Faced with mounting pressure from Apple, Amazon is betting its success on new markets and ubiquitous device compatibility, Fortune learns in a wide-ranging interview with the company's distinctive CEO Jeff Bezos. And, so far, it seems to be working. Last quarter, Amazon reported a profit of $299 million -- up 68% from a year ago. Still, what does Bezos make of Apple's iPad? "It's really a different product category," he tells Fortune. "The Kindle is for readers." Regarding Amazon's ebook platform-agnostic approach, the CEO says "Our strategy with the ebookstore is 'buy once, read everywhere' ... You …

In a game of high-stakes diplomacy, Google now says it plans to change how Web users in China access its search engine in light of objections from the Chinese government over its recent strategy of redirecting users to an uncensored site in Hong Kong. "It's unclear whether the small change to Google's Chinese site will meet with Chinese government approval and lead to the extension of the company's license to provide online content in China," reports The Wall Street Journal. In a blog post late Monday, Google said it had resubmitted its application to renew the license, …

Opening the floodgates for mobile media and communication, the Obama administration hopes to nearly double the wireless communications spectrum available for commercial use over the next 10 years, reports The New York Times. The effort, notes The Times, "could greatly enhance the ability of consumers to send and receive video and data with smartphones and other hand-held devices." The President today is expected to sign a presidential memorandum that seeks to make available for auction roughly 500 megahertz of spectrum, which is presently controlled by the federal government and private companies. The initiative reportedly follows recommendations made …

As if the whole laptop vs. tablet vs. e-reader debate was complicated enough for consumers, Kindle books can now be embedded with video and audio content -- though only consumed by those using Apple's iOS hardware. "Amazon has long viewed the Kindle as a software platform rather than a piece of hardware, only launching its own device because it considered existing devices ineffective for reading," writes The Register. "But Apple has apparently changed that, so Amazon is now free to stick sounds and chunks of video into electronic books, even if it means those who shelled out …

Lessening the chances of an imminent IPO, Facebook has quietly raised another $120 million from Elevation Partners, TechCrunch reports, citing "a recent letter to its limited partners." In exchange, the VC firm has secured another 5 million shares of the top social net. In November, Elevation secured 2.5 million shares for $90 million. "That November deal has already gone up 2.5 times in value in a short eight months, making Facebook one of the better performing deals in Elevation's portfolio and an enviable holding for any firm," writes TechCrunch. "Even though the bulk of Elevation's Facebook shares …

What's driving the location-based social networking trend? Media hype? Technological advancements -- particularly in the mobile arena -- coupled with a fast evolving social media revolution? "It's emotional -- and it's different for different people," according to some preliminary research conducted by ReadWriteWeb. But, not entirely. A Cambridge-based experimental tech CEO says she used such services "to spontaneously clump to co-work" with her peers in coffee shops. "The rest doesn't matter to me," she says. Meanwhile, "The stereotype of Foursquare users as youthful bar-hoppers is largely confirmed by the numbers," writes to ReadWriteWeb, citing data from the …

Judging by early sales figures, Apple hasn't lost any of its mobile momentum with the launch of iPhone 4. On the contrary, the tech giant moved a cool 1.7 million units in three days. So what does this mean for Apple and its mobile rivals? "It's not as fast a sales rate as some analysts predicted but still represents huge successes in the face of controversy over its design," writes Fast Company. Some analysts apparently predicted Apple selling (1.5 million iPhone 4's on day one). "An impressive showing, particularly considering it …

De-emphasizing the page-view, MSNBC.com's newly redesigned site touts a "less is more" minimalism, and a single-page-only format, which favors large, customizable ads, reports paidContent. "It is also promising to ... reduce the use of 'standalone' slideshows, something that has become a staple of many news sites to drive page-view counts as a way of measuring audience usage and engagement to advertisers." In their place, it plans to rely on more "integrated" slideshows, which are part of the page, and thus don't require clicking. Let it be know that "Msnbc.com is in the business of selling advertiser experiences, …

Facebook has confirmed that "all Open Graph-enabled Web pages will show up in search when a user likes them," reports AllFacebook.com. Earlier this week, the blog wrote about the new Facebook SEO and its potential connection to Open Graph. "Now it's clear that this is the beginning of Facebook's Internet search strategy," it writes. "The race is now on for publishers to optimize their sites for Facebook's search engine." While most sites are not being indexed by Facebook, All Facebook is guessing that publishers will soon be scrambling to optimize their sites. …

Calling the iPhone 4 debut "Apple's biggest product launch ever," Fortune is commending the tech giant for successfully building a recurring revenue stream from a growing base of loyal users. And it's not the only one. "Mission accomplished," writes Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster in a report to clients issued early Friday. "Apple has in three years built brand loyalty in the phone market that compels users to upgrade to the latest version and wait in line for one to six hours to pick up their iPhone." Indeed, 77% of the iPhone 4 buyers that Munster's team spoke …