Amazon has just announced that they're going to be selling a UK-specific version of their popular e-reader device; the Kindle, which will launch on these shores at the end of August.

Users can preorder the £109 e-book reader (price is for the WiFi-only model, with the worldwide 3G toting version coming in at £149) now, which will be delivered released on August 27th.

Unlike the International Edition of the device which users have been able to buy from the States up to now, this version is localised to the UK, with e-books being offered for sale off of the UK Amazon site (not the US one as before).
It has also been given a spec bump, with a smaller chassis and an E-Ink screen that packs 50% better contrast than its predecessor to aid readability.

The US counterpart has also been given the same treatment, with its price being $139 and $189 for the WiFi and WiFi+3G models respectively.

[Amazon]

Woot, the US retailer which offers a fantastic deal on one product at a time, has been bought by online commerce giant Amazon in a deal rumoured to be worth $110m.

Like Amazon's other major recent purchase, Zappos, Woot will continue to operate how it has been up to now, but will benefit from its new parent company's bulk-buying power and operating efficiencies.

The company is best known for having stunning deals on a single product a day, which creates the virality and stickiness required to succeed on the global e-commerce scene.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but TechCrunch has heard that it was an all-cash transaction valued at $110m.

[TechCrunch]

Right, everyone that has a sane bone in their body hates the South African football horns; the vuvuzela. It makes an annoying sound, drowns out the traditional football atmosphere and has led pensioners to call pest control as they think swarms of wasps are attacking them.

Well, Aliph - makes of the Jawbone mobile hands-free headset range - have decided to try and bring relief to those trying to make calls during matches, by offering 30% off of their line when buying from their European store at www.jawbone.com and using the promo code 'Vuvuzela'.

They say; "Jawbone’s NoiseAssassin technology eliminates virtually all background noise from calls you make, allowing you to talk wherever you are. So whether you’re reporting from a football stadium or calling home from your local pub, the only thing the person on the other end of the phone will hear is your voice."

Got to love their marketing department.

Apple has just launched a little surprise on people this morning. After taking down the online store for what people were assuming was just the iPhone 4 pre-order availability, the company also threw in a nice little nugget as well; a redesigned Mac Mini.

What do you get? Well, the big one here is an HDMI-out port which will make it so much easier to plug into your TV, which has sort-of been the point of the Mini all along (although there's no Blu-Ray drive available).

You'll also get an NVIDIA GeForce 320M GPU nicked straight from the new 13" MacBook Pro, as well as up to 8GB RAM and a choice of 2.4GHz or 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors, all packed inside of a tasty new aluminium enclosure which fits in with the company's current industrial design direction.

Prices will start at about £650, and rise from there (with the DVD-drive-less Server version starting at just under £1k), and should be available today if the current issues with their online store are solved.

[Apple Mac Mini]

Microsoft finished up its E3 keynote an hour or so ago, and announced that it'd be shipping to stores in the States today (we assume for selling tomorrow or later in the week), and also announced the price over there.

Well, we had a quick pop over to Play.com to check out whether they had it listed yet, and yes they do.

It's listing the console - which packs a slimmer size (and quieter noise profile), 250GB HDD and built-in spec-N WiFi - for £199.99, with a release date of 16/07/2010.

Obviously that's pretty much a month after the States will seemingly get it, so whether it's a placeholder date, or whether a staggered release really is on the cars, we don't know.

[Play.com Slim Xbox 360 listing]

O2 has taken the lid off its plans for the iPhone 4, showing which pricing tariffs the latest handset from Apple will be available on.

Although they don't say how much the handset will cost on any of them, you'll be able to get your game on with a 100 minutes/unlimited text (500MB data and free WiFi) contract starting at £25pcm for 2 years (£30pcm for 18 months).

The most popular rate we've seen among iPhone users so far is the £35pcm/£40pcm (24 and 18 months respectively), which will give you 600 minutes/unlimited exts (500MB data and free WiFi) and the International Traveller Service thrown in.

Starting in October, they'll also be offering additional bundles of 500MB and 1GB of data for £5 and £10 apiece.

To see the full range of tariffs available (including Simplicity and PAYG), visit the O2 site.

Spotify, the music streaming service which is taking Europe by storm, have just announced that they're partnering with Nordic telecommunications giant TeliaSonera to bring the service to TeliaSonera’s 120,000 digital TV customers.

Like the mobile apps, users will have to be a Premium subscriber to access them, but once they are, it'll give another avenue for sharing and playing tracks which will be perfect for house-parties or when you're not in the TV watching mood (especially if you have a killer speaker set-up).

Currently it has only been announced for those two territories, but it does show that the company is looking at innovative ways to serve up the application, and it wouldn't be impossible to think that one of the cable/satellite providers in the UK would like to integrate it in the future.