A Kindle World blog

Amazon finally gets tough on junk titles. IPG e-books are back (5,000 of them))

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Sat, 26 May 2012 08:33:00 +0000

The Bookseller reports the welcome news (for many) that:

' In a note posted on its Kindle Direct Publishing forum, Amazon said it that it would no longer "accept content that is freely available on the web unless you are the copyright owner of that content".

Amazon said it would continue to accept public domain content, but said it may not allow it to be sold if "its content is undifferentiated or barely differentiated from one or more other books." '

See the article for what the ramifications may be. Kindle-Edition subscribers can use Menu/Article Mode after they click through to the story, to read it more easily.

Am still on vacation but sending along news items if they might be interesting.

ALSO, paidContent's Laura Hazard Owens reports that IPG and Amazon have finally made an agreement to bring back 5,000+ books at whatever terms are bearable for both parties. No one seems to know what those terms are. But paidContent has printed IPG's statement to their authors, and they are not charging authors whatever working fees for the affected period.

That's it for now.

Kindle News: Waterstone, soft rumors, Paramount movies to Prime

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Thu, 24 May 2012 07:18:00 +0000

Kindle News: Bits and pieces - I'm on vacation this week and the news is mostly very soft rumors, most of them conflicting so until they firm up I don't tend to report them, but a bit on that further on down.

Waterstones in the UK has signed an agreement with Amazon to sell Kindles in the UK, although Waterstones had been said to be in talks with Barnes and Noble for international sales. However, managing director James Daunt said in a statement. “The best digital readers, the Kindle family, will be married to the singular pleasures of browsing a curated bookshop. With the combination of “We asked ourselves, ‘what do our customers want?’; the answer was the Kindle. Once we’d done that this was self-evidently the best deal,” Daunt told The Bookseller...
...
paidContent's article by Laura Hazard Owen ends with what what looks like a quote from The Bookseller:
"Daunt said the two businesses had started talking only ‘relatively recently,’ admitting that he had looked at other options but rejected them. ‘Ultimately, when we thought about it, we had to give the customers what they wanted. And the best device on the market is the Kindle.’ our talents we can offer the exceptional customer proposition to which we both aspire."

They have about 300 stores, so it is a real plus for Amazon and of course bad news for Barnes and Noble.

Rumors
The Kindle Fire rumor a couple of weeks ago was that they were working on an 8.9" tablet to be ready for the holidays, end of 2012 but that while some orders were underaway, there were no named companies as there were when rumors were stronger in the past.

Now it's a 10" model, others say but with no basis for the rumors. I think it's a slow newscycle and these articles invariably end with "What do you think will happen?"

We'll see.

Hundreds of Paramount movies being added to Prime
See TechCrunch for details.

More later...

Today's Kindle Daily Deal - one for dog lovers

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Mon, 21 May 2012 10:09:00 +0000

A SMALL FURRY PRAYER - Today's Kindle Daily Deal

Just a quick note to alert dog lovers to Amazon's more unusual Kindle Daily Deal today, which is Steven Kotler's A Small Furry Prayer, which has 71 customer reviews and an average rating of 4.5 stars.

The Daily Deal blurb: "At 40, journalist Steven Kotler fell in love with Lila, a devoted animal rescuer. This investigative, philosophical, and fun-filled narrative follows the couple's move to New Mexico to create a dog sanctuary. It's an insider's look at one of the largest and least underground movements in America: dog rescue."

Sunday's price: $9.50, Monday's discount $7.60, Monday's Daily Deal Price: $1.99 (79% off)

There are editorial reviews from Booklist and an unnamed one that references Kirsus Reviews: "'A delightful, rich read sure to take you to unexpected places and beyond' Bark," in addition to the customer reviews.

For daily free ebooks, check the following links:

Temporarily-free books - Non-classics
USA: by:
Publication Date
Bestselling High-ratings
UK: PubDate Popular
The Kindle Daily Deal
What is 3G? and "WiFi"? Battery Care
Highly-rated under $1, Newest: $1-$2, $2-$3

Most Popular Free K-Books
U.S. & Int'l (NOT UK):
Top 100 free
UK-Only:
Top 100 free
USEFUL for your Kindle Keyboard(U.S. only, currently):
99c Notepad 1.1, 99c Calculator,
99c Calendar, 99c Converter

*Click* to Return to the HOME PAGE. Or click on the web browser's BACK button

Kindle News: 17 more states join class action suit. Excellent timeline and guide to points in DOJ and Class Action lawsuits

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Sun, 20 May 2012 15:04:00 +0000

17 more states join class action against Big5 and Apple, with new details revealed.

paidContent's Laura Hazard Owen reports that New York, Washington D.C., and 15 other states "have joined the e-book pricing class action suit against Apple, Macmillan and Penguin, bringing the total number of states involved so far to 31 (if you include DC and Puerto Rico). "

Owens' piece is a more in-depth look than we've seen with other news-site reports,
She adds that, unlike the Department of Justice (DOJ), the states seek monetary restitution for consumers and have already reached, as we've seen earlier, a settlement with Hachette, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins.

With that amended complaint comes new information that's been made public, though it's not clear why it was redacted from the version filed in April. Much of that newly-public information (in the state's amended complaint) is found in the DOJ filing against Apple and the publishers, but new details include an e-mail from Steve Jobs that shows him becoming directly involved in the agency pricing negotiations "after [Apple's] Eddy Cue could not secure one of the Conspiring Publisher’s commitment directly from an executive."

We see yet another admission or confirmation that the publishers (and therefore presumably their authors) did make more money under the older, wholesale model despite many arguments made in forums by authors (who were asked by their publishers to join forum discussions) that the authors' revenue would be less under Amazon's traditional wholesaler arrangement.

' Macmillan CEO John Sargent attempted to negotiate with Apple’s Eddy Cue on a way to make agency pricing less painful for publishers (publishers actually make more money under the wholesale model, where they are paid based on a book’s retail list price, than from the agency model).

Asking Apple to help, then, by taking a reduced cut
On January 11, 2010, Sargent wrote to Apple in an e-mail, "Am thinking a possible way to ease the financial pain for the publishers and authors of moving to the agency model. Could you take a reduced cut on hardcover first releases (where we are presently making 14.00 in revenue and would make 9.00 under your assumptions)?"
Apple did not agree to take less than its customary 30 percent cut. '

Now, "hardcover" is mentioned there, but e-book 'suggested retail prices' were set by publishers under the traditional agreements (often set, in 2009, at $26), and Amazon, it's been explained often, usually paid about 50% of that publisher-set retail price to the publisher, EVEN when Amazon sold a bestseller e-book at $9.99, a price that made the Big5 nervous about the devaluing of their hardcover books.

Many authors did actually believe that they'd make less when an e-book was discounted by Amazon, and I think the publishers let many of them believe and say this in forums. There was a lot of rancor in the forums between some authors and customers as a result.

Publisher e-mail
Then a publisher, Owens points out, emailed the parent company's CEO Jan. 21, 2010 that

' [Apple's Eddy Cue] … was eloquent on why they would be a great partner, that price could and would be experimented with as Apple want [sic] to drive high revenues; that this would be for a one year term; that one major publisher (clearly RH) was out and that ne [sic] need the five majors in but maybe four. He said that he was sure he would close on two today and two tomorrow... '

Steve Jobs's e-mail
Jobs stepped in and wrote to a resistant executive at one of the "Conspiring Publishers," outlining the choices the publisher had, the only semi-attractive one being

' Throw in with Apple and see if we can all make a go of this to create a real mainstream ebooks market at $12.99 and $14.99. '

As we saw, the Big5 e-books actually came to sell between $12.99 and $19.99.

E-mails to Barnes & Noble - who became quite active in all this
After the Big5 and Apple agreed on the Agency model and pricing, the amended class action complaint, Owens explains (bold-facing mine):

'...says the five publishers “worked together to force” Random House to adopt it as well.

On March 4, 2010, in an exchange also identified in the DOJ’s filing, Penguin CEO David Shanks sent Barnes & Noble’s then-CEO Steve Riggio an e-mail reading in part,
“Random House has chosen to stay on their current model and will allow retailers to sell at whatever price they wish…I would hope that [Barnes & Noble] would be equally brutal to Publishers who have thrown in with your competition with obvious disdain for your welfare…I hope you make Random House hurt like Amazon is doing to people who are looking out for the overall welfare of the publishing industry.” '

While this is one CEO (of one of the two publishing companies that have not settled) writing to Barnes and Noble, it's an indication of an atmosphere of concern stated often (within the complaint) that the "conspiring publishers" needed more publishers to stay together on all this to get Amazon to agree to the Agency model and its higher, non-competitive pricing.

B&N's management did decide not to feature Random House in any future advertising, the complaint says. And most who follow this pricing war know that Apple refused Random House books a place in their iBookStore. Random House is said to be the largest U.S publisher of novels. Neither Apple nor B&N are "Gas 'N' Groceries on Route 19" stores taking defensive measures against giant Amazon. But that latter is Authors Guild President Scott Turow's most recent fantasy. I feel bad for the authors who are represented by this guy whose forte seems to be a mixture of fantasy and bad melodrama, when he refers to Amazon as the 'Darth Vader of publishing.'

And, as I said in late April, Turow even refers to Apple as "a minor player in the realm of books" (the minor road-store that could, in one day, successfully encourage a jacking-up of e-book prices an average 50% (to $20 at the high-end), nation-wide, on new books, and even deny Random House space for its e-books because RH would not cooperate on the Agency model. Yep, Apple's just a small store hoping to get its size 3 foot in the publishing door.

The Club
When discussing what I'd deem normal book business practices of 'windowing' or staggering different releases of a book, if not done in lock-step, the publishers "referenced themselves in one email as ‘the Club!’" That was in connection with windowing discussions, and, as Owen says, not agency pricing discussions with Apple. But a club seldom calls itself that over one small facet of whatever brings them together as co-members, but the label does tend to speak to group focus of some type, in this case having to do with e-book pricing.

Downloads linked at the paidContent story:
The states’ amended complaint (5/11/12)
The states’ original complaint (4/11/12)
The Department of Justice’s complaint (4/11/12)

I've left out a lot of detail and a table of how Apple calculated its e-book prices in publisher contracts, but you can read the full details at paidContent's story.

ALSO: EXCELLENT "DOJ LAWSUIT UPDATE" by "Dear Author"

MANY interesting points are made in this piece that explains what is happening here, Mr. Jones, step-by step. Fascinating read, because I remember hearing about all this as it was happening and then it all tended to fade and blend together, but she [Jane] lays it all out, in no-nonsense manner.
I'll just quote the opening paragraph from her huge list of info-points with explanations of what some of the actions described indicate.

' Collectively the Big 6 account for approximately 60% of all revenue generated from print titles sold in the U.S. and 85% of all revenue generated from the sale of NYT Bestsellers.
In 2009, the publishers’ market share broke down as follows: Random House (17.5%), Penguin (11.3%), Hachette (10%), HarperCollins (9.8%), Simon & Schuster (9.1%), and Macmillan (5.4%) '

So, if you're interested in what is essentially a detective story with all the pieces starting to come together, go to Dear Author for the step-by-step guide.

Earlier and related:
TIMELINE: Ebook Pricing Wars - what DOJ would have seen.

Current Kindle Models for reference, plus free-ebook search links (non-Big5)

US:
Kindle Fire 7" tablet - $199
Kindle NoTouch ("Kindle") - $79/$109
Kindle Touch, WiFi
- $99/$139
Kindle Touch, 3G/WiFi - $149/$189
Kindle Keybd 3G - $189, Free, slow web
Kindle DX - $379, Free, slow web

UK:
Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £89
Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - £109
Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi, UK - £169
Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

OTHER International
Kindle NoTouch Basic - $109
Kindle Touch WiFi - $139
Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi - $189
Kindle Keybd 3G - $189
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

Check often: Temporarily-free recently published Kindle books
Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources. Top 100 free bestsellers. Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published free books, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

*Click* to Return to the HOME PAGE. Or click on the web browser's BACK button

Kindle News: Federal judge refuses to toss out class action lawsuit on e-book pricing, citing damaging Apple statements. 56-page ruling download.

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:24:00 +0000

U.S. District Court Judge Denise Cote refuses to toss out a nationwide class action lawsuit against Big5 and Apple filed in August 2011.

Associated Press's Larry Neumesiter reports that, in her written ruling, District Court Judge Cote cited Steve Jobs's statements, one that was video'd in answer to Walt Mossberg of WSJ at the initial iPad launch event ("the prices will be the same"), and one that was made to biographer Walter Isaacson about what Steve Jobs had told the large publishers named in the lawsuit ("the customer pays a little more, but that's what you want anyway").

The argument for dismissing the class action lawsuit was that Apple and the publishers named were just improving the efficiencies of distribution, but the judge rejected that, saying,
"It has everything to do with coordinating a horizontal agreement among publishers to raise prices, and eliminating horizontal price competition among Apple's competitors at the retail level."

AP's Neumeister adds that Apple had said last year that the charge that it had conspired with the major book publishers to raise the prices of e-books was not true and that it had instead (as Neumeister's explains their position) 'fostered innovation and competition by introducing its iBookstore in 2010 and said customers had benefited from e-books that are more interactive and engaging.'

Neumeister's AP report states that
'The judge wrote that Apple had a "strong incentive" to encourage publishers to agree together on the rules for e-book sales so that its iBookstore did not face stiff competition' and that 'With the fortuitous entry of Apple into the market for e-books, and the decision by Apple to join the price-fixing conspiracy, that horizontal conspiracy became a potent weapon for engineering a fundamental shift in an entire industry," the judge said.'

The ruling means that the class action can proceed to trial.

The Department of Justice settlements
As we saw earlier, the U.S. Department of Justice had reached a settlement with Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster. The AP report on the district court judge's ruling says that the federal government is proceeding with its 'lawsuit against Apple and Holtzbrinck Publishers, doing business as Macmillan, and The Penguin Publishing Co. Ltd., doing business as Penguin Group.' The settlement reached with the other 3 publishers is expected to help them avoid the class action lawsuit.

WSJ article on Judge Cote's ruling
The Wall Street Journal's "Cheat Sheet" article by Saul Griffith today described the ruling as a "damning indictment of collusive practices between Apple and five major U.S. book publishers," and Griffith quotes the judge further:

"In short, Apple did not try to earn money off of eBooks by competing with other retailers in an open market; rather, Apple 'accomplished this goal by [helping] the suppliers to collude, rather than to compete independently.' "

WSJ's Griffith adds, in his article titled, "Outlook Turns Gloomy as Judge Slams Apple in E-Book Case" ['Gloomy' was changed from 'not good'] :

' The proceedings probably ignored Apple's more substantive (and hidden) agenda – to thwart the growing popularity of Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) Kindle tablet by depriving the company of the opportunity to sell low-priced e-book content through the legacy ‘wholesale’ book selling model it created and dominated, controlling over 90 percent of e-book sales before Apple jumped into the game. '

Apple Insider's Mikey Campbell quotes Steve Perman, lead counsel and managing partner of Hagens Berman, the law firm handling the class action suit:

"We thought that Judge Cote’s ruling was spot on, especially when she noted that we’ve gone above and beyond in illustrating the legitimacy of our case ... We are eager to push forward with the case.”

The 56-page ruling in PDF format, available for download
Marketwatch points us to the 56-page ruling, available as part of a set of documents at hbsslaw.com.

Simple Timeline of events upon which the lawsuits are based
TIMELINE: Ebook Pricing Wars - what DOJ would have seen - March 12, 2012

Kindle News: Front-lit Kindle said to be ready by July. Another tablet by the holidays. Possible Nook GlowLight light-layer fragility

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:37:00 +0000

The front-lit E-Ink Kindle reported by TechCrunch's Coldewey on April 8 as in development and seen by him is now reported to be coming in July.

At the time it was reported in early April, a front-lit Kindle seemed many moons away, but it could be that Barnes and Noble's release of its Nook GlowLight may have lit a fire under Amazon's development team, although I hope Amazon has found a way to avoid the lowered-screem contrast reported for the GlowLight. Since that is difficult to avoid with a 2nd layer above the basic screen display, that'll depend on the technology used by Amazon.

A Reuter's report, written by Nivedita Bhattacharjee, states outright that

' Amazon.com Inc. will launch new versions of its Kindle e-reader and tablet, including a monochrome e-reader with front lighting, a source who has seen the prototype told Reuters.

The world's largest Internet retailer is aiming to have the new e-reader in stores in July, said the source, who has direct knowledge of the matter but asked not to be named because Amazon has not yet made the decision public. '

The source also said that Amazon "plans" to launch a new tablet "closer to the holiday season later this year" and it's "expected" to have a display of 8.9 inches, larger than the Kindle Fire but smaller than the iPad's 9.7." The iPad 3 has the very high-resolution "Retina" display, and it wouldn't be expected that Amazon would match that, as it's costly and Amazon's Kindle Fire targeted audiences looking for a lower-cost tablet. It would be a surprising change for Amazon to target Apple's iPad, which I think they've been careful not to do except to make it possible to view movies very nicely in the wider-screen 16:1 aspect while making Kindle books easier to read than had been expected on a 7" backlit LCD tablet. But a tablet larger than the Kindle Fire but smaller than the iPad may be attractive to many who find the 10" too large but the 7" too small.

E-Ink Holdings' Chief Marketing Officer explained that they don't comment on their customers' launch plans.

The unnamed source adds that the new e-Ink e-readers would be launched in the touch 3G and touch WiFi versions and said that Amazon was likely to keep prices the same, maybe raising them slightly if at all. Another analyst expected the added cost would be about $10, as "the component is not very expensive." They tend to undercut the Nook prices when they can, though.

The source said there's very little chance of a color E-Ink reader being launched in 2012 despite talks held with E Ink, since no "concrete decisions" had been reached.

Another analyst quoted by Reuters saw the color e-paper product in a trade show in October and felt that it needed "a lot of technological improvements" before it would be used in a mass-produced product.

The earlier TechCrunch article pointed out that Amazon had bought a Oy Modilis, a company specializing in this technology, in late 2010 although this happened under the radar in that no one seems to have reported it, Coldewey said. He added that he was told that this company is "the world leader in light-guide technology." Since Amazon bought this company would it be exactly the same technology used in the Nook GlowLight? Coldewey added, re the Kindle front-lit screen he saw briefly:

' [I] thought that the text looked better as well, but it’s possible that this was the result of improved font rendering and aliasing reduction, or perhaps something to do with the light...

... the whole point of purchasing the light-guide company was to get the team and their patents, which essentially laminate the light diffusion layer right onto the screen without adding much in the way of depth or interfering with the touch system.
I was told the industrial design isn’t finished yet, but I ruled out things like ruggedness, waterproofing, or a flush-front screen — all things, by the way, I suggested they look into.
[Coldewey makes a good point there. Gizmodo's Kyle Wagner, an e-Ink Nook fan, found that when he inadvertently dropped a remote control on the front-lit unit from about 6" above, the result was a "frightful little light tunnel" as well as scratches on the light layer. Wagner's article is titled, "You Really Don’t Want to Drop the New Nook Simple Touch" but he is extremely apologetic for having dropped his remote control on it, leaving a "gash" and a "super distracting hole of light" like a "coffee stain on a page -- except it's on every page of every book you own." Nevertheless, he felt the Nook is good and you shouldn't ruin "every one of your books with a single act of idiocy."

Then Nate Hoffelder of The Digital Reader referenced Gizmodo's article, titling his, "Here's why you shouldn't get the new Nooklit," which seemed too quick a judgment to some of his readers and he then tested his Nook GlowLight by dropping a set of keys from about 4 inches above it. While the Gizmodo unit suffered only one light hole, Hoffelder's unit had 4 light holes. Both writers have good images of the light layer damage, which is mostly not seen when the Glow light isn't used.

Another commenter wrote that he had returned his because the unevenness of the lighting seemed to make reading in low light conditions harder than it is with the backlit Nook Tablet.

Other commenters said people should use cases, but most don't use a case to cover the screen while reading. It does make me wonder how Amazon will get around these problems.

Hoffelder then decided to try the key drop, this time from 6 to 7 inches above, on an Asus Transformer, a Samsung Galaxy Tab, a Kindle DX, an Innosoul Android tablet, and the Kindle Touch. None of these showed any damage, he reported.

As I said on that thread though, the damage described in Gizmodo’s overapologetic report is to the light layer and not to the basic layer underneath that displays text and images. The damage reported is to the top layer only, but that can cause the light to be unusable.]
It shouldn’t be any thicker, though it will have to accommodate the LED circuitry and presumably a larger battery.'

B&N claims two months of reading on the non-lit Nook Touch on one battery charge if reading only 1/2 a day on average. But for the lit unit, it's one month at that daily reading rate, so the battery runs out twice as fast under those conditions. That'll likely be the same for the new lit Kindle.

Photo credit and disclaimer:
TechCrunch's image at the top, left, is, they explain, just a concept image from Flex Lighting
and not a real device.

Current Kindle Models for reference, plus free-ebook search links

UK:
Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £89
Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - £109
Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi, UK - £169
Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

OTHER International
Kindle NoTouch Basic - $109
Kindle Touch WiFi - $139
Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi - $189
Kindle Keybd 3G - $189
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

Sunday's Kindle Daily Deal is the Gold Box deal: 20 novels made into films. 99c each. Also, huge discounts on many popular books are highlighted in alerts from the forums

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Sun, 13 May 2012 23:31:00 +0000

Sunday's Kindle Deal: "20 great novels that inspired movies" are $0.99 each on Kindle for the rest of this Sunday.

The usual Kindle Daily Deal link for Sunday takes you then to today's Gold Box Daily Deal. It also serves to make more people aware of the daily Gold Box deal, I imagine.

Also, this is a reminder that's posted every few weeks for those new and olde to this site because there are many new visitors each day here who've never seen some of the subsets of free or bargain books available for searching and who wouldn't know about the several ongoing Amazon Kindle deals.

A SLEW OF RECENT HUGE DISCOUNTS on Kindle book (some or most, temporarily, as promos), at kdisc0513:

There is an unusual number of highly-regarded books normally priced at $8 to $12 showing up at a price of $0.99 over the last few days.

I checked just now and saw that the ones I clicked on, which were announced starting May 8, are still being sold at the lower rate. I'm calling attention to those today.

My link above will start you from May 8th, in a huge thread that started eons ago, but you can of course go backwards in the thread, and Amazon will keep track of the last page you read in that message thread.

FREE AND LOW-COST KINDLE BOOKS IN GENERAL
If you'd like to browse for current free books (especially non-classics) or lower-cost offerings from Amazon that are available on an ongoing basis (although the books themselves go off-sale quite quickly) but which newer visitors will not have seen before, here's some light browsing:

Links to Free Kindle Books - Non-Classics - available today
April 2012 May 2012, included in the sorting by:
Publication Date Bestselling
High-ratings

   Amazon's Limited Time Free Promos

UK: Publication Date Popular

Most Popular Free K-Books:
U.S. & Int'l (although NOT UK):
   Top 100 free
UK-Only:
   Top 100 free

Free Kindle Books Guide
One of the most visited pages on this blog is the general Free Kindle Books Guide

Top 100 free Android apps, for Kindle Fire owners (who should check out the free app of the day each day)

PRIME Lending Library - borrowing books
In the forums, I've found some who did not know that with the Prime membership, which gets you free 2-day shipping on almost all of Amazon's own items (not so much 3rd party Marketplace items), you not only have access to about 15,000 no-add'l-cost streaming videos, you can also borrow one Kindle book per calendar month, from a choice of over 145,000 now, without dealing with waiting times or due-dates.

Prime's Lending Library:
Rules; Borrowing;
How to Browse or search the now voluminous List
Note: When you borrow a Prime library book,
you do this from your Kindle, at the Kindle's Kindle Store
and not from the Amazon web pages.
The BIG RED $0.00 you see on the product page for "Prime" cost
means it's $0.00 to Borrow it, from the Kindle,
and I wish that would be made clearer.

NOT FREE, BUT MOSTLY UNDER $1
Non-Classics under $1:
Highly rated, under $1
Amazon's specific mostly 99c Kindle Books page

And then there's the Kindle Daily Deal that changes each night, at around midnight.

OVER $1 BUT SPECIALLY FEATURED POPULAR BOOKS
There are also the monthly Kindle book deals, with 100 Editors' Choices priced at $1.99-$3.99.

CUSTOMER DISCUSSION THREADS
Ongoing or completed but informative popular discussions (See Kindle Forums for more.)
. Pros and Cons on WSJ report that the Justice Dept is looking at e-book price collusion
. Are you sorry you bought a Fire?
. Kindle touch or Kindle Keyboard
. Kindle Fire for nonTech person?
. Kindle Fire Keyboard.. Anyone else having issues?
. Any happy Kindle Touch owners?
. Kindle Fire video on airplane compared with iPad video, a tense thread :-)
. Got my Fire!
. Feel like almost crying - Kindle loss and personalizing Kindles - lighthearted
. Unusual calls from Amazon because of forum posts
. Personal docs now sendable to individual Kindles again
. To Avoid Confusion, Please Use the Official Product Names in Forum" [entertaining]
. Discussion of geographic restrictions on digital purchases
. Discount-alert books discussed on separate message thread
. What have been your favorite public domain books that are not so well known?
. Best "Free" books you've read (many are no longer free, however).
. Highly recommended Indie authors
. Unique Uses of Kindles

Other current forum threads that might interest some
Public Library Lending questions at the forums, and Lendle's Kindle borrowing
. How many e-books does your public library have?
. Public librarians: what has been your Kindle/Overdrive experience?

KINDLE SUPPORT INFO page
The shortcut (link) is http://bit.ly/ksupportinfo.

Help from other customers 24/7
Also, if you need especially fast response to a problem you're having, the Kindle Community Forums are especially helpful, with Kindle owners willing to help and very knowledgeable, so that you can find an answer 24/7 quite often, worldwide.

Kindle-Edition subscribers of this blog, who get, on their Kindles, the most-recent 25 Kindleworld blog postings at any time, who've never visited the web page, might want to stop by briefly (Link: kindleworld.blogspot.com), to take a look at the right-hand column that holds earlier articles that can answer questions that many have had about any of the Kindle models, older or newer, plus info on how to make use of the many features not often described or publicized. You can use Menu/Article Mode for eInk readers or use Reading View (eyeglasses icon) with Kindle Fire to see these in readable format.
Thanks for visiting, either here, or via the Kindle edition, and for the helpful comments I get to blog items or in email.

Current Kindle Models for reference, plus free-ebook search links

UK:
Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £89
Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - £109
Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi, UK - £169
Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

OTHER International
Kindle NoTouch Basic - $109
Kindle Touch WiFi - $139
Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi - $189
Kindle Keybd 3G - $189
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

*Click* to Return to the HOME PAGE. Or click on the web browser's BACK button

How to read DRM'd ePub books on the Kindle Fire. Amazon makes it doable.

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Fri, 11 May 2012 22:31:00 +0000

Amazon makes it possible but doesn't make it ultra-easy
The two most popular ePub readers for Android are not made available for the Kindle Fire, as Amazon concentrates on its own books but, as with about 3 million free books available these days for reading on the Kindle and which Amazon points us to on their own pages (re Project Gutenberg, Internet Archive, etc., all explained at this blog's Free Kindle Books guide), Amazon doesn't limit your ability to download non-Amazon books (despite the myths propagated by those who may just wish it were so).

With Amazon's new KF8 (Kindle Format using HTML 5) capabilities, there is less reason to go out of one's way to get an ePub version of a book for layouat reasons, but there will always be certain ePub books that Amazon doesn't have, and now those, even if using Adobe DRM, can be read on a Kindle device - the Kindle Fire.

It's an Android-based device, and there are Android apps written to read ePub files and, further more, ADOBE-DRM'd ePub files.

The two most commonly recommended ones are Aldiko and Mantano. You can download the Aldiko app from Aldiko, and there are a number of mostly-reliable places that offer app downloads (LEN EDGERLY recommended one of my favorites, slideme.org, for the Mantano app -- you also need to sign up with slideme.org and download its store app to get its apps).

Off Topic - but something you should know about. See Len's The Kindle Chronicles, which is now being offered as a Kindle-edition blog subscription too, so you can read it offline, as Len is adding lengthier written pieces as well as his ultra-informative weekly podcasts and summaries. Tonight's will be an interview with James McQuivey, of Forrester Research, whose interview is likely going to be an antidote to the The Sky is Falling columns by news-site publishers lately, who only a week before had reams of stories on how Amazon is becoming a scary monopoly which must be stopped!
Kindle sales were down 1st quarter after a huge Christmas with the new launches and as the iPad 3 was being released. I'm surprised people didn't expect the usual post-season lower sales. This will be true with any product. But McQuivey has a good handle on the e-reader scene, so I look forward to what he says and there's a lot more that's happening with e-readers and tablets. [ Ending Off-Topic]

A DEFAULT SETTING ON THE KINDLE FIRE MUST BE SET TO 'ON' RATHER THAN 'OFF' for installing Non-Amazon apps.
So, BEFORE you install any of these ePub readers, you need to change a default setting on your Kindle Fire "Device" option, to "Allow Installation of Applications from Unknown Sources" - then select the "ON" status and confirm, for the pop-up advisory, that you do want to install apps from unknown sources. Here are the steps:

Lightly tap gear/wheel icon on top right of Kindle Fire
Click on "+ or More"
Scroll down below "Kindle Keyboard" to get to "Device"
Scroll down to "Allow Installation of Applications from Unknown Sources" and change the setting from "OFF" to "ON"
Tell the pop-up Yes, you want to allow this
Then use the Kindle Fire's web browser to download the file and install it the way you'd install any other app that's downloadable to the device.

You can always turn this setting Off again after getting a file, so that you can confirm you want to do this each time you decide you want to try an app not available at the Amazon Android Appstore.

REMINDER that you need to use CAUTION with FILE DOWNLOADS, on computers, tablets, and phones.
The option to install an app from "an unknown source" is an everyday Android system feature and is one reason Android is considered more 'open' than Apple, but also, the device owner takes responsibility for knowing that an app could be quite buggy, might not be that compatible with your device, or may even may have malware.

We all know about the latter with our normal computer downloads from file-download sites. NOTE that Barnes and Noble decided not to allow this 'unknown sources' feature on its Nook Tablet. With B&N's tablet, you can install only Nookstore apps (a relatively limited set), which is one reason people rush to root it if they can, as it's the only way to take advantage of the regular Android market apps, and it usually needs to be done with each new software update.

WHY USERS LOOK FOR ALTERNATIVE APPS
One example: many of us have used something called Dolphin web browser instead of Amazon's "Silk" default web browser because it allows full-screen view and was more likely to access with fewer problems some television series videos usinsg Flash.
Recently Amazon added not only the full-screen toggle but added a *really useful and effective* "Reading View" to separate a web article from ads and side-columns surrounding it, and it's beautifully implemented and extremely readable on a small unit.

As a result, many of us have gone back to the Silk browser (even if we turn OFF "Acceleration" because some of us find our own preferred website locations load faster with that off).
Despite a column by CNet's Ed Rhee that Acceleration must be turned on for this to work, thats not true.

Once the browser identifies an article as the main body of a web page, it'll display a reading-glasses icon at the bottom status line near the Bookmarks icon, although it can take awhile to 'decide' this.
Just lightly press that to get it going. Rhee has on that page, though, a good illustration of what a regular web page looks like vs the Reading View of it.

I do miss this Reading View function when in other web browsers now and haven't seen anything else like this for web browsing on any other small device. Kudos to Amazon programmers.

"VETTING" OF ANDROID APPS At any rate, Amazon Kindle Fire users have the ability to try apps from other sources, in case they have features that our current app doesn't. But if they're not in the Amazon store, it means they haven't gone through or passed Amazon's vetting system for its Android appstore.
Just before Christmas, I pointed out the following, quoted from a LinuxInsider story, and it's explains why Amazon can take so long to approve apps and why some may not be approved for the Kindle Fire:
"LinuxInsider has a story on Dec 20 titled, "Can Amazon Save Android from Malware Hell?" They point out:

' Simply put, Amazon tests apps to death before letting them into its app store. Every app submitted undergoes tests for various aspects of its performance. There are linking tests, stability and functionality tests, tests on content issues and tests on security issues.

Each aspect is tested in several ways. For example, stability and functionality tests look to see whether an app opens within 15 seconds; whether it is compliant with the major carriers' networks; whether it freezes, has forced closings or exhibits other forms of instability; and how it reacts to phone calls, text messages, and alarms.

Content issue tests look for missing content, unreadable text and incorrect graphics. They also ensure the app complies with Amazon's content guidelines on offensive content, copyright infringement, illegal activities and other issues.

Security tests include making sure the app doesn't store passwords without the user's content, doesn't collect data and send it to unknown servers, and doesn't harm existing content on the device. '

Reminder: Even with Google's official Android Market (now called Google Play), Google was hit with malware a few times. I tend to let a newly offered file or file update sit for a few days, at least, anywhere, to make sure it doesn't give other people problems, before I download it.

HAVING SAID ALL THAT... We finally get to Aldiko and Mantano. Aldiko used to be the one most mentioned, as it may have been more intuitive at first and has good email-attachment handling for downloading of ebooks, but Mantano has features like annotations and bookmarks that for some reason Aldiko doesn't, and that makes a huge difference for most people. Lynne Connolly at Nate Hoffelder's The Digital Reader added the following to Nate's interesting column on Aldiko:

' I uninstalled Aldiko because it doesn’t have highlighting, note-taking or bookmarking, and because it doesn’t render text properly – no italics! You can tell it to go to publisher defaults but then the fonts are horrible and it will only scroll, not flip.

I’m with you on Cool Reader. I really like it and it’s my second favorite on Android. proper rendering, nice note taking.

My first is Mantano. Note-taking, add your own fonts, proper rendering, italics and all, and the library function is fantastic. You can have your own Collections, like on the Kindle, and there are several views. Mantano is now available in a free version, ad supported, but they’re only on the home page, not in the books. '

Cool Reader is giving Mantano a run for its money though. At Mobileread.com forums, I saw this by jjansen:

' I did quite like Aldiko until I tried Mantano. Mantano is my favourite so far in terms of finding a book to read. I can list books by genre, tags and something that Aldiko doesn't do - by Series. I really liked scrolling through the list of series and then saying Yes I would like to read a book in the Alex Cross series for example. For now I anticipate having both Mantano and Cool Reader installed with Cool Reader being the program that I use the most often. '

Cool Reader doesn't handle Adobe DRM though! and doesn't read PDFs, while Mantano is said to do a good job with PDFs, but I've liked ezPDF for PDFs, and it's available at Amazon. Have not looked at it extensively for relative effectiveness of formatting, however.
The ability of Mantano to do Collections has to be a deal maker though when it goes with annotations and bookmarks as well. All three of these ePub readers have text to speech. Scrolling is said to be very good on Cool Reader and it has page-turning animations, a popular feature. It reads DOC, RTF, TXT also.

You may have to "sideload" this app - meaning move it from your computer to the Kindle Fire. Here's a download site that carries Cool Reader app file but even better here's the author's info page with links to downloads (which seem to be to a computer in a zip file).

"SIDELOADING" APP FILES IF NECESSARY For apps not directly downloadable to the Kindle Fire for some reason, see "How to Sideload non-Amazon Apps" when necessary.

Kindle Fire
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Kindle News: All Harry Potter eBooks coming to Kindle Owners' Lending Library; E-Ink Color Kindle E-Readers may launch 2nd Half of 2012; Wi-Drive gets web-browser update; 3 Solitaire programs in one set, by 7 Dragons, for Kindle Fire

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:15:00 +0000

Kindle Owner's Lending Library will carry all 7 Harry Potter eBooks.

The Potter eBooks had already been part of an exclusive worldwide e-book and digital audiobook distribution agreement with Overdrive for public and school libraries.

However, waiting lists at libraries are notoriously long, and books are due within 2 weeks in some. So, the PRIME Kindle Lending Library will be a boon for many.
There are no waiting lists and no due dates.

Remember that you can borrow only one Kindle book per calendar month though. For more info on the PRIME lending program, which now includes 145,000 books, "including over 100 current and former New York Times Best Sellers," see:

Prime's Lending Library:
Rules;
Borrowing;
How to Browse List

Remember that you can borrow an e-book ONLY on a Kindle Device and NOT via a web page on a computer.

Amazon purchased an exclusive license from Pottermore to make these titles available on the Kindle Owners Lending program.

PRIME was originally created to offer Free Shipping of Amazon products in two days, for $79/yr, or essentially, $6.58/mo.

It now includes unlimited free streaming of over 17,000 movies and TV episodes. Jeff Bezos, Amazon's CEO, pointed out that "Over a year, borrowing the Harry Potter books, plus a handful of additional titles, can alone be worth more than the $79 cost of Prime or a Kindle. "

As with Kindle books, your annotations and bookmarks will be saved for you (unless you don't want them backed up) in case you want to borrow the book again or buy it later.

Color E-Ink Kindles due in 2nd Half of 2012?
Forbes points to Digitimes' article today that Amazon is 'likely' to launch these sometime during the 2nd half of this year.
However, this is very SOFT info, since with E Ink Holdings's plans to unveil "color EPD products" soon, according to company chairman Scott Liu, "sources" describe the products as "likely" to be adopted by Amazon. NOT exactly firm rumors.

They mention "makers in the supply chain to begin shipping related parts and components in May" -- to whom? They don't say and it would probably be to E Ink holdings, whose first quarter was below expectations.

Digitimes highlights two item, which I forgot to insert while linking to their article:

' Amazon's new color e-book readers will be built with multi-touch capacitive touch panels instead of infrared touch panels used in the previous mono-color e-book readers, the sources noted.
...
Touch panel maker TPK Holding reportedly has landed touch module orders for Amazon's color e-book readers, the sources added. '

Wi-Drive Update
The Wi-Drive is a small flash drive that stores files and allows streaming of media (video, text) to up to three devices at one time and I've used one with the Kindle Fire since January. See the article from January 24. I have two, and one is always in my purse, as it's smaller than a cell phone. The Wi-Drive app update announced today enables web browser support for the WiDrive.

While they've been available in 16 GB and 32 GB versions, Kingston is now adding a 64 GB model though I don't see it shown at Amazon yet.

The Wi-Drive app update is available at Google Play's app store. The Kindle Fire Wi-Drive app doesn't show an update ready yet though, but it shouldn't be long. I received an update for my Samsung devices, but Amazon's vetting processes for its Android apps always take longer.

New Solitaire, Mahjong Solitaire, Spider Solitaire app for Kindle Fire
7 Dragons, the popular creator of Kindle E-Reader and Kindle Fire apps has just released a new app for Kindle Fire -- a combination of several Solitaire games released in just one app, for $1 as a launch sale, as the permanent price will be $3 later.

This won't work on other Android tablets, and is available only for the Kindle Fire. It was released May 8, and there are two reviews so far, both verified Amazon purchases, with 5 stars each.

Optimized for the 7" tablet, it's very customizable, has Autosave, unlimited Undo, and hints plus optional background music. There are 19 levels from "easy" to "very challenging."

Current Kindle Models for reference, plus free-ebook search links

UK:
Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £89
Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - £109
Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi, UK - £169
Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

OTHER International
Kindle NoTouch Basic - $109
Kindle Touch WiFi - $139
Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi - $189
Kindle Keybd 3G - $189
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

Kindle Tips: Kindle E-Ink and Kindle Fire - most reliable Gmail mode

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:01:00 +0000

I've noticed that E-Ink-Ereader and Kindle Fire owners have reported problems accessing Gmail lately. One aspect is that few settle for "mobile" version on the larger mobile devices and choose 'desktop' mode. I'm one of them.

The one mode that always works for me on either the Kindle Touch or the Kindle Fire, though, is GMail's "Basic Html" mode, which is simpler and faster to load than the "Standard" mode, the latter being the default mode and causing problems for some larger mobile devices.

While GMail apps can work well for some, they are missing features that some depend on in GMail, and as a result some choose the browser version instead and, as I mentioned, Desktop mode. If you prefer to use a browser version (I do), I have a shortcut that makes sure the Kindle Touch or the Kindle Fire get to the "Basic HTML" version of GMail.

That's http://bit.ly/gmailbasichtml.

The shortcut uses no dashes, so it's easier to type. After you get to the GMail page in basic-html mode, then you can bookmark it so you don't have to type it again.

The Kindle Touch will show the listing of emails. To get the folders, see the lined rectangle at top left of that page. The rectangle represents these days a "Menu" option, and that'll bring up the folders.

Let me know if you have any problems with these.

KEYBOARD Kindles respond differently though.
For older models like Kindle 2, 3, DX, use:
bit.ly/g_mail (That's an underscore there rather than a space, and the 'http://' is not needed with Kindles, as the Kindle adds it.)
(Kindle 1 is just entirely too slow and has no direct-screen-link access for gmail.)

In the mobiweb.azw weblinks 'book' file that I've had for download for a long time for older E-Ink Kindles, you can just click on the links instead of going to Experimental browser where you type in links. The "preferred" GMail shortcut in that mobiweb 'book' file for the older e-Ink devices is the bit.ly/g_mail one (with an underscore rather than a space) mentioned as an alternative.

The Kindle Touch and Kindle Fire models will be less problematical with the various GMail versions. The mobiweb.azw file mentioned also uses good 'umbrella'-menu sites (such as Cantoni, Kinstant, ReadingTheNet, and Skweezer) which hold categories of links that are better to use when on a slow e-Ink device.

Hope that helps some !

Current Kindle Models for reference, plus free-ebook search links

UK:
Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £89
Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - £109
Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi, UK - £169
Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

OTHER International
Kindle NoTouch Basic - $109
Kindle Touch WiFi - $139
Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi - $189
Kindle Keybd 3G - $189
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

Kindle News: Amazon releases Cloud (Drive) for Windows, an easier way to access the cloud storage space

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Sat, 05 May 2012 13:19:00 +0000

Kindlezen tweeted an interesting article by Computerworld on Amazon's release of a desktop app for its Cloud Storage Service, which will make it easier for people to use the free 5 gigs of space for NON-Amazon files of any type, as long as they're not rights-protected.

In March 2011, Amazon's free 5 gigs of cloud drive was announced, and in July Amazon said that even OLDER mp3s bought from Amazon could be stored on the Cloud and streamed without the file being counted against storage space.

In March of last year, the intro to the Cloud Drive and how to use it was seen at the Amazon Cloud Drive help page.

Today's Cloud for Windows desktop app will make it even easier.

Computerworld's John P. Mello Jr. provides the details.
Mello writes that there are "versions of the software for Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Mac 10.6 and 10.7" for download.

Again, people should be reminded that Amazon also gives 5 free gigs of additional cloud space for personal docs for the Kindle and that includes non-Amazon books that are not rights-protected. It also includes things like Word Docs, or web pages sent to the Kindle via various Send-to utilities including Amazon's own.

May's 100 Kindle Deals $1.99-$3.99 - Editors' Choices. May's free non-classics by publication date.

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Sat, 05 May 2012 12:22:00 +0000

MAY 2012's 100 Kindle Deals, $1.99-$3.99

I highlight this feature at or near the beginning of the month for newcomers, and even oldcomers who don't know it exists.

These are Kindle books "hand-selected" by Amazon's Editors each month, and what you'll see on that special monthly-deals page are the new ones for May 2012.
(Link: amzn.to/100kbooks-2to4)

FREE KINDLE BOOKS (Non-classics) for May
In the meantime, I've updated the "Temporarily-free books -- Non-classics" search results for free contemporary Kindle books for MAY, sorted by publication-date, as of today. These include pre-orders for May.

Here are the current Search results for free Kindle non-classics, by publication date for April.

Current Kindle Models for reference, plus free-ebook search links

UK:
Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £89
Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - £109
Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi, UK - £169
Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

OTHER International
Kindle NoTouch Basic - $109
Kindle Touch WiFi - $139
Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi - $189
Kindle Keybd 3G - $189
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

Kindle Fire Update v6.3.1 READY with better Parental Controls

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Fri, 04 May 2012 03:58:00 +0000

KINDLE FIRE UPDATE v6.3.1 was announced by Amazon at the Amazon Kindle Forum by Kevin G., Community Manager, and involves additional parental controls.

The software v6.3.1 update was announced today, May 3, as ready for download.

Download it at the software-update page (good instructions there) and you can also read there the information they include from the last, recent update (v6.3) to get a fuller picture on many changes that were made in late-March 2012.

Here's the extremely brief announcement Amazon has added on that software update page today. I've boldfaced the changes.

'We have a new, free software update available for Kindle Fire. This update brings additional parental controls to Kindle Fire, including the ability to password-protect purchases, disable access to specific content libraries, and block access to the Silk web browser. As with all software updates, these new features will be delivered automatically to your Kindle Fire.

By "specific content libraries" they mean categories such as books, docs, apps...

But the update page makes it possible for you to put it on your Kindle now if you want it right away, and the instructions on that page are easy to follow.

Kindle Forum Tips from users
Old Rocker at the Kindle Forum thread saw this when upon installing the udpate:
. Web Browser - Blocked/Unblocked
. Password Protect Purchases On/Off
. Password Protect Video Playback On/Off
. Block and Unblock Content Types Newstand/Books/Music/Video/Docs/Apps
. Password Protect WiFi On/Off

rickh57 says that you can restrict access to all books, etc., but not isolate it to a particular book.

Old or Adds an interesting precaution
"I'm thinking that anyone who shares their Fire may want to set up a parental control password, but just allow everything in order to avoid a child or other user to accidentally turn on parental controls and set up a password, locking the owner out. That happened to someone recently who posted about it on the forums."

Bufo Calvin found that "when you block the browser, you can still download from the Cloud..." He also found that 'the 'bookstream' (the live chat within the books) also still works."

If you forget the parental control password?
Turns out that you can set it to factory defaults after a few missed passwords -- so IF someone steals your Kindle you'll want to call Kindle Customer Service at 866-321-8851 to prevent anyone else from registering the Kindle to their account. [You can 'blacklist' the Kindle if it's ever stolen.]
*~*Pineapple*~* points out that resetting to Factory Defaults means losing:
. Any personal docs on the device
. any Internet bookmarks
. memorized wifi networks
and you'd need to register the device again, filling in the information.

EARLIER posts on Kindle Fire v6.3.x
Kindle Fire v6.3 features
READING VIEW feature

Kindle Touch 3G Kindle Touch WiFi Kindle Basic (UK: KBasic) Kindle Fire
Kindle Keybd 3G (UK: Kindle Keybd 3G) K3 Special Offers K3-3G Special Offers DX

For daily free ebooks, check the following links:

Temporarily-free books - Non-classics
USA: by:
Publication Date Late-listed
Bestselling High-ratings
UK: PubDate Popular

What is 3G? and "WiFi"? Battery Care
Highly-rated under $1, Newest: $1-$2, $2-$3

Most Popular Free K-Books
U.S. & Int'l (NOT UK):
Top 100 free
UK-Only:
Top 100 free
USEFUL for your Kindle Keyboard (U.S. only, currently):
99c Notepad 1.1, 99c Calculator,
99c Calendar, 99c Converter

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NY Federal Judge stays e-book class action case against Hachette and HarperCollins

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:04:00 +0000

paidContent's Jeff John Roberts reports that New York Federal Justice Denise Cote has stayed the class action suit against HarperCollins and Hachette "on the grounds that the publishers are close to a consumer restitution settlement with state governments."

The state governments' deal trumps the consumer class action, he explains.

The lead class-action lawyer, Steve Berman said, in a letter to Cote, that only part of the proceedings should be suspended because "many states might not take part in the agreement." While Berman said that the two publishers should have to share documents related to the Justice Dept's antitrust investigation, the judge's order will prevent that for now.

It turns out that Hachette and HarperCollins have "entered a memorandum of understanding with several states, and have suggested a deal with all 50 states is imminent. The publishers would likely have to pay millions under a settlement, but it would allow them to escape the class action proceedings and avoid the risk of a jury award that could be even higher."

So it becomes clearer why they settled right away.

Simon & Schuster hasn't signed a formal memorandum from its talks with the state governments, so it didn't receive a stay.

Macmillan and Penguin are continuing to fight both the class action lawyers and the government, Penguin claiming that the class action "is invalid because users of Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook agreed to settle any disputes through arbitration."

Apple denies all and has lots of money to cover what should be a long battle.

For daily free ebooks, check the following links:

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Nook GlowLight reviews and the Contrast question. Microsoft invests in new Nook books subsidiary.

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Wed, 02 May 2012 00:22:00 +0000

When I've been quiet for awhile, some will brace themselves for another wordy piece on the way.

Oldtimers to this blog may remember that I did a few blog articles about the lack of sufficient contrast in the Kindle 2 screen display for many, and although my own Kindle 2 was okay, the Kindle 1 and the Kindle 3 were quite superior in darkness of font and contrast perceived. At one point, I talked about Kindle 2 screen contrast connection with a Wired.com article, so I'm sensitive to a relative lack of contrast and had a problem with the original Nook Touch for that reason although I had bought the NookColor on sight and enjoyed that mode.

All reviews on the new GlowLight are very positive. More than a few mention, though, that some will see less contrast in the screen display relative to the older Nook Touch and the current Kindle. But you never need to add a light attachment and many have been looking for that feature with E-Ink.

(I use the Beam N Read 3-Led light, as that works well with everything and not just e-readers.

FROM REVIEWS
A fairly detailed review posted by Gotta Be Mobile's K. T. Bradford include many photos plus a video also
The positives presented include:
Lights up screen evenly, doesn't drain battery too much, responsive touchscreen,
speedy performance
The negatives include:
eInk display contrast not as good as original Nook, doesn’t support documents other than PDF.

[Note that the Kindle supports WORD docs, HTML, txt, Mobi, and Prc, as well.]
Bradford writes:

' If you place them side by side, you can tell that the GlowLight version is a shade or two lighter. Same with the Kindle Touch. Even without the comparison, I noticed that the new Nook’s text isn’t as dark as I’m used to. The lighter contrast isn’t as noticeable with the GlowLight on.

It looks like Barnes and Noble made a choice to sacrifice the level of contrast in order for the best performance with GlowLight. They also claim that the anti-glare screen protector is a best-selling accessory, so many Nook users already experience this. The resulting quality isn’t a dealbreaker, but will be a consideration for buyers.
. . .
Conclusion:
It comes down to which is more important: the darkest text or the lighted screen? If the latter is a bigger deal, then the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight is for you. '

Some reviewers consider the Nook GlowLight the best e-reader, for the one feature, the built-in front lighting, as well as its being easy to hold.

I've noticed that those who do this omit from the article the many other features that have become important to Kindle Touch owners such as audio, music, a very decent web browser, annotations kept for for each book on the owner's personal Amazon web page, very effective sync'g of reading between devices, and the ability to send Word Doc, Text, Mobi, Prc books or documents AND web pages direct to the Kindle for reading offline, while none of the above is doable with the Nook. With the Nook, attempted sync'g between devices is notably weaker, per reviews.

So, the oddly one-feature reviews concentrate only on the Nook light, although a few also mention the Nook never having ads (even though the Nook home page has 'recommended for you' books (which I personally consider ads and I often don't want to see those on my personal e-reader home screen).

I haven't included a couple of those when they ignore (for the person reading) other important features in favor of just one feature while not informing readers of differences.

I also saw that a CNN reviewer compared the current Nook to his Kindle 2 (from 2009!, from fully 3 years ago, and wished the old Kindle 2 were a Touch device ! and then said the Nook is definitely better than that. That stood out.

TIME Techland's Harry McCracken at least mentions that Kindle has other features even if he minimizes them and he finds the Nook GlowLight the most useful for him.

In their comments area, Adam Ritchie commenting via his Twitter ID, writes:

'just purchased a nook with glowlight, and am really hoping they do a firmware update that addresses the loss of text contrast. it’s substantial. it doesn’t have that “ink on a page” look you had with the basic nook, that made you forget you weren’t reading a real book. i asked @NOOK_Care about this a few days ago and didn’t get a response. '

MacWorld/PCWorld's Melissa Perenson loves the new Nook, and it's definitely 'the one' she recommends alhough she doesn't compare features at all otherwise. Many do just want an e-reader to read a book and don't want to have to deal with a night light, especially one that annoys a bed partner. Features like audio (for podcasts or audiobooks or music) doesn't matter to many nor does fairly easy web access to news and email.

Even then, Perenson does mention the following also:

' One other nitpick: The contrast is not as good on the GlowLight version as on the plain Nook Simple Touch. This problem appears to result from the antiglare protector on the GlowLight model; the background of the display is a darker gray than on the plain Nook, and that in turn causes black text on the GlowLight version to lack the same omph as on the ordinary Nook.

I hold out hope that the contrast might be adjustable via a future firmware update.'

Digital Trends's Jeffrey Van Camp roots for the Nook ("Keep it up, B&N") while going for balance in his review although, like many, he believes the B&N marketing which claims tat access to the scanned Google Books makes B&N richer in number of books, but the latter is available in multiple ways for Kindle too as are now, literally, millions of other free books.

He points out that both e-readers have their advantages and includes this about the contrast concern that some have:

' There are a few tiny downsides to having the light. The tablet appears to have ever so slightly less contrast and E Ink consistency than the last Nook, though only geeks like us are likely to notice. However, a new anti-glare screen should help its readability ever so slightly outdoors.'

The Verge's David Pierce also really likes the new Nook and writes what commenters say is one of the more thorough reviews they've seen, with one saying, "Reviews on the Verge are amazing. Love the quality and detail of video reviews."

So check out the video review there as well as the written one. His 'bottom line' is that the GlowLight is "incredibly comfortable to hold and use, even in one hand, and even after hours of reading my arm didn't get tired."

He also mentions, that the glowlight is "a wonderful addition to the device" and prefers the Nook's hardware to the Kindle's.

On the contrast issue (which is not an issue for most who much prefer the convenience of an always-readable e-Ink reader), he has his to say:

' The GlowLight Nook has a screen protector on top of the display, though, which makes text appear slightly softer and lower-contrast than on last year's model. I didn't notice until I held the GlowLight Nook next to last year's Nook and a Kindle, and even though all three use the same display technology the GlowLight Nook's text didn't look quite as sharp. It's a fine screen, but it's nothing remarkable anymore, and I'm starting to wish for a slightly higher-res display that renders text a little more sharply.

I wouldn't describe the light as uniform, though. It's really bright at the top, right next to the LEDs, then there's a dark stripe right below. It evens out considerably by the time it's illuminating any text, but it's still inconsistent enough to make certain lines of text look slighty darker or lighter than others. None of it really impedes the reading experience, but it's not as nice-looking as a cool, even glow would be.

Still, all things considered, the light works really well. Rather than a backlit screen that seems to glare out at you, the Nook's screen really does glow a bluish white, which is both easier on your eyes and just generally a nice effect. The light's intensity is customizable, and will go from just-barely-on to blind-you-immediately levels of brightness. Reading in bed, I was able to use the Nook with the light only slightly above the minimum level, and still read comfortably. '

He also does point out out something which isn't mentioned by the other writers who are reviewing primarily one feature rather than looking at the feature-set of each -- and that's the ability of the Kindle to work with personal documents and information from websites:

' The really frustrating omission, though, was something I didn't even consider until I started using the GlowLight Nook and not my Kindle. My Kindle has a dedicated email address, and services like Instapaper and Readability make it easy to send an article (or your whole queue) to your Kindle for reading.

It's also easy to send PDFs, ebooks from other sources, and just about any other document you can think of. You can sideload content onto your Nook, too, but it's a much harder and kludgier process involving a lot of ePub files and card readers. My Kindle is basically my Instapaper reader, and the Nook's not nearly as good a device for that kind of use.'

His wrap up:
"The Kindle does better with outside content and syncing, but if you're buying an ebook reader to replace your huge paperback collection, the Nook does a great job. The Nook Simple Touch plus a good, useful light is a pretty great combination — but we've heard Amazon's working on something similar, if Bezos and company already have their hooks into your collection."

My own take:
One thing The Verge's Pierce didn't mention was that the Kindle, with WiFi AND a web browser, can directly download non-Amazon books - and again, we're talking more than a million available. Also, the refresh only every 6 page turns has been a Kindle feature also, for awhile.

Amazon tends to be behind B&N Nook when it comes to hardware features, but its effective work on the many complex and very useful software features and special server-assisted connectivity of these e-readers is what has kept Kindlers enthusiastic about their e-reader, including trading info with other owners on their more unique or creative uses of the Kindle.

And, as you've seen, I've had one particular bias, and that's the relative clarity of e-Ink screens. If there's a trade-off with clarity as has been expressed even by the enthused quoted above who are hopeful, in the reviews, for a future fix for less sharpness of display, I'm still more likely, as I said on April 8 about the probably-coming Kindle 'lit' screen, to continue to use my Beam N Read light, which I just wear around my neck at night for convenience. It's also helped me when out at night, during outside walks, where light isn't great.

For those still wondering about differences in connection with other features
I list the long-time differences between Nook and Kindle touch e-readers.

Since that last features-comparison in late March, Amazon has released Kindle Touch software update v 5.1 with new features that:

allow web pages to be read on the Kindle with no website Ads or side-columns, showing instead just the article in readable fonts and with working hyperlinks
provide language translation of words in a book or a personal doc
added support for reading books or personal docs in landscape mode
(especially good for PDFs on a small device)

and these new capabilities are gravy.

Reviews don't mention (because almost all reviewers don't know) that

Amazon Kindle customers have 5 free gigs for their personal docs (the space is for NON-Amazon media not rights-protected)
have sync'g, between various devices, of even one's personal docs, and
are provided another 5 free gigs for other non-Amazon data files.

However, if you don't care about the other features mentioned and just want to read e-books and read them comfortably at night without having to worry about getting a light, you'll definitely want to look at the Nook GlowLight. Many have delayed getting an e-reader at all until there was some kind of built-in lighting that would work with an E-Ink device, and the new Nook has it.

If the other features attract, then you can weigh the differences and decide.

Microsoft invests in new Nook subsdiary and doubles B&N stock as a result.
Microsoft just invested in B&N's new Nook digital book subsidiary (not named yet), to the tune of $300 million and will own 17.6 percent of the subsidiary, valued currently at $1.7 billion, says Venture Beat's Devindra Hardawar. This subsidiary includes the company's college book business. Also, Microsoft and B&N resolved an ongoing patent dispute between them.

It's also interesting that while B&N stocks just about doubled, the new Nook subsidiary is valued "significantly higher than B&N itself"
One focus will be the B&N's "Nook Study software to deliver digital education goods — which could potentially remove the need for expensive textbooks."

As Phil Wahba, REUTERS put it (from the Toronto Star),
"Some on Wall Street see the Nook as a fast-growing technology asset trapped within a slower retail stock. They have theorized that Barnes & Noble would spin off the Nook business to give it a chance to trade at a higher valuation.

The company did not say on Monday if it would take the new company public...
...
Microsoft and Barnes & Noble will introduce an application for the Nook on Windows 8, the upcoming version of Microsoft's operating system."

Current Kindle Models for reference, plus free-ebook search links

UK:
Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £89
Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - £109
Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi, UK - £169
Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

OTHER International
Kindle NoTouch Basic - $109
Kindle Touch WiFi - $139
Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi - $189
Kindle Keybd 3G - $189
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

Kindle News: (1) Draw Something is ready for Kindle Fire, (2) SendToKindle for Mac, (3) Amazon's surprising 1st Qtr results

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 06:04:00 +0000

Free version

Paid version

The L.A. Times' Michelle Maltais highlighted the new Kindle Fire app yesterday, Draw Something

' Picture this: Kindle Fire users finally get to join in the addictive fun of Draw Something. '

Note there are free and paid versions. I haven't seen what more is available with the Paid version, but reviews are sort of ecstatic on both versions.

In images above, cLick on 'Free' to read the description for that and on 'Paid' to get that one (and I'll just add links in on this line).

While Draw Something had been available for regular Android users, the Kindle Fire runs, she points out, on an altered version of the Android operating system and Amazon tests them for compatability and reliability before approving them for their Android Apps Store

The multiplayer game is a bit different in that you try to get your opponent to guess the right answer, and you both get rewarded. Maltais writes that in less than two months after launching on Android and Apple's iOS, the app has had 50 million downloads across platforms.

NEW KINDLE APP: sendtokindle for Mac (Send Once, Read Everywhere

Amazon released this in the last week. Their page explains that with this Mac-focused Kindle app, you can:

Send personal documents to your Kindle from your Mac.
Drag and drop one or more documents on to the Send to Kindle icon in your Dock or launch the application and drag and drop one or more documents on to it.
From any Mac application that can print, select the print menu and choose Send to Kindle.
From Finder, simply control-click on one or more documents and choose Send to Kindle.
Choose to archive documents in your Kindle library, where you can re-download them conveniently at any time.

Note the System Requirements though:

A Mac with a 500 MHz Intel processor or faster
At least 512MB of RAM
100MB of available disk space
Mac OS X v10.6 (Snow Leopard) or Mac OS X v10.7 (Lion)

AMAZON SURPRISES INVESTORS AND ANALYSTS
Amazon's net profits -- after sacrificing short term profitability by putting money back into expanding the market (Kindles and digital media) and the business, opening distribution centers galore, hiring 9,000+ more people recently, providing better customer service (a major strength) -- were down over last year but less so than anticipated by the analysts ('beating expectations'), so there was a lot of cheering Thursday over the numbers.

While they were expected to have first quarter earnings of only $0.07 per share, the earnings were $0.28 per share, 4 times higher than anticipated by the experts -- despite earnings per share falling 35% compared to last year's $0.44. It's all about beating (and managing) expectations. News of their revenues increasing 36% and their obviously on-track long-range plans to grow the business are causing the stock to soar the last 2 days.

Good reading on this, with many details:
Seeking Alpha - "Investors Are Cheering After Another Quarter Of Margin Sacrifices," by Robert Broens

A note to Kindle-Edition Subscribers: Remember that Kindle Keyboard and Kindle Touch e-readers have MENU/ARTICLE MODE once you reach the articles I link you to (which means you are then using the e-Ink Kindle's web-browser).

The linked articles' fonts won't be particularly readable, size-wise, until you choose Menu/Article Mode, but then you'll see how easy it is to follow these links and read comfortably on the E-Ink Kindle after Article Mode removes ads and side-columns.

Kindle Fire users: The new software update v6.3 has a Web READING VIEW, which shows up now as a pair of glasses that show up next to the Bookmarks ribbon at the bottom status bar showing the rectangular lined Menu.
This feature removes any side elements (ads, links to other features) and just shows you the body of the article in very readable font, isolated, and with clickable links which the e-Ink Article Mode feature doesn't have.
This new feature is SO good that I now use Amazon's Web ("Silk") by default instead of my previously preferred "Dolphin" Android browser which doesn't have the Reading View.

Kindle Fire readers have an advantage in that they can double-click the normal web page text and that will enlarge the font of the story and fit it to the width of the screen usually, depending on your web settings. But the new Reading View feature is a sure thing.

Here are several RELATED ARTICLES that I'll link interested readers to, as they give a better idea of the dynamics involved with Amazon's history of longer-range planning and they help explain what's happening now with Amazon in a digital-media-focused world.
I'd mentioned that their new main page shows an emphasis on digital products, front and center, and that this emphasis was duplicated on submenus -- and that's where most of the profits came. But a LOT of it came from their third-party Marketplace area, where company expenses would be lower.

Amazon Kindle Fire has 54.4% of U.S. Android Tablet market, by TechnoBuffalo's Todd Haselton

Note that Amazon's having over 54% of the Android Market here is rather huge for obvious reasons and also because Google owns the Android operating system. I enjoy a Galaxy 10.1" Tab, and the very popular Samsung's percentage in comScore's data-collection is 15.4%, in 2nd place.

All this is despite comScore's subtitle, '10" Tablets Have 39 Percent Higher Content Consumption Rate than 7" Tablets' (How does that affect advertising? How much reading is done on the Kindle Fire?)

The Kindle Fire doubled its share of the Android Tablet Market in two months.

Is the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 a better Kindle Fire than the Kindle Fire?, by Eric Franklin

I want to go into this one a bit more later but am pointing readers to the article, as it's related to what is happening with Amazon's overall sales of course.

The answer in the article is No, and Franklin makes good points about why he thinks the Kindle Fire would be the better choice for Amazon's audience despite more features in the Samsung hardware.

Even TIME Techland's Keith Wagstaff, in his review of the new Samsung 7", while impressed with the Samsung otherwise for only $50 more, ends with, "So, the $250 question: Should you buy this instead of a Kindle Fire? If you have Amazon Prime, the answer is no. That tablet was built as a media mecca for Amazon’s ever-growing library of books and movies, and it serves that purpose extremely well..."

Amazon: Jeff Bezos Is a Genius, by The Street's Rocco Pendola (thanks to Island Librarian Nancy Picchi's alert, is a very interesting, entertaining article.

SOME GOOD SENSE ABOUT KINDLE FIRE AS 'LOSS' LEADER
Say something enough, even based on soft assumptions, and many will just repeat it until it becomes an Internet truth.

Forbes's Tim Worstall asks, Does Amazon Really Sell The Kindle At Break Even Or a Loss?.
Worstall makes points that should have been made by others long ago, with most news articles I've seen just repeating the first guesstimates given, as fact. Looking at device parts and assuming one knows the prices Amazon could get for massive production orders is odd. Repeating an even educated guess as 'fact' from that is even odder to me. But, yes, as Worstall points out, the margins at the same selling price tend to increase with time on electronic devices.

Current Kindle Models for reference, plus free-ebook search links

UK:
Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £89
Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - £109
Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi, UK - £169
Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

OTHER International
Kindle NoTouch Basic - $109
Kindle Touch WiFi - $139
Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi - $189
Kindle Keybd 3G - $189
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

Kindle News: WSJ on flawed arguments of Big-5 publisher defenders

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 17:04:00 +0000

Wall Street Journal's Thomas Catan writes, "Critics of E-Books Lawsuit Miss the Mark, Experts Say"

The Passive Voice, a lawyer, summarizes the WSJ article and then links us to the FULL Wall Street Journal article, which few do, and that link may expire at any time so if you want to read the full article, get it now.

WSJ's Catan notes that what Eric Hellman calls the "nightmare narrative being spun by the publishing echo chamber" on behalf of "the Collusive 5 publishers" has been front and center the last week in a circling-wagons formation (with what seems shared boilerplate) decrying the DOJ action against the poor Big5 and the ebooks savior, Apple. Here is some of what attorney Passive Guy excerpted yesterday from the WSJ article:

' But many experts say that under antitrust law, the department didn’t have much choice. And even if it did, antitrust experts say, it is far from clear that doing nothing would have been wise.

U.S. antitrust law doesn’t seek to protect little companies against big ones, or even struggling ones against successful ones. Companies can grow as large as they want, as long as they do it through lower prices, better service or niftier innovations. Companies can even become monopolies, as long as they don’t get there illegally or try to extend their power by unlawfully stifling competition.

Companies under pressure from a more successful rival can’t band together to protect themselves, whatever their size.
“A lot of cartels are [composed of] small firms,” says Herbert Hovenkamp, law professor at the University of Iowa. “The criminal cases the Justice Department brings are often family firms—much smaller than these publishers.”
....
“Price fixing is kind of the first-degree murder of antitrust violations,” Prof. Hovenkamp says. “They don’t have discretion to just walk away from what appears to be a strong set of facts that, if true, are one of the most central of antitrust violations.”

The government might already have shown some leniency. For one, the Justice Department brought a civil, rather than a criminal, case, so no executives will go to prison...
....
But as disruptive as Amazon’s pricing may be to publishers, it isn’t illegal, experts say.

“What Amazon does may be harmful to the publishers, but so far it’s been very good for consumers,” says Spencer Waller, a law professor at Loyola University Chicago.
....
....the law is concerned with protecting competition, not competitors, experts say. Cartels, for example, usually allow more players to coexist by enforcing higher prices.

“The goal of antitrust policy is to protect consumer prices, Prof. Hovenkamp says. “It’s not to protect inefficient firms from having to exit the market.”
'

Mild-mannered Len Edgerly in an unusual, separate blog-posting that was not a podcast entry, at his The Kindle Chronicles Podcast site, pointed to the truly ludicrous column by David Carr for The New York Times, which described the Dept of Justice's action as akin to 'breaking up' "Ed’s Gas ’N’ Groceries on Route 19" (this would be the Big5 Publishers (!) and affecting even little B&N, apparently, which has put so many smaller book stores out of business). He even refers to Apple as "a minor player in the realm of books" (more route-19-store fantasy -- the minor road-store that could, in one day, successfully encourage a jacking-up of e-book prices an average 50%, nation-wide, on new books, and, furthermore deny wee Random House space for its e-books for not cooperating on the Agency model.

Big Bad Amazon vs the Gas 'N' Groceries on Route 19. How do Carr and his editors publish a piece like that with straight faces. They don't. It's all about alignment and lack of any appropriate embarrassment when targeting readers they think are that gullible. Edgerly mentioned other NYT articles of the same caliber and asked,as a 'loyal subscriber to the NYT's Kindle version, "Are ALL of the Times's objective [?], hard-hitting journalists in the pockets of New York publishers?"

The Wall Street Journal article is even stronger than described so far. "Antitrust lawyers scoff at the notion that the Justice Department would refrain from bringing a case if it believes it has solid evidence."

In fact, if you haven't, you should actually read the 36-page PDF with the FULL TEXT of the DOJ case against Apple and the Big5 publishers. It's more eye-opening and truly riveting than most novels you'll buy. It's also unbelievable at several points that the companies went as far as they did, even 'openly' requesting of one another that they hide what they were doing.

Again, if you want to read the full WSJ article from yesterday, you should get it now while it's still available via the special email-sharing feature probably paid for by Passive Guy.

It's interesting to see the photos of the CEOs behind each company after reading so much about them.

Also, it has very sensible closing paragraphs. What they describe is a business model that ~~requests~~ demands a form of public welfare from e-book consumers to protect the Big5 from the lower-profit margins they fear will be part of this digital age instead of focusing on how to restructure their businesses to DEAL effectively with the realities of the digital age.

I've gathered a lot of news lately, but will end this with just this one topic, as there is a lot of interesting reading involved in the DOJ case papers and, really, this affects, in a big way, those of us who are book readers via digital media.

We're faced with a corporate mentality that would now deprive our public libraries of their new books in digital form for reading, with Penguin and others having voiced a need for "friction" in making it harder for anyone to borrow such a book (even if library reading has been shown to spur the general reading of authors and buying of books) so that, for instance, even if the library is an hour away, they should go there in person to borrow a book. Four of the five publishers involved are not making their current new e-books available at public libraries at all now -- that's the depth of their fear of e-books and people who read them.

Also, see Wired's Tim Carmody on DOJ Announces Terms of Settlement With Three Publishers in E-Book Suit. He lists them and includes the proposed settlement doc.

Current Kindle Models for reference, plus free-ebook search links

UK:
Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £89
Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - £109
Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi, UK - £169
Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

OTHER International
Kindle NoTouch Basic - $109
Kindle Touch WiFi - $139
Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi - $189
Kindle Keybd 3G - $189
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

Unsung Kindle Touch Software Update v5.1.0 improvements

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 05:02:00 +0000

As reported yesterday, the Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi e-Ink model is now shipping internationally, to over 175 countries.

This blog article will highlight some software enhancements not listed in the official announcement earlier. At the bottom, I'll repeat the official list of enhancements.

Current Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi Models:
US: For U.S. residents; UK: For UK customers
OTHER: For Other International Shipping

THE OTHER ENHANCEMENTS
Most of the unmentioned enhancements or Finds were made by avid explorer and commenter Tom Semple, whose full individual comments on all this can be found at the original software announcement article of April 11-14. I'll try to put the additional items in listed order but it's best to read his explanations of what he's found. There are also features found by members of the Mobileread Forum. And I've added a couple of items I noticed as well, although as of TODAY, 4/21, Amazon still had not updated me, so I downloaded the update today, as I now have some time to experiment, and tried a few things out.

We can now highlight ACROSS pages (something the older Kindles did and which had been much requested for the Touch)
As mentioned by a few others, the screen background SEEMS lighter, and in the dark room in which I'm sitting right now, it looks more whitish than grayish though mine has always been pretty light relative to the older models.
As a result the Regular font is strikingly clear and I don't have to choose Sans Serif (although I like it) to get consistently stand-out clarity in the fonts.
Now we can 'filter' the display of the home screen or Archived Items folder to show only one category (Books, Periodicals, Docs, Audible, or Active Content [apps]) or ALL categories. We had this with older Kindles so it's good to see that again. Tom, and most of us, would like a filter for Samples, but I put those into a Collection named 'Samples' as a work around.
The highlighting feature brings back to users of former Kindles the ability to search the highlighted word at Wikipedia (and via free 3G if you have the 3G version of the Kindle Touch and you're in a no-WiFi area) and furthermore something else we hoped for -- the ability to "Report Content Error."
It also allows you to share passages at Facebook and Twitter, as the Keyboard models do.
Search seems to work more reliably and faster now, and the reason 'Go' has to be clicked is that SUBstrings can be searched successfully now (not true in the past). I wouldn't want it to start searching until I felt I was through typing the search-string I want. In the past we had to navigate to the right, several steps, to choose searching of a book, or All Items on the device, at Wikipedia, etc.
I agree with Tom that browser scrolling is smoother and scrolls a larger portion.
Menu option responses seem quite a bit faster for me now.
Re "Archived Items" folder: In reply to one statement, I can still get to it via Title-sorting. The Menu access is an alternate method and has been there before. The Search feature at top does help, in addition to "1 of __" at the top right letting you tap that to choose go to a Page number or "Titles starting with" -- which has been a nice, almost hidden feature on its own.
Tom also discovered they added "NCX navigation" features (though I thought I used "Next Chapter" swiping before the update. The KTouch recognizes By-Chapter movement, via swiping up for the 'next' chapter (if the publisher activated this feature) and down for the 'previous' chapter, but Tom also explains that NCX-activated Kindle books now show "a (hierarchical) list of the navpoint labels corresponding to beginning of chapters/sections, showing current location in the book (label in bold) and associated page numbers (with books that have real page nmbers)." As a result, "...showing the current position helps establish context. When page numbers are present, it also gives you information about how long each section is." This has helped extinguish Tom's "ePub envy" :-), he said.
Harry, in the UK, wrote at Mobileread Forums,
"The 'biggie' for me personally is that my US-bought KT can now access the Amazon UK Kindle Store [he's in the UK], which it previously couldn't. Definitely a worthwhile upgrade."
veezh at Mobile Read also mentioned that he was happy to see that when he switched the device language to UK English, the 24-hour clock was activated.
cscat at Mobile REad likes the fact that
1. you can get to next page even when zoomed into a PDF, by panning to the right
2. and when you press the Shift key twice, the capital letters stay (this is normally true but maybe not for Ktouch earlier).
Tom Semple mentions at that forum that the tap zones for single-character footnote links seem larger now and are therefore very easy to activate, even at the smallest text sizes.
Tom also points out that "appropriately formatted footnotes" (the publisher does the formatting) include a "RETURN" link that will take you back to the original reference, which is more convenient than using the invisible "Back" button that you have to activate with a tap to even see. Only one tap is needed then.
tanteoma loves the landscape mode and being able to jump to different chapters with the simple "go to" function.
thomass points out that we can now long-press and archive personal documents such as instapaper deliveries, as this wasn't possible before the update. Semi-commercial mass-deliveries of personal doc news-collections are a tender subject though.
mewmartigan found that the new homescreen display shows the ENTIRE title rather than ellipses for an omitted segment. That's a relief for a series, especially.

ALSO re the Landscape feature we've wanted added to this panel-zoned touch device, rvdparis at Mobileread Forums said,
"And the landscape function worked magic on a badly scanned OCR book I have in PDF format, I kept tapping to turn the page, and it automatically jumped down the page (in 3 parts, for me) and turned to the next page. The print is now MUCH easier to read. Love it."

Even better maybe, thomass at Mobileread posted a gorgeous sampling of screenshots he got with KF8 samples from a link given there. This is encouraging for the reading of technical books on the small Kindle.

UNWANTED "feature" though and a caveat -- When I updated, I again lost an attached dictionary, and the Kindle couldn't find the two copies of New Oxford American Dictionary that are on it and kept telling me that it would look at Archived Items for one.
No go, so I moved a current dictionary (unnoticed-by-the-Kindle) into Archived Items folder and then it suddenly saw a lot of dictionary candidates and I was able to attach the New Oxford American again, although it selected WordNet for rme at first and that was just one I happened to download at one time.

Tom did also point out that the Glowlight Nook "still has no landscape, no web browser, no wireless library borrowing, no personal document service."
Not including some new features noted above, a Features Comparison, written before the v5.1.0 Kindle Touch update, detailed the Nook Touch advantages and also quite a lack of some very useful features. It all depends on what's important to the buyer.

FOR REFERENCE - the Officially announced changes (vs the unmentioned ones above) From the Amazon update page New features in this update include:

Language Support: Customize your Kindle Touch with the language you prefer: English (US and UK), German, French, Spanish, Italian, or Brazilian Portuguese.
Landscape Mode: Switch between portrait and landscape orientation in books and PDFs to read maps, graphs, and tables more easily.
Instant Translations: Tap any word or highlight a section to instantly translate into other languages, including Spanish, Japanese, and more. Translations by Bing Translator.
Kindle Format 8: Formatting and layout improvements make Kindle books look even better.
Wi-Fi Enhancements: Connect your Kindle Touch to Wi-Fi with WPS and select WPA2 Enterprise networks.
Read-to-Me With Text-to-Speech: Have your Kindle Touch read English-language content out loud to you, now including summaries of newspaper and magazine articles when available from the publisher.
More Sharing Options: Tell others what you're reading on Facebook or Twitter from anywhere within a book — just tap to share a link along with your comments.
Onscreen Keyboard Suggestions: Search and shop faster with automatic word suggestions as you type.

US:
Kindle Fire 7" tablet - $199
Kindle NoTouch ("Kindle") - $79/$109
Kindle Touch, WiFi
- $99/$139
Kindle Touch, 3G/WiFi - $149/$189
Kindle Keybd 3G - $189, Free, slow web
Kindle DX - $379, Free, slow web

UK:
Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £89
Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - £109
Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi, UK - £169
Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

OTHER International
Kindle NoTouch Basic - $109
Kindle Touch WiFi - $139
Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi - $189
Kindle Keybd 3G - $189
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

Kindle Touch 3G now shipping to 175+ countries, 7 days early

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 20:58:00 +0000

Kindle Touch 3G is shipping, 7 days earlier than anticipated, to over 175 countries today.

The above was my tweet alert, and clicking on that image now leads to the specific International page.
Updated: The link is: http://amzn.to/ktouch-global.

This is a quick blog entry to alert those who have been waiting for shipment of the Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi to countries outside the U.S. Most international customers can get the international model by by clicking on International link for Kindle Touch 3G (NOT for the UK though -- See below)

Here's a link also for Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi for the UK

Amazon customers in other countries will find appropriate redirected links at the US page also, but these are direct to the Int'l Kindle Touch 3G page.

More later...

Kindle tips: Kindle Fire book download glitch; disappearing books; newly-free popular Read It Later app

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 14:07:00 +0000

When a newly-purchased book won't download

Earlier I wrote about the solution two forumners found for a situation in which Kindle books seemed to disappear in both the Kindle Fire listings and in the "Cloud" (server) listings as well.

Today's Kindle Fire tip is how to correct a glitch that causes a currently-purchased Kindle book to NOT download to the Kindle Fire, whether the attempted download is done via the Kindle Fire itself or from the Amazon ManageYourKindle page.

The solution comes from forum member Josh -- and that is to:
. Lightly touch the gear or wheel icon at the top right
. Then select "+" or "More" to get Settings menu
. Select "My Account" (2nd on the settings list)
. Select "Deregister"

Once that's done, you can "Reregister" right away and all your info is there for you -- no need to retype it.

A mere deregister-register action saves a lot of time over the last-ditch "Reset to Factory Defaults" which I (and some senior Kindle support staff) feel should be a LAST choice, as a Factory-Default reset requires you to re-enter your basic Amazon and Kindle information and to select books and other media all over again (to re-populate the device) and to re-set up things the way you've wanted them, which can take an hour for most situations.

Ashley seconds Josh's recommendation after his own experience based on the advice of a lone Kindle Fire specialist (among a few others who did not know a solution to this) who suggested he de-register and re-register the KFire. Ashley wrote:

"This worked and it only took 10 sec. In addition I lost none of my settings/apps/content."

Popular Read It Later Android app renamed to "Pocket" and now free

paidContent's Laura Hazard Owen reports that Read It Later will no longer have a $2.99 Pro version and will be known as Pocket, as it makes it "simple "to take any content users discover, with them no matter where they go."

The founder, Nate Weiner, told Owen that the app was profitable right away and has been the "number-one paid news app on Android and Kindle Fire." He says he's after a different business model now, which he'll explain this summer.

The app already has 4.5 million users and its most popular source of content to take to enjoy "later" is Youtube and its videos.

' Forty percent of items saved aren’t articles but content like videos, images, things to buy, travel tips and recipes. '

Owen adds that the new version of the app "makes it easier to filter content by type and to tag and organize it."

If you already own Read It Later Pro, you'll just need to update the app.
"Users of the free version have to download Pocket separately."

The Amazon product page emphasizes the new user-interface and the Content-Type filter -- "Pocket automatically filters your content so that you can quickly switch between articles, videos, and images."

Reminder: Today's Kindle Daily Deal

Kindle Touch 3G, US-only Kindle Touch WiFi (US) Kindle Touch WiFi-Only, outside US Kindle Basic (UK: KBasic) Kindle Fire
Kindle Keybd 3G (UK: Kindle Keybd 3G) K3 Special Offers K3-3G Special Offers DX

Check often: Temporarily-free recently published ones
Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources. Top 100 free bestsellers. Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published free books, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

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Kindle News: Special 1-day Deal on 8 World Literature Titles, The Nook's glow. Lightning on the bridge

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 11:22:00 +0000

"Eight great works of world literature" make up the Kindle Daily Deal today.

The intro for Kindle deals that change nightly is at the usual Kindle Daily Deal

Here's the direct link, though, to the world-literature special, which is good for Sunday only.

The one that caught my eye was "The Secret Piano: From Mao's Labor Camps to Bach's Goldberg Variations, by Zhu Xiao-Mei. They're not the usual fare.

What the last few days have been like in my area

Lightning struck the Bay Bridge towers 9 times, which happened to be when I was ON the bridge from 8:30pm to 10pm with many cars caught in deep puddles in the tunnel that you couldn't steer in, so the speed was less than 5mph, while the Sound and Light! show kept our attention. It was pretty hairy. There were 750 lightning strikes in the bay area.
There are additional shots in the slideshow there.

There's a news videoclip of some of it. Not a tornado, but it was something. I have to be away from the blog for one more day and back on that bridge, in better weather though.

Glowing Nooks
So now we see why we saw the "leak" of the glowing Kindle that isn't ready. B&N announced it is coming out with theirs, due sometime in May. In the meantime, a few have had a look at it, though very briefly. It'll be 8 Led lights under another layer above the display layer but the ereader will be lighter and the battery will still last a month or so at 1/2 hr of reading a day with the light on. (Do people really read a book for less than 1/2 hour a day?) The photo is from The Digital Reader.

This should be very attractive for people who have asked for years why there is no light for the screen. One article in Gizmodo by a writer (Kyle Wagner) who is keen for the current non-glow Nook as well, mentions there is a fall off in contrast due to the added layer but that it didn't bother him and he feels the slightly uneven light was no problem either.

TIME's Techland (Harry McCracken) writes that the illumination "isn't perfectly even -- I could make out discrete beams emanating from the LEDs along the top edge -- but it's bright enough..." He'd prefer it to the "grayishness of standard E Ink, "although it does make it more obvious that you're looking at an electronic display." He is partial to the iPad for reading, however so is not an E Ink devotee.

The long name given this new unit is "The Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight" which signals what others have been writing -- that there is no other change in functionality from the current non-glow Nook Touch.

If you read the features-comparison between Nook and Kindle Touch devices and if you don't miss all that the Nook is lacking in features relative to the Kindles (even before the latest, large Kindle Touch software update), this will be a no-brainer to try.

I don't like external add-on lights myself, but I've used the Beam N Read light that you wear around your neck (good for 120 hours on a recharge) and I use it for everything else around the house, so I never have to attach a light to the Kindle.

Kindle Touch 3G, US-only Kindle Touch WiFi (US) Kindle Touch WiFi-Only, outside US Kindle Basic (UK: KBasic) Kindle Fire
Kindle Keybd 3G (UK: Kindle Keybd 3G) K3 Special Offers K3-3G Special Offers DX

Quick note until tonight

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 22:25:00 +0000

Couldn't get back to the computer until now, for a few minutes, and then not again until tonight, despite a lot of news. Apologies. Will be back later and catch up and erase this note.

Kindle Touch Software Update Version 5.1 - BIG update

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 23:44:00 +0000

Kindle Touch Software receives big update

Nate Hoffelder, of The Digital Reader just sent notice that the Amazon Touch software update 5.1 is here. Thanks, Nate.

Huge. A few long requested features:
The update includes Landscape mode, Text to Speech (newspapers & magazines added), instant language translations by Bing, and onscreen keyboard suggestions as well as other features.

Kindle Touch Software Update, V5.1 is available online, and downloadable at the link, in case the update isn't already on your Kindle Touch when you read this and you decide you want it right away.

So I'll be updating tonight when I get back instead of waiting, although the latter will be easier for most. From their page:

From the Amazon update page
We have a new, free software update available for your Kindle Touch that you can manually download. We will be delivering this update over Wi-Fi in the coming weeks.
New features in this update include:

Language Support: Customize your Kindle Touch with the language you prefer: English (US and UK), German, French, Spanish, Italian, or Brazilian Portuguese.
Landscape Mode: Switch between portrait and landscape orientation in books and PDFs to read maps, graphs, and tables more easily.
Instant Translations: Tap any word or highlight a section to instantly translate into other languages, including Spanish, Japanese, and more. Translations by Bing Translator.
Kindle Format 8: Formatting and layout improvements make Kindle books look even better.
Wi-Fi Enhancements: Connect your Kindle Touch to Wi-Fi with WPS and select WPA2 Enterprise networks.
Read-to-Me With Text-to-Speech: Have your Kindle Touch read English-language content out loud to you, now including summaries of newspaper and magazine articles when available from the publisher.
More Sharing Options: Tell others what you're reading on Facebook or Twitter from anywhere within a book — just tap to share a link along with your comments.
Onscreen Keyboard Suggestions: Search and shop faster with automatic word suggestions as you type.

Instructions for downloading if you don't want to wait are at the Kindle touch v5.1 upgrade page.

Kindle Touch 3G, US-only Kindle Touch WiFi (US) Kindle Touch WiFi-Only, outside US Kindle Basic (UK: KBasic) Kindle Fire
Kindle Keybd 3G (UK: Kindle Keybd 3G) K3 Special Offers K3-3G Special Offers DX

Kindle News: U.S files antitrust suit against Apple and publishers not settling. DOJ A/G statement at press conference included. UPDATE5

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:36:00 +0000

"Justice Department formally charges Apple, big five publishers in e-book price fixing case"

That's Engadget's headline

It's short and to the point. The Kindle Forum had the Engadget article, and the Washington Post one below, by Bob Van Voris, was sent by Edward Boyhan and has MUCH more detail. I have to leave, so I'll just direct you to the stories and to the transcript or release of Attorney General Holder's statement today.

Essentially, The DOJ decided to sue Apple, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster over alleged e-book price-rigging. Apple and Macmillian have already denied any wrongdoing, Engadget points out, saying that the agreements were enhancing competition in an industry previously dominated by Amazon (Oh, brother).

Fuller story: Washington Post with Bloomberg, by Bob Van Voris.

The Kindle Forum members also came up with the US Dept of Justice webpage for Attorney General Eric Holder's speech today at the Ebooks Press conference.

Here it is in its entirety, as it's meant for all of us as a public service.:

' Today I’m joined by Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division Sharis Pozen, and Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen, to announce the Justice Department’s latest progress in protecting American consumers from anticompetitive harm, ensuring fairness in the marketplace, and making certain that cutting-edge technologies are available at the lowest possible price.

In recent years, we have seen the rapid growth – and the many benefits – of electronic books. E-books are transforming our daily lives, and improving how information and content is shared. For the growing number of Americans who want to take advantage of this new technology, the Department of Justice is committed to ensuring that e-books are as affordable as possible.

As part of this commitment, the Department has reached a settlement with three of the nation’s largest book publishers – and will continue to litigate against Apple, and two additional leading publishers – for conspiring to increase the prices that consumers pay for e-books.

Earlier today, we filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, against Apple and five different book publishers – Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster. In response to our allegations, three of these publishers – Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster – agreed to a proposed settlement. If approved by the court, this settlement would resolve the Department’s antitrust concerns with these companies, and would require them to grant retailers – such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble – the freedom to reduce the prices of their e-book titles. The settlement also requires the companies to terminate their anticompetitive most-favored-nation agreements with Apple and other e-books retailers.

In addition, the companies will be prohibited for two years from placing constraints on retailers’ ability to offer discounts to consumers. They will also be prohibited from conspiring or sharing competitively sensitive information with their competitors for five years. And each is required to implement a strong antitrust compliance program. These steps are appropriate – and essential in ensuring a competitive marketplace.

Beginning in the summer of 2009, we allege that executives at the highest levels of the companies included in today’s lawsuit – concerned that e-book sellers had reduced prices – worked together to eliminate competition among stores selling e-books, ultimately increasing prices for consumers. As a result of this alleged conspiracy, we believe that consumers paid millions of dollars more for some of the most popular titles.

During regular, near-quarterly meetings, we allege that publishing company executives discussed confidential business and competitive matters – including Amazon’s e-book retailing practices – as part of a conspiracy to raise, fix, and stabilize retail prices. In addition, we allege that these publishers agreed to impose a new model which would enable them to seize pricing authority from bookstores; that they entered into agreements to pay Apple a 30 percent commission on books sold through its iBookstore; and that they promised – through contracts including most-favored-nation provisions – that no other e-book retailer would set a lower price. Our investigation even revealed that one CEO allegedly went so far as to encourage an e-book retailer to punish another publisher for not engaging in these illegal practices.

In advancing this critical investigation, I’d like to thank Attorney General Jepsen and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott – along with our partners at the European Commission – for their hard work and close cooperation. Today’s action sends a clear message that the Department’s Antitrust Division continues to be open for business – and that we will not hesitate to do what is necessary to protect American consumers.

I am grateful for the outstanding leadership that Acting Assistant Attorney General Sharis Pozen has provided in this matter. Not only has she ensured a seamless transition in the Division’s senior leadership, she has proven that vigorous enforcement will remain its hallmark. I also want to commend her dedicated team, and thank each of the attorneys and investigators who worked so hard to make today’s announcement possible. Although this matter remains in its initial stages, it’s clear that, in all of you, the Department – and the American people – could have no stronger team of advocates.

At this time, I’d like to turn things over to Sharis, who will provide additional details on today’s action. '

Acting Asst. Atty General Sharis A Pozen speaks next
She cites quotes from publishers in connection with openly conspiring among themselves to get Amazon to raise prices.

She prefaced these with, "I would just like to give you a flavor of the egregiousness of the alleged behavior, which took place at the highest levels of these publishing companies by providing you with some statements from our complaint..."

Kindle-Edition blog subscribers
Again, Kindle-Edition subscribers can click on the links and once on the Web,
click Menu/Article-Mode and read these fairly comfortably. I hope that will work well for most.

ApppleInsider talks about other aspects involved. Simon & Schuster, Hachette and HarperCollins have already settled with the department to avoid the suit. Apple, Macmillan, and Penguin are the holdouts.

From Reuters:

' The Justice Department complaint cites an email from an executive for an unnamed publisher pointing out the need for the publishers to work together to convince Amazon to raise prices.

"We've always known that unless other publishers follow us, there's no chance of success in getting Amazon to change its pricing practices," the executive wrote.

"Without a critical mass behind us, Amazon won't 'negotiate,' so we need to be more confident of how our fellow publishers will react," the executive said in the email. '

FULL TEXT of the DOJ case against Apple and the publishers, found by Larkspotter at the forum. It's a 36-page pdf.

Wired's Tim Carmody reports DOJ Announces Terms of Settlement With Three Publishers in E-Book Suit. He lists them and includes the proposed settlement doc.

Update 5 - Commenter Tom Semple writes that the Publishers Lunch site's Details From the DOJ's Lawsuit "summarizes some of the juicier details," so I'm adding it here while back briefly and am leaving again.
Thanks, Tom!

Related articles
TIMELINE: Ebook Pricing Wars - what DOJ would have seen.
Also, History of the e-book pricing wars

Kindle Touch 3G, US-only Kindle Touch WiFi (US) Kindle Touch WiFi-Only, outside US Kindle Basic (UK: KBasic) Kindle Fire
Kindle Keybd 3G (UK: Kindle Keybd 3G) K3 Special Offers K3-3G Special Offers DX

Kindle News: Quell: free Android App today. Kindle Touch 3G rave, Your Annotations web page

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:43:00 +0000

Another free Android App? Yes, because this is a Quality One

As you know, I don't blog about 99% of the free Android apps for the Kindle Fire, but Quell is a strangely calming and beautiful game which is more a set of zen-like puzzles. Sound and Music are controlled separately.

This is normally only 99c anyway, and is it a new thing that there are sponsors for the free App of the Day? Today, at the Appstore for Android, the ad for it says, "Presented by the Toyota prius C"... This doesn't show up on the product page, just on the store page.

The Amazon intro there: "...an atmospheric puzzler. This critically acclaimed game includes more than 80 levels of ingenious puzzles, gorgeous graphics, and a stunning [not booming] soundtrack. Play as a raindrop and collect pearls in as few moves as possible. Completing a puzzle unlocks the next."
It has 1,810 customer reviews and averages 4.8 stars out of 5

Kindle Touch 3G eBook reader "might just be the most compelling global eBook reader..."
The Calgary Herald story is somewhat short on details as to why that might be. Many Kindle Touch owners would agree for many reasons we've mentioned, but the article gives two good reasons (besides listing the usual features), and those are:
. the added cellular network 3G access so that people don't have to depend on WiFi in the home or wherever they are, to download a book or to access Wikipedia (the latter I do think would be compelling for students or the ever curious) and
. "the Kindle Touch is now available in seven languages - German, French, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and American or British English - so customers can read, take notes, and navigate their Kindle in any of these languages."

Your personal book annotations web page at Amazon
Some may not know about http://kindle.amazon.com, the personal web page Amazon makes for the web version of your book annotations and the organization that's there.
It's also a burgeoning social network area now too, with people able to follow the notes and highlights of those who want to share theirs.

For detailed information on what the annotations area of that page is about, see
Web Kindle Tool for Books Purchased from Amazon.

Kindle Touch 3G, US-only Kindle Touch WiFi (US) Kindle Touch WiFi-Only, outside US Kindle Basic (UK: KBasic) Kindle Fire
Kindle Keybd 3G (UK: Kindle Keybd 3G) K3 Special Offers K3-3G Special Offers DX

For daily free ebooks, check the following links:

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