set to debut in the U.S. by the end of the year and internationally in the first quarter of next year, said Scott Dougall, a Google product management director.

Google will handle their eBook store differently from how Apple or Amazon play the game, opting for a “read anywhere” model where users can purchase an eBook from Google (or an online retail partner) and it’s added to an online library tied to your Google account. Users can then access their Google account from a number of devices including smartphones and tablets.

No word yet on revenue sharing (iBooks is 70/30), which publishing companies have signed up, or which partners will come on board. However, Google’s reach is not to be underestimated:

Google says it is on a mission to reach all Internet users, not just those with tablets, through a program in which websites refer their users to Google Editions. For example, a surfing-related blog could recommend a surfing book, point readers to Google Editions to purchase it, and share revenue with Google. Through another program, booksellers could sell Google Editions e-books from their websites and share revenue with Google.

Keeping things on the cloud is nothing new for Google and it’s worked well for services like Gmail. If Google Editions is successful could it have a negative impact on iBooks but, like Amazon’s Kindle app, add value to iPad and iPhone at the same time?

Let us know in the comments!

[ WSJ ]

Apple TV is currently ranked in the number 12 position on Amazon’s best-selling gadget list. What makes this so interesting is that Apple TV wasn’t even listed at all until now, despite its sales numbers. When that was discovered and began to be questioned on several prominent online sites, the Apple TV magically showed up. (Amazon has yet to respond to questions on why Apple TV was originally excluded from their list.)

Also an interesting bit is that the competing Roku XDS and Boxee Box are also on the list, though below Apple TV’s position.

Given that the Apple TV has only been out for a very short period of time and has managed to beat out 88 other gadgets on Amazon’s Top 100 devices list, does this bode well for Apple TV and its owners?

[ Yahoo! Finance ]

Amazon has released Windowshop for iPad. If you use Amazon as frequently as I do, you may already realize that the current iPhone and iPad offerings are pretty grim.  I’ve never been a huge fan of the Amazon app as it seems to just be a mobile version of the site shoved into an app.  Windowshop seems to bridge that gap quite nicely on the iPad and it’s now available in the App Store as a free download.

It does an extremely nice job of separating categories and allowing you to quickly switch between them.  To me, this is a lot less tedious compared to weeding through search results and refining them.  Your categories will simply appear at the top and you’ll be presented with columns of search results.  From there, you can simply pick the best category at the top that best suits what you’re looking for and just search within that section.  If they could make a scaled down version of this for the iPhone as well, I’d be all set!  Pick it up and give it a shot, and of course, let us know what you think!

[iTunes Link]

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iPad origins, how big can the market get, Target, Amazon, and Walmart oh my, limera1n causes some pain, and Marc Edwards joins us from Bjango. It’s 10/10/10 folks and this is iPad live!

Credits

Thanks to the the iPhone Blog Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

As expected Target has begun selling Apple’s iPad, and if our inbox and subsequent searches are to be believed, online retail giant Amazon has joined them.

Like our early screenshots showed, Target is offering the complete line of iPads. Amazon is only selling the Wi-Fi iPad though 3rd party resellers may or may not have the 3G model available (the page was showing some, then popping up errors, so your luck may vary).

Apple moved millions of iPads via their own Apple Retail and Apple Online stores and getting them onto the shelves (real or virtual) of more and major outlets can only help them sell more.

The only question is whether or not iPad reaches saturation point before we start the see them behind the counter at Quicky Mart. (Come again!)

Amazon’s new Kindle comes in a smaller, darker package and they’re positioning it to compete with Apple’s iPad (which can also read Kindle books) on price ($139 for Wi-Fi $189 for 3G) and a laser-like focus on reading.

• All-New, High-Contrast E-Ink Screen – 50% better contrast than any other e-reader
• Read in Bright Sunlight – No glare
• New and Improved Fonts – New crisper, darker fonts
• New Sleek Design – 21% smaller body while keeping the same 6″ size reading area
• 17% Lighter – Only 8.5 ounces, weighs less than a paperback
• Battery Life of Up to One Month – A single charge lasts up to one month with wireless off
• Double the Storage – Up to 3,500 Books
• Built-In Wi-Fi – Shop and download books in less than 60 seconds
• 20% Faster Page Turns – Seamless reading
• Enhanced PDF Reader – With dictionary lookup, notes, and highlights
• New WebKit-Based Browser – Browse the web over Wi-Fi (experimental)

Much smarter than simply trying to re-brand it as KindlePad…

[Amazon]

Amazon has announced Kindle Editions with Audio/Video and it looks like the only way you can get it right now is on iPhone and iPad. Kindle Editions with Audio/Video:

allows readers to enjoy the benefits of embedded video and audio clips in Kindle books. The first books to take advantage of this new technology, including Rick Steves’ London by Rick Steves and Together We Cannot Fail by Terry Golway, are available in the Kindle Store

“In the new Kindle Edition with audio/video of Rick Steves’ London, the embedded walking tours allow customers to listen to Rick as they explore the sites of London,” said Bill Newlin, publisher, Avalon Travel. “Rick’s narration adds depth to the reader’s experience, while listeners can follow the routes more easily with the text.”

The Kindle app has also been updated to support iPhone 4′s Retina Display. If you decide to try out these new fangled talking, walking eBooks, let us know what you think.

[iTunes link, Amazon PR, Kindle Editions with Audio/Video]

Kindle on iPad is, well, not as good as Kindle on a Kindle or iBooks. That’s going to be the bottom line for a lot of people. It works in both portrait and landscape – though curiously I can’t find a way to get a two-column book view in landscape. You can do most of the traditional ebook things: change the font size, adjust brightness, jump to any point in the book, have your place saved, etc. On Kindle you can also bookmark pages and add your own notes – all of which get synced up to Amazon’s cloud so you can see them on other Kindle devices like your iPhone, a Kindle, etc.

Instead of an in-app store, Amazon sends you to Safari to browse and search for Kindle book – which I don’t find especially annoying because the iPad’s web browser is so good. Amazon has a slightly better selection of books than Apple does too, though in both cases I often find myself stymied when trying to find a particular book.

With both Kindle and iBooks my basic feeling is that they’re good for light reading, but the difficulty of entering and exporting notes means that while I’ll use them for entertainment, I won’t use them for ‘serious’ work.

Hopefully Amazon will update this app to support two-column landscape mode soon.

Video and gallery after the break!

If you’ve got the iPhone or iPod touch version of Amazon’s Kindle App [Free - iTunes link] check your updates because the new Kindle 2.0, universal binary version with iPad support is now live in the App Store!

Boasting 450,000 books (for US customers, international availability varies), and Whispersync convenience between Kindle device, iPhone, iPod touch, and now iPad, Apple doesn’t seem to have a problem with duplicating iBooks functionality.

It also says you can shop the Kindle store, though whether that means you can do it within the app, like iBookstore, or if you still have to go to the Amazon.com website first… we’ll find out tomorrow.

If you’re a Kindle Books lover, let us know how you enjoy reading them on your iPad!

According to Mac Rumors, Best Buy is gearing up for Apple’s iPad launch on April 3rd. The retail chain is providing its employees with details leading up to launch day and stores are expecting display materials early next week. Not every Best Buy will carry the device, however. Only the stores with Apple shop sections will be lucky enough to sell iPads at launch. If you do plan on making a purchase at Best Buy on April 3rd be aware none of their stores will be opening early.

In other iPad sales news, 9to5Mac points out Amazon.com also seems to be prepping for iPad sales as well by setting up a placeholder for all three WiFi versions on their site. So while you will not see it on Amazon for sale on day one, it should not be long after.

More choices are better for the consumer, but which choice is best for you? Where will you be picking up your iPad? Let us know in the comments below!

Confirming that it won’t just be Apple’s iBookstore (and your own free ePubs) on the iPad, the New York Times today mentions that both Amazon and Barnes & Noble are both working on book stores of their own. While both market their own hardware devices, the Kindle and the Nook respectively, the iPad is expected to throw a huge spotlight on eBooks in general, and they want to benefit:

The Kindle app for the iPad, which Amazon demonstrated to a reporter last week, allows readers to slowly turn pages with their fingers. It also presents two new ways for people to view their entire e-book collection, including one view where large images of book covers are set against a backdrop of a silhouetted figure reading under a tree. The sun’s position in that image varies with the time of day.

At the offices of Barnes & Noble’s digital unit in New York, 14 developers have occupied a windowless room since January, completely redesigning the company’s iPhone app for the iPad, according to Douglas Gottlieb, its vice president of digital products. The developers hunch over Macs around a big table, and printouts and notecards are taped up on the walls.

The new app will let users flip through books quickly with finger swipes and customize fonts in multiple colors and sizes. Mr. Gottlieb said the company was talking to publishers about adding multimedia to digital books.

Neither company received one of those secret, early-access iPad units for testing, so while they may be simulator-ready for the April 3 launch, they may not want to release until they’ve had a chance to run their apps on the real hardware. Comic reader app Panefly, for example, thinks a bad day 1 experience with an app that worked fine in the lab but poorly on the actual iPad could “kill the train before it leaves the station”.

As to whether or not Apple will approve competing bookstores for the iPad App Store, TiPb’s always felt that the best indicator was Steve Jobs announcing iBooks as a separate, downloadable app rather than a built-in like iTunes Store. While this may have also reflected iBooks US-only availability, and there’s never any way to tell for sure what Apple will do until they do it, at the end of the day they want to move hardware and letting existing Kindle (and Nook) owners bring over their books is a great way to lower the barrier of iPad entry.

Right now, both the Kindle for iPhone [Free- iTunes link] and Barnes & Noble eReader for iPhone [Free - iTunes link] frequire a clunky web-based work around for purchasing books, however, and it would be nice to see that process actually integrated into the apps — like iBooks and the iBookstore.

So, given the choice, what will you be buying and reading your eBooks with — Amazon Kindle for iPad, Barnes & Noble eBook Reader for iPad, or Apple’s iBooks?

[NYT via AppleInsider]

So after all that pushing by publishers for the 70/30 split “agency model”, and bullying of Amazon into raising eBook best-seller prices to $14.99, the New York Times is now reporting that Apple may be allowed to discount the price of those same bestsellers to $9.99 — the original Amazon price.

Yeah, we’re confused too. Amazon used to lose money selling aBooks at $9.99 because the publishers got paid the same amount regardless of price or discounts. Under the new “agency model” and 70/30 split, the publishers get less money, 70%. What they wanted, however, was a higher sticker price for consumers whether or not they lost some money on it. See, it was all about the “perceived value” of eBooks. They don’t want us to think eBooks are cheap, and they’ll take less money to charge us more. Apple, wanting to compete with Amazon (and liking the consistent 70/30 model they already use in the iTunes and App Stores) agreed to the deal with the launch of the iPad and the iBooks app. Big publishers then started pressuring Amazon to do likewise.

Which brings us — again still confused — to the New York Times story:

according to at least three people with knowledge of the discussions, who spoke anonymously because of the confidentiality of the talks, Apple inserted provisions requiring publishers to discount e-book prices on best sellers — so that $12.99-to-$14.99 range was merely a ceiling; prices for some titles could be lower, even as low as Amazon’s $9.99. Essentially, Apple wants the flexibility to offer lower prices for the hottest books, those on one of the New York Times best-seller lists, which are heavily discounted in bookstores and on rival retail sites. So, for example, a book that started at $14.99 would drop to $12.99 or less once it hit the best-seller lists.

So did Apple give publishers everything they thought they wanted, and somehow still keep the ability to charge $9.99 for bestsellers? And if our heads are throbbing from all this, is Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos’ near ready to ‘splode?

Both Mcmillan and Amazon have issued statements about the story linked to previously, wherein they stopped selling Macmillan e-books after the publisher wanted to raise the price for best-sellers to an agency model $12.99 to $14.99 — which Apple had already agreed to for iBooks on the iPad.

Mcmillan’s CEO, John Sargent’s comments ran as a paid advertisement in the Sunday edition of PublishersLunch and read in part:

Under the agency model, we will sell the digital editions of our books to consumers through our retailers. Our retailers will act as our agents and will take a 30% commission (the standard split today for many digital media businesses). The price will be set the price for each book individually. Our plan is to price the digital edition of most adult trade books in a price range from $14.99 to $5.99. At first release, concurrent with a hardcover, most titles will be priced between $14.99 and $12.99. E books will almost always appear day on date with the physical edition. Pricing will be dynamic over time.

The agency model would allow Amazon to make more money selling our books, not less. We would make less money in our dealings with Amazon under the new model. Our disagreement is not about short-term profitability but rather about the long-term viability and stability of the digital book market.

Amazon’s response can be found in full on Engadget, but contains:

We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan’s terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it’s reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don’t believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative.

So what do you think? Will the publishers be able to raise prices or will the market — or lack thereof for higher priced e-books — force them back down again?

[PublishersLunch via BoingBoing via Engadget]

According to the NYT’s Bits blog, Amazon has pulled Macmillan e-books due to a dispute over pricing, with Amazon wanting to hold the line at $9.99 and Macmillan wanting to raise it to an Apple iPad iBooks-like $14.99.

Eerily similar to Apple and iTunes Music, where Steve Jobs resisted the music industries desire to raise prices from $0.99 a song, and finally came to an agreement for flexible pricing up to $1.29 in exchange for DRM-free 3G downloads in January 2009. Previous to the change, Amazon was able to use music industry dissatisfaction to offer DRM-free Amazon MP3 music at $0.89. The industry was willing to take the loss in an attempt to break Apple’s control, and now it looks like their hoping similar pressure and competition from Apple’s iBooks will break down Amazon.

Ironic, poetic? Here’s where it stands:

Macmillan offered Amazon the opportunity to buy Kindle editions on the same “agency” model as it will sell e-books to Apple for the iPad. Under this model, the publisher sets the consumer book price and takes 70 percent of each sale, leaving 30 percent to the retailer. Macmillan said Amazon could continue to buy e-books under its current wholesale model, paying the publisher 50 percent of the hardcover list price while pricing the e-book at any level Amazon chooses, but that Macmillan would delay those e-book editions by seven months after hardcover release. Amazon’s removal of Macmillan titles on Friday appears to be a direct reaction to that.

And here we thought when there was competition, prices were supposed to go down…

You already knew TiPb’s very own store is having a huge sale today and if that isn’t enough, Amazon has an excellent deal on the 2nd generation 8GB iPod touch. For $158 you can nab one with free shipping along with a small bonus of a $5 Amazon MP3 Store credit.

If you spot any other worthy Cyber Monday deals be sure to let us know!

[Via 9to5Mac]

In reference to last week’s news that Amazon pulled copies unlicensed copies of 1984 and Animal Farm off users’ Kindles and iPhone Kindle apps, Jeff Bezos proves that sometimes the buck still stops at the top:

This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our “solution” to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we’ve received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.

With deep apology to our customers,

Jeff Bezos
Founder & CEO
Amazon.com

Nice.

UPDATE: Engadget heard from Drew Herdener, Amazon.com’s Director of Communications:

These books were added to our catalog using our self-service platform by a third-party who did not have the rights to the books. When we were notified of this by the rights holder, we removed the illegal copies from our systems and from customers’ devices, and refunded customers. We are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers’ devices in these circumstances.

Good on them for coming clean and changing the policy going forward. Though it would have been nice to have the candor and insight up-front.

ORIGINAL: According to Engadget, Amazon has remotely wiped copies of George Orwell’s classics, 1984 and Animal Farm from Kindles, refunding the purchase price of affected users.

We’re not yet certain, but users of the iPhone Kindle app are probably similarly effected.

It remains unlikely that Amazon broke into any houses, repossessed any copies of same, and left change on the bureau.

By contrast, when Apple removed NetShare from the App Store, already purchased copies remained — and remain to this day — on the devices of whomever purchased them.

Takes a lot of wrong to make App Store policy seem right these days, so way to go, Amazon. You’ve either redefined ownership in the DRM age, or broken faith with any customers thinking of owning any more Kindle content…

Amazon, citing new provisions of their API/data terms of use, informed Delicious Library developer Wil Shipley that if he didn’t immediately remove Delicious Library for iPhone from the iTunes App Store, they’d remove his ability to use Amazon APIs and data from all of his products, including the long-standing Delicious Library for Mac.

Just when we thought Apple had a hold on mind-boggling app blocking. Sigh.

TUAW quotes the relevant new passage:

(e) You will not, without our express prior written approval requested via this link , use any Product Advertising Content on or in connection with any site or application designed or intended for use with a mobile phone or other handheld device.

So, according to Shipley:

Delicious Library for iPhone isn’t coming back as long as we’re using Amazon’s APIs, unless they decide to make an exception to section 4e.

Which he says he’s been told they aren’t going to do at this point.

Is this just another big company stumbling around in confusion about new mobile technology and how it’s used, ready to rectify it when public outcry makes them aware and uncomfortable. Or is this a sign that Amazon has big plans for this new mobile technology themselves, and they don’t plan to share?

Back in March, Apple’s App Store was blessed with the free Amazon Kindle iPhone application. One of the biggest gripes that we had with it was the inability to purchase new books right from the app itself. While we still did not get that ability, Amazon has done the next best thing: last night they flipped the switch on an iPhone optimized Kindle store.

This freshly optimized store is nice to have but what, if anything, will change when iPhone OS 3.0 is released? If you remember, 3.0 has the ability to make in-app purchases. Will Amazon finally allow in-app purchases and give Apple a 30% cut off the top, or will Amazon stick with the current arrangement to avoid paying Apple for every book that is sold?

So what do you, our readers, think about this one? Either way, it should be interesting!

Amazon liked the iPhone E-Book Reader Stanza so much, they didn’t just buy the app, they bought the whole company! That’s what the New York Times makes it sound like, quoting Amazon spokesperson, Cinthia Portugal:

“It’s very early days for e-books, and we believe there is a lot of innovation ahead of us. [...] Lexcycle is a smart, innovative company. and we look forward to working with them to innovate on behalf of readers.”

Translation: Amazon, not content with Kindle, wants to own the E-Book space. All books space, actually. All space in general, pretty much.

Lexcycle, for their part, claim not to be making any changes to the Stanza iPhone users all know and love.

But how do we feel about putting all our E-Books in one megacorp’s basket?

Yes, folks, I was one of the suckers eager buyers of the 2nd edition of the Kindle. My pain is your pleasure, though, as you can get some early screenshots of the app already loaded up with books via Whispersync.

As you may have just read in our previous post, Amazon has just released Kindle for iPhone for free in the App Store (iTunes link), you cannot buy Kindle books directly from the app. Instead you can purchase inside Mobile Safari, from your desktop, or from a Kindle

The text is nice and readable (and you can resize as well). The app keeps a “page metaphor,” meaning that instead of being able to scroll up and down, you swipe left and right to switch pages. A single tap on the screen bring up a menu to give you back, bookmark, text-size, and a sync button to sync your last page read with a Kindle.

The Whispersync tech works exactly as advertised — books purchased show up as “Archived” and you can then download them directly to your iPhone.

Head on in after the break for your screenshots!

Amazon’s Kindle App for iPhone and iPod touch is now live in the App Store. It allows access to hundreds of thousands of Amazon Kindle format e-books (we assume the whole 200K plus library).

The Amazon Kindle for iPhone app is FREE (iTunes Link), but it looks like books need to be purchased from Amazon directly via PC or Mac and transferred over, or from the iPhone via Mobile Safari. Most e-books should run $9.99. Like with the Kindle device itself, you can sample first chapters for free, adjust text size and bookmark. You can’t annotate but you can view Kindle annotations.

Whispersync is also enabled so you can start reading on the Kindle, switch to the iPhone, and basically go back and forth without losing your place. Books you’ve already purchased for the Kindle, of course, can be placed on the iPhone or iPod touch as well.

Note: Per Dieter, this doesn’t seem to be showing up on the iPhone App Store app yet, and — of course — it’s not available (yet?) in the Canadian App Store (or any international App Store?)

Any Kindle users out there ready to test this out and let us know how it’s working?

The techeratti love the Kindle — so what if it’s only available in the US, is selling half-as well as the Zune, Apple targeted “reading” in a recent commercial, and Google just optimized their Books service for the iPhone? It’s not like Amazon is making an iPhone reader too, is it?

Whoops! D – All Things Digital says Amazon may just be doing exactly that:

“We are excited to make Kindle books available on a range of mobile phones. We are working on that now,” an Amazon spokesman told the New York Times, while offering zero other details. [...] I’ve asked for more clarification, but I’m not hopeful–it’s difficult to get Amazon to acknowledge that the sun sets in the West. [UPDATE: Via email, an Amazon spokesman allows that "we are excited" but nothing else.] The big question is whether Amazon intends to sell titles that can be read on Apple’s (AAPL) handsets.

Makes sense. Amazon is essentially a software and services company, books for your shelves, movies for your player, even food for your fridge. They’re not a consumer electronics manufacturer like Apple. Kindle-style E-Books would be a much better revenue generator for them if they — like audio books — could play on a variety of platforms. (We don’t see Audible making their own proprietary MP3 player, do we?)

I’d love to see the Kindle’s market place opened up to the iPhone. How about you? Want the latest best sellers, this term’s text books, and the WSJ all beamed directly to your iPhone?

(Thanks to The Reptile for sending this in!)

UPDATE: Chad here giving Amazon Mobile for iPhone a try!

I am very excited for Amazon’s new native app on the App Store [iTunes Link] for a couple of reasons. Mainly, I like to shop on Amazon, so this offers a convenient tool. Second, it is a really neat experimental feature called “Amazon Remembers”, more on this later…

The app gives you what you would expect in an iPhone app these days: a home screen, search, cart, remembers and more. Let’s discuss each of these briefly.

Home: This is your start page in the app. It displays items from your wish list and search

Search: You um, search for products here

Cart: View any items you have in your cart; items display from the web or the app

Remembers: This is really cool. Basically you take a photo of something you are looking for, and Amazon will find a match. Amazon has real people looking at this stuff, so it can take a day or two to get a result.

More: This is where everything else is placed. Wish lists, account information tracking packages, etc.

I am very impressed with the app. Amazon could have just made a native app that mimicked their web app, but instead they are trying new things (Amazon Remembers) and giving us access to useful tools (Tracking Packages). I have captured several photos, enjoy them below!

Amazon sent me an email telling me they found a matching product for the picture of the Sharpie marker that I took (see screen hot below). Very cool! I can then buy that item directly from the iPhone! Sweet!

Gallery and Rene’s original post after the break!

Sure, Android may have the Amazon MP3 store, but now the iPhone has everything else! Amazon Mobile for iPhone lets you shop quickly (1-Click) and securely (SSL). Will it be as good an experience as the WebApp optimized website version? We’ll see — we still prefer the Facebook WebApp to the native App, but Google’s latest native App is killer. So far, it offers all the usual Amazon goodness, plus a new feature called Amazon Remembers, which lets you snaps photos of things (they use a folding chair in the example) you like, which it then keeps in the App and sends to Amazon, and shows you alongside anything Amazon thinks is similar in their catalog. Seems to be US only at the moment (at least it’s not in the Canadian App store yet, anyone else get it internationally?), but if you grab it, please let me know how it works (and if it stimulates you to spend a little for the economy, ‘natch!)

(Thanks Miguel for the tip!)

A-Day continues! AndroidCentral will have continuing coverage of T-Mobile’s new GooglePhone throughout the day, but we here at TiPb are keeping our eyes peeled for those nuggets that collide (or will collide) with the iPhone.

Okay, so Google’s CEO is on Apple’s Board of Directors, but he recuses himself from meetings about the iPhone. Okay, so Android is technically positioned to compete not against the iPhone but against the wide-range of lower end, multi-form-factor Windows Mobile devices. Okay, so the Android Market isn’t a proprietary, walled gardened like the App Store, which may please the FSF but may also turn off some developers who prefer single device targets. But at least Android is leaving the iPhone’s bread and butter alone right, it’s iPod heritage powered by the #1 music store in the US, iTunes?

Eh… Not so much. VentureBeat (via Engadget) is now rumoring that Google may just have lined up cloud-competitor Amazon to provide not only music, but TV and Movies as well. aTunes much?

What’s especially attractive about Amazon MP3 is that, while the 3@$+@29! record labels (other than EMI) deliberately withhold high quality, DRM free music from iTunes in order to give other vendors a competitive advantage, Amazon gets the good stuff from pretty much all of them. (Albeit it only in the US, but that’s the whole world anyway, right Amazon?)

Will this be announced alongside the T-Mobile G1 today? We’ll soon see!