Brick-and-mortar bookshop chain Waterstones are to begin selling the Amazon Kindle eReader, turning their back on their initial plan to launch their own rival digital reading device.

Waterstones have been going through a significant period of restructuring since being bought out by Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut from HMV for £53 million roughly a year ago, with the new plans will also seeing Wi-Fi zones and coffee shops popping up within the high-street retailer's stores.

However, selling Amazon's eReader sees Waterstones getting in bed with the enemy, with both Amazon's digital eReader and cut-price online book sales one of the biggest contributors to Waterstones recent retail struggles.

A bullish James Daunt, Waterstones' managing director, had even previously said that the company planned to bring the fight with Amazon with "a digital reader which is at least as good, and preferably substantially better, than that of our internet rival, and will [offer] a much better buying experience purchasing through us."

It's an about turn for Daunt though, who sees in the latest press release that:

"At Waterstones, we are committed to improving our bookshops quite radically to offer the best possible book buying experience. The best digital readers, the Kindle family, will be married to the singular pleasures of browsing a curated bookshop. With the combination of our talents we can offer the exceptional customer proposition to which we both aspire."

Amazon founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, also sang the praises of the long-running book chain:

"Waterstones is the premier high street bookseller and is passionate about books and readers - a dedication that we share deeply. We could never hope for a better partner to bring together digital reading and the physical bookstore."

Looking to keep up with Barnes and Noble's illuminated Nook e-reader, Amazon are apparently preparing to release their own rival Kindle with a built-in light illuminating the screen from the edge of the bezel.

A test build of a monochrome E-Ink device was reportedly spotted back in April, with an integrated light powered by the e-reader's internal battery. It would allow for reading long into the night, and would be easier on the eye than backlit LCD screens.

The new feature is expected to land as a premium edition of the Kindle Touch 3G, followed soon after by an updated Wi-Fi only version. The mark up cost for the light could be as little as $10 extra, making it a particularly tempting upgrade.

And yet Amazon seem ready to launch the device in July, according to the report. The month with perhaps the most daylight hours in it. Someone get these guys a solar calendar!

Via: Reuters

It's the rumour that just wont die, but the latest supply chain mutterings are again suggesting that Amazon are planning to launch a colour Kindle eReader before the end of the year.

And by colour eReader, we mean one with an E Ink screen, not an LCD like that already found in the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet. Not that you'd be able to find an Amazon Kindle Fire in the UK AT ALL, but you know what we mean...

So, it's the often dubious rumour mongers over at DigiTimes this time stating that the Amaon Kindle Colour is on its way, citing supply chain sources who are pinning a lunch sometime after the Autumn of this year. The eReader will, like the Kindle Touch, have a multi-touch capacitive screen, and should be easier on the eye for long reading sessions than its tablet cousins, though likely with colours considerably more muted.

While we're on the subject of Amazon devices, there's still no word on a UK launch for the Kindle Fire, while the Kindle Fire 2 rumour...er...kindling is ready to ignite. Three different tablets are said to be coming from Jeff Bezos' stable, one either 8.9 or 10 inches in size, and two differing 7 inch models.

Microsoft have settled their long running patent dispute with Barnes and Noble, and have entered into an unexpected partnership in the process.

Microsoft has invested a substantial $300 million in Newco, a new venture with the US bookstore chain whose Nook eBook reader is very popular stateside.

Newco will see Microsoft controlling Barnes and Noble's digital and college businesses, delivering Nook-related products including Windows 8 and Windows Phone apps.

An enthused Microsoft president Andy Lees said that "complementary assets will accelerate e-reading innovation across a broad range of Windows devices."

News of a Windows 8 tie-in instantly set tongues wagging, with many concluding that a Barnes and Noble Windows 8 Nook tablet must be in development. While it's a reasonable guess, Andy Lees kept his company's cards close to his chest, refusing to comment on speculation regarding both companies' product roadmaps.

For $300 million, Microsoft now takes a 17.6% stake in Barnes and Noble's $1.7 billion business. The deal also sees the disputed patents licensed to Barnes and Noble.

Movie giants Warner Brothers have launched a new eBook range called Inside The Script. Available in the iBookstore for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, and for the Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble's Nook, the Inside The Script titles take classic movie scripts and expand them for the digital age.

Presented with a classic monospaced typewriter font, scripts for the likes of Ben Hur, Casablanca, North by Northwest and An American in Paris are all available to download, each with unique bonus features including storyboard ideas, production notes, journals and even correspondence between key members of the cast and crew.

"People love movies because of the stories they tell," said Thomas Gewecke, president of Warner Bros Digital Distribution.

"Now we can give fans rarely seen details of how these stories came together and take their enjoyment of films to a whole new level."

Each Inside The Script title costs £6.49. All are available to download now.

A new survey commissioned by entertainment media research and media law firm Wiggin has revealed that one third of Brits now own an eReader such as Amazon's Kindle or the Kobo Touch.

The 2012 Digital Entertainment Survey looked at the habits of some 2,500 15 to 64 year olds, noting that the popularity of eReaders has grown steadily year-on-year.

Rising some 21% since last year, the act of reading printed books is said to have dropped by 4% as a result. 43% of respondents still read the printed page though, while 38% of respondents without an eReader had no plans to change their reading habits to accommodate one of the devices.

However, the survey also revealed that piracy is rife in the world of eBooks, with 31% of respondents revealing they had illegally downloaded copies of the books they had read.

Amazon have released a Mac version of their incredibly useful Send to Kindle application.

The application allows Mac users to send document and eBook files directly to Amazon's Kindle eReader, without needing to hook them up to your computer over a cabled connection. You simply need drag the file you want to transfer onto the icon in the Mac dock.

The documents are then sent into the cloud and archived, ready to be downloaded via Wi-Fi or over select Kindle's 3G connections.

If you're using a 3G-enabled Kindle and are looking to send larger files without incurring digital delivery costs from Amazon, it's best to set up the application with the "free.kindle" email address associated with your eReader.

To use Send to Kindle for Macs you'll need to be running OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6) or Mac OS X Lion (v10.7). You can grab the app by clicking here.

PC users can also use the application, which has been available on Windows since January.

If you're a book-reading early bird who signed up for a pre-order Kindle Touch or Kindle Touch 3G model from Amazon, you'll likely be waking up to quite a nice little surprise from the postman today. Amazon are sending out their finger-friendly e-reader a week early, just in time for the weekend.

"Orders from customers worldwide for our new line of electronic ink Kindles have exceeded our expectations," said Kindle EU's vice president, Jorrit Van der Meulen.

"We know that UK customers are eager to get their hands on these new Kindles, which is why we're delighted to be able to ship several days earlier than we planned."

Customers will recieve their devices in the order which the orders were taken, so hold on a little longer if yours hasn't arrived yet.

If you prefer to walk out of a brick-and mortar store to grab your gadgets, John Lewis, Dixons, Argos, Carphone Warehouse, Currys, PC World, Staples, Tesco are among the high-street retailers stocking the touch-enabled Kindle.

Kindle Touch Wi-Fi costs £109, while the Kindle Touch 3G + Wi-Fi is a little higher at £169, which also covers lifetime mobile 3G access for the device.

Amazon's Kindle Touch ereader has finally been given a UK release date of April 27th, following its launch in the US late last year.

Almost identical to their US counterparts (apart from some software tweaks prior to a larger global firmware update), the Kindle Touch does away with the both the physical keyboard and page turn buttons of earlier models in favour of software buttons and gesture-based swiping page turns.

Each still features a six inch screen and promise up to two months of battery life per charge. The Wi-Fi version weighs in at 213g, with the 3G edition slightly heavier at 220g.

The new Kindle's also bring the new "X-Ray" feature with them, letting readers quickly view all mention of characters, ideas or places in a book, as well as leaping out to Wikipedia for more in depth information.

"UK customers have been asking us to make Kindle Touch available on Amazon.co.uk and we are excited to do so today," said Jorrit Van der Meulen, Vice President, Kindle, Amazon EU Sàrl.

"Customers continue to choose Kindle because they love the world-class reading experience, the vast selection of Kindle books available at great prices, and the convenience of downloading their books in just 60 seconds. We continue to see that people read more with Kindle--readers in the UK buy an average of 4 times the number of books they purchased prior to owning a Kindle. With the launch of Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G we expect to see this reading renaissance continue."

Both the Wi-Fi only and the Wi-Fi and 3G models will launch simultaneously in the UK, priced at £109 and £169 respectively. 3G data costs remain free (subsidised by the cost of each unit) with Vodafone handling network data. Pre-orders open today.

Those waiting for the UK launch of the Kindle Fire tablet however will have to wait a bit longer: Amazon make no mention of the new slate.

When it comes to digital distribution of the books that star him, Harry Potter has been hiding under his invisibility cloak practically the whole time the tomes have been available.

But now, through an agreement with the J.K Rowling-endorsed Pottermore website, the wizarding tales will be available to Amazon Kindle owners and users of the Kindle mobile apps too.

Available in both MOBI and EPUB file formats directly through the Pottermore website too, it represents the first time that the series has been available (legally, at least) as eBooks.

"For years our customers have loved reading Harry Potter books in print, and have made them the best-selling print book series on Amazon.com," said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content.

"We're excited that Harry Potter fans worldwide are now able to read J.K. Rowling's fantastic books on their Kindles and free Kindle reading apps."

The Harry Potter books are available through the Kindle store on a "Buy Once, Read Everywhere" basis, meaning that if you purchase one on any Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, PC, Mac or Android device, you'll be able to access it free of charge on any of the others too.

Prices start at £4.99.

Click here for more info.

Proporta are once again looking to pimp out your tech gear with a snazzy range of cases and covers. It's the Kindle 4 getting the make-over treatment this time, with four different styles in a variety of colours being offered.

First up is the £19.95 Leather Style Book design, giving "the appearance of a traditional leather book" while defending it from the elements and scrapes.

Next up is the Leather Style Folio Case (Fireworks design), again for £19.95. It matches a soft, high-quality leather with a durable framing that will protect your e-Reader from any mis-haps.

If it's a bug's life for you, check out the £19.95 Leather Style Folio Case (Butterflies design), similar to the Fireworks version, but with the pretty little flappers sitting over an orange background.

Last but not least is the Ted Baker offering, seeing Proporta once again teaming up with the revered designer. It comes in black, white and pink, and adds a little luxury to your reading sessions.

"The new set of protective Kindle covers from Proporta, including the new Ted Baker range, provides exceptionally tough yet chic casing for the Kindle 4, ensuring you can be confident that anyone judging your e-book by its cover will be more than impressed with what they see," reads the Proporta release.

Click here to visit the Proporta page.

E-Ink Holdings, the company behind the eminently-readable Kindle E-Ink displays, have revealed they are working on their next generation of e-Reader displays.

As well as revamped colour offerings, the company are also looking to release flexible plastic-based E-Ink screens by Q3 of the year, potentially giving e-Reader manufacturers the possibility of making a foldable e-Reader before the year is out.

However, contrary to the recent rumour that Amazon are gearing up for the launch of a colour touchscreen Kindle using E-Ink technology, E-Ink Holding's Chairman, Scott Lu said that the company upping production of its Triton colour E-Ink product. Rather than killing off the rumoured Kindle colour, it may just point to the fact that E-Ink Holdings superior next-gen display is what is being held out for.

Posting their financial results for 2011, E-Ink Holdings revealed $220 million in net profit, up 59% compared to 2010. Gross margin in 4Q fell compared to the last quarter due to a rise in FFS panel shipments for the Kindle Fire, which offer lower margins when compared to EPD products.

Via: E-Ink Info

Amazon are preparing to launch a brand new Kindle model in 2012 according to a new report from DigiTimes, one that will feature a full colour E Ink touchscreen.

Unlike the Kindle Fire tablet, which runs Android under a glass touchscreen, the colour Kindle would use a similar technology to that already present in the regular Kindles, making it far more readable in direct sunlight.

According to the Chinese newspaper Economic Daily News, E Ink will be looking to ship three million colour displays a month once production begins.

Amazon have been rumoured to launch a colour Kindle for quite some time. It appeared that Qualcomm's Mirasol colour screen technology would take the contract, but it now appears as though Amazon are sticking with E Ink's efforts.

No news on when the colour touchscreen Kindles will arrive yet, but with the UK still holding out for the Kindle Fire tables, we expect it will be some time yet

Over Christmas more than 1.33 million Brits received a shiny new Kindle. However, it seems that just over a month later many of us have discarded our fancy eReaders like a sad, abandoned puppy we can't be bothered with anymore. Awh.

According to a study carried out by leading discount website MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, 48% of respondents revealed they'd received a Christmas gift that they haven't used since opening it up on Christmas day. From those, a huge 22% admitted to having not used the Amazon Kindle they received for Christmas from a loved one Strangely, of those that admitted to not playing around with their Kindle yet, 52% simply said it's because they hadn't downloaded any books to read on it yet. How. Lazy.

In future guys, remember a Kindle is for at least a few years, not just for Christmas.

The study polled 1,461 Britons and took place in January 2012.

Via Shiny Shiny

Kindle owners get a great new tool this morning with the launch of the new "Send to Kindle" feature for PC.

A small downloadable plugin, "Send to Kindle" lets you easily transfer PC files and documents, along with eBooks, to your Amazon eReader by adding a wireless transfer option to the right-click menu in Windows Explorer.

"From Windows Explorer, simply right-click on one or more documents and choose Send to Kindle. From any other Windows application that can print, select Print and choose Send to Kindle," reads the Amazon blog.

"Your last page read along with bookmarks, notes and highlights are automatically synchronised for your documents (with the exception of PDFs) across your Kindle devices and supported Kindle reading apps."

DOC, DOCX, TXT, RTF, JPEG, JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP and PDF file types are among those supported. Even the Kindle's own .MOBI files, saved on your PC, can be sent using the new function.

Though similar functionality has previously been possible by using your Send-to-Kindle email address, or using the superb eBook manager Calibre, this new feature takes much of the stress out of getting content stored on your PC onto your device though.

Remember however to try where possible to download files over Wi-Fi, or you could end up with a Whispernet 3G charge on supported Kindle devices.

Click here to grab the Send To Kindle plugin. It's a must-have for Kindle owners.

Kindle owners may never have to mains-charge their eReaders again thanks to a newly revealed cover from SolarFocus Technology on show at this years CES.

That is providing you live in sunnier climes than the UK, we mean. SolarFocus have been touting their SolarKindle case, which stores power thanks to a built-in solar panel.

One day's use in the sun gives you Kindle an extra three days worth of charge, stored in the SolarKindle's built-in battery, up to a maximum of three extra months.

There's also a mini LED light built in, good for 50 hours of use, which doesn't drain the Kindle's own battery.

"For the past six years, SolarFocus has been dedicated to developing the most technologically advanced portable solar powered solutions for consumers," said Dick Lu, EVP at SolarFocus.

"We will continuously improve the price / performance ratio of our solar powered solutions on even more consumer electronic products to reduce carbon emissions."

Hitting US shops on January 15th, you'll be able to pick the SolarKindle up for $79.99. That's providing Amazon let SolarFocus use the Kindle name, of course.

For more news from CES 2012, click here.

An estimated 1.33 million eReaders were unwrapped on Christmas Day in Britain this past holiday period, according to new research that's dubbed Santa's season the "Kindle Christmas".

According to YouGov's Technology and Telecoms analysts, 1 in 40 adults received an eReader for Christmas (or bought one for themselves), with 92% of the devices being of Amazon's Kindle brand.

Despite the digital jump, the gift recieving demographics seem to fall in line with regular book buying habits, with 61% of Kinde's received by women, and over 55 year olds twice as likely as 18-24 year olds to receive one.

"This is finally the year when the late-medieval technology of the printing press was challenged by a 21st Century, digital alternative" said Marek Vaygelt, Head of Technology and Telecoms Consulting at YouGov.

"Amazon has done a remarkable job of selling the benefits of e-readers and the upside for the publishing industry is that it appears e-reader owners, at least in the early days, buy more e-books than the printed books they purchased before acquiring an e-reader."

Tablet sales were also strong, with the YouGov findings estimating some 640,000 slates given as gift. Of that figure, 72% were Apple iPads, 60% of which were given to women.

Amazon have given a rare insight into just how units many off their super-popular Kindle product line they're managing to shift in the run up to Christmas.

The company have revealed that more than a million products bearing the Kindle name (from all generations of their eReaders and newly-formed tablet line) are being sold each week.

Even more startling, given the wealth of items available through Amazon, is that their Android-based Kindle Fire tablet is the most popular product Amazon have EVER SOLD.

"Kindle Fire is the most successful product we've ever launched - it's the bestselling product across all of Amazon for 11 straight weeks, we've already sold millions of units, and we're building millions more to meet the high demand," explained Dave Limp, vice president of Amazon Kindle.

"In fact, demand is accelerating - Kindle Fire sales increased week over week for each of the past three weeks. People are buying Kindle Fire because it's a simple, fully-integrated service that makes it easy to do the things they love - watch movies, read books and magazines, listen to music, download apps, play games, and surf the web."

Until now, Amazon had remained silent as to just how well their products were doing, beyond vague "very well" responses. It's hardly surprising though; the Kindle brand name has caught on in a big way, and the Fire tablet will make a perfect, affordable step up for those currently in love with their Kindle eReaders.

To mark the first anniversary of The Beatles back-catalogue being made available digitally for the first time through the iTunes store, Apple have teamed up with the Fab-Four's team to offer iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch users an exclusive free "Yellow Submarine" book, based on the 1968 Beatles movie of the same name.

A digital update of the 2004 "Yellow Submarine" book, it's packed with psychedelic interactive illustrations, video clips from the movie and song snippets, with a full "read aloud" voice over narration track from Dean Lennox Kelly.

Click here to grab the free book, or download it through Apple's iBooks application.

Since making their debut on the iTunes store, The Beatles have racked up ten million songs sales and over 1.8 million album downloads on the iTunes Store worldwide. Bet they wish they'd jumped onboard a bit sooner now!

Now, we know that every now and again we announce that there's a new Kindle killer lined-up to rock the Amazon e-reader's dominance, but they never quite come up to scratch. Either the pricing was too high, or the tech specs too low, and the Kindle still stayed top of the ereading tables.

However, this year there may be a genuine contender to take on the Kindle. No, seriously, hear us out!

Remember the Kobo eReader that hit WH Smiths last month? It was a solid bit of kit, but at the £89.99 asking price Smiths were selling it at, who was ever going to grab it over the identically-priced Kindle?

Well, perhaps quite a few more people now, as Asda have just began stocking the Kobo W-Fi, and are shifting it for just £67. That's a genuine steal.

Not impressed? Well just look at how it shapes up against the Kindle; it's thin at just 10mm thick, has the same is e-ink style screen, is Wi-Fi enabled, comes pre-installed with 100 classic books and has access to a store stocked with some 3 million titles.

However, perhaps its best feature is the fact that its content is not locked to one device. Grab a Kindle, and its books are locked to Amazon's devices and apps. Grab a Kobo and your purchases can be shared across any device of your choosing.

There's a fair bit working in its favour, and at this price point (and with a decent marketing campaign currently running) could be a genuine worry for Amazon.