Amazon Finally Lets You Gift Kindle Books

I've been calling for this for almost two years.

Beginning today, just in time for the holiday season, customers can give Kindle Books as gifts to anyone with an e-mail address--no Kindle required. Kindle Books can be read on Kindle devices and free Kindle reading apps for iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry and Android-based devices. For more information or to give a Kindle Book as a gift, go to www.amazon.com/givekindlebooks.

"We are thrilled to make it easier than ever for our customers to give their favorite Kindle book to a friend or family member as a gift," said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. "We're making this functionality available in time for the holidays to offer an easy, stress free holiday shopping option for anyone - not just Kindle owners."

To give a Kindle Book as a gift, customers simply choose a book in the Kindle Store, select "Give as a Gift" and send their gift to anyone with an email address. Notifications of Kindle Books gifts are delivered instantly via e-mail and the recipient redeems the gift in the Kindle Store to read on any Kindle or free Kindle app.

Amazon and Wal-Mart to Offer Free Shipping for the Holidays

Amazon.com says it's going to get in the "holiday spirit" for the holiday retail war.

After Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, said in a surprise announcement Thursday that it would offer free shipping with no minimum purchase or subscription fee for the holidays on about 60,000 items, Amazon said it would match the promotion with pleasure.

"We aim to meet or beat any deal out there," Amazon spokeswoman Sally Fouts said.

The Seattle-based online shopping giant already offers free "Super Saver Shipping" year-round on orders of more than $25. Through its Amazon Prime program, members pay an annual fee of $79 to get free unlimited two-day shipping with no minimum purchase.  This program has been a huge success.

"They're really matching our free Super Saver Shipping program but on a limited selection of items," Fouts said of Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart said its free shipping offer, which runs through Dec. 20, would include electronics and thousands of video games, toys, home appliances, furniture, jewelry and baby items.

Free shipping has been a hot topic among retailers who sell goods on the Internet, as research has shown that many customers avoid buying online because they don't want to pay for delivery costs. This Christmas season, many retailers including JCPenney and Williams-Sonoma have aimed to lower the cost of shipping for online customers.

One this is for sure, retailers this year want you to shop early and often.

Kindle Free Pick of the Week: Frankenstein

A perfect time to reread this classic just in time for Halloween. 

Frankenstein, loved by many decades of readers and praised by such eminent literary critics as Harold Bloom, seems hardly to need a recommendation. If you haven't read it recently, though, you may not remember the sweeping force of the prose, the grotesque, surreal imagery, and the multilayered doppelgänger themes of Mary Shelley's masterpiece. As fantasy writer Jane Yolen writes of this (the reviewer's favorite) edition, "The strong black and whites of the main text [illustrations] are dark and brooding, with unremitting shadows and stark contrasts. But the central conversation with the monster--who owes nothing to the overused movie image … but is rather the novel's charnel-house composite--is where [Barry] Moser's illustrations show their greatest power ... The viewer can all but smell the powerful stench of the monster's breath as its words spill out across the page. Strong book-making for one of the world's strongest and most remarkable books." Includes an illuminating afterword by Joyce Carol Oates.

It's free so add Frankenstein to your Kindle collection.

Kindle Free Pick of the Week: 25 Language Phrasebook

25 Language Phrasebook: German, French, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Italian, Greek, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Czech, Polish, Hungarian, Russian, Croatian, Turkish, Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, Indonesian, Malay, and Thai. Navigate from Table of Contents or search for words or phrases.

Learn how to say Hello, How are you, Please, Thank you and much more in 25 languages!

If you travel and take your Kindle with you, this is a no-brainer.  It's free. get it now.

iPads Go on Sale at Amazon and Target Stores

It is now easier to buy an iPad.  The 9.7" device -- which is available in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB capacities in both Wi-Fi-only and 3G versions -- has reinvigorated consumers' interest in tablet devices and competitors are readying their entries into the field.

IPads have been selling at a furious pace, and after only initially being available in Apple Retail Stores, Apple's online store, and Best Buy, Apple is now spreading the wealth to Amazon.com and Target.

Target will also start a new promotion on October 17 which will give Target credit card holder a 5 percent discount on the purchase of any iPad. For those that purchase a 64GB iPad Wi-Fi, that would amount to a discount of $35.

Those who purchase from Amazon.com can get a "discount" of their own -- that is if they live in a state where Amazon doesn't have a business presence -- thanks to there being no sales tax on the purchase price of an iPad.