Amazon, in what it described as a "difficult decision," is winding down Kindle Vella and shutting it down completely in February 2025. When the company launched the serialized story platform in 2021, it said Vella was a way for readers to discover new fictional stories and a new way for authors to earn from the Kindle Direct Publishing service. But it hasn't caught on as it had hoped, Amazon explains on its website, and it has decided to throw in the towel three years after Vella's debut. Authors can only publish stories on Vella until December 4, which is also the last day readers can purchase tokens. While readers will no longer be able to purchase tokens after that, they can continue using those tokens to unlock episodes until the program closes in February. The good news for those who've been following specific authors or stories on Vella is that they won't lose their access to whatever episodes they've already unlocked even after the platform shuts down. They can always read the stories they've purchased in their library in the Kindle app for iOS and Android, though they can no longer open them on the web. Any token they don't use by February will be refunded. Responses to Vella have been pretty lukewarm since it became available. Some authors liked the fact that they could use it to earn money from unfinished stories, while some readers said they'd prefer getting a whole book instead of paying for installments. Personally, as someone who follows a lot of indie... Continue reading at 'Engadget'
[ Engadget | 2024-10-29 12:00:30 UTC ]
We're officially one week out from Black Friday and it seems most retailers have launched at least a portion of their deals and sales already. You can find the exhaustive list on our deals homepage, but we've gathered the highlights here. Bose's new QuietComfort 45 headphones remain on sale for... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-11-19 16:45:10 UTC ]
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Amazon's Fire tablets make great portable, secondary devices, or primary devices for the kids in your life. They're already pretty affordable — that's one of the best things about them — but Black Friday has knocked their prices down even more. Most Fire tablets are on sale right now, including... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-11-19 09:30:03 UTC ]
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As ever, Amazon is discounting many of its products for the Black Friday shopping period. Like many other companies, Amazon is getting out of the gate a little early with deals on Kindles. The standard Kindle is down from $90 to $50, which is the lowest price we've seen for the e-reader. Back in... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-11-19 09:00:22 UTC ]
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We at Engadget spend a lot of time thinking about the best tech gifts for anyone and everyone in your life. But during that process, we often can’t help but think about the things we’d like to receive as gifts. We encourage everyone to treat themselves in some way while scrambling to find gifts... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-11-11 15:30:08 UTC ]
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Blu-rays are so done. Using high-speed lasers, researchers have created new data storage tech that could write and keep 500TB of data on a CD-sized glass disc. The 5D storage tech has higher writing speeds that might make it feasible to large-scale archiving projects. Each file uses three layers... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-11-02 11:37:02 UTC ]
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This may be one of your best chances of scoring a smart speaker or e-reader before the holiday rush. Amazon is selling multiple recent Echo devices (plus a Kindle reader) at very low prices. To start, the fourth-generation Echo speaker is on sale for just $60 (usually $100), or the same as its... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-10-31 14:22:12 UTC ]
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Thriller author Rachel McLean has won the £20,000 Kindle Storyteller Award for her novel The Corfe Castle Murders after a "record number" of submissions. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-10-23 09:39:42 UTC ]
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October kicked off with a bunch of good tech deals across the web. All of Apple's wireless earbuds remain on sale at Amazon, so you can pick up the AirPods Pro for $179 or even the standard AirPods with the wireless charging case for $129. The new Beats Studio Buds are $25 off while a couple of... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-10-08 15:30:39 UTC ]
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We’ll get into why Facebook saw its entire business fall off a cliff on Monday, but first: e-readers.It’s a device category we don’t see much development in — probably because it’s very much a device for reading text and not much else. Amazon’s Kindle, thanks to its powerful online e-book store,... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-10-06 11:15:08 UTC ]
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Richard Osman’s The Man Who Died Twice (Penguin) has swiped the Bookstat e-book top spot for a third week running, once again charting top for the week ending 2nd October. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-10-05 18:35:55 UTC ]
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Romance, crime and science fiction novels are among the five shortlisted books for the £20,000 Kindle Storyteller Award, which this year received a record number of submissions. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-29 00:11:05 UTC ]
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This week brought iPhone reviews, new Surface devices and a bunch of tech deals across the web. Apple's MacBook Air M1 returns to the best price we've seen it while the iPad Air remains discounted by $100. Some of our favorite Sennheiser wireless earbuds are $100 off, too, and you can still grab... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-09-24 15:45:20 UTC ]
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It's fall, and new gadget season has officially begun! This week, Cherlynn and Devindra dive into all of Microsoft's new hardware: The Surface Laptop Studio, Pro 8 and Duo 2. Also, Commerce Editor Valentina Palladino joins to chat about the iPhone 13, 13 Mini and her iPad Mini review. And of... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-09-24 12:30:45 UTC ]
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As indicated in a leak earlier this week, Amazon is updating the Kindle Paperwhite. The fifth-gen Paperwhite (which marks the first refresh in nearly three years) has a larger, 6.8-inch display, compared with the previous model's six-inch screen. The company says the 300 ppi screen is glare-free... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-09-21 13:00:32 UTC ]
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The waterproof e-reader now comes in three different options, with bigger, brighter screens and faster response times. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2021-09-21 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Official news came much sooner than expected. On Tuesday, just a day after leaks surfaced on the company’s Canadian and Mexican sites about models with a bigger screen and dramatically more LEDs, Amazon confirmed the launch of three new Kindle Paperwhites. In addition to a successor for the... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2021-09-21 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Victoria Hislop's One August Night (Headline) has climbed 15 places to hit the Amazon Charts' Most-Sold: Fiction number one spot, as its Kindle price dropped to 99p. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-08 02:00:28 UTC ]
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Amazon is offering discounts on a swathe of Kindles and Fire tablets for Labor Day. While the price cuts might not be quite as hefty as those you'd find on Prime Day, they're still solid, and you'll save around a third on most of the devices. Each version of the Fire 7 tablet, which Amazon says... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-09-06 14:39:41 UTC ]
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Traveling with young children is like trying to turn a cruise ship: It’s cumbersome, takes a significant amount of planning and requires a team effort. Because I apparently lack any amount of common sense, I recently took a 3,000-mile RV trip with my partner and two toddlers. Traveling with... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-09-01 12:30:02 UTC ]
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Now might be a good time to buy an e-reader for school — or that end-of-summer vacation. Amazon has cut the price of the ad-supported 8GB Kindle Paperwhite to an all-time low of $71 in a one-day-only sale, well below the official $130 sticker. That's lower than what we saw just two weeks... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-08-29 15:44:54 UTC ]
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