It seems that Amazon has really been stepping up their portable ebook reader game in the last few weeks. They’ve gone from two Kindle releases over a 1.5 year period to announcing something major every week or so. That’s quite a turnaround!

Here’s some of the recent developments from Amazon:

• Kindle DX – This was an expected but still huge announcement on May 6, 2009. It’s the largest ebook reader yet and the first ever to incorporate an accelerometer device, so pages are automatically rotated between portrait and landscape, simply by turning the device.

• Kindle for iPhone v1.1 – Amazon recently released a new version of this popular app which is available from the iPhone App Store. Some of the notable new features include:
  • Pinch screen to zoom images within books
  • Read in landscape or portrait mode
  • Select alternate text colors and backgrounds to improve reading comfort in low light
  • Tap on either side of the screen or flick the screen to turn page

• Amazon Encore – Amazon has joined the “publishing” industry. They’ll reportedly be publishing authors who are currently doing it themselves and are showing promise. Amazon has obviously realized that there’s tons of money to be made in publishing, especially with a lot of their future competitors going under.

• Kindle Publishing for Blogs – Amazon is now allowing bloggers to sell their blogs to Kindle owners through the Kindle Store. This is huge news for web marketers and content publishers as it provides a simple method for generating income from their labors of love.