:: LNR Journalism ::

For kids age 3-8: Amazon's "Kindle FreeTime Unlimited” available on new devices

Amazon | Business Wire :: Gift season: In a move to reduce the problem of having to find the right content for kids aged 3-8 Amazon introduces a new product called Kindle FreeTime Unlimited. The service costs $4.99 per child or $9.99 for the whole family, and includes access to games, learning apps, children's books, kids movies, and TV shows. The kids can explore the available content on their own and get individual profiles which allow to share a home screen with siblings or parents. Parents is given software control over activity time. They decide if their kids are allowed to read books unrestricted, while they might set up a time limit for other activities e.g. watching video or playing apps on the device.

For Amazon obviously also a promotional tool as FreeTime Unlimited will be available on the all-new Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9” as part of a free, over-the-air software update that will be automatically delivered in the coming weeks.

Read Staff, Amazon, www.businesswire.com

Advertising becomes Amazon's newest low-price weapon, by @learmonth

AdAge :: There's no more customer-obsessed company than Amazon, which has long forsaken high profits in pursuit of giving shoppers the best possible experience and the lowest possible price. Now Amazon wants to make advertising the latest weapon in its arsenal.

A report by Michael Learmonth, adage.com

Michael Learmonth on Twitter

Amazon opens London development centre: Hiring 100 local talents

ZDNet :: The digital development centre in Tech City, London, is looking for local talent to help create technology for putting TV shows and other digital media onto PCs, smartphones and games consoles, alongside the Lovefilm and Pushbutton teams.

A report by Karen Friar, www.zdnet.com

Amazon Appstore rollout across the EU: U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain

Amazon :: Amazon.com :: today announced the launch of its Amazon Appstore in the U.K., Germany, France, Italy and Spain, giving European customers access to Amazon’s broad selection of Android apps with the convenience of shopping on Amazon from their Android phones and tablets. Customers can get the Amazon Appstore for their Android phones and tablets by visiting www.amazon.com/getappstore.

Announced here: press release, phx.corporate-ir.net

HT: Ingrid Lunden, TechCrunch

Amazon NY signs deal to sell its ebooks through other retailers

paidContent :: Amazon’s New York-based imprint has signed a deal with Ingram to distribute its ebooks to other retailers, paidContent has learned. The deal will make the ebooks available to Amazon competitors like Barnes & Noble, Apple and Kobo.

A report by Laura Hazard Owen, paidcontent.org

Are Amazon reader reviews killing off the critic?

Books Blog | Guardian :: News that a commercial operation has been rigging customer endorsements is a reminder of the virtues of professional critics

[Paul Laity:] it also seems to me that the Amazon scandals reaffirm the importance of the much-maligned traditional book review.

A report by Paul Laity, www.guardian.co.uk

The Amazon scandal:

"The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy" - David Streitfeld, www.nytimes.com

"Can self-publishing buy respect?" - A report by Erin Keane, www.salon.com

Amazon researchers: Pinterest doesn't generate a lot of sales. Facebook? Twitter?

Bloomberg :: A post on Twitter generated far more revenue—$33.66 an order—than Facebook, at $2.08 an order, or Pinterest, at 75 cents an order.

Zappos online store, a study - A report by Danielle Kucera, www.bloomberg.com

HT: Sam Decker, here:

Wow...Amazon Researchers Say a Twitter post drives 16x More Revenue vs Facebook.read.bi/OI055m via @sai

— Sam Decker (@samdecker) August 29, 2012

Kindle-exclusive books have been downloaded over 100m times

Press Release | Businesswire :: Amazon.com today announced that its catalog of over 180,000 exclusive Kindle books have been purchased, downloaded, or borrowed from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library more than 100 million times. Nearly all of these exclusive books are available for Kindle owners with a Prime membership to borrow for free, as frequently as once a month, with no due dates.

Continue to read Amazon.com, press release, www.businesswire.com

"Amazon says its 180,000 Kindle-only books have topped 100 million downloads" - HT: and summary by Matt Brian, The Next Web

More streaming video for Amazon Prime: Friday Night Lights, Battlestar Galactica

paidContent :: Amazon Prime Instant Video and NBCUniversal expanded their content licensing agreement to include new shows like “Friday Night Lights,” “Parenthood” and “Battlestar Galactica.”

A report by Laura Hazard Owen, paidcontent.org

Twitter's Clockwork Raven: Crowdsourced analytics

GigaOM :: Twitter says its Clockwork Raven web app will make it easier for even non-technical people to post job requests to Amazon Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing job site. The app is now available for download from Github.

A report by Barb Darrow, gigaom.com