Amazon

According to the Japanese website Macotakara, Apple is developing a mysterious 5-inch Retina display device for 2013. There have been many reports about Apple releasing a 7.85-inch iPad mini, or even increasing the screen size of the iPhone this year, but this is the first time we've heard anything about a 5-inch device.

The Japanese blog , citing “reliable Chinese sources", said "Apple LCD is developing a 5-inch Retina display with a screen resolution of either 1,600-by-960 pixels or 1,280-by-960 pixels." It's unknown if the device is a tablet, phone, or combination of both like the Samsung Galaxy Note.

Gadget blogs have exploded today with what seems like countless articles chastising Amazon.com for baiting customers with their Google ads that read "iPhone 5 at Amazon.com". If the ads are still running, and you'd like to see for yourself, simply search for "iphone 5" in Google or even "iphone five". Up will pop a Google Adwords advertisement similar to the one seen below, proclaiming the availability of the iPhone 5 at Amazon.com. Of course, clicking on the ad will take you to a search page on Amazon.com that simply shows results for a variety of iPhone related accessories that may or may not also have the word "five" somewhere in their descriptions. This type of crack investigation has led many to scold Amazon for stooping to such underhanded bait and switch advertising. Closer inspection suggests these ads likely aren't the doing of Amazon itself.

One might ask themselves why multi-billion dollar retailer Amazon.com would risk offending multi-billion dollar manufacturer Apple in order to hopefully grab a few $12 accessory sales on the sly by baiting customers to their site. The likely, and seemingly valid, answer is that they wouldn't.

Amazon's free iPhone Kindle application has received an update with several improvements to make the app more user-friendly. Many of the features were expected by users in the first release, as they are typical to many iPhone apps.

Here are the changes:

Users can read in portrait or landscape mode.
Gesture (pinch) to zoom images in books.
Select alternate background and text colors to improve reading comfort in low light conditions.
Tap on either side of the screen or flick to turn pages.

Amazon has purchased Lexcycle, the company that developed the free iPhone eBook reader Stanza. The software is widely seen as a rival to Amazon's own Kindle application. Stanza provides free access to over 100,000 books in ePub format, which Amazon's Kindle does not support.

Details such as the cost of the acquisition were not revealed by either company. Over one million copies of Stanza were downloaded by the end of last year. Amazon's Kindle iPhone app is free, however users must pay for content. The Kindle 2 electronic reader is now priced at $349.

Now the entire Kindle library of books, magazines and newspapers is accessible without a Kindle device. All you need is your iPhone or iPod Touch, the free application released by Amazon, and your Amazon account. Just install the Kindle app, then register your iPhone with Amazon by entering your account information.

After you're in, you have access to all titles you've purchased through Amazon's website or with your Kindle. 225,000 titles are available, and $9.99 will deliver you a New York Times bestseller immediately. For $1.25 a month you can get the current issue of the Atlantic (sans pictures) delivered automatically as soon as the new issue hits newsstands.