Amazon has quietly launched its Kindle Reader desktop application for Mac OS X, without so much as any advance notice or a press release. This follows last month’s launch of the reader application for RIM’s BlackBerry lineup.

The desktop Kindle Reader application allows users to purchase books from Amazon as well as easing sync between the application and the Kindle hardware and displays bookmarks/highlights from Kindle reading sessions, although without allowing for new highlight creation.

The download is free and is compatible with Leopard, but is not compatible with PowerPC-based hardware or Tiger.

Following up, Fairy Tail and Rave Master author Hiro Mashima will be authoring a new one-shot story titled Nishikaze to Taiyô in Shonen Rival #5, publishing on April 3rd in Japan.

The story centers around two treasure hunters named Zephyr and Sol, in search of the treasure of the goddess. While they find the statue of the goddess, it contains a secret.

Nick Simmons has released a formal statement regarding the allegations of plagiarism raised last week by the Bleach LiveJournal community Bleachness.

Like most artists I am inspired by work I admire. There are certain similarities between some of my work and the work of others. This was simply meant as an homage to artists I respect, and I definitely want to apologize to any Manga fans or fellow Manga artists who feel I went too far. My inspirations reflect the fact that certain fundamental imagery is common to all Manga. This is the nature of the medium.

I am a big fan of Bleach, as well as other Manga titles. And I am certainly sorry if anyone was offended or upset by what they perceive to be the similarity between my work and the work of artists that I admire and who inspire me.

Simmons’ own work, titled Incarnate has been suspended from publication and sale pending the outcome of investigations undertaken by the publisher Radical Publishing and Viz Media respectively.

Tanumura Arina, author of Full Moon wo Sagashite and Sakai Mayu author of Momo will each publish a one shot story in the One Shot Ribon Special releasing in Spring in Japan. Tanumura’s one-shot will be titled Tenshi no Kinka – Maple Rose and  Sakai’s will be titled 17 o’locks.

Gekko Jorei Vol 1

WORST

Genkaku Picasso Vol 1

In a Pafuera questionnaire in Japan’s Pafu magazine, the respective authors for the WORST and Gekko Jorei manga have confirmed the ending of their respective manga this year.  When asked the question “What is your goal for 2010?” 191 manga authors were polled, with authors Hiroshi Takahashi and Kazuhiro Fujita giving the above confirmations.

In related news Genkkaku Picasso author Usamaru Furuya will end the manga in Jump Square #5, on sale beginning April 5th in Japan

NTT Solmare, the mobile manga publishing division of Japan’s NTT DoCoMo wireless carrier has announced that it plans to launch three new monthly mobile manga magazines with publishers Shonen Gahosha Co, Takeshobo, and Mag Garden in Japan, with plans to expand the service outside of the country.

Shonen Gahosha’s Young King Alpha, Takeshobo’s Shin Kindan Grimm Do-wa (Grimm’s True Forbidden Fairy Tales), and Mag Garden’s Blade Alpha will launch on NTT Solmare’s Comic-i and Comic C’moA sites on March 1, March 4, and March 3, respectively in Japan.

NTT has also confirmed that the the companies involved intend to “actively” expand overseas into China, India, Europe, and North America through the iPhone and other mobile platforms, as well as the Amazon Kindle and other e-reader. NTT’s Solmare division has previously released several manga in Appleseed, Captain, Cyborg 009, Dominion, Itazura na Kiss, Salaryman Kintaro, Sensual Phrase and The Quiet Don through the American App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch in English.

Wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo has been confirmed as an exhibitor at the upcoming International CTIA Wireless Expo for 2010 being held from March 23rd-25th in Las Vegas.  I’ll be providing coverage throughout the week across this site and sibling sites TechNews.biz and PhoneNews.com during the convention.

[via ANN]

RightStuf has begun its latest 4 day sale with up to 40% off the retail price of of all manga, novels and books from VIZ Media which includes in stock, on order and special order merchandise.

The base discount is 33% off of MSRP with an additonal discount added for Got Anime card holders, totaling up to 40% off with the coupon code grandline. The sale ends at Midnight, March 1st.

A Bleach LiveJournal community by the name of Bleachness has been investigating instances of reported plagiarism by Nick Tweed-Simmons, son of KISS frontman Gene Simmons.

Nick Simmons currently authors his own comic book series called Incarnate, published by Radical Comics out of LA and draws heavily from the art style and tropes, but the community has discovered that more than a few pages bear a striking resemblance to Bleach pages as seen in the caps below.

As of yet there has been no formal response from VIZ, Radical Comics or Nick Simmons at the time of this writing.

[via Scott Green]

Update: Radical Publishing Inc has released a formal statement on the matter via its Myspace page:

We at Radical Publishing, Inc. and Radical Comics, Inc. are quite concerned to hear the news surrounding Nick Simmons’s Incarnate Comic Book. We are taking this matter seriously and making efforts now to contact the publishers of the works in question in an effort to resolve this matter. We have halted further production and distribution of the “Incarnate” comic book and trade paperback until the matter is resolved to the satisfaction of all parties. Rest assured that Radical is taking swift action regarding this matter and will continue in its efforts to maintain the integrity and protect the intellectual property of artists throughout the world whose creative works are the bedrock of our Company and the comic book industry. “

Bandai Entertainment has announced the forthcoming release of the Code Geass Knights and Code Geass Queens manga anthologies aimed at male and female readers, respectively.

Knights Vol. 1 features the subtitle “Official Manga Anthology for Girls” will be released in May of 2010. The series runs five volumes to date and features short stories, many with a humorous slant by different noted manga authors focusing on the male characters of Code Geass.   Respectively, Queens Vol. 1 features the subtitle “Official Manga Anthology for Boys” and will be released one month later in June 2010. The series also has five volumes and focuses on the female characters of the Code Geass storyline in a series of short stories from various authors.

Amazon has released a new beta version of their Kindle app for RIM’s BlackBerry series of devices.

The Kindle app is identical to the other apps released on competing platforms, with access to purchased books on the device, bookmark/chapter sync and annotation support.

Currently the application is only available in the US and supported on the BlackBerry Bold 9000, Bold 9700, Curve 8520, Curve 8900, Storm 9530, Storm2 9550 and Tour 9630.