It’s the end of an era for Amazon and Wal Mart as the two giants sever their relationship over the Kindle e-Reader. According to Reuters: Wal-Mart Stores Inc will no longer sell Amazon.com Inc’s Kindle eReaders and tablets, severing its relationship with a major competitor and placing a bet that consumers are more interested in Apple’s iPad and other gadgets….

Few devices have come along that have truly made me say, “Wow”. Perhaps the last one was the first iPhone. Even the iPad did little to earn my excitement. Those who read this may wonder how much Amazon is paying me. There are times when brand-advocacy comes truly from the heart and this is one of those times. The Kindle Fire by Amazon is the best technology purchase I’ve made in a while, so good that I just ordered one for every member of my family. Here’s why: The right size One of the reasons that I went with the iPad 2 instead of some of the Android devices that piqued my interest had nothing to do with being…

There’s a lot of hand-wringing over the so-called “dumbing-down” of America. We don’t read, we can’t write except in and LOLcat-speak, we barely know who’s president. Technology often takes the blame for some of this, with video games and the abbreviated speech of texts and Twitter squarely in the sights of our educators. But e-readers are beginning to create new readers and are getting more people than ever to buy books and read them. We’re buying 57 books a second in the United States, between the paper and electronic varieties. And though sales of print books have been declining (not precipitously,…

Based on one research firm’s estimates, online retailer Amazon may have sold 95,000 units of its all-new Kindle Fire tablet in the first day the device was available for pre-order. “eDataSource’s panel of 800,000 [email] inboxes allows us to gain insight into eCommerce sales” said Carter Nicholas, CEO of eDataSource, a leading provider of online competitive intelligence. “Within hours we can get a read on hot product launches based on sales from leading eCommerce websites.” By analyzing purchase receipts received by email, eDataSource is able to estimate the daily orders placed at major…

Amazon unveiled its all-new tablet computer today, adding the more robust Kindle Fire to its well-established line of Kindle e-readers. The Kindle Fire isn’t merely a copy of Apple’s dominant iPad. Instead, it’s far smaller and cheaper than its main rival. Powered by Google’s Android operating system, the Kindle Fire provides a platform for games, movies, music and other applications. Unlike the current iPad, the Fire doesn’t need to be backed up on a PC. Instead, it backs up its content wirelessly on Amazon’s servers. “That model that you have to back up your own content is a broken…

The digital age has been upon us for a while, but there are certain things that people simply prefer to do the old fashioned way. For many, holding an actual book in their hands is the key to their reading enjoyment. Have we reached a tipping point where e-readers are becoming more popular? Perhaps it’s not a tipping point yet, but it has achieved double-digits. 10% of American adults use some variation of electronic readers with another 12% saying they are likely to buy one in next 6 months. What does all of this say about our reading habits? GOOD tackles the question in this infographic. Click to enlarge….

According to reports, Amazon.com is planning to battle Apple with the launch of its own tablet computer. The device will reportedly hit the market by October and it will help the online retailer sell its music, movies, and other types of digital content. Since introducing the iPad last year, Apple had sold 19.5 million of the devices as of the end of March. It is far and away the leader in the tablet market, so Amazon’s looming entry into the tablet market will undoubtedly have a long road ahead of it. Although Amazon has yet to officially comment on this new tablet, reports suggest it will have a nine-inch…

Want the new Kindle 3? Want it cheaper than what most people have paid? Amazon may have the answer with the new $114 Kindle 3. It’s $25 less than the Wi-Fi only version. The catch? You’ll have to deal with more advertising. This move was, admittedly, a bit unexpected. Impressions were that Amazon would lower the price of the Kindle 3 (both Wi-Fi and 3G-enabled versions) to eventually compete with the iPad. The idea sounded good: perhaps a price drop for the holiday season this year with preparations for a new Kindle 4? But that wasn’t the plan. It wasn’t even close. Instead, Amazon has tossed us a curveball…

Fair use. If you buy a device and decide later to switch to a different one, should you be forced to buy the exact same media over again? Such was the case with the DRM-tainted Amazon Kindle… until now. The geniuses over at Too Smart Guys made a video showing us how to remove DRM from your Kindle. The intro is fun to watch, but the real meat starts just passed the 2-minute mark. Free your books! You bought them. …

I’m a fan of the Kindle, I really am. With books on the whole going by the wayside, the Kindle is the closest I and my ilk will be able to get to a traditional reading experience over the next few decades. But that’s okay – that e-ink screen is just the cat’s ass once you use it IRL for the first time. Never change, Kindle. You’re just what you need to be. But Kindle never was one to proudly take its place in the tech ecosystem, and this latest TV spot sort of just makes Amazon seem sorta douchey. The ad stresses the fact that an iPad is virtually unreadable in direct sunlight, much unlike a Kindle. Okay, Kindle,…