Kindle For Easy Reading

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Free Kindle books (1/8 --297 books) + Kindle News + Discount Alerts + Amazon promos

FREE KINDLE BOOK AND DISCOUNT ALERTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS BY FORUM MEMBERS JAN 8 + SOME RANDOM KINDLE NEWS

(See yesterday's blog article for details on how the free-books and discount-alert forum threads work, to save space and prevent eye fatigue here.

Jan. 8, Sunday -- approximately 297 newly announced, temporarily-free books, plus discounted-book alerts as of 1/8 and recommendation-lists by forum members

TODAY's Free Books from Joyce's multi-daily threads:

Sunday, Jan. 8 - 297 books
A few are free for only one day.

Why so many free books these days? Here are the reasons described in the blog article dated December 12. It seems this will continue.

NOOK News inserted here
Apropos the massive influx of free Kindle books due to Amazon's allowing these promos for authors who participate in the PRIME free-borrowing program, a new Kindle forum thread today is "Anyone know of a FREE NOOK BOOK List?"

The replies and the recent news about what is speculated about B&N currently considering spinning off its Nook business, can give pause when making buying decisions. But it can mean either it leaves that expensive but fast-growing business and no longer has to explain the costs of development that had led to lowered profitability despite a growing market share, or B&N might want to create an independent company through sale or distribution of new shares of the existing business, boosting the company's valuation, with incentives to those who work in the Nook area while B&N can focus on its core operations.

Some have thought that if they sell it, the quick income will please the stockholders in uncertain times or soften any blows. I don't think anyone knows what they're planning. Here are a lot of articles speculating on the possible spin off. Meaty speculation by WSJ (thanks to Edward Boyhan for the alert 2 days ago though I wanted to read more about it and there's certainly that now). Key, from WSJ:

' One possibility is that Barnes & Noble could sell a minority stake in the Nook business in a public offering. The two businesses would likely have different managements and different boards. Under such a scenario, Barnes & Noble would continue to have close ties to its Nook devices. Another possibility is selling the Nook business outright.
. . .
Barnes & Noble investors may not have the patience to fund Nook growth here and abroad, said Forrester Research analyst Sarah Rotman Epps. "It's going to require sustained investment." '

LATEST DISCOUNTED Kindle books (some temporarily) -

Ongoing Forum Discount-Alerts thread, starting from yesterday's exit point:

Jan. 7-8

TODAY's KINDLE DAILY DEAL
Today's Kindle Daily Deal is The Other Guys Bride (Link: amzn.to/other-guys-bride ), by Connie Brockway, with 53 customer reviews and an average rating of 4.7 stars. Genre: Historical Romance.
Priced at $4.99 Saturday, with a $4.00 discount Sunday, it's $0.99 today (80% off)

Reminders
. Amazon's specific mostly 99c Kindle books page
. Amazon's monthly 100 Kindle book deals, from $1.99 to $3.99

R A N D O M K I N D L E NEWS

VALUING ONE'S KINDLE A FEW MEGABITS TOO MUCH
How much is your Kindle worth to you?
TDN's Daily News reports:

' ... a female acquaintance claimed she was owed money and attempted to steal the victim's Amazon Kindle tablet device as payment, according to police.

When the victim resisted, the other woman allegedly stabbed her in the abdomen with a kitchen knife and fled the apartment with the Kindle, Longview Sgt. Ed Jones said Saturday. '

While I thought this story read like an idea for a SNL skit or a new Amazon ad for a Kindle, it was a relief to read that the victim was treated for a 'minor wound.'

*NOT* RECOMMENDED - REPARTITIONING YOUR KINDLE FIRE STORAGE SPACE
I'm including this news as some mainstream news sites are writing about a utility to expand your app space on the Kindle Fire. I have to stress that 99% of people shouldn't even try this. Note that the maker of the utility, FireParted, say says

' There is some inherent risk associated with repartitioning your device. If something goes wrong, you can always attempt to re-partition again, but there is a risk data loss will occur. However, since the essential system partitions are never touched, I would consider it highly unlikely that you will brick your device. Please understand that there is potentially some risk involved, and that you choose to take this risk when using FireParted (so don't hold me liable, mmkay?).

Edit: Some problems have been reported with the partitioning failing. If this occurs, please try to provide an output if your partition layout (if possible). Also, I strongly recommend that you do not install a stock update zip since you will blow away FIREFIREFIRE and your custom recovery. Partition issues are fixable, but you need a custom recovery to do it... '

Here's one App Space solution
IF you really are running out of app space (we get 1 gig and only 1/3 of mine is used up although I have mapping apps on it and a ton of productivity tools), here's a tip:

It's like removing or deleting a Kindle book from your Kindle-reader when you don't need it. It remains in your Amazon library and can be re-downloaded at ANY time that you do need or want it; there's no need to keep everything on a device with the multiple Cloud areas we have at Amazon these days. The less crowded your storage area, the faster a device will run.
You bought it, it's still yours, whether it's currently on your device or not.

So, you can UNinstall apps that didn't come pre-installed, if that helps. I've uninstalled ones I know I will almost never use or have no need for currently, but the apps I get from Amazon remain 'mine' on Amazon server records and I can re-download them as needed, at no charge.

NOT likely anyway that I'd want to decrease my data storage area to allow me to hoard more apps, most of which I wouldn't use in a year.

SOLAR POWERED KINDLE COVER to Debut at CES 2012
SolarKindle - "the world's first solar powered e-reader cover" will be introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) starting this Monday, reports Larry Magid of Forbes.

Well, to get to the nitty gritty, this is a nice idea, for many reasons, but the cost of it is expected to be $80 or the cost of the least-expensive Kindle, or $20 less expensive than the WiFi-Only Kindle touch. Knowing how fast the Kindle models change as they improve certain hardware and software features, and how the SIZE changes also, it'll be interesting to see how well this sells.

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

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

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

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Free Kindle books (1/6-1/7 -- 915 books) + Discounted-book Forum Alerts + Amazon promos

FREE KINDLE BOOK AND DISCOUNT ALERTS BY FORUM MEMBERS Jan. 6-7

Jan. 6-7, Friday thru' Saturday -- approximately 915 newly announced, temporarily-free books, plus discounted-book alerts as of 1-6 to 1/7 and recommendation-lists by forum members

This is the somewhat ongoing logging of Joyce's daily Kindle forum threads about newly announced temporarily-free books, which are so plentiful now that the forum listings are not being itemized, currently -- but she gives links to a website that posts them, in identified batches, and then forum members post links to books that each selected from the hundreds available that day, a useful filtering mechanism by people with very varied tastes interested in specific genres.

The member recommendations can be especially helpful for those who may not have the time to view the full listings each day, and there are links that go to somewhat manageable subsets of the full listings, by date.

Red Mojo Mama, by Kathy Lynn Hall, 19 customer reviews, 4.6 stars average, $0.00 (Link: http://amzn.to/red-mojo-mama )

A short, light-hearted book although it's listed under Fiction->Horror->Ghosts ... Readers describe it as a fun read.

Saturday's Kindle Daily Deal (Amazon's Daily Deal changes at about midnight each day)

Saturday's special deal is 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die, by Tom Moon, 86 customer reviews, 4.1 stars (Link: amzn.to/1000-recordings-before )

Priced at $9.99 Friday but, with a $9.00 discount today (Sat, 7th), it's $0.99 for just today (90% off)

Draws from "the diverse worlds of classical, jazz, rock, pop, blues, country, folk, musicals, hip-hop, world, opera, soundtracks and more...arranged alphabetically by artist [and, sometimes by composer for classical]...to break down genre bias..."

There are genre listings with page numbers in the back though, and Kindlers have the Search feature.

"Award-winning music journalist Tom Moon is a regular contributor to National Public Radio's All Things Considered as well as Rolling Stone, Blender and other publications. During his twenty-year tenure as a music critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer, his writings appeared in hundreds of daily newspapers and magazines..."

Some customer reviewers expected an encyclopedia of what they personally consider the best. Others point out that the title is about recordings "to hear" before departing the surly bonds of earth* and involves the opinion of one person, which means it can't be all-inclusive nor a match for one's own tastes always. Another felt that it's good for discoveries of items not on our radar. I like all types of music, so for 99c I did order this one.

* That 'surly bonds' sonnet was written by a Canadian Air Force pilot, John Gillespe Magee, who flew in a British Spitfire squadron and was killed at the age of nineteen, in 1941 during a training flight.

LATEST DISCOUNTED Kindle books (some temporarily) -
Forum-thread starter RandomizeME cautions, "This thread is [only] for discounts and price drops that readers find from publishers." Another main finder is Emily Bronte.

For Jan. 5-7 postings.

TEMPORARILY-Free books: Alerts from the Amazon Kindle forums - via the tireless "Happy Reader" Joyce, who is ever on the lookout on behalf of forum members.

NOTE: The alerts are quoted from Joyce's roundup from several sites with news of mostly temporarily-free books. Those listings, when itemized, are not recommendations by anyone but the forum threads have often listed popular, usually unfiltered daily sets of forum release-alerts and are logged here for those who don't or can't make it to the forums. These eBooks are often no longer free within just days, sometimes, within hours. Thanks to Joyce for gathering them for us.

LATELY, with so many temporarily-free Kindle books released (400-650+ at a time these days), Joyce of course is not listing each one but is referring readers to one of the main sites she uses when collecting the titles.

To make the forum alerts more useful, with hundreds of newly-free titles each day, members who join these forum threads are trying to help filter them by posting the titles (and links) for the ones that most interested each of them from all those listed.

As of this morning, there were several recommendation lists already for today's temporarily-free titles.

Going backwards to January 6, here are the message-threads with members' recommendations from having gone through the humongous lists.

. Saturday, January 7 - 485 books

. Friday, January 6 - 430 books

Reminder: Amazon's specific mostly 99c Kindle books page.

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

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

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

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Free Kindle books (1/1-1/5 - ~1,548 books) + Discounted-book Forum Alerts + Amazon promos

FREE/DISCOUNTED KINDLE BOOKS DISCOVERED BY FORUM MEMBERS

Jan. 1-5, Sunday thru' Thursday -- approximately 1,548 newly announced, temporarily-free books, plus discounted-book alerts as of 1-1 to 1/5.

This is the logging of Joyce's daily Kindle forum threads about newly announced temporarily-free books, which are so plentiful now that the forum listings are not being itemized, currently -- but she gives links to a website that posts them, in identified batches, and then forum members post links to books that each selected from the hundreds available that day, a useful filtering mechanism by people with very varied tastes interested in specific genres.
This can be especially helpful for those who may not have the time to view full listings each day, and there are are links that go to somewhat manageable subsets of the full listings, by date.

I just happened to see the following on one of the "Recommended" lists:

Slammed, by Colleen Hoover, 16 customer reviews, 5.0 stars average, $0.00 (Link: amzn.to/slammed_colleen-hover )
These are almost all "Amazon Verified Purchase" reviews, and is an unusual item in that most customer-reviewers describe themselves as people who don't normally like to read or haven't read a book for years, which I found odd to see on a product page for a Kindle book. The key seems to have been word of mouth at message boards for the the Sony folk/rock group, The Avett Brothers. In any case, as you can see, the book gets raves from their fans.
May be a good book to recommend to non-reading friends. I gave a Kindle for a special birthday to a family member who expressed interest in one though he'd not read books for some years but is now reading all the time.

A free Kindle book that uses the "X-ray" feature
The House of the Whispering Pines, by Anna Katharine Green, 13 customer reviews, 3.8 stars, $0.00 (Link: amzn.to/house-whispering-pines )

The new X-RAY feature for Kindle Touch:
I'm including this Kindle book again for the apparently millions who now have a Kindle Touch model, because Chloe from the Kindle forums mentioned it as a free book that has the new X-ray feature. Many have wondered how the X-ray feature works.
I'd explained some of it in the The X-Ray reference tool - What it does blog article, but that doesn't do much good if you can't see it in action, and it's hard to know which of the newer Kindle books has been given this feature.

Thursday's Kindle Daily Deal (changes at about midnight each day)

Thursday's special deal is The Yellow House: A Novel, by Patricia Falvey, 49 customer reviews, 4.3 stars (Link: http://amzn.to/yellow-house )

Priced at $9.99 Wednesday but, with a $7.00 discount today (Thurs., 5th), is $2.99 for just today (70% off)

"...This novel delivers the best of both worlds: secrets, intrigue and surprising twists will keep readers flipping the pages, while Falvey's insight and poetic writing tugs at the heartstrings of the most cynical audiences. (Feb.)" –- Publishers Weekly
(Another one of her books is featured in Amazon's January Kindle editors-choice monthly deals that are priced at between $1.99-$3.99

TEMPORARILY-Free books: Alerts from the Amazon Kindle forums - via the tireless "Happy Reader" Joyce, who is ever on the lookout on behalf of forum members.

NOTE: The alerts are quoted from Joyce's roundup, from several sites with news of mostly temporarily-free books. Those listings are not recommendations by anyone but the forum threads list popular, usuallly unfiltered daily sets of forum release-alerts, logged here for those who don't or can't make it to the forums. The eBooks are often no longer free within days, sometimes, within hours. Thanks to Joyce for gathering and organizing them for us.

LATELY, with so many temporarily-free Kindle books released (400-650 at a time, often), Joyce of course is not listing each one but is referring readers to one of the main sites she uses when collecting the titles.

To make the forum alerts more useful, members who join these forum threads are trying to help filter them by posting the titles (and links) for the ones that most interested each of them from all those listed (as noted in the opening of this blog entry).

As of early this morning, there were several recommendation lists already for today's 412 temporarily-free titles, Thurs, Jan. 5.

Going backwards to January 1, here are the message-threads with members' recommendations from having gone through the humongous lists.

. Thurs, January 5 - 412 books

. Early Morning, Wed, January 4 - 329 books

. Tuesday, Jan. 3 - 339 books

. Early Morning Tuesday, Jan. 3 - EST (was Late Night, Tues, Jan. 2, PST) - 1 book

. Monday, Jan. 2 - free-form member posting of about 35 titles

. Sunday, Jan 1 - 432 books

Also ongoing, Amazon's specific mostly 99c Kindle books page.

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

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

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

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

January's 100 Kindle Deals $1.99-$3.99

JANUARY 2012's 100 Kindle Deals, $1.99-$3.99 (Link: amzn.to/100kbooks-2to4)

I normally highlight this feature at the beginning of the month for newcomers who don't know it exists, and this month there are a lot of newcomers :-) -- and in fact many oldtimers don't know either.

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

As most are probably aware, Kindle books are easily readable, in color, on the Kindle Fire also, a hybrid tablet/e-reader with some Amazon bonus material.

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

Kindle Tip Reminder re Tiny Fonts on web pages with Kindle Fire or Kindle Touch

READING FULL WEB PAGES WITH UNREADABLE TINY FONT ON A 6"-7" SCREEN

SO, here's to a good 2012 to all -- definitely it was good to take time off from the usual to relax and celebrate and to have a calendar system that makes us feel we have a new start :-)
Welcome! to all the new Kindlers and visitors to this blog and Thanks to the regulars.

In the blog article with many general tips on using the Kindle Touch and Kindle Fire, I went into detail on dealing with web pages or with PDFs in which you can see the full page but which are usually unreadable in that format or screen width that is considerably smaller than our computer screens.

I've found that many news-site reviewers still don't know about a valuable Android feature that is crucial to enjoyment of web pages on small devices (this applies to Android smartphones also), and of course those just using a device like the Kindle Touch or Kindle Fire won't tend to know about them either.

So I'll focus on just this topic here, with all the new Kindle owners after the holidays and because those who did read the earlier article will probably find it difficult to remember where they may have read about tiny fonts on web pages and probably skipped the section anyway in an article that included many other tips.

While joining in discussions on the the Amazon Kindle Forums community where so many Kindle owners hang out to help other owners and get tips in return, I saw the following question and replied to it more briefly than I do in the blog article -- it's likely that a shorter answer can be more helpful, at least at first.

' Posted on Jan 1, 2012 10:00:01 AM PST
RE says:

[Q]: I like my Kindle, but can't figure out how to surf the web and be
able to read things. Yahoo com is so small a magnifying glass is
needed to see it. I know this is off subject, but can someone tell
me how they do it?

[A} in reply to an earlier post on Jan 1, 2012 8:11:12 PM PST
Arts&HistoryFan/Kindleworld says:
RE,
You can use an Android feature to pinch-zoom the font/text to a large size, to the point the paragraph of a column extends beyond the screen borders ... then double-tap the screen, and it will keep the large font while adjusting the text to the width of the screen and wrapping it appropriately.

SOMEtimes, the double-tap leads to the tiny version again, but if you double-tap once more, then it goes back up to the large font for text (which exceeded the boundaries you were at when you first double-tapped) but now adjusts the screen-wrap. It's called "re-flowing" the text and when it's done for a nicely large font, it is very nifty.

I explain this more at a blog article I wrote -- and some of the tips work for both the KTouch and the KFire.

http://kindleworld.blogspot.com/2011/12/kindle-tips-for-kindle-touch-and-kindle.html

- Shortcut: http://bit.ly/kwt1205

- Andrys '

For considerably more detail, including other steps to take in Settings to make this work more reliably, do see the longer TIPS article.

Reminder: With both these units, but especially the Kindle Fire, a barely perceptible, very light press or tap will be more likely to activate touchscreen responses.

Added note to new Kindlers: Besides monitoring the Free Kindle Books guide with prepared search links to free Kindle books in more organized, smaller subsets:
be sure to check each day for Amazon's Kindle Daily Deal, which changes at midnight each day. Unfortunately the Daily Deal is mostly U.S. for now.

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

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Updates for KindleFire's Scrabble and Solitare apps, 976 more free books, unusual history special on Kindle Daily Deal today

SCRABBLE FOR KINDLE FIRE UPDATED TO ADD SINGLE-PLAYER MODE

There have been 280 customer reviews of Scrabble for Kindle Fire and a full 80 of them are rated only 1-star because Electronic Arts did not provide a single-player mode at first. What were they thinking?

As of December 19, the single-player mode was added, and the latest reviews reflect this (Link: amzn.to/kfscrabble ) and are very positive. Since I used to be a Scrabble addict, this is bad news for me. The updated Scrabble app is downloadable at no added charge, of course, for those who purchased it earlier. (Link: amzn.to/kfscrabble-dl ) The price is $0.99.

Solitare v1.1.4 for Kindle Fire, by MobilityWare, has been updated for customizable designs and bug fixes, and is $0.00

Currently, Android apps are still U.S. only.

Unusual Kindle Daily Deal today - Three history books by Stephen Ambrose

As the Amazon editors say,
"Today only, three top-rated American history books from the inimitable historian Stephen E. Ambrose are just $1.99 each." All were $9.99 Friday, have a discount of $8 each today (Saturday), and are then priced today at $1.99 each 80% off
Here are the details and links to each of the 3 books. Two of them have hundreds of reviews and are ranked at 4.5 stars, and the third one has 65 reviews averaging 4.3.

The flood of free Kindle books continues
Friday morning, brought 356 more newly released temporarily-free books after Thursday's 294 books, and members of the forum in which Joyce and, sometimes AnnieB, announce these alerts, are trying to help filter them by posting the titles (and links) for the ones that most interested each of them from all those listed.
And now, Saturday morning, we have another 326 books! and already the forum members have listed some that stood out for them.

Discounted/Price-Dropped alerts on Kindle books
The latest, since I last linked to this message thread are from Dec 29 until today.

Happy 2012 to All!

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

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Free Kindle books from Konrath and Crouch, 23 each, for one more day. Other free books and promos. Update: Millions of Kindle Fires + Millions of Kindle ereaders purchased, two Indy authors #1 and #4

Happily satiated with so many free Kindle books

Danish Polar Bear Cub Siku lies in bliss after just being fed, and it reminded me (okay, I just needed an excuse to post that picture!) of Kindlers after downloading so many free books each day lately (although I've seen that some are actually exhausted by the sheer number of them and the choices to be made).
(For the others interested, here's the story and video for Siku. Kindle edition subscribers can't do video but can use the following link at a computer: bit.ly/blissed-out-siku )
One more: an even better Siku videoclip (1-1/2 min.) (Link: bit.ly/siku-2 )

I actually ran across a Daily Mail comment that makes Siku almost on-topic :-)

Back to the many free Kindle books available lately
And now, J.A. Konrath and Blake Crouch offer a few more.
Two days ago, at 9:35 AM, December 27, the bestselling author J.A. Konrath announced:

' I've sold 7000 ebooks in the last 36 hours, making over $14,000.

For the next three days, I'm making 23 of my titles free on Amazon Kindle. '

He added that "Blake Crouch is doing the same" and then linked us to their general pages of books.

Since there is only ONE DAY REMAINING (I tweeted this but then was not here most of the time to blog it) I'm giving two links that will lead straight to the free 23 books for each, heading lists of their books, sorted low-to-high price. The "next three days" would end Thursday night (tonight) or at 9:35am Friday morning. I'd go for midnight tonight to be sure you get them while they're free.

J.A. Konrath's 23+ free Kindle books [ Update 12/31/11 - That sale is now over.]

Blake Crouch's 23+ free Kindle books [ Update 12/31/11 - That sale is now over.]

UPDATE - Am adding that Amazon just announced that "Amazon customers purchased millions of Kindle Fires and millions of Kindle e-readers" in what they describe as "...the Best Holiday Ever for Kindle"

So you'll see the news sites quoting the numbers galore for a few days.

They also mention a nice side effect: "Authors also continue to benefit from the success of Kindle — the #1 and #4 best-selling Kindle books released in 2011 were both published independently by their authors using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)."

Darcie Chan, the author of ‘The Mill River Recluse,’ and Chris Culver, the author of ‘The Abbey,’ wrote "two of the best-selling Kindle books of the year."
I remember noticing The Mill River Recluse, on August 25, when looking for a good, low-cost book to highlight for blog readers and the same for The Abbey, on August 30. Sometimes, a high number of positive customer reviews, along with low-negative counts, will indicate very high interest.
See the press release for quite a bit more detail.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal
This particular link will always get you the current deal, ending midnight each day. (mostly U.S.)
Today's is Margaret Atwood's infamous and uplifting (just kidding) "The Handmaid's Tale" which was priced at $8.99 yesterday but, with a $7.50 discount today (Wed., 29th), is $1.49 83% off

In the meantime, what about the daily free Kindle books?
Here's this morning's announcement, by the Kindle Forum's Joyce, of the latest release of (294) free Kindle books. She of course is not listing each one when there are so many but is referring you to one of the sites she uses when collecting the titles and it's the one with a lot of information for each book although it then takes some time to go through them.
When wanting to browse the latest titles faster although with less detail upfront (more will show in popups when hovering over one) try EReaderIQ.

Discount Alerts from the Kindle Forum
Haven't had time to keep up with all the free books and discount alerts, but here's the latest page of the discounted and dropped-price alerts from the forum community, and you can work back if interested in earlier pages.

Don't forget Amazon's LtdTime Free Kindle Book Promos or Amazon's mostly 99c Kindle books page.

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

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

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

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

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

Monday, December 26, 2011

Beam N Read reading and general light - 1 wk holiday-discount of 25%

BEAM N READ 3-Led light, made by ASF Lightware Solutions.

As regular readers will know, my personal favorite in reading lights (I've bought too many different types) has been the Beam N Read "LED 3 Hands Free Travel Reading Light; for Kindle, Power Outages & More" that I first wrote about in early October 2010.

I'm including much of what I wrote at the time, as the company who makes the Beam N Read, noting my now long-term enthusiasm, is offering a 25% discount to readers of this blog for Dec. 26 - Jan. 1, 2012. Sorry I didn't get to this earlier today. Was caught up in getting some information together for owners of the new Kindles found under trees yesterday.

As before, I'm including a couple of photos below to show light coverage on my Kindle 3 with the Amazon cover for the Kindle 3, with built-in light vs. using what, by last year, became my favorite light for the various Kindles I have.

This portable light is worn around the neck and has an adjustable strap. The light is said to last about 120 hours, and I do use it nightly for weeks before needing to change batteries.

It comes with 4 standard alkaline AA batteries and a clip-on red filter to minimize "night blindness" and soften the light if needed, they say (I've never needed that). Because it's very lightweight and flexible with a patented flip-up design, reflector, and the adjustable strap, I usually have it on when I'm home. Going downstairs at night or to a less well-lit room, or when I just can't see something well enough, I can just turn this on briefly, which is done by flipping up the hood/reflector.

For reading a book or an e-book reader, you can also reverse it if you prefer (as I do) to hold the book higher than on your lap, and then flip the reflector down instead, so that the light angles up. But if someone is sitting across from you, that may not be very comfortable for that person, as the Led lamps would be directed at their eyes too.

I do love that it's always available when I need extra light. No, I'm not associated with the company that makes them. I was just tired of clipping on a light and adjusting it, as much as I love the ease of the Mighty Bright Xtraflex 2 which has the little foam pad where the clip-on meets the top of the Kindle's bezel. The Beam N Read is pretty good at keeping the light from reaching the other person for night reading in bed. There are times that I would like a somewhat brighter light, and when I do (not when reading a Kindle), I've used:

The 6-led version (not part of the holiday promo but I'll include the info for those curious about it)

Their 6-led version is VERY bright and probably overkill for reading a Kindle 6" reader, though I've sometimes used it for situations where the light is just dim. I tried one for other uses, and for my Kindle DX in Landscape mode. The batteries for this last, they say, about 48 hours, only 40% of the lasting power of the 3-Led model. This one doesn't come with batteries included though it has a magnifier for short-session, detailed craft work, but I found the texture quite hard to see through and it's not not a feature I'd use.

I DO use both Beam N Read units for piano music though, depending on how well the room is lit.

I had bought a head lamp for a trip I took in October 2011, since we needed to go into some unlit places (Egyptian tombs!), but I don't at all like wearing something around my head just to read so I wondered if there was anything like this. Amazon doesn't make this easy to find, but I found it extremely useful for any e-reader.

Here are photos of the effect of two reading lights on my Kindles.

Lit by the Amazon cover with built-in light, the upper right hand corner of my Kindle 3 (UK: K3) ("Kindle Keyboard") is brighter than the lower-left area, of course, and the light isn't as bright as I like but it's useful if you're out and need a light for reading. That special cover light needs no batteries, as it runs off the Kindle's own battery, and it shuts off automatically if the Kindle goes into sleep mode after about 10 minutes.

The second picture is of the same Kindle lit by the Beam N Read 3-Led light -- the lighting on my Kindle 3, in this case (no flash was used, as you can tell from a click of the image that leads to the EXIF camera data included with the larger image at PBase) is very even and brighter overall than from the one built into the Amazon cover, but one would seldom wear the Beam N Read when out, probably, though I've definitely done it :-).

Again, I hope this helps some who are looking for good lights to use with the Kindle. I did the various photos, as choice of a light has been one of the most asked questions on the Kindle forums.

Here are reviews and user feedback cited on the company's website collected from several types of communities, including gadget and e-reader blog site staff. At the Amazon product page, the light, though not promoted by Amazon as a Kindle light, has 23 customer reviews with an average rating of 4.6 stars.

I do use this light daily, as I don't have to worry anymore about which light fits which Kindle model and because I use it for other purposes as well, as mentioned. Although I'm not affiliated with the company that makes and distributes Beam N Read, my enthusiasm's been noted by ASF Lightware Solutions (website: www.readinglight.com ) and I'm delighted they've offered Kindleworld readers the special 1 week holiday pricing of $14.95 for the Dec. 26-Jan. 1 period, as they just released in mid December a new model with a more elastic neck strap that's easier to adjust and can be worn higher.
Remember that I like to reverse the way it's worn when I'm reading in sitting position as I prefer to hold the Kindle higher than some.

Amazon customers can use the coupon code "KNDLWRLD" when ordering the 3-LED light model during the next week to get the 25% discount off the MSRP of $19.95. While I receive many offers of products for review, I don't do actual reviews, writing only about products I've bought and really enjoy. In this case, I've bought some for friends, and friends have bought them as well. It's just an unusual, generally useful product.

Amazon Forum Announcements: Kindle Fire Tips: Getting Started, Setting up Wi-Fi, Excellent Connect-Problem-Solving Guide

AMAZON FORUM ANNOUNCEMENT - Kindle Fire: Getting started

I just saw the first announcement shown below at the regular "Kindle Forum" and that refers us to the Q&A forum for questions about Kindle Fire and WiFi, taking us to the "Setting Up WiFi" announcement.

For those who don't have time to make it to the forums, Amazon Kindle Customer Service gave some general Kindle Fire Start-up tips on Christmas Eve at almost 8pm PST, and I'll quote those here adding active links (the forums don't use links for these announcements). (Any bold-face emphases are mine)

Initial post: Dec. 24, 2011 7:47:31 PM PST
Last edited by the author 20 hours ago

' Amazon Kindle Customer Service says:
(AMAZON OFFICIAL)

Do you have a question about how to get started with your Kindle Fire? We have compiled some of the most common questions to help get you started!

If you have questions about the Kindle Fire and Wi-Fi, make sure to check out our "Kindle Fire Tips: Setting Up Wi-Fi" post here.

Q. How do I register my Kindle Fire?
A. To register online, visit Manage Your Kindle at www.amazon.com/manageyourkindle.
You can also register your Kindle Fire directly from the device by following the steps found here: www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=200729250#registering

Q. Having trouble registering from your Kindle Fire?
A. Here are some troubleshooting steps that may help:

a. Go to the "Your Account" page (found by clicking [that link at the top] of this page) and then Click "Change Account Settings" under Settings-account Settings. Make sure that your name is entered in the Name field.

b. Make sure you are connected to a Wi-Fi network. You should see the Wi-Fi icon in the top right of your Kindle Fire. You can also test your connection by browsing to a web page using the Silk web browser found under "Web". Your Kindle Fire needs to be connected to a Wi-Fi network to complete the registration process.

c. If you cannot connect to a Wi-Fi network check out the troubleshooting steps found in our Kindle Fire Tips: Setting Up Wi-Fi post here

Still having problems registering? Please contact our Customer Support team by clicking Help at the top of the page and using the Contact Us button.

Q. How can I purchase apps for my Kindle Fire?
A. You will need to have a 1-Click payment method set up with your Amazon account. You can learn more about how to setup a 1-Click payment method here:
www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=200729570#start

Q. What can I do if my Kindle Fire will not turn on? [Do read this.]
A. Charge your Kindle Fire for 30 minutes. If it is still unresponsive, unplug it from the power source and hold the power button for 20 seconds. After the Kindle Fire turns off, press the power button again to turn it back on.

Q. What is Amazon Prime?
A. Amazon Prime is an annual membership program that offers customers unlimited Free Two-Day Shipping on millions of items and instant streaming of movies and TV shows for $79 a year with Prime instant videos. Eligible customers who purchase a Kindle Fire will be given a free month of Amazon Prime.
When you purchase a Kindle Fire as a gift, the gift recipient will receive a free month of Amazon Prime benefits once they activate the Kindle Fire, provided they are eligible for the offer. You can learn more about Amazon Prime and Kindle Fire at www.amazon.com/help/kindle/prime.

Q. How do I update the software on my Kindle Fire?
A. Kindle Fire will automatically update when a new software update is available and when the Kindle Fire is connected via Wi-Fi.
Visit the Kindle Software Updates page at www.amazon.com/kindlesoftwareupdates to see if a free software update is available.

Q. Why doesn't my computer recognize my Kindle Fire? [Do read this.]
A. To use your Kindle Fire in USB mode, ensure that it is NOT in sleep mode when it is plugged in.

Not sure which Kindle is for you? Learn more about each new device and compare features on our website at www.amazon.com/kindlefamily

If these FAQs don't answer your question, please start a new discussion. '

Below, for the record, is the full Amazon Forum Announcement on "Setting up Wi-Fi." This one will have only minimal prepared links and will use only what was given in the forum (where they don't have active links). Will boldface questions.

Initial post: Dec. 24, 2011 7:39:14 PM PST
Last edited by the author 7:41:28 PM PST

' Amazon Kindle Customer Service says:
(AMAZON OFFICIAL)

Do you have a question about how to connect your Kindle Fire to a Wi-Fi network? We have compiled some of the most common questions to help get you started!

Q: How do I connect my Kindle Fire to a Wi-Fi Network?
A: Follow the steps found here: www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=200729310

Q: Having trouble connecting to your Wi-Fi network?
A: Here are some troubleshooting steps that can help:
1. Is your Wi-Fi turned on? Tap the cog in the upper right corner, select Wi-Fi and make sure Wireless Networking is set to ON.

2. Verify that your Kindle Fire software is up to date by going to www.amazon.com/kindlesoftwareupdates. You can check the version of your Kindle Fire software by tapping on the cog in the upper right hand corner, select More.., and then select Device. Your software version is listed under System Version. If your Kindle Fire is not up to date, follow the instructions found on the Kindle Software Updates page.

3. Are you getting one of these error messages?
a. "The password you entered is incorrect or invalid" - The password is the one associated with the Wi-Fi network, not your Amazon account password. If you don't know your Wi-Fi password, contact the person who set up your Wi-Fi network, your Internet service provider, or the manufacturer of your Wi-Fi router for help. Your Wi-Fi password may also be written on the bottom of your Wi-Fi router.
b. "Wi-Fi network connection failed" - The network you chose could not be found or did not respond. Contact your network's administrator for more assistance.
c. "Wi-Fi is not available right now" - Wi-Fi might be turned off on your Kindle Fire. Tap the cog in the upper right corner, select Wi-Fi and make sure Wireless Networking is set to ON.
d. "Local Network connection failed" - Try rebooting your router or contacting your network's administrator. Let them know that this error may be related to a failed DHCP request.
e."Internet connection failed" - Your Kindle Fire is connected, but unable to contact our servers. Try again in a few minutes or contact Amazon Customer Support for more assistance.

4. Do you see your desired network in the list of available networks?
Some networks may not be broadcasting (even though they are active). If you do not see the network, make sure the network is active by using another device that uses Wi-Fi. If it is and you have the network name, you can enter it manually by tapping the cog in the upper right corner, select More.., and then select Wireless Network. Scroll down the list to "Add a Network" and enter the network name manually. If you do not know the name of your network, or still cannot find it, you may need to contact your ISP or the network's administrator.

5. Can you connect to the web on another computer?
If you cannot connect at all, something might be wrong with your network - you may want to try rebooting your router or contacting the network's administrator. If you can connect with another computer, take the Kindle Fire to another local Hot Spot (libraries often have free Wi-Fi Hot Spots). If you can connect there, you may still need to refer to your network's administrator. However, if you cannot your Kindle Fire connect [sic] to any network, please contact us for more assistance.

6. Can you connect using the Silk Web browser?
If you can bring up a web page, you are online and should be able to use all the other functions of the Kindle Fire.

7. Do you need to have a static IP address?
Some networks may require this, while others may not. Check with your network's administrator for more assistance.

8. If none of these steps help, or you continue to have problems,
please select Help at the top of the page and use the Contact Us button to contact our Customer Support team.

In addition, you can watch a video at www.amazon.com/help/kindle/fire/wifi/video or consult our troubleshooting tips at www.amazon.com/help/kindle/fire/wifi for additional guidance on common issues.

For more information troubleshooting Wi-Fi issues see this post: http://www.amazon.com/forum/kindle/?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1D7SY3BVSESG&cdThread=Tx2RY4L7G1R2KE [*] '

[*] That last one, by a S. Yelvington is an EXCELLENT document on troubleshooting WiFi connection problems. If you're having connection problems, you should definitely follow this link to Yelvington's guide and print it out to make it easier to go through each step as appropriate.
That's the Ultimate set of Internet connection tips, as far as I'm concerned :-)

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

Kindle and Kindle-Fire Helpers, Guides, app, podcast, and an off-topic short story - Updated w/ more books

SOME KINDLE AND KINDLE FIRE HELPERS

The 7 Dragons group has created probably the most popular tools and utilities for the Kindle Keyboard series (Kindle 2, Kindle 3, Kindle DX, and now Kindle 4 Basic-no Touch-no physical Keyboard):
Notepad, Calendar, Calculator, and Converter

At least some of these are being converted for Kindle Touch, and I'll be watching for those.

In the meantime, they have released a Kindle Fire app:
Alarm Clock, Calendar, ToDo List - Productivity Helper. A sort of "Productivity Swiss knife"...
As with other apps for now, it's available only to U.S. customers.

NOTE: This is for Kindle Fire only and NOT for other 7" tablets, despite Amazon's "Compatability" wording in the Buy box. This set was tested and optimized ONLY for the quite wide-screen Kindle Fire, and A. Singh of 7 Dragons wrote the first comment to request that people not buy this if you have another 7" tablet.

It was just released and there are already a few very positive reviews with one reviewer wishing only for Google sync for calendars

The Product Description includes details such as the inclusion of Backup and Restore functionality and built-in, detailed Help. The alarm clock works even when you're in another app and includes a Musical Alarm that allows the setting of a song as your alarm. The ToDo List handles priorities, and you can choose one of the provided backgrounds or use one of your own images.
There's also a stopwatch and a live Antique Clock with a second hand.
Cost: $1.00

A Kindle book for those wondering how to work this Kindle Fire thing
Love Your Kindle Fire: The ILMK Guide to Amazon's Entertablet, by Bufo Calvin, 12 customer reviews, 4.6 stars, $2.99 (Link: amzn.to/love-your-kindle-fire )

Bufo Calvin is the author of 5 other Kindle books and is very popular in the Amazon Kindle forums for his clarity and good humor in answers to questions there, which he does on his own time. He also has a best-selling Kindle-Edition blog, "I Love My Kindle."

Calvin goes through each menu option, step by step, explaining what each does. A lot of the book is in conversational Question and Answer format, in which he interviews himself with the types of questions he has seen most, from the Kindle forums and at his blog, but most important, with some very thorough answers.
The writing style may be best suited to those new to the Android scene.
The author has updated the book since it was first published and it now includes what he's found after a month with the Kindle Fire, his Android App recommendations, and some details about the recent v6.2.1 software update.

The Kindle Chronicles Podcast

The Kindle Chronicles is the very popular Friday Podcast by Len Edgerly for listeners who'd like to know "All About the Kindle." It includes both audio and text sections on News, Tech Tips, a Weekly Interview, and Comments received from the Kindle community during the previous week.
Quick, sharp, and enthusiastically curious about much more than things Kindle, Len is also a relaxed, engaging interviewer. Catch his very interesting blog "Random Reflections."

I did a report on his poetry book on Kindle and Bufo Calvin's earlier books in the July 2, 2009 blog article.
He has a large Twitter following at http://twitter.com/LenEdgerly. Len's Kindle Chronicles, begun July 2008, is practically a log or history of the Kindle and its impact on readers and the publication world in the short time since its release.

Stephen Windwalker's Complete Kindle Books series
The Complete 2012 User's Guide to the Amazing Amazon Kindle: Covers All Current Kindles including the Kindle Fire, Kindle Touch, Kindle Keyboard, and Kindle, by Stephen Windwalker who has been explaining what can be done on Kindles since the beginning of Kindle time, and as you can tell from the title, he provides information on all the current Kindles. A prolific writer, he has a large following on Facebook and for his Kindle Nation blog. $1.49

Mobi Manuals Guide (Mobile Reference)
Kindle Fire Survival Guide: Step-by-step User Guide for Kindle Fire: Getting Started, Downloading FREE eBooks, Buying Apps, Watching Movies, and Surfing the Web, by Toly K.

This is quite a detailed book, at a decent price (I bought all three books), though it has a couple of errors noted, and some customer review statements and ratings are quite odd.

A "For Dummies" book

Kindle Fire for Dummies, by Nancy C. Muir.

Expensive at $9.68 but it has 12 customer reviews and an average 4.4 stars.
This one I haven't bought, but I felt it should be included.

And for something completely different, and free for maybe one more day (I'm not sure how long it's free.)
Our Dog Lucca: A funny, short, picture scrapbook, by Moe Zilla, probably better known as Jon Cog, the writer behind Beyond Black Friday (which was formerly known as the "Me and my Kindle" blog). The book, recently released and his first, is a look at the life of his dog, written in rhyme for children, with photographs, and has shot up to #2 in the Kindle Store's genre Kindle subcategory of "Children's eBooks-) Animals-) Dogs and Nonfiction -) Children's Nonfiction -) Animals."
It's a Kindle blog to put on your Visit list. His tribute to a young Kindle blogger who died suddenly was not the usual Kindle blog read.

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

Friday, December 23, 2011

Kindle Tips: Kindle Fire/Touch info for new users + B&N closes up Nook Tablet loophole. UPDATED Dec. 25 for added links.

RANDOM THINGS ABOUT AND FOR KINDLE FIRE

By now, everything's in place for Christmas and the calls to Buy this, Buy that will finally scale back, well, until the day after Christmas.

In the meantime, a few million people will suddenly find themselves with Kindles of one type or another. So, I'll write a few reminders about the Kindle Fire, about which there has been some misunderstanding in recent news stories.
There are some tips for Kindle Touch e-readers also.

New Best of Digital page
Amazon just added a page they call "Best of Digital" -or "amazondigital Deals" (the odd capitalization is Amazon's) which is described as "The year's best MP3 music, games and apps for Android, movies and TV shows, Kindle Books, Audible audiobooks, software downloads, and video game downloads."

Prime Program features
For the first month, free Prime membership is included with Kindle Fire, though many of us have had that for awhile because it is basically a program to get free shipping within 2 days for almost any purchases from Amazon with no minimum purchase amount, BUT they've now added other features such as over 10,000 free streaming videos and the ability to borrow a Kindle book each calendar month with no library waits and no due date. The cost of that is $79/yr, or $6.58/mo.

They recently added current PBS specials and unusual items from the BBC and lots of documentaries if families are into that. While doing reading for the blog the other day, I had the Kindle Fire behind the keyboard, hooked to external speakers, to watch recent offerings of a current documentary on Steve Jobs by PBS and a special on North Korea (after hearing so much news about their leader's death, and the concern over how this will affect us). Both were fascinating to me. They also have seasons full of TV favorites but they'll not be current seasons. These are viewable at essentially no added cost for Prime members.

That power button
The NY Times has complained mightily, quickly followed by other news-sites quoting them, about missing features that anyone with a $500 tablet is used to and can't do without. They've quoted a few with unhappy reactions in Kindle forums while ignoring the rather large majority very pleased with the KFire.

A power button on the 'bottom' that can put the tablet to sleep (not 'off') if your stomach presses it is a big concern although top and bottom are interchangeable and you can turn what is up(side), down and the speakers (low-powered) are then pointing toward you. I miss the hardware volume button too, but they've whittled features down to get to the $199 price point.
For $300 difference, what is it that some will find impossible -- that's the key and those unhappy really should get other devices and pay a bit more.

B&N's Nook Tablet and B&N policies
There is also the Nook Tablet, at $250 plus another $20 for a good microSD card to expand storage space, so that is an additional $70 for what is more expandable hardware by a company that itself doesn't have much for the tablet to use as it doesn't offer its own streaming of music or video, and now it's been found that their latest update no longer allows their customers to use a web browser to work around the fact that B&N will not allow side-loading (via USB cable) of non-B&N apps. They've closed off that avenue, or loophole.

And, as most know, they've limited non-B&N files on the internal storage, to 1 gigabyte. But since their launch emphasized that the Kindle Fire is "not open" the way the Nook Tablet is, I'll talk about that a bit.
B&N's first odd claim was that they had Netflix and Hulu Plus and that Amazon wouldn't allow that, due to wanting to bind customers to only Amazon content.

That turned out to be strangely uninformed, since Netflix and other companies were announced as having the Kindle Fire Sept. 28 and working on it. And, as KFire owners know, Netflix and Hulu Plus were both available for the KFire upon delivery. As you'll see, most actual KFire users find the video streaming, and the quality of it (if your Internet host is giving you good download speeds and your router is good), a big plus.

Sideloading of non-Amazon store apps
Amazon, interviewed at the launch, said that side-loading of non-Amazon apps IS allowed, and with the latest update it still is. Bear in mind that some of these may not be entirely compatible with Amazon's heavy customization of the Android operating system.

Amazon also shows, with the latest update (v6.2.1) as any Android device will, how much is set aside specifically for app files. In this case, 1 gig. I've added many apps, almost daily, and have used up 1/3 of my space for that (including mapping programs), but I don't keep on the device what I know I won't use.

Server storage of your purchases or even your own non-Amazon files
If I got an app from Amazon's app store, Amazon still keeps it for me on the servers at no charge and I can re-download it at any time, for use when wanted.
Many are hoarding the daily free Android apps and when they're not using them, these should be deleted from the device until wanted, as they'll be available to the customer at any time via Amazon's servers which keep records of the 'purchase' even when $0.00.

These are not charged storage use against the free 5 gigs that all customers globally get for storage of non-copyrighted data from anywhere else. That's in addition to another free 5 gigs of Kindle-device storage/backup for personal documents (non-Amazon purchased material) that you decide you want backed up on the server and sync'd.
B&N-purchased material is stored by B&N but they don't provide storage for non-B&N files.

"Sideloading" non-Amazon apps is explained at the earlier article on how to sideload non-Amazon apps.

I'll have more info on the more reliable sites to get good non-Amazon apps, in a future blog article.

Android Marketplace, which isn't readily available on either Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet
Neither company allows access to the full, non-curated Android Marketplace. And those of us who do use the Android Market via our other devices need to be careful about what we get there as malware/virus-infected files are proliferating in the Marketplace because they are not checked, at this point, by Google before being made available to the public. See:
. Dec 23 article by ZDNet "More Trojanized games enter Google's Android Market app store."
. Techworld's more-detailed article
. A list of pulled malware in December, that was targeting Europeans.

In the meantime, LinuxInsider has a story on Dec 20 titled, "Can Amazon Save Android from Malware Hell?" They point out:

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

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

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

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

They add that Apple puts apps through a tortuous approval process also, but adds that

'However, malicious content has slipped through because "the application reviews focus is on the end user experience, not end user security," Sutton pointed out.

Taking a more proactive stance on security, as Amazon has, would help secure Android apps better.

"Providing a known secure source for apps will greatly enhance the overall value of the app store, especially in the Android space where competing app stores exist -- an approach that Amazon appears to be adopting," Sutton concluded. '

Having said that, Amazon is known to be too controlling about what applications can be released, when it comes to whether users might like a particular app and can delay developer efforts by many months, including the time it takes to approve improved apps with features that users have requested, causing the creators to seem non-responsive to customers.

RE tiny fonts on WEBpages
Be sure to read the blog article here on how to enlarge web-page fonts and reflow the text for much more comfortable reading.

WiFi connection concerns
This is already too long, so I'll close this with some info on WiFi connection problems I've done some reading on, and I'll be back within the next day or two with some good new books and software for the Kindle Fire and e-Ink Kindle e-readers, in time for those with newly unwrapped Kindles.

Common solution to some WiFi problems (from the forums)

' DiabetesDoc says:
Just got my KF, and it recognizes my wireless network, and a bunch of others. But when I try to access my wireless network (using the same cryptic series of letters & numbers as usual), it says "Unable to Connect to Wi-Fi Network" and despite tapping on "Keep Trying", it gets the same screen. I've tried from 3 feet, 10 feet, and 30 feet from the wifi base, all with same results. What should I try next?

Addendum, 11/16/2011: My KF is now working fine. I turned off computer, modem, router, then back on (a trick mentioned to me by CS [Customer Support] and the KF came up w/o problem.

[ and the next one from another message thread ]
Dec 17, 2011 6:23:13 PM PST
Old **Bah Humbug** Rocker says:

I had the WiFi issue 2 days ago and resetting my router did the trick. '

NOTE: WiFi problems were seen by the thousands with the first iPad and then with the first NookColor. It's often a combo of many factors, with a new device suddenly not connecting easily as the other devices had.

A recommended router
In my case, my Kindles had worked fine with the WiFi router but my NookColor would not connect most of the time and when it did it would drop out all the time. I decided to try a new router and bought a Netgear N300 (mid-$-range type) and I've not had a problem since.

There are better, more capable routers out there, but this was a relatively inexpensive one that works well for me, and I've not tried others because I've not had reason to look for one.
For instance, there are dual-band routers that will isolate the two currently popular speeds so that slower ones won't slow down the newer type devices.

Important tips for navigating both Kindle Touch and Kindle Fire models
. Tips for using Kindle Touch and Kindle Fire
. Notes & tips on Kindle Touch
. Browse the list of borrowable Prime Kindle books that new Kindle-device owners can download (only one per calendar month) without waiting and without due dates. This is part of Prime, and new Kindle device customers get one month of Prime free.
. Kindle Fire cases and a sleeve I like for the Kindle Touch + a GREAT mini speaker for the KFire.

Free Kindle Books guide
This blog's guide to finding free books for your Kindle from Amazon and elsewhere, plus prepared searches filtered by non-public-domain books (and vice versa) and sorted on published date, or bestselling, or highly rated. It includes a way to find the lower-cost books also.

Articles or forum threads on the Kindle Fire
. Kindle Fire Owners Love Their Tablet, Flaws and All.
. Kindle Fire first impressions: Wow!
. Taking Amazon's Kindle Fire on vacation
. Kindle Fire's Volkswagon Moment
. 12 things that kinda suck about the Kindle Fire
. Is Fire's touchscreen responsive?
I enjoyed one post that merely said, re the lighter touch that should be used,
"B.Hart says:
"I have to keep reminding my husband it is a touch screen, not a thump screen. The lighter touch seems to work better."
. A motorcyclists forum discussion about the Kindle Fire

VIDEO Demos that are especially illuminating
(Kindle-Edition subscribers need to go to http://kindleworld.blogspot.com to click on video links - see entry for December 24.)
. Video of MobileTechReview's thorough hands-on review/demo of the Kindle Fire
. Video by reviewer djramsey shows how responsive the Kindle Fire can be with a lighter touch (and that was before the software upgrade).

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