The New York Times is reporting today that Amazon is about to take on a new venture, introducing an online store of TV shows and movies called Amazon Video on Demand.  The service, which will allow people to stream entertainment to their computers without long waits for file downloads, will be rolled out to a selected group first for testing, then given wider release later this summer.

Amazon customers using the new store will be able to start watching any of 40,000 movies and television programs immediately after ordering them because they stream.

“For the first time, this is drop dead simple,” said Bill Carr, Amazon’s vice president for digital media. “Our goal is to create an immersive experience where people can’t help but get caught up in how exciting it is to simply watch a movie right from Amazon.com with a click of the button.”

Amazon is also pursuing the technology and media world’s “holy grail” — an Internet pipeline to the TV.  It has struck a deal with Sony Electronics to place its Internet video store on the Sony Bravia line of high-definition TVs.

In the meantime, if you want to curl up on the couch with your laptop — or watch on your big screen monitor — you will soon be able to catch a show from Amazon’s collection.  It will be interesting to see how this venture competes with Netflix’s “watch instantly” movies, and its recently introduced set-top box.  Currently Netflix’s collection is much smaller than what may be available from Amazon, but is available as a free addition to many subscribers.

CrunchGear reports that an Amazon insider leaked the news that two new Amazon Kindle models will be ready for the holiday season, possibly as early as October.

One model is expected to be an updated version of the current Kindle, but with a vastly improved interface.  According to the source, the interface improvement leaps ahead 3 or 4 generations.

The second new Kindle is considerably bigger than the current one, more along the size of an 8 1/2″ X 11″ piece of paper.  Expect both models to come in a choice of colors.  No word on price.  Amazon fairly recently reduced the cost to $359.

I was very interested in this article, Electronic Papyrus: The Digital Book, Unfurled, in the New York Times about the Readius, a new type of digital reader anticipated for an early 2009 availability in the U.S.

The mobile device is being designed for reading books, magazines, newspapers and email, and is the size of a standard cellphone. “Flip it open, though, and a screen tucked within the housing opens to a 5-inch diagonal display.  The screen looks just like a liquid crystal display, but can bend so flexibly that it can wrap around a finger.”

The Readius is pocket-sized, but has a generous, supple screen, and “people with five minutes to spare in a taxi, bus or subway can use the dead time to open it, read a page or two of a book and then return the device to a shirt pocket,” said Karl McGoldrick, the chief executive of Polymer Vision, the company in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, that created the device.  The Readius will be introduced in England, Italy and Germany this fall.

Anyone who has used the Amazon Kindle will recognize the same easy to read E Ink technology on the Readius.  It will display about 22 lines of a book page, depending on the font, and changes from page to page in half a second at the touch of a thumb.  The rechargeable battery provides 30 hours of reading.

The new flexible screen technology of the Readius is anticipated in other products, as well.  “It’s an exciting example, but there are going to be a slew of other devices coming soon, too,” said Shawn O’Rourke, director of engineering at the Flexible Display Center at Arizona State University at Tempe, which focuses on the technology’s future commercialization.

Mr. O’Rourke says flexible displays are unlike today’s cell phones and laptops with their traditional glass backings.  “These displays are thin, lightweight and rugged — and they bend,” he said. The underlying substrates that support the display are typically either plastic or metal foil.

Flexible displays will mean “easy, relatively inexpensive and safe shipping and handling, compared with conventional rigid screens, and are expected to spawn a new generation of portable devices that are mobile, but also have compelling user interfaces,” said Jennifer Colegrove, an analyst at the iSuppli Corporation, a market research firm in El Segundo, Calif.

Check out the interesting array of Readius features, including Global wireless connectivity, with the greatest coverage of any eReader (Tri Band/3.5G HSDPA), supporting ActiveSync and USB mass storage (USB FS),and allowing communication with accessories and other devices (Bluetooth 2.0).

The Readius weblog  says the device is the portal through which readers can select and manage content — some free, some subscription, some one-time purchases.  Content partners will be listed this fall and content can be downloaded to a PC, or transferred over-air, not requiring a computer.

Pricing has not been announced, but is expected to be more than the Kindle’s $359.

I’ve written about the Kindle — today and previously several times, but what does the publishing industry think of ebooks and ebook readers?

John Blossom reports that despite its limitations, the Kindle “is the darling of book-readers on the go who can’t afford the space, time or trouble of loading multiple books in their overnight bags and pocketbooks.”

The Kindle is also becoming popular among the traditional media outlets because it enables them to maximize revenues when a title gains its peak value in a short period of time.

In fact, although highly speculative, he says that if the Kindle business scales as quickly as Apple’s iPod/iTunes business scaled it’s possible that Amazon could be enjoying more than $740 million in combined Kindle device and content sales by 2010.

If that happens, “then book industry executives may be wondering why they didn’t consider the music industry’s death at the hands of iPod’s proprietary 99-cent downloads as a lesson to have been studied more carefully.”

I confess to being attracted to Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader (now available and recently reduced in price — click on the image).

One of the things that has held me back is that I like free books which I get on loan from my library. There are numerous sites, however, that point you to free books that you can download to your Kindle. What’s not to like about that?

The main sources noted in a recent post at 43 Folders include Project Gutenberg, Manybooks.net, and Feedbooks.

Of great interest is Feedbooks where you can download one Kindle/Mobi book containing clickable links to more free and Creative Commons-licensed books that can be quickly downloaded directly to your Kindle.

I was also very impressed by Free Kindle Books and Free Ebooks Online where you can find links to a large collection of free stuff for your Kindle.

A couple of the links are of special note: an ebook search engine and a link to free audio books in the public domain.

 Adobe Systems Inc. launched a new version of its document sharing software Acrobat, and this time it can package videos, reports Wired.

Acrobat works across different hardware and operating systems, making it an extremely useful document packaging software.  With the addition of video-enabling Flash to Acrobat version 9, users can now include rich media in PDF files that can be read by anyone who has the free Adobe Reader installed.

With Acrobat 9 Pro, for instance, users could package a Power Point presentation not just with images, but also with an audio of the presenter’s voice.  “You can now send someone a presentation that speaks on its own all through a PDF,” said Adobe spokesman Kevin M. Lynch.

Adobe also launched Acrobat.com, which will host Web-based software services to support document creation and sharing.

Several versions of Acrobat 9 are for sale.  Take a look at this chart to compare the features available in each. 

Amazon has reduced the price of its ebook reader to $359. When first introduced, the Kindle sold out immediately and was not available for months — now the deal includes a price reduction and free two-day shipping.

The Amazon Kindle allows you to purchase instantly and wirelessly over 120,000 books, newspapers, magazines and blogs. Wireless connectivity enables you to access the Kindle Store anywhere a cell connection can be established, but there are no wireless charges, service plans or commitments involved.

Kindle’s high-resolution screen looks and reads like paper, but unlike it, the size of the text can be adjusted to meet your preferences. You can download and read free book samples before you buy, and purchases are delivered wirelessly in a minute. Many New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases cost $9.99 — significantly less than paper versions. American and international newspapers and magazines can be purchased, as well. Free wireless access to Wikipedia is included.

The Kindle stores over 200 titles, while being lighter and thinner than a typical paperback book. Click on the Kindle image to access the site for a video demonstration and more details.

I just looked up Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader on a lark to see if supply had caught up with demand — and lo and behold — it is now available. They even offer free 2-day (business day) shipping with a few limitations.

I must say I am sorely tempted even with a $399 price to give one pause. It looks like there are many interesting things that can be done with the reader besides the quick ebook, magazine and newspaper downloads from any place that has a cell connection, as long as you don’t expect it to replace your laptop.

Click on the Kindle reader image for more information, including a video.

Amazon purchased Audible earlier this year and has now launched AudibleKids,  a new site with about 4,000 titles from 75+ publishers.

Mashable says that “Seeing as we’re living in the digital age and all, your 5 year-old probably knows how to work your iPhone as well as you do. So all of AudibleKids’ content is available for download to your favorite mobile media device, including iPods and Amazon’s good ol’ Kindle, too. AudibleKids is working with the Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) nonprofit organization in order to provide support to RIF’s mission. In doing so, AudibleKids also has a featured section where a select number of audiobooks are available for free download.”

AudibleKids also strives to be a social network with a discussion platform for parents, educators and kids.  Parents can set up accounts and profiles for each child, providing them with different permissions.  There are ratings, reviews, and previews for each audiobook.

Look for audiobook downloads for kids at your local library, too.  Your taxes have already paid for them.

 Nancy Pearl, familiar to book lovers for her “Book Lust” guides to must-read books, is a retired Seattle librarian with a national following.  The New York Times says that her rise parallels Seattle’s rise in the publishing world where three local companies “increasingly influence what America reads” — Amazon, Starbucks and Costco.

Although New York is still the home of big publishing houses, the combined power of the three companies headquartered in Seattle “has put the city in the position of tastemaker,” says the NYT.

Seattle’s literary seeds are decades old, with many local authors, abundant writing courses and robust independent bookstores, according to J. A. Jance, the Seattle mystery author whose books have sold 15 million copies over the last 20 years.

And despite periodic budget problems, over the last 10 years, the city has spent nearly $200 million to improve its libraries, including the new downtown showpiece designed by Rem Koolhaas and completed in 2004.

Amazon, Starbucks, and Costco have different approaches to bookselling, but all seem to work well both locally and nationally.