TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News

Wal-Mart today launched a new ecommerce initiative, adding a million items to its online store through partnerships with outside vendors. In doing so, the Arkansas-based big-box chain is moving more and more into online rival Amazon.com's turf.

The new Walmart.com products are in the home, baby, apparel, toys and sporting goods categories. The company is initially teaming with CSN Stores, eBags, and Pro Team and said it "will continue to grow the Walmart Marketplace program with additional retailers over the next year."

Ever since various Amazon.com business units started using Twitter, one account has soared above the others. Amazon MP3, which sends out a steady stream of tweets on digital music deals (including free downloads), has accumulated a large following. Amazon MP3 recently reached the million-follower mark on Twitter, and shows no signs of slowing down.

Related story: "Sony unveils wireless electronic reader, ramping up assault on Kindle." See more of Milt Priggee's cartoons here.

President Obama's summer reading list is sparking a frenzy on Amazon.com. The five books that Obama chose for his vacation to Martha's Vineyard -- "The Way Home" by George Pelecanos, "The Lush Life" by Richard Price, "Hot, Flat and Crowded" by Tom Friedman, "John Adams" by David McCullough, and "Plainsong" by Kent Haruf -- are enjoying a big sales bounce, reports Politico, which writes that the president's golden touch with books makes him "the new Oprah Winfrey."

Discovery Communications, the company behind the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, has filed a patent application for an electronic device that lets people read and buy books -- signaling a possible challenge to Amazon.com's Kindle. The patent filing may explain the patent infringement lawsuit Discovery filed against Amazon earlier this year over Kindle security technology.

Sony is throwing its support behind search giant Google's proposed book settlement with author and publisher groups, putting it at odds with Amazon.com, Microsoft, and Yahoo!, which recently joined an alliance opposing the deal. With Sony and the others taking sides, the book settlement -- which underpins Google's project to put millions of scanned books online -- is poised to become a "proxy war" between the world's biggest technology companies over electronic books, Bloomberg reports.

A federal court judge in Maine has denied a motion by Amazon.com to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit brought last year by an independent print-on-demand publisher, BookLocker.com. The lawsuit, which seeks class action status, takes issue with Amazon's decision to channel all print-on-demand books sold on its websites through its own printing subsidiary, BookSurge. A variety of publishers and university presses use print-on-demand to derive revenue from older, out-of-print books, allowing them to be printed individually or in small batches, rather than doing a large, expensive print run of hundreds or thousands of copies.

Clearwire has applied for federal funds as part of the U.S. government's new broadband stimulus offering, though a spokeswoman for the Kirkland wireless broadband carrier told Unstrung that the grants would have "no significant impact on our funding or our existing build-out plans."

The Open Book Alliance, which includes Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo as members, formally launched its campaign against Google's book settlement with authors and publishers. News of the effort leaked out last week.

Amazon.com has extended the deadline for its web services startup challenge to Sept. 25. Entrepreneurs from the U.S., U.K., Germany and Israel compete to show who can best leverage Amazon's cloud computing services. Prizes include $50,000 in cash and $50,000 worth of web services credits.

Nearly 700,000 people have downloaded Zillow.com's free iPhone app since it launched in April, making it the top free application in the real estate category in the app store. The Seattle company also released an upgrade today, including faster loading maps and new ways to email listings to friends or real estate agents. 

The CEO of Jive Software, one of Oregon's highest profile technology startups, has decided to move to the San Francisco Bay Area to be closer to family. Dave Hersh tells the Portland Business Journal that "where I live has become less important" and notes that the headquarters will remain in Portland.

Seattle biotech Omeros, which filed to go public in January 2008 but never completed the deal, may be getting more serious about an initial public offering this fall, reports Xconomy.

Redfin, Amazon.com and Microsoft's Photosynth have been named to Time magazine's list of the top 50 Web sites of 2009. Descriptions here, here and here. [Update: Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope also made the list, as noted in the comments below.]

Just a few days after MySpace completed the acquisition of Seattle online music startup iLike, TechCrunch reports that Facebook (where iLike compiled millions of users) may be looking to partner with European music service Spotify.

Amazon.com announced a new initiative last November to replace frustrating product packaging like plastic clamshells and wire ties with smaller, easy-to-open cardboard boxes with less material inside. Now the online retail giant is taking the project a step further, allowing consumers to rate its own packaging and the original manufacturer's packaging around electronics, toys and other products. It's a subtle way to push more companies that sell through Amazon to the easier-to-open model. Beyond the consumer-friendly aspect and environmental benefits, is Amazon seeking to turn this into a business? The company applied for a trademarks in June around frustration-free packaging, covering consulting and licensing services.

Amazon.com is tailoring its cloud computing services to make them more attractive to large enterprise customers. The company this morning launched a Virtual Private Cloud service, giving companies a way to migrate their IT infrastructure onto Amazon's cloud while keeping their security systems in place.

Sony this morning launched its first wireless electronic reader, part of a broad assault on Amazon.com which has dominated the early market for e-readers. Sony's new $399 reader, the Daily Edition, has a 7-inch touchscreen display and 3G wireless connectivity via AT&T. By allowing for wireless downloads of books, newspapers, and other content, Sony matches a key feature of Amazon's Kindle readers. Sony now has a full lineup of new readers to take on the Kindle, including the $299 Touch Edition and the $199 Pocket Edition.

As Barnes & Noble tackles the emerging electronic book market, one of its major disadvantages has been that it doesn't have a dedicated reading device, a là Amazon's Kindle or the Sony readers. Barnes & Noble has tried to rectify that by teaming up with Plastic Logic, a Silicon Valley startup that is launching a much-anticipated e-reader in 2010. Now the bookseller is extending its reach further, linking up with a new electronic reader from Dutch company Irex Technologies.

Amazon.com often gets credit for sparking consumer interest in electronic readers, but it's often overlooked that Sony had its own reading device out a year earlier. Sony ended up getting steamrolled by Amazon's marketing machine, and is now relegated to playing catch up with the Kindle. How did Sony lose the advantage? AdvertisingAge gives an interesting breakdown of the two companies' strategies, and also notes the increasingly aggressive steps that Sony is taking to claw its way back.

Jeff Bezos hasn't said much lately about Blue Origin, his pet project to develop a rocket to take paying customers into space. But it seems the Amazon.com CEO may have a shot at working with NASA. The Obama administration is looking to outsource major elements of the U.S. space agency's program -- ferrying cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station -- to private contractors, a move that could benefit "scrappy entrepreneurs" with space travel startups, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Amazon.com hasn't always had the best reputation when it comes to charitable giving. But CEO Jeff Bezos continues to make his own stock gifts to nonprofits. Bezos gave 8,270 shares of Amazon stock to undisclosed nonprofit organizations on Aug. 18, according to a company SEC filing. Amazon stock was trading at $82.12 that day, putting the value of the Bezos gift at around $679,000.