On Tuesday, Amazon Inc. unveiled its test edition of Kindle for the Web application, which lets the internet users read a book’s first chapter even without having downloaded Kindle software or a Kindle e-reading appliance.

Developers would be able to embed extracts of any book on the websites and also earn referral fees after the purchase is made, by clicking onto the links on such sites.

Online retailer Amazon. co. uk has updated its Samsung Galaxy Tab listing. Now, the Android-based Tab can be seen with a list price of £599, well down from the massive RRP of £799.

The online retailer slashed the direct retail price after its initial £799 listing was criticized severely. However, the current direct retail price too is well higher than the prices of rival tablets like that of Apple’s popular iPad.

Some market experts believe that the retail price of the Samsung could slip further before its launch in the UK.

Online retailer Amazon latest TV advert for its Kindle e-reader pokes fun at Apple's iPad.

In the advert, a man and a woman are lounging by a pool. The man has an iPad, while the woman has a Kindle e-reader in her hands. The man is having trouble reading on the iPad due to sharp sunlight, but the woman is able to keep reading effortlessly in the sunlight.

The man leans over and asks her how she is able to keep reading in the sunlight. The women relies, "It's a Kindle", adding it costs just $139. She further says, “I actually paid more for these sunglasses.”

Online retailer Amazon has listed the HTC Desire Z smartphone with a price tag of £430 and a release date of October 11.

Other online retailer Mobilefun. co. uk has also priced the HTC Desire Z at £430. However, Mobilefun. co. uk will start offering the handset ahead of Amazon, on October 8.

The HTC Desire Z smartphone comes equipped with a 3.7-inch display, an 800MHz processor, a sliding QWERTY keyboard and a 5-megapixel photo snapper that is capable of recording 720p high-definition video.

The 180g HTC Desire Z is named after the shape of the hinge that lift the screen up.

Online retailer Amazon. co. uk has listed Apple iPad’s rival, the 16GB Samsung Galaxy Tab, with a price tag of £799. The 32GB model is yet to be priced. The retailer is only asking potential customers to register their interest because the device has not gone to pre-order status yet.

The Galaxy Tab will also be available on contracts. For instance, O2 in Germany is offering the Galaxy Tab for 99 Euros up front, and 27.50 Euros per month over two-year contract.

Amazon recently has clinched a deal with retail venture Amie Street to gain a further foothold in online MP3 retail market.

Through an e-mail notification directed to users, Amie Street proclaimed that the corporation is on the brink of being taken up by the online retailer firm Amazon and the users will be channeled towards Amazon. com soon after 22 September, as the website will be pulled down.

Amazon will soon be unveiling the latest platform of its web-based video subscription service and at same time is in talks with media houses such as Time Warner.

According to well placed sources, Bloomberg reports claim that the online retail giant will soon be offering a monthly subscription based video service, which will offer old movies and TV shows.

Bloomberg further added the talks were in a very early stage to be commented upon, in addition to the fact Amazon has also is in talks with Viacom and NBC Universal for the video subscription service.

Amazon.com Inc. reacted to Apple Inc.’s announcement that it would start renting some shows for 99 cents per episode by slashing the cost of to download TV shows to 99 cents.

The Seattle-based e-commerce retailer’s recent move to slash prices from $2.99 to mere 99 cents has opened a new front in the war over growing digital media. Amazon.com Inc. already offers a wide range of TV shows as well as movies on its video-on-demand service.

Bill Carr, the vice president of music & video at Amazon, said they always tried to keep their products competitive.

Amazon, the Seattle-based online retailer, is preparing to introduce new online digital TV and movies subscription service, in a move that could help it snatch some of the market share from well-established rival companies such as Netflix and Google Inc.

In the past few weeks, the online retailer pitches web-based subscription service to a number of major media companies including Time Warner and NBC Universal.

More details about the third edition of Amazon's Kindle e-book reader have popped up online. The Kindle 3 is about half an inch shorter and narrower than the second edition.

However, the manufacturer hasn’t compromised on the size of the screen, which is exactly the same size as the Kindle 3’s predecessors. The page turn buttons have been transformed from thick bars to slim lines. The little five-way joy stick has been transformed into a flatter little cluster of arrow buttons.

The new Kindle comes with WiFi along with free 3G mobile internet connection.

Amazon has announced that a new Fable book, entitled Fable: The Balverine Order would be launched later this year.

The new book would bring an exceptional Xbox Live Marketplace redeem code that would allow purchasers to download a yet to be revealed weapon for use in Fable 3.

The book will be penned by Peter David, who has written thousands of novels and comics. Peter David’s most recent works include the five part Hallo: Helljumper series.

Entitled Fable: The Balverine Order will describe a totally new story set in the extensive universe of Peter Molyneux's Xbox RPG series.

Amazon’s Kindle Development Kit, which was introduced in January, has yielded two free games viz. Shuffled Row and Every Word.

In the Shuffled Row, gamers create words from 60 lettered tiles, where letters are replaced after they are used to create a word. The other game Every Word is a word-scramble game which asks players to discover as many words as possible from a hodgepodge of letters.

Both of these two games are now available for download free of cost on Amazon.

Amazon has launched its UK Kindle store, providing Brits with an access to more than 400,000 titles.

E-books at the new UK Kindle store have been priced competitively low in a move that will allow the company to attract consumers who can not afford Apple’s iPad due to its heavy price tag.

Many e-books have been priced cheaper than there paper versions. For instance, the paper version of Steig Larsson’s, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest costs £3.86, while the Kindle version of the book is available for just £2.70.

Amazon may not have revealed that how many Kindles or digital books it has retailed, but it is speculated that the online vendor has a hold on 80% of the e-book market.

Amazon Kindle VP, Ian Freed during an interview with Cnet, said that the Kindle takes up 70 to 80% of the market, regardless of the claims made by the makers of iPad, Nook, or Kobo. This figure comprises Kindle books, which are sold on the Kindle gadget itself (roughly 80% of all Kindle sales), as well as the ones retailed via Android, iPad, PC, Blackberry, and iPhone through Amazon's Kindle applications.

Amazon has come up with the upgraded version of Kindle reader for UK as it feels the heat of iPad.

The proclamation stated that the ebook reader which was released three years ago is priced at £149 and will be offered with the free wireless connectivity via Vodafone. A Wi-Fi version will be coming at £109.

It was further added that both the models are much sleeker and lighter when compared to Kindle. This is also a move that is aimed at lower production costs, improve reliability and delivery.