Kindle Review – Kindle 2 Review, Books

(courtesy AP, 5:20 am PST) Random House is adding 7,000 additional ebooks to its range over the next few months. Why? Because the kindle reader has helped ignite sales -

Random House’s vice president for digital operations, Matt Shatz, says e-book sales have increased by triple digit percentages in 2008, thanks in part to Amazon.com’s Kindle reader, but he declined to offer specific number.

Its worth noting that Ebooks account for less than 1% of total sales (v. rough figures – total sales approx. 27 billion in 2007, and ebook sales in the 200-300 million range). Books that are going to be digitized include novels by John Updike and Harlan Coben, as well as several volumes of the “Magic Treehouse” children’s series.

I think the crisis means more and more people go for $9 Kindle Editions rather than more expensive physical books. Three other news snippets -

1. Amazon.com, Inc. on Nov 20th announced Independent Publishers Group, Macmillan and Random House Publisher Services as Amazon Books Distributors of the Year
2. Borders reports its 3Q results today – I can’t seem to get an update on the ongoing earnings call. However the stock trading is giving a clue – BGP 1.67 Change 0.56( % Change 50.45%). Last Trade Time: 11/24/2008 4:06pm. And then – After Hours: 1.06 0.61 (36.63%)4:14PM.  
3. Gizmodo Australia reviews the Sony PRS700 and is brutal (they also have kindle Vs sony glare photo comparions) - 

Sony presented the $US400 PRS-700 Reader, designed to improve on minor gripes we reviewers made in the past: It has a touchscreen, a sidelight and a cleaner button interface. Unfortunately, the “improvements” have taken away the very essence of the Reader—the easy-on-the-eyes screen. Read on to see why, if you buy this, you are dumb.

Seriously, this thing has a fatal design flaw. The clear layer that adds both the touchscreen and sidelight functions picks up so much ambient light from every angle, it’s impossible to read with even the most lowly of night-stand lamps turned on.