Amazon settles lawsuit over remote-deletion of '1984' - UPDATE4

Amazon settles lawsuit over deleted Kindle copy of '1984.'

UPDATE to Student sues Amazon despite finding 1984 notes (and despite a Good Samaritan type having given him -- after hearing of his plight -- a copy of the same 'location-numbered' book previously downloaded DRM-free from Feedbooks.com).  The lawsuit was based on the principle of the remote deletion and to get legal assurances that this kind of remote deletion wouldn't occur again under those circumstances, as had been said by Amazon spokesperson Drew Herdener in an e-mail message to Brad Stone of The New York Times, but clarifying what any other 'circumstances' might be.  That more vague actual statement was:

'Amazon effectively acknowledged that the deletions were a bad idea. “We are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers’ devices in these circumstances,” Mr. Herdener said. '

  The linked article from 7/31/09 was a summary of what went before, expanding on what was described in earlier articles (1)  and  (2) on the Amazon '1984' debacle.

Tech Flash's Eric Engleman

' Now Amazon has settled the lawsuit with Gawronski and a co-plaintiff. As part of the deal, which awaits court approval, Amazon said it "will not remotely delete or modify" works on Kindles, with some exceptions.

Here's an excerpt from the settlement document (pdf, 9 pages) which was filed Sept. 25 in U.S. District Court in Seattle and just unearthed by TechFlash:

Amazon will not remotely delete or modify such Works from Devices purchased and being used in the United States unless (a) the user consents to such deletion or modification; (b) the user requests a refund for the Work or otherwise fails to pay for the Work (e.g., if a credit or debit card issuer declines to remit payment); (c) a judicial or regulatory order requires such deletion or modification; or (d) deletion or modification is reasonably necessary to protect the consumer or the operation of a Device or network through which the Device communicates (e.g., to remove harmful code embedded within a copy of a Work downloaded to a Device).

As part of the settlement, Amazon will pay a fee of $150,000 to the plaintiff's lawyers, and the plaintiff's lead law firm KamberEdelson LLC will donate its portion of that fee to charity.

Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener had no comment.  Attorney Michael Aschenbrener of KamberEdelson, who represents Gawronski and the other plaintiff, Antoine Bruguier, called it a "great settlement."

"It provides protection for Kindle users and provides confidence to them that the books, newspapers and magazines they purchase will not be subject to remote deletion by Amazon," Aschenbrener said. "It sends a message to digital media purveyors of all kinds that sellers really need to respect users' rights to that content."

Techflash says that since the lawsuit had been seeking class action status, the settlement ends the possibility of a "painful legal situation."

Note that the settlement "awaits court approval."

UPDATE 2, with further addition to this section 10/2/09
  In connection with some who have insisted that the ability to do a remote-deletion be completely removed, the settlement speaks to processes I'd mentioned re dynamic network maintenance involved in subscriptions and other ongoing content-deletion based on time factors; these are taken care of in the document:

' This paragraph does not apply to (a) applications (whether developed or offered by Amazon or by third parties), software or other code; (b) transient content such as blogs; or (c) content that the publisher intends to be updated and replaced with newer content as newer content becomes available.
  With respect to newspaper and magazine subscriptions, nothing in this paragraph prohibits the current operational practice pursuant to which older issues are automatically deleted from the Device to make room for newer issues, absent affirmative action by the Device user to save older issues. '

UPDATE 3
  After reading various articles on this, which didn't seem to take into account details of the actual document, I decided to add here the items below:

'4. Amazon will pay Plaintiffs’ counsel a fee of $150,000, subject to the understanding that KamberEdelson LLC will donate its portion of that fee to a charitable organization that promotes literacy, children’s issues, secondary or post-secondary education, health, or job placement.

 5. Other than as set forth herein, Amazon shall not be liable for any fees or expenses of Plaintiffs or Plaintiffs’ counsel in connection with the Action.

 6. Plaintiffs agree that, to the fullest extent permitted by law, neither this Stipulation nor the fact of it, nor any act performed, nor any statements made publicly or otherwise in responding to concerns raised by Plaintiffs or other users, nor any document negotiated or executed pursuant to or in furtherance of it, is or may be deemed to be or may be used as an admission or concession of, or evidence of any liability or violation of any law by Amazon in any court, administrative agency or other tribunal. '

UPDATE 4 - 10/2/09. Also of interest is the clause:

' WHEREAS, based on current circumstances, Plaintiffs believe they would not likely be able to certify classes under Rule 23(b)(3) because of Amazon’s offer to fully reimburse affected consumers for all Subject Works previously removed by Amazon from Devices and to restore notes and annotations... '

 Also, some eagle eyes have noted what another clause may imply, whether for the near or distant future:

'...does not apply to (a) applications (whether developed or offered by Amazon or by third parties), software or other code...'

Kindle 2's UK launch announcement said to be next week

Bookseller.com says today that "authoritative sources" report that Amazon will announce next week the arrival of the Kindle 2 to the UK, finally.

' One source told The Bookseller: "The key things they needed to tie up have been tied up.  The rumours I've heard are all saying next week."  The source confirmed that publishers had signed non disclosure agreements so would not be able to comment on the record.  But added: "I've heard it from multiple reliable sources.  I think they want to avoid the general kerfuffle of Frankfurt."

Qualcomm has been working on a wireless solution in the U.K. for the Kindle 2.

The article SEEMS to have an error though, in saying that Qualcomm provides the whispernet service for Amazon in the U.S. -- it's Sprint that does.  While the two companies have worked together on some projects and Sprint will support Qualcomm's "Brew" platform, they're separate companies and Sprint is the Whispernet provider in the U.S.  Qualcomm created the CDMA methodology by which Sprint operates and provides the service for Amazon here in the U.S.

After seeing how UK e-reader-interested people are on many Kindle forums and getting the Kindle the harder way (through numerous workarounds and not being able to use wireless with them but wanting the Kindle's other notable [study] features), the device will have an eager market.

E-Readers are the holiday's hot ticket - Sony vs Kindle report

L.A. Times predicts
E-Readers are the holiday's
hot ticket.

 Worth quoting:

' Acording to an online survey, 1 in 5 shoppers said they planned to buy an electronic book reader such as a Sony Reader or Amazon Kindle this year.

  When asked what they would like to get as a gift this year, about 1 in 10 cited a digital book reader.

  Portable music players, once the hot holiday ticket, got just 3.4% of the vote, while game consoles came in at 6%, according to the survey commissioned by Retrevo, a gadget review website...

  Of those who said they planned to spring for an electronic book reader, 62% said they would buy Amazon's Kindle 2 or Kindle DX, while 32% favored the Sony Reader... '

One has to wonder if the Sony Readers' presence in stores will increase its percentage of sales over expectations?


NEW-SONY-READERS VS KINDLES - REVIEW BY GIZMODO
Amazon sells Sonys as well as Kindles, but most reviews have been pretty hard on the Sonys.  And the Sony Daily Edition (PRS-2121) won't be released until approximately December.

Gizmodo's review headline: "Too Many Compromises."  Wilson Rothman writes:
  the Sony Touch is "overloaded with tricks but killed by glare"
  and the Sony Pocket is "simplified past the point of goodness."

Rothman's right; few reviewers notice that the Pocket Edition has no study tools (highlighting, notes, searches, in-line dictionary active during a reading session) and of course no whispernet either but they then equate the Sony Pocket with the Kindle 2 for less cost ($200) but they don't, unlike Rothman, let readers know the many reasons the unit is less expensive.

Re the Touch, he just really is put off by the glare caused by the addition of the layer for the touchscreen and writes that "Sony's problem with glare continues unabated." and for that reason he is not optimistic about the coming Daily Edition also with a touchscreen.

Still, some Sony users say that the PRS-600 Touch's glare problem is not as big a problem as was the PRS-700's and that all you need to do is angle it a bit differently when you see glare.

  But Rothman adds, amusingly: "lying in bed, with just my reading light on, I can see the perfect outline of my face.  Sure, I am handsome, but when I read a book, I expect to be staring only at words on the page, not my own lovely mug.  In a well-lit room, the glare from all sides is positively frustrating, and it shifts with every minor adjustment of my hand."  He mentions that the iRex manages to make a touchscreen without glare.

  After giving props to the Sony PRS-300 Pocket Edition for better screen contrast than on the Touch, he adds:
  "The Pocket's problem is that it is barebones to an almost insulting degree: No search, no dictionary, no card reader, no nothin'...
      I could actually live without all of those features save one: Search.
Keyword searching is to future readers what leafing around is to current ones.  Don't remember where you last saw the mysterious man in black?  Do a quick search..."

  Because of the lending-library feature due soon ("Overdrive" for e-books from the sets your local library carries -- one Amazon forum member had only 16 in the set at her library), he says "you could get the first reasonably budget reader."  But he ends with, "One thing is for sure, no matter who the competition is, Sony is going to have a rough holiday season if that Daily's screen is anything like the one on the Touch."

  I think that not many reviewers write such a thorough review on the features of all the e-readers -- so, many people won't be aware and Sony may do all right for that reason though there was buyers' remorse with the PRS-700 and they discontinued it earlier than expected.

There are several other long ones out there and I'll add more later on, as they add more detail in some areas.

Thanks to kindle2u for the tweet re the L.A. Times piece.

Weekend books reminder: free, lowcost, and $ - Update3

Something a bit different for this (late) weekend-reminder pon mostly free and low-cost books. This week I'm including the 4-1/2 to 5-star rated books (customer-rating system) which have made it to the 25 Amazon Bestsellers of the current hour (this does change hourly).

  Most are free, but some aren't.  If the few $-ones are doing that well against the free books, they're probably worth a look.

  The usual free- or low-cost book links will follow this new listing (mainly for newcomers who may not have checked the bestseller lists yet  The Lost Symbol isn't on this particular list although it's selling best.  This just lists the ones with more than 4 stars average received.


Urge To Kill, by John Lutz
(3 customer reviews)

Kindle Price: $0.00

According To Jane, by Marilyn Brant
(12 customer reviews)

Kindle Price: $0.00


The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, by Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790
(4 customer reviews)

Kindle Price: $0.00


The Help, by KATHRYN STOCKETT
(911 customer reviews)

Kindle Price: $9.99



The Last Song, by Nicholas Sparks
 (27 customer reviews)

Kindle Price: $9.99


Say You're One of Them (Oprah's Book Club), by Uwem Akpan
 (39 customer reviews)

Kindle Price: $6.99


The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan, Sir Doyle
 (55 customer reviews)

Kindle Price: $0.00


Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
 (881 customer reviews)

Kindle Price: $0.00



The Girl Who Played with Fire, by Stieg Larsson
 (229 customer reviews)

Kindle Price: $9.99


The Art of War, by 6th cent. B.C. Sunzi
 (8 customer reviews)

Kindle Price: $0.00


MetaGame, by Sam Landstrom
 (18 customer reviews)

Kindle Price: $0.01


The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights, by Sir James, Knowles 1831-1908
 (3 customer reviews)

Kindle Price: $0.00


Here are Mobile Reference Kindle books:
. sorted by bestselling
. sorted by "low to high" price
. sorted by avg. customer review
. sorted by most recently published
. sorted by relevance


As ever, the weekend reminder highlights the "Free [or low-cost] Kindle books box from this page's right-side-column.


For Kindle newcomers especially:  In addition to the usual new $$$-books, we can enjoy Classics for free, both from Amazon and from other book sites, many directly downloadable to the Kindle.  A few are promotional and free for only a while.

1.  Amazon's 7,000+ free books, sorted by:
        "Bestselling" or by "Avg Customer Review"

2.  Amazon's currently free  Non-Classics - This one changes.

    a. That link above is to Non-Classics sorted by BESTSELLERS.
    b. Here are Non-Classics sorted by NEWEST books first.

3.  "Big Deals on Kindle" - This one doesn't change enough.

4.  Project Gutenberg e-books (MOBI ed) catalog for Kindles.  You can search the catalog on your Kindle and click on one to have it downloaded to your Kindle from the site.  There are no Amazon charges on a download from this site.

5.  A long Amazon Forum thread on a million or so books readable on the Kindle - How to get them (mostly free)

ALSO, previously featured free non-fiction books that are free or under $1.00
1. (Recommended under-$1 books)

2. Amazon's most popular free books.

  Michael Rubin is still offering, for an unspecified time, the full text of his $35 "Droidmaker" book on George Lucas and Lucasfilm via a set of 3 PDFs.  The photos from the book are included.

Some of this will be redundant, but at least there are a lot of choices for people on a budget.

Bits and pieces - 09-27-09 - Update

Lots of news this last week.  Catching up here...
UPDATE 9/28/09 to add alternative smaller photos of the Kindle DX screen.  See bottom of this blog article for the smaller ones.

Len Edgerly's The Kindle Chronicles podcast continues with its weekly good stuff, and the last two weeks brought us a couple of really fun, interesting interviews.

 Friday's interview: Brad Stone.
  "Brad Stone, technology reporter in The New York Times’s San Francisco bureau, talks about secrecy at Apple and Amazon,  Dan Brown,  a Kindle developer apps store,  and the brilliant description his 22-year-old daughter had of his Kindle recently."

A trip to Belmont Library, Massachusetts:
  "Maureen Connors, left in photo, is director of the Belmont, Mass., Public Library.  She and Emily Smith, technology librarian, told me all about their impressive Kindle experiment on a visit I made to the library on Sept. 16."
  Len also provides video of the checking-out process for Kindles, including a mobile-light version also.

GOOGLE BRINGS US LIFE MAGAZINE, full original run 1936 to 1972
Google announced its partnership with LIFE Inc. "...to digitize LIFE Magazine's entire run as a weekly: over 1,860 issues, covering the years from 1936 to 1972."  I found out via a retweet by Jan Zlendich of the original tweet by @idigg of this great news.

 Don't miss The LIFE photography collection with its 10 million images, 97% of which were not published in the magazine.  These are all included in the Web and Image searches of Google.

FREE ONLINE TEXTBOOKS Offered by The University Press of Florida
The University Press of Florida will be offering free online textbooks and reduced-price print copies.  Nice trend!  

' The plan is to eventually provide free online textbooks for every general education class taught at any of Florida's 11 state universities, said Meredith Babb, director of the press.
  All they can do is offer the free books, Babb said. Professors can decide to adopt them or not.
  "Eight hundred dollars a semester [for textbooks] is stupid," she said. "Maybe the students will force the professors into some of these options. That would be nice." '

 Most of the textbooks are being made available in print as well, at 40 to 50% less than the prices of similar textbooks at other stores, she added.
  They also plan to make the e-books available in as many formats as possible.
  Thanks to Suzanne Preate and DigitalKoans for the tweeted information.

MICROSOFT'S COURIER TABLET
This pleasant surprise has even Apple stalwarts excited.  After stories that the Mac Tablet/iPAD will likely go for $800 next year when it is ever released, this one is likely to be not much cheaper, but Windows has always charged less, which is why it has about 95% of the business market despite the quality of the Apple offerings.

  GottaBeMobile summarizes the Gizmodo scoop with additional pictures and embeds the video, but here's the easier-to-read Youtube video of a computer rendering of what the 'tablet' may be able to do (these are inevitably smoother than the actual processes) .  It's said to be a prototype in the last stages of development.

  The Los Angeles Times's David Colker asks: "...but is it real?"
  Microsoft is coyly neither confirming or denying any of it :-).  ' "We do not comment on unreleased products," company spokesman Doug Free said. '

  The article points out that everything shown in the videoclip is done with fingers or stylus and no keyboard is shown. While the video'd tablet user is shown making many handwritten notes, handwriting recognition isn't shown in the video even though Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system is said to have handwriting recognition features.  That would be something.  This seems far down the road and if Apple does anything that it's rumored to be doing on a tablet, they may be out with theirs, supposedly, in February.


MY KINDLE DX - a bit off-topic about my new camera that took a picture of it)
  I got a new camera for a trip because I didn't want to bring two cameras as I had 3 years ago on my last trip.  This one will do the work of two.  Its megazoom lens goes from 28mm to 560mm with excellent clarity, though smaller cameras like this one with this kind of long-zoom flexibility always have a bit more noise/grain and also 'purple fringing' or chromatic aberration seen in big enlargements than the larger cameras will.  However, in-camera adjustments by the manufacturer at the time of shooting can cause other problems, and the fringing at 100% size (which is huge) is easily eliminated with the $25 PT lens utility, which is painless and amazing and sold by 'word of mouth' among photo nuts.

  I bought the older one (Canon SX10 IS), which is increasing in price these days because the new one (Canon SX20 IS) crams more megapixels into the same sized sensor and produces more noise and chromatic aberration than the older model.  This is okay with 4 x 6 photos but not as good at 8x10 and above.
  The attraction of the SX20 is its High Definition video.

  At any rate long-distance shots are amazingly clear and it gets closeups of things I cannot even see in the default wider/normal shooting settings.  If anyone reading has one of these, I saw good recommendations at dpreview.com forums (Amazon now owns dpreview.com, a fantastic site) to choose to shoot with sharpness =-1 and contrast =-1 and then you can edit afterward and wind up getting a very clean photo in the big enlargments.

  So, I took a photo of my DX at the ice cream shop to see if it could render the text and screen better than my other camera did, and it does.  It should, since it costs more. But it's better than I expected.  As you can see, the screen is extremely readable.

  UPDATE 9/28 - I was reminded that the photo I had originally put up was larger than the browser screen and when some browsers, by default, then resize-down the photo to make sure the full shot fits the screen, the resized version is barely legible.  So now I've now substituted the cropped version that you probably just clicked on above (it leaves the font size the same but cuts out the bottom of the Kindle) and a smaller, full shot which will fit a browser window.

(Apologies for all the experimenting.)

Microsoft Press goes digital w/ O'Reilly - Kindle file advice

Microsoft Press books is going digital with O'Reilly "Starting Nov. 30, O'Reilly Media will begin offering Microsoft books in print as well as for download to readers' computers, mobile phones, Kindles or other reading devices..."

O'Reilly ebook bundles and Updates - The O'Reilly page itself features ebook bundles to cover three formats:

' When you purchase an ebook bundle (currently available on a select set of titles as part of a pilot project), you'll get access to all three of the formats we're currently supporting.  Since we began selling PDF versions of many of our titles, we've offered free updates to reflect published changes in the books; the same will apply to the Ebook bundle, which will replace the PDF option on those titles in the pilot program.

When you buy an O'Reilly ebook you get lifetime access to the book, and whenever possible we make it available to you in three, DRM-free file formats -- PDF, .epub, and Kindle-compatible .mobi -- that you can use on the devices of your choice.  Our ebook files are fully searchable, and you can cut-and-paste and print them.  We also alert you when we've updated the files with corrections and additions. '

Techflash says, about the new partnership, "Perhaps the Redmond company -- seeing Amazon's moves with the Kindle electronic reader and Google's giant book scanning project -- is seeing some new potential in the digital book market."

The listing of offerings, relative to file-type, are a bit odd in my cursory look at the beginning of their Complete List of books available in various formats.

 Trying Beyond Java on that first "Complete List" page, I see that the first of two titles shown, shown as released in 2005, is showing the green 'E' which indicates an ebook bundle.  When you get to that listing's page, it actually shows you several format options for purchase: Print, $24.95;  Print + Ebook $27.45; and  Ebook[bundle - Mobi, PDF, ePub] $19.99, and mentions that the Ebook release was February 2009.  They also offer a Safari Online version.
  On a later page, Andrew Savikis advises: "You may find the mobile version of Safari (m.safaribooksonline.com) is a better experience from the Kindle browser"

 The second of two titles for the same book shows a 'release' date of "2008" on the listing page, but when you arrive at the book page, the release date is "2005" as well.  The two pages have different URLs or links but these have exactly the same data on each.

 Checking Amazon for the book, search results bring us to the Amazon listing for Beyond Java.  It's $9.99 in Kindle format and $18.96 in paperback at Amazon, both listed with the book's release date of September 22, 2005.

I remembered reading that O'Reilly was able to have their Kindle books be DRM-free (no rights-protection on the Kindle files) and googled it, to find some interesting info on O'Reilly's Tools of Change page.  Andrew Savikas writes there (April 2009):

' I'm happy to announce that more than 160 O'Reilly books are now available on Kindle (both Kindle 1 and Kindle 2), and are being sold without any DRM (Digital Rights Management).

  Though we do offer more than 400 ebooks direct from our website, the number for sale on Kindle will be limited until Amazon updates Kindle 1 to support table rendering ("maybe this summer" is the most specific they would get).  The text-to-speech feature of Kindle 2 does work with these books. A list of currently available titles is below [on that page]. '

The 'conversation' at the bottom of that page is fascinating, and there seems to be some doubt by a couple of writers as to whether Amazon has really forced publishers to use digital-rights management, though it was a 'default' for mobi-formatted files in the past.

  But here's O'Reilly's statement about the MOBI files on their own site (the cost of which is more expensive than the Kindle price) and what's been done about updating the accuracy of layout with the Kindle versions:

'... all of our "ebook bundles" include a Kindle-compatible .mobi version that can be uploaded or emailed to your Kindle.

  While the table and code issues remained, readers at least had the other, richer formats (EPUB and PDF) for reference.  We've now updated all of the .mobi files for sale at oreilly.com to display properly on Kindle 2 (basically undoing many of the hacks we'd done to get something passable the first time around).

[Emphasis mine, for Kindle users who bought their Kindle versions from Amazon]
  If you own a Kindle and have purchased ebooks from oreilly.com, visit oreilly.com/e from the Kindle browser to download the updated .mobi files directly to your Kindle.  While we will also update our ebooks with Amazon as changes are made and errors fixed, they currently have no way of updating that content for customers who already purchased it.

 While the rendering in Kindle 2 still leaves a bit to be desired, we felt it was an acceptable baseline, and look forward to continuing to work with them to improve the display of technical content on Kindle. (Ironically, the Kindle 2 web browser displays complex content like tables and code quite well -- check out the Bookworm mobile version if you have a Kindle.)   [That's O'Reilly's parenthetical note.]

 Our thanks do go to Amazon for working with us on this. They're a favorite target of criticism (often right here, and often for good reason), but this is a good step and they do deserve some kudos.  While we'd prefer that Amazon directly supported the open EPUB standard, this is real progress in giving readers easy access to digital books without locking them in to a single vendor. '

A bit more on the iRex DR800Sg e-reader

UPDATE to the main iRex e-reader story

At the left are the Kindle DX and the iRex DR800Sg side by side.

  For the $89 difference between the two:

1.  PDFs will be considerably smaller on the iRex and, as I mentioned yesterday, they are already often too small on the Kindle DX.
2.  The 3G wireless for the Kindle allows web browsing with no limits on sites and with brief emails doable.  This allows direct downloads to the Kindle device from a few other bookstores.
But the iRex wireless will go only to the Barnes and Noble store and to NewspaperDirect and no emails would be possible.

  Where the iRex will shine is in the look of the periodicals it can bring you from the NewspaperDirect site (as well as the choices available), as those are laid out as they are with the actual newspapers rather than using the generic text used for the Kindle subscriptions with just a few photos for the latter.  The SD card will be needed for the added storage space that'll take.
  Questions:
  How much will the iRex's periodical-subscription costs be?  No word on that yet.
  What will be the speed be like, with the e-Ink screen?

SOME QUOTES FROM WEDNESDAY answered a few questions:

STYLUS NOTE-TAKING NOT READY YET
and WHY NOT a HAND-TOUCHSCREEN?
PC World/internetnews.com
  Kevin Hamilton, CEO for IREX in North America, explained that

' "Instead of a finger-driven touchscreen, the DR800SG uses a magnetic resonance stylus, in part to maintain the brightness of the display," said Brons.
  He said the additional transparent touch layer needed to enable finger navigation would have decreased screen brightness by 15 to 20 percent.
  Hamilton noted that Sony's Reader uses just such a touch layer, with the expected detrimental effect on brightness.  Clicking is performed with the stylus or by pushing down on the flip bar [on the left side), which is pushed from side to side for page-turns.

 He added that while the device is ready for electronic ink based note taking, the application that enables the function wasn't quite ready but would be added later as a free update.

 The edge of the unit is blank except for a power switch and a mini-USB socket. Installed in the battery compartment on the back is a 2GB SD Card, which can hold up to 1,500 e-books and can be replaced with a larger-capacity card. '

AIRTIME CHARGES LATER MAYBE
'  He noted, however, that there may be airtime charges for future vertical business applications if they consume a significant amount of wireless bandwidth. '

THE KINDLE'S UNNECESSARY BELLS & WHISTLES?
NetbookBoards.com has this:

' IRex CEO Hans Brons has taken some shots at the Kindle already, hinting that Amazon’s device is too limited and at the same time too fancy.
“We’ve tried to create [an] as neutral as possible device – without any whistles and bells and what have you.” '

Well, that's one way of saying iRex doesn't have some bells & whistles that the Kindles offer, such as web-browsing and email capability + easier notetaking capabilities while iRex currently has ready only the virtual keyboard.  But maybe NetbookBoards was a bit harsh on the statement there.


FULL CONTENT FROM NEWSPAPERS, ADS TOO, HELPS PUBLISHER REVENUES
InternetNews quotes a statement at NewspaperDirect pointing out that full content of periodicals will be downloaded with no missing pieces, and with all the ads:

'...PressReader allows users to download over 1,000 full-content newspapers in their original format, with all the articles, pictures, cartoons and advertisements found in the printed editions.  This ensures that all 1,000 publications on the iRex are recognized as audited paid circulation by international audit bureaus, a critical factor for publishers looking to increase revenues and reach. '

VIDEOS - The first one mentions that the iRex DR800Sg software doesn't work with Macs currently.
  As I mentioned yesterday, the newspaper layout is a BIG plus.  Watch CNet's videoclip on the new 8.1" model and then the youtube video by "pressdisplay" showing what the iRex newspaper editions are like although this one is showing the larger 10" iRex DR1000S.

  They're beautiful but if you look at these from the perspective of someone about to READ the content shown, the print is really tiny so at times there may be a lot of zooming involved.  Note that in the first video though, which is on today's 8.1" model, the newspaper layout is for the full page and when you stylus-click an article you want to read, you get a very straight text-version of the story that looks easy to read.

  Again, the size is iffy.  Large for a novel and small for pdfs and newspapers.  If they ever bring down the cost of the 10" model ($989 for the iRex DR1000s) that'll be the one that works for serious academic and business use once the interface problems reported are gone.

iRex 8.1" release - at Best Buy, for B&N, w/ Verizon

Brad Stone of the NY Times writes that, later today, iRex Technologies (UK), whose 10" DR1000s e-reader is approximately the size of the 9.7" Kindle DX and selling for about $989, will announce they are releasing an 8.1" iRex DR800Sg touch-screen e-reader in the U.S. for $399.

  They've partnered with Verizon to allow free direct wireless connection to the Barnes & Noble E-Book store and to newspapers at Newspapers Direct, which offers more than 1,100 periodicals and presents them onscreen "largely as they appear in print form."  That is a BIG selling feature if pricing is reasonable.

See UPDATED INFO on 9/24/09 also.

  Stone writes that the iRex will "link directly" to both stores which implies that, like the Sony Daily Edition (PRS-2121) which will link only to the Sony store, the iRex will not be allowing direct free access to the entire web as the Kindles do.

  That's a distinction to remember.  The big news last week was In-stat's finding that per their most recent consumer survey,

' "...current e-book owners desire e-mail capability in the next e-book they purchase," says Stephanie Ethier, In-Stat analyst. “Longer battery life and Internet connectivity are the top two desired features among respondents who don’t currently own an e-book but plan to buy one in the next year.” '

At $400 without the mentioned web-browsing or e-mail capability, this would make a difference to many, as then a device does becomes more of the oft-described one-function gizmo (which the Kindle is not).  I think the chosen size is somewhat iffy since it's too large to pocket and too small to present PDFs that well.

  There are many PDFs that I have to look at on the (larger) Kindle DX in landscape format, to read easily in larger font, or convert to MOBI formats so I can see larger overall text

  And, at the moment, while most people do not realize that the Kindle has a basic web browser using Sprint's cellular 3G spare bandwidth, with direct (but slow) access to all web sites, the other e-readers being released or announced weekly just don't offer that apparently desired capability.

  So, Amazon sits on that lead in top-two desired features but doesn't advertise them because too much use of those would cost them money as they pay the Sprint charges for now.

  What the iRex will offer is a size that's
1.  larger than the cute and eminently pocketable new Sony's, PRS-300 and PRS-600, and
2.  larger than the Kindle 2 with its real-estate hogging keyboard (useful for quick searches and short notes) but
3.  almost 2 inches smaller than the Kindle DX (already a bit small for PDFs in original sizes)

and with a touchscreen (popular) and stylus likely and greater file-format flexibility (their current large models support PDF and EPub formats as well as HTML).

  On their current 10" model they charge an extra $100 for the ability to write notes to be added to your book files.  No word on that for the new, smaller U.S. model until later today, for the $399 price.

  In addition, by next month, you'll be able to buy the iRex at a few hundred Best Buy stores, where they'll vie for display space with the newer Sony readers.

Stone adds that "Best Buy is training thousands of its employees in how to talk about and demonstrate devices like the Sony Reader and iRex, and adding a new area to its 1,048 stores to showcase the devices."

  iRex and Barnes & Noble didn't reach an agreement on a house-branded iRex, and B&N may be working on its own reading device, as hinted at by a filing that made the news last week.

  An important consideration will be whether or not its customer support has improved over what is described in a long review posted on the Net from someone with a year's experience with a iRex.  Amazon is providing unusually responsive customer service with its Kindles.

Stone further points out an important wireless detail - "It contains a 3G Gobi radio from Qualcomm, the wireless component manufacturer, which will allow iRex owners to buy books wirelessly when they travel abroad.  By contrast, the wireless modem in the Kindle works only on Sprint’s network in the United States..."

Also, as detailed earlier, they're not quite equivalent in the "unlimited" wireless feature in that the Kindle currently (and for the last 2 years) gives 24/7 free wireless direct access to the entire net, albeit with a clunky web browser, and ability to (slowly) use gmail and other web mail while the iRex will go to two stores.  This is of high value to some of us, less so for others.

  As most who pay for web access on their phones know, that Kindle feature is worth between $30-$50/mo.  The many mobile-optimized site versions available today are best for quicker browsing.

Verizon says it has no plans to subsidize the cost of the iRex reader with 2-yr type subscription fees (as is done for smart phones and for netbooks now).

Analyst Allen Weiner cautions that consumers may wait to see what Apple does with a general-purpose tablet device rumored for the Spring, which will be in color and do video, but most recent whisperings are that it might cost $800.

In my case, I am awaiting what I hope will become my secondary e-reader, in color, for LIGHTER use with materials requiring color, as it would be LCD technology, which brings words and images to our eyes via light, bringing more eyestrain for most.  That would be the Asus EReader with dual-screens in color (LCD) that they hope to sell for about $163.

At that price cellular wireless would not be included for free, but if it has WiFi capability (as opposed to cellular everywhere-wireless) and we could use it in home or office settings), then I would get it as a supplementary reader for books with color illustrations.
 Here's a fanciful mock-up of one.  Note how impossible it would be to read the small print on that kind of layout on it though it looks very nice.  But I'm looking forward to that one.

  In the meantime, the Kindles and Sony's can't be equaled for fantastic ease of readabiity with those e-Ink screens and features (except by the Astak Pocket Pro EZReader, which is orderable from the San Jose company and has a 5" screen, a faster processer than its 6" screen model, is able to read Adobe-rights-protected PDF files, normal PDFs, ePub, and has text-to-speech function, probably through headphones, but NO search/dictionary/highlighting/note-taking).  It also takes a 16G SD card and a has a "promotional" price of $199.
  If not able to afford a Kindle or a refurbished Kindle for $219, I'd take a good look at that one, although I have no idea what the functioning is like, which is important.

 In the meantime I am waiting to see what ASUS comes up with --per multiple reports they will offer two models, one inexpensive (see above) and a version with more features.

---

See UPDATED INFO on 9/24/09 also.

The Kindle 2 and DX Go to School

A KINDLE 2 FOR HIGH SCHOOL CLASSES
  Advanced Placement English students at Ninety Six High School in Greenwood, South Carolina, are going book free in favor of using Kindle 2's.
  Index Journal's Felicia Kitzmiller reports on the district's recent purchase of 25 Amazon Kindle 2's for classroom use.
"I have one personally, and I love it,” assistant superintendent for instruction Rhonda McDowell said. "We want to be on the cutting edge of technology.”

McDowell said that in the long run the Kindles might save the district money on purchasing books.  She feels that e-textbooks are "considerably less costly than the books themselves, and for every one text they purchase, they receive six electronic copies."

  This is generally true for up to 6 people sharing one Kindle account via one accountholder, including families, housemates, or friends.

  "And once a text has been added to a Kindle it is there until it is deleted, so classes reading the same books can use them over and over again."

KINDLE DX FOR UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
University of Wisconsin students begin their own Kindle pilot program.

' Instead of having students purchase books, UW lent the Kindles with all eight required texts loaded and ready to read.  [History professor Jeremi] Suri's class will be highlighted by Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace," infamous for its hefty 1,200 pages.

"We're learning in this, too.  Can you even read 1,200 pages on a Kindle?" Suri said. '

The $10,000 pilot program is funded by their library, involves 20 students, and although Amazon partnered with several other schools, the University wanted to invest in the technology now and get its own data.  They usually spend $700/year on textbooks, but the $500 Kindle DX may save them money, long-range.

 One student likes the lack of eyestrain from the e-ink screen because the experience feels closer to reading on paper than on a computer screen but she finds the small keyboard impractical.
  Also mentioned was that the university prints about 16 million individual pages, between instructors and students, per year.  This would cut down on that and save about 180 trees.

THE HIGH COST OF TEXTBOOKS
In a PressofAtlanticCity.com's article describing the greed behind the ridiculous pricing of textbooks, the column eventually focuses on lower cost and sometimes free textbooks available.

One big positive of free books is that it gets you out of the horribly exploitative textbook market," wrote Fullerton College professor Ben Crowell in an e-mail. "It's just a scandal that they're charging students as much as $250 for an organic chemistry book, and bringing out a new edition every three years in order to kill off the used book market."

The Yale-educated physics professor began his digital textbook 12 years ago, when his lecture notes "gradually morphed" into a book. His interest in the open-source operating system Linux convinced him that free was the way to go, and his textbook is available for anyone to use at www.lightandmatter.com.

  More than 40 colleges and high schools have adopted the book, according to the Web site.

RESOURCES
1.  Cowell's site at www.theassayer.org  Also, Light and Matter
2.  The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's open courseware site - MIT course materials (textbook and lectures on video) - Free, but no course-credit is given.
3.  Flat World Knowledge, run by former Prentice Hall Business Publishing executives Eric Frank and Jeff Shelstaad, decided to release digital textbooks online for free and sell the extras, such as print copies and study guides.
 Frank says that "About 70 percent of the students who have used the site for class buy products, spending a little more than $30 each, he said. About 40 percent paid about $40 for a printed black-and-white textbook with study aides."
 Another professor appreciates the flexibility of the company's e-books in that professors can rearrange or remove content as appropriate.
4. CourseSmart has an interesting offering although it's not practical on the iPhone as explained vividly by The New York Times's Randall Stross recently.
  Essentially they sell access to e-textbooks for about half the cost of the print version but for only 180 days.
  They have over 7,000 titles while Flat World Knowledge has only 11, but sales for the latter were up 600 percent from last year.

Currently, for a place like Reed College, Amazon pricing for textbooks saves only a few dollars, but Matt Ringle, the Chief Technology Officer there, says
""We're reaching that point where the cost of conventional textbooks has become so astronomical that anybody that provides any relief ... is going to be favorably received by the students."

GREAT LINES FROM MY READING YESTERDAY:
  After seeing that the publishers for the Ted Kennedy book have decided not to release it on the Kindle for fear of losing hard-cover sales (and "The Last Symbol" initially was not set for release on the Kindle for the same reason),
Mike Elgen wrote:

"Publishers need to start viewing eBooks as a business, rather than a threat.  And they need to start thinking about ways to give readers what they want, rather than getting money by withholding from readers what they want.
  Publishers ... it's time for you to embrace the book business.  The story business.  The culture business.  The education business."

Amazon's Refurbished Kindle 2's at $219 - Apple/Microsoft news-Update

AMAZON OFFERS REFURBISHED KINDLE2's now, at $219, an $80 savings over a new Kindle 2.
  UPDATES 1 & 2) : 9/20/09, 10:33 PM to Original Posting of 12:18PM
    WARRANTY: 1 full year for defects. Doesn't include accidents.
      And no extended-warranty from Amazon is available on these.
      Drops w/damage resulting can qualify for discounted new refurbs.
        Year 1, defects covered include fading in sunlight and
        inadequate screen contrast.
      Above information from Customer Svc Rep Nitesh

    SquareTrade will do an extended warranty for refurbished units
    but won't cover drops/accidents on refurbs.
      Drop coverage is the reason many of us get an extra warranty.
      If using SquareTrade, Google for a coupon to use also.

These are offered for the first time, possibly because they have no more refurbished Kindle 1's and they may be feeling the squeeze from lesser models which are appearing from other e-reader makers who include no study tools at all (search, notes, highlighting, inline dictionary) for the lower priced models, and the other vendors can't offer wireless/Whispernet downloads with a simple web-browser included.

An added bonus is that these will carry the same 30-day return policy -- if you find it doesn't suit you, Amazon will refund your money as long as it's not damaged - "Factory refurbished.  Package factory sealed.  All purchases eligible for Amazon customer service and 30 day return policy."

AMAZON CUSTOMER PRODUCT-REVIEWS
Reviews written by customers who own a registered copy of a product will often have "Amazon Verified Purchase" shown beneath their names.  For a few months, an organization upset by Amazon's digital-rights-protection placed on copyrighted books has had an open policy of asking like-minded people to place 1-star reviews on the Kindle products because of the copyright-restrictions that are placed on the books.  This new verified-purchase label that seems to be slowly applied to user reviews (just begun, per forum discussions) will let people decide on the basis of whether they agree with protest-type reviews or whether they'd rather just know the views of actual owners and users of the product

AMASON FORUM DISCUSSIONS - SEARCHES NOW POSSIBLE
Finally.  This started today also.  I put up a post a couple of months ago answering a question after trying to figure out how to do what was wanted at no cost.  So I tried to find that post by putting into the forum search box (now on the right column of forum pages):
    print folder contents
and the new search function brought it right up !   Very fast searches.
  Caution:  Be sure the box underneath is appropriately (un)checked to restrict searches to that forum or that topic, or not, etc.


APPLE KEYBOARD
A real/physical keyboard for the iPhone is being released soon by Toronto-based Mobile Mechatronics, which says it has built a BlackBerry-style keyboard that attaches to an iPhone.

  This "will sell for $30 with $5 shipping to the United States. There are prototypes in beta test now that have rubber keyboards. The final version will be made of hard plastic, said Mr. Nykoluk."
  They're available for pre-order now.


MICROSOFT WINDOWS MOBILE - remote-applications-wipe
Microsoft changes language on remote-application-wipes in connection with Windows Marketplace for Mobile to be launched next week.

At the TechEd New Zealand 2009 session last week, their Senior Product Manager for Windows Mobile explained:

' If an application is approved but later removed from the marketplace it will then be automatically removed from all mobile devices. '

But that didn't go over very well, in light of Amazon's recent experience with its own remote-wipe for which it apologized and said it was changing its systems so that scenario wouldn't happen again.  Ars Technica received clarification on that from Microsoft this week:

' "In the vast majority of instances where an application is removed from Windows Marketplace for Mobile, users of this application will continue to be able to use these applications on their phones," a Microsoft spokesperson told [Ars Technica].

  "In the rare event an application from Marketplace exhibits harmful behavior or has unforeseen effects, Marketplace has the capability to remotely uninstall these applications. While we hope to avoid this scenario, we will make refunds available in such cases." '

Amazon and Kindle's "Lost Symbol" get a rise

Amazon was trading up 7.4%, after Bank of America upgraded the stock to Buy, on the day that the Kindle edition of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol outsold the hard-cover novel at Amazon - the day of the novel's release.  Some think that Kindle sales might be contributing to the gains.

It was Kindle Nation Daily's Stephen Windwalker who noticed that despite Amazon's not breaking out the figures for Kindle and hardcover editions, the category of "Mysteries & Thriller" was showing the Kindle version as #1 in its "Bestsellers" listing -- and in fact, it still is, on Day 3.

WHY
The Bestseller listings tell you how fast-selling a book or edition is during the last hour or so, and the rankings can change quite a bit within an hour.
  On the Kindle's side was the fact that the hardcover version had been on the bestseller list for 149 days and had caught most of its crowd while this was the first day for the Kindle and after Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group only recently finally decided to issue Brown's book on the Kindle at the same time, despite worries it would cannibalize hardcover sales.
  The publishers of the Ted Kennedy book have decided not to offer that book for the Kindle and I feel they are just in denial.

Windwalker also pointed out that Bezos was looking ahead when he made the Amazon books buyable via the iPhone and iPod apps -- there are a lot of them out there, and people paying $70/mo. plus tax and fees for monthly access that includes web data access (iPhone users) likely want and can afford things now AND might even get the hardcover version if they like a book.

  As it is, the Kindle forums now include many iPhone/iPod users who enjoy their iPhone reading but want the Kindle also for the larger screen and the lack of light shining into the eyes.  There's a bit of a symbiotic relationship occurring, as Kindle users are also getting iPhones to have smaller reading carriers when out and about.  Amazon allows the devices to be "synched" via wireless so that you can close a book and then open it, to the same page, on the other device.

 Despite Steve Jobs' feeling that people generally don't read anymore the way they used to, the Apple devices have been acting as training wheels or drivers for the often-lost book-reading habit in a short-concentration-span world.  In Kindle, Sony, and Apple forums, customers are saying they're now reading more than they have in years.  Hardware companies are aware of this new interest and are fighting to get the next e-reader out there as fast as possible in every size and color they can.

Add that e-books will generally be less costly to produce and therefore less expensive to buy and that there is no wait for shipping, which can take days.

  If people experience an unexpected pleasure in reading from e-readers, as is regularly reported in the e-reader forums, what we've seen is not surprising.


THIS IS ALL RELATIVE
The figures discussed don't include sales from other stores, with print-book stats coming in later as a rule from most places.   It's just that few ever expected Kindle sales would do so well on a much-watched book release.

  Many prefer to carry reading sets on these reading devices (the library feature) while also enjoying the ability to increase or decrease the font sizes as wanted, or the spacing between lines and size of margins - not dependent on what the publisher set in place for for buyers.  People can get used to being able to just search/look up a name or event while reading and having a dictionary definition on the status line for each word.

  With the Kindle, they can furthermore get used to getting on Google to look up more web information on a word or phrase.


E-BOOKS VS HARDCOVER BOOKS
I think most Kindle owners still also want hardcover books when really valuing one just read and will want to have a physical copy of it.  It's true for me too.
  And there is no way e-book readers today, using e-ink's b&w, can begin to compete with hardcover books when photographs, diagrams, other illstrations, maps, etc., are an important part of the book.

  I read online columns constantly and there is a steadily increasing number of columnists who say they resisted using an e-reader for all the usual reasons and are surprised by how much they enjoy using their Kindles or Sonys, and many are now reading on iPhones or iPods on the way to work.  This is inevitably a bigger market over the next two years, even if only maybe 7% of the total now, generally.


The New York Times received a more thorough response than other papers did from Amazon's Andrew Herdener.

' “The big surprise was that, despite sustained, strong physical books sales, yesterday we saw the Kindle edition outsell hardcover editions on the book’s release day,” wrote Andrew Herdener, an Amazon spokesman, in an e-mail message.

  He added, however, that the numbers did not include pre-orders of the hardcover, which had pushed the title to No. 1 on Amazon’s bestseller list more than a week before its release Sept. 15. '

  Nevertheless, the fact that Kindle sales were better on the release date than print sales, at Amazon, is quite newsworthy.  Grumpy critics of the idea that so many Kindle copies could be sold, when they feel there are not that many Kindles out there, forgot about the iPhone/iPod factor and are usually unaware of how intense the buying of books is with people with e-readers nowadays.

  The sudden outpouring of e-reader devices based on the innovative success of the Kindle and now e-book figures this high for a few days at Amazon, are meaningful precisely because the e-reader flood has only just begun and less fully-featured models are coming out for $160-$200 without wireless or study tools - to be used for just reading ;-)  Will they sell?  Probably.


E-BOOK SALES ELSEWHERE
Publishers Weekly has some interesting e-book stats:

" Shortcovers, the e-book service from Indigo Books & Music, said one-day e-book sales of the title have already surpassed total sales of the Twilight series that Shortcovers has been selling for six weeks and which had been its bestselling e-books.

  Total e-books sales Tuesday at Shortcovers were twice as big as the previous top-selling day.  Shortcovers said most purchases were made on the Web, and provided the following breakdown of mobile purchases by platform: 37% iPhone, 31% Palm Pre, 29% Blackberry, 3% Android. "

MURDOCH GETS A SURPRISE
paidContent.org reported, as did every newspaper the other day, on Robert Murdoch's grouchy regular announcements of intent to charge for mobile access on the Blackberry and iPhone, maybe in a few months.

 He is still complaining that the other big cheese, Jeff Bezos, takes too much for his publications (said to be 70% but insiders reporting elsewhere have said that 33% goes to the wireless provider, 33% for Amazon, 33% for Murdoch).
  Wireless is not a small part of the daily or several-times-a-day subscriptions.

His surprise:  Amazon gets him more paid subscribers than he expected.

' As for the Kindle, Murdoch said it’s wonderful for books, but pretty terrible for newspapers.
  But he seemed glad and a bit surprised that over 25,000 users have decided to subscribe to the WSJ on the Kindle. '

He plans to get behind Sony, who will give him a better deal, he says, although their implementation of cellular wireless will be only to the Sony store, making it less attractive for the $100 additional cost over the Kindle 2, similar in size.


A SHIFT IN ONLINE REACTIONS AGAINST E-READERS?
I read a rather extreme article by The Telegraph (UK)'s Andrew Keen titled
  "Ebooks will make authors soulless, just like their product"

 Well.  What intrigued me was not the article but the reaction.  Let's just say that Keen cannot be pleased.  People make interesting points on many aspects of the issue, but the overriding sentiment is not with his thinking.  A year ago, reactions tended to be the opposite - most comments I read back then were from people who could not comprehend why anyone would spend that much money just to "read a book" and could be quite hostile to the idea that people did not just go get a book free at the library if they wanted to read.

Kindle Myths from news websites, No. 1

For weeks, I have seen gadget- or ereader-info sites parroting one another with inaccuracies such as actually writing that the Kindle does not allow the Kindle-user to go anywhere but to the Amazon store.
  It's not just one or two that write this, but site after site that repeats this erroneous info or writes that the Sony-store-only wireless for the coming Sony PRS-2121 will do what the Kindle wireless feature does.

  The sites I most enjoy because they are more thorough than that are Wired, Engadget, and Boy Genius.

  When a site has deleted a Comment of mine that lets them know something stated isn't actually so (quite often) and when they are holding current notes which means current readers won't see that their info is wrong, I will post some of these here.  Eventually Google.com and people looking for information on what the Kindle wireless does involve will be able to find the information then.

ZIKKER.COM ARTICLE
UPDATE: Allie Vance, noted below, re-posted an article by Shawn Oliver  (See Comments to this blog entry) but the comment I submitted to their comment box was "pending moderation."  I've since reposted the note to Shawn Oliver at HotHardware.com and reworded the below.

Last night, someone on Twitter pointed us to zikkir.com's article, a re-posting by Allie Vance, commenting on In-Stat's much-distributed article that reported that

"...current e-book owners desire email capability in the next e-book they purchase.  Longer battery life and Internet connectivity are the top two desired features among respondents who don’t currently own an e-book but plan to buy one in the next year.”

Yes, I can see that.  But then the article actually says the following

' ...but by and large, today’s batch of readers only feature a few (or one) of those, and not all three.
  Take the market-leading Kindle for example.  It has integrated WWAN through Sprint, but that only enables users to download new books on the go.  Users can’t check their e-mail or surf the Web, which is evidently a real bummer to most.

WHAT THE KINDLE ACTUALLY CAN DO, WEB-WISE
  Could anything be less true? -- that the Kindle can't surf the web or allow you to check your email?  Countless Kindle forum threads include discussions on what sites Kindle users can access and how that can be very helpful when you're not at home.  I have a freely-downloadable file of mobile-optimized websites to surf more quickly.

  I also have tips on using the web browser's various modes to help the loading speed or readability of the sites.  Never mind that Amazon itself puts a pre-set bunch of web-bookmarks on for Kindle users to try.
  But cellular wireless access will be slow, and the Kindle web access is definitely for the patient.  It pays off for some of us info-grabbers on the go though.

WIRELESS 24/7 W/NO MONTHLY CHARGES, CURRENTLY (K1, K2, K3, and DX's)
That this comes with no monthly charges for now is just another plus, and Jeff Bezos has said it is a reason he set the price of the Kindle higher instead of locking people into a 2-year monthly fee on top of the unit, as is done with cell phones.
  The high cost of wireless is why the other readers don't and won't, for some time, be including web-browsing access in their e-readers as part of the cost -- not iRex at $800++, not Plastic Logic at $600-$800 as expected, and not Sony readers, including the Daily Edition due in December.

MY STILL-HELD RESPONSE ON THE ZIKKER SITE  
which shows "No Comments" currently.   [Update: 9:57 PM - it was deleted.]

" Andrys says:
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
September 16, 2009 at 4:36 am

Well, the Kindles, starting with Kindle 1 all have web browsers, though it’s impossibly slow on the Kindle 1. It is very doable on the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX and I do email on it and browse all kinds of sites to look up things when out on the streets. See some web images from my DX at
http://www.pbase.com/andrys/kindleplus

I also have tips and guides for using the web browser in more speedy fashion (it’s 24/7 free cellular access) and I use it for lookups in stores, in concerts, hearings).  Email is slow going with GMail but it’s doable and I also check yahoo mail.

On the Kindle two, I show some time with Facebook and with the Amazon forums,
at http://www.pbase.com/andrys/kindle2

Forgive the links, but since you mentioned these are wanted items but the Kindle doesn’t allow it, I needed to let you know it very much does. I also have a file for accessing mobile-optimized sites but you’ll see what I could get with the normal webpage of Engadget at the first link above.

– Andrys
kindleworld.blogspot.com

The Test-Run at Univ of Washington with Kindle DX's

Seattle's KOMO Newsroom reports on the test run of the Kindle DX being done by the University of Washington, with 40 graduate students participating in using the Kindle DX in place of both textbooks and classroom reading materials this semester.

They need to see how well that might work.  Seven universities are taking part, and the University of Washington students will be among the first to actually get the Kindles.

  This is the fundamental question posed:
"How would you have to change a device that was designed as a personal pleasure device to turn it into a learning device?"

  Professor Dan Grossman says, "We want to be able to annotate and highlight and flip back and forth and have that physical experience," he said.
  But on the other side, he says, "We want to be able to search and look up and have massive amounts of information on one lightweight device." - a strength of the Kindle.

PILOT PROGRAM BLOG
seattlest.com reports on the University's blog of results so far as noted on the UW Kindle Pilot blog by the Computer Science & Engineering Dept.

If you follow the link, you'll see they want to annotate PDFs, but since this can't be done under the current licensing with Adobe, the University is converting the PDFs to the Kindle's own format instead, in order to be able to annotate the text, but since the textbooks include engineering materials, there is multi-column material as well as equations, the layouts for which tend to be lost or mangled when converted to the normal text-oriented formats.

Seattlest.com's article interpreted the blog comments as reports that the PDFs themselves were not being shown correctly, with multi-column format changed to single column format only and the math "messed up."

CONVERTED FILES (no longer PDF)
However, it's actually the converted files (in Amazon format rather than PDF) which are not showing correctly.  A number of us have written about this since May, before the DX was released when we saw in the early User's Guide for the DX that they were not offering PDF annotation features (which normally requires a fuller Adobe license for support).  I wrote a comment at Seattlest.com to try to explain that the DX can read and display PDFs accurately but that the problem involves converted files in another format that don't interpret the PDF layout correctly.

WORKAROUND FOR THE TIME BEING
In the meantime, the school's Kindle Pilot blog details a workaround they're trying, using a PDF to WORD converter such as Nuance's and then using Word to reformat the document to single column (this will often not be appropriate) and then sending the single-column'd WORD doc to Amazon's converter to put it into the Amazon format.

The school is of course asking Amazon "if these things can be improved."

THE FUTURE?
I imagine they are!  While I think the tech team has done a really good job with these units and the study tools for the regular books, the Kindles are early consumer-priced versions versus the expensive iRex models (already here but $800+) and Plastic Logic model due in early Spring with good PDF annotation features and more file formats supported but which will cost quite a bit more while not offering web access for reference and research.

I think the DX screen at 9.7" is the smallest students could use for PDFs meant to display on a full letter page, and the landscape mode usually does help quite a bit in enlarging the fonts.  But for university use, I don't understand how students could enjoy not being able to highlight and add notes to their PDFs.  I'm puzzled why Amazon hasn't moved on this aspect of PDF use in academic settings for the coming Fall session as so many of us asked them to in May.  I'm hoping they find a way since they've chosen to run the college studies.

As a consumer-category customer not having to make notes for courses, I really enjoy reading on my DX (I find the screen beautiful to read from) and even highlighting and notating normal books, but if there is no other change coming, the one change they should make is to get the Adobe PDF annotations feature for the DX (and add the ePub format for all Kindles).

Apple tablet to launch in February, at $800++ ?

This is an UPDATE to the last two entries about the continuing rumors about an Apple tablet or iPad.

  Earlier stories with details about the rumors & hoped-for features:
1.  Apple Tablet Challenge to Kindle Delayed, It's Said - August 19, 2009
2.  Apple Tablet announced early Sept? Yr-end release? - August 14, 2009

9to5Mac's Seth Weintraub reports yesterday that the Taiwan Economic News carried some parts information on Apple's possible Tablet.  I first saw this reported on teleread.org and the image is from the 9to5Mac story.

The Taiwan Economic News story by Steve Chuang reports that Apple will launch "its newest tablet PCs (curiously worded) next February" and that

"The tablet PC features a 9.6-inch screen, finger-touch function and built-in HSPDA (high speed download packet access) module, and adopts a P.A. SEMI processor chip and long lasting battery pack, selling for between US$799 and US$999."

That would be before any Web data-access charges.

Firms specifically mentioned include:
1.  DynaPack International Technology Corp.- "has been exclusively contracted to supply up to 300,000 units of long lasting battery packs a month."

2.  Wanshih Electronic Co., Ltd. "is expected to absorb around 70% of Apple`s orders for mini coaxial cables for the tablet PCs."

3.  "...Layers Scientific-Technics Co., Ltd. and Wintek Corp. will supply power chokes and touch panels, respectively..."

A commenter points out that the pricing seems logical because ""Without contract (monthly fees), an iPhone 3GS 32GB costs 675 € [$986 U.S.] (in Belgium."

CNNMoney/Fortune-Brainstorm Tech's Philip Elmer-DeWitt calls Steve Chuang "a reporter with a pretty good track record on the supply chain beat."

 They also include some thoughts about the parts vendors.
Reaction to the rumored price-point ($800 to $1000 is not exactly enthusiastic.

Tips of the day - 9/14/09

HOW TO KNOW WHEN A REQUEST FOR A KINDLE VERSION HAS BEEN FILLED
  This tip came from M. Francis in an Amazon forum thread.

1.  If you want a publisher to create a Kindle version of a book you want to read, let them know on the book's product page, on the left, below the book's main description.

2. Then add the hard copy book to your Amazon wish list.

3. Once that's done, go visit Mysteria, "your obsessive, obsequious librarian for all your digital stuff."  She's always on-call, working endlessly in the background searching for what you told her (via your public Amazon wishlist(s)) you have to have (books, music, videos).
  Read the page, as it's an entertaining intro.  The number of items she is tracking will show up on the upper right of that page.

4.   If you've not registered before, sign up (there's no cost or spam, people say), and type into the Sign-up box the email address you use for correspondence with Amazon.  If you use that address, she'll also automatically check to see if you have new requests in any of your wishlists.

5.   When a Kindle book (or digital movie or song download) you wanted has become available, she'll send you an e-mail.

6.   Here's how it works.
  And the service is free.


LEN EDGERLY OF THE KINDLE CHRONICLES PODCAST RECOMMENDS ZOOLERT

Zoolert says that they hunt, we gather.  They track hard-to-find items, but best, they TRACK PRICES of Amazon items you want and will send you an alert when an acceptable price you set has been met.

Len and his listeners say this works well for them, the original recommendation coming from Yisroel Parker, and Len Charnoff has a helpful tutorial on using Zoolert.

Mobile Reference books are back

MobileReference posted in the Amazon forums last night, the following note:

Our Dear Readers,

Today 09/11/09 Amazon informed us that "We wanted to let you know that after further review, we will be re-instating your account and once again making your titles available on the Kindle store. We thank you for your patience as we work to provide the best experience possible for our customers."

We thank you for your support!
-MobileReference

That's an UPDATE to the article on Amazon's decision to whittle down the number of duplicates of public domain classics, as some Kindle owners on the forums had worried that they would lose access to MobileReference books at Amazon.

Here are Mobile Reference Kindle books:
. sorted by bestselling
. sorted by "low to high" price
. sorted by avg. customer review
. sorted by most recently published
. sorted by relevance


As ever, here are the regular free and low-cost book links