• New York Times, Thursday, January 21, 2010 3:44 PM

Opening up a whole new world for developers, and the marketers who love them, Amazon has gone and "unlocked" the Kindle. Amazon says it has already released a so-called Kindle Development Kit to select partners, including Electronic Arts, and plans to make it more widely available next month.

The company said consumers can expect to find "active content" -- including free apps, single payment apps, and monthly subscription apps -- on the Kindle store later this year. Another company that has already received the Kindle development kit is Handmark, which brings Zagat restaurant guides to mobile devices. Handmark is creating a version of the guides for the Kindle, which will be highly searchable, and allow users to type in ZIP codes to find restaurants in their area.

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