Up until recently there have basically been two reasons to use the Amazon Appstore as an alternative to the official Google Play Store. First, the Play Store isn’t available for all phones and tablets. And second, even if you can use Google’s marketplace Amazon offers one free app each day and sometimes runs promotions which offer discounts on other apps. That was a big deal when… Read more »

Amazon is rolling out a new feature for its Android app store that allows developers to collect in-app payments. This makes it possible for developers to offer free or paid apps and then charge for subscription-based content or for additional features, while collecting payments using Amazon’s payment system. Google already offers developers similar tools through the Google Play Store, and Apple lets developers collect in-app… Read more »

Amazon has released an updated version of its Appstore for Android with two key changes. The first is that users can now download apps up to 50MB in size over a 3G or 4G internet connection. The second is that you can now adjust the notification settings so that you don’t get an alert every single time there’s an update available for an app you’ve installed…. Read more »

With the new Apple iPad ready to launch tomorrow, Amazon has rolled out an updated Kindle app for iOS that adds support for the new tablet’s high resolution display. Now text and graphics should look better on the iPad’s 2048 x 1536 screen, although the rest of the improvements in the Kindle 3.0 app are available whether you’re using the latest iPad or not. Kindle… Read more »

It’s been a year since Amazon opened its Appstore for Android, offering thousands of Android games and apps for phones and tablets including the Amazon Kindle Fire. The Amazon Appstore now has more than 31,000 apps including free and paid apps — and each day the company offers one paid app free of charge. Now Amazon is celebrating the Appstore birthday with another sale. For… Read more »

Amazon has rolled out a new version of its music app for Android. The update lets you control music playback from the Android 4.0 lock screen so that you can skip tracks, play or pause audio, or perform other actions without unlocking your device. The Amazon MP3 2.4.0 change log also suggests there’s a new layout optimized for tablets, but there still appears to be… Read more »

The Amazon Kindle Fire is the first Android device to ship with the new Amazon Instant Video app. If you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber, you can use it to watch thousands of TV shows and movies for $79 per year. You can also pay to rent or purchase movies on a case-by-case basis. But it turns out the app is just a regular Android app…… Read more »

It looks like the reports of Stanza’s death have been somewhat exaggerated. Today Amazon and Lexcycle released the first update to the popular iOS eBook app since February. The update doesn’t add any new features, but it does fix one glaring problem: the previous version of Stanza didn’t work with iOS 5. The new version does. Stanza has long been one of the most versatile eBook… Read more »

For a few year ab app called Stanza was the undisputed champ of eBook readers for iOS. Stanza allowed iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad readers to download and read eBooks from a number of digital book marketplaces or copy books from a computer. The app did a great job of organizing books, and offered a number of options for viewing your books by changing font… Read more »

It was nice while it lasted. Yesterday we reported that Android users around the globe had discovered that the Amazon Appstore was suddenly working. Today reports are starting to roll in that Amazon may have pulled the plug… for now. The Amazon Appstore is one of the highest profile alternatives to the official Google Android Market. Amazon offers thousands of apps in a well-organized system,… Read more »