Kindle Fire

With the unveiling of its new Kindle tablet, Amazon isn’t just catching up to its competitors, it’s upping the ante.
 
As expected, the Kindle Fire is a seven-inch, full-color, touchscreen tablet. What wasn’t expected is the price point.

At $199, Kindle’s tablet is much cheaper than its presumed competitor – the iPad.

Amazon also introduced three new Kindle devices. The most basic Kindle – a non-touch – is just $79. A Kindle for under $100. Wow.

$79 non-touch Kindle

The other Kindles include a 3G  black-and-white touch for $149. The same model with wifi – but without 3G – is $99.

Kindle Fire starts shipping on November 15.

It makes me wonder whether Apple will react to Amazon’s latest move by lowering prices on the iPad.
 

Here’s the closest we’ll ever get to an authentic Regency fashion show.

This video of actual garments of early 19th century clothing gives us a close-up view of the high styles of the day.

The high-waisted gowns, which were fashionable during the Regency period of the early 1800s, were known as the Empire look. You’ll see a lot of white, which was a sign of social status since white had to be cleaned more often.

I particularly love the yellow cape and the detailing on some of the evening dresses is gorgeous.

If you’d like to see even more, check out this earlier post on Regency fashion.

Major publisher HarperCollins is launching an on-demand book service which will allow customers to print out and buy unstocked or backlist trade paperback titles in a matter of minutes.

The new on-demand service will be made available through the Espresso Book Machine.

According to a HarperCollins press release, books can be printed, bound and trimmed to a bookstore-quality paperback with a full-color cover, in minutes with the push of a button.

“Even as digital book sales grow, bookstores continue to be an important place for customers to shop for physical books. The goal of this initiative is to give the local bookseller the capability to provide customers with a greater selection of HarperCollins titles in a physical environment,” said Brian Murray, president and chief executive officer of HarperCollins Publishers. “For authors this is a win; titles will be more broadly available, which increases sales with full print royalties. Depending on the size of the store, 25%-80% of our backlist titles are not stocked due to physical space limitations. DPR technology means the books will be there for the consumer at small and large bookshops.”

HarperCollins trade paperback books, including adult and children’s titles, will be available on Espresso Book Machines starting in November.