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Barely a month after Jeff Bezos' very public mea culpa over delays, Amazon's Kindle is apparently back on the virtual shelves.

The e-tailer's listing page for the e-book reader indicates that it's in stock and available for purchase, at the usual $399 plus free two-day shipping.

After the Kindle had sold out so quickly after its launch in November last year, there had been some speculation that the delays were caused by production problems or were planned deliberately to stoke more demand. But as Craver David Carnoy indicated, it was probably just a victim of holiday shopping madness.

This is just getting silly.

The makers of the popular Slingbox have been promising the SlingCatcher for almost a year and half now. And once again, the projected release date will come and go quietly.

Sling Catcher delayed again. This time, they're crossing their fingers for a release date sometime before the end of this year.

(Credit: Sling Media)

Gregg Wilkes, vice president of sales for Sling Media--which is now owned by EchoStar Communications--told a frustrated customer in an e-mail that the goal to release the device during the second quarter of this year will not be met.

Wilkes writes: "Will the catcher ship in Q2? No. We are upgrading the user experience and making enhancements to the feature set. These may or may not all ship at the same time. Will the Catcher ship in '08? All indications point to this happening in 2008."

The SlingCatcher is a set-top box, separate from the Slingbox, that brings video content from a Slingbox to another TV in a house, or from an external hard drive. The SlingCatcher also lets users project Web content to a TV screen, either wired or wirelessly, through an application called SlingProjector.

The device was originally introduced at CES 2007, and shown again at CES 2008, which was when Sling was floating the Q2 time frame.

If you happened to have visited Amazon's Web site today, you might have noticed that a large message from Amazon's CEO, Jeff Bezos, was plastered across the home page of the site. Basically, it was a big fat apology for Amazon's inability to ship its Kindle electronic book reader in a timely fashion.

Ever since it quickly sold out at launch, a lot of folks have been speculating about just how many Kindles Amazon had sold and whether the long delays in shipping were a case of production problems or a PR ploy designed to make the Kindle appear hotter than it really is.

Well, the note seems to speak for itself. People want the Kindle, and Amazon hasn't been able to make them fast enough. All that said, I still think this was a case of the company rushing to get the product out before last year's holiday season--and failing to iron out all the production issues before it went to market.

Of course, Amazon is new to the consumer electronics-manufacturing game, so this isn't shocking. The fact is, this is what happens when you're a pro at selling crap but not at producing it. Comments?

Life is good at Apple these days. Around 1.39 million iPhones sold. Soaring earnings. A new OS on the way. The Mac is gaining ground on the rest of the PC industry. The company can do no wrong. But that hasn't stopped a handful of critics from getting upset over one of the new iPhone ads currently running on a TV screen near you.

The ad in question is "Delay," which depicts an alleged airline pilot, Bryce, talking about how he used his iPhone's weather.com app to help avoid a major delay. The ads have gotten some of the folks over at FlyerTalk's forums pretty riled up.

Marathon Man, a poster from Massachusetts, started it all off by saying: "So I just saw for the first time this Apple iPhone commercial where a pilot (or some crew member that could be one) is standing there telling us that his iPhone was able to ... Read more

As part of its effort to get its first cars out of the door, Tesla Motors is putting its battery business on ice for a bit.

(Credit: Michael Kanellos/CNET Networks)

The electric car company back in January said it was going to sell its battery pack--composed of thousands of lithium-ion battery cells--to third party manufacturers. Interim CEO Michael Marks, however, made the decision to suspend the program in September when he also decided to push out the release of the car and scale back production a bit. Although a few Tesla Roadsters may come out this year, the bulk of the first cars will come out next year. Fifty are due in the first quarter. The delays in the battery program, however, were not flagged then.

Tesla's first and so far only announced customer was going to be Think Global, which is trying to come out with an electric town car.

"We delayed the program with Think until we had roadsters on the road," said Darryl Siry, vice president of sales and marketing at Tesla.

As a result, Think has been lining up alternative battery suppliers. A deal with EnerDel was announced yesterday. EnerDel will be the "supplier of choice" for Think.

It is unclear if the switch in battery providers will delay Think's car, but it could. It's a major change. In September, the company told The Norway Post that it wanted to get the initial cars out in November. Think has made cars with other types of batteries--the company grew out of a dying electric car project from Ford. EnerDel won't deliver prototypes until next March and preproduction batteries until July 2008. Still, Think is not aiming to get large numbers out of the factory at first anyway. The company in July, a few months before Tesla changed management, said it only planned to start producing 250 cars a month by mid-2008.

On a happier note for Tesla, it has also started to let customers who have put down deposits on the $98,000 Tesla Roadster take test drives with the latest prototype. They are doing 12 a week and many of the drivers are posting blogs about the experience (see link above). The test drives are taking place in the Skyline Drive and Highway 84 area. You know, the Alice's Restaurant intersection in the Bay Area.

Despite a few nitpicks here and there, the reviews are all fairly positive. (I've ridden in one and they are a lot of fun, particularly the subtle "whoosh" sound the electric engine makes.)

"I've certainly faced some raised eyebrows at my decision to write a check for $100,000 to purchase a car I've never driven, so if nothing else my thrilling test drive of VP10 was worth it just to explain that I have been behind the wheel, and come away impressed," wrote Josh Hannah.

Hannah, though, did get passed by a Subaru Roadster. He wanted to be cautious.

No entries yet from Sergey, Larry, George Clooney or San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom yet, who have all allegedly put down deposits.

Windows Server 2008 is apparently going to live up to its name, with Microsoft acknowledging Wednesday that it won't be able to finish work on the product this year, as scheduled.

"Windows Server 2008, which we have been saying would Release to Manufacturing (RTM) by the end of the calendar year, is now slated to RTM in the first quarter of calendar year 2008," Microsoft said on its Windows Server blog.

As for the reasoning, the company said "while we're very happy with the feedback we're getting and the overall quality of the latest product builds, we would rather spend a little more time to meet the high quality bar that our customers and partners deserve and expect."

Then the company related the analogy that one of its program managers, Alex Hinrichs, said. "It's like a brisket," he told a colleague. "It just needs a little more time to bake."

Hopefully, Microsoft doesn't create too many vegetarians (i.e. Linux users) in the mean time.

Sometimes sequels are better than the original.

Dell tried again to explain to its customers why the fancy new XPS M1330 notebook they ordered has been delayed. A follow-up to Tuesday's entry was posted to its official Direct2Dell blog Friday afternoon. Judging by the comments on Dell's posting earlier in the week, customers were, well, less than impressed by the company's first try at an explanation.

If you ordered a Crimson Red M1330, expect delays.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Dell gives considerably more information this time around. A big reason for the delays? Dust particles in the paint. Specifically, if you wanted your laptop slathered in Crimson Red or Pearl White, expect to wait longer than your compadres that chose Tuxedo Black. Apparently this problem was only noticeable as Dell ramped up production in larger volumes. So says Alex Gruzen, senior vice president of the consumer product group, in the posting:

"There was no problem painting hundreds at a time. But as we increased the volume, otherwise manageable factors like dust contamination caused our successful yields to decrease. Adding to the complexity, the Crimson Red and the Pearl White colors require more coats of paint and more touches to create the finished product--that means there is more opportunity for dust contamination."

I'm not sure what that means. Because more units were being painted there was more dust? I put in a call to Dell, but it's late on a Friday in Texas where the company has its headquarters, so I'll update this blog if I hear back. At any rate, Dell has killed the Pearl White option on the M1330 from here on out as a result, according to Gruzen. He also blamed delays on unexpected parts shortages, specifically LED-backlit LCD screens.

For now, Dell has worked through 10 percent of its backlog, and if your order is delayed for some previously unforeseen reason, Gruzen says a Dell service rep should be phoning you shortly.

Though the wait for the Dell XPS M1330 notebook to ship appears to be over, the effect of the delay could last longer, thanks to Dell's own corporate blog.

If you're peeved over the tardy arrival of your tricked-out M1330, you're definitely not alone. Hundreds of postings to the Round Rock, Texas-based PC maker's Direct2Dell blog show that many customers aren't just impatient over a product delay--some say they feel mislead.

The Direct2Dell blog was introduced to communicate with customers and the media, and has thus far been a positive communication and public relations tool for a company that's trying to regain its momentum. Blog entries range from product announcements to making direct comparisons of products with those of chief rival Hewlett-Packard, to discussing the company's portrayal in the media.

But the delays surrounding the high-end XPS M1330 notebook have turned the blog into an outlet for complaints.

To recap: the notebook was originally announced in late June, but estimated delivery dates ran between four and six weeks for some customers, which is longer than some anticipated. On Wednesday, the blog's manager, Lionel Menchaca, said he was looking into the issue. More than 100 people piled on in the comments section, complaining of poor customer service and miscommunication during the ordering process. On Sunday, Alex Gurzen, senior vice president of consumer products, got involved, posting an apology and (sort of) explaining the reason for the delay in shipments. Since then, commenters have continued airing their grievances openly.

True to form for most anonymous Internet bulletin boards, Dell forum users are not mincing words: many have called out customer service for not being up front about expected delays, while some are threatening to never buy a Dell computer again. But what appeared to incense buyers even more was Gurzen's response. Dell is now offering a free Timbuk2 messenger bag with each laptop, but whether trendy totes will appease customers remains to be seen.

Product delays can obviously happen to any company, but this seems like a step backward in Dell's mission to move forward.

"Dell's made so many moves in the right direction, and it strikes me as really odd that they wouldn't delay the launch of the product until the product was ready to go," said Samir Bhavnani, analyst with Current Analysis West. "These are $3,000 systems, these aren't a $699 box," the buyers of which are not the type of customers you want to alienate.

True, and Dell, however, is not the only one to suffer a public flogging recently on its own Web site for its product delays. In June, the Lenovo T60 and T61 were slow to get out of the factory, and customers responded in kind on Lenovo Blogs.

So what's the problem? Are these PC makers just underestimating demand or jumping the gun on taking orders or both? I'll take a look and find out.