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It seems that the recent release of several competitors in the electronic book reader arena has made Amazon a little nervous.  Amazon announced, via press release, the availability of the Kindle Development Kit (KDK), which allows software engineers to build interactive book kits for the popular reader.

Brad Stone at the New York Times has high hopes for the KDK.  So far, the kit has only been formally released to select developers, but it will enter open beta next month.  There will be three types of application: free, paid, and subscription apps.

In another article, Stone considers the ramifications of Amazon’s move versus Apple’s quiet courting of publishers with the pending release of its new tablet platform.  That tablet is expected to become a book reader of choice for many who would prefer a more all-in-one device (computer, notebook, and book reader).

Yet the two devices are extremely different and hard to compare in this way.  The Kindle, for instance, was built from the ground up as a book reader and nothing more.  It will, of course, be much cheaper than Apple’s tablet, but beyond that, it is nothing close to the standard notebook computer.

The Kindle, for instance, doesn’t have the ability to show fast-moving or even very animated graphics and, in fact, can’t even display color.  The Kindle’s E Ink screen refreshes slowly and the Kindle’s wireless connection is paid for through the purchases made by the consumer (book downloads, software updates, etc.) and will continue to be so.  There are no monthly fees with the device.  Even active content from the new developer kit would be paid for in this manner.

Interestingly, while Amazon has been planning the KDK for quite a while, their mention of it about a year ago coincided with the announcement from Barnes & Noble and others who planned to release their own reader to the market to compete with the Kindle.  That may be the driving force behind Amazon’s decision more than anything Apple is doing.

It’s been known for months that Google was interested in and negotiating with Yelp, the consumer search and rating site, for a buyout. The New York Times confirms the story today, stating that the purchase negotiations are underway and the price may be $500 or more.

Yelp is on more serious footing than ever before, having brought in $31 million in venture capital and reportedly looking at revenue almost matching at $30 this year. Yelp dominates the local business listings and reviews. It was founded by Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons of PayPal fame in 2004.

TechCrunch reports that Yelp has at least 9 million verified monthly unique visitors while Yelp says the number is closer to 25 million. Yelp also expects income in 2010 to be around $50 million and the site currently boasts about 8.5 million local reviews.

With the recent push by Google to incorporate Yelp-like services on their own search results (called Place Pages), catering to local businesses, the acquisition seems like an obvious step for Google.

Interestingly, Gigaom (Om Malik) is saying that Yelp would be fools to bypass this buyout as their time in the local business space is limited. He cites the emergence of Twitter and Foursquare as the long-term death knell for the local business search site. That’s an interesting observation, though probably a little over stated.

With the buyout being reported as “80% probable” and with Google likely willing to pay even more should another buyer come forward to try to cut in (Google recently paid a reported $750 million for AdMob), I think the selling of Yelp is imminent.

Now the question is: will Google integrate this with their pilot program for Place Pages in which they distributed about ten thousand QR code window stickers so visitors to businesses could look the business up on Google Maps/Place Pages quickly? Or will this be the beginning of an entirely new local search offer from the Silicon Search Giant?

That’s hard to say, but Google is clearly seeing that the direction of search is no longer “more is better” and that discerning Web browsers are looking for relevant, localized information.

Are you part of the 9-5 daily mob that hit the streets in the morning and drags yourself home at night, spending as much time on the commute (it seems) as you did at work?  Then what happens if you have to deviate from your usual plans to meet someone or because of transit or road changes?

Well, have no fear!  The iPhone has a lot of apps geared towards the problems commuters face.  The built in maps and compass are just the beginning.  Here are three that most will find indispensable.

Aha: Stuck in traffic?  Wondering what the heck is going on up there, holding everything up?  Ask and ye shall receive, kemosabe!  Aha gives real-time traffic information based on your GPS location and route (direction).  It also shows you possible ways around the obstacle or where to turn off if you’ve got an imminent potty break coming.

Transit Maps: If you ride public transit (buses, subway, etc.), this is the app for you.  It links to your public transit authority and downloads the latest maps as PDFs, which are easily read on your iPhone.  These are the latest, most up-to-date maps the authority will have to offer and you won’t have to wade through their website on your phone looking for them.

Bike Your Drive: Not interested in driving?  Proud to be green on your two wheeler?  Then REI can help you with their little app.  Using your iPhone’s GPS, this app shows you the best bicycle route and even gives you the feel-good kudos by showing you how much gas you saved and how many calories you burned (not including that Snicker’s you ate en route).

These awesome iPhone apps prove two things: getting around isn’t nearly as hard as it seems to be and it’s always true that “there’s an app for that.”

Startup StuffBuff.com premiered at TechCrunch50 2009 as another eBay alternative, but with a twist.  Unlike other online auction sites, StuffBuff is a spoke on your social hub, allowing for viral networking or, as they put it, Viral eCommerce.

That explanation sounds nice, but doesn’t really convey much.  It’s hard to explain StuffBuff in a short sentence without sounding too Web 2.0 propagandist.  You have to experience it.  Lucky for us, StuffBuff just went into private beta on November 11, and we got in to try it.

One the one hand, StuffBuff is an auction and eCommerce site like eBay or any other.  At that level, it’s very much the same as they are.  Where the innovation comes in is with how StuffBuff alters the auction process and creates interactive and (dare I say) entertaining buying and selling process.

Instead of waiting a week to see if you’ve won, only to find out that you were sniped at the last minute by somebody using one of those services, you can find, bid, haggle, and win your item in real time.

Through a system called LiveHaggle, users can basically enter a chat room dedicated to a seller’s item and start bidding.  Bidders can compete or even collaborate while the seller answers questions, encourages bids, and so forth.  During the conversation, bids are recorded (they are commitments to buy, just as on eBay or a regular live auction) and can be paid through a semi-automated PayPal API (Adaptive Payments™).

Products can be delivered through the mail, in person, or in real-time for digital products.

Of course, being in private beta, there isn’t a lot to choose from yet, but should this site catch on (which I think it will), this will change.  Using StuffBuff is intuitively easy, can be very fun, and so far as I could see it worked flawlessly.

The fees are straight up front and aren’t couched in pages of legal jargon like on some other auction sites.  You pay twenty-five cents (25¢) to set up an auction and 5% of the final sale price of your item.  An additional $1.50 is charged if you have a reserve price on your item.

The addition of cloud-based cataloging and integration with popular social media makes the whole thing very real-time.  Their cool search tool can stay active and immediately tell you when someone lists something that matches your criteria.

StuffBuff is based in New York City and is the first application to be built on the French AJAX Push Engine (APE), which claims to be ten times faster than Twitter.

The development shop Particle is funded by Justin Timberlake (yes, that Justin Timberlake) and their CEO Rey Flemings says that the outfit specializes in “massively small” products to provide simple, creative solutions to real problems.  An interesting idea, to be sure, but no one was clear on what this would mean or if anything useful would come of it.

Now the group has released their first app, Robo.to.  This is, according to Particle, expected to be the “channel surfer of the real-time web.”  That’s kind of a high-brow way of explaining it.  I think it’s better envisioned as YouTube with real-time updates from Web 2.0.

Basically what Robo.to does is create 4-second video clips based on status messages from various social feeds.  So you can integrate your Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, etc. accounts into your Robo.to “image” and have those feed through.  The image can be posted just about anywhere an embed is possible: on blogs, pages, even your profile.

Alternatively, you can create soundless, 4-second clips to embed on your social media as updates.  Just record something with your Web cam or make a 4-second video (probably streaming text) and ad it.

Hash tags and other search terms can also be included to build searches and other content enhancements for your Robo.to.  Flemings says that eventually, theme music or music streams will likely be added so users can put music to their Robo.to streamer.

Ad-on Particle apps to enhance Robo.to are currently in the works or now available such as Crusher (a party-making/planning tool), Pop (searching), and Smirk (lets a small Robo.to become your avatar).

Overall, the concept is interesting, but I have yet to find it entirely useful.  It’s definitely a good time-waster, since there is a lot you can do with it, but not much that I found that was anything I’d use day-to-day.

How secure do you think your email is?  Is your email important enough to you that you worry about its security and threats of hacking?  If your email is your lifeline to business, you undoubtedly have some worries about its security.

Tripwi.re, now known as InboxAlarm.com, is a startup that focuses on only one thing: email security.  Their specialty is the baiting method known as the “honey pot.”

The method is simple and effective.  An email is sent, from your account and through InboxAlarm, which has sensitive-appearing information (usernames/passwords).  Since emails travel through several servers and even multiple countries to their destination, it’s possible that a hacker could take the bait somewhere along the line.

Often, emails like these are stored on “pass-through” servers that they might go by on their way to delivery.  These are then stored, sold, traded, or otherwise used to gain access to sensitive data or whole networks.  InboxAlarm watches for these attempts, since someone attacking your network emails is more likely to try to get the honey pot information first before coming after you.

Once the hacker makes the attempt, InboxAlarm captures their attempt, blocks their entry, and attempts to reverse the breakin to find the IP address and location of the intruder.

Account protection starts at $19/year, which includes no frills or reverse locaters.  $29/year ups that to three email accounts protected and the reverse lookups and $200/year protects ten email accounts with reverse lookups.

For good peace of mind for the individual or small business that lacks a dedicated IT staff and secure servers, this is a good solution.  Those who use the service, by and large, appear to like it and find it worth the money spent.  What’s your view?  Let us know in the comments below.