Kindle

Shares of online retail giant Amazon.com fell nearly 12% Wednesday following release of the company's fourth-quarter earnings which showed heavy spending on fulfillment centers, technology and staff.

Amazon’s Kindle product line, which expanded with three new models Wednesday, has come a long way since it was first introduced in 2007.

In all the hype about Amazon's new Fire tablet, dubbed by many a real iPad competitor, the details of the new Silk browser have been overlooked. Some believe it revolutionary, some believe it derivative, and some see another loss of privacy.

Among the features in Amazon's just-announced Kindle Fire tablet is a new browser called Amazon Silk. Silk is what Amazon calls a cloud-accelerated web browser, which splits the task of loading webpages between the Fire and Amazon's servers. One half of the Web processing magic is handled up in the cloud, with the other half carried out directly on the Kindle Fire itself, with the goal of reducing how long it takes to load pages.

Amazon rolled out Kindle ebook borrowing across 11,000 public libraries yesterday, and I couldn't wait to try it out. Fortunately the Boston Public Library was one of the organizations offering the service.

The E-paper display technology in Amazon's Kindle is facing some competition in the low-power screen business. At the recent DisplaySearch conference in San Jose, rivals said their technologies are more versatile and still drain batteries a lot less than LCDs do.

Amazon today bowed to Apple's newest App Store rules, and removed a link in its iPhone and iPad Kindle apps that took customers directly to its online store.

Amazon's Kindle is only $140 these days; a great price for a really nice e-reader. But if you're really strapped for cash, now there's an alternative. You can save $25 in exchange for getting a Kindle that has advertising on the standby screen and home page. Does this seem like a good deal?

The price of the popular Kindle e-reader has plummeted dramatically over the past two years, as growing competition from Apple's iPad and competing e-readers like Barnes & Noble's Nook has inspired some impressive price-cutting on Amazon's part. The Kindle, which cost $350 in February 2009, is now as low as $139 for the Wi-Fi-only version.

Apple's statement on its controversial rejection of Sony's e-reader app for the iPad (and iPhone) raises more questions and concerns about the future of other e-reader apps on its iOS platform, which could be bad timing with so many other tablets about to hit the market.

If you've been putting off buying a Blu-ray player because prices were too high, 2011 may be your favorite year. Same goes for shoppers craving an Amazon Kindle e-reader, a Nintendo Wii game console, or a 42-inch LCD TV. All will get fire-sale cheap this year.

Some people have been surprised that Barnes and Noble online sales figures for print books have fallen behind Nook ebook sales, but there are several concrete reasons why the company's well planned e-reader platform is gaining such momentum.