A Kindle World blog

Kindle Fire HD 8.9 International model is available for pre-orders globally. Appstore for Android is now open for almost 200 countries. Angry Birds Space app is free through June 3.

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Thu, 23 May 2013 08:51:00 +0000

Quick Alert: Amazon finally takes Kindle Fire 89 International - Available for Pre-Order through Amazon, in over 170 countries and shipping June 13

Amazon announced this morning that the Kindle Fire HD 8.9" International tablet can now be pre-ordered by customers in 170+ countries around the world and will ship June 13. Details are on the product page for this global model.

Also announced was the opening, finally, of the Amazon Appstore for Android to almost 200 countries. From the press release:

' Customers around the world can now buy apps and games directly from the Amazon Appstore on Macs, PCs or Android phones and tablets (including Kindle Fire)...

To celebrate the launch, the Amazon Appstore is bringing back one of its most popular Free Apps of the Day, “Fruit Ninja,” along with “Cut the Rope: Experiments.” These will be available, for free, on May 23 and May 24, respectively. With the Amazon Appstore, customers will have access to popular features like the “Free App of the Day,” which offers a paid app for free every day.

In addition, the Amazon Appstore includes popular Amazon features like personalized recommendations, customer reviews and 1-Click payments. One of the important benefits of the Amazon Appstore is that Amazon tests apps and games to make sure they function and perform properly before they are made available to customers.

In addition, Amazon backs its apps and games with its own world-class Customer Service. Apps and games purchased from Amazon can be used across any compatible Android device, enabling customers to buy an app or game once and enjoy it everywhere.

For a limited time, consumers will also find great promotions and discounts on popular games from leading brands such as Ubisoft, Sega and Rovio, including Angry Birds Space for free through June 3.
Customers can visit www.amazon.com/appstore to start browsing apps. '

This is following recent launches of the app store for the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, China and Japan. Brazil will be included "in the coming months."

Kindle News: Amazon's new "Kindle Worlds" program for fan fiction writers and readers

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Thu, 23 May 2013 04:12:00 +0000

Forbes's Jeff Bercovici reports on Amazon's new 'Kindle Worlds' commercial "fan fiction" program.

Many of us have run across "fan fic" in which fans of a show write their own versions of what happens with the characters (with readers following those flights of fancy online), usually without permission of the series creators but with the knowledge that these activities tend to increase active interest in a show.

And then there are those who've already published their own Kindle books of 'fan fic' for public domain fiction such as Pride and Prejudice with zombies added, of course.

TechCrunch's Darrell Etherington opines that "The best part is that in this case you don’t even have to be all that creative – the idea is to let fans create stories around original properties from other authors, offering them up for purchase on the Kindle book store."

He adds:

' Fanfic writers can sign up now at the official Amazon Kindle Worlds website, and the company expects to launch the Worlds storefront in June. There will be over 50 commissioned works included in the store at launch, Amazon says, and then it’ll be launching its self-serve submission platform for all authors to add their own completed works for consideration. '

Bercovici mentions the purity of this form of 'literary art,' "untainted by commerce." Because someone else owns the intellectual property, it'd be hard to make money from it.

Amazon's new program will actually allow fanfic writers to publish and profit from "fan-fictional e-books with the blessing of the original characters' creators, who will receive royalties from every sale."

A win-win for both.
However, Bercovici writes, "The revenue split is considerably less generous than authors who use their own characters enjoy, with Kindle Worlds writers keeping 35% of the net. That’s for works over 10,000 words; for shorter ones, the rate is an even lower 20%. Ordinarily, writers who self-publish e-books through Amazon keep 70% percent."

That latter is true if they keep the price $2.99 or less and allow global sales.

Amazon will announce further licensing soon but for now, Kindle Worlds "has licenses covering three franchises owned by Warner Bros. TV’s Alloy Entertainment: “Pretty Little Liars,” “The Vampire Diaries” and “Gossip Girl.”

Bercovici points out that, "It’s also a way for Amazon to identify promising undiscovered writers it can sign to its Amazon Publishing book imprint. Established authors have been wary of signing with Amazon after seeing the difficulties that Tim Ferriss and others have had in getting competing retailers to carry their books."

He sees this really taking off if they can add a good number of the most popular franchises (and gives examples).

Apparently, sexually explicit materials won't qualify for this -- this seems an unclear area, from what I saw of the varied interpretation by several news sites.

A commenter, Daniel Nye Griffiths, feels that quite relevant is the Intellectual Property (IP) factor.
"Any character or story idea used is the property of Alloy Entertainment – so, a Vampire Diaries fan writer might find her character or her storyline appearing in the show. Which would probably be very exciting, but is also the sort of thing writers are usually paid for…"

Amazon is also piloting an experimental new program with the launch of Kindle Worlds
This will be for particularly short works—between 5,000 and 10,000 words. For these short stories—typically priced under one dollar—Amazon will pay the royalties for the World’s rights holder and pay authors a digital royalty of 20%.

Amazon has been aggressively vigilant recently in connection with Kindle "books" that consist of just one VERY short story, usually priced at $0.99 to $1.99 but with 70% going to the writer of a not-book. Many customers have been happy about that, and not surprisingly, many authors not as ecstatic over it.

Amazon's press release details what the benefits would be for World Licensors, writers, and readers.

Philip Patrick, Director, Business Development and Publisher of Kindle Worlds said, "Our goal with Kindle Worlds is to create a home for authors to build on the Worlds we license, and give readers more stories from the Worlds they enjoy..."
They expect to announce additional World licensing deals in "the coming weeks."

Wall Street Journal's Alexandra Alter reminds us that

' Several fan fiction writers, such as Cassandra Clare, author of the best-selling “Mortal Instruments” series, who used to write Harry Potter fan fiction, and E.L. James, author of “Fifty Shades of Grey,” which began as Twilight fan fiction, have gone on to become blockbuster authors themselves. '

There are limits, of course, to "what authors can do to beloved characters. Amazon has made it clear that they'll work with licensors "to establish content guidelines that balance flexibility and openness for writers with what’s reasonable for the franchise.”

Personally, I think it's a great idea all around, and those who are not drawn to it don't have to look in that category or genre :-)

And of course, Amazon then expands its stash of exclusive books that may well be fun for fanfic followers and inexpensive at the same time.

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

NOTES on newer Kindles.

US:
Updated Kindle Fire 2 Basic 7" tablet - $159
Kindle Fire HD 7" 16/32GB - $199/$229
Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 16/32GB - $269/$299
Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 4G 32/64GB - $399/$499
Kindle NoTouch ("Kindle") - $69/$89
~~Kindle Touch WiFi~~ - ~~$99~~
Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - $119/$139
Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi+3G - $179/$199
Kindle Keybd 3G - $139/$159, Free slow web
Kindle DX - ~~$379 $299~~ Discontinued

UK:
Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £69
Kindle Touch WiFi , UK - ~£89 Refurb'd
Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB
Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - £109
Kindle Paperwhite 3G, UK - £169
Kindle Fire 2, UK - £129
Kindle Fire HD 7" 16/32GB, UK - £159/199
Canada - Kindlestore, CDN-$
Kindle Basic, NoTouch - $79
Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - $129
Kindle Paperwhite, 3G - $199

*OTHER International*
Kindle NoTouch Basic - $89
~~Kindle Touch WiFi~~ - ~~$139~~
Kindle Keybd 3G - $189
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB
Paperwhite WiFi $139, 3G/Wifi $199
France Boutique Kindle
Deutschland - Kindle Store
Italia - Kindle Store
Spain - Tienda Kindle
Brazil - Amazon Brazil
China - Amazon China [?]
Japan - Amazon Japan

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 Tips: MONDAY's Free Kindle Fire App of the Day is Fraction Calculator Plus. Lonely Planet has a sale on its PDF eBooks at $10 ea. + a free USA Kindle book. Sony's coming 13.3-inch eReader-Notepad.

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Sun, 19 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Fraction Calculator Plus

It's only Sunday but this smart father-daughter duo has made good use of press-releases to promote their apps that are now very popular, and the Irish Examiner story on them tells us that for MONDAY, May 20, their Fraction Calculator Plus will be Amazon's Free App of the Day for the Kindle Fire (and other Android devices). It's not a big savings, as the app is only $0.99, but every little bit...

And, it draws attention to their free "Calculator Plus" app, which is now the highest-rated app in all Amazon app categories out of a total of 83,981 apps at the App Store. It's the bestseller in Europe as well, downloaded over 2.5 million times, and is also the most downloaded calculator on the Windows 8 platform.

The free version of the basic Calculator Plus app has 4,644 customer reviews as of today at an average rating of 4.8 stars. Because it's free, it's ad-supported but if you want the version without ads, that's here.

The free-for-Monday Fraction Calculator Plus app has a keyboard layout for entering fractions and a large display that "shows fractions the way you write them."

According to the article, quilt makers tell them the fraction calculator has made their job easier.

USA Today added the duo's free basic Calculator Plus (with advanced features available when you swipe the memory keys aside) to their 25 essential Kindle Fire apps, and Amazon has pre-installed it in shop demos across the U.S.

Unusual Features
According to the story and the Calculator Plus product description, a boon of that app is that it "remembers everything you calculate" and lets you review it anytime (even after you've quit the calculator to do something else), so that you don't need to retype the same calculation. As with other decent calculator apps, you can just backspace to correct simple mistakes rather then having to start over.

The memory lets you "keep a running total you can actually see."

Lonely Planet
Outreach Educator and Anthropologist Guven Witteveen points us to Lonely Planet's current special on their 254 PDF eBooks.

ALL Lonely Planet PDF eBooks, usually $16 to $24+, are on sale, per their newsletter, for $10 until midnight 22nd May.

Enter DIG10 to get that pricing.

BEAR IN MIND, though, that several of these are available in Kindle Editions at Amazon for $9.99. I'd much rather have a Kindle book version for the $10 where that's available. However, on the ones that do cost more at Amazon and there are a lot of those, this can be a VERY good deal.

A free Lonely Planet Kindle book:
5 of USA's Best Trips: Our Favorite Themed Itineraries Across America (Regional Travel Guide)
This is a 708-page Kindle book, published August 1, 2011, with maps and with Text-to-Speech and X-Ray features enabled (but Lending, strangely, is not).

Sony's coming 13.3-inch digital paper notepad (and a flexible eInk eReader)
Friday, I tweeted Sony's announcement of a coming 13.3" flexible eInk reader, w/ some details and a link to the article on that.

Yesterday I saw a story with video of the device's notepad qualities. Since it uses a plastic, rather than glass, display, it's much lighter than the norm. The display is the new EInk Mobius panel. They're testing it at three universities in Japan soon and expect thay can do a commercial release before the end of 2013. Pricing will be key. Plastic Logic and IRex didn't fare well there. Interesting video though!

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

NOTES on newer Kindles.

=== **********************************
*******LATEST SHORT DAILY FREE EBOOKS FOOTER2 *******

Kindle Fire Tip: ABC Player app for Kindle Fire HD allows watching of full ABC shows for free without Flash Player. Some Caveats.

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Sat, 18 May 2013 00:38:00 +0000

ABC Player app available for Kindle Fire HD allows watching of full episodes of favorite ABC shows

The ABC Player app allows you to watch, from a selection of the most recent episodes of almost any ABC show (primetime and daytime), full ABC shows you may have missed or want to re-watch.

It says that you can find episodes "by Most Popular, Most Recent, and Evening vs. Daytime" (I've not found this search function -- please let me know if you find it) and can pause these, with your place saved for resuming from that point later (this does work).

Closed captioning is available (though I haven't seen this yet in a couple of shows I chose to watch). There are no easily findable settings for this. There is a version for iOS devices, Hulu (which I subscribe to and there ARE closed-captioning features in those) and iTunes and it could be that some of these features I haven't found are in one of those and ABC's product marketing is confused about what is available for Kindle Fire HD. This app does not work for my other, earlier Samsung devices with older Android systems.

On my personal listing of devices I own, it is shown as NOT working for the Original Kindle Fire while OK with my Kindle Fire HD7 and my Kindle Fire HD89. My guess is that it wouldn't work well if at all with the 2nd Generation non-HD Kindle Fire, but the Product Description page doesn't say anything about that, unfortunately. Let me know, if it does work for that, but it is a more limited device in memory-management and in storage space, so I'm doubtful, and it's not an HD model (I don't know if they scale down for Standard Definition).

From the Product Description:
"...View full-length episodes of Modern Family, Grey's Anatomy, Revenge, Once Upon a Time, The Neighbors, Good Morning America, Jimmy Kimmel Live and more..." as well as Nashville, Castle, and Body of Proof. Also included are ABC News shows and daytime shows like The View, The Chew and General Hospital.

NOTE AND MORE CAVEATS - These are in HD, and viewing on mobile devices may give problems, from what I have noted with any HD streaming, when HD owners are using DSL rather than cable modem systems. DSL's average speed is 6 to 10 times slower than what is doable from cable systems like Cable and RR, from what I've experienced on friends' Internet streaming connections, and HD streaming just needs more speed and robust connectivity. DSL hosts do offer higher tiers of speed but at higher pricing.

I would NOT download the app if you have DSL rather than cable.
I even wonder if a problem exists with Android devices that have only 16 GB of storage space and a fairly filled storage area. The number of people for whom this app does not work or works badly outnumbers the number of people who have no problems with it.

I watched a full 50-minute episode of the amazingly amoral Scandal with no glitches at all and with HD quality. Others experience lower-quality video on their systems though, so be forewarned that it may not be ideal on some devices depending on streaming-connection or maybe a too-full device when using an app that may be just too bloated and using a lot of memory to do what it does.

At any rate, so to speak, the app is Free to try, and you can remove the app if it doesn't work well on your Internet connection but you'd probably need to reboot or reset (via a 20-second power button press and then a press to restart), if the app just stalls for you on tv episodes, as it did for many who gave it low marks.

An aborted show like 666 Park Avenue still available for 2 more days usually does not offer the unaired shows some have hoped would ultimately air, in this case to explain some of the weirdnesses in the storyline, but I just found out about the ABC app itself (released March 2013) from a Washington Post TV Column on ABC putting online, and on some mobile devices, "unaired episodes of 'Don't Trust the B---" as they put it. This one is a show I didn't watch after the first 15 minutes, not that I'm fussy about my TV viewing.

The added draw is that with this app you don't need a Flash player app plus different web browser as some of us have used on the Kindle Fire (doable with the Dolphin web browser -- see step-by-step guide to install Flash at How to install Flash Player on Kindle Fire HD, with more info at Getting NON-Amazon apps).

Before this app was made available, we've been able to view all these (with the steps in those article-guides at http://abc.go.com -- which ABC has now redirected to a longer URL). BUT since any Kindle Fire HD can use this app, that more-arduous process is not needed for ABC shows.

However, I don't see similar apps for NBC and CBS or PBS right now, so the Flashplayer-install info just mentioned is given in case you want to watch similar material on the other network channels.

In the meantime, Amazon Prime Instant Video program offers quite a bit, as you'll have seen if reading the Amazon pages or this blog.

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

NOTES on newer Kindles.

Kindle news: U.S. Justice Dept calls Apple "Ringmaster" in e-book price-fixing. Why Android is Winning the Tablet Wars. New NBC-Universal PRIME video deals. The Big Deal (500 books) is back.

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:04:00 +0000

Apple being seen as instigator of eBook price-fixing attempts

In addition to the TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) report, which sources the NY Times article which may not be accessible to some near the end of any month, here are the recent articles on the e-book pricing wars going back a year and through 'today' for those interested in any details of the last year's results from federal, state, and UK lawsuits that have left Apple, alone, fighting the U.S. Justice Department lawsuit still.
The publishers have bailed. The trial begins June 3 in New York.

I stopped detailing the situation after all the settlements were happening, one after another, but kept a chronological list of linked news stories on how it all began and what was discovered during the several investigations, as a lot was being misrepresented throughout the PR wars. The items are all sourced.

It was especially difficult to sort out when the largest media sites were also large publishers with a bit at stake so that the reports were too often not exactly illuminating but I collected the more informative ones.

I also put together a TIMELINE, which shows more clearly what kinds of things the Department of Justice (DOJ) would have seen that had not made it into most news reports.

The New York Times article opens with the e-mail from Steve Jobs to James Murdoch of News Corporation: "Throw in with Apple and see if we can all make a go of this to create a real mainstream e-books market at $12.99 and $14.99."

That e-mail is part of the evidence in the DOJ's stance explained by TUAW as, "Apple was the 'ringmaster' in a price-fixing conspiracy in the market for e-books, a more direct leadership role than originally portrayed in the department’s April 2012 antitrust lawsuit against Apple and five publishing companies."

Two days after that email, HarperCollins, owned by News Corporation, "signed an agreement with Apple to force all sellers of electronic books to adopt the new pricing model, the government said."

Apple does its usual in describing all this as not conspiring to fix prices on ebooks, of course, but instead 'explaining' that “We helped transform the e-book market with the introduction of the iBookstore in 2010, bringing consumers an expanded selection of e-books and delivering innovative new features ... The market has been thriving and innovating since Apple’s entry, and we look forward to going to trial to defend ourselves and move forward.”

If you can access it, read the rest of the NYT article on how Apple itself described its strong-arming of Random House during this, which is why the lawsuit did not include Random House. In fact, for about a year, Random House books were not found in Apple's iBook store due to some disagreement about the Agency Agreement.

Now, when Amazon removed buy-tags for awhile when Macmillan insisted on using the Agency Agreement (rather than the long-time traditional wholesaler bookstore agreement which guaranteed publishers a bit more, so this was about control) and when Macmillan, furthermore, also insisted on the higher pricing that they would set and which Amazon and other book stores were not allowed to lower even for Sales promos, Amazon received a shellacking from the larger publishing houses and newspapers for being a dangerous "monopolist" out to destroy the publishing industry.

Imagine if Amazon had just not allowed Random House (said to be the largest U.S. publisher of novels) into the Amazon Kindle store for a year due to a contract dispute over a pricing agreement. Apple did, though, paint itself as sort of a road-side shop (its book store) relative to big, bad Amazon.
At the time, Random House said, at a press conference, that it felt that Amazon knew a bit more about book-selling and pricing than Random House did. The following year, Random House did join in the Agency Agreement, but they were not part of the group that formed the higher-price restrictions for booksellers.

On the other hand, Amazon's lowering the price on all books would be a danger to smaller stores, and there is an understandable restriction on what it is allowed to do with the lowering of prices on its Kindle books.

In settling, the publishers agreed:

' to lift restrictions imposed on discounting and other promotions by e-book retailers. The companies are also prohibited from entering into new agreements with similar restrictions until December 2014.

The publishers must also notify the government in advance about any e-book ventures they plan with each other, and they are prohibited for five years from agreeing to any kind of so-called most-favored-nation clause with any retailer, which establishes that no other retailer is allowed to sell e-books for a lower price. '

I suppose that after five years they WOULD be allowed to agree to a clause with any retailer that "no other retailer is allowed to sell e-books for a lower price." Until then, enjoy the kind of flexible pricing we grew up with, on printed books in bookstores.

The NY Times report was from Edward Wyatt in Washington and Nick Wingfield in Seattle.
For more details on how Apple dealt with Random House when they resisted all this, see the NYT article.

Other, QUICK News, mainly links and excerpts that may be of interest
"Why Android is Winning the Tablet Wars -- Forbes, Todd Hixon, Contributor.
Includes: "The five most popular tablets on Amazon today (May 14, 2013) are four 7 inch Kindle and Samsung tablets selling for $179 – $229, and an 8.9 inch Kindle selling for $269.

Apple held on to over 70% market share in iPods throughout the life cycle. The iPod is a media consumption device, and the link to the iTunes content access/management platform was unbeatable. It’s clear that tablets will be a different story, more like PCs. They are becoming a diverse market with several strong brands (Samsung, Asus/Google, Amazon/Kindle), a large number of popular-price offerings, and multiple content access platforms."

More PRIME video news: "AMAZON CONFIRMS GRIMM, HANNIBAL, SUITS AND DEFIANCE COMING TO AMAZON PRIME." The Slanted:

'... the Amazon Instant Video that is included in Amazon Prime is one of the services major selling points.

Now with the NBC Universal deal customers can watch earlier seasons of “Grimm,” and “Suits” from USA starting today. “Hannibal” will launch later this year on the service and the hit series “Defiance,” will be made available in early 2014.
Prime Instant Video will also add past seasons of NBC’s “Smash” and “Alphas”. The deal also includes “Eureka” and “Warehouse 13″. For the parents out there, “Curious George” and “Land efore Time,” will both be made available in the Kindle FreeTime Unlimited content service. '

Added detail at CNET.

THE BIG DEAL is Back [again]: Shop Popular Books by Category
"Save up to 85% on more than 500 Kindle books through May 27. Shop for yourself or give Kindle books as gifts to anyone with any e-mail address." [Note the expiration date.]

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

NOTES on newer Kindles.

Kindle News: Amazon Coins. Purchase of Liquavista brighter color screen-techology for outdoor reading. Amazon's new Cloud Player for PC. Kindle romance-book-focused podcast w/ Goodreads.

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Tue, 14 May 2013 13:56:00 +0000

Amazon's Amazon Coins: Why?

They're worth a penny each, and 100 make $1.00. Most of us with Kindle Fires will have received email notices Monday that we've been given 500, or $5 worth, of these, to spend on apps or games for the Kindle Fire tablets.

I'm not sure what the reason is for the coins except it seems as if what has the appearance of play money may seem easier and, for some, more fun to use, as if we weren't really spending (because we'd bought the coins earlier) but there's a deal of sorts in that if you buy these in bulk, Amazon says you'll get a discounts "of up to 10%" on purchases. There's no expiration date or fees on them.

For now they're not usable for books or videos from Amazon, but apparently, they'll expand the use of these. This is considered just a start. It has the feel of a test, actually. But I'll look at reasons for their trying this.

Having read there are many millions of Kindle Fires in customer hands now, I think $5 per Kindle Fire customer is quite an outlay for Amazon, which shows that they expect these will encourage use of the coins and, it's hoped, more spending on Amazon apps, with the coin-system of purchasing still bringing app developers 70% of the purchase. So it's another way to support apps you enjoy and want improved and updated. Also, if app developers make a bit more this way, they may develop apps sooner for Amazon tablet users than they do, instead of making us wait until all the iOS and pure-Android tablet users have their versions.

In keeping with the expansion of Kindle Fires and apps to almost 200 countries globally, this should also encourage more app development in other countries that have waited awhile to get access to Kindle Fire apps.

Amazon's press release is here.

Amazon's apparent acquisition of Samsung's Liquavista
The watchful Nate Hoffelder and his The Digital Reader site reported Monday new filings from the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce that reveal that Samsung no longer owns Liquavista and that its new owner "is listed as a faceless LLC registered out of Delaware."

In following the trail showing Haverl LLC, with no online presence or products on the market but leading to a holding company called CSC, he noted the similarity to the way in which Amazon hid FCC filings last year, to thwart early reporting of its doings.

In the meantime, Nate adds in an update the same day that Amazon confirmed that news,

Since Samsung wanted to sell the company (which they bought 2-1/2 years ago or so), one has to wonder why, if Samsung doesn't find the "electrowetting" technology and its promise of brighter portable color screen quality useful for its own screens, Amazon would want it. Most stories assume it's because of what it can bring to black & white type eReaders with lower power needs and outdoor readability.

But PC Magazine's Damon Poeter points out:

' Electrowetting produces displays with advantages in a couple of key areas—viewability in various lighting conditions and low-power video playback.
Amazon, a leading maker of both ereaders and tablets, may be interested in Liquavista's technology for both device categories.

""Liquavista's display cell concepts allow radically brighter and more efficient flat panel displays to be built – but use today's established manufacturing infrastructure and processes to achieve it," Liquavista says on its website. '

Liquavista's flexible electrowetting displays are described by Liquavista as

' Liquavista’s displays are based on the principles of electrowetting and bring bright and colourful images and video that ensures excellent indoor and outdoor readability but uses dramatically less battery power. The technology is uniquely suited for colour and video electronic paper displays because of its very high reflectivity and its intrinsically fast video-rate switching speed. '

In a forum discussion last night, someone opined that he himself had no need for color eInk-type reading and therefore saw no need for this for the rest of the world.

I added my thought that others have wanted and, actually, needed, to see diagrams and illustrations in color, since figures and diagrams are often color-coded. Add that many would like to be able to even see these at all while out in sunlight.

While I'm happy with tablets as they are -- if they're able to keep the costs down with a color e-Ink-like type eReader and provide color that's not as drab as with e-Ink color displays we've seen recently, that could be quite a plus for outdoor reading on devices with batteries that last longer than 7 hours.

Amazon Cloud Player for PC
The Amazon Cloud Player for PC app is a new offering, in that although we've been using Cloud Player for WEB to play via our computers our songs from Amazon's Cloud, this also downloads them to your computer for playing offline without needing a web browser and with your music search results leading you to your offline results as well as those on the Cloud.

You don't have to click on the search bar first, as the universal search is triggered by typing when the app is the active window. Per Softonic's Lewis Leong:

' ... users can set Cloud Player to automatically add music to iTunes, Windows Media Player, and Amazon. It will even import songs from your iTunes library if you wish to use Cloud Player as your main audio player.

It's nice to see Amazon come out with a dedicated desktop application, something its competitor, Google Music, is lacking. Amazon is also leveraging it's physical media sales with AutoRip, which automatically gives customers a free digital version of a CD or LP. '

Also, you can scan your computer for music files that haven't been uploaded to Amazon's Cloud.

Amazon Cloud Player for PC app is compatible with Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP SP3.

"Kindle Love Stories" podcast, with discussion group at Goodreads
PaidContent's Laura Hazard Owen reports that Amazon Publishing is launching this romance-reader-focused weekly podcast which will "feature author interviews, reviews and trends in romance books, and is accompanied by a book discussion group on Goodreads...
...
"One possible advantage of “Kindle Love Stories” is that, if it focuses primarily on titles published by Amazon, all of those titles should be available free to Kindle owners through the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library."

A Mac version is said to be coming soon.

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

NOTES on newer Kindles.

Kindle News: Amazon Cloud Drive Photos app for Apple devices + some info re the Android Cloud Drive Photos app. Amazon working on 3D smartphone?

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Sat, 11 May 2013 11:26:00 +0000

AMAZON'S NEW CLOUD DRIVE PHOTOS APP FOR APPLE DEVICES

FIRST:
Amazon Cloud Drive Photos app for Android (and for ORIGINAL Kindle Fire) was released November 5, 2012 and described here, in detail, in the blog article for that date.

At that time, the Kindle Fire 2nd Generation tablets were to have these Cloud Drive photo features built in, but as of today, I can download photos from my Cloud Drive to my HD tablet but NOT upload photos from the Kindle Fire HD tablet to my Cloud yet, although I can email them to anyone, including myself, for receipt of these on a different device.
Oddly enough, photo uploading to the Amazon Cloud works with my Original Kindle Fire.

Amazon Cloud Drive Photos App for iOS, Apple Devices.
As PC Magazine's Angela Moscaritolo points out, the app:

'...lets you securely store thousands of photos taken with your device in the Amazon Cloud for easy access.

Users get 5GB of storage for free, before having to pay for additional storage. Prices for extra storage start at $10 a year for 20GB. See the iTunes page for the app.

Once uploaded to Cloud Drive, the photos are accessible from your iPhone or iPod touch, computer, or any Web browser. You can also upload photos to Cloud Drive from your computer and access them on your iOS device.
Photos taken from your iPhone or iPod touch are automatically saved to Cloud Drive whenever the app is running. You can also select photos from your Cloud Drive and share them through Facebook, email, or other apps. '

Re the last point, the Cloud Drive Photos app for Android CAN upload photos directly to the Amazon Cloud Drive even when the app is not open.

Slashgear's Craig Lloyd sees the app as Amazon taking on Apple's Photo Stream iCloud feature, as well as Google and Dropbox cloud-storage-and-access solutions.

GIGAOM's Erica Ogg makes some interesting points about Amazon's strength when it comes to Cloud services:

' Just like Google with Maps, Search and Mail and Facebook with social things, Apple’s biggest and most important competitors are repeatedly besting Apple on its own platform when it comes to producing well designed, popular basic apps that are core to the mobile experience.

But the secret behind Amazon’s cloud-based photo storage is something at which Amazon is verifiably awesome, and something at which Apple is not: the cloud.

Even with its billion-dollar data center and more on the way, Apple repeatedly struggles with keeping its cloud-based services reliable for users. And even when things are added to iCloud, like photos, some users still run into problems, as outlined in the link above, with multiple copies or confusing organization. '

Reminder
Free Cloud Drive Space - Three different types
1) ALL Amazon customers, globally, get 5 free gigs of Cloud Drive space to use for personal photos, documents, music that they didn't get from Amazon, and
2) Kindle device owners get an additional 5 free gigs of space for personal docs and non-DRM'd books from other sources, for which which Amazon will now provide annotations backup and will also sync the reading of these between one's several devices even though the books and docs don't come from Amazon).

If you want even more space for non-Amazon items, $10 per year will get you 20 gigs of space, with other options if you want more space.

3) Anything you buy from Amazon gets automatically-free Cloud Drive space not counted against your space maximums.

Is Amazon really working on a 3-D phone that you control with your eyes?
If you judge this by the number of stories appearing on the conjecture, you'd think so. There is no confirmation that it is.

MSN puts it this way:

' You may be startled to hear that the online retail giant is actually working on TWO smartphones, and one of them will be a high-end device with a 3-D screen for which no special glasses are required. "Using retina-tracking technology, images on the smartphone would seem to float above the screen like a hologram and appear three-dimensional at all angles," the Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with Amazon's plans. "Users may be able to navigate through content using just their eyes." Whoa. Watch your back, Google '

Wired hopes it's nothing like the Nintendo3DS, described as "the worst reading environment ever after reading in total darkness.” On the other hand, Jeff Bezos has been pretty fussy about readability and stayed away from color eInk as being a not-good experience for the eyes.

At any rate, it doesn't seem likely for many reasons. Who would be the audience for this? Maybe it would be a novelty buy for those who want to see their favorite contacts in 3D, but watching 3D on a small screen phone? It's not that easy on even a giant screen (though I've enjoyed it). Maybe someone at Lab126 wanted to try something like this for experimental reasons and that started the rumors.

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

NOTES on newer Kindles.

Kindle App for iOS and Kindle Fire News: Kindle Fire HD Sale -'FIRE4MOM' promo code gets $20 off as Mother's Day offer on Kindle Fire HD 7-inch. tablet. Kindle for iOS update v3.7 adds accessibility for the visually impaired

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Mon, 06 May 2013 11:50:00 +0000

Promo code FIRE4MOM brings $20 off for any Kindle Fire HD 7-inch tablet through Mother's Day, May 12, 2013. (US only)

That means the price for the 16 GB model will be $179, and for the 32 GB model it'll be $209.

As before, I highly recommend, because of the size of multimedia files, the 32 GB model; think of it as deciding on an additional built-in 16GB SD Card for the additional $30. It'll help avoid having to swap apps in and out of the Kindle Fire HD to keep from running low on space (which can slow down some program processes). This is for the standard Kindle Fire HD with 'Special Offers' on the Lock Screen only, and many do prefer to know about Amazon's special offers. If you don't like that idea, $15 more does away with them. Many of us choose to keep them though.

Be sure to know that Amazon's promo codes cannot be applied to orders placed with 1-click purchasing, so you'd need to turn that off if wanting to use the promo code.

Also, they specify only one promo-code purchase per customer.

Kindle for iOS: the new Accessibility Features
Amazon's forum announcement of these new accessibility features for its Kindle reading apps for Apple iPhones, tablets, and iPod touch (those running iOS 5.0 or higher) is followed by Kindle customer comments that include advice by Apple device owners about where to find the various features and how to use them. Worth a look if you've one of these devices.

There is good general info and help on these apps at the Amazon Kindle for iOS Help page.

The new features, using Apple's VoiceOver technology, are aimed at visually impaired users and include the ability to have read aloud to you ~1.8 million Kindle Store titles, added navigational help, as well as more accessible X-Ray and sharing features.

Important also is that Amazon promises a similar update for NON-iOS versions of the app eventually, and it would be a good use for the Ivona Software they acquired in January, already used in the Kindle Fire for text-to-speech, voice commands and "Explore by Touch." Ivona offers voice and language portfolios with 44 voices in 17 languages

Lifehacker describes the use of Siri's voice for this, pointing out that it's not done with a tap of a button. "You have to enable VoiceOver in the accessibility settings in iOS before you can have Siri read to you, and even then she only takes one line at a time as you move your finger down the page...For those who are blind or have poor vision, VoiceOver support makes navigating the Kindle app and reading books possible."

Here are more details, from the Amazon Kindle forum announcement and thread:

' New accessibility features of the Kindle app enable blind and visually impaired customers to:
- Read aloud over 1.5 million titles available in the Kindle Store using Apple's VoiceOver technology. Over 300,000 of these books are exclusive to the Kindle Store. Over 700,000 books are less than $4.99; over a million are less than $9.99.
- Seamlessly navigate within their library or within a book, with consistent title, menu and button names; navigate to a specific page within a book and sort books in the library by author or title.
- Read character-by-character, word-by-word, line-by-line, or continuously, as well as move forward or backward in the text.
- Search for a book within their library or search within their book and navigate to specific text.
- Add and delete notes, bookmarks, and highlights.
- Use customer-favorite features like X-Ray, End Actions and sharing on Facebook and Twitter.
- Look up words in the dictionary and Wikipedia.
- Customize the reading experience including changing the font, text size, background color, margin, and brightness.
- Use iOS accessibility features like Zoom, Assistive Touch, and Stereo to Mono, as well as peripheral braille displays.

Other new features include:
- Easily rate and review books by accessing `Before you go...' directly from The `Go to' menu
- Enhancements to `Before you go...' including the ability to download a free sample and email yourself a reminder about recommended books.
- Additional Font Selection for Japan - Hiragino Mincho ProN (Serif)

These new accessibility features are available first on the Kindle app for iOS and accessibility features will be added to other Kindle apps in the future. Customers can download the new Kindle for iOS app for free from the App Store on iPad, iPhone or iPod touch or at http://www.itunes.com/appstore. Blind and visually impaired customers interested in using a Kindle app can also choose Kindle for PC with Accessibility Plugin, a free application for Windows PC's.

You can download [for free] a quick reference guide here: Kindle for iOS Accessibility Gestures - Quick Reference Guide.

If you need assistance with this update, please drop by the Kindle Help Forum '

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

NOTES on newer Kindles.

UK:
Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £69
Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - ~£89 Refurb'd
Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB
Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - £109
Kindle Paperwhite 3G, UK - £169
Kindle Fire 2, UK - £129
Kindle Fire HD 7" 16/32GB, UK - £159/199
Canada - Kindlestore, CDN-$
Kindle Basic, NoTouch - $79
Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - $129
Kindle Paperwhite, 3G - $199

Kindle Tips: May's Monthly 100 Kindle Books for $3.99 or less - Editors' Choices + Free non-classics by publication date + discounted-book alerts. FREE APP today: Jump Desktop (RDP & VNC) - remote desktop app (normally $9.99)

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Thu, 02 May 2013 12:47:00 +0000

MAY 2013's 100 Kindle Books deal, for $3.99 or less (See UK page below.)

I highlight the monthly deal at or near the beginning of the month for those who don't know about it or might not remember.

The May pricing for this group of 100 Kindle books ranges from $0.99 to $3.99, as usual for this monthly deal, and are "hand-selected" by Amazon's Editors each month.

What you'll see on that special monthly-deals page (UK version is here) are new for May 2013.

(US Link: amzn.to/100kbooks-1to4, UK Link: amzn.to/100kbooks-1to4uk)

FREE KINDLE BOOKS (Non-classics) for May (and April)
I've updated the "Temporarily-free books -- Non-classics" search results to show free contemporary Kindle books for MAY, sorted by publication-date, as of May 1, 2013. There are only a few shown on the first day or two of any month, and these include pre-orders due that month. As ever, on the first day of the month, most of these are listed as "free preview" of whatever chapters chosen, some are short stories, and a few (overnight) not-entire-family-safe titles may show up.

Here, also, are the current Search results for still free Kindle non-classics, by publication date during the last month (April).

The Kindle Daily Deal page
for any given day now shows a lot of books since it includes children's books, a couple of genre-specific deals, and the monthly daily deals as well.

DISCOUNTED / Price Dropped Kindle eBooks II - the ongoing Kindle Forum message thread
There is an ongoing message thread in which Kindle owners share information on recent drops in pricing on specific Kindle books, often with some added info by the person posting it.

Here's a link to the thread, starting at an April 29 posting that includes some books that are still on sale May 2.
These tend to be very short-term discounts.

The forum topic link is to a specific day to start, in this case, a book released 4/29, as mentioned, but you can look at previous days or keep up with ongoing alerts after that, as Amazon keeps track of the last message# that you read, so that you can start from there next time. While most of the better deals seem around $1.99-$4.99, there are many larger-publishing house deals included that tend to end in a DAY, so you'd need to double-check the current pricing of ANY Kindle books that interest you to see if the discounts are still active.

I see that Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America (Simon & Schuster Lincoln Library) was heavily discounted for April 29 and is still discounted today, May 2, and I've started the forum topic browse-link at that point.

Again, prices are discounted for only a very short time, too often, and are promos, and that's another reason to watch the list. Most of the large-publisher discounts last only one or two days.

Free Android App of the Day
Jump Desktop
Normally $9.99, this "remote desktop app lets you control your computer from your phone or tablet. Compatible with both RDP and VNC, Jump Desktop is secure, reliable and very easy to set up. Features include a streamlined user interface that gives you the best possible remote desktop experience on any of your mobile devices.
Easy setup and reliable: "

. RDP features: Tested on: Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7, Server 2003, Server 2008, Server 2008 R2, SBS Server
. VNC features: Tested with Mac OS X, TightVNC, RealVNC, UltraVNC, Linux (Ubuntu Remote Desktop)

The Your Devices listing shows it working for

Out of 16 customer reviews currently, it's received an average rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars.

DISCOUNTS ON ACCESSORIES Amazon's current (some, ongoing) on accessories for Kindle e-Reader and Kindle Fire
1. Up to 50% (higher discount as a Spring sale than usual) on covers for Kindle eReaders
2. Up to 50% on covers for Kindle Fire (Gen 2) and Kindle Fire HD tablets

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

NOTES on newer Kindles.

UK:
Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £69
Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - ~£89 Refurb'd
Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB
Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - £109
Kindle Paperwhite 3G, UK - £169
Kindle Fire 2, UK - £129
Kindle Fire HD 7" 16/32GB, UK - £159/199
Canada - Kindlestore, CDN-$
Kindle Basic, NoTouch - $79
Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - $129
Kindle Paperwhite, 3G - $199

Kindle News: Large Kindle for Android Update - new features, customer reactions. Tom Semple adds what he's found.

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 19:40:00 +0000

New update for the free Kindle for Android app - v4.0.1.3

The Amazon Kindle for Android updates:
· New design and user interface: Apparently many customers have told Amazon that they really like the User Interface (UI) of the Kindle Fire, as find it easy to access and navigate the content on the tablet.

Amazon has extended that design to Kindle for Android by
1. optimizing the Kindle Store for tablets
2. improving the library interface
3. redesigning the home screen, which includes the Carousel option for recent items), and
4. simplifying navigation through the app.

· Easy access to samples: To help customers new to Kindle or Kindle apps get started, Amazon is making samples of many of the best sellers very easy to find; the samples will be on the home screen of their Kindle app.

More info is at the Kindle for Android details page.

From Google Play store's What's New page

What's in this version:
4.0.1.3
• Redesigned library experience.
• Carousel displays recent items on the Kindle app home screen.
• Navigation panel organizes content for quick access to your Books, Documents, and Newsstand periodicals.
• Browse all your items in the Cloud or just the content downloaded on your Android device.
• Explore and download popular samples in the Kindle Store.
• Fixed a crash some customers reported.

Contributor Tom Semple weighed in early
This guy is the Kindle world's intrepid explorer and is everywhere.
Tom has given permission to quote what he's found so far (I'm just late getting to it, and I saw reports that some are finding that the Table of Contents can be balky under the new update and that customer service has said they are aware of that and are working on it).

Here's Tom: (Bracketed entries are mine.)

' Kindle for Android finally has a version of the 'Cloud/Device' pattern found on Kindles and Kindle apps, with Recent added to Sort options. Very welcome. [Yay!]

As usual, there's also an experiment: an item called 'Popular Samples' brings up a list of 25 samples that we are to believe are popular (and hopefully not some manipulation on the part of Amazon to direct us to certain books).
[They say they're from the already "best sellers.]

The Kindle Store experience has been greatly improved as well. There's also a Carousel view, which thankfully one does not need to use. [ ] Now, if only they'd add TTS [Text-to-Speech], I would use the app a little more (which I try to do anyway on the assumption that Amazon updates the apps that are used the most).

By my count there are at least 3 features unique to Kindle for Android:
- Voice search
- Send To Kindle (shows up as a Sharing option with a number of other Android apps)
- Popular Samples'

Thanks, Tom. I use Google Voice search a lot on my Samsung S2 phone and on my 10" Galaxy tablet which I hardly use anymore since I am spoiled by the HD display of the KFires.

Off topic
Although we're talking about Kindle for Android and NOT Kindle Fire apps, I just tested my Google Voice app on my Kindle Fire anyway (I downloaded the app from 1mobile.com long ago) and it works really well. This is just my usual, confusing side note.

I use Dolphin browser (for its Flash support) on the KFire and when I brought up google search, I touched the side "||" mark to get the Menu on the side and tapped the Star to get Favorites while still using Dolphin browser Then I tapped 'Voice' and once I did that, the mic icon showed and asked me to say what I wanted and I said, "a kindle world" and it gave me a short list of what I might have said to the mic. I tapped the correct item and then Dolphin browser took over, and the Google links to the blog showed up. Can we say 'insular' ? But Google Voice is so smooth -- both on pure Android devices (the topic of this blog article) and even on the Kindle Fire.

BACK to the topic of Kindle for Android devices
The user reviews for the Kindle for Android app at Google play store are an interesting read. Excerpts from the first few on the top (the most recent):

. Wow, great app to read book - Also, the dictionary is very good as some people mentioned. Great work, Amazon!

. BETTER NOW...The app's interface is much cleaner and modern now.
[He mentions it has List View and that you don't have to use the Carousel. You can just open the slider on the left, tap books and at the top right, toggle list view or grid view.]
. Best of the DRM readers [Loves the new Recent reads and the Carousel, as well as "the whole new layout. Good job!"]

That was just the first three showing right now, and you have to click on 'more' to read the rest.
The 2nd page notes some things people want it to do (like TTS].

Also, it's evident that the phone users are less ecstatic about how the layout fits on the smaller screens -- some of it is optimized for tablets. Table of Contents links are too close to the edge on some devices, so you might turn back a page instead of going to the chapter selected. Amazon is working on fixes for any glitches with the table of contents.

Things to watch for:
Reading progress was reset in a few cases.
Some don't realize the Carousel is an option and that you can choose between List and Grid views.

A mix of really happy and really unhappy reactions :-) depending on the devices.

AND, at the Amazon app store, here are the reviews sorted by most recent date so that you can see what people are finding - positive and negative - about the update.

5-star ratings are most evident, but with a few who experienced problems. You should view these to see what experiences are for the pure-Android device(s) you own. Again, customer support says they ARE working on an update for the glitches that occur in the Table of Contents for some.

Kindle News: Paperwhite at $99 thru' April 30 at 11:59pm (Little doubt, U.S. only)

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:33:00 +0000

Amazon has a rather hidden promo for $20 off Special-Offer models of the Kindle Paperwhite through 11:59 PM (PST) on Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The promo page was mentioned by TechnoBuffalo, but the promo code didn't work for me. They also didn't reply to my question of where the rather hidden actual promo page could be found. Commenters, though, let us know where we can find the brief promo page.

HOWEVER, the promo code of " KINDLEPW " still might not work for you, as it was initially sent some via email and probably targeted certain customers.

What some people have done, if they have a problem, is to just contact Kindle Help (as described below) and choose to have them chat with you. The Chat feature entails typing with them.

LessthanZach, who happens to be a Sales Manager for AT&T, advises the following, which worked for him:

' Ok guys. Here's the wrap. The offer is only available for the Special Offers edition[s] of the Kindle. As of right now, the code doesn't seem to work. Simply go to "help" then "contact us" and click the option to chat about "payments or promotional codes". I chatted with a very helpful representative who had me place the order without the code and then he manually applied the discount. It only took about 5 minutes to get it taken care of. It is a bit of a shame you have to live with the ads, though.
@David Nguyen I appreciate your suggestion of chatting with them and I can confirm it indeed works just fine. '

This would work with the Special-Offer edition only, remember, and the promo doesn't mention at all the 3G model BUT it also does say "Add any Kindle Paperwhite device to your shopping cart..." so the links to both are WiFi only or WiFi+3G models with Special Offers. Again, they don't specifically show the 3G model as eligible for the discount, but they did say "any Kindle Paperwhite device."

My guess is that it's limited to US customers (as are most brief Kindle device promos) but they don't say.

Reminder of a few other rules (full rules are at the promo page)
. Promotion applies only to new Kindle Paperwhite devices sold and shipped by Amazon Digital Services. It does not apply to the same products sold by other sellers or to Certified Refurbished Kindle products.
. If you do not purchase Kindle Paperwhite prior to April 30, 2013 11:59 PM (PST), the promotion will not apply.
. Each promotion code can be used only once
. The promotion code is not transferrable and may not be resold.
. Limit one promotion code per customer.
. Does not apply to orders placed with 1-Click.
. Offer good while supplies last.

An answer to what happened here found after I wrote the above.
At the Amazon Kindle Forums, flipoid writes the following:
"I called Amazon Kindle CS and was told by the CS rep that the code was sent out in emails to non-Kindle owners who purchase lots of print books from Amazon. He told me that if you didn't receive an email, you can't use the code. So it seems that they're trying to get non-ebook purchasers/readers to get on the digital train. (-: "

And my answer to that is that apparently Amazon is allowing people who call them about this, to buy it, because the promo in no way holds language limiting this offer to people who don't already own a Kindle, and there are many who have older Kindles and DO want a Paperwhite, and it seems only fair that they could get the benefit of the promo if they know about it (which is what has been happening).

The ones that were allowed to go through with customer service chat help were bought many hours after the forum member's phone call got a negative for current Kindle owners.

And, the promo code entry validation is no doubt programmed to work only for those who don't already own a Kindle device, which is why the automated discount would work for some people but not for others.

Normally, if they want only a subsection of customers to be eligible, they'll add the language "For new Kindle [device] customers only" but they didn't.

So, this will be your call. Customer reps, in chat mode, have been asking customers to go ahead and buy one and they will issue a refund after the purchase process. Those were allowed to be purchased with discount half a day or more after the morning explanation to a Kindle owner by phone.

Please let me know if any customer rep does not allow this to be done after you've let them know that manual purchases with customer service rep help on the promo have been going through. It's a dilemma of sorts for two more days :-)

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

Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.

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 Fire and Kindle Paperwhite News: Paperwhite Software Update v5.3.5 enhancements. Word Games Pack for Kindle Fire tablets

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 13:10:00 +0000

7 Dragons Inc. releases an update to Word Games Pack, Free, for Kindle Tablet

The 7 Dragons group has been one of my favorite app makers since the early Kindle days. Now they've released Word Games Pack for Kindle Fire owners - the word-game app updated April 22 (v2.8) to have 5 word games rather than 1 and from a paid app to a free one with 8-10 categories, with options to unlock the other categories via In App Purchases (or one can buy the also updated Paid Version for $1).

As mentioned, the free app is a combination of 5 word games -- Word Search, Kriss Cross, Quote Falls, Hangman, and Speed Words.

The app has received high marks by customers for the first, paid version, originally only for 1st Gen Kindle Fire but extended now to all Kindle tablets, and at Barnes & Noble, where the paid app has an average rating of 4.5 stars from a total of 356 reviews as of today, with 262 of them 5 stars and 77 4 stars. That's unusually favorable.

Kindle Paperwhite Software Upgrade to v5.3.5

The Amazon Kindle Forum had a notice I missed about a software update with feature enhancements for the Kindle Paperwhite (US) (UK Paperwhite: here; Global Paperwhite: here.) [Bracketed notes are mine.]

Amazon Kindle Forum Notice and thread
"Initial post: Apr 24, 2013 2:59:11 PM PDT
Brian S., Amazon Official, says:

' We have a new, free software update available for Kindle Paperwhite which can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/kindlesoftwareupdates/paperwhite [U.S.]

[Here's the UK-only software update page]

The software update will be delivered wirelessly and includes feature enhancements and general improvements for your Kindle Paperwhite. This update automatically downloads and installs for Kindle Paperwhite customers; however, you can also manually download the software and update your device via USB cable.

The software update includes the following enhancements:

* View full definition when looking up a word -
When you look up a word in the dictionary, you can now view the full definition in the definition window.

* Search enhancements -
You can easily search for a highlighted word or phrase in your book, your items, or in the Kindle Store. Highlight the word or phrase, select More, and then select Search.

If you have any questions or need help with this update, please post below. '

As ever, note that keeping your Kindle connected to a Wi-Fi network will drain your battery faster. So, once you've got the update "over the air," put the Paperwhite back to "Airplane Mode ON" - which turns Wireless Off. They still have not put the "Wireless Off" and "On" back on the front menu as they recently did for the Kindle Touch, removing the 'airplane' icon, which many of us wish they would do, as it is very inconvenient to have it on a secondary menu and many do not even know about the wireless-off feature, causing more battery drain and confusion over that. Amazon: please do this in the next update.

Only if you'd rather not wait - DOWNLOADING and transferring the Update via USB
US: Go to the Kindle Paperwhite Software Update v5.3.5 download section to get the instructions for the download and transfer to your Kindle via USB:
UK: Go to the same for the UK-only page

- Those v5.3.5 enhancements
The ability to get a full definition right away has LONG been wanted by me, at least, and with the earlier Kindle eReaders I loved the ability to search my entire Kindle, including all text-based newspapers and magazines (and personal docs) on the device, for any word. It's terrific to search for a news event and quickly see all device "items" that include the word(s), within context of the surrounding words, and with a hyperlink to each 'location' holding the word(s).

This is one of the reasons the Kindle is so popular over other eReaders that don't have features like this as well as the many sync'd annotation features (including personal, password-protected webpage backup of those, which are printable and editable as well as shareable if wanted.

For daily free ebooks, check the following links:

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

Kindle News: Kindle TV? Likely. Apple + Android (Kindle too) market share changes, smartphones and tablets.

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 08:30:00 +0000

Kindle TV ?

The news on my TV this Tuesday morning brought speculation about Amazon's apparently coming Kindle TV (that's Bloomberg News's name, not Amazons), to go up against Apple TV, and Roku 3 streaming TV boxes this year.

And iTechPost's Jordan Mammo, whose Kindle Fire combo-graphic is used here, points us to the Bloomberg story by Brad Stone, about Amazon's "plans to release a television set-top box that would stream video over the internet into customer's homes," according to people "with knowledge of the matter." This hasn't been confirmed by Amazon and it's not their style to do that ahead of time.

It brought to mind that (though not the same thing) I can stream video from my Kindle Fire HDs, including Amazon Instant Prime and any webpages I vist now, by just hooking up the HDMI cable to an HDTV.
But this kind of thing is more easily done via a box like an Apple TV or a Roku 3.
Mammo also mentions rumors of an Xbox Mini for streaming of video content.

The Kindle TV would likely prioritize Amazon's own services and allow it to highlight more of its own content although such a device would not be of general interest unless it streamed almost everything the other boxes offer. People would expect the usual competitive pricing.

Stone's source article says that the device is due later this year and is being developed by Amazon's Lab 126, which is not new to the technology.

Stone adds that Amazon "has climbed 7.2 percent this year through yesterday, compared with a 24 percent decline for Apple" (subject of next topic here).

Amazon has been very aggressive in the streaming television area, as shown in the TV pilots they're producing and offering for free viewing with customer feedback requested, and the payments "to secure exclusive streaming rights to hit shows" like "Downton Abbey."

Wired's Roberto Baldwin would like a couple of extras:
1. Place a cable-card slot in the Kindle TV, "Amazon could market the device as an all-in-one media center"
2. Add a cloud-based DVR

Apple's sudden perception problem

Besides the news that its stock gave back 40% of its gains over the last 10 years and the several stories a few days ago that the iPhone was losing marketshare rather heavily to Samsung, Forbes's story by contributor Todd Hixon says "iPhone lost the smart phone market share war two years ago, and Android is now well in the lead.

See also:
. Washington Post on this.
. The more colorful Daily Mail Online, UK

Other stories show market share in tablets decreasing too, but Apple is still far in the lead when it comes to tablets, and while they are losing market share in that area too, their sales of these have gone up.

Added problem if sources for the situation are correct:
TGDaily reports that "According to Chinese media, Apple returned as many as five million iPhones to Foxconn due to various technical problems" and that "the total number of returned phones may be as high as eight million."

I see stories that Samsung is having problems with production because the demand is so high.

Apple's problems are relevant here for a few reasons. Amazon's Kindle ecosystem is one reason for a decrease in the tablets area. Although Amazon's market share of tablets is still very small, it's growing. They're also getting into the smartphone area, and you know that they'll keep pricing low on that and probably make deals for competitive first-year data plans.

Kindle News: Amazon vs eBay on the Internet State Sales Tax Bill. Amazon for Android Updated.

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:02:00 +0000

Amazon vs eBay on the online sales tax bill

Politico's Anna Palmer and Laurence French say that Amazon "flipped" on the sales tax fight and "now says it's OK to levy sales tax on Web companies" while "eBay still says, no way..."

But that's a very common, rather-strong misunderstanding of Amazon's stance on this. The new bill is something Amazon has long supported -- a standardized, national bill, as opposed to arbitrary individual state laws based on feeling that the Supreme Court ruling is 'outdated.'

Clarification added: "Standardized" in this case only in that it must be 'simplified' and guidance given to companies... but the law would be a national one and not one with different stipulations by the individual States except for the percentage of purchase etc. involved.

I wrote about this on July 2, 2012, almost a year ago, giving a very brief history of the premises behind all this (the states' and Amazon's). The national bill is the one clearly-legal way for states to get beyond the Supreme Court ruling in 1992 (Quill Corp. v. North Dakota).

There are some serious considerations involved:

' The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association said today they fear it could open the door to a state-level financial transaction tax because states have the authority to select which goods to tax.

“We believe the impact of this legislation on trade in services has not been adequately explored by Congress,” said Ken Bentsen, acting president and chief executive officer of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, in a statement. “The bill could lead to unexpected costs being passed on to consumers of financial services, including sales taxes on services or state-level stock transaction tax.”

The Financial Services Roundtable said Monday it is also concerned about the bill creating a de facto financial transaction tax. '

In the meantime Amazon is allied with the Retail Industry Leaders Association "to push the issue." The bills is referred to as the "Marketplace Fairness Act."

Here's the full 3-page article at Politico.

The Washington Post's Max Ehrenfreund, in an editorial-style column, points out that "The bill does include an exemption for businesses with less than $1 million in interstate revenue to make it easier for smaller companies to comply."

He also is a rare one who mentions that "The current system is the result of a decades-old Supreme Court decision that put state taxing authority in doubt, to which Congress never properly responded" and that Congress is finally trying to fix the law.

He also clarifies that"the law requires states to simplify their tax codes before beginning to collect — and even to assist retailers": and explains that "the Senate’s proposal would merely allow states to apply existing policy universally" rather than create any new taxes to be collected. They should make that very clear in the bill.

Personally, I'd prefer not to pay taxes, but I want my local companies to survive too and I'd rather the companies collect existing taxes at purchase than make me log, add, and do it at tax time.

There's a different issue in the UK where Amazon, Google and Starbucks, use tax loopholes to not pay UK taxes -- in Amazon's case by having "a single European headquarters in Luxembourg with hundreds of employees." If there are loopholes that should be closed, close them. Stockholders will always strongly prefer that their companies use whatever tax loopholes exist, and companies (along with individual taxpayers) tend to do that.

Amazon's tablet-optimized Mobile App for Android has been updated and is available for China, Japan, and Canada
This applies to NON-Kindle Fire tablets which definitely have the Amazon Mobile (shopping) app built-in. But they've updated the app to make it available in China, Japan, and Canada, and "have ability to subscribe and save subscriptions to the Your Account page, along with fixing some issues with Bluetooth keyboard input on certain tablets."

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

NOTES on newer Kindles.

US:
Updated Kindle Fire 2 Basic 7" tablet - $159
Kindle Fire HD 7" 16/32GB - $199/$249
Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 16/32GB - $269/$299
Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 4G 32/64GB - $399/$499
Kindle NoTouch ("Kindle") - $69/$89
Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - $119/$139
Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi+3G - $179/$199
Kindle Keybd 3G - $139/$159, Free slow web
Kindle DX - ~~$379 $299~~ Discontinued

UK:
Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £69
Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - ~£89 Refurb'd
Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB
Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - £109
Kindle Paperwhite 3G, UK - £169
Kindle Fire 2, UK - £129
Kindle Fire HD 7" 16/32GB, UK - £159/199
Canada - Kindlestore, CDN-$
Kindle Basic, NoTouch - $89
Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - $139
Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi+3G - $199

*OTHER International*
Kindle NoTouch Basic - $89
Kindle Touch WiFi - $139
Kindle Keybd 3G - $189
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB
Paperwhite WiFi $139, 3G/Wifi $199
France Boutique Kindle
Deutschland - Kindle Store
Italia - Kindle Store
Spain - Tienda Kindle
Brazil - Amazon Brazil
China - Amazon China
Japan - Amazon Japan

Kindle News: Amazon Studios' TV pilots free viewing + ratings get big audience this wkend. Xbox smartglass app. NYT on Amazon Singles. Cox TV app. Android apps going Global.

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 04:24:00 +0000

A few newer stories before I get to the backlog

Amazon Studios' new TV pilots (Amazon Originals) pulls in big audience on Amazon Instant Video.

These TV pilots - 8 comedy and 6 for "kids" - "comprised 8 of the 10 most streamed episodes on Amazon Instant Video over the weekend" and thousands of customer reviews have been posted since the launch just 3 days ago, "with more than 80% of reviews at 4 and 5 star ratings," Roy Price, Director of Amazon Studios said.

One draw is the participatory aspect - the customer viewing these "call the shots" as "your opinion matters" when it comes to which will make the cut for full series treatment.

Amazon of the big, long arms, into everything these days, is producing TV pilots (free to watch and review for another month or so) that are getting these high ratings against other fare that is more or less free for many of its most active customers. Using established actors, the pilots are also receiving quite a few well-written rave reviews, a sampling given in one of Amazon's more interesting press releases.

DigitalTVEurope reports that "The final, expanded slate of 14 pilots are available now to watch for free on the Amazon site in the US and free the Amazon-owned video-on-demand service LoveFilm in the UK." One of these is "a Sony Pictures Television adaptation of Hollywood comedy movie Zombieland and Betas, about a group of tech-savvy millennial, which comes from Michael Lehmann (Dexter) and Michael London (Sideways). Both were added to the slate in March."

They add that Amazon is "now developing scripts for a second round of pilots, which will also include dramas for the first time" as well as more comedies.

While Amazon is most-discussed these days as a bookseller and tablet maker, going against large publishing houses and high-margin hardware companies, and is a general low-cost retailer for just about everything imaginable, it's showing unexpected and quite high creative energy.
Some of this has been seen in the more or less unexamined plethora of features plus compatability and syncing services for its ereaders and tablets, which most mainstream gadget-reviews don't explore.

Xbox SmartGlass for Android, released today ($0.00) promises to turn your Kindle Fire 2nd Gen and Kindle Fire HD into a controller for the Xbox 360. Engadget's Joseph Volpe writes that this app has been configured to scale natively on the three newer Kindle Fire models (though not on the original Kindle Fire), allowing users to navigate their Xbox 360 remotely, "push and pull streaming content, as well as access achievements, messaging and Xbox Music."

Many customer reviewers are giving it 1-star because it doesn't work on the original Kindle Fire (which it does say on the 'purchase' listbox on the product page), but Microsoft developed the app for Android OS v4 and the original Kindle Fire is on v2.x. The 2nd generation standard Kindle Fire works with it, however.

One commenter at the app page cautions that it doesn't connect to HBO Go's second screen of content for Game of Thrones, so the map you can see while you drive, on iPad or Windows tablets, is not on Android devices, he says.

XBox'rs who do have 2nd Generation Kindle Fires are very high on the app.

Amazon Singles store, its Editor and the reasons for its success
The NY Times's Leslie Kaufmann has an interesting story on the Amazon Singles service (novella-length journalism and fiction), its development, and its editor David Blum.

Some points made:
. Blum cherry-picks pieces from 1000 unsolicited manuscripts each month.
. Authors can share in the profits instead of getting a flat fee. “The idea that writers would participate in the publishing model is just very bold,” he said.
. It's profitable, with almost 5 million copies sold since opening January 2011.
. "Amazon has become the bête noire of the industry, using its market share to keep the prices of books lower than publishers and authors would like." Brick-and-mortar bookstores have refused to carry these works, but the "literary terrain" for Singles is not crowded, and with magazines folding or shrinking because of financial pressures, long-form storytelling has few places to flourish" and Amazon, along with a few others, is filling that void .

There's a lot more there about the resistance to the service, more details on how it works for authors, the concerns of publishers. That includes an amusing description, by a formerly undiscovered author he's nurturing, of the challenges in working with Blum.

Those of you on Cox Communications can now use the Cox TV Connect app on the Kindle Fire
This is true for Google's Nexus® and Samsung's Galaxy Tab 2 and Note tablets as well.
"With access to over 90 national cable channels, "the application creates a 'second screen' experience for customers to watch live television programming in their home on their iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch device."

Amazon is finally expanding global app distribution to~200 countries.
Here's just a bit from their full description of their long-awaited movement in this direction.

' ...developers can now submit their apps for distribution in nearly 200 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, India, South Africa, South Korea, and even Papua New Guinea and Vatican City. These apps will be made available in the coming months when the Amazon Appstore for Android launches internationally for consumers.

Registered developers who want international distribution will have their apps automatically made available for download, unless they designate otherwise. This international expansion is the latest in a series of Amazon Appstore for Android launches, which have included the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Japan. '

There's a lot more information for developers there.

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

NOTES on newer Kindles.

UK:
Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £69
Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - ~£89 Refurb'd
Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149
Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB
Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - £109
Kindle Paperwhite 3G, UK - £169
Kindle Fire 2, UK - £129
Kindle Fire HD 7" 16/32GB, UK - £159/199
Canada - Kindlestore, CDN-$
Kindle Basic, NoTouch - $89
Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - $139
Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi+3G - $199

Kindle Tip: Today only - 40 Mysteries & Thrillers, Each $1.99 or less.

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 20:20:00 +0000

Back from vacation time with a quick tip on today's Kindle Daily & Gold Box Deal of the Day

This is just an alert on an Amazon Gold Box Kindle book offer for Sunday, April 21 only.

They're offering 40 Kindle mysteries and thrillers today for $1.99 or less, each.

Will catch up with news to blog late tonight, as I did not carry a laptop or tablet on this particular vacation time, a first since March 2009 since starting the blog.

Thanks for your patience.

I did see that Amazon's Android App Store is definitely expanding in a big way, finally, globally, and they're asking developers to submit apps. This fits with rumors of their plans for a smartphone in addition to the eReader and tablet lines and the fact that they just acquired "Siri-like" app Evi for $26 million.

There's even a rumor that Amazon may open its first retail store, in London. More later.

For daily free ebooks, check the following links:

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

Kindle Fire News: Kindle Fire HD (7 and 8.9 inch) + Kindle Fire (2nd Gen) get software fixes in updates 7.3.1, 8.3.1, and 10.3.1

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 06:16:00 +0000

Amazon's product pages are showing software update for the Kindle Fire HD 7", 8.9" and Kindle Fire 2nd generation models

There was no notice of this, but at about 5pm Wednesday, I just noticed, there were notes in the Kindle forum that a couple of Kindle Fire owners saw updates happen on theirs.

My Kindle Fire HD tablet hasn't received the update, so I checked the product pages. However, there have been reports of glitches on the three software updates x.3.0 made to the three models on March 30.

The sofware update pages that the changes include: "bug fixes and performance enhancements."

As usual, am adding UK software pages to the info here, though their pages haven't been updated. The link will go to whichever is the current software version for that model.

Here are the software update pages for each model:

Kindle Fire HD 8.9":
[v8.3.1 here] [Probably soon: UK software page].

Kindle Fire HD 7":
[v7.3.1 here]. [Probably soon: UK software page].

Kindle Fire 2nd Generation:
[v10.3.1 here]. [Probably soon: UK software page].

If you need assistance with one of these updates, please visit the Kindle Help Forums. '

IF Choosing to Manually Download the Latest Version

(instead of waiting for it to arrive via WiFi)
This update automatically downloads and installs for most Kindle Fire customers; however, you can initiate the software update from your Kindle or manually download the software update via USB (some use the excellent WiFi File Explorer PRO app rather than the USB cable hookup).

Again -- before you begin, confirm your current software version:

KF: Tap the top of the device -- KFHD: Swipe down from the top of the screen.
Then tap More.
Tap Device, and then tap About.

The instructions for manually downloading -- if needed -- the update via USB are at the software update pages mentioned above. Most will find it more convenient to have the update arrive via the automated download.

NOTE that when it does arrive, your Kindle Fire will reboot and sometimes it does that twice, so don't be alarmed when it happens while it's idle and you're nearby.

EARLIER posts on Kindle Fire HD

. Follow-up info on v7.3.0, v8.3.0, and v10.3.0 updates (Apr 9)
. Software Updates for v7.3.0, v8.3.0, and v10.3.0 updates (March 30, 2013)
. Getting non-Amazon apps on Kindle Fires (non-HD Kindle Fires have storage space limitations)
. More comparisons on iPad mini and Kindle Fire HD
. Basic Features Comparison Table for iPad mini, Google Nexus 7", Kindle Fire HD 7"
. Comparison reviews of the Kindle Fire HD 7" and Google Nexus 7" tablets
. Step-by-step guide for installing a working Adobe Flash player when needed.
. Google Maps, Street View and other apps on my Kindle Fire, via enabling one device setting
. Downloading and playing YouTube videos on Kindle Fire HD
. Using the camera and Video, Panorama mode, Time Lapses
. App for WiFi file transfers w/o cable.

Kindle News: Amazon launches "50+ Active & Healthy Living" store, w/ 22,000~ Kindle books. Comparison: Movies on Kindle Fire and iPad

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 15:36:00 +0000

Amazon launches new 50+ Active and Healthy Living Store

Here's Amazon's new 50+ Active and Healthy Living Store itself, which features "hundreds of thousands of items" in one place.

And of course, there's a Kindle Book area for topics of particular interest to this group. This link goes to the list of books sorted by Low to High pricing. Here's one for the listing sorted by New and Popular.

Featured are "nutrition, wellness, exercise and fitness, medical, personal care, beauty, entertainment items and more." There's also a Resource Center with tips on healthy eating (might be good for younger folks as well), caregiving and other topics.

A particularly popular item with people I know (I'm not active enough to have one) is the Fitbit Activity Plus Sleep Tracker, which also wakes you, but not your partner, with a silent alarm.

Correcting bad information seen in a comparison report between Kindle Fire HD and iPad just now
It's frustrating to see this happen so much. At TV Predictions, the TV Answer Man answers questions. Today's is "Which is Better for Movies? Kindle Fire HD or iPAD."
You can read it for yourself at the link, but here are my corrections to what he said and additions to another commenter who gave reasons he doesn't himself prefer iPad for movies.

There are probably some details here that many don't know, so I'm hoping this will help to have more correct info somewhere.

' Did you realize you were comparing display resolution of the 7" Kindle Fire to the 10" iPad instead of using the 8.9" Kindle Fire's higher resolution for that comparison?

1. The 8.9" resolution is not 1280 x 800 pixels; it's 1920 x 1200, which is quite a difference.

Even on the 7" model, the lower 1280x800 on a 7-inch device looks very good on the much smaller device and is much higher actual resolution than the comparably-sized iPad mini (7.9") , the iPad mini being only 1024 x 768 pixels and almost 8" large (and of course more expensive).

The 8.9" wider screen on the Kindle Fire, with that 1920 x 1200 pixels (that's Retina standards on a 9") also fits the new wide-screen movies much better, leading to less letterboxing (black bars above and below, for the very popular wide-screen movies today) so the image winds up being almost as large.

Using the Dolphin web browser and an ice-cream Android copy of Adobe Flash Player, I can easily see full episodes of TV series on several TV networks on-demand. These are in Flash, which Apple itself doesn't support and therefore specific apps must be done for each on the iPad.

2. Yes, both Kindle Fires have a built in microHDMI port and can be cabled directly to an HDMI TV, which some have done in hotel rooms even, to watch Internet (or tablet) fare. With Apple you can buy extra hardware and do that too but it's just adding a cable to the Kindle Fire HD's.

Also, the Kindle Fire has stereo speakers on each side of the tablet when viewing movies (Landscape) and also Dolby Digital Plus which adjusts frequencies for material or content, like speech, to make it clearer. (The Apple has speakers right next to each other on one side only.) '

For a $231 difference (the 16GB iPad is $500, the 16GB Kindle Fire HD 8.9" is $269), the above is worth knowing.

But then, the 32GB 7" Kindle Fire which is HD also, in its smaller size, is now $229, while the 32GB iPad is $600, a $371 difference. The 8GB storage spec has been dropped by most and not far off, so will the 16GB if you look half a year ahead, due to the very large files involved in multimedia tablets.

Kindle Tips: Free Android App of the Day - Shred Guitar Mastery - LickJungle. Amazon's rating system and fairness to creators and other customers

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 11:59:00 +0000

Today's Free App of the Day, for Kindle Fire and other Android-based devices
- "For intermediate and advanced players"

Shred Guitar Mastery - LickJungle is a music app for guitar players although NOT for beginners.

Even if a customer reviewer says that 'tablature' is "very good for beginners" -- the app itself is definitely not for beginners, and app creator AmparoSoft makes that clear in the Product Description.

But since this app is normally $3.99 and is the free app for the one day only, I thought I should draw attention to it for those who would benefit from it.

As another customer mentions -- if you don't know how to play guitar, there's no reason to download an app that's marketed to intermediate to advanced players and expect it'll be something you can understand.

Unfortunately, Amazon's policy is to allow customer reviews with lousy 1-star ratings from people who say they've not read a book because they don't like the premise, and Amazon keeps a 1-star review here from a customer who doesn't play guitar and who then gives the poor developer just one star, which lowers the overall rating. This lowest rating is given even when the customer adds "If you play the guitar you will like it."

Amazon could leave the words up but just leave the stars blank if they care about being fair to creators and other customers (once Amazon is notified of inappropriateness, since they request alerts that they then tend to ignore).

I don't play guitar and don't plan to, so I'm not likely to download the app, but if I wanted to -- in case I wanted to learn later -- I sure wouldn't be doing a 1-star review on it. Amazon really should take another look at their review system for entries which are not reviews.

At least they've now started requesting 'feedback' on reviews in place of just reports of reviews that aren't 'appropriate.'
I've seen Amazon intentionally leave 1-star product reviews up when a product was shipped late or not shipped by a marketplace vendor (which is definitely not a review of a product or work), and yet the creator has to see an important marketing tool (genuine feedback on a product that took a lot of work as a sullied by this type of policy, which is not helpful to interested customers.

Customers who use the 'average customer rating' feature need to be able to trust the overall ratings more.

Again, all Amazon has to do is show blank stars and not count an entry for 'review' when it's clearly not a review -- OR at least do some weighting of the rating (after people report real problems with appropriateness) that doesn't give that rating EQUAL weight with other reviews.

Kindle Tips: a 4-USB port car-charger for Kindle, Android, Apple devices

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 15:34:00 +0000

A 4-USB port car charger I just bought
Thought others would be interested in this very useful gadget for your car. It will charge, using four high output ports (2.1A max total), both Apple and Android/Kindle devices at the same time.

There is also an alternate 2-USB port model, with one port that promises compatibility with Apple, using a 2-Ampere port for iPad, plus a 1-Ampere port for other devices, including Kindles, on the other port.

The iFlash High Output 4 USB Car Charger - 2.1A Output is said to work with "iPad, iPad 2, iPad 3, iPhone 4 / 4S, HTC, Droid, EVO, Galaxy S2, Kindle Fire, GPS, and Other Tablets, Smart Phones and USB Powered Devices"

(Ports that work for Kindle Fire also work with the e-Ink Kindles.)

So far, this 4-USB port charger has about 25 customer reviews with an average rating of 4.6 stars. For $9.99 and Prime shipping, I didn't think twice.
Most reports on that page are very enthusiastic. However, there are a couple of reports that it interferes quite a bit with the reception of radio stations with weak signals or, in one case interferes with a 'whining tone' that 'wanders in pitch, with weak station signals. One customer said to start your car first and let it run for awhile before plugging it in, as otherwise it spiked her battery and resulted in the trip mileage and clocks resetting themselves, but she otherwise headlines it as "Awesome for multiple gadgets when traveling."
The other 22 reviews as of today are 5-star ones.
One aspect mentioned in the product description: "...monitors charging to direct the power to the device that needs it most."

(Note: There is also a "Skiva PowerFlow QuadFire" device that's advertised to be twice as fast with twice the wattage and it gets many positive reviews (for 3 times the price), but it also gets a lot of bad customer-reviews for suddenly not working, being actually slower than the 2.1 amp devices, and in one case reported to work with only 2 ports at a time.)

Here's one with two USB ports, this combo using Apple protocol on one port (2-ampere and designed for Apple products but useable by the mentioned other devices), the other port being for Standard devices, usually phones (1A only).
Made by iFlash, which makes the 4-port one I bought, it's SAID by the vendor to also work on 'all' Apple mobile products, providing output for all 4 at a time, but I'd double check with the vendor on the newer iPad 4.

Here are some other options.

Kindle Fire News: Amazon's 32GB Kindle Fire HD 7-inch tablet now $229 ($20 lower).

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 10:24:00 +0000

Screenshots from Google Maps and Street View apps on my Kindle Fire HD 7"

Google Map of San Francisco Bay Area

Via Street View app, here's the Presidio area.

(Click on an image to see the larger version.)

Amazon's Kindle Fire HD 7" Tablet product page shows a new, lower price on 32GB model

The 32GB model (which I did buy w/o thinking twice because video, alone, takes a lot of storage space, and so do any enhanced Kindle books and certainly graphics-rich magazines) has been $249 but the price was changed today to $229.

That's likely due to reduced prices on parts for Amazon, and they may not have sold as many of those as the 16GB model because many people don't realize how much storage space can be taken up with the multimedia files that are so popular on tablets.

I've changed the comparison table for Kindle Fire HD 7", Google Nexus, and iPad mini to reflect the new pricing.

Will restate something I inserted the other day in the middle of a blog article on the new Enhanced Kindle books with audio/video, because it's germane here, and now the price difference between the 16GB and 32GB models of the 7" HD tablet is just $30.

The basic Kindle Fire HD 7" tablet can store 16 Gigs but a few gigs are used for system files. I bought the 32G model and 5 gigs are set aside for system files.

If I'd bought only the 16G basic Kindle Fire, I'd have almost no storage space left by now, as I have only 16 gigs remaining on my 32G tablet.

Of course we can always remove files from a device, and any Kindle purchases (and personal documents we've sent to our "Personal Documents" storage space (via EMail) are re-downloadable at any time, when we actually want or need to read them.

I tend to keep a lot of favorite Youtube video files on my tablet, but there's no reason that I need to have as many books ON the device as I do.

So, I'm glad they lowered the price on this, as I feel it makes more sense with multimedia devices to get 32GB, even if with care via use of the Cloud and computer backups, the 16GB ones can be fine.

For daily free ebooks, check the following links:

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Kindle News: 'Inside Story of the Kindle' ... Will Walmart same-day delivery fill Amazon w/ dread?

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 23:19:00 +0000

Why am I showing an old Kindle 2?

After seeing the story below, my mind went back to my older Kindles, and this Kindle 2 was one I enjoyed a lot in its day.

Saw today, in the Huffpo, an excerpt from Jason Merkoski's Burning the Page -- the chapter on Inside Story of the Kindle

From what I gather, Merkoski, as a former Amazon staffer and early innovator on Amazon's Kindle team, doesn't offer a glowing look at the whole scene, and the New Times blog area recently had this quote:

' "Q. Why did you leave Amazon?

A. Working at Amazon was like getting an M.B.A. and a Ph.D. at the same time.

It was an incredible education. These were the smartest people I ever worked
with. But Amazon had a dark side as well, as if it were the mean stepmother in a
fairy tale.

There was this push to get great products out to consumers. It makes
a lot of teams very haggard. Amazon is held together by adrenaline, spreadsheets
and people running around like crazy." '

Note to Kindle Edition readers (subscribers) (UK page) of the blog (which shows the most-recent 25 blog articles) - When you click through a link, you can get a more readable version of the web article by selecting Menu/Article View. (Then, press 'back' arrow or Menu/Web View.)

"Will Amazon tremble at Walmart’s same day delivery dream?"
Mediajob's Cheryl Ross describes Walmart's possible plans for same-day delivery, which she apparently feels Amazon might fear, though she then explains why it might not.

I don't know. What do you think about it? From the story: (emphases mine)

' The idea? Offer in-store visitors a discount on their purchases if they agree to deliver a same-day package to a Walmart e-customer on the way home.

Karen E. Edwards, an e-retailing expert from the University of South Carolina, explains:
“Walmart would want to have a proof-of-delivery system, as well as a written agreement with the delivery person that includes a reimbursement clause if the goods are damaged or not delivered. That would probably have a chilling effect on some people who otherwise might have performed the service, but would also reduce the likelihood of theft...”

The company would also need to find a way of establishing that such delivery persons are not Walmart employees and aren’t entitled to Worker’s Compensation, Edwards continued, and there’d need to be a waiver to release Walmart from liability if the deliverer got injured during the errand... '

How many of us would welcome delivery by strangers not officially employed by the store, who would bring us what we ordered, to our doorstep? Granted, there'd be a record of the customer who was sent out to bring you your package...

Kindle Fire Tips plus one KindleTouch Tip. Follow-up Info on recent software updates. Free audio/video enhanced Kindle books to try.

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 13:58:00 +0000

FOLLOW-UPS ON RECENT KINDLE SOFTWARE UPDATES: Touch - v5.3.2.1;
Fire - v10.3.0, v7.3.0, and v8.3.0

Kindle Touch, v5.3.2 and 5.3.2.1
Q: "After the software update, my Collections are no longer listed. The books are just listed in abc order. So, I tried to reenter a title such as Suspense, and it says the title is currently in use and to enter a different title. Does anyone know what I should do?"

A: Amazon made an odd decision there. Normally, when you tap 'Recent' or 'Title' or 'Author' sorting options while choosing "Books" to view on the Home Screen, you'd expect to be able to see another option, which would be 'Collections' -- but that option doesn't show up when you have selected only "Books" (where they SHOULD show up).

You have to lightly tap 'Books' (or 'Periodicals,' 'Audible,' 'Docs' etc.) below the top row and choose "My Items" instead before you can get the 'Collections' choice for sorting now. It may be due to Amazon's defining 'Books' as Kindle Books only, while "My Items" includes Docs, etc.

Recent Kindle Fire updates, x.3.0
Enhanced Kindle Editions with Audio/Video feature that came with the recent Kindle Fire updates.
There is an added step to see these, if you've downloaded the book previously.

Q: "How do you get the audio/vidio to work?"

A: People are finding out that they need to remove any current copy of an Enhanced Kindle Edition from their Kindle Fire (2nd gen, 7" HD and 8.9" HD) and then RE-download the title previously purchased with audio and video, before they can access the audio/video portions of the book with the Kindle Fire.

Hyperion offered, In Sept. 2011, the Audio/Video Edition of the Jacqueline Kennedy Historic Conversations, for $10 rather than the regular $16.49 price, but it was usable only on "iPads, iPhones, and iPod Touch devices" (and it's still described that way despite the software updates).

Nevertheless, at the time, figuring Amazon would make this available for their own tablets someday, I bought the enhanced edition at that price (it was and still is available without the audio/video for $10 too, but why not get the one with more features, for later?)

So, this week I downloaded the never-read Kindle book from my Cloud, and sure enough the audio and video features work very well on the Kindle Fire HD 7" and 8.9" tablets I have.

Bear in mind that that the Enhanced Edition will take up a LOT of tablet storage space.
For instance, the Kennedy Conversations Edition WITHOUT audio/video (readable text and photos only) is s 5 Meg file, which already (because it has photos) is over 5 times larger than an average novel.

The Audio/Video Edition, however, is a 500 Megabyte file, 100 times larger, and essentially HALF a GIG. The basic Kindle Fire HD 7" tablet can store 16 Gigs but a few gigs are used for system files. I bought the 32G model and 5 gigs are set aside for system files.
If I'd bought only the 16G basic Kindle Fire, I'd have no storage space left by now, as I have only 16 gigs remaining on my 32G tablet.

Of course we can always remove files from a device, and any Kindle purchases (and personal documents we've sent to our "Personal Documents" storage space (via EMail) are re-downloadable at any time, when we actually want or need to read them.

I tend to keep a lot of favorite Youtube video files on mine, but there's no reason that I need to have as many books ON the device as I do.

BONUS Tip - Here are a few FREE Enhanced Audio/Video Kindle Books (from time to time) that you can try, via this special link.

Q: "Why does Time to Read (the remaining pages of a chapter or book) seem to work only sporadically if at all?

A: 1. You need to be on WiFi for this to work, when reading a book, as the servers keep track of time taken to read, and they calculate time remaining based on that. This information, they say, is not retrieved for the server but kept on the Kindle device. Some people like to know, when they need to sleep or leave, how much time it might take to finish the chapter (or the next one).

2. Also, when you're seeing location number (and page number for books that have this) and the timeline bar at the bottom of a screen, you can get the other options (Time to Read, Page No. only, Location No. only) by lightly tapping just above the bottom timeline bar.

Then tap whatever NON-timeline-bar option is showing at bottom left to get the other options.
If you want the timeline bar back, lightly tap just above the normal bottom-bar area, near the center.

Note: When the timeline bar is showing, don't touch the bar itself, as it changes where you are in the book if you move it at all (which is too easy to do).

Comments and advice from the Amazon Kindle Forum Kindle Fire software update x.3.0 topic. Emphases and bracketed comments are mine.

'
Kim Shown says
[in response to questions about glitches after the update]
I suggest contacting kindle customer service, Scott. My kindle hd 8.9 was fixed in less than 15 minutes. He had me go to another power outlet & plug it in, then wait a couple of minutes before depressing the on button & hold it down for 30 seconds. After that, He asked me to wait 20 seconds & repeat the process. I did this 3 times, at his request; then he told me to remove it from the charger & power it back up (holding the power button for less than 15 seconds) & voila, it magically came back to life with no problems. I did get the update & that is what caused the problem, but it works fine now! I hope this helps!

A. Rupert says
" ... I made it so my email wouldn't check for new mail. "
[I turned that one off from the start. I don't want my tablet to be checking email all the time.

I also make sure that my applications don't automatically update. (See Settings / Applications) I just don't want that activity going on all the time, especially when I don't use most of my apps that much, so I don't need the constant updating that would occur.]
Murtaza Aliakbar says:
Hi I develop for Kindle Fire, and I confirm that "Collect App Usage Data" surely has nothing to do with the Battery Drain issue.

[I posted, re this new Kindle Fire setting, found under 'Applications']
Murtaza,
Are you actually saying that gathering info on app use and taking it back to the server does not use battery life - I don't mean extraordinary use but any WiFi activity does use battery and we don't know how often you're taking that info.

mbuff says:
I had the battery drain issue (Kindle Fire HD 8.9" wifi), and now it is resolved. Not sure exactly what fixed it, but here's what I did:
1) I turned off "Collect App Usage Data" (I suspect it was this, not sure)
2) I [then] held down the power key for 20 seconds until my Kindle shut itself off. Then, turned it back on. Previously I had tried shutting it down multiple times the "normal" way without success.

KiddWilliams says:
Battery drain issues for my Fire 2nd gen., after receiving the update, seem largely resolved for me now after
1) turning off the Collect App Usage Data, and
2) doing a hard reset: press and hold the off button for a full 30 seconds, ignoring all screen prompts, etc., then waiting for a minute and turning it back on.

Dr. Bobby H. Wang MD says:
Good news is that 7.3.0 & 8.3.0 can finally handle a >50,000 Item Cloud Library.
[ Emphasis mine -- this is good news. ]

Alan Harrah says:
For those with battery drain problems, you might try turning off location services. Once turned on by an app that used it, it was THE main reason my battery was draining. It seems to not allow the kindle to sleep. This needs to be fixed obviously, but turning off location services for now is something you might try to see if it helps in your case as well.
[That's another setting I do turn Off unless an app I am using REALLY needs it for something I want.]

[I also do not have Weather apps active. The constant use of battery for some weather apps may be worth it to some, but not to me.] '

That's the latest I've seen on the discussions following the recent software updates.

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Kindle Fire News and Tips: X-Ray feature being added to TV shows. A brief listing of recently X-ray-enabled TV shows and movies.

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 22:03:00 +0000

The Latest TV and Movie Instant Videos with X-Ray Feature

This feature lets you see who the actors in the current scene are, when you tap the screen or pause the video.

Videos with the X-Ray feature are ID'd at IMDB, an Amazon subdidiary whose databases are used for the X-Ray features.

For TV, these now include episodes from: Doctor Who; Grey's Anatomy; Justified, Downton Abbey; Glee...

For movies, these include: Zero Dark Thirty; Walking Dead; Les Miserables; Life of Pi; Lincoln; Skyfall... (Django Unchained isn't for Amazon rental currently.)

X-Ray for Movies & Tv is available on Kindle Fire and Wii U devices.
To access this info while watching an Amazon Instant Video title, tap the screen or pause the video to launch X-Ray (then tap it again or start Play to continue the video).

IMDB plans to "add X-Ray to more television content each week."

IMDB's pages say that to see if a title supports X-Ray, you should look for the "Includes X-Ray" icon on the title's Amazon Instant Video detail page. (I'm not sure it always shows up -- maybe they're behind on that, or I'm just missing it.)

Will end this here, as I'm working on some follow-up info on the recent Kindle Fire software updates, and I'll do that separately to save the eyes and minds.

Kindle Tip or Alert: Amazon's latest Kindle Book deal - 20 Kindle books for $2 each, thru' April

noreply@blogger.com (Andrys Basten) — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 14:34:00 +0000

Amazon's latest Kindle Books deal: 20 Kindle Books for $2 Each, through April 30, 2013

Amazon says nothing beyond this except that they include "literary fiction, mysteries, science fiction, thrillers..."

Just an alert for those who don't receive the special offer alerts. I've kept them on one of my Kindles.

For those who missed the April 1 monthly round-up of ongoing deals, you can find that here.