Kindle For Easy Reading: December 2010

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Amazon begins its KINDLE-BOOK LENDING program, finally - Update3

AMAZON ACTUALLY STARTS KINDLE-BOOK LENDING PROGRAM.

On time too -- year end.
This started as a preview of the new Kindle-book lending feature as described by Amazon.

I tweeted this development, at about 3:45 PM PST after reading about it on the forums where it was already a busy message thread.

That main Kindle Team Forum Announcement is at the Amazon Kindle Community forums, and I'm adding a bit more in this update with modifications to the earlier afternoon report .

REMINDER: If your web browser (especially Firefox) drops you onto the Amazon Kindle Forum's list of topics instead of bringing you directly to a forum thread, click on Refresh or Reload to get the message thread itself -- or click again on the link here. I don't know why a 'retry' is often needed with the forums, but it is, in my case at least.

Here's the very brief announcement for the blog record:

' Initial post: Dec. 30, 2010 9:16 AM PST
The Amazon Kindle team says:
(AMAZON OFFICIAL)

Today, we're pleased to launch Kindle Book Lending, a new feature that lets you loan Kindle books to anyone you choose. The borrower does not need to own a Kindle. Kindle books can be read on Kindle or using our free Kindle reading applications for PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android devices. Each eligible book can be lent once for a period of 14 days. Not all e-books are lendable - the publisher or rights holder determines which titles are enabled for lending. For more information on how to loan Kindle books, please visit www.amazon.com/kindle-lending.
'

As it is, there is quite a bit of good detail, with illustrations, at the main Kindle-book lending page.

Kindle-edition subscribers: Do use the computer instead to see that very helpful, detailed Amazon how-to-page for loaning or borrowing Kindle books.
Type in http://amzn.to/kindle_lending to see it on the computer. There are too many illustrations there in larger size to load quickly and read comfortably on a small 6" e-reader screen. I'll use some smaller ones below.

PUBLISHER LIMITATIONS PLACED ON THE LENDING PROGRAM
It works only for books that are approved for lending by them and, as with the B&N Nook's lending program, the features are quite restricted in that you can lend ANY book JUST ONCE and never again.

As in the physical world, understandably, your lent book can't be read while it's 'out' with someone else. The borrower gets it for 14 days MAXIMUM and it then disappears from the borrower's Kindle (UK: K3) or from their free Kindle apps and cannot be re-borrowed. There's no stay of execution on that 14-day loan, so let them know that 14 days is tops.

After the loan is completed, that book is no longer lendable by you to anyone.

SHARING BOOKS RATHER THAN LENDING THEM
But also remember that you can "share" (not loan) Kindle books with others who share one Amazon account (the account owner pays for everything), which is NOT part of the lending program but a very reasonable feature.

LOAN-TRADE SITES
There are already sites being set up so that people can request and trade a loan if the Kindle owner doesn't need to loan a particular book to someone close and wants a particular book. A Nook-book loan-trading forum has been popular for awhile. I imagine the publishers don't love this idea, but with paper books that often now cost LESS than the e-book versions due to publisher-pricing whimsies, those paper-bound books CAN be lent to one and all, and the paper industry has survived through the decades.

Now that more than one loan-trade site is being set up and I don't want to recommend (rather than report on) this, I've started you off if you want to investigate whether this would work for you and is fair to publishers (only one loan permitted per book would seem to take care of that problem though).
The sites are being announced on Amazon's own forums and you can find them if you search on "lend book sites" in the forum searchboxes there, on the right.

I do feel strongly that reasonable lending rights should be given for the considerably higher prices placed lately under the Apple iBook Store Agency model insisted upon by the Big 5 for unlendable books we can't resell or give away to friends. Let's hope they realize that one loan per book to anyone is not going to make a difference in a world where people have always shared books without being made to feel guilty about it (what are we coming to?), and the margins on e-books are better than they are with paper books.

MAYBE NOT ALL THE BOOKS ARE CATEGORIZED YET
Word is that less than 30% of books are currently categorized as loanable by larger publishers. In the meantime, when I learned about implementation of book-lending earlier today, I didn't blog it right away, as Amazon seemed in the middle of implementing it all -- any available loanable book descriptions had not shown up (that I could see) in my ManageYourKindle page's books area yet, nor did any books I own and checked show any loaning-info on the Amazon product pages I was exploring. Maybe more will show as lendable tomorrow.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF SOME OF THE KINDLE-BOOK LENDING PROCESS

Here's an image of what you'd see on your ManageYourKindle page when you click on the "+" sign next to one of your books.

My current understanding is that when the publisher has not yet approved the book for loaning, no loan wording appears at all.

At the right is an image of what you'd see at the top of a Kindle book's Amazon product page if you own that Kindle book.

Even with Kindle books you don't own, any loan availability should be shown in the Product Details area further down the product page on the left side. That'll look similar to the image on the image below.

Does Amazon need to get explicit authorization for the lending program from all publishers?

That could explain the many books I have that show no lendability information on the ManageYourKindle page, where we can see loan-availability if we EXPAND the '+' symbol on our books to see if they're listed as lendable.

OTHER DETAILS FROM AMAZON'S HELP PAGES
Acceptance of loan
Loan recipients will be notified of the loan through the e-mail address that lenders provide and have seven days to accept the loan. If not accepted after seven days, the book becomes available again in the lender's Archived Items, at which point the book owner can attempt to loan the book again.

The loan can't be accepted if the borrower already owns the title or that title is not available in the borrower's country due to copyright restrictions. After the seven-day period, the lender will be able to read and loan the book again.

Notifications
Three days before the end of the 14-day loan period, borrowers will receive a courtesy reminder-email about the loan expiration.
Both the book lender and the borrower will receive email notifications when the loan period has ended, and the lender can then access the book again through the device's Archived Items grouping and the ManageYourKindle page at Amazon.

The borrower will receive a notice on the Home screen of the Kindle-compatible device, indicating that the loan has ended and will still be able to view the title from the Archived Items folder as well [how weird], but selecting the title will bring up a reminder that the loan has ended and provide a link to purchase the item (ahah! that explains it -- this way they can be motivated to buy it.).

Early return of a borrowed book
It's often asked if that will be possible. The recipient CAN return the loaned book early by accessing the Your Orders section of the Manage Your Kindle, clicking on the "+" symbol by the loaned title, clicking to delete the Title and then clicking 'Yes' to confirm the return.

Checking the status of the loan
Again, use the Manage Your Kindle page. Click on the "+" symbol next to any title to view more details for any book that you've loaned or borrowed, including how much time might be left.

Is lending available internationally? In Amazon's words:
"At this time, Kindle book lending can only be initiated by customers residing in the United States. If a loan is initiated to a customer outside the United States, the borrower may not be able to accept the loan if the title is not available in their country due to publisher geographical rights.

In these cases the borrower will be notified of this during the Loan redemption process, and the book reading and lending rights will return to the lender at the end of seven days from loan initiation. You can always check the status of a loan by viewing the book on the Manage Your Kindle page."
_______

In the end, although the forumners were restless about this, Amazon did meet its year-end goal, and the restrictions are not theirs, although forum threads indicate that many don't know this.

Again, most I've read seem to feel that it's better to have loaned and lost (further loan-rights on a book) than never to have loaned at all. :-)

Kindle 3's (UK: Kindle 3's), DX Graphite

Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources. Top 100 free bestsellers.
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or highest-rated ones
Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Interview w/ Amazon Kindle-Content head + How many millions of Kindles?

INTERVIEW WITH AMAZON'S RUSS GRANDINETTI

The Los Angeles Times' Alex Pham gets some interesting responses from Russ Grandinetti, who is in charge of content for the Kindle (UK: K3).

After pointing out that Amazon currently controls 76% of the U.S. digital books market, Pham gives a brief history of the tensions between the publishing industry and Amazon's efforts to keep bestselling book prices lower, with a $9.99 or less standard that "infuriated a number of established publishers, who feared that digital sales would undercut the lucrative hardcover market."

Yes, think "The Big5" who did admit to fears that selling e-books at that price would 'devalue' their books, meaning their hardcover books.

Here are some excerpts:

' ...And its promise in October to give authors who self-publish through its Kindle store a 70% royalty rate, far greater than the 25% in a standard publishing contract, spread fear and loathing throughout New York's publishing houses.

Some folks are irked that they can't easily transfer digital books they bought elsewhere into their Kindles. Why did you choose a proprietary technology?

We chose a format that we felt would give us better performance and superior ease of use. It's the reason why the Kindle has faster page turns than some of the other devices. Because we control our own standard, we can develop applications that let customers read Kindle books on the iPhone, Android tablet, iPad, BlackBerrys and PC.
. . .

Publishers kicked up quite a fuss about digital book prices being too low. Can you actually grow the overall business by shrinking prices?

We think digital books should cost somewhat less than their print counterparts. When we controlled the pricing, we built the business around $9.99. A small group of publishers have taken control of their pricing, and they've raised the prices. It's not surprising that publishers who are raising prices are losing market share relative to publishers who decided to keep prices low. Customers aren't stupid. Ultimately, the market will drive prices.

Aren't you losing money by paying publishers 50% of the cover price for a $25 hardcover and selling it for $9.99?

Taking a loss on bestselling books is different than taking a loss on your overall book business. We may lose money on bestsellers, but across the breadth of our catalog, we run a profitable, sustainable book business.

Do publishers now see you as a rival rather than a customer because of your self-publishing business?

We think the efficiencies of selling digital books should not only accrue to publishers but should also accrue to authors. That means that the middlemen standing between authors and readers need to get more efficient, and they need to pass those savings along. The 70% [royalty] rate we offer is a way to pass those efficiencies along. '

I left out quite a bit, of course, so be sure to read the full interview.

HOW MANY MILLIONS DID HARRY POTTER'S FINAL BOOK SELL?
For those looking for figures, Amazon insiders had already whispered, to Bloomberg last week, Kindle-device sales of 8 million by end of 2010. The Daily Planet Dispatch's Martha Astbury and, it seems, every other newspaper, quoted the Amazon press release on the Kindle 3 having passed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as Amazon's bestselling product of all time.

What would that mean? Astbury points out that Amazon sold 2.5 million copies of that final book in the series (in its debut quarter, per MSNBC) when it was released in mid 2007, three years ago, "and it's safe to asusme they've sold quite a few since then."

Columnists have been trying to explain for weeks why, early this year, their dire predictions of the Kindle's death by iPad by end of 2010 were so wrong.

The most curious one was by Nick Bilton of the New York Times, who outdid himself by yet again not getting it in that he "admits" that he was "wrong" and then lists a number of reasons why the Kindle is so popular with others (despite his own value system), BUT he doesn't even begin to mention the primary reason - the e-Ink technology that makes it SO EASY on the eyes relative to reading a long-form novel on an LCD screen.

There ARE people whose eyes need a lot of contrast, and dark gray (or black in the Kindle 3) on light gray may not work for them. But in reading the NookColor forum, I was amused to see people saying that they can read books just fine by choosing a color scheme that turns the white background to gray. It does help not to have bright white coming at your eyes and I always turn down the background on my computer screens and my NookColor.

Back to reading novels -- A novel involves serial, long-session reading of one word after another with no relief from web-browsing's shifting of eyes from this to that area or object. On an LCD screen which is more or less, for some, like having a dimmed flashlight beaming into your eyes, long-form reading can be a bit fatiguing. There are those who don't mind it.

Younger eyes may have less trouble, but an e-reader that mimics the experience of seeing light on a paper book rather than into your eyes has been a real attraction for literally millions now. There are countless posts on forums about how new Kindle-3 owners felt the words they saw upon unboxing their new e-reader were printed in boldface on something that should be peeled off the screen, only to find out that WAS the screen display.

Instead, as usual with many tech columnists (gadgeteers by profession) who cannot imagine anyone valuing JUST reading rather than forever surfing, checking email, and watching movies, he cites only that it's lightweight, easy to use, "and most importantly, inexpensive."

Well, of course -- isn't that why all the $99 and other cheap tablets on the market are doing SO WELL? Because they're inexpensive? No, he again misses the point and doubles up on his wrongheadedness by ending with more advice to Amazon that the Kindle will have to get yet cheaper to stay viable -- because he can't imagine that a device just for reading books (primarily) could possibly be of much value to people when positioned against LCD tablets (as he does again).

Granted, if something like Notion Ink's Adam actually makes it to production, with a capability of paper-like display and LCD color in one package, then Amazon will need to adjust its focus, but that's just normal business development.

Astbury (or her source columnist at MSNBC) gets it though. She explains:

' Many of the new customers for the e-book readers already have tablets and love them for their touchscreens, their color and their multimedia uses, such as web browsing, movies and games.

But they still like to have a light-weight device they can use exclusively for reading, which doesn’t use up batteries as fast, and uses e-ink technology, rather than colored pixels, which forms a better image for reading... '

I'm enjoying my NookColor for magazines and the web (WiFi only), but when I leave the house I take the Kindle, as it has free cellular 3G access, is easier to read in daylight (by far), is better for newspaper and book reading, and is very light. The cost of it has nothing to do with why I choose it as the e-reader that's always with me. It just provides more of what I personally like, but the NookColor is a great secondary reader despite many quirks which I've already mentioned in a past blog article. One unusual item for other NookColor users to watch is a charger vulnerability that has 4 reports there.

Ah, it figures. EWeek has two opposing columns on the Kindle-sales story: one that gives 10 reasons why Kindle sales keep growing, with people who want e-readers, and will continue to do so in 2011 and another column that "explains" that Bezos' statements about the happy co-existence of iPad and Kindle is probably due to his "anxiety" over the "looming threat of the iPad."

Kindle 3's (UK: Kindle 3's), DX Graphite

Monday, December 27, 2010

For New and Olde Kindlers Wanting to Do More with their Kindles

CREATIVE USES OF THE KINDLE
Well, pleasurable reading is good enough for most, but there is a lot more that can be done with the Kindle, as shown in the short list just below.
(I recommend bookmarking this for quick access later.)

1. an old, continuing favorite forum thread about the more unique uses of the Kindle's capabilities thought up by members of the Amazon Kindle Community, and I saw another idea added today.

2. a newer forum thread of favorite tips for new Kindle owners from Kindle oldtimers.

NOTE: If your web browser (especially Firefox) drops you onto the Amazon forum list of topics instead of bringing you to the forum thread, click on Refresh or Reload to get the message thread itself -- or click on the link again. I don't know why a 'retry' is often needed, but it is.

3. The Kindle Chronicles
This is a very informative, fun resource for Kindlers at http://thekindlechronicles.com, a weekly podcast hosted by Len Edgerly who, each Friday night, brings us a roundup of the latest news (with links), excellent tech tips, an interview with someone from the Kindle world at large and some from just outside it who are of course in the Kindle net then :-) Len also presents video reviews as well. At the site are summaries of what is included in the latest podcast report. Links are given there for items mentioned in the podcast.

4. the new Kindle book by Stephen Windwalker, who has been explaining what can be done on Kindles since the Kindle 1, and this just-released book that includes info for the Latest Generation Kindles is only $0.99, which is more than a bargain.

STARTING GUIDE - BY AMAZON KINDLE SUPPORT TEAM - TOP10 FAQs
To START, though, Amazon has made a new 'Announcement' in the forums which introduces Kindlers to Kindle Top Ten FAQ's, and oldtimers add to the thread, explaining some of it from their experience and helping some there who have specific problems starting out.

Here is a regular WEB version of Kindle Team's TOP10 FAQs with active links (bracketed comments are mine).

I'll keep a link to this post in the right-hand reference column of the web blog).

' Last edited by the author on Dec. 25, 2010 10:35 AM PST

Amazon Kindle Customer Service says:
(AMAZON OFFICIAL)

Did you recently receive Kindle as a gift? Welcome to our growing family of Kindle users! To help you quickly get started with your new Kindle, we've created a list of some of the most common questions new users have:

1. How can I start reading on my new Kindle?

Visit our Getting Started page to see the simple steps (including videos) to start reading on your new Kindle right now:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_200580340_gettoknow?nodeId=200580340

2. How do I set up the Wi-Fi connection on my Kindle (Latest Generation)?

Kindle (Latest Generation) automatically detects nearby Wi-Fi networks and hotspots that broadcast their network name. You can watch a video about how to connect to a Wi-Fi network here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=200588130#connect

For more information on how to connect to a Wi-Fi network see our guide here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200505540&#setupwifi

[Note that you can click to get larger videos, if wanted, at the video pages.]

3. How do I apply and use a gift card to purchase Kindle titles?

To use an Amazon.com Gift Card for purchases from the Kindle Store, redeem the gift card in Your Account (http://www.amazon.com/your-account). Any gift card balance available on your account will be applied to purchases from the Kindle Store, except for content with recurring subscription charges.

To successfully complete your purchase, you'll need to establish your home country or region and set a valid 1-Click billing address. You can set your billing address at the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/css/account/address/view.html.

[The billing-address page sometimes takes a while to load.]

4. How do I register/deregister my Kindle?

From Amazon.com, you can register or deregister via the Manage Your Kindle page

(http://www.amazon.com/myk).

From your Kindle, select Home > Menu > Settings > Register or Deregister.

5. How do I start shopping in the Kindle Store?

You can shop in the Kindle Store directly from Kindle or from Amazon.com. Shopping the Kindle Store on your Kindle is a convenient way to find and buy Kindle books, newspapers, magazines, and if you are a U.S. customer, Kindle active content and blogs for your Kindle. If you are in your wireless coverage area, your purchases from the Kindle Store are delivered to your Kindle, typically in less than 60 seconds.

[KINDLE SHORTCUT: If on the Kindle, press Alt-Home keys at the same time.]

6. How do I give a Kindle book as a gift or redeem a Kindle book that I received as a gift?

To gift a Kindle book, click the Give as a Gift button located under the Buy button on Kindle Store product detail pages, and follow the prompts to complete your order.

You can find more information about Kindle book gifts here:

http://www.amazon.com/help/kindlegift

7. Are there any free books available for Kindle?

The Kindle Store contains the largest selection of the books people want to read. This includes the most popular classics for free with wireless delivery in under 60 seconds to your Kindle, computer, or other mobile device.

Learn more: Free eBook Collections (http://www.amazon.com/b?node=2245146011)

[Also see this blog's Free Kindle Books for more.]

8. Can I read Kindle books if I don't have my Kindle with me?

You can read anywhere with our free reading apps, no Kindle required. Whispersync technology saves and synchronizes your last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights across your devices.

To download: (http://www.amazon.com/kindleapps)

9. I have the Kindle (Wi-Fi), but I don't have a Wi-Fi network at home. Can I still buy and download books from home?

If you don't have a Wi-Fi network set up in your home, you have the following options for receiving Kindle content:

I. If your Kindle was recently ordered, you may return the Kindle (Wi-Fi) and purchase the Kindle 3G (Free 3G + Wi-Fi). The added convenience of 3G enables you to download books anytime, anywhere, while on the go-without having to find a Wi-Fi hotspot connection.

The full Return Policy is posted on the Kindle Support pages
(http://www.amazon.com/kindlereturnpolicy).
You can process your return and print a mailing label by visiting our
Online Returns Center (http://www.amazon.com/returns).

II. Even without a home Wi-Fi network, you can still buy content from the Kindle Store and access your Kindle items Archived on Amazon.com through your computer and transfer them via USB to your Kindle. Information about transferring content to your Kindle with USB is available on our Kindle Support pages here:

http://www.amazon.com/kindletransfer

III. You can purchase a home Wi-Fi router to establish a Wi-Fi network in your home with which the Kindle can connect.

10. I have a problem with my Kindle, what should I do?

If you're experiencing software or hardware issues with your Kindle, please reach us by phone for personalized support. You can reach us by phone directly and toll free from many countries by clicking the Contact Us option in the right-hand column of our Kindle Support pages at:

http://www.amazon.com/kindlesupport

Contacting us through the website allows you to verify security before a call is placed and ensures we have your account information ready when we call you. If your country isn't listed or you're unable to take advantage of the Contact Us feature, you can call us directly at 1-866-321-8851 or 1-206-266-0927 if you're calling from outside the U.S.

Still have questions?

Additional information, including answers to frequently asked questions, how to use Kindle, and the Kindle User's Guide can be accessed from our Kindle Support pages here:

http://www.amazon.com/kindlesupport

Happy Reading! '

The "Do More" idea is represented by an overview, at the top, of what Kindle owners have enjoyed doing beyond reading a book and there'll be more detail in the new year.

Be sure to check the reference-section in the right-hand column of the website version of this blog, for guides to making Collections, using the Send Passage to Facebook and Twitter features, and many other tips.

In the coming weeks, I'll be updating those and streamlining them a bit in newly modified blog articles that can also be read on the Kindle edition of the blog for those with not enough time to get here regularly.

NOTE: At the end of each more-recent blog entry, you'll see ready-made links to getting the very latest temporarily-free Kindle books available whenever you're curious about what has been offered since you last checked, sorted by publication date, most recently posted, best-selling, etc. These are links to both the Amazon-US and Amazon-UK sites. Also there are links to information on all free books available for your Kindle.

Kindle 3's (UK: Kindle 3's), DX Graphite

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Reading to All Kindlers Olde and New :-)

AMAZON'S GIFTING OF KINDLE BOOKS CAN'T BE SCHEDULED AHEAD OF TIME
BUT TODAY'S PROBABLY AN APROPOS DAY :-)

This is just a reminder that Amazon did finally make it possible to gift a Kindle book or books to anyone with an email address -- no Kindle required. Kindle Books can be read on Kindle devices, of course, but also on free Kindle reading apps for iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry and Android-based devices.

For more information on gifting Kindle books (a feature long-requested by Kindle owners), see amzn.to/givekindlebooks.

To use the feature, choose a book in the Kindle Store, select "Give as a Gift" and send the gift to anyone with an email address. Notifications of Kindle Books gifts are delivered instantly via e-mail, and the recipient redeems the gift in the Kindle Store to read on any Kindle or free Kindle app.

For convenience, here again is the tiny FAQ at the givekindlebooks page linked earlier above:

'
Frequently Asked Questions about Giving Kindle eBooks
• Do I have to own a Kindle to give or receive a Kindle ebook as a gift?
No. Kindle ebooks can be given and received by anyone with an e-mail address. Kindle ebooks can be read either on Kindle or on your PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, or Android Phone using one of our free reading apps.
• What if the recipient doesn't like or want their gift?
Kindle ebooks received as gifts can be exchanged for Amazon.com gift cards.
• Are all Kindle ebooks eligible to be given as gifts? All ebooks available for purchase in the Amazon.com Kindle Store can be given as gifts. '

If you don't have a book in mind, Amazon editors' picks for the best books of the year may give you an idea.

1. "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
2. "Faithful Place: A Novel" by Tana French
3. "Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War" by Karl Marlantes
4. "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption" by Laura Hillenbrand
5. "The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration" by Isabel Wilkerson
6. "Freedom: A Novel" by Jonathan Franzen
7. "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" by Stieg Larsson
8. "To the End of the Land" by David Grossman
9. "Just Kids" by Patti Smith
10. "The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine" by Michael Lewis

Also, here is the November 5 blog article on other Amazon best-book links for 2010 so far.

Hope all enjoy the day, free of offices and job duties (for most), but keeping in mind those laboring in the kitchens to provide the special pleasures of the holly day.

Photo credit: http://www.desktopexchange (Free desktop wallpaper offered)

Kindle 3's (UK: Kindle 3's), DX Graphite

Thursday, December 23, 2010

EA game apps at 50% off / 8M kindles sold 2010 / My NookColor - a report

ELECTRONICS ARTS HOLIDAY SPECIAL ON ITS KINDLE GAMES
Electronic Arts is offering their games at 50% off through January 2, for SCRABBLE, MONOPOLY, Solitaire, Sudoku, and Texas Hold’em. Also:

. SCRABBLE was UPDATED on 12/15 and it now features "improved graphics and enhanced contrast."

If you bought this earlier, go to that page and there should be an "Update" button for you to get the newer version.

. I had not posted about the now-popular MONOPOLY game either, though you have to make the actual moves for the computer after it's calculated them (!) and I hear there are repetitive features involved.

. Texas Hold'em is another newish one, and I have resisted it since the title reminds me of all the spam ads that used to come at us on the original game. It's not quite as well rated as MONOPOLY (the name is capitalized and is not my doing) but still gets 4 stars from Kindle owners who have bought and rated it.

AMAZON BEATS ANALYST PREDICTIONS (AGAIN)
From Bloomberg Businessweek comes the headline that "Amazon.com Kindle Sales Are Said to Exceed Estimates"
December 23, 2010, 10:34 AM EST (updated story) Italics in some excerpts that follow are just for emphasis by me.

' Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc. is likely to sell more than 8 million Kindle electronic-book readers this year, at least 60 percent more than analysts have predicted, according to two people who are aware of the company’s sales projections.

Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg estimated, on average, that the company would sell 5 million Kindles in 2010. Last year, Amazon sold about 2.4 million Kindles, said one of the people, who asked to remain anonymous because the company doesn’t disclose Kindle sales figures.
. . .
Amazon has disclosed few details on Kindle sales. In October, the company said that sales of the lighter, faster Kindles, which were introduced in July, had surpassed total Kindle sales in the fourth quarter of 2009, the company’s busiest time of year. Sony and Barnes & Noble don’t disclose sales of their e-readers either.
. . .
Amazon’s sales demonstrate that the market for stand-alone e-readers is growing even as Apple Inc. builds demand for the iPad tablet, which lets users read books, watch videos and carry out computing tasks. Apple, based in Cupertino, California, sold 7.46 million iPads from their April debut through September. '

About a zillion competing tablets are due in mid January :-) The iPad itself is due to come out with an improved do-even-more tablet in Feb/March, per multiple rumors of probable features tweeted the last two days. I'm hoping it has a USB port and an SD slot instead of a kludge adapter kit that's extra.

MY NOOKCOLOR
I now have a NookColor for magazines and travel/photoshop books. The Nat'l Geographic magazine is just stunning on it, and I would like to keep it just for that.

The web browser is smoothly fast for a small tablet, thanks to the 8-bit IPS LCD technology and capable processer used, but while the high-resolution image is just amazing (and mesmerizing for me), I am frustrated that it's very hard to read in a strongly lit room in the daytime, and I do tend to like light coming through the windows. Today I was relieved to find my neglected Kindle (couldn't even find it for awhile) after a couple of days, when I wanted to read in daylight, inside.

More serious for me, is the oversensitivity (and sometimes it doesn't react) on the touchscreen, which means that if my hand or a finger just hovers over it while I try to decide what I want to click, I see a link suddenly highlight without my help and I'm whisked there, which is something I really do not want happening.

As is my wont, I then did read heavily about this, using the NookColor's web browser (this device was like a physical appendage for two days because I didn't want to put it down), wondering whether I should get a replacement or if this is just a problem with the NookColor or with Android 2.1 in general (the Nookcolor will get a 2.2 'Froyo' upgrade sometime in January and I can decide at that point whether to keep it or not, since B&N has extended its 14-day trial period to a holiday one of January 31).

I've been somewhat addicted to the magazine reading on it and the webbing as well, because it's fun, but then I find I have an additional frustration in that I have a desktop pc, a great 10.2" screen netbook, and a 3G Kindle and have no trouble getting on the Net so why would I web on the NookColor at home after my initial truly fun-explorations of it on the couch, which is where I also use my 2.7 lb. netbook, on which I can actually type an email reply and know that the letters I type are the ones that will show up.

(See B&N forum reports, Google'd reports, and B&N Tech Support forum for other reports on problems mentioned. Also see the B&N Nookcolor general-discussions area for a wider range of feedback.)

Then I decide I want to show people my new NookColor and out I go before I realize I can't show the Web to them because it has only WiFi and, no, I do not want to spend time outside my home at Starbucks or McDonald's or even B&N to be able to show anyone my new color webbing device or to use it for myself when out. But, at 7" it is an ultra-attractive little unit and I spent 2 full days with it.

I bought it despite wanting to wait for a full Android device (which I wouldn't have to root and re-root everytime there is a vendor firmware update), because a full Android tablet would let me have -- on just one device -- ALL the online-bookstore apps and then I could read the books I've bought from any of them.

Barnes and Noble could allow this but would lose control over what goes on the NookColor and of course they might not love a Kindle for Nook app on it, but wouldn't it maybe be a smart thing to do and then everyone would just get a NookColor and Amazoners would start buying from B&N also? Maybe not, just a thought.

Problem is, I am more apt to get an all-in-one eventually, and they are all coming out in January. I'd like to keep the NookColor just for what they did with the images AND text in National Geographic. It's just beautiful. As a result I've read more stories in it that I normally would. An ereader for night and one for day would be great. But I'd still want an all-in-one in addition to my calming Kindle, and in the meantime I cannot type an email reply on the NookColor, much less do a quick blog entry while away from the house.

Its keyboard unreliability for typing characters makes the very-klunky Kindle3 keyboard a relief. B&N customer reps in person at the store have been just great, I must say. Flexible, friendly, helpful. And the one who sold it to me (because she knew I could not resist it) even keeps up with the technical support forums and has been a big help (Mihiro).

SIDE NOTE:
I had WiFi dropouts and found that when I released the reader from its "N" case with the heavy clamping on the side bezel, my WiFi would reconnect. Same thing when I could not input into a field box. I released the NookColor from that clamp and I could then type into the input box. There's something about the pressure of that clamping on most of the bezel width at that not-small area.

FINAL IRONY:
I was at a restaurant, the Bistro 1491 in Albany, showing off the NookColor (I like it a lot despite the caveats), when the waitress asked if that was the new Nook and asked to look at it. She then told me that she owned a Kindle and didn't think she could read on that kind of backlighting for long. But --- I have the brightness set at only about 5% ! I like backlighting way down. I tried to convince the waitress to give it a longer look but they were pretty busy. A friend told me it probably is just a novelty for me, but it's been a pleasurable one except I cannot type even half-accurately on it.

Since I love to blab in writing, that is a non-starter. BUT their forum folks have said that they are working on a firmware fix for the keyboard woes, which may be partially caused by some chargers or charging mechanisms and the usb port placement under the virtual keyboard area (some find it very hard to insert the USB charger and fear breaking something). This problem with the keyboard action has been termed 'possessed Nook' or 'runaway screens' BUT some people don't find much trouble with it. I don't know how much they try typing on it. Many don't use the Kindle keyboard either, never using the dictionary or annotations even, I've found.

At any rate, some smart B&N folks have shown there is a place for a 7" LCD screen'd e-reader that can include the features we normally enjoy. For now, youtube is no-fun on it (low resolution if a video runs at all, and the unit takes us to the mobile version of youtube), but the next version may provide flash support, which would be great. Yes, I would like some distractions on my e-reader :-)

Nevertheless, they did a beautiful job on the display and the unit feels good, if a bit heavy at almost 1 lb but definitely very solid. The quality seems very high, outside of the keyboard oversensitivity and has been a joy to use except for the typing and if trying to read a book or magazine in daylight.

Turning the brightness all the way up in strong light light can help a bit but not enough and will run the battery down faster; the battery does about 7 hours in my normal usage of it which is heavy on the WiFi-On status for web-browsing. I think that's pretty good.

I'll know when the NookColor update is ready (January) whether I'll keep it or not. The display resolution is better than on the current iPad and the Samsung Galaxy Tablet (the latter sometimes calls to me at $400 + $20/mo 3G access at Sprint but I've been spoiled by the NookColor's superb display).

Kindle 3's (UK: Kindle 3's), DX Graphite

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Q&A: Is there a catch with Free 3G? A data-transfer charge was mentioned.

FROM THE COMMENTS AREA, A QUESTION

A question in the Comment area reminded me that many Kindle owners are unaware of an important feature that allows us to send or place 'personal documents' (any file not received from Amazon) onto our Kindles. The feature is available for personal documents that don't have digital-rights protection on them.

While this can be done with simple transfers from a computer to the Kindle via the USB cable which is part of the power cord and via other methods (see Guides in the reference section in the right-hand colum of the blog), there is also the choice to have the Amazon servers send (and sometimes convert to Kindle format first if needed) the document "over the air" to the Kindle via either 3G cellular wireless (small fee involved) or via WiFi (free) when you are connected to one.

The below question and reply is from a question yesterday to the blog. Below it, I'll include an excerpt from an earlier blog article that was written to clarify the differences between WiFi-Only and 3G/Wifi Kindle models, to reiterate how Wifi and 3G cellular wireless capabilities differ, since it remains an area of confusion for many.

QUESTION BY CHRIS D.

' Q: I am curious about the 3g feature (I have a 3g in the mail already, but have a concern). I understand that the 3g service is indeed free on this model, but I occasionally see a reference to someone paying a charge for some data transfer. I have been unable to locate exactly what might cause this cost to be incurred. In short, what catches are there to the 3g service?

A:
Chris,
The only 3G charge is if you have a personal document or book that you downloaded to your computer from somewhere else but for which you now *want to use 3G cellular wireless* to either:
- 1. 'email' that to your Kindle directly

*OR* which you now want to

- 2. 'email' to Amazon servers for CONVERSION to Kindle format first and then 3G wireless delivery to your Kindle.

(Conversions are done usually for WORD docs or for PDFs which you want Amazon to put into Kindle format with the text re-flowed rather than seen as images of pages which are often too small to read comfortably on a 6" screen).

To have Amazon convert a *PDF* to Kindle-reflowed format, you'd need to put the word "Convert" into the subject field. Otherwise, no words are ever needed for these emails other than the email address that's already in the header.

With Microsoft WORD documents, the conversion is automatic, and you don't need to use the word "Convert" in the subject field (as you do with PDFs).

REMINDER: This is if you want Amazon to send a personal doc (or non-rights-protected book from another source) for you over the 3G cellular network *rather* than via the WiFi you have at home or in the office or nearby at a place that has WiFi (like McDonald's or Starbucks etc).

YOUR KINDLE ADDRESS:
As a Kindle 3 owner, you'd be given a Kindle email-address that Amazon has made specifically for your Kindle, and you'd see that Kindle address at your Kindle management page in a box near the top left of that page.

That Kindle address is of course protected from spammers and anyone you don't give specific permission to place documents on your Kindle -- so we don't tend to give out that Kindle address to others.

The Kindle address is in the form:
[you]@kindle.com

You need to specify which of your email addresses are approved for sending documents direct to your Kindle via the Amazon servers.

You can enter, into the box labelled "Your Kindle Approved E-mail List," any or all of your email addresses that you want given permission to do that.

If you send a personal document to the [you]@kindle.com address, the document will be sent by Amazon servers to your Kindle over the 3G cellular network and, in the U.S., that is 15c per megabyte of a file. Outside the U.S., that's 99c per megabyte of a file.

USING KINDLE 3's WIFI INSTEAD:
With a Kindle3 (these models have a WiFi component), you'd normally want to get the document via WiFi (instead of 3G), which is then free to you for the sending of personal documents to Kindle via Amazon servers.

For WiFi sends instead of 3G, you email the document to Amazon serviers for your Kindle address by addressing it instead to

[you]@free.kindle.com

Then Amazon will then send an email to your correspondence email address (the one you registered with Amazon) that will include a link to your completed file where you can
EITHER
- 1. download it to a computer (if it's a file that has been converted by Amazon for your Kindle) for transfer to your Kindle's "documents" folder via the USB cord

OR

- 2. accept it on your Kindle3 when you are connected to a WiFi network somewhere. If you don't have a WiFi network at home, then #1 above is the way you'd more quickly put it on your Kindle rather than wait until you're near a WiFi network.

With 3G, we are almost always connected, no matter where we are. But the WiFi way to do this is free.

That's the only 'catch' to the 3G service. '

3G CELLULAR WIRELESS AND WIFI
The word "wireless' here pertains to both 3G and WiFi networks.
If the e-reader is not attached to a computer but it can access online sites, it's using a "wireless network." I've seen that many use the term "WiFi" when they mean "3G" mobile-wireless, as it's a confusing area to most who have had no reason to even think about these words before.

3G WIRELESS
As the image at the left indicates, 3G Wireless involves huge wireless networks that cover very long distances -- our cellphones access these networks. This is often referred to as 'mobile wireless' -- or wireless on the go. Coverage involves very large areas and involves cell towers.

WI FI WIRELESS
This involves very "local" and ultra short-range wireless networks -- usually in effect for a home or an office or office building, set up by the individuals using them, but increasingly, cafes and shops are offering customers use of their own WiFi networks while there.

The picture on the left is of my 7-year old Netgear WiFi network router. Mine takes a signal from Comcast's high-speed cable internet service and routes that cable-modem signal via a wire to my main computer and then broadcasts the signal "locally" around my home so that it's accessible without-wires by my printer/scanner and my laptop.
My neighbors have WiFi networks in their apartments as well, and we all use the normal security of some kind of passkey so that others can't "steal" access to our wee networks and slow us down by sharing them without permission.

If you're getting a WiFi-only reader and expect to download books directly to the e-reader without having to hook it up to a computer, you'll need to have a WiFi network set up. They're very inexpensive these days -- it costs about $40 for a good router -- but someone will need to set it up and understand how to maintain it. Friends can help. It's not difficult (except for those without experience with computers), and software that comes with the small router can make it almost automatic.

BOOK-DOWNLOADS DIRECT TO KINDLE
I think the reason that the Kindle reader 'took off' when other e-readers received much less interest is the capability that Amazon built into the reader so that owners can access the cellphone or mobile networks wherever they are (except in some remote areas) to just download a new book on the spot upon hearing about it.

Amazon has said they wanted customers to be able to use the Kindle without need for a computer.
With 3G mobile wireless, it doesn't matter where you are -- you can usually download a book you want or do a look-up online. As Amazon's pages point out, there's no need to look for a "hot spot" -- a place that offers a WiFi network that is sharable by customers, whether for a fee or for free (Starbucks and McDonald's WiFi networks are free).

NOTE
"WHISPERNET" is a term that Amazon first used for Amazon's 3G wireless, and it's been used since then for the 3G wireless service at Amazon. However, sometimes they use the word for WiFi wireless as well now.

Kindle 3's (UK: Kindle 3's), DX Graphite

Monday, December 20, 2010

Kindle for Android newspapers & magazines / Borders, Barnes and Noble dilemmas

LIST OF 100+ NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES IN COLOR, MANY WITH HIGH-RESOLUTION IMAGES, for KINDLE FOR ANDROID

Amazon has a page now that leads to the listing of magazines and newspapers for the Kindle for Android app update.

But here are the separate listings for magazines and newspapers for the Android app update.

They also have a listing that combines newspapers and magazines for Android.

When you compare these Android-app lists against the usual newspapers and magazines available at the Kindle Store for the Kindle itself (in the listings for bestselling newspapers and bestselling magazines), you'll see which publishers haven't signed up at this point for the Android version.

For newspapers, the topmost bestsellers missing currently are Wall St. Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, Financial Times, etc
For magazines, the more obviously missing ones currently are The New Yorker, TIME, Technology Review, PC Magazine, The Nation, Bloomberg Businessweek, etc.

The periodicals not included for Android are explained this way:

' The publisher may have opted out of making it available on certain devices, or the Kindle Reading App experience may not yet be optimized for this publication. '

"JUST NUTS: TITANIC RUSHING TO JOIN FORCES WITH THE ANDREA DORIA"
Ed Renehan's e-publishing, etc. blog had that colorfully apt title in early December for his blog entry on whether Borders was really serious about buying Barnes & Noble.

Today's The China Post has an interesting article on the financial dilemmas facing both Borders and Barnes & Noble, the latter having made themselves available for sale and the former hoping to be the buyer! Barnes and Noble are in better shape than Borders, thanks to their NookColor debut and sales figures.
In fact, I bought a NookColor last week and have been enjoying it as a secondary, supplemental reader for color material, including National Geographic. It has its birthing pains and I'll probably discuss workarounds in a subsequent blog I'm starting, but it is a very nicely designed e-reader although for full books I'll be using the Kindle's E-Ink screen.

Some excerpts from the China Post article:

' Christmas to be decisive for Borders, Barnes & Noble
. . .
In the latest chapter, Barnes & Noble Inc has put itself up for sale, while Borders Group Inc has put its hand out to lenders in hopes of avoiding a cash shortfall early next year.
. . .
Borders is in worse shape, bleeding sales and closing hundreds of stores. Last week it reported yet another double-digit centage decline in same-store sales and said it could violate terms of its debt agreements in the first months of 2011 if it cannot refinance.

Last week, Borders' second-largest shareholder, William Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management, offered to fund a merger of Borders and Barnes & Noble. The idea was dismissed by analysts because of how much the retailers' store locations overlap.

A Borders spokeswoman declined to comment on whether the company was considering a bankruptcy filing.

Larger rival Barnes & Noble is on better footing thanks to its popular Nook e-readers and rising e-book sales. But physical books — a shriveling business — still make up the lion's share of its revenue.

The company put itself up for sale in August and is under the gun to show that the Nook is generating e-book sales quickly enough to warrant a high price for the company.

“Holiday e-reader sales this year will show where you have a clear leader,” said Wahlstrom. Five suitors are eyeing Barnes & Noble, a source has told Reuters.

The difference in the companies' fortunes was plain to see last weekend in Santa Barbara, California. The Borders store there was holding a going-out-of-business sale, even selling the kitchen sink used in its cafe. Across an intersection, a Barnes & Noble teemed with shoppers... '

There's twice as much in that story at the website.

Kindle 3's (UK: Kindle 3's), DX Graphite

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Amazon's revised statement on problematical non-lighted Kindle covers

See yesterday's blog posting for details on a Kindle-cover problem and the Amazon Kindle team statement concerning a resolution for those affected by problem batches of the non-lighted Amazon Kindle-3 cover.

At another forum thread, Marc pointed out that the Amazon-forum response had been edited later to change contact-info for the problem (two telephone numbers are now given) and to clarify that Amazon would be be pleased to replace a problem Amazon-manufactured Kindle cover with a different cover rather than just send a replacement cover:

' Last edited by the author 14 hours ago

The Amazon Kindle team says:
(AMAZON OFFICIAL)

There have been some forum discussions regarding the non-lighted Kindle cover, and our engineering team is looking into this. Regardless, if anyone is having any problem with an Amazon-manufactured Kindle cover, please call us at 877-453-4512 or 206-922-0844. We will be pleased to replace it for free with a different cover or accept a return for a full refund, no matter when the cover was purchased. '

Marc also posted the following from his forum reading:

' Other people have indicated that Amazon is offering the lighted cover in exchange, or refunding the original cost of the cover and giving an additional $25 credit to users so they can get the lighted cover, or any other cover of their choice. '

Marc has provided sourcing on that now and adds the following:

' The two people I mentioned, posted on page 13 of the "This cover. . ." discussion.
You can see them here:

http://www.amazon.com/cover-causes-Kindle-freeze-reboot/forum/Fx12U61UWYSO3UY/Tx17O3815XVEMVM/13/ref=cm_cd_pg_pg13?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B003DZ163E&cdSort=oldest.

Check out Robert M Dunlap's comment, fifth from the top, and Darren_C's comment, that is 11th from the bottom. '

Here is Robert M Dunlap's posting:

' Robert M Dunlap says:

I sent an e-mail to customer support as this issue was happening with my Kindle and un-Lighted case as well. Sure enough, today they called me and they are sending a free lighted case and refunding the cost of my old case. Talk about customer service, I upgraded and got my money back. My orders through Amazon are only going to increase from their already high levels from now on. '

Here's Darren's posting, as one who had a service ticket on this situation for over two weeks:

' darren_c says:

Hi everyone,

I just followed up the Kindle CS team tonight and they have refunded my Kindle cover. I had a service ticket with them for over 2 weeks with this initial problem, before I found out about the cover issue. When I called tonight to follow up the CS Rep. reviewed the notes on my file and then asked me if I had the Kindle cover, which I said yes. He began to ask me to try a few tests and then call him back, but I indicated that after finding this thread last week I had taken the Kindle out of the cover and the problems stopped. But, when I put it back in the problem began shortly thereafter. He confirmed that they are aware of a problem with the cover. Here's what he did for me:

He offered to refund the cover and with all shipping fees as one solution. He also offered to add a $20 credit to be used towards the lighted leather cover, so basically they would give me the more expensive one to replace the other with no extra cost. I declined the lighted cover since I discovered that actually prefer holding the Kindle "naked" for reading. I asked him to go ahead and process the refund the cover and I think I will purchase a sleeve or another type of case.

All of this was done in the most friendly way, so kudos to "Josh" (the Rep. I spoke to) for that! So, in the end Amazon seems to be acknowledging the issue and offering an appropriate solution.

Hope you are all able to find a similar resolution to this, too.

Cheers! '

Scot and also Tony Reynolds were two of the lead customer-sleuths who gathered enough information for Amazon tech support to identify and confirm the cause of the problems.

In late September, I included information about the lighted, hinged cover including the word of mouth on that cover in two forum threads. If interested in that, you can follow that link and that information is in the bottom half.

If affected by this, contact the Kindle team and see yesterday's blog for links to a less expensive cover if wanted and to a general list of Kindle covers available for those who have reported problems to Amazon and would like to choose a different cover.

As for Amazon's general Kindle customer support, I had reported on their forum "Thanks" to the Kindle community for "millions" of Kindles sold in the first 73 days of this holiday quarter. The customer-replies to the announcement say quite a bit about the general level of support.

Kindle 3's (UK: Kindle 3's), DX Graphite

Friday, December 17, 2010

Kindle for Android updated. Amazon re Kindle non-lighted cover. Revised

Android Community's Chris Davies reports that there is a large Kindle for Android update today and as a result, it's now called Kindle for Android, v2.0 and is, as usual, a free download.

The updated version now "includes newspaper and magazine support together with 'Move to SD Card' functionality enabled ... allows access to Amazon’s 100+ periodical titles, and shifts the Amazon store into the app itself rather than kicking you into the web version when you want to buy a new ebook.

Meanwhile there’s also support for sharing your reading progress with social networks. The UI has been tweaked, with the option to use your Android smartphone’s volume keys to control page turns, and the chapter title now included in the reader status bar; there’s also zoom functionality for images and graphics."

SOME AMAZON KINDLE COVERS, NON-LIGHT VERSIONS HAVE CAUSED REBOOTS
There have been various threads at the Amazon Kindle Community forums about what has appeared to be a problem with some batches of the Kindle leather cover without a built-in light but with the hinges that in the Kindle lighted cover make contact with the Kindle to provide power for the built-in light (which goes 'off' when the Kindle is in sleep mode). In other words, in the lighted-covers, there's no problem but with some of the non-lighted Amazon Kindle ones, the hinges are similar but no electrical contact was intended.

It's speculated that if the latter's hinges are metal (some seem to be plastic and not causing problems), there is contact made that has caused reboots for some Kindle-3 owners for whom Amazon has replaced Kindles several times to no avail (while other others haven't had any trouble). And some feel that the problems have shown up more with cold weather.

In the forums, the customers have been discovering that if they remove the Kindle from their non-lighted Amazon Kindle cover, the reboots stop.

[Edited to clarify this paragraph]
This has been consistent, with what had originally been thought to be problems with certain Kindle-3s but weren't, and the reports about the cover problem for some have been increasing lately.

In a Kindle thread last night, Amazon Kindle Support responded (2nd note from the bottom there) to the increasing frustration due to some inconsistency of response from Customer Support reps at the first-response level:

' In reply to an earlier post on Dec. 16, 2010 10:10 PM PST

The Amazon Kindle team says:
(AMAZON OFFICIAL)

There have been some forum discussions regarding the non-lighted Kindle cover, and our engineering team is looking into this. Regardless, if anyone is having any problem with an Amazon-manufactured Kindle cover, please contact us at kindle-response@amazon.com, and we will be pleased to replace it for free or accept a return for a full refund, no matter when the cover was purchased. '

Side note: A couple of Kindle owners have solved the problem for themselves by putting electrical tape around the upper hinge's contact point.

The non-problem lighted-cover costs $25 more, and while many are happy with it, as seen in various forum threads and a good added light will cost an average $15 or so, this will be too much for some even if they have liked the case quite a bit -- and there are less expensive non-lighted cases. One example is the Acase, a platform type that costs about $11. While the quality won't be as high (as pointed out in the few customer reviews from confirmed buyers), people still give it 4 stars out of 5 and, at the least, it will keep the Kindle safe while making a decision on a better one. Others are planning to accept the refund and apply it to the lighted case.
[Edited the link for the Acase cover as I had the general covers link there instead.]

But there are a plethora of Kindle-3 covers from which to choose.

I should add that I use a Cole-Haan with hinges but it has caused no reboots and the Kindle is always in the cover; however, it's expensive and I got it when there was a large discount on it briefly. So any hinge problems would be with certain batches of the official Amazon Kindle non-lighted cover.

Kindle 3's (UK: Kindle 3's), DX Graphite

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Updated Mobiweb Kindle bookmarks file w/ tips on using gmail on Kindle 3

The bookmarks photo is from petittscreations.com. I ran across them and liked the bookmarks but have no association with the site.

This is an alert that the ongoing mobiweb file of bookmarks or website-links for Kindles, which includes tips on how to get around problems with Google's gmail and gtasks on the Kindle 3, was just updated to try to make the tips more readable and to alphabetize and boldface the link titles for ease of use.

Before uploading this, I got an Amazon alert that those interested in GPS units might want to know that there's a one-day series of "lightning deals" on GPS units which they say will have discounts of up to 66% today.

Kindle 3's (UK: Kindle 3's), DX Graphite

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

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Kindle 3 gets another 2010 product award + a renewed kinstant links page

MOBILE VERSIONS OF WEBSITES

"Trusted Reviews" site is an excellent UK site for information on just about any technology in the modern world. I had meant to include their ultra-thorough review of the Kindle 3 (UK: K3) earlier but somehow forgot.

Be sure to take a look at that; it includes a video and excellent photographs and details. They are also knowledgeable enough to understand and value the rather revolutionary aspect of the free (even if slow) 3G web access. I suspect other reviewers would too if this feature turned up on other e-readers (which won't happen). The Kindle has the only free 3G web browser not confined to the company store.

Product of the Year, Runner Up
As it turns out, I see that Trusted Reviews also awarded the Kindle 3 "Runner Up" status, 3rd place in its TR Awards 2010 for Product of the Year 2010.

What was 1st place? Microsoft Office 2010/Microsoft Office for Mac 2011, which they said came into its own with this update.
2nd place? The HTC Desire HD smartphone

They gave the Apple iPad an "Honorable Mention" partially because of the cost of it relative to its features, but they recognize that Apple "singlehandedly" created a new hardware segment.

KINSTANT WEB PAGE FOR KINDLE
The title of this Trusted Reviews story, however, is incorrect. The Kindle browser is in no way "revamped" by the offering of the reviewed website as the title suggests, but the recommended website of mobile links, http://kinstant.com can be very useful while browsing via any Kindle because it is a list of mobile-device-oriented site URLs specifically chosen for use with the Kindle 3 and previous Kindles identified in a slightly different category. [EDIT: Kinstant also lets you search Google for a site and will squeeze down the sites you visit from Search routine.]

All is not as simple as it looks though, as the Kindle 3 and previous Kindles react so differently to some mobile-device-optimized sites, especially Google's, which presents input problems for the Kindle 3, which alternative URLs have helped resolve.
Those are explained in the downloadable mobiweb file from this blog, revised today for claritiy.

Browsing Modes
With previous Kindles, using BASIC mode will help with clarity (black and white pages instead of translation of colors to barely-readable gray shades) -- but if there is javascript necessary on the website, then you need to use 'Advanced' (Kindle 1 and 2) or 'Desktop' mode (DX) instead of the easier-to-read Basic mode, on those older models.

The 'advanced' and 'desktop' modes of the older Kindles use fit-to-page method with tiny fonts and color translations to various gray shades instead of the high contrast black and white of the old Basic Mode.

With Kindle 3's, however, there is just the general WEB mode when first accessing web sites and these are invariably fit-to-width results -- but if you have selected a single article to read from the hard-to-read layout (always a small-screen problem) and are struggling with the partial zooms given us on Kindle 3's, it's better, when reading a single-article, to then press the Kindle's Menu button and select "Article Mode" to bring up pure text in readable reflowed, single column format.

See the example of NY Times in Kindle-3 fit-to-width mode and then the Article Mode that you can use to read the text in more comfortable size, reflowed.

Going to the mobile-site version of the NY Times, at http://mobile.nytimes.com will give you an easier read. Mobile version sites like this are also found in WEB ON YOUR CELL, which is one of the "umbrella" style sites in the downloadable mobile-device-optimized-sites file that I have at http://bit.ly/kwmobiweb. As I say in mobiweb file, that is a terrific site.

For Kindle 3, see Mobiweb file's alternate Google Gmail/Gtask links
Since the main input problems on Kindle 3 website access are with Google's regular mobile-version pages, you should (until Amazon fixes the problems) use that downloadable mobiweb file for Google's sites and use the kinstant page for most other websites if that's more comfortable for you. I think the organized layout will suit most. (You can add the Gmail/Gtask workarounds to the customizable kinstant Kindle-3 webpage also.)

Again, bear in mind that there are other worthwhile mobile-page umbrella-type sites linked in the long-downloadable Mobiweb file also and they bring you full news from newspapers all over, etc., and also a link to a place that "skweezes" out unnecessary images and ads from normal pages.

kinstant's webpage has come up in the past, but a few of us had not mentioned it because a fellow blogger's Kindle happened to stop functioning while accessing one of the linked sites (Egg Timer) and wasn't revivable and there were no answers to email from kinstant at the time asking them to check it. The failure may have had nothing to do with the Egg Timer site, but the lack of response at the time from kinstant didn't make us comfortable.
However, when I do a google "site:" search for kinstant, I no longer see the Egg Timer link (which was a tool enjoyed by some). That link was likely harmless but I didn't find it just now while it was a highlighted front-page link before.

Trusted Reviews probably put kinstant through some testing, and here's what they say about kinstant's webpage (which has a clean, unconfusing layout and offers some neat features).

kinstant is customizable
So, kinstant is a customizable webpage, which offers optimized mobile browsing. Bookmark the kinstant page to get automatic access to Kindle-friendly versions of many sites including Gmail [though problematical on Kindle 3 with these normal mobile links], CNN, BBC and other news sites. They list several categories with more site links and headlines & summaries for those sites.

This IS a newer version of kinstant's site and you can add in your own links, either directly on the Kindle or via a computer web-browser.

To do that, you add the regular website address into a field, and when you click the link, you're taken to a very simplified version of the site, formatted for the e-reader. This apparently does something similar to the Skeezer utility I described that's in the old, downloadable mobiweb file.

kinstant also added a calculator and Google Maps, which is pretty much what I've described in a step-by-step guide for times when you're lost, w/o a GPS unit, and need driving instructions.

You can get kinstant for your Kindle by just using your Kindle experimental browser to go to "kinstant.com" (no "http://" is needed or wanted on the Kindle) and then bookmarking that page for future access -- or type the URL again in the future since it's pretty short, with no symbols needed.

Kindle 3's (UK: Kindle 3's), DX Graphite

Monday, December 13, 2010

NEWS: NookColor, Kindle Roundup. 'Millions' of Kindles just sold

KINDLE AND NOOKCOLOR NEWS ROUNDUP
Haven't been around the last two days and now that I'm back, I see that the news seems to be almost entirely about the holiday lists all the newspapers and 'zines are making. I drew attention to one very popular list the other day, but on the Amazon review areas and forums, there are still many people wondering which e-reader to buy or whether or not they should upgrade their prior Kindles, so I'll go again with what's in the news. Since I missed a couple of days, this will be extra wordy. I miss a day and you get punished. :-) That's A Kindle World.

In the hot, color department you have LCD tablets like the Apple iPad , Samsung Galaxy 7", Archos 70 at 7" and Archos 101 at 10", and now the 7" Barnes & Noble NookColor]. As I've written, I may get a NookColor eventually as a secondary or supplemental e-reader because I would like a color e-reader for SHORT-session reading (magazines, travel, history, and art reference books), and others want color for their children.

The trade-offs are battery life, ability to read easily in sunlight or near a window, possible eye fatigue from long-form reading (books) on a backlit screen, weight, and expense. The iPad starts at $500 w/WiFi Only ($629 w/3G also); the Samsung Galaxy 7", quite a bit smaller but more portable than the 10" iPad, is about $600; the Archos 101 10" tablet is sold out already everywhere at $295, as it has many features the iPad doesn't, at a considerably lower cost (HDMI connector, USB port, micro SD card slot, webcam), and the NookColor e-reader (which is $250 and wisely being marketed as mainly an e-reader since it's officially not intended do what a full Android tablet can). According to reviews the NookColor has a beautiful display and functions pretty well, especially for those who read mainly magazines (rather than many books a month) and who want to surf the web in color on a portable device.

My main reason for hesitating, since I do have so many Kindle books with color illustrations, is that a full Android tablet (like the Archos) can actually have ALL the online bookstore apps on it (Nook, Kindle, Sony, Kobe) and there is a new Android app supporting library book rentals as well.

So, instead of having two devices which don't allow other online bookstore apps, I'm intrigued that a full Android tablet actually could become a device that can read books from all the online bookstores, even those with proprietary e-book formats. And we are about to see a flood of full Android tablets with price competition.

For best information on what the Nook can and can't do right now, visit the Barnes & Noble Nookcolor forums and for best how-to information, its Nookcolor Technical Support forums.

Also, be sure to search each bookstore for your favorite authors.

MOST POSITIVE NOOKCOLOR REVIEWS
Here are some news items for others who are also trying to decide between the new Kindle with high-contrast e-Ink screen and the new NookColor e-reader, starting with recent appraisals of the NookColor after a few days spent with it.

There is a rave review, in-depth, at the thorough MobileTechReview (with 23-minute, 2-part video near the bottom) and an ultra-positive review from Consumer Reports, with video also, saying it looks like a Winner.
Those were the two standouts as far as practically 5-star reviews that have thorough pro's and con's.

Mild Caveats in the rave reviews:
MobileTechReview: "If you read indoors, especially in rooms with poor lighting, the Nook Color is a good choice. If you read outdoors at lunch time and on vacations at the beach, get an E-Ink reader. E-Ink displays look their best under bright light and require reading lights or ambient room lighting indoors."

Those who "root" devices like this to get at the full Android features should know that "key Android hardware buttons (menu and back) are missing."

PDFs: "The bad news is that you can't bookmark a page and it doesn't remember where you left off; incredibly annoying if you're reading a library novel in PDF format. Another caveat: we tested 5 PDFs and internal links didn't work in any of them. As a consolation, there is a "go to page" function."

Consumer Reports: "One con, though, is its weight: at 15.8 ounces, the Nook Color is relatively heavy compared with other e-book readers such as the (black-and-white screen) Kindle 3G + Wi-Fi, which weighs about 8 ounces. There's also no 3G version for people who want to download new content on the go. And the Nook Color costs about $100 more than the black-and-white Nook Wi-Fi, which remains on the market, or the Kindle Wi-Fi, though both are black-and-white models with slightly smaller screens that lack touch capability."

MORE-CAUTIOUS NOOKCOLOR REVIEWS
MSNBC review by Wilson Rothman -- (Commenters who have the Nook don't agree with his assessment.)
The VIDEO there illustrates his main caveats. The one I agree with is about children probably finding the text in the children's books too small on a 7" screen.

The Washington Post's succinct Rob Pegoraro has a video also. He lists what he likes what he doesn't.

. The text was sharp enough for easy reading of e-books but the resolution wasn't high enough for him for e-magazines that mirror print versions; he had to do "a lot of zooming in and out." [My own problem with great-looking layouts on a 6-7" screen is that they are images and therefore the text is not searchable and harder to read unless you choose the 'drab' straight-text mode.]

Text magazines can be dull in e-ink but if you can search them, that's better for an information hound -- but most people probably browse and toss.

. "With its screen's brightness turned all the way up from the default 30 percent and the Pandora app playing non-stop, it ran for about five hours."
[ That's good or bad depending on one's needs. ]

. Sometimes sluggish browsing of photos (less slow than e-ink, I imagine).

DailyTech does a good summary of what it describes as "mixed reviews" so if you want more detail for your decision, take a look at that.

It references Engadget and Gizmodo for cautions about the glare despite new lamination technology used. You "can play movies on YouTube -- but only at the lowest resolution."

Their Conclusion: "The Nook Color is a jack of all trades and master of none. Its also unbeatable at its price point -- because there are no other tablets at its price point. Thus the value of the device is quite debatable."

Again, you can read what Nook users say at the B&N forum about certain glitches that are there now but will likely be fixed later.
"At the end of the day, if your main goal is to read books digitally the Kindle (or original Nook), seems a better buy.... If you only have $250 and you have to have a tablet, the Nook Color is really the only solution out there, so it's your best bet for now.

IN OTHER NEWS
The best tech gadgets of 2010

abc27's Rob Enderle report provided by DigitalTrends...
Well, here's something unexpected. Remember the Kindle DX? They continue to sell but not much is heard about them in the news. This report echos what was said in the technically advanced Mobileread forums not long ago when people formerly not high on Amazon or its Kindles received theirs.
Enderle writes:

' I picked the Kindle DX up to review thinking it was too big, and that it would end up on my shelf unused after a couple of days. Instead I fell in love with it, and it goes with me wherever I go. The larger screen allows me to put more text on the page, so I'm not flipping as often, and allows me to use larger text so I'm not straining my eyes and can work in low light. While I do miss a cover with a built-in book light like the regular Kindle, I can't give up the extra size, and for me, the iPad just hasn't been a real alternative. I have the latest model in black, and it did cost $379 but I really don't know what I'd do without my Kindle. It is the one product I don't go anyplace without. '

Nerd Chick Adventures
Nerd Chicks give an appraisal of several e-readers Dec. 12 when color tablets are bursting out all over:

' ... we think Amazon’s Kindle Free 3G + Wi-Fi is the sure bet over the Barnes & Noble Nook Free 3G + Wi-Fi. Kindle’s internal memory is the largest on the market (4 GB) — holding a whopping 3,500 books, audiobooks, periodicals and documents in store. Its battery life is up to 1 month with the wireless disabled compared to Nook’s 10 days.

The 3G and Wi-Fi capabilities allow you to wirelessly download books from practically anywhere. It’s lighter than the Nook by 3.4 ounces and has the best high-contrast screen of any other e-reader, allowing reading in bright sunlight without glare and e-ink display is the most like reading from a traditional book.

Kindle gives you access to 1.8 million free books, and we find Amazon’s online store easier to navigate than Barnes & Noble’s. '

THE TELEGRAPH (UK) - RESISTANT KINDLE-CONVERT (another one)
This is a quite funny article. A few exceprts:

' And so, I reluctantly took possession of a Kindle. And like all great affairs, initial antipathy rapidly grew into fierce passion. The Kindle is – and I say this [with] a mixture of delight and dismay – really rather fabulous.

Astonishingly, the screen is entirely free of glare and so it’s not in the least like using a computer. With an absence of backlit glare, reading the “e ink” technology is (and look away if you don’t want me to spoil it) exactly like reading a book.
More crucially, I was able to figure out how it worked within about a minute and a half, and that’s without recourse to the leaflet it came with.

After my husband refused to even countenance opening it, I took the Kindle along to my Book Club, although slightly warily lest I be chased out into the street and crushed to death beneath Harry Potter first editions. But the response was overwhelmingly positive, and indeed I flushed out an existing Kindle user who hadn’t like to mention it before.
. . .
Like all modern wizardry however, the devil is in the detail – does the Kindle remember your place in a book? Yes. Can you re-read books? Yes, they are automatically archived after you buy them. You can also read them on your iPad, iPhone, Mac, PC and what are called “android-based” devices, which conjures up bizarre images of CP30 and R2-D2 reciting chunks of Chaucer.

[I especially go along with this serious thought.]
Some people might elect to spend the extra couple of pounds to obtain a physical copy of the book. But Kindles are aimed at readers whose sole interest is the contents rather than the aesthetics of a book and are perfectly happy for it to be delivered through – and stored in – the ether... '

There's more, and her last paragraph is priceless, but you can go to the article to enjoy it.

LAST BIT OF NEWS FOR TODAY
AMAZON REPORTS SELLING "MILLIONS" OF "PEARL" KINDLES IN 1ST 73 DAYS OF QTR
Amazon reported, by thanking the Kindle Community in its forums today, unusually high sales of new Kindles, an approach they knew news bloggers would repeat around the world.

I loved Engadget's attempted calculations by Ross Miller as to what this all means, based on no earlier reports of actual numbers from Amazon, and the illustration of the complexity of this with their image of "Einstein and Special Relativity" :-) -- except that they missed that Kindle 2's can't be counted in this, as the announcement cited "millions" of "all-new Kindles" with the Pearl E-Ink display sold in the first 73 days of the holiday quarter, and the 2nd comparison Amazon made referred to the "last 73 days" (higher Kindle sales than in all of 2009). This may have been a response (ya think?) to B&N's data-drop that they are now manufacturing 18,000 Nooks a day and loading up a jet from China every 4-5 days. Multiply that by 30 days and that's over 500,000 month. There's nothing better for consumers than competition.

Kindle 3's (UK: Kindle 3's), DX Graphite