TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News

Just days before Apple's iPad hits the market, Amazon.com is caving to more publishers on the pricing of electronic books. The online retail giant just cut deals with Simon & Schuster (owned by CBS) and HarperCollins (part of News Corp.), allowing the two publishing houses to set higher e-book prices, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Under the new terms, digital versions of most best-sellers will sell for $12.99 to $14.99, according to the Journal. Those are the same terms that Apple is offering publishers for e-books on the iPad.

We're wrapping another busy month here at TechFlash. And, in case you missed out, here are the top stories on the site for March. Thanks to everyone for reading, commenting and being a part of the TechFlash community.

"WA seeks new tax revenue from software, but not from Microsoft"

"Amazon.com's 1-Click patent confirmed following re-exam"

"The 2005 email that spawned Picnik, Google's latest buy"

"What Microsoft learned from Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates"

"Notes on Project Natal, including how much space you'll need"

"Video: Microsoft's Project Gustav"

"Microsoft sends flowers, card for Internet Explorer 6 funeral"

"PlayStation's Project Natal spoof: Hilarious, and a little misleading"

"Classmates to pay up to $9.5M to settle suit over phantom friends"

"Mexico's Carlos Slim knocks Bill Gates off his top billionaire perch"

"Workers say they're more productive away from the office"

"Picnik CEO: Google deal comes with a 'very happy number'"

"Video: Microsoft Mobile Surface"

"Top 5 worst Google Fiber pitches"

"RealNetworks' Rob Glaser on why Apple's model must be stopped"

We're all familiar with unboxing videos that people post to the web, capturing the moments when they get a first look at a new device. Well, it turns out Amazon.com is interested in the reverse process, taking videos of products as they're being boxed and packaged in the warehouse.

The online retail giant received a U.S. patent today for a method of sending images and video clips to customers of their order being packaged for shipment — to reassure them that everything is correct. That kind of feature would put a new multi-media spin on the standard e-mail order notification.

From left, Xconomy's Greg Huang, Nathan Myhrvold, and Leroy Hood

Former Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Nathan Myhrvold and genomics pioneer Leroy Hood, head of Seattle's Institute for Systems Biology, explored the intersection of computing and biology in a provocative keynote at Xconomy Forum in Seattle today. The two tech luminaries talked about the vast potential for the two fields to work together — and the barriers keeping them apart.

Myhrvold also had plenty to say about his controversial patent-collecting firm Intellectual Ventures, his efforts to build a new type of nuclear reactor, global warming, entrepreneurship — and why he thinks the Internet wasn't really a breakthrough idea.

Read on for some of the choice excerpts from their keynote talk.

The recent news that eBay is starting to do "flash sales" of luxury fashion goods got me wondering again if Amazon has any similar plans in that area. In December, Amazon was reported to be in secret negotiations to acquire Vente-Privée, a large European private sales club that holds designer-brand sales for members, typically lasting three days. Amazon never commented, and a spokeswoman for Vente-Privee shot down the report at the time.

But with private sales now a fast-growing segment of the retail sector, I'm still curious to see if Amazon tries to grab a piece of the business.

Is Amazon.com gearing up to make a bigger push into digital games? The company acquired Reflexive, an online casual games developer and portal, in October 2008, and launched an online store for casual PC game downloads in February 2009. Now an analyst notes a slew of games-related job postings at Amazon and predicts that Amazon will seek "new opportunities as an aggregator of online games."

From left, Charlie Tillinghast, president of msnbc.com, Jeff Lanctot managing director and publisher solutions at Microsoft, Brian McAndrews, managing director of Madrona Venture Group, and Aaron Finn, founder and chairman of AdReady during TechFlash Live at Showbox SoDo in Seattle. (BUSINESS JOURNAL PHOTO | Stephen Brashear)

We had a blast at last night's TechFlash Live, despite the fact that the TechFlash team was skunked in ping pong by Madrona Venture Group's Greg Gottesman. (We will be practicing up for this summer's big tourney, so watch out). Defending champ Valeri Kim of Akvelon was on hand -- playing with a paddle the size of a donut -- as was runner-up Minh Le of Silicon Valley Bank -- sweating up a storm as usual.

Of course, the highlight of the night was the insightful panel discussion on the future of online advertising and how to make money on the Web. Our experts panelists of Madrona Venture Group's Brian McAndrews, AdReady's Aaron Finn, Microsoft's Jeff Lanctot and msnbc.com's Charlie Tillinghast touched on a number of topics from mobile to video to hyperlocal news sites. We'll have more on what was said later this morning. But first here's a photo gallery of last night's activities. Thanks to everyone for coming out.

Another sign that Apple's forthcoming iPad tablet will be a formidable rival for Amazon's Kindle: a new comScore survey finds that people are equally aware of iPad and Kindle and are slightly more inclined to buy an iPad within the next three months.

Kindle has dominated the early market for electronic books, but comScore finds that the e-reader/tablet market is still wide open — leaving plenty of room for competition.

Can Facebook transform itself into an online advertising juggernaut? Will media companies successfully be able to charge for their content online? How's the search advertising battle shaping up between Microsoft and Google?

We plan to ask those questions and more at tomorrow night's TechFlash Live event. We've been putting together the questions for our expert panel, which includes AdReady founder Aaron Finn, Madrona Venture Group's Brian McAndrews; msnbc.com president Charlie Tillinghast and Microsoft ad exec Jeff Lanctot.

Here's where we could use your help: What's on your mind when it comes to the future of online advertising, the media or online business models in general? Leave a comment below, and if it makes sense we'll try to incorporate it into our discussion.

Amazon.com has said all along it plans to release a Kindle application for Apple's new iPad, even as it battles Apple for dominance in the young electronic book market. Amazon has a web page up promoting its upcoming Kindle app for tablet computers, including the iPad, though the company doesn't say exactly when the app will be available.

The New York Times reports Amazon was not given an iPad for testing, indicating the app may not be ready for release right away when the iPad launches April 3.

Seattle online diamond retailer Blue Nile Inc. is suing a New York-based company for allegedly pilfering photos and other features from its website and selling them to other merchants.

Blue Nile, in a lawsuit filed March 8 in U.S. District Court in Seattle (pdf, 20 pages), alleges that Ideal Diamond Solutions, based in Brooklyn, New York, and its founder Larry Chasin, made unauthorized copies of Blue Nile photos and other information and “incorporated them into hundreds of diamond and jewelry retailer websites.”

Is ecommerce giant Amazon.com making plans for a new refund feature? In a filing this month, Amazon is seeking to trademark the term "Unpay" under the category of "Financial services; credit card services; debit card services; charge card services; clearing and reconciling financial transactions via a global computer network."

Amazon previously had an Unpay feature but I can't find any recent mention of it. The last reference I can find is in a 2001 press release about the now-defunct Amazon Honor System for donating money to websites: "Customers can also take advantage of a full and unconditional money-back guarantee up to 30 days after payment by using Amazon.com's innovative Unpay feature, which provides no-questions-asked refunds."

Today's your last chance to sign up for the first TechFlash Live event of 2010, taking place Tuesday March 23 at the Showbox Sodo. We've got a fantastic panel on hand to discuss how to make money online and the future of advertising. If that's not enough to whet your appetite, we're also rolling in some ping pong tables so folks can warm-up, scout the competition and challenge your tech rivals in advance of the big TechFlash pong tourney later this summer.

Registration will close later this afternoon. So if you haven't signed up yet, now is the time to pull the trigger. Tickets here.

2201 Westlake, Photo via Vulcan Real Estate/ Benjamin Benschneider

Earlier this year we reported that Amazon.com was on the hunt for additional office space in Seattle, and had signed a letter of intent with Paul Allen's Vulcan for the new 2201 Westlake complex in South Lake Union. Now Vulcan is making it official. The developer is announcing that Amazon has leased 180,000 square feet of office space at 2201 Westlake and expects to begin moving into the building in mid-2010

That's in addition to Amazon's new 1.7 million square foot headquarters campus now under construction by Vulcan in South Lake Union. Amazon's growing footprint in the neighborhood reflects its continuing growth during the recession.

Amazon.com continues to extend its Kindle ecosystem to other devices. The company just announced a new free Kindle application for Mac computers, allowing Mac users to browse, buy and read Kindle electronic books. Amazon already offers Kindle apps for the iPhone, iPod touch, BlackBerry, and Windows PCs (and promises one for Apple's new iPad too).

Meantime, the New York Times reports Amazon is playing more hardball with publishers in negotiations over electronic books. The online retail giant is threatening to stop selling books by publishers "unless they agree to a detailed list of concessions regarding the sale of electronic books" including that "that they lock into three-year contracts and guarantee that no other competitor will get lower prices or better terms," the Times reports.