TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News

Amazon.com already faces an array of competitors for the small but growing electronic book market. Now Google may be aiming for a piece of the action. The search giant is talking with publishers about letting them sell e-books through Google, the New York Times reports.

It wasn't too long ago that Amazon.com launched a trade-in program for used video games, giving people a way to swap used games for Amazon.com gift-card credit. Now the online retailer is expanding the program to include used DVDs, HD DVDs and Blu-ray discs -- a sign that it sees trade-ins as a possible growth area in the recession.

Don't hold your breath for Amazon.com to release sales data for its Kindle electronic reader. CEO Jeff Bezos, speaking at the company's annual shareholder meeting in Seattle today, said Amazon may never reveal Kindle numbers -- and their impact on Amazon's bottom line. Bezos, speaking to shareholders at the Seattle Art Museum, also touched on the economy, cloud computing, and a certain cheesy black T-shirt.

Earlier this month we wrote about how Amazon.com quietly created its own URL shortener for products sold on its sites, positioning itself to take better advantage of popular microblogging service Twitter. Now Amazon is taking that a step further. The online retailer has included Twitter in its "Share with Friends" feature on product pages. If you share an item on Twitter, it automatically creates a tweet with the product name and short Amazon URL.

Amazon's Kindle has dominated the early market for electronic readers, but others are preparing to enter the fray. One of the most anticipated competitors is Plastic Logic, a Silcon Valley startup that will roll out its own reader next year. Plastic Logic CEO Richard Archuleta showed off his company's device at the Wall Street Journal's D7 Tech Demo -- but was coy on pricing.

A few weeks ago, TeachStreet founder Dave Schappell had the unpleasant task of laying off a portion of the company's workforce. But at the time of that cut, he also alluded to an upcoming funding round. Now, the former Amazon.com manager is making it official, announcing that he has raised an additional $1.2 million from existing investors and the management team.

Is e-commerce giant Amazon.com getting into the brick-and-mortar retail business? The online retailer was granted a patent today for a building design that looks a lot like a mini-store location.

Seattle rocker Dave Matthews plans to headline the first ever live concert broadcast on Hulu, with the actual concert taking place June 1 at New York City's Beacon Theater.

Comedian Stephen Colbert took a shot at Microsoft in his opening monologue Thursday night, noting that he believed Green Day's new album -- "21st Century Breakdown" -- was really about Windows Vista. Ouch.

Hasbro plans to close the offices of Seattle board game maker Cranium next week, with at least 11 people to be laid off, reports the P-I. Hasbro bought the venture-backed company for $77.5 million last year.

A cheesy T-shirt featuring three wolves howling at the moon has spawned hundreds of fawning and over-the-top reviews on Amazon.com and become a clothing bestseller. The Washington Post has details on the online deluge, which began with a "snarky link" from website CollegeHumor.com.

Cnet has the latest update on the legal battle between RealNetworks and the Hollywood movie studios over the RealDVD copying software.

Digital music distribution startup TuneCore is teaming up with Amazon.com to sell artist CDs via Amazon's CreateSpace on-demand publishing service. TuneCore, which gives artists a way to sell music directly to fans without going through the major labels, has attracted some big acts including Keith Richards and Nine Inch Nails, as well as smaller bands.

Mobile Semiconductor Corp., a Seattle maker of memory systems for MP3 players, smartphones and gaming devices, has raised $700,000 in startup financing led by Datalight Corp. As part of the deal, Datalight founder and CEO Roy Sherrill is joining the board.

Headline of the day comes via BusinessWeek: "'Super Angels' Shake Up Venture Capital."

Toothpaste, shampoo, razor blades, diapers: these everyday household items are helping drugstore.com to survive in the down economy. The Bellevue-based e-commerce company had its first profitable quarter in the fourth quarter of 2008, and did it again in the first quarter of this year — at a time when many other retailers, not to mention entire industries, are suffering. Now drugstore.com is looking to expand its business through retail partnerships.

In late April, two weeks before Microsoft announced the biggest batch of layoffs in its history, the company experienced a lesser-noticed milestone that may have signaled even more about the state of its business. For the first time in Microsoft’s history, revenue in its Server & Tools division — which makes behind-the-scenes corporate systems and programming software — surpassed revenue in its Windows Client division.

The situation demonstrates the changes being forced upon Microsoft’s business, and helps explain Wall Street’s skepticism about the company’s ability to keep up. Beyond the current economic turmoil, Microsoft’s biggest products face long-term threats from the software industry’s shift toward internet services and online advertising. At the same time, rivals are giving Windows new competition.

Amazon.com has targeted its cloud computing business at web startups, large companies, and scientists. But the Seattle online retailer has also been eyeing another potential customer for its cloud: government. The company is quietly building an operation in the Washington, D.C. area, and is aiming to become a key technology provider to federal and state governments and the U.S. military.

Amazon's cloud computing business is all about moving infrastructure to the internet. So why is the company encouraging some developers to move their data to the cloud using the postal system? In cases where very large files are involved, Amazon says snail mail can be faster than a standard internet connection. So the company has rolled out a new service called AWS Import/Export that lets people ship large data sets to Amazon for loading into its S3 storage service.

Amazon Kindle 2's text-to-speech feature, which reads electronic books aloud, is sparking more heated words. Amazon, if you recall, said it would allow authors and publishers to switch off text-to-speech on book titles, after the Authors Guild raised copyright concerns. The National Federation of the Blind and other disability groups called on Amazon to fully retain text-to-speech, saying it gives the visually impaired equal access to electronic books. Now, amid reports that publishing giant Random House is now turning off the read-aloud feature on its Kindle titles, the disability groups are cranking up the pressure again.

Amazon.com has made the popular iPhone the centerpiece of its mobile strategy. Now the company is further refining its Kindle application for the iPhone -- making it more iPhone-friendly.

New features announced today include landscape support, tap to turn a page, and image zoom capability.

Kris Gopalakrishnan, CEO of IT-outsourcing giant Infosys Technologies of Bangalore, India, is in town for the Microsoft CEO Summit. Gopalakrishnan sat down with TechFlash at his company's offices in Bellevue to talk about the U.S. and global economy, Microsoft, cloud computing, and rubbing elbows with Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. He also discussed his multiple mobile phones, including his Windows Mobile phone and iPhone.