Anyone who has splashed out US$259 or its local currency equivalent for a Kindle e-reader might be pleased to learn that the British Library is to give them plenty of chances to get their money’s worth.

It’s reported by Techwatch that 65,000 classic volumes in English are to be made available on the device, including classic works by Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Jane Austen, and other 19^th-century authors whose works are now free from copyright.

The library intends to make the books available for free over the next couple of months.

It is also reported that these e-book versions will be published in their original typefaces and with the original illustrations, so they will be truly authentic.

Microsoft is reported to have offered to fund the project.

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Authors and publishers of 'bargain' books available for viewing on Amazon's Kindle e-reader are to get a greater share of the royalties from each sale.

The new agreement, which will be effective from June 30, will reward the author and publisher of every book contained in the e-retailer’s discount books programme with 70 per cent of each book’s list price, net of delivery costs.

The reward structure will apply to books retailing for between US$2.99 and US$9.99 (GBP1.83-6.13) on the starting date. The higher royalty rate will only be paid on sales of ‘virtual’ books whose list price is at least 20 per cent less than the lowest listed price for the paper version of the same book.

The Amazon Kindle e-reader has been a big best-seller for the e-retailer, and was one of the most popular gifts of Christmas 2009 in the US. However, it faces tough competition from similar devices being marketed by Sony and US trade bookseller Barnes & Noble.

Authors typically get between seven and 15 per cent of the list price for their physical books, or 25 per cent of the net proceeds publishers get from retailers for their digital books, Russ Grandinetti, vice president of Kindle Content, said.

The statement did not specify what the current royalty rates are for books targeted by Amazon’s new programme.

But technology and telecoms experts at ITProPortal said the deal could have wider, worldwide consequences for the book trade, in potentially heralding the end of staggered release dates for books in different countries. “Publishers will have to make the books available worldwide or face being kicked out (of the Kindle programme)”, said Desire Athow, a T&T specialist for the website.

It is also believed that only books currently sold in the UK, still in copyright and out of the public domain will be covered. Publishers wishing to take part in the programme are also expected to have to ensure that they support Kindle-only features, such as text to speech functionality.

Online retailer Amazon has announced it is to start making applications available through its Kindle e-reader.

The company said it plans to release tools to allow software designers to develop their own apps, according to a report by Reuters.

Amazon is using the same strategy adopted by Apple following the launch of its app store, which now gives users access to a massive selection of games and tools. An estimated 50 million people now own Apple products such as the iPhone and iPod touch and demand for applications is only expected to increase.

After Christmas, Amazon said sales were strong for its Kindle devices, but would not release figures. Industry analysts believe new products expected to launch this year will increase competition in the e-reader market place, with booksellers forced to lower prices to retain a competitive edge.

The report by Reuters said applications for the Kindle could include travel books “which suggest activities based on real-time weather and current events” along with “cookbooks that recommend menus based on the size of party and guest allergies”.

Cambridge-based technology firm, Plastic Logic Ltd, has launched an e-reader which industry commentators believe could challenge the dominance of Amazon's Kindle reader.

The company unveiled its Que e-reader at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The device has been in development for 10 years and has benefitted from over $200million of investment. A report by the BBC said the Que, which has a touchscreen and connects to the internet through wireless and 3G, has been designed for use by “mobile professionals”.

However, the Que won’t be available in Britain immediately and is also more expensive than Amazon’s Kindle e-reader. The Que’s 4GB and 8GB versions will cost $649 and $799 respectively, while the Kindle costs either $259 or $489 depending on the model.

Plastic Logic said the device’s “sleek industrial design, intuitive user-interface and powerful applications define a premium reading experience”.

Content in the form of digital books will be available through bookstore chain Barnes & Noble. The company’s digital store now contains around 700,000 titles.

Online retailer Amazon has announced it is to begin selling a new version of its Kindle e-reader worldwide.

The firm released its original Kindle, which is designed to allow users to read electronic books and newspapers, last October. It is now making a larger version, the Kindle DX, available to consumers in over 100 countries for just under US$500.

A report from Reuters said the device would be ready to ship by January 19. It has 9.7 inch screen with around 2.5 times the surface area of the original Kindles and space for up to 3,500 books.

Amazon said on Christmas day, sales of e-books outstripped the number of physical books purchased for the first time ever. The company has also been keen to shout about strong sales as far as the Kindle is concerned, but so far has refused to provide figures to back up its claims.

Ian Freed, vice president of Amazon Kindle, told Reuters the new design has been well received.

He said: “On a global basis customers love the 6 inch device and we know in the U.S. that customers are also loving the 9.7 Kindle DX.”

Smartbooks are widely anticipated to be flavour of the month at this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, with a major new launch planned by computer chip-maker Freescale Semiconductor.

The latter part of 2009 saw much hype surrounding the introduction of Amazon’s Kindle reader, and Apple Inc was quick to throw its hat into the ring, announcing that it had a rival product in development, and was expecting to make a firm announcement early in the new year.

Freescale is believed to be working on a seven-inch touchscreen design with Wi-Fi and 3G capability, according to reports from Reuters.

It has also supplied the chips used in the Kindle, and in a number of sat-nav systems.

As it produces the ‘heart’ of these devices in-house, it is hoping to be able to compete keenly with other newcomers looking to launch products to bridge the gap between PCs and smartphones.

When initially announced, Freescale said it was looking to price its reader at under US$200 (less than GBP125). It has not yet announced any deals with retailers for selling the devices, but has widely indicated that prototypes would be on show in Las Vegas, with sales expected to start in the summer.

Henri Richard, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Freescale, called a smartbook tablet the “missing link” between PCs and smartphones.

“The PC has been stale in terms of its ability to innovate. Smartphones have been making progress … but they have limitations,” he told Reuters.

Qualcomm Inc and Nvidia Corp are also expected to unveil smartbooks based on their chips at CES.

The devices will seek to break Intel Corp’s stranglehold on the market for low-cost PCs. Intel’s Atom processor dominates the fast-growing netbook market.

Meanwhile, Amazon, which produces and markets the Kindle mobile reader, has come under fire for hyping sales of the Kindle, but failing to back up its claims with any solid sales figures. It announced late in 2009 that it had become the biggest-selling gift item in the company’s history, but the same press release was bereft of figures to quantify its success. Instead, it seemed to be nothing more than a sales pitch, emphasising instead the number of book titles now available to Kindle users.

And only halfway through December, Amazon claimed that Kindle sales had already surpassed those of any previous month – but again provided no figures to support its assertion.

The launch of Amazon's Kindle e-book reader was sure to be a hot topic among those attending the world's biggest book trade fair in Frankfurt, Germany.

It is believed that the new device could herald a long-feared transformation of the industry for which few are well prepared.

Lower prices, rising consumer confidence and better distribution outside the United States are all sure to boost the Kindle’s sales over the key Christmas period.

Like the music and newspaper industries before it, the book-publishing world now faces vanishing revenues as sales of physical discs, papers and books give way to far cheaper or free digital distribution, comments Reuters.

“Meantime, publishers are distracting themselves by fretting over the price of eBooks, withholding eBook releases so as not to cannibalise hardcover book sales, and watching helplessly as their businesses erode in front of them,” analyst Sarah Rotman Epps of technology research firm Forrester wrote.

Forrester estimates 3 million e-readers will be sold in the United States this year and double that number next year, taking the total sold to 10 million by the end of 2010 — excluding other digital screens, such as phones and PCs.

There are exceptions in the book industry to the general lack of enthusiasm for all things digital.

America’s leading bookseller, Barnes & Noble, is expected to launch its own ereader soon, which would provide strong competition to the Kindle and Sony’s reader in the market for book-sized screens that grab and display text from the web.

The top U.S. bookstore chain — America’s first bookseller to advertise on television in the 1970s and also the first to discount books — already has the world’s largest online bookstore, which it launched in July.

Barnesandnoble.com sells most of its new releases as ebooks for $9.99, the same as Amazon, and far cheaper than the physical versions in most cases. At launch it had over 700,000 titles readable on a variety of devices like Apple’s iPhone.

The company has declined to comment on reports it will soon sell its own wireless touchscreen reading device. “We believe readers should have access to books in their digital library from any device, anywhere and at any time,” a spokeswoman said.

Google’s project to scan all the world’s books and make them available online has so far encompassed 10 million books through agreements with libraries and publishers, but it has made enemies along the way by scanning library books without always gaining prior permission from the rights holders.

Now Google seems to be on the verge of settling a mammoth lawsuit with U.S. publishers. A final court hearing takes place on November 9 on the settlement, which would entail Google helping to set up a books registry to track down and pay rights holders.

The rest of the world — especially France and Germany — continues largely to view Google with suspicion. The company is sending its top lawyer to Frankfurt to engage once again with the industry.

Google argues it can help publishers and authors by enabling readers to find works online, especially those that are out of print. For books still in copyright, Google displays text snippets in answer to search queries, and details of retailers.

“Books that were previously out of print will come back to life,” Santiago de la Mora, Google’s head of European print partnerships, said. “There are 1.8 billion Internet users. I’m pretty sure you can find readers for everything.”