Kindle’s version 2 of the electronic book reader is now scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2009, featuring updated software and revisions to address some of the button issues that have plagued the first generation of Kindle devices.
Initially slated for fall 2008 release, the new Kindle’s availability was delayed to accommodate last-minute software updates by Amazon, reports TechCrunch.com.
The relatively slow development of the next-generation Kindle prompted suggestions from Michael Arrington at TechCrunch that Amazon ought to farm out the platform license to manufacturers that can adapt new iterations more nimbly (such as in, say, China).
It is, after all, a long-in-the-Bluetooth 12-month-old technology. (Technically, we’re told Kindle doesn’t use Bluetooth, but let’s not quibble when fun wordplay makes itself available.)
In somewhat related news, Random House announced it is adding another 6,000 backlist titles to its stable of e-books. Though still relatively small, sales of e-books have tripled this year, Random reports.

To learn more, CLICK HERE.

We’ll soon see if Oprah Winfrey’s influence on book sales has the same effect on some of the book world’s newest technology.
Amazon got some free publicity thanks to Oprah Winfrey’s ringing endorsement of the Kindle e-book reader. She’s even offering a $50 discount off the pricy readers at her Web site.
Her Web site acknowledges the initial price is pretty steep for many of her viewers. “Although the Amazon Kindle costs $359, Oprah looks at it as an environmentally friendly investment. ‘I know it’s expensive in these times, but it’s not frivolous because it will pay for itself,’ she says. ‘The books are much cheaper, and you’re saving paper.’ New York Times Bestsellers and New Releases are $9.99 or less, unless otherwise marked.”

For more information, CLICK HERE.

To see the Kindle  cl.ass, CLICK HERE.

Digital book publishing has reached an awkward stage in its development: that space between wariness and general acceptance, for publishers and consumers alike. Meanwhile, publishers are pushing forward.

Simon & Schuster is making more than 500 titles available for sale on mobile devices on MPS’ Mobile Global Reader. “The full Simon & Schuster eBook catalog will be made available in the coming months.”

The soon-to-begin Frankfurt Book Fair has released the results of a survey of more than 1,000 publishing industry people, which found that some 70 percent “feel ready for the digital challenge,” while 60 percent do not use e-readers or read e-books. “Top concerns” were: copyright (28 percent); digital rights management (22 percent); standard format, such as .epub, 21 percent; and retail price maintenance, 16 percent.
It also found:
• China’s digital influence in international publishing predicted to increase threefold in next five years
• consumers, Amazon, Google believed to drive the digitisation process
• e-content will overtake traditional books in sales by 2018
• online bookselling named as most important development of the past 60 years

Results of the survey, CLICK HERE.
To see the show’s Web site, CLICK HERE:

Meanwhile, on the political front:

Newsweek’s staff has prepared biographies of the four presidential and vice presidential campaigns (titled Mr. Cool, Mr. Hot, The Insider, and The Outsider) and will sell them on Kindle, available on Oct. 15.

See the Newsweek post, CLICK HERE.

Kindle is testing the market for interest in Mitch Albom’s “Commencement Speech To His Nephew’s Graduating Class: May 30, 2008, Nice, France.” First question: Was it in English, and could the class understand it? (True, Europeans tend to be bilingual, unlike most Americans.)
Priced at bargain-basement 99 cents, the Kindle file clocks in at fewer than 4,000 words.

Amazon pitches it: “Albom created a memorable testament to what we know and what we need to learn. In his passionate, touching and frequently funny address, he warned the class of 2008 of the many things they should watch out for in life, from sushi at airports to religions that advertise in the back of magazines.”
At 99 cents, there’s not much risk in that investment — except for the $400 machine it comes in.
For more information CLICK HERE.