Kindle 'Movers and Shakers' feature is back

Kindle "Movers and Shakers" feature is back.  These are "The biggest gainers in Kindle Store sales rank over the past 24 hours" and the lists, updated hourly, "contain bestselling titles available for download."  They include random free and lower-cost books but not that many, and you can subscribe to a feed to receive these regularly by clicking on that link for that.

If interested only in recommended free or under-$1 books, see my listing of (mostly) non-fiction ones on June 10.  Will do an updated one soon.

Am working on web and PDF photos and comparisons of material on my Kindle DX and Kindle 2, which should be up this week.

No Kindle in Germany / iriver japan's Libre

The Tech Herald reports, re the failure of talks to expand the Kindle to Germany:

' According to German magazine Wirtschaftswoche, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos has failed in his attempts to find common ground with T-Mobile and Vodafone, who apparently want to charge more money for wireless network access to the Kindle than Amazon is willing to shoulder. '

iriver japan's Libre is launching soon in Japan.  Yet another 6" e-ink product, this one is being manufactured by Prime View International Co ltd (PVI) of Taiwan, which has signed a deal to buy E Ink of Massachusetts to coordinate their efforts.   iriver will become known as MouseComputer  [not your usual name upgrade] after an upcoming merger. Excerpts of mild interest:

' iriver Japan combined [the e-reader] with Foxit Software Company's software, such as the one that browses online news articles and converts them into PDF files...
The Libre is not capable of wireless communication...It will be sold only online.

 ' "Because of our low pricing, the profit margin of the Libre is small," said Shigeyoshi Asano, president of iriver Japan. "So, it is very difficult to sell it through volume retailers."

  ' The price has not been decided yet but is expected to be about ¥29,800 (approx US$312). We estimate that the company purchases the e-book reader from PVI for $150 to 200.
  ' The company expects unit sales of 1,000 per month...
At first, iriver Japan will not provide contents for the Libre, expecting the device to be used for reading news articles collected by Foxit Software's crawling software, PDF files prepared by the user and so forth...However, Asano said that iriver Japan is now in talks with newspaper companies and other content providers. '

In other technology news! "Toyota technology has brain waves move wheelchair."

The Kindle Chronicles podcast by Len Edgerly

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 sections on News, Tech Tips, a weekly Interview, a Quote, and Comments received from the Kindle community during the previous week.

 Len, after reading some of Kindleworld, invited me to be the guest this week and we talked about the latest Kindle events.   Quick, sharp, and enthusiastically curious about much more than things Kindle, he is also a relaxed, engaging interviewer.  Catch his very interesting blog "Random Reflections."

  A graduate of Harvard, and also the Harvard Business School later, he's worked as a business journalist, was an editor of an Energy magazine and an executive at a natural gas company before then getting his Masters in Fine Arts in poetry.
  Am looking forward to Len's first poetry collection for the Kindle.  Here are Len and his wife Darlene, who recently interviewed him for the podcast when an Amazon executive suddenly postponed.

  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.

You can review a full log of The Kindle Chronicles programs and interviews (on one page) going back to mid 2008 here.  There are options on that page to subscribe via iTunes (free) or get feeds via any of several podcatchers.  Highly recommended.

Chicago Sun-Times review of DX, and my first-look

Good review by Andy Ihnatko for the Chicago Sun-Times.  Two answers to his question re the DX looking "great but who's gonna pay $489"  are along the lines of Ihnatko and yours truly.  I got my Kindle DX on the same day that review was published, Thursday.

See UPDATE 6/30 at bottom re number keys and alt/shift-combo keys.

  I'll do some photos and a small write-up after trying it out more.  It looks huge in photos (and it's not small) but it seems smaller once in your hands although of course it IS heavier than the Kindle 2, which remains my take-out Kindle when I'm out and about, in the city.

  I'll say one thing right now -- the keyboard is far better than the Kindle 2's, as I can type about twice as fast on it and the 5-way speed going up and down lines is much faster.

  I've put many PDFs on it, and it's a beautiful thing.  Will do photo comparisons of font appearance and screen contrast also, during the next week.  The material jumps out at you it's so clear.  And I've already felt (and so have friends) that the 6" Kindles were both very clear.  But this is on another level.

  However, Amazon has managed to miscalculate once more and the DX is now again not in stock for another 4 to 6 weeks. So for those interested in getting the device, it's back to pre-ordering to get a better spot in the line.

  Ihnatko's very entertaining review matches my own reactions to the DX, but still, if I could have only one Kindle it would have to be the one I can easily carry around with me outside, the 6" version.  For men, it may be different.

  I did think about buying a separate shoulder-strap flat-carrier for the DX, but the Kindle 2 will do fine for portable use.  Also a determining factor is the strength of need for accurate viewing of PDF's.  While the Sun-Times headline asks who will pay that price, he does mention the usual $30-$60/month cost of 24/7 wireless, which alone pays for the 6" device in a year, not including book-cost savings.

  And for new people reading, yes, the Kindle accepts books from almost any source around except for copyrighted books with digital-rights put on by another company.  Sony and Amazon adhere to that kind of thing, which is partly from publisher pressure.  But if you've paid for a book, you should be able to read it on any device so they'll have to work on that and it seems the trend is toward that.

I did find out that when reading a PDF, the dictionary is available to you within the PDF via the SEARCH box which comes up at the bottom when you start to type a word.  You can type in a word that puzzles and then 5-way to the right to choose the 'dictionary' option, which then starts a look-up on the word and brings up the full definition and when you press the BACK button, you're back to that spot in your PDF.  That's it for now.

UPDATE 6/30/09 - KEYBOARD: Alternative, sequential alt and shift key combos
  The Kindle DX's keyboard numerals share the top row space with alpha characters, and this choice has drawn many complaints especially because it had seemed the alt-key would have to be pressed simultaneously with the number key.

  It turns out that the number-combos work if you press them sequentially.  While this still won't be workable for math students or for anyone needing to do notes with numbers, it's considerably better than having to press the alt-key and a number key at the same time when holding the Kindle.  The sequence should be done fairly quickly though, as there is a time limit, I found.

  The sequential key sequence also holds for capitalization of letters.
The shift key doesn't have to be pressed at the same time as the alpha-character but can be pressed just before it.  (This is also true for the Kindle 1 but not for the Kindle 2.)

The creator of TiVo and Kindle brand-names

Michael Cronan and his bag of Scrabble tiles have put together some letters that meant either nothing before or something entirely different ("kindle" being a verb before and now a noun and, as an offshoot of that noun, a new verb with a different meaning).

  This creative guy, who lives in Berkeley, works on many different projects and definitely has an upbeat way of dealing with what are usually somewhat stress-producing situations such as traffic jams and idle time while strapped in.

Amazon and its mobile-software push

Amazon has been buying software companies like Lexcycle (Stanza) and Snaptell  (who've created software for Google's Android operating system).   There are many signs that they are expanding Amazon product availability (Kindle books, eventually subscriptions) to more mobile devices than the iPhone (Blackberry all but certain) and some signs that they will be opening up the Kindle at some point to apps that can run on it.
  Businessweek looked at Amazon's current job ads for hints:

' Amazon lists 17 open mobile-related positions on its Web site, including for software engineers, a senior product manager for mobile payments, and a director of mobile applications.  One job ad says Amazon expects its hire to "develop partnerships with mobile companies."  Another posting seeks applicants who can write programs for Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows Mobile operating system. '

A summary of CNet's E-Reader Comparison

Atomictown, part of tricityherald.com, provides a good summary of CNet's comparison of e-book readers.  This includes (with 5-star based ratings) the Cool-er e-book reader (3-stars); the Sony PRS-700BC (3 stars); the Amazon Kindle 2 (4 stars) and the Kindle DX (3.5 stars).

More to the point, they give the main reasons along with links to the actual reviews with much more detail.

  As usual, reviews don't take into consideration, though, the very high cost of unlimited wireless access (which is not for only the Amazon store as too many have thought), but that's been covered here quite a bit already.

Also, Gizmodo has a detailed review of the Cool-er eBook Reader.  Many photos and a clean, clear looking screen but, like other reviewers, they find it awkward to use, and they recommend the Kindle 2 and Sony PRS-505 over this reader.

Plastic Logic interface demo at the D7 Conference

The latest Plastic Logic demo was made to Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, with a live blogging of the WSJ's "D7" or "D: All Things Digital Conference."
  Although it was the first showing of the user interface, it didn't seem that different from last month's demos here and here, except that they say more definitely that they will have WiFi and cellular wireless capabilities although they don't say how these would be used.

  They explained they need to have some way of getting documents onto the device easily and that the unit will be business-oriented.  Books will be only a small portion of the use, according to CEO Richard Archuleta, and these will most likely be business-oriented books.

FOCUS
. An article here, on April 15, cited an editors weblog report which paraphrased a statement by the VP of Business Development, Daren Benzi:

      'Compared with a computer, one of the advantages of the device is that readers can focus entirely on consuming content, they will not be disturbed by emails, for example.'

      I found this a strange idea in this era of multi-tasking and fast-moving communications.

. That dovetails with an entry here on May 10 that cited an article in which Mark Glaser reports via notes he took during a journalism symposium;  the notes detail what the Senior Director of Content Development for Plastic Logic, Sarah Geata, said although they're not exact quotes.  The gist of her statements match what Benzi says above about the customer not being "disturbed by emails"

      "It will have WiFi, USB connection and a Bluetooth.  We support PDF, ePub and MS Office. We are targeting [the] business traveler, you can annotate documents on it... When plugged in, the device can upload email to it... [WiFi] will be built in.  Kindle set the standard making it transparent."  [The Kindle doesn't use WiFi though.]

      When asked if there would be a web browser, Geata's response was, per Glaser's notes:

      "Not right now. It's about not being interrupted. It's a reading device. There won't be email on this or a web browser ...

  There it is again, the 'no interruptions' explanation.

  I've read that Plastic Logic has had problems, in this economy, finding sufficient funding despite intriguing features, and I suspect that's more of a reason.  Adding e-mail and web browser capabilities would take more time and staff.

      Geata added that "people can shop for papers, subscriptions directly, without putting in a credit card. Why not web browsing? The technology works like an Etch-a-Sketch that has to be cleared each time, so having Flash running would be a bad experience. Eventually you'll get to video frame rate of 30 frames per second and can do web browsing. I think it will evolve over time."

  In the meantime, a Plastic Logic device focusing on the business traveler but having no e-mail or web-browser capabilities (except to download documents or upload them somewhere) will certainly mean they can charge less than if they actually emulated the 'transparent' Kindle model indicated above.  At the latest demo, the company was as evasive as ever about planned pricing saying that couldn't be discussed.

  In yesterday's demo, it was explained that color will take another year beyond the expected release of the device in January 2010.  It'll be interesting to see what Pixel Qi does by then.

  The unit has a touchscreen but no keyboard.  Kara asks yesterday about the lag time between pages, and the response is that it'll improve over time.

  Newspaper formats: these should go over better with publishers (ads possible) and some customers, as the layout is more similar to actual newspaper layout rather than the straight-text presentation by the Kindle.  In an earlier entry, the editors weblog reports:

' Benzi explained that although the first device will not access the internet, consumers might well be able to click on an advertisement for additional information on products or offers . . .

    Plastic Logic will be able to "track the information about what the customer is doing with the device," a system which would seem to offer benefits to both newspapers and advertisers. '

iPhone 3GS review focuses on Kindle DX

Even Ars Technica's review of Apple's new iPhone 3GS 'focuses' on the Kindle DX

Sorry, I just found this a somewhat amusing sight.  It's a demo of how much clearer the new iPhone's camera is in macro mode.
  It's definitely much clearer in that you can read the characters on the Kindle DX's keyboard, but the the color cast could use a little work.

The Kindle does get a lot of ink.  The Wall St. Journal's article on a NYPD Commissioner keeping fit, says  "While on the treadmill, he will also read e-books and articles from newspapers and magazines on his Amazon Kindle.  'I get so much more reading done this way,' he says."

Kindle 2 web-browsing with an unusual purpose

[ Note: 6/22/09 12:46 AM - There was an internal formatting issue that prevented this post and anything after 6/16/09 to be readable by Internet Explorer 6.xxx for two days.  I've moved the blockquote away from the image and now IE can read the pages.]

[ Original posting 6/21/2009 07:20:00 AM ]
At the Kindleboards forum a couple of days ago, I replied to a thread about the Kindle 2 web-browser and its usefulness, if any.

I thought I should post some of it here (reworded), as I'd never thought to use the Kindle 2 with the aim I had in mind the other night -- I've used it mainly to look for information.  Here's the gist of what I wrote to the forum.

When web browsing (under "Home/Menu/Experimental"), you can press the Menu key to get the 'bookmarks' for the web, these are pre-set by Amazon for you and include news, sports, and entertainment sites.

  I have a section called Tips for working with the Kindle web browser - because there are three different modes for webbing, and each of them brings a fairly different experience.

  The Tips piece is at (shortcut) http://xrl.us/kindleweb

  And there's a guide on bookmarks for small mobile-device-formatted websites as well.

  I tend to like to use the web browser when out of the house - and I've seen that a few others on that forum do as well, when looking for good restaurants, etc. ( like http://m.yelp.com ). Amazon encourages us to use Google and Wikipedia, as you can see from the status bar options and the web bookmarks.

Here's a real life use with the web browser Wednesday night:

My cable high-speed internet connection went down just before I was going to order a Kindle DX and I was, at that point, bent on ordering one after mulling it for a week.
  That my internet connection went down was probably a sign for me that I shouldn't order another Kindle, but I ignored it.

  I got my Kindle 2 to Go To Comcast to look up the phone contact to get my cable probs reported.  The K2 crashed momentarily at that point! :-)  Another sign?
  But it came right back, apparently refreshed, and with no assist from me.  The Kindle 2 never balked again during the full session. I browsed back to Comcast, got the contact number, phoned, and found out that my entire neighborhood was down for Comcast high-speed Internet.

Here’s my path on the web with the small Kindle 2:

  1.  I went to the last website I had been on to read one more detail and then used one of the website links to start an order with the Kindle 2.
  2.  That took me to my Amazon account where I signed in.
  3.  I ordered the DX but then realized I should enter some gift codes that I had not put into the Amazon servers yet.
  4.  I then had the Kindle Go To gmail.com (leaving my Amazon order) and pulled up the codes from my gmail.  Mobile gmail is not that intuitive, but key presses worked fine.  I was able to retrieve the mail and the coupon codes.

  7.  Then I pressed the Kindle's Back button and was right back on the Amazon order again with all the field-info still filled in, so I typed in the codes.
  9.  I then chose my shipping, completed my order, and got confirmation on the screen.

  I saw that my cable lights were blinking again so I went back to my pc and put my Kindle (which has a keyboard that one can't type fast on) to sleep.

  On my computer I checked my recent orders and there it was.  It’s not due to arrive until June 24. They're not in stock again until the 22nd or so.

  That I had been able to get right back to my Amazon order, and that the fields were still filled in, surprised me.  There were no memory problems for the Kindle after the initial 'crash' when first on the way to the Comcast page.

I do like that I was able to order my DX with my Kindle 2 :-)

Reviewers who try the Kindle for a few hours and tell their readers that the web browser is not worth using are comparing it to their computers or laptops.  Some barely try it or don't realize it can go beyond the 'company store.'  The free web access is a very useful feature when you're not near your computers and it is much better than having to look for WiFi somewhere and hoping it doesn't cost too much.

  Bezos is still saying (this week) that the wireless is free, and this statement is part of his marketing, including that it's a reason for the high cost for the Kindle in the first place (wireless costs built in).
  While Amazon is free to charge later on for non-store use, their current advertising push ("free wireless" - including promises to partnering schools) makes it extremely unlikely that they would risk their credibility by beginning any charges for at least a year, especially since he has explained this last Monday at the Wired conference that they would have had to charge monthly fees for wireless if they had priced the Kindle devices lower.  At any rate, it is Web access from anywhere you happen to be as long as there is Sprint cell phone service in the area.

 To see how Kindle users are using their Kindles in some unexpected and creative ways, see this Amazon forum thread.  The Kindleboards thread above also has some examples.  The Kindle DX web-browser is said to be somewhat improved in functioning.  I'm looking forward to the easier readability of full-width webpages after accessing these on the smaller Kindle 2 screen.

News in the Kindle world - Wk of 6/20/09

These are the more unusual headlines.
    (To those reading this on the Kindle edition of the blog, links actually can be followed with the Kindle's web browser.  You can save battery juice by having the Kindle plugged in while using the Kindle browser at home, but the computer will of course be faster for that.
    The Kindle browser's narrow screen can lead to awkward web-browsing and it's slow, as cell phone network speeds are often throttled.   To make it more doable and sometimes even enjoyable, try my Tips for using the Kindle web-browser.)

  1.  Amazon didn't open source the Kindle although that was implied when Amazon posted source code for each version of the Kindle, including the DX.  This raised hopes because Bezos had said at the Wired magazine conference on Monday that, as reported by cmswire, 'he intended to to give the Kindle device team competition by making the Kindle books available on even more mobile and computing devices."  But the code is just the GPL'd Linux libraries and drivers.  A bit more detail is available in the Internet News story.

  2.  UK - The Guardian takes a tougher look at the Cool-er and BeBook e-reader offerings in the UK, where the Amazon Kindle isn't sold yet.  Many reviewers looking only at the surface but not understanding what the Kindle can do have not made apt comparisons to the Kindle or Sony readers, but this article does.

  The Cool-er reader: "Navigating an interface on e-paper can be sluggish at the best of times. When you have to scroll through menus click by click, it's worse. There are additional buttons on the sides for some options – call up main menu, flip page from portrait to landscape, volume controls. But to change text size you have to burrow down to the bottom of a menu labelled font family...You can sort your books by file name, file type or date, but seemingly not by book title or author, and options for skipping through a long list are limited."
  The BeBook: "Unless you are a die-hard MobiPocket fan, however, there's little to make it a compelling offer at the current £249 UK price tag. The Cool-er, by way of contrast, is £189.

  ...Until Amazon manages to bring the Kindle over here – if it ever does – the Sony remains the one to beat."

    Earlier postings on Cool-er Reader:
        Cnet Review, June 7, 2009
        Cool-er reader debuts, May 15, 2009.

  3.  The San Francisco Examiner's Scott Fogelson (Classical Music) sees the Kindle DX as a  "potential new musical tool."

"But even apart from musical considerations, the Kindle DX is a wonderful piece of gear; I haven't bonded with a device this thoroughly in a good long time. Easy to use, comfortable to handle, capacious (4 GB of memory), and with a sharp, attractive eInk screen, I'm finding in the Kindle a sense of rightness that I encountered with the iPhone, another device that became an integral part of my life almost instantaneously."

  4.  "Why E-Books Are Stuck in a Black-and-White World."   Priya Ganapati goes into the technical details that explain the absence of color in the current e-reader scene.  Good explanations, with an accompanying chart that compares the current state of E-Ink , Kent Displays (Flepia), Pixel Qi, and Qualcomm's MEMS system.

Kindle DX PDF-handling and photos of relative size

A review of the Kindle DX by Boing Boing Gadget's Rob Beschizza.

I differ from his conclusion in that I feel that if you want to read only books or magazines (in text format) and especially if you want to do this anywhere you happen to be -- carrying your Kindle with you -- I feel the one to consider is the smaller Kindle 2.

  If you want to be able to read PDF documents (plentiful on the Net) with accurate layout of source pages or complex scientific magazine articles, or if you have eyes that prefer larger fonts and less page-turning, then the Kindle DX is one to consider.  Musicians will like this for sheet music, as page turning is easier with no page mixups.  It's reviewed as having an excellent image, but it's not as convenient to carry everywhere as is the Kindle 2, which is more like carrying a small book.

  The Kindle 2, though, does not read PDFs and requires a conversion - doable by Amazon and you can set up a free-send of the converted file to your computer for transfer to your Kindle or pay 15 cents per megabyte to send the converted file direct to your Kindle. The latter won't always be particularly accurate in layout but it can be annotated and highlighted, and the in-line dictionary can be used with it as well as text-to-speech.  A search of the Kindle will find words that are within the book.

He writes:

' If you're not sure about it because of the bigger size, check out our gallery of the Kindle DX alongside everyday items. Though based on the Kindle 2, it's the first version that seems a beautiful thing. '

First, as someone mentions at the site, few homes have "everyday items" like these.  It's an unusual photo essay of the feel of the Kindle DX in his home and the relative size of it against common objects there.  I liked the atmosphere that he set up for it.  The reviewer obviously is taken with the device.

  In the Comments area, there are reminders that no annotations are possible with the PDF file; Table of Contents links aren't supported; and no zooming is possible except for the font-expansion in Landscape mode (where you get half the page at a time but in more readable size).

  Bischizza updates the report, after receiving requests to test a particular PDF file:

' Update: Testing PDF for speed and compatibility, I tried a 2.4MB PDF of "All you can eat: autophagy in neurogeneration of neuroprotection," by Phillipp Jaeger and Tony Wyss-Coray. It loaded in 3-4 seconds, with 1 second transitions between pages -- same as plain text! Nothing in the document confused it, layout was good, including charts, pictures, superscript and greek letters, etc. Hilbert's Foundations of Geometry, full of pointy-headed Tex-set equations, was just as snappy. '

Here are a couple of small thumbnails from his gallery showing relative size of the Kindle DX.
     

Kindle's One-time cost vs Subscription-plan costs

After the news yesterday that Jeff Bezos had considered the option of selling the Kindle at a low price while subsidizing that with a monthly plan of about $60/month for two years -- but deciding against that for reasons he gave -- I remembered an earlier blog entry here after the announcement of the iPhone 3G's now lower pricing and higher monthly subscription price.

It compared that iPhone 3G's lower device-cost and higher subscription cost with the pricing of the Kindle on a one-time basis.

Since a subscription plan is something that Jeff Bezos actually said was not out of the question later if customers want it, though he still doesn't like that approach, here's an example of the REAL cost involved with subscription plans as opposed to the one-time payment for the Kindle, a device which includes free unlimited wireless 24/7 (not limited to the Amazon store) in most areas of the U.S.

iPhone 3G Pricing
  A plus for new iPhone users is the drop in price.  Barely a year ago, the 8-gigabyte iPhone would have cost $600, but the new 8-gigabyte 3G is only $200.

  However, as David Pogue points out:

"The basic AT&T plan — unlimited Internet and 450 minutes of calling — now costs $70 a month instead of $60 (plus taxes and fees), and comes with no text messages instead of 200.  (Adding text messaging costs at least $5 a month more.)"

Those who don't understand how the Kindle's price can be so high should note that the actual one-year cost of the iPhone with Internet data access (before taxes and without text messaging) is:

  $70/month x 12 months = $840 + $200, or a total of $1,040.00 for that first year.

Kindle-2 pricing
  The Kindle 2 with its free 24/7 wireless access to the web is $360.
  Adding up the monthly Net charges, the total cost for the first year is ... $360.

  In the 2nd year, the monthly cost of Kindle wireless use adds up to $0.00,
  while the iPhone cost is $840+ for the 2nd year.

Kindle-DX pricing
  And now an extra $130 total cost for the Kindle DX brings a reading screen that is 2.5 times the surface area of the Kindle 2.

Although the iPhone's subscription price includes phone service, video, and apps galore, the basic phone charge per month, if separated out, would probably be about $35/month and the wireless Net data charge about $35/month also.
  Multiply $35 x 12 for the wireless access, and that's $420 per year for the data access alone, not including the cost of monthly access for the basic phone service and the initial cost of the device.

  As it is, a non-phone device like the Novatel MiFi 2200 needs a wireless subscription, and that one is $60/mo. with either Verizon or Sprint for the same type of always-available wireless access.

  While some may not want a clear, 6" e-ink screen reader with 24/7 free wireless access to the Net, it's irrational to say, when understanding the costs of wireless and the e-ink screen, that a total cost of $359 is "too expensive" as is regularly said by columnists and even technology reviewers.  Pogue stepped away from that idea himself after his initial review of the Kindle 2 and now explains the high cost of always-ready wireless access, in the column cited above.

Tip:  For better results with the Kindle's experimental web browser through the choice of 3 different modes of Net access ('Advanced' mode in the Kindle 2 is 'Desktop' mode in the Kindle DX), try my Tips on using the Kindle web browser.

The Kindle DX and the PDF implementation chosen

Kindlezen's Steve Bain has a very thoughtful, well-researched, and thorough report on the strange choices made in Amazon's implementation of native Adobe PDF support for the Kindle DX.

He opens with the thought that "...my overall impression is very positive" and that this is a critique of the PDF interface rather than the unit itself.  It's an understandably tough critique, considering the DX's target audience.

I'd written earlier (May 15) on the contradictory replies I received from Amazon's Kindle Support department when Kindle-2 owners discovered that the Kindle DX User's Guide implied, via menu illustrations of a PDF document in use, that there would be no highlighting or notes capability with PDFs.  It's not spelled out via text that this is so.  A technical representative explained to me that he was able to highlight pages and add a note to a page, though these could not be done for subsections of pages.  However, as explained in that earlier report, official Amazon word came on the 18th that only a converted PDF (to MOBI text format) would allow users to highlight and add notes to PDFs.

It's been noted that the small Sony PRS-700 does allow users the highlighting and note-taking capabilities for text-based PDFs although the unit has its own drawbacks.  Therefore many surmise, rightly or wrongly, that the lack of these features is more due to the type of Adobe licensing involved.

Since then, Amazon has not, as of today, offered a mechanism by which PDFs could be converted by them for the Kindle DX as is currently done automatically for PDFs sent to Kindles 1 and 2  (because it's necessary in those cases just to read them), though I had asked them to consider offering this option to avoid problems upon release because of the expressed concerns in the forums back then.

  Searches are doable in text-based PDFs but not of course in books that are created only from pages scanned as images.  More troubling, as Bain describes, is the lack of Adobe support for working-links from the Table of Contents (possibly because licensing was for a restricted feature set).  Bain describes several workarounds and the difficulties with them.

 He points out, as forum Kindle DX users also have noted, that dictionary look-ups and Text-to-Speech are also not available for PDFs.

  As a result, Bain and users on the forums are of course asking that the firmware be updated to correct most of these problems, as the DX is marketed to students for textbook and study use and to business professionals and academics who need to work with many PDFs.  That one cannot 'work with' the PDFs then but only view them is a rather serious drawback for much of Amazon's stated target market.

  Bain describes physical interface problems he and others have noted, which you can read on his site.

However, most Kindle users who want the Kindle mainly for books and periodicals and are interested only in viewing PDFs that do retain the original layout of pages, rather than in working with them, won't be particularly affected.  Exception: the lack of active links in the Table of Contents.  Amazon needs to take care of this; Adobe provides that support if it's part of the licensing purchased. [Update from original 9:00pm post added the last sentence.]

  Some photos of scientific PDFs put on the Kindle DX by Kindleboards member 'Lynn' show a unit that does have accurate multi-format layout and remarkable clarity for PDFs when original sources are not in very small print.

  While there is awkwardness in the auto-rotation to landscape mode (and some slowness under certain circumstances) in that the top portion of the page is shown and then the bottom portion is reached by using the NextPage bar -- making columnar reading that requires PrevPage bar to get to the next column -- one can see the material about 1.5 times larger that way.  (Pan and zoom aren't possible with PDFs on the DX's screen, which while large is still smaller than an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper, nor is it possible to increase the size of the fonts.)

  Lynn finds it less trying than scrolling around on the laptop though.  She has 400 journal articles placed on her DX already, to avoid using the laptop for them.

As a result of mulling the pros and cons of this device the last week, and because I won't be working with PDFs but only viewing them and using them for various electronics manuals, educational PDFs and a lot of sheet music, I've decided to get one for myself.
  Various photos links I've collected here and the photos linked to above helped.  There are even sheet music examples there.  Page turning will be a lot easier. :-)

  But business professionals and academics interested in the PDF capabilities for their work needs should be aware of what Bain has described at Kindlezen before they make their decisions.  And Amazon should provide the usual conversions for those wanting to use the usual Kindle tools on this type of document while working on the firmware changes to make this a real tool for academics and business professionals.

Update 3:47 PM: Clarified that lack of highlighting and notes involves only PDFs.

A Word macro for the "MyClippings' file

The Professor at theprofessornotes.com has made a macro to sort the unruly "My Clippings" Kindle file.  It does more than that, by his description (I haven't tried it yet) but it runs only in Windows - and on Macs with Windows and the Windows version of Office running.  I haven't seen which version of Office was used, but any version that runs this macro should work with all Kindles.  I've been hoping for something like this and the comments there suggest it works well.

From his description:

Here’s what the macro does:

* Creates a table of highlights, notes and bookmarks.
* sorts the table by book and location in book
* removes a (now useless) column
* changes the font to a smaller one
* adjusts the column sizes

If you try it and like it, let him know.

Your Kindle highlights and notes on your web-area - improved

(Originally posted 5/26/2009 10:33:00 AM)
Amazon just quietly started a new feature to display your highlighting and notes on a webpage that only you can see.  You can't edit them, just be able to see them.  You also can't share them.  I imagine most would want some privacy on the notes they write or even for what they choose to highlight.

UPDATE - 6/16/09 - 3:18 AM BIG improvement: Amazon has added a feature I particularly wanted because I was not interested in seeing the small amounts of highlighting or notes at one time, with all that paging to go through.
  They've added "See all your highlights and notes on one page" at the bottom of the page-reports. Excellent!

UPDATE - 5/26/09 - 1:50pm PDT I just noticed that you can SORT the data by column-title. Very nice addition.

See the Conditions of Use, which include keeping your password private, to protect confidentiality.

My guess is that once they get people used to the idea and feeling safe about it, they may offer sharing.  Obviously they'd have to put safeguards in there, so that people don't accidentally see what your private notes to yourself are or your areas of interest :-)

I just tried it, selecting a book for which I highlighted 70 sections but am only 44% through. It's really useful to be so easily reminded of what was important for me in the book so far, being able to see them far more easily than in looking at the summaries and links on the Kindle.

Also, it'd be easy to download them or printscreen them in some way but the section labelled "License and Site Access" stipulates that you will not download, extract, or modify it "except with the express written consent of Amazon" ... probably because the highlighted content belongs to the author and publisher and they'd obviously not want it used easily.  They also say you can't reproduce them, but it doesn't specifically mention printing.  After stating the conditions, they say this: "To obtain our express written permission, you may contact us at: amazonkindle-license@amazon.com ."

Interestingly, the use of the site is officially restricted to those 13 years of age or older. ?

And I don't understand this section:

REVIEWS, COMMENTS, COMMUNICATIONS, AND OTHER CONTENT
Visitors may post reviews, comments, photos, and other content; send communications; and submit suggestions, ideas, comments, questions, or other information, so long as the content is not..."

That must apply to some other section of that webpage feature.  But we'll find out.  It looks as if they plan to open it up so that you can share your information, to remain on the webpage, later on a personally-controlled basis, but I don't really have an idea what this section is for, though it's likely to create more interest in the book if they do open it up for voluntary sharing later.

I was alerted to this by a TechCrunch article by Erick Schonfeld.

Jeff Bezos tells Wired why the Kindle is so expensive

At the same conference (as in the previous entry) Wired reports in better detail what Bezos said about the pricing model of a cheaper device with a 2-year subscription.  Bezos told Wired:

' "We sell a lot of cellphones for a penny, and you know, when you’re buying a cellphone for a penny, there’s got to be a catch — and there is” in the recurring cost of monthly service which is free with the Kindle’s Whispernet service. '

[The Novatel MiFi 2200 has $60/mo. plans being offered with Sprint and Verizon for similar high or unlimited-use plans.]

' Still, if customers preferred smaller hardware cost and higher operating fees he would still consider that approach.  Bezos maintains that Amazon could have sold the DX for $99, but only with a required monthly subscription of $60 or more per month, or by forcing Kindle owners [to] buy a certain number of books each month.

“[The Kindle DX] is $489, and that is an unbelievably low price for something that has inside it a sophisticated computer, a completely new kind of display of that size, and a 3G wireless radio,” Bezos said. '

I'd say it's not "an unbelievably low price" ! except for the fact that the iRex iLiad at that size and without free 24/7 wireless plan does cost abut $860.

Note that in the New York Times's blog piece, Bezos said he's not opposed to one of the subscription plans later if customers want it but that he still doesn't like that approach.

Jeff Bezos on more formats on the Kindle

More file formats for the Kindle (NY Times)

At a conference sponsored by Wired magazine in New York Monday, June 15, on disruptive business models, Jeff Bezos said that the Kindle device team and the Kindle books team are separate businesses and the focus is to make the Kindle "the most remarkable purpose-built reading device in the world" and added that the the books going for $9.99 will be made "available on the iPhone, other mobile devices and other computing devices."

  And of most interest to many of us:

"In the future, Amazon.com’s Kindle e-book reader will display more book formats beyond its own."

The article goes on to say:

' He said the company did consider selling the Kindle with a lower upfront price, but requiring a monthly subscription or minimum number of books purchased.

“My opinion, and so far the market has responded to our approach, is very simple,” he said. “Instead of driving the cogitative complexity of a two-year commitment, tell people, ‘This is the actual cost of the device.’”

In the future, Mr. Bezos said, he is not opposed to offering a lower upfront price with some sort of commitment if customers want it. But he still doesn’t like that approach. “I personally like the cogitative simplicity of saying, ‘Buy the device and use it or don’t use it,’” and have both sides of the business stand alone. '

He drove home the interesting figures, from his previous announcement May 6, that for titles that are available in paper and Kindle formats, the Kindle accounts for 35% of those sales at Amazon.

Kindle DX is a quick calculator too!

Blog Kindle has discovered that if you type a mathematical expression like 2+2 in the search box on the home page, you'll get an accurate result for that expression. Doesn't work for the earlier Kindles though.  Very nice for DX'rs.

How Kindle DX differs from Kindle 2 in hands-on review. Updated

UPDATED 6/12/09 - I've added links or brief intros to a few stories on 6/11 that were of more than usual interest to me:


1.  A terrific photo-text report by Stanford student "Sri Lankan," as he calls himself.   His pictures are large original sized ones. To fit them on the screen in Firefox, press Ctrl-minus.

2.  Engadget's photos of the DX, many of them and very clear.  Review due soon.

3.  Washington Post's PaidContent blog - the newer item in this piece by Staci D. Kramer was her report that when text-to-read is enabled, the rotation doesn’t work.  

4.  Amazon DX Repair Guide" - These are step by step instructions, with photos, for disassembling the DX and one simple instruction to reverse the steps for reassembling it.
  Just what I would want to do, on a $500 item bought for reading and webbing.
  But, since they've done it for us, here's what they found inside:
Memory chips and processor
  *MCIMX31LDVKN5D, M91E, CTAK0915B
  *Samsung 916, K4X1G323PC-8GC3, EMA188A5
  *Samsung 907, KMBLG0000M-B998
  *MC13783VK5, AM86D, CTRE083B
  *Samsung 840, K4M28323PH-HG75, AAH055BE
  *Epson D135211B1, F09090125. E-INK

Their diagnosis:
  "The Kindle DX has many replaceable parts inside.  In many ways this product is user serviceable."

That IS news, in a way, as Amazon, a company that doesn't manufacture goods, doesn't repair malfunctioning units but replaces them with a refurbished unit and has no repair facilities in the U.S. for customers.  If the unit is damaged through user error in the first year, the customer returns it and pays $200 for a new $359 Kindle 2 and $180 for a new $359 Kindle 1.

5.  Gizmodo's full review by Wilson Rothman.

6.  DMP's first Manga offering on Kindle
  "Digital Manga Publishing (DMP) has announced on Wednesday that it is offering the first volume of Hideyuki Kikuchi and Saiko Takaki's Vampire Hunter D manga on Amazon's Kindle Store for electronic books. Kindle Books can be read on Amazon's own Kindle devices (in three different versions) and Apple's iPhone and iPod touch mobile devices...  currently, most of the offerings in the Kindle Store's manga category are works wholly or partially created outside Japan."

7.  Kindle DX PDF FAQ by abhi/switch11.  Top 10 Things to Know, The Good and the Bad, the Features and the Missing. Excellent presentation.

Click to SKIP TO MORE RECENT STORIES.__________
UPDATED 6/11/09 - There are many stories about the Kindle DX now, but not much that's new or substantial (two writers for large news entities open their DX boxes, say not much we don't already know and then try out the Kindle in bed to end their columns).

One exception is Businessweek's Stephen H. Wildstrom whose headline is that the "Kindle DX Means Business."  He at least explores the effectiveness of the PDF display.  (I've corrected his link to the math textbook, which led to an empty page that had held an older version.)   The textbook he chooses is an impressive test of the DX's capabilities.

' I experimented with a variety of PDF documents and was very pleased with the results.  In the toughest test, I loaded a PDF version of a mathematics textbook, and everything, including formulas, drawings, footnotes, and margin notes, rendered beautifully.  The only real drawback is that links, such as listings in a table of contents in a PDF, won't work in the Kindle—a limitation of the underlying Adobe software.  But you can work around this by using search to jump to the section you want.
. . .
Amazon doesn't have the large-format reader field to itself.  A company called iRex sells a 10.2-in. reader for a stiff $859 [with no wireless].  And startup Plastic Logic plans to bring a very lightweight 14-in. reader to the market early next year. '

The PDF's non-working links, normally used for jump areas like the table of contents, are a puzzlement.  It's probably not the software but the limitations of the feature-set that Amazon licensed, since we are usually able to make active links in PDFs -- or the original PDF just didn't have that feature activated.

NOTE:  Amazon's Kindle DX page tells us on the evening of June 10th that DX's will be "in stock June 17."]

FURTHER UPDATE, 6/11/09 - 5:26 AM
Wall Street Journal's Personal Technology writer, Walter S. Mossberg, has some interesting pro's and con's on his DX.  He prefers the Kindle 2 for its lightness, as he tends to read only books on it, not liking the magazine layout that he finds harder to browse articles with.  I left him a post on that, as I did for a NY Times reviewer who had not discovered the article-browsing feature within Sections.  Maybe Mossberg already knew this though.

Points he makes:
1.  Size & weight made it more awkward for him to hold for extended reading
2.  Controls are confusing when reading in landscape mode
3.  He points out that Excel and Powerpoint can be converted to PDF and thus readable on the Kindle DX.
4.  Reading standard books, he sometimes saw text that varied in shade from light gray to black.  (This can be due to the original being in color.)
5.  "I tried a variety of documents, and in many cases the results were great"
6.  There is no zoom when the PDF text is too small to read.
7.  Reading in landscape mode makes the text larger though but splits the page.
8.  "...you can adjust the margins on the DX, to obtain a line length that's comfortable for your eyes and optimal for reading speed."
9.  College textbooks could be the 'killer app' for the DX

UPDATED 6/10/09 - Original posting: 6/3/09, 3:25 PM
WIRED's Steven Levy has the first review up on shipping day, though it doesn't differ much from early reviews that were based on a short time with the Kindle DX.  The pictures are familiar but -- head on -- the difference between the screen sizes of the Kindle DX and the Kindle 2 is striking.  A couple of the images are more in sepia tone than black and white, which is sort of interesting.  They say it's comfortable to hold (despite being 8 oz. heavier).  I'm waiting for someone to review the differences in web browsing between the DX and K2 though.

Earlier (June 3)
Now that the Kindle DX has started shipping and it's a reality sooner than some had expected, many are wondering what it is really like, and some are interested in the size relative to the Kindle 2 and the clarity of the screen.

Here are some more hands-on articles and galleries that may help.

Laptop Mobile Solutions' Gallery: Hands-On with the Amazon Kindle DX has some very clear pictures from several angles.   The article by Joanna Stern is pretty brief.

Slashgear has a good video and excellent large photos - some of the more useful images I've seen.  To get to the next or previous larger photo easily, use your mouse to 'hover' over the middle of the left or right edges.

  They also have a small page for the Kindle DX specs in a nutshell, more or less, along with more slick official Amazon photos.

  The article, by Vincent Nguyen, makes some good points.  Examples:

" ...it feels a very different device to the Kindle 2.  Where that e-reader prioritizes the hand-feel and portability of a paperback, the Kindle DX feels decidedly more work-oriented.  The bigger screen - which refreshes a little slower than that of the Kindle 2, but not frustratingly so - is 1,200 x 824 resolution and 150ppi, and while still grayscale feels far more useful than that of its smaller sibling...

... noticeably heavier, and might make bedtime reading less comfortable.

... While it’s now particularly small, we’re pleased with how the keyboard has been reduced: it’s still usable for entering search terms and the like, but the front panel of the Kindle now feels as screen-focused as it should be...

  Unlike on a cellphone like the iPhone, where the rotation is completed in seconds, the E Ink display on the Kindle DX is a lot slower:  perhaps 3-4 seconds before it flips.  Still, we’d happily sacrifice some speed for landscape reading;  this really is a huge stretch of E Ink panel, and it’s in this orientation when you really recognize that the display is 2.5 times that of the Kindle 2."

The article doesn't mention trying out PDFs with the Kindle DX, now that a Kindle model has native PDF support.

Thorough customer report on Amazon DX cover

Bruce Woodcock's report and forum thread on the differences between the Kindle 2 hinged cover and the Dx's cover has a lot of good detail.

As I mention there, I had wondered why the DX cover was $20 more than the K2 cover but then realized that the screen is of course the vital element with this unit, and the DX's surface is 2.5 times the surface of the K2's.

 And now they've added magnets which makes the back cover less easily separated from the Kindle's back and also ensures that the whole cover, closed, is less likely to open easily...

Don't miss the extremely informative forum thread on the real-world experiences by Brent Newhall and others, on the Kindle DX.  He also has a superb video of it running through various tasks.  Note that some PDF pages that make heavy use of large images can sometimes take quite a bit longer to load -- but that in landscape mode, page turns are faster, even with large graphics involved.

UPDATE 6/12/09 - Customers report that the initial slower screen refreshes were almost surely due to massive transfers of files from their earlier Kindles and the indexing that follows.  Once that was completed, most don't notice a difference anymore.

Kindle users react to their new DX's

Amazon forum users report on their new DX's.

  This was so much more interesting to me than reading some of the journalist reviews.

  Here's a smattering of them:

Greg: "It's ginormous. It's like a mutant K2! How am I supposed to carry this monstrous gadget around?"

Brent (who began the thread): "...When the progress bar completed, the Kindle automatically loaded the User's Guide....I'm blown away at this presentation. I feel shepherded along by the device"

Gracie: "Like Brent, I have half a charge too. The text is significantly darker and easier to read. It's super big and wicked cool."

Brent: "If I were a leftie, I'd have *fewer* problems using the DX than using a K2...[after turning it upside down].  On the other hand, the DX can be gripped just like a regular book; you can hold it anywhere on that left-hand side (much like you would a paper book). Heck, I'm beginning to believe the DX better replicates the paper reading experience than any other Kindle so far.

Brent: "The biggest font size is MASSIVE. Larger than any large-print book I've ever seen. I don't think that's going to be a problem for folks, unless they're legally blind."
  "I have seen the future of manga, and it is Kindle. Just loaded a manga on here, and it looks great. I can foresee buying a *lot* of B&W comics for the Kindle.

[WEB BROWSING]
  "The keyboard is...weird. The keys feel mushy, and are very tightly spaced. It's not quite as easy to type on than on the Kindle 2 or Kindle 1."

  "The screen refreshes a little faster when typing, I think."

  "Man. Switch the DX to landscape mode and browse the web...and the experience is slick. Feels like a netbook. It just works.

  And when you press the menu button in landscape, sure enough the menu appears as expected on the right (as you look at it).

[ Andrys speaking here re Twitter: we can tweet from our K2's too. ]

[PDFs]
  Still Brent: "PDFs look grand.
  I flipped to a page that has a two-column layout, three tables, headers, quite a bit of fairly small text in two different fonts (one section of text is on a light background, too), and a large image.  It all looks great. Perfectly readable."

  [ Three people received their DX's on that thread. ]

  Brent still: "PDF page flips sometimes take quite a bit of time. Most page flips seem to take 3-5 seconds, though sometimes it's faster than that.

  "Interestingly, page flips are MUCH faster in landscape mode. Less than a second, no matter how many pages I go through.

  "Search appears to work fine on PDFs, but is very slow. Impressively, however, it will highlight the found term on the page."

  "Text-to-speech definitely doesn't work on PDFs."

Poppy: "As a leftie ... Looks like I can read in lansdscape mode and the button will be on the bottom - easy enough to find the toggle with a finger of my free hand and flick it, or to hit the "next page" button."

Jeffrey "I downloaded a newspaper and the photographs are very clear and easy to see. They are lighter than in the K2 "

Brent "for poorly-scanned PDFs, the DX is a poor choice for reading them. But then, that's hardly the DX's fault. ... I have some trouble reading it on my laptop, much less on the DX."

Brent: "Dictionary workup doesn't work in PDFs, since you can't select text while in a PDF. The 5-way controller does nothing while I'm reading a PDF file."

Poppy: "I used the toggle and followed the simple instructions, and voila, my newspaper and magazine subscriptions were successfully transferred to the DX!! Very cool!!!"

Greg: "So it sounds like if you can convert PDFs to a readable Kindle file, that's the way to go since you will have annotations, highlighting, font scaling, and TTS. If it's a complex PDF with images, columns, graphs and so forth, it's better to let the DX read them natively."

Brent: "...Indeed, the larger size of the device makes it a little easier to grab, for me, and I like the clean left and top edges more and more. Just makes it easier to grab."

ChuckC: "A note on PDFs. I had a Computer Programming book that is on a PDF. on the Kindle2 I had used Amazon's conversion process. It had converted it, but it was more of a text file, meaning some of the large fonts were normal size, and it just looked kind of bad. Now on the DX, since it reads PDF natively, the PDF for this computer book is PERFECT!  As Brent mentioned, the page numbers are awesome. Since you can not click the table of contents like on a Kindle book, you can at least look at the table of contents and then type the page number in..."

Brent: [ Here are Brent's photos of unboxing and how his PDFs look on the device.]

Massage student: "tried the document you listed. It looks the same on the DX as it does on my PC. BUT remember, you don't have the ability to click on "links" in a PDF document... you can "GO To" a page and you can search the document."

 That's it for the first thread of user reactions I saw.  Soon, they'll be all over the forums, I imagine.

Remember that you can read the rest of the responses and much more detailed information by monitoring the forum thread, in which a lot of questions are being answered by those having the DX in hand.

UPDATE: 6/11 - 10:28 PM
Jef, of JefTek has another very good series of photographs of unboxing his DX and showing what the DX is like with PDFs and with the web-browser on this considerably wider screen when it's tilted sideways.  He shows how you can change the margins to have a narrower column to read across and shows what a web page looks like horizontally when browsing on this device.

How to get documents onto the Kindle, and online sources

A very informative posting about getting files onto the Kindle was made by B. Tackitt.   It's from a document Tackitt made, to keep on the Kindle for reference.

(Also see Amazon's help section on how to use the USB cable to transfer files.)

The forum thread is titled "Helpful information to add to your Kindle," and the following topics are covered:

  . Multiple ways to get information onto your Kindle.
  . Some programs to convert e-books to Kindle format
        - added by Kurt G. Schumacher
  . A listing of items in the popular forum thread that T. Beck began,
        on How to download a million or so books, mostly for free,
        to your Kindle.  Has good detail and includes resources.      
  . E-textbook stores online are also listed.

UPDATED 6/10/09 - Original posting, 6/10/09 at 2:19 PM
Changed "Free E-textbook stores" to E-textbook stores.

Some recommended books, free or under $1

UPDATED 8/29/09 - Original posting 5/28/09.
Here are either free books or practically free ones that some might have missed while browsing the store but which are pretty useful for under a dollar (additions are above the earlier recommendations).

"FREE Weights and Measures Study Guide" by MobileReference and mobi (Kindle Edition - Jun 4, 2007)

An illustrated quick-study guide $0.01

"The Elements of Style" by William Strunk Jr. (Kindle Edition - April 29, 2009)

A classic on college campuses and writing departments, the various editions of this have sold over 10 million copies. This edition includes an active table of contents. $.80

[Some MobileReference books are not showing as of 8/29/09. Probably temporary.] - They're back, 9/11/09.
"FREE Acupressure Guide For Relieving Hangovers," from MobileReference (Kindle Edition - Mar 21, 2008)

Well, a customer who's a voracious reader says it works. Hmmm. $0.01

"Les Misérables (Original version) by Victor Hugo (Kindle Edition - Aug 18, 2008)

English translation by Isabel F. Hapgood. This edition has a linked "Table of Contents" and is searchable and interlinked, formatted to work on the Kindle. $.80

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Tales of the Jazz Age" by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Travis Scott Greer (Kindle Edition - Aug 18, 2008)

A collection of eleven short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it includes one of his better-known short stories (especially after the recent movie), "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." This edition has a linked "Table of Contents" and is searchable and interlinked, formatted to work on the Kindle. $0.80

[Some MobileReference books are not showing as of 8/29/09. Probably temporary.] - They're back, 9/11/09.
"FREE 25 Language Phrasebook: German, French, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Italian, Greek, Danish, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Czech, Polish, Hungarian, ... Chinese, Indonesian, Malay, and Thai. (Kindle Edition) by MobileReference (Author), mobi (Author)."

Well, not totally free. It's $.01 or one cent. I've no idea why the penny.

"The Cook's Illustrated How-to-Cook Library: An illustrated step-by-step guide to Foolproof Cooking (Kindle Edition) by The Editors of Cooks Illustrated (Editor)."

From a very popular series of books, this is a very large library, over 8 megs, and will take over a minute to download. From what I understand, this book might be free only temporarily. $0.00 [8/29/09 The book is no longer free and is now $9.99.]

"Complete Works of William Shakespeare" ~ 197 Plays, Poems & Sonnets ~ Active Table of Contents (Kindle Edition) by William Shakespeare (Author), The Wright Angles (Editor).

This edition is 82 cents, was published in April 2009, and has an Active Table of Contents."
Free books at Amazon:
1. Amazon's 7,000+ free books

2. Amazon's currently free non-classics

Myths and Clarifications

Some of these will just be clarifications for questions often asked, and some will be corrections of myths developing around the Kindle.

 I'll update this one regularly.

MYTH: You cannot download to, or put on your Kindle, anything but Amazon books.
FACT: As long as the document isn't copy-protected and is readable on the Kindle (MOBI/prc, plain text, or Kindle's AZW files) it can be downloaded or transferred to the Kindle.  Here's what Computerworld reports in an interview with Amazon's Kindle unit director, Charlie Tritschler, on this:

' Some users complained that Amazon might be eliminating the SD slot to force its Kindle customers into buying only Amazon content. But Tritschler said the Kindle 2 still allows users to access non-Amazon books, text files and even some music that is not protected by Digital Rights Management systems. They can do so via a USB cable connected to the Kindle 2 or through e-mail, since each Kindle has an e-mail address, he said. '

Here's a busy Amazon forum discussion of how to find and download Kindle-compatible books from other sources.  Also, see how to get the Project Gutenberg catalog onto your Kindle for download of any book in the catalog.


QUESTION: Is battery replacement covered by the warranty?
INFO: The same Computer world article references Tritschler.

' Tritschler announced today that the Kindle 2's battery can [be] replaced under warranty for a year.  After that, it can be replaced in the Amazon factory for $59. '

Since the extended warranty extends for an additional year what is covered in the basic warranty and also expands on that (covering one accident, while no accidents are covered under basic warranty), it stands to reason that a failed battery will be covered in Year 2 also.  That and the one-accident thing caused me to buy the extended warranty although normally I'm against vendor extended warranties.  If you have a new Kindle and are within 30 days of having ordered it, see the right-hand column for 'Kindle add-ons' on this page, to see Amazon's detailed info on this for each model.

Add the "Smell of Books " to your Kindle

Smell of Books offers aromas for your Kindle so you won't have to miss the smell of books, whether the "New Book Smell" or the "Classic Musty Smell."  No longer do you have to differentiate between those who are book-readers and those who are book-sniffers, as they keep telling us Kindle-owners.

Well, this was just too funny to be real, so I poked around to see who was behind it.  The site is registered to Nero Tarlev (AKA Nero Rang) and here's a nice picture of the fellow.  An expert in virtual worlds, he also Twitters and knows how to work the Net.  Check out his Durosports site

"...I had nothing to do with “Smell of Books.”  Our product that we are releasing and recalled in a single day...In some cases New Books Smell labels were inadvertently affixed to cans that actually contain new car smell."

Then below that is a nice send-up of The Authors Guild, guardians of Kindle ears and noses.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   K3 Special, $114   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.

Hands-on Demo of DX screen rotation in real time

While we're waiting for June 10, here's a brief demo showing the auto-rotation feature. I've read that it can take 3-4 seconds to change orientation but that might be on more complex material than is shown here. There's a slight yellow-cast on the videoclip.


Click on image to run the videoclip.

CNet review of Cool-er Reader

I made an earlier report on the UK's Cool-er Reader, with blog updates added to it afterward.

Several columnists who don't mention the basic features of the Kindle units have referred to the Kindle pricing as "ridiculous" while not pointing out that the Cool-er Reader has virtually none of the Kindle's basic features (especially for a student who would want to search, highlight and add notes to books) -- and definitely not the free 24/7 wireless access almost anywhere that there's a cell phone signal, as the Kindles do, allowing free access to Wikipedia and Google.
  But I've thought for awhile that Amazon should make a budget Kindle without the wireless, to compete in areas (Europe, Canada, etc.) where there is no wireless Amazon has no wireless contracts yet like the one with Sprint for the U.S., since many would appreciate its research features at a more affordable price.

Here's CNet's review by David Carnoy, edited by John P. Falcone.  It includes a videoclip of the Cool-er Reader and is mainly an itemization of drawbacks, while it duly credits the native PDF-support, screen rotation, replaceable inexpensive battery, and SD slot features.  They summarize that it's not quite the bargain they'd hope it'd be.  One notable drawback:

' ...its interface lacks polish and its buttons aren't designed all that well, both in terms of placement and mechanical function (the biggest issue is that they're stiff).  Adjusting the font size, for example is a much more tedious process than it should be;  a dedicated font button like there is on the Kindle would have been nice.  You often end up dealing with menus within menus and check boxes you have to click.  It's just a bit cumbersome...'

They end the article with "At this point, the safer buy in this price range is the Sony PRS-505"... (which also does not have inline dictionary, searching, highlighting, note-adding features either -- nor the 24/7 wireless with web browser).

UPDATE 6/8/09 - Ken Hess writes about the Cool-er and wants feedback.
He asks "I'm wondering if a USB network interface (NIC) would make it wireless capable?  It would be bulkier and a bit clumsier to use but certainly a $249 initial purchase price and a $10 USB NIC still comes in at $100 less than the Kindle."

It wouldn't be actively wireless (even if a USB NIC worked with it) without a wireless contract, which nowadays is about $60/month.  So that margin is eaten up very quickly.

  Kindle pricing is $360 because Amazon advertises that there are no monthly wireless charges though it's available in the U.S. 24/7 almost anywhere and there is even a built-in web browser for the Kindle.  But I didn't want to join yet another discussion circle to merely write that.  I don't think most reviewers are aware of the lack of an inline dictionary, highlighting and note-taking, and searches. He's one of the few who realize the always accessible wireless feature can make a difference although Cool-er has no competition from Amazon outside the U.S. since Amazon has no wireless contracts in those countries.  There's no interactivity with this unit, for $250 though.  I think it will do better when their price is lowered some.  But I think I would personally try it over the Sony PRS-505 if I lived outside the U.S.

  Amazon offers a trial period up to 30 days for the Kindles, with full refund if the device is just not suitable or enjoyable.  Few companies seem to do that.

  Oh, re the paragraph that the USB port allows one to be free of having to buy from one vendor, Kindle users are free to get books from anywhere, unless they're copy-protected -- as long as they're in the common MOBI/prc format (Project Gutenberg, Fictionwise.com, Feedbooks.com, Mobileread.com, mnybks.net etc etc) and just about all direct to the Kindle without needing a cable, but the Kindle has the USB cable too.

Convert Wikipedia pages to Kindle pages

Kindlepedia, from Edukindle converts any Wikipedia article
to a Kindle-formatted file. It works beautifully.

  "Insert the URL from the Wiki page of interest and and press the button.   When a link to the formatted article appears, click on it to download it to your computer. Then, using the USB cable, transfer the converted file to your Kindle."

The website is by Will DeLamater, who offers some well-received free utilities for your computer:

  In the Downloads area you'll find:

      "Planner 2009 for Kindle" and
      "Edukindle Notepad."

ODD: On-Demand disorder

Xconomy's Wade Roush writes: "The main symptom of ODD is an aversion to any experience, product, or piece of content that can’t be obtained more or less instantaneously.  And the main long-term consequence may be a narrowing of one’s world-view to exclude ideas and materials that take a little more work to uncover."

Strike a chord?  This includes even the Roku Player vs Netflix, the latter so popular in recent years, but:
  "In the three months since I bought a Roku Player—a $99 wireless device that lets you view movies from Netflix and Amazon on your TV instantly -- I have watched dozens of movies and TV shows on the Roku.  In the same time, I’ve watched exactly two physical DVDs from Netflix... This despite the fact that the selection of DVDs at Netflix is still far greater than the selection of so-called 'Watch Instantly' movies.  In effect, I’m sacrificing choice for availability."

  Then, the obvious example of the Kindle is given, as well as the impact of digital imagery and "the difference between seeing a digital copy of a famous painting and actually being in front of it."  He worries about the long-term effects of this laziness and the loss of moments of real discovery.  I'm not as worried but it was an interesting read.  And I just liked the idea of ODD!

Consumer Reports: Kindle beats Sony

That headline and the CR report are from the now "archived" version of the report from the July 2009 issue of Consumer Reports.

They compared the Amazon Kindle 2, $359, and the Sony Reader PRS-700BC, $349.

I listed, further below, CR's findings as itemized by Sandy Nawrot's earlier blog report on the article.  I was about to post that just now and happened to see that CR has now posted their actual report though it was available only to subscribers earlier.  Some excerpts from that:

"It took an hour or more of work to set up the Sony. But we were reading within 5 minutes of opening the Kindle box."

While they give the advantage to Sony's screen because it's a touch screen, they add:
  "The touch screen is about as sensitive as those on most cell phones we've tested; that is, you have to press down firmly as you swipe your finger across the screen to advance to the next page.  (You can also change pages by using two awkwardly tiny tabs at the bottom of the screen.)"

  And, "Bottom line"
  "The Sony is solely for reading books, but the Kindle can also read them to you in mechanical but understandable male or female voices.  It also offers (at extra cost) feeds from select blogs and wireless newspaper and magazine subscriptions. There's also a basic Web browser under an 'Experimental' tab. "

  They're among the very few reviewers who even mention that last feature that encourages Kindlers to use Wikipedia and also Google, with just about every bottom-bar action by the user and with the built-in web-browser bookmarks.

---

Below is what I was going to post before I found the CR article above:
Consumer Reports staff are part of a brief video news clip of a side-by-side comparison of Kindle 2 vs Sony PRS-700 by ABC 7  Consumer News.

It's a brief and necessarily superfical news report but includes a good video of what the Kindle and Sony models look like in use, vs the usual static and often promotional still-photos we see.

The Kindle gets the nod by Consumer Reports, for ease of use, due to the wireless capability.

AND, Sandy Nawrot reports on the actual Consumer Reports article, available only to subscribers to the CR's online site in The Title Fight - Kindle versus Sony.   Read it at Nawrot's site (if only to enjoy the delightful cat that presides over the page) -- but for those reading this on the Kindle, here are some of her highlights from the report (paraphrased):
1) Convenience - The Sony takes about an hour to set up, and all files must be cabled over from the computer.
2) Screen - "Type and and images are more crisp and accurate on the Kindle, and pages turn a little more quickly."  The Sony is side-lit for night use.
3) Navigation - Sony has the edge on this, with a touch screen.
4) Titles available - Kindle has far more newer books and they average a few dollars less than Sony's.
        The Kindle has samples from all books to try first, but the Sony, only a few.  Sony has Google's 500,000 free classics, but these can be downloaded for the Kindle also, from many free sites that offer them.
5) The Kindle also has text-to-speech; the Sony is "solely for reading books."