Fearing that Kindle Fire users who buy an e-book version of 1984 may not realize that they, too, are being watched, congressman Edward J. Markey (D-MA) has written a letter to Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos questioning the user data that the Kindle Fire collects. (Updated: I’ve updated the…

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) engineer Steve Yegge was trying to start a robust internal discussion, not post a viral hit, when he published a 4,570-word self-styled rant about what he sees as the company’s greatest flaw to Google+. Unfortunately for Yegge, he didn’t check the settings and shared his view on…

After Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) announced its new pricing scheme last week, comments started flowing about *Amazon* Prime Instant Video and its appeal as an alternative. The Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) instant streaming service, offered as part of its $79-a-year premium shipping plan, got more appealing today with the addition of 2,000…

Lest you thought that those rumors about an Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) tablet might be drying up, here is another: it will be launched sometime in August-September, and has some ambitious sales targets for the rest of 2011: four million units.

Today in Amazon.com’s shareholders meeting, which was available online as a live webcast, Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos answered questions on topics like sales tax and diapers while sidestepping queries about the Kindle. Here’s the info shareholders got out of him:

I’m not big on terms like “tipping point” but it’s a moment worth noting: Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) is selling more e-books on Amazon.com than print or hardback combined, a marker that probably could have been hit much sooner if its digital books could be read outside the Kindle platform. Then…

OK, Jeff Bezos didn’t exactly say not to hold your breath for a color Kindle but he did explain to shareholders at Amazon’s annual meeting why they shouldn’t count on one any time soon. Or, put his way, why it’s “still a long way out.” According to AP, Bezos didn’t…

E-book sharing offers one of the more intriguing differences between the Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) Kindle and the Nook from Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS)—and, it turns out, a chance for Jeff Bezos to critique the upstart. After telling an interviewer for the NYT magazine that he would stick to his…

Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos was traveling during the company’s earnings call Thursday but managed a virtual cameo appearance to apologize for last week’s ham-fisted handling of illegal books on Kindle. In a message posted to the Kindle Community forum on Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN), Bezos wrote: “This is an apology for the…

Amazon.com (NSDQ: AMZN) is acquiring online shoe retailer Zappos.com for $807 million in stock and $40 million in cash. The companies said Zappos will retain its brand, management team and Las Vegas headquarters after the closing, which is expected this fall. What’s less clear is just how much Zappos will…

ZocDoc, the doctor search and reservation service, which just raised a $3 million first round, has added two impressive names to its roster of investors: Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff and Amazon’s (NSDQ: AMZN) Jeff Bezos (through his Bezos Expeditions) have added an unspecified amount to the round. The round, initially…

After attacking some heavenly projects, Jeff Bezos may be interested in things somewhat closer to earth…in fact under the earth. This pic below of Bezos this morning at the Fortune Brainstorm conference in Half Moon Bay, testing out a Triton submarine simulator from U.S. Submarines, makers of personal/luxury submarines.

Finally Twitter announces its funding. The popular microblogging/messaging service says its newest investors are Spark Capital and Jeff Bezos, via his Bezos Expeditions fund. That Spark was participating was already known, though Bezos’ participation is a surprise. Past backers Union Square Ventures and Tokyo-based Digital Garage also re-upped. The size…

Just before D6, Rafat and I—both Kindle users—were talking about books on our respective reading lists and how many of them, particularly new non-fiction, couldn’t be downloaded to the device.  It reminded me of a recent conversation during a plane delay at LaGuardia, when the person next to me pulled…

Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) is on the verge of launching an a-la-carte pay-per-view video streaming service, Jeff Bezos told attendees at D6. The service is meant for a subset of people willing to pay to view sans ads. It’s an addition to the rental-purchase download options from Amazon Unbox. Is Amazon…

Walt Mossberg and Jeff Bezos are talking Kindle. No details on actual unit sales or downloads but Bezos does toss a news bone—the Kindle is now responsible for 6 percent of the sales of the titles sold by Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) on Kindle and in print, That’s roughly 125,000 titles,…

His laugh is what gets me everytime, the 10-years notwithstanding. Here’s how a FastCompany story from 2001 described it: “His laugh, which has been described as sounding like ‘a jackass gargling bumblebees’ and ‘a rapid honk that sounds like a flock of Canadian geese on nitrous oxide,’ lives up to…

There’s a packed house on hand here at the W Union Square hotel in NYC for the official unveiling of Amazon’s (NSDQ: AMZN) much-hyped, oft-delayed e-book reader dubbed Kindle. Most of the details are already known, so we might be looking at more of an ooh-and-ahh fest. Amazon CEO Jeff…