CrowdStar Lands $11.5 Million to Support Its Shift From Social to Mobile Gaming

CrowdStar has landed $11.5 million in fresh capital to help it complete its transformation from developing social games to mobile games.
crowdstar_MG-Title

Ahead of iPad 3, Tablet Owners Look to Cash In

A “re-commerce” site reports that consumers are hurrying to trade in their current tablets before the anticipated next-generation iPad comes to market.
iPad 2 black and white

News Byte

Kindle Fire Heats Up Holiday for Amazon

Amazon said this holiday season was the best ever for its Kindle, with more than four million Kindle devices sold in the month of December. The company also said that its new tablet, the $199 Kindle Fire, has become the best-selling and most-gifted product across all of Amazon.com since its introduction to the market 13 weeks ago. Amazon rarely releases unit sales numbers of its e-readers, but said earlier this month that it had sold more than one million Kindles a week for three consecutive weeks.

Amazon Shares Some Kindle Sales Numbers — Sort Of

Amazon has been oh-so-reluctant to talk about how many Kindle e-readers the company has sold, but start reporting about Fire’s flaws and it may just share a little.
Amazon Kindle Fire

2012: Siri Is a Stunner, Amazon Is Amazin’ and Security Gets Spendy

Tech prognosticator Mark Anderson is back in New York with his annual predictions for the world of tech in 2012.
2012

Voices

Fire and Flame (Comic)

Here is the latest comic from our Joy of Tech friends at Geek Culture, Nitrozac and Snaggy. Joy of Tech appears three times a week in the Voices section of this site.
fire

News Byte

Amazon’s Kindles Shipping Early, but Keep Waiting for Sales Figures

The Kindle Fire will ship to customers today — one day early — and the company’s new lineup of E-ink devices will ship tomorrow — a full six days early. But how many of them have been sold? Amazon declines to say, as usual. In press releases, Amazon Kindle VP Dave Limp goes so far as to say that the Fire is Amazon’s bestselling item across the site, and that it is building millions more than planned. Meanwhile, sales of E-ink Kindles are “more than double any previous Kindle launch,” Limp added.

Amazon Reminds Nook Buyers That the Fire Will Have Netflix, Too

Barnes & Noble plays up the fact that its tablet works with third-party media apps. “Just like ours,” says Amazon. But neither tablet will give users full access to the Google’s Android Market.
Jeff Bezos announces Kindle Fire

Jeff Bezos Pitches His New Kindles: The Full Video

Here’s all 52 minutes. Almost Jobsian.
Jeff Bezos announces Kindle Fire

The Kindle Fire Isn’t an iPad Killer, It’s a Non-iPad Tablet Mauler

Amazon’s tablet could split the market in two and disrupt pricing among tablets competing with Apple’s iPad.
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Next Up for Media Layoffs: ABC?

New from Apple: iPod Flamo