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TECHNOLOGY A23
Thursday 14 April 2016
Amazon’s latest Kindle
mostly wants to disappear
MAE ANDERSON Amazon Devices, so that many itself via Kindle Direct This photo provided by Amazon shows Amazon’s latest Kindle.
AP Tech Writer people can read without Publishing. They can also Amazon says the new Kindle is 30 percent thinner and 20 percent
NEW YORK (AP) — Will distraction. serve as a gateway drug lighter than previous Kindles. It’s also asymmetrical, with a grip
loyal fans of e-books be The e-reader landscape that helps draw people to on one side for one-handed reading.
willing to pay tablet prices has experienced a few other goods and deals on
for dedicated e-readers? plot twists since Amazon Amazon, including its Prime Associated Press
Amazon is about to find introduced the first Kindle membership program.
out. in 2007. Sales surged for “If you pick up a Kindle and to keep a demanding Smith said. “What it’s not
The e-commerce giant’s a few years, but started read a book, eventually bunch happy. doing is appealing to
latest Kindle is its smallest leveling off around 2012 that may translate into E-reader users are on their people who aren’t already
and lightest yet. But it’s also as e-readers grew more watching Prime instant devices 4 to 5 hours a week reading e-books.”
the most expensive, at $290 commonplace. They even videos, joining Prime, or on average, said Peter Global preorders for the
— almost a hundred bucks dipped slightly in 2013 buying a physical book,” Hildrick-Smith, president of Oasis start Wednesday;
more than the current but then rose 3.8 percent said R.W. Baird analyst the consulting firm Codex. the device will ship on April
champ, the $200 Kindle to $3.37 billion dollars in Colin Sebastian. They’re far more dedicated 27. Amazon is still selling its
Voyage. Now the company 2014, according to the Like previous Kindles, the than tablet readers, who basic Kindle for $80, the
is betting that its sleek frame most recent stats available Oasis features a black-and- only manage about an Kindle Paperwhite with
and a cover that doubles from the Association of white screen designed to hour a week. a high resolution display
as a rechargeable battery American Publishers. make reading easier. It With e-readers like the and adjustable front light
will attract dedicated Although the market has features two batteries — Oasis, Amazon is “looking for $120, and the Kindle
e-book users to its eighth matured, it’s still a growing one in the e-reader and to keep their e-reading on Voyage with page press
generation device, called category for Amazon year- another in its cover — which the cutting edge,” Hildrick- buttons for $200.q
the Kindle Oasis. over-year, the company together stretch the battery
Amazon says the new says. (It doesn’t, though, life to 9 weeks of “regular”
Kindle is 30 percent thinner release sales figures.) reading (30 minutes a day
and 20 percent lighter than Meanwhile, Amazon has by Amazon’s definition) or
previous Kindles. It’s also launched several other months on standby. The
asymmetrical, with a grip devices, Oasis and its cover charge
on one side for one-handed including its Kindle Fire simultaneously via one port.
reading. (Lefties can just flip tablets, Fire TV streaming You might wonder why
the device over.) stick and set top box, and Amazon keeps making
The company’s goal? the Echo smart speaker. more expensive Kindles,
“To make the device But dedicated e-readers given that they do a lot less
disappear,” said Neal help drive e-book sales at than the average tablet. In
Lindsay, vice president of Amazon, which publishes essence, they’re intended
Researchers say new generation of ransomware emerging
TAMI ABDOLLAH ups who don’t want to lose In this March 28, 2016 file photo, a sign covers the door to worms, is right around the
Associated Press critical files often pay the MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington. corner.” Worms are gener-
WASHINGTON (AP) — An ransom, typically $10,000 ally virus-like infections that
unusual strain of virus-like to $15,000 for an entire net- Associated Press are programmed to spread
hacker software that ex- work or hundreds of dollars automatically, without hu-
ploits computer server vul- for a single computer. through the system, and chief technology officer of man interaction.
nerabilities without requir- The ability to demand pay- encrypt scores of digital Crowdstrike Inc. Ransomware has become
ing human interaction is a ment in bitcoin, a difficult- files along the way. Most ransomware still re- an increasing threat over
leading example of a new to-trace virtual currency Ransomware has become quires a human to click a the last six months. Last
generation of “ransom- not controlled by any a new targeted attack, link or open an infected year’s 2,453 reports of ran-
ware,” according to a new country, was “basically the with thousands of variants email attachment, but somware hackings to the
report by Cisco Systems Inc. birth of ransomware” and emerging over the last six Cisco’s report warned that FBI totaled a reported loss
Hackers use such soft- has helped drive its success months, said Dmitri Alp- “the age of self-propagat- of $24.1 million, making
ware to target large-scale since the currency’s intro- erovitch, co-founder and ing ransomware, or crypto- up nearly one-third of the
networks and hold data duction in 2009, said Craig complaints over the past
hostage in exchange for Williams, a senior technical decade. They also repre-
bigger payments. Such a leader at Cisco’s Talos se- sented 41 percent of the
strain, known as Samas or curity research group. $57.6 million in reported
samsam, hit the MedStar Samas exploits vulnerabili- losses since 2005.
Health Inc. hospital chain in ties giving hackers a way Such losses are significantly
the U.S. last month. into JBoss application serv- higher than any paid ran-
In such attacks, hackers ers that are frequently used soms because companies
target backup files and re- by some of the largest cor- routinely include remedia-
cords, encrypting them to porations. Once inside, the tion costs, lost productivity,
make them unreadable. To hackers sometimes implant legal fees and sometimes
regain access, users with- a tool that steals creden- even the price of lost data
out additional safe back- tials, allowing it to spread in their estimates.q
