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Amazon is the largest Internet company in the world. Originally started as an online book store, there is now almost nothing you can’t buy at amazon.com.

In addition to its ecommerce store, Amazon offers video streaming, music streaming, a publishing company and cloud services. It has also diversified into manufacturing its own branded consumer electronics products, ranging from Amazon Basics cables to Kindle ebook readers, Fire tablets and TV boxes and Echo speakers.

Amazon has its own intelligent assistant, Alexa. Created for its Echo range of smart speakers, Alexa is also supported by a wide range of third-party products, including speakers, TVs, printers, phones, laptops, cars and more. Over 100 million Alexa devices had been sold as of early 2019.

Amazon Prime now available as a $7.99/month plan (Updated)

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Update: An Amazon spokesperson says this is just a test (but you still can order this per month)“We are always looking at ways to improve the shopping experience for our customers. We are testing a monthly Prime subscription. Beyond that, we don’t have anything further to offer.”

It appears Amazon is joining Hulu and Netflix with a monthly subscription plan for its Prime video streaming service, according to a new pricing scheme found by Hacking Netflix. Some users are seeing the new pricing scheme come up, while others see only the $79/year options (compare right and above).

Amazon also offers a one-month free trial (Hulu free trial, Netflix free trial).

In addition to the free streaming video service, users of Amazon’s Prime get access to free two-day shipping on product orders (amazing to have for the holidays—especially on a month-to-month basis), as well as access to the Kindle lending library.

While Amazon’s streaming player isn’t yet available on Apple TV like Netflix/Hulu, its recent iPad app has impressed us. The $7.99/month price comes out to $95.88 per year. So, if you aren’t timid about joining Prime, it is probably better to jump on the $79/year plan.

9to5Toys.com deals: Get a new Toshiba Wifi-ready BluRay player with Netflix for $30, or a Toshiba 24″ 1080P slim HDTV for $150

With more and more first rate content, according to a recent Changwave/451 Group study, Amazon’s Prime streaming service is said to be gaining on industry heavyweight Netflix (graphed below):
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Spoof ‘banned’ iPad mini promo [Video]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os87PLlyU4k]

You might have seen past “banned” Apple promo videos from John Elerick and crew on YouTube. The guys are out with their latest spoof Apple commercial today, but this time it is for the iPad mini. On a serious note, Amazon is taking note of some of the iPad mini’s shortcomings, as pointed out in the video, by posting a comparison of the Kindle Fire HD and the iPad mini on its website. Amazon already included the comparison in its recent earnings release, but today it posted a large graphic on its homepage that reads “Much more for much less” while comparing specs of the two devices:

Elerick’s recent banned iPhone 5 promo, also worth a watch, is below:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFUz6vHEQCM&feature=share&list=SPEFE01BA954950D82]

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Amazon sold a record number of Kindle Fire HDs the day after the iPad mini was announced

According to Amazon, it was unfazed by the announcement of the iPad mini by Apple earlier this week. In fact, the company sold a record amount of $199 Kindle Fire HDs on Wednesday since being available on the market.

AllThingsD reported:

In response to a question about how Kindle sales were faring following Apple’s iPad mini announcement on Tuesday, Amazon spokesperson Drew Herdener reported they were selling better than usual. “Wednesday was the $199 Kindle Fire HD’s biggest day of sales since launch and up 3x week over week,” according to a statement emailed to AllThingsD.

For those keeping tabs, the Kindle Fire HD features a 7-inch IPS display, 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 11 hours of battery life, and a weight of 13.9 oz.

Price presumably played a factor.

[tweet https://twitter.com/eejay/status/262287654173958144]

[tweet https://twitter.com/ryanchristensen/status/262289646740963328]


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Get same speedy SSDs that Apple uses in MacBooks for over half off today -128GB: $70, 256GB: $155

From 9to5Toys.com:

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The very same Samsung 830 SSDs that Apple uses in its new MacBook Pro/Airs, the Samsung 830s, are on sale today only at Amazon. At $69.99 for 128GB and $154.99 for 256GB with free shipping, these are the lowest prices we’ve seen for these SSDs which feature read speeds of up to 520MB/s and write speeds of up to 400MB/s.

Update: The deal is over but hit up their big SSD sale
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Amazon making moves to displace iPads in schools

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We know Apple has had a lot of success pushing iPads in education, and during Apple’s Q3 conference call, CEO Tim Cook said the company would continue to be “very aggressive”. Apple’s iPad 2 sales in the K-12 market doubled y-o-y in Q3 thanks to a price drop to $399. In Q2, Apple said it sold about a million iPad units to the United States education market. With Apple’s upcoming iPad mini announcement possibly bringing an even lower price point for iPads in education, Amazon is announcing its plans today to get Kindle tablets into schools.

Reuters reported today that Amazon is launching a service, called “Whispercast”, aimed at allowing schools to easily deploy and manage multiple kindle devices:


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Apple and Amazon notify customers of $69M State settlement with publishers, how to get credit

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Earlier this week, Amazon began letting customers know if they were eligible for a share of the $69 million state attorney settlements with Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon and Schuster. Today, Apple started notifying iBooks customers, who bought an iBook from April 1, 2010 to May 21, 2012, of the same payout.

The payout will be dispersed as Kindle/iBooks credit or customers can call a number to request a check for delivery in February.

Notably, if you purchased the Steve Jobs eBook bio from Simon and Schuster on iBooks or Amazon, you should receive this notice.

To be clear, this is separate from the Federal price-fixing case surrounding Apple and some publishers. Barnes and Noble and other eBook distributors are likely doing the same thing. The Amazon version is below:


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Apple iPods start appearing at US retailers, Touches in short supply


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Apple is now supplying iPod touches to retailers including Amazon which now has some supply of the iPod touch. Strangely, Amazon only lists the yellow 64GB as ready immediately, while the 32GB yellow and pinks will ship in “2-4 weeks”.

Apple is being a little less stingy with its supply of Shuffles and Nanos as Amazon lists the whole line as available.

Best Buy is a hit-and-miss: it has most Shuffles and Nanos, but it is still missing black and white iPod touches.

Target is also a hit-and-miss with many only available in-store. B&H has some stock, but it will not see much until November. Walmart still says ‘coming soon‘.


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Toys: Audyssey desktop speakers $80, more

Some pretty impressive deals from 9to5Toys.com today as we enter into the weekend:

Woot! has the amazing Audyssey Desktop speakers for $79.99 with $5 shipping on everything you order. I have these speakers (and happily paid $200 for them) and they are quite simply the best desktop speakers I’ve used.

We are in love with the standalone LES powered speakers (right).  Very simple I/Os and almost perfect desktop-level sound makes these incredibly good for the small room or workspace.  Sure, they won’t fill up a large-sized room, but you will find much larger/expensive setups for that.  $199 Amazon. Bonus: If you want Airplay functionality, throw in a $95 Apple TV and an Optical cable.

You don’t need a subwoofer and with an optical cable, I don’t think you’ll find better sound at double the price.

Tiger Direct has a monster Centon waterproof 128GB USB stick for $69.99 with free shipping. That’s as big as many of Apple’s internal SSDs.

If you are looking at entry level DSLRs, Woot! offers the Canon EOS Rebel T3i 18MP Digital SLR
for $599.99 (add to speakers above for free shipping). Fry’s Electronics offers the Canon EOS Rebel T4i 18-Megapixel Digital SLR Camera with the Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens, model no. 6558B003, for $699.99 plus around$11 for shipping.

Update: Amazon ended the deal on SSDs… hope you got in early.

Many more at 9to5Toys.com
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Belkin and Brenthaven join the list of mainstream iPad mini accessory makers

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A few reputable case makers have already started creating 7.85-inch iPad cases and screen protectors in anticipation of the rumored iPad mini unveiling, including Zagg and Devicewear. The rumored Oct. 10 mailing of invites to the press came and went; however, according to The Wall Street Journal, we can still expect an unveiling of the device within weeks. Other case manufactures are also now betting on an iPad mini launch, including well-known case makers Belkin, Brenthaven, and others.

The image above shows Belkin’s Screen Guard “Anti-Fingerprint” screen protector, while we see iPad mini folios in black and white in the tweet below from Brenthaven (in stock and selling from its website). XtremeGuard is also accepting pre-orders for its iPad mini screen protector.

[tweet https://twitter.com/johnhowells/status/256483391703232512]

Other manufacturers have started selling iPad mini cases through Amazon. We see Ionic’s Hybrid Leather case cover with stand in the image below, while a case from KHOMO is on the right. Most do not provide exact measurements for the cases, but Brenthaven listed outer dimensions of its case as 7.5″ W x 4.8″ H x .75″ D. There are also a number of other lower-priced products, such as this black premium leather folio from Elsse, but some appear to just be repurposed 7-inch Android tablet cases.

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Amazon requests judge throw out Apple’s ‘App Store’ trademark case

Following Apple launching a lawsuit against Amazon in March 2011 over use of the “App Store” trademark, today we get an update on the case with Amazon requesting the claim be thrown out in a filing with the U.S. District Court in Oakland. Reuters reported that Amazon asked a federal judge to throw out the case, claiming the term is too common to constitute false advertising. Amazon also noted that even Apple employees, such as Steve Jobs and Tim Cook, used the term when referring to competitors:

Amazon added that even Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook and his predecessor Steve Jobs have used the term to discuss rivals, with Cook having commented on “the number of app stores out there” and Jobs referring to the “four app stores on Android.”

“Apple presumably does not contend that its past and current CEOs made false statements regarding to those other app stores to thousands of investors in earnings calls,” Amazon said.

“To the contrary, the use of the term ‘app store’ to refer to stores selling apps is commonplace in the industry.”

The case is expected to continue with Amazon’s motion on October 31 and trial date set for August 19, 2013.

Apps & updates: Pixelmator, Amazon Cloud Player, Reeder, Dropbox, more

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVb6081IaUI]

We already told you about some big app news today with an updated Twitter iOS client and the release of popular MMO Guild Wars 2 for Mac. Below is the rest of the notable apps and updates hitting the App Store today:

Pixelmator version 2.1.1: A big update today goes to version 2.1.1 of the Pixelmator Mac App Store app. The updated app includes a new Healing Tool that’s up to 20x faster than the previous version, UI improvements for Retina MacBooks, and a number of fixes and performance enhancements. A full list of changes is here.

We are bursting with pride to tell you that this is the best and the fastest Healing Tool in the world. Pretty sophisticated algorithms and the latest OS X technologies have allowed us to create a tool that performs at an incredible speed. We hope you’ll be as excited about it as we are… A lot of other good things are here, too: the ability to temporarily hide the Alignment Guides with the Command key, significant performance improvements, the effects you’ve missed, and much more.

Amazon Cloud Player version 1.2.4: Amazon updated its Cloud Player app for iOS today, which allows users to stream and download music from their Amazon Cloud account. The biggest news in the update is that Cloud Player is now available in the UK, Germany, and France. Amazon is also introducing support for French and German languages.

Reeder version 3.0.4: The iOS Fever, Readability, and Google Reader client was updated today with a few new features. Included is enhancements bringing full support for iPhone 5 and iOS 6. The update means Facebook sharing becomes an iOS 6 only feature after updating. The developers have also included a fix for issues with Fever syncing and missing folders.

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Cheap! Amazon new 7-inch Kindles now on sale starting at $159

From 9to5Toys.com

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAOJyBxjpcs]

Amazon just opened the floodgates to its forked-Android powered Kindles (7-inch only so far).

The original with some beefed up internals is just $159.  The new HD version (which closely matches up with the Google Nexus 7) is $199 for 16GB and $249 for 32GB.

(Or you could wait a month and probably not hate yourself :P)


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Apple tops J.D. Power and Associates 2012 US Tablet Satisfaction Study

J.D.Power and Associates is out with a 2012 U.S. Tablet Satisfaction Study and Apple is at the top of the list for customer satisfaction in four areas. Amazon is close behind:

The study measures tablet owner satisfaction among those who have owned their tablet for less than two years. Satisfaction is measured across five key factors. In order of importance, they are: performance (26%), ease of operation (22%), styling and design (19%), features (17%), and price (16%). 

Apple ranks highest, achieving a score of 848, and performs well in four factors: performance; ease of operation; styling and design; and features. Amazon (841) closely follows Apple in the rankings and performs particularly well in the price factor.

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Federal judge approves settlement with three publishers in Apple/Amazon ebook price fixing case

We noted last month that Apple filed a document with the Southern District of New York attempting to have settlements with the U.S. Department of Justice and three publishers delayed until after the high profile eBook price-fixing case goes to trial in June 2013. The Wall Street Journal reported today that a federal judge approved the settlements, which would allow Amazon and other retailers to return to its previous model and freely set eBook prices. Not surprisingly, Apple is expected to appeal the decision:

In a move that could reshape the publishing industry, a federal judge has approved a settlement with three of the nation’s largest book publishers over alleged collusion in the pricing of e-books… Apple has previously indicated in court papers that it would seek to appeal any decision approving the settlement. As a result, it could take some time before consumers see lower prices on e-books… “It’s devastating to bookstores,” said Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild. “For two years the settling publishers must allow vendors to discount e-books at any price they want. The court acknowledges that this restores the status quo conditions before 2010, when Amazon was able capture 90% of the e-book market. The Justice Department is reshaping the literary marketplace without submitting a single economic study to the court to justify its actions.”

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Amazon adds ‘The Hunger Games’ and more EPIX content to Prime Instant Video in latest licensing deal

Amazon has consistently bulked its Prime Instant Video service with many Hollywood studio and cable network agreements since the Kindle Fire launched last year, and now it is announcing a new multi-year licensing deal with EPIX studio in the United States.

The agreement adds thousands of fresh and old titles, as well as original programming, from Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn Mayer Pictures, Liongates, and other EPIX partners. The beefed catalog more than doubles Prime Instant Video’s previous content offering, which provides instant, unlimited streaming to paid Prime members on the Android-powered Kindle Fire or other supported devices like the iPad.

A few of today’s content additions include “The Avengers”, “Iron Man 2”, “The Hunger Games”, “Transformers Dark of the Moon”, “True Grit”, and more. It is worth noting Amazon plans to hold a product launch event on Sept. 5 in Los Angeles; the glitzy location could suggest more content deals are coming down the pipeline.

The full press release is below.


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Amazon adds ‘Parks and Recreation’ to Prime Instant Video, with more popular NBCUniversal content

Amazon, NBCUniversal Cable and New Media Distribution announced an agreement today that will bulk the online retailer’s Prime Instant Video selection with hundreds of award-winning TV episodes.

Amazon’s Instant Video touts 22,000 movies and episodes for Prime members to stream on the Android-powered Kindle Fire or other supported devices like the iPad. A few of today’s catalog additions include “Parks and Recreation”, “Parenthood”, “Friday Night Lights”, “Heroes” and “Battlestar Galactica”.

Check out the full story at 9to5Google.com.


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iPhone trade-in roundup: Get as much as $500 back on the iPhone 4S, returns due as late as October

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The next-generation iPhone is set to launch in just three weeks and trade-ins are peaking, so now is the perfect time to start exchanging those soon-to-be old models to earn some cash for Apple’s upcoming smartphone. 9to5Mac compiled a list of reliable places to help you trade in that ole’ dusty iPhone for cash or credit—up to $500s worth in some cases! That is enough to buy a new iPhone and cover the AT&T early termination fee for moving to a carrier that fully supports FaceTime.

Before browsing the options, take a moment to identify the condition, features, and model of the swappable iPhone. This will help determine its potential value, because most online programs use a survey to calculate the iPhone’s estimate. Moreover, it is prudent to act now, as retailers will likely drop their prices as the launch date draws nearer.

Check out the top 10 trade-ins list below.


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Apple calls DOJ settlement with publishers unlawful, says trial is necessary

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The U.S. Department of Justice announced a settlement in April with three of the publishers involved in the eBook price-fixing antitrust suit against Apple. Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster were part of the settlement, which would allow Amazon to return to its previous wholesale model and the publishers to set and reduce prices for eBook titles freely. PaidContent provided an update today on the case by reporting Apple has filed a document with the Southern District of New York. It called the proposed settlements with the three publishers “fundamentally unfair, unlawful, and unprecedented.” Apple argued that since it is not settling, the settlement would unlawfully end contracts those publishers have with Apple.

The proposed settlement would require the three settling publishers — HarperCollins, Hachette and Simon & Schuster — to terminate their existing agency pricing contracts with Apple. Apple says that isn’t fair: “The Government is seeking to impose a remedy on Apple before there has been any finding of an antitrust violation.” This case, the company states, revolves around “an alleged conspiracy to force Amazon to adopt agency.” So a settlement “enjoining collusion or precluding publishers from forcing agency on Amazon would be appropriate,” but Apple is entitled to defend its contracts in court.

Apple is hoping the courts decide to reject the settlements or delay a ruling until after the June 2013 trial. Apple also discussed Amazon’ role in the case. It claimed the government has “unwittingly placed a thumb on the scales in favor of Amazon”:

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Toys Weekend: AppleTV: $90, MacFlux 4, New MacBook Pros $999

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Lot of stuff happening at 9to5Toys.com this weekend…

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Amazon has the Apple TV for $89.99 with free shipping.  That’s the lowest price going (remember it just got Hulu – 1 week free here). Speaking of Amazon+free, you can get a free month of the new Prime streaming to iPad using the new app.

StackSocial offers downloads of the popular “Dreamweaver killer”  MacFlux 4 website building editor application for $40.  There is a huge list of great Mac software currently on sale at Stack Social here.

Fry’s Electronics offers the current-generation MacBook Pro Intel Core i5 2.5GHz 13.3″ LED-Backlit Widescreen Notebook, model no. MD101LL/A, for $999. Shipping adds around $11, or choose free in-store pickup. That’s the lowest total price we could find by $129 and even lower than Apple’s refurbished price.

All4Cellular has Applecare for iPhone for $39.99 (usually $99).

Vaas FM Transmitter with Car Charger and Remote for iPhone and iPod – $9.99+free ship

Western Digital USB 3.0 1TB portable drives for $89+free shipping at Go4Computer/Ebay, Tax in Florida.

Viewsonic VX2450wm-LED 24″ Widescreen LED Backlit Monitor: 49.99+Free shipping from Buy.com

More follow:
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Amazon Instant Video app for iPad hits the App Store with offline viewing and Prime streaming

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[slideshow]

Just 24 hours after Hulu started popping up on Apple TV, we now see Amazon’s Instant Video Store in the App Store for iPad. It looks like a full app capable of not only streaming Prime content for free (with the$79 a yearl Amazon Prime membership, but the first month is free) as well as being able to download content for offline viewing. Also, Season Pass is available for TV shows, and episodes are available the morning after the show airs on TV. The app will also resume where you left off watching from Kindle Fire, PS3, PC, Mac, or hundreds of models of connected TVs and Blu-ray players with Amazon Whispersync.

Interestingly, no iPhone version yet.

I can confirm that Airplay only works for audio in streaming video so you can’t stream to an AppleTV, yet. Also, I am able to stream my purchased movies but offline downloading doesn’t appear to be working at the moment (update: 8 hours later, 1 movie has finished downloading).

Amazon’s Cloud Drive got updated just yesterday as well, but with the proximity to the Hulu announcement, we’re thinking this might be Apple’s move more than Amazon finally building the app. On the other hand, perhaps the $199 Google Nexus 7 is signaling a big shift – that Amazon doesn’t need to build its own hardware and it can just produce software for the variety of tablets out there.

Full App Description below:
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Amazon Cloud Drive’s gets ‘scan and match’, higher bit rates, much more

A huge update today from Amazon:

Amazon Cloud Player is a service that enables customers to securely store music in the cloud and play it wherever they are on a Kindle Fire, Android phone, Android tablet, iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Mac, or PC. Amazon Cloud Player now has more benefits, including:

  • Faster music import for Cloud Player using scan and match technology
  • Upgrade of matched files to high-quality 256 Kbps audio
  • Delivery of future Amazon MP3 purchases directly to Cloud Player
  • Delivery of eligible past Amazon MP3 purchases to Cloud Player without having to import them
  • Ability to edit song and album information (such as title and track number), and the ability to import that information for matched files directly from Amazon’s catalog
  • Support for more music file types


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WSJ: Sen. Schumer presses DOJ to drop Apple eBook suit

Sen. Charles Schumer pleaded with the U.S. Justice Department in the Wall Street Journal yesterday to drop its antitrust lawsuit against Apple and publishers by suggesting it will only lay the foundation for Amazon to reclaim control over the eBook industry.

According to the New York senator’s Op-Ed piece:

Recently the Department of Justice filed suit against Apple and major publishers, alleging that they colluded to raise prices in the digital books market. While the claim sounds plausible on its face, the suit could wipe out the publishing industry as we know it, making it much harder for young authors to get published.

The suit will restore Amazon to the dominant position atop the e-books market it occupied for years before competition arrived in the form of Apple. If that happens, consumers will be forced to accept whatever prices Amazon sets.

The Justice Department filed suit last spring against Apple, Macmillan, and Penguin Group for allegedly fixing eBook prices, while Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster settled to dodge the legal dispute.

Amazon set its eBook prices at $9.99, but, according to the government (via The Hill), Apple and the publishers supposedly colluded to build a new business model that drove the standard price of eBooks up and placed pricing in the hands of publishers instead of retailers.

Schumer claimed the business model would effectively relinquish the eBook market from Amazon’s dominion. He also mentioned Amazon’s share dropped to 60 percent after the publishers launched the new pricing matrix, while older eBook prices also lowered.

The Justice Department has ignored this overall trend and instead focused on the fact that the prices for some new releases have gone up. This misses the forest for the trees. While consumers may have a short-term interest in today’s new release e-book prices, they have a more pressing long-term interest in the survival of the publishing industry.

Like Apple contended in its legal response, Schumer is concerned the Justice Department’s lawsuit allows “monopolists and hurt innovators,” while having a “deterrent effect not only on publishers but on other industries that are coming up with creative ways to grow and adapt to the Internet.”

He further beseeched the Justice Department to “reassess its prosecution priorities” and assemble inclusive guidelines before filing antitrust suits in the future.

Check out the full memo at The Wall Street Journal


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Twelve South re-introduces the ‘little black book(book)’ for the iPhone Age

Back when we used to write phone numbers down, the Little Black Book kept our “contacts” and contact information in one handy place. Twelve South today brings us up to date with the attractively styled black version of the BookBook iPhone case.

You can grab the Classic Black BookBook for $60 from Twelve South or Amazon now.

Product Features

  • Handmade, genuine leather case protects iPhone with style
  • Includes wallet pockets for ID, cards and cash
  • Unique book design disguises iPhone for added security

Dimensions

  • Size (LWH): 7.1 inches, 1 inches, 4.1 inches

The older brown version can be seen in the video below: