This summer Amazon reported that Kindle books were outselling regular books 2:1. Now Amazon is saying that the top 10 books selling on Kindle are outselling their paper book counterparts by that same 2:1 margin.

Hold onto your hats – and your books – because this just may shock you. Amazon this week released a report that says that sales of the Amazon Kindle versions of books are outselling hardcover books nearly 2:1!

Ok, this is one sweet deal on Amazon Prime. Even at the regular $79.00 per year for Amazon Prime, it’s well worth it for those of us who do a lot of shopping on Amazon (free shipping, no taxes, such a deal!) Of course, it only works if the “free shipping” more than covers the cost of the $79.00 for the annual Amazon Prime membership (in our case it way more than covers it). But now, with the Amazon Student deal, college students can get a free Amazon Prime membership! As in, free for the whole year!

Did you get an email from Amazon telling you about an order that you don’t remember ordering? That’s probably because you didn’t – it’s a phishing scam! Don’t fall for it! The “Your Amazon.com Order” email, which purportedly comes from “digital-no-reply@amazon.com” actually is an effort to get you to point your web browser to BookSalon.kr (the actual phishing URL is https://www.theinternetpatrol.com/brick-wall/.

As more and more people are adopting the Apple iPad tablet, it’s inevitable that people will be making comparisons: Kindle vs iPad – iPad vs Kindle – which one is better? We feel that there is a clear winner in the iPad versus Kindle contest, and here’s why (and you can see for yourself with these Kindle versus iPad screen shots.)

If you have a Mac, you are in for a treat! Amazon just released their new free “Amazon Kindle for Mac” application, and it’s awesome. It allows you to not only purchase Kindle books and Kindle newspaper and magazine subscriptions directly from your desktop for delivery to your Kindle, but it allows you to download and read your Kindle books right on your Mac!

Not content with sending fake Amazon confirmation emails, the outfit sending out the Canadian pharmacy spam is now sending out fake Amazon.com order cancellation emails, too, claiming that your Amazon order has been cancelled. “Amazon.com – Your Cancellation (0046-68878-96071)” says the email’s subject (although the “order number” may change) – but of course the link to check “ORDER INFORMATION” really takes you to a Canadian pharmacy spam site, hawking Viagra, Cialis and the like. In the example below, the fake cancellation contains links to https://www.theinternetpatrol.com/brick-wall/, which redirects to https://web.archive.org/web/20211230152715/http://weightbreezy.com/, which is a Canadian pharmacy spam site.

Colorado Amazon affiliates got the news this morning – Amazon has cancelled all Amazon associate (affiliate) accounts for all affilliates who are based in Colorado. The move came after the passage of Colorado law HB 10-1193, even though – as we read it – the affilliate language was removed from HB 10-1193 before it was passed!

A spate of fake “Amazon.com – Your Confirmation” emails is making the rounds – they are phishing emails, with the supposed ‘Amazon’ links actually being hidden links going to such interesting places as http://drevmash.alfaspace.net/admiral.html, https://www.theinternetpatrol.com/brick-wall/, and meeknew.com. The subject (which so far appears to use the same “confirmation” number for everyone), is “Amazon.com – Your Confirmation (0113-567494-3518071)” and supposedly comes from the email address order-update@amazon.com. In reality, they are coming from IP address 124.217.216.112, and the emails are sent from (almost certainly spoofed) email addresses such as claude.simpson@ameritrade.com and lwjtvbwrqksz@young-world.com.

Last week we reported that the Amazon Kindle was getting an app store and lots of new applications, and we asked the question, “but why?” Among other things, we pointed out that with the lack of a touch screen, any applications for the Kindle would be severely limited in terms of functionality, usefulness, and just plain fun. (You can read our discussion of Amazon announcing Applications for the Kindle here.) Well, guess what. It seems that the Kindle is getting a touch screen.

In case you haven’t heard yet, Amazon has announced that the Amazon Kindle is about to be opened up to 3rd-party developers, and to have its own Kindle app store, so as to create a whole new generation of Kindle applications. Which means that, yay, you’ll be able to play Sudoku on your Kindle – but without a touch screen what’s the point? – while you still can’t perform such basic no-brainers such as making a gift of a book to someone else on their Kindle.

Is Amazon down? Can it be? Is it possible? Yes, it is – and the day before Christmas eve, too! What a blow for Amazon – all of Amazon is down, with Christmas just 36 hours away, and with only a few shopping hours left!

Amazon Associates rejoice (or not) – Amazon just added a “Share on Twitter” link to the Amazon affiliate toolbar that appears at the top of every Amazon product page, with the Amazon associate’s Amazon affiliate tag (i.d.) already embedded in the link, so that when you hit the “Share on Twitter” link, the Amazon link to whatever product it is goes out to all of your Twitter followers with your Amazon associate i.d. already embedded within the link. We’re just surprised that it took Amazon so long to jump on this bandwagon! (Ah, the downside of the inertia of an enormous, publicly held company.)

Amazon’s Kindle reader has the ability to do text-to-speech, meaning that it can read books outloud to you. Perfect for those who are sight-impaired or blind, right? Well, it would be, except accessing the text-to-speech function requires navigating menus that only a sighted-person can easily navigate. That is not only the finding of schools participating in an Amazon Kindle trial program, but the complaint of a lawsuit which has now been filed against at least one of the schools participating in the trial.

Amazon has closed a chapter of its history that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has called “stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles.” Bezos was, of course, referring to Amazon’s removing, without warning, copies of Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm from the Kindles of nearly 2000 customers.