AT&T has announced this morning that it will begin selling the Amazon Kindle 3G in stores in the U.S., beginning on March 6th.
The device can connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi, as well as AT&T’s nationwide 3G network.
AT&T will include the device in its “connected devices displays” throughout the store, allowing would-be buyers to test out the e-reader.
Says the carrier:
Amazon has without question pioneered the eReader space with Kindle, and it’s exciting to not only connect this device through our network, but now offer it in our stores to readers around the country. As the first dedicated eReader offered in our stores, we are confident the Kindle will be an attractive addition to our in store connected devices lineup.
The updated Kindle 3G can hold up to 3500 e-books internally, and Amazon has 810,000 books available. The device has one month of battery life when not connected to Wi-Fi.
There are no contracts or data fees and the devices sells for $189.
Result for: contracts
According to the Wall Street Journal an Apple employee has been arrested and charged with selling secrets to Asian suppliers in exchange for over $1 million in kickbacks.
Paul Shin Devine, who is one of Apple’s global supply managers, was charged “with offenses that include wire fraud, money laundering and unlawful monetary transactions,” which began in 2006.
Devine was charged in a federal grand jury indictment.
Says the Journal: “Devine came up with a scheme in which he supplied companies such as Cresyn Co. in South Korea, Kaedar Electronics Co. in China and Jin Li Mould Manufacturing Pte. Ltd. in Singapore with confidential information that would let them negotiate favorable contracts with Apple.”
“The indictment and civil suit claim that in return, Mr. Devine demanded payments, which were sent to bank accounts in his wife’s name in amounts that were small enough to avoid attention.”
The indictment also names Andrew Ang, who worked for one of Apple’s suppliers, and who is charged with wire fraud and conspiracy. Devine shared the kickback money with Ang, who brokered the deals between Jin Li and Apple.
Result for: contracts
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States has launched a probe into an incident that led to the exposure of personal information of AT&T Inc. customers. Among the affected customers were White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and the mayor or New York City Michael Bloomberg.
A group calling itself Goatse Security was able to get information on over 100,000 AT&T iPad subscribers by exploiting a major bug on a script at an AT&T website. The group simply needed to insert an ICC-ID as part of a HTTP request to the vulnerable script which then returned the e-mail address associated with the specific iPad device.
AT&T has stressed that only e-mail address data was actually retrieved by the group and nothing more sensitive was at risk. Still, a collection of 114,000 active e-mail addresses has value by itself without even including the personal e-mail addresses of celebrities or government officials that were revealed.
“The FBI is aware of these possible computer intrusions and has opened an investigation to address the potential cyber threat,” FBI spokesman Jason Pack said. Apple’s iPad, which launched in April this year, has already sold over 2 million units.
Security experts, for the most part, maintain that the hype surrounding this hack has more to do with the fact that it involves an Apple device and some well-known names than with iPad or even AT&T security. “The hype around Apple products — like the new iPhone and iPad — is amazing. However, the reality is this type of vulnerability isn’t really news and happens all day long,” George Kurtz, chief technology officer for security software company McAfee, said.
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