Online retailer Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is looking to extend the reach of its Kindle -- a wireless reading device -- into the hands of consumers, and hopes that cutting the price will speed adoption in a price-sensitive world. Formerly priced at $359, the Kindle will now be sold for $299, though the more advanced Kindle DX will still maintain its $489 price tag.

Amazon, known mainly for selling books online before branching out into other areas, has made the Kindle a focal point of creating new growth for the site. The company has been offering generous 10% payouts via its affiliate program for creating sales, compared to the typical 4% paid on other items. A June 30 research report from Cowen & Co. obtained by DailyFinance estimated that 800,000 Kindle units had been sold so far; the company estimates that more than 2.6 million will be sold by the end of 2010.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the U.S. Department of Justice has begun a preliminary review of potential anti-competitive practices among large telecom companies such as Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) and AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T).

One area the Justice Department may investigate is whether wireless providers are hurting small competitors by tying up popular phones with exclusive agreements. Think AT&T as the exclusive provider of service for Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone in the U.S.

From TheStreet.com Network

• Unemployment Rate Climbs to 9.5%
• Today's Outrage: Companies Lack Courage

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says there's good in this market -- remember that.

Does unemployment trump everything? Does it trump Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) (Cramer's Take) sales? Does it trump 3G and 4G? How about Chinese orders? How about General Mills' (NYSE: GIS) (Cramer's Take) numbers? Yum!'s (NYSE: YUM) (Cramer's Take) business? Does unemployment trump pending home sales? Or order pick-ups in autos and a subsequent bottom?

That's what you have to ask yourself when you sell. You have to ask yourself whether 40,000 or 60,000 jobs trumps everything good that has happened. You have to ask yourself if the government were to take 100,000 of those people and give them jobs taking care of federal lands and parks or working at the post office or having them go into a conservation corps, whether we would be up and not down.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) is developing a pocket-sized electronic device to be used for connecting to the internet. The "gadget" would use Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android software. Reportedly, the device will be slightly larger than Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPod touch, and Dell may start selling the device later this year. That said, the story's source noted that the plan could be delayed or scrapped entirely.

The importance of this potential device should not be lost, as it is one of the first experiments by a major PC maker in the world of mobile internet devices (MID). These devices are seen as bridges over the gap between smartphones and laptops.

Normally we think of revolutionary products created by start-ups or entrepreneurial minds just out of college, but the most talked about new projects of 2009 are being produced by some of the best known companies in the world.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN): With its massive online presence and a truly efficient business model, Amazon has become the largest online retailer in the world. It is now taking on a new business, web services, namely cloud computing (learn more HERE), called the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). While hosting this infrastructure and presenting e-commerce with a reasonably affordable alternative with no up-front costs, Amazon has taken an early lead in this space, with some believing its cloud computing business will one day overtake retailing. "Amazon will be like a book store that sells cocaine out the back door. Books will be just a front to sell storage and cloud computing." says Larry Dignan, Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic.

Technology sector expert Paul McWilliams offers an intriguing look at the new iPhone from Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) to uncover what tech companies are supplying components.

In his Next Inning -- a newsletter that focuses solely on high tech stocks -- the advisors offers a look at the players inside the iPhone.

McWilliams explains, "A few interesting notes have come from the folks busily tearing down the new Apple iPhone 3G S since its launch.

While Twitter's founders are struggling to figure out exactly how to cash in on their creation, others may have found a way.

Lolplaying, a gaming company, seems to have found a new way to make some cash with their new role-playing game called 140Mafia (a reference to how many characters you use to tweet). The company is trying to harness Twitter's ability to make money by teaming with Super Rewards, which is a "virtual currency" service that makes a great deal of cash from various forms of online recreation.

A Buy rating has been issued in these circles for Palm Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM), but there are several qualifiers.

Palm left a great deal of market share gains behind, as a result of what looks like inadequate production of the Palm Pre, but the view from here argues that strong reviews from technology critics and a the slow-but-continual increase in applications, will enable the Pre to achieve good things for this device manufacturer.

Palm Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) is just under a week into the launch of its groundbreaking Pre smartphone, and so far the wireless handset is a great seller for exclusive partner Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S). Former Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) executive Jon Rubinstein, who was brought in to reinvigorate Palm and who is largely credited with the Pre, will now take over the Palm CEO spot from longtime CEO Ed Colligan.