Some Amazon self-service publishers sell Project Gutenberg's free books

SEE UPDATE at the end.
Washington Post Technology writer Rob Pegoraro reports a complaint that "Amazon charges Kindle users for free Project Gutenberg e-books" -- meaning that Amazon is allowing suppliers to sell, through Amazon's self-service publishing, versions of public domain books that are apparently derived from Project Gutenberg editions and nearly identical to them.

Note that it's considered okay to spiff up basic public domain books (which is why they're called that) and then sell them for the value of what you've done to make them comfortably readable on an e-reader and, we hope, typo-free.

  Public domain books make up the bulk of the 20,000+ free Kindle books that Amazon makes downloadable to Kindles at any time, but apparently some suppliers are uploading to the self-servicing publishing area of Amazon (for the 70% revenue offered self-publishers of Kindle-formatted books) copies of the Project's e-books that were essentially created earlier by them from scanned images.  Even this would be legal, as, again, the basic text, once there are no Project title pages, is in the public domain.

  Pegoraro explains:

' The titles in question aren't just public-domain books that have long been freely available at such sites as Project Gutenberg.  They appear to be the exact Gutenberg files, save only for minor formatting adjustments and the removal of that volunteer-run site's license information. '

 You'd think that the work that another organization spent converting image-based pages into proofed text to make them more easily readable on an e-reader should not just be taken for re-selling while the original organization is offering their work for free.

Pegoraro expands on this:

' Gutenberg contributor Linda M. Everhart complained in an e-mail in late October that Amazon was selling a title she'd contributed to Gutenberg, Arthur Robert Harding's 1906 opus "Fox Trapping," for $4.

  "They took the text version, stripped off the headers and footer containing the license, re-wrapped the sentences, and made the chapter titles bold," wrote Everhart, a Blairstown, Mo., trapper. She added that "their version had all my caption lines, in exactly the same place where I had put them." '

  Everhart identified other "instances of Kindle cloning" and Pegoraro writes "These titles appear to be sold with Amazon's standard digital-rights-management restrictions, a limit absent from Gutenberg downloads."  (However, most of the public domain books I have, for free, from Amazon, don't have DRM restrictions on how many Kindles can share the book. )

  Everhart describes the kind of work she and others do to make the free Project Gutenberg books available, which involves downloading a scan of the book's pages from the Internet Archive's collection, running it through optical-character-recognition software and then correcting mistakes and stripping out extraneous data "before formatting the text to Gutenberg's strict guidelines.  Next comes converting that text file into an HTML version with linked images that can finally be uploaded to Gutenberg."

  Pegoraro adds, "Apparently it's less work to convert that output to a Kindle Store download..."

  Some don't think so, but there are definite indications that too many Amazon digital-text-publishing uploaders do not consider proof reading important.

  But, again, all this is permitted under the Gutenberg license.

  Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation chief executive Greg Newby wrote in an email, "Is this legal? Yes. Is it ethical? I don't think it is."

  Newby added that although many other booksellers do this, Amazon is "the worst offender" because of the number of of suppliers for Amazon.

See the article for Amazon's response so far.

Newby has suggested to Amazon that it could directly offer Gutenberg titles as no-charge, DRM-free downloads -- something Apple did in its iBooks store.  He doesn't mention what the terms were though, on Gutenberg's part.

SOLUTION
Pegoraro sees a simple solution:

' Search the Gutenberg site for a title you're interested in buying for your Kindle and download it from there if it's available.
  Not only does that site usually offer books in Kindle formats, you can even download them directly to a Kindle. '

The link he gives there is to this blog's article on how to browse/search a Project Gutenberg "Magic Catalog" on your Kindle for one of the 30,000+ books available there and then click to download the book direct to the Kindle.


OTHER POSSIBILITIES
  At this blog's Free Kindle Books page, I also include MobileRead Forum books, another non-Amazon e-book source, which displays its public-domain books sorted by Amazon-readable 'PRC' (Mobi) format and by most recent first.  These tend to be even better formatted, with linked table-of-contents page when applicable, and mostly free.

 And then there are the 2 million+ free books at Internet Archive, downloadable directly to the Kindle also.
  I explain that at the Internet Archive article.

ONLY AMAZON KINDLE BOOKS CAN BE SYNC'D WITH COMPATIBLE DEVICES
  One thing needs to be mentioned about getting or not getting public domain books from Amazon (there are over 20,000 free e-books in the Kindle store -- see the footer of any blog article in this blog to find them and the temporarily free contemporary Kindle books as well).

You can "sync" the Kindle editions with any reading you do on apps for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Blackberry, Android smartphones, PC, Mac, etc., and resume from where you were on the other device.

  That syncing can't be done for ebooks that Amazon doesn't have on its servers.
  Also, highlighting and notes made on non-Amazon books aren't backed up to the Amazon servers (as Amazon doesn't have the books) and therefore aren't viewable and copyable at the customer's private, password protected website at Amazon.  This might be important to those who have a student's approach to books.

  Amazon probably should have a rule against self-service publishing (in Kindle format) of a public domain book that has been carefully converted to text by another entity, proofread, formatted in HTML and already released in Kindle-readable format at no charge -- but then Amazon would have to spend time checking all the uploaded public domain books against other editions of those books.

  Still, they could probably stipulate that there is no publisher payment for books just taken from Project Gutenberg and the Project's identifier statements stripped.

UPDATE - If you're reading this at the web edition of the blog, please read the first two comments to see the licensing language that Project Gutenberg has, which says that that if anyone modifies a Project Gutenberg book and does charge for it, they don't claim a right to prevent someone from "copying, distributing, performing, displaying, or creating derivative works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg are removed."


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

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

The Kindle 3 and Adjusting Contrast on PDFs - examples

The Kindle 3:  PDF ADJUSTMENTS FOR SCREEN CONTRAST - EXAMPLES

PDF page as-is

PDF adjustment to "darker"

PDF adjustment to "darkest"

Rotated to Landscape mode

Click on images to see the larger, original ones.
  These are screen captures from the Kindle 3, rather than photos, and the adjustments have a larger effect with the 16 shades of gray of the actual screen.

The image on the left shows all the options available with the 'Aa' Text-key (on the bottom row of the keyboard).  Rotation on the Kindle 3 is not automatically done, so you have to choose the orientation from the pop-up

As you can see, several of the regular options for books are not available when working with PDFs.  The INactive ones are: Typeface, Line Spacing, Words per Line, and Text to Speech.

Other options for PDFS that are new to the Kindle 3:
Place Cursor in Page. Press up or down on the 5-way controller to display the cursor.
  — displays a blinking cursor on the page.  Use this option when you are zoomed in to a PDF page and you want to create a note or highlight, or use the dictionary lookup."

We were not able to access the words in a PDF before, to highlight passages or make notes.  Highlighted passages can now be made and also forwarded to Facebook and Twitter, if social networking is enabled where you are.  The zoom feature was added to earlier Kindles via software update v2.5.x.

These examples were requested some time ago.  Let me know if there are newer features you'd like shown.


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

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

That $89 Kindle-2 Black Friday special - Amazon explains. New $100 gift card-a-day. Update.

Amazon has a "Gold Box" Forum on its Amazon-forums area for announcements and discussions on its Gold Box and "Lighting Deals" plus any other specials they have running at any time.  Amazon made the above status announcement almost 2 hours after the Special began (and ended, which was within about one second for many).

For those who can't read the graphic used at the top of this blog article, here's a quote of that announcement from that specific message thread (you may need to try this link twice for it to work to get to the forum thread).

'                   Initial post: Nov. 26, 2010 10:55 AM PST
Amazon.com Gold Box Team says:
(AMAZON OFFICIAL)

Our Kindle 2 for $89 deal is sold out.  Amazon Lightning Deals are limited time deals that can sell out very fast.  We had thousands available and unfortunately they sold out very quickly.

- The Gold Box Team '

It was all pretty confusing, as you'll see from the 465 notes up when I did the screen-capture above.
  I did buy a couple of Black Friday items in the middle of the night (when there was not much competition, I was happy to see), and learned at that time how the Kindle deal would not even be seen on the Black Friday page unless you knew what category to mark within the Lighting Deals box at the top of that page, and then it appeared after you selected the category for "Kindle" rather than "Electronics."  At about 4am I saw that the Kindle-2 deal had a countdown to be 'available' in 5 hours or so.  (People have reported having hovered over that countdown for some time before the release time.)  Then I wrote an alert at the top right of the blog so people could get to the Kindle deal more quickly, from what I'd just learned.

  You'll see the alert at the right, but I've now changed the general Black Friday week notice, and I hope their servers can handle the load much better than they did the Kindle deal early this morning when far too many people who clicked on the Kindle item as it changed to "Available" (mouses hovering over it until then) were not able to get the item added to their carts at all or if they did, it seemed to disappear because only 2 minutes were allowed to complete the deal.  There were other snafu's reported due to hung Amazon pages and customers' inexperience with the 'deals' pages as well.

  Amazon mentions 'thousands' of Kindle 2's were included, without being more specific than that, for reasons that elude me.  Their new subsidiary Woot! is more forthcoming than that and even provides statistics.  I hope they can learn from that new company.


THE NEWER "FREE $100 Gift Card"-a-Day Giveaway at Amazon Kindle Facebook, 29 remaining.
As for the Facebook alerts from its official "AMAZON KINDLE" team on Facebook, maybe a few reading might benefit from their latest offer at their Facebook "Wall", which has the following message at the top:

' Amazon Kindle
Congratulations to the first winner of the Amazon Kindle $100 Gift Card-A-Day Holiday Giveaway. http://amzn.to/gZLv8X. If you haven't entered yet, we still have 29 more FREE $100 Gift Cards to give away.  Enter for a chance to win! http://on.fb.me/f4qxqE '

And, better luck on that one !  It's their new offering to help people know about their Facebook presence, which is how many companies are interacting a bit more directly (one hopes) with the general public or the rest of their customers who are online but who don't go to the Amazon forums.
Update - I added the links to this a bit later.


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

---

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

A Thanksgiving for our health, abilities, and things that can help

SPEECH THERAPY TAPS E-READERS
Reading devices help people with strokes, neurological disabilities

In the picture are Chrissy Akers (left), a graduate student in speech pathology, and Tina Puglisi-Creegan, a clinical instructor, who are helping Tom Calteux "relearn the reading process with the aid of a Kindle years after having a stroke.  Although he never lost his ability to write, the part of his brain that makes the connection between letters and comprehension was damaged."

Harvey Black, writing for the Journal Sentinel, feels that "The Kindle and the iPad are in many ways the face of today's communication technology" and that there's "more to these devices than just making life a bit easier and more entertaining."

Here's the start of the article, using another photo of the Kindle 2:

' Clinicians at Marquette University are using them to help patients overcome neurological disabilities and strokes.

The devices "avoid the stigma of disability and bring individuals into the mainstream by using current technology.  It has a real uplifting psychological and emotional contribution to patients," said Marquette University speech-language pathologist Tina Puglisi-Creegan.

For the past two years, Thomas Calteux has been using the Kindle to help him read, under Puglisi-Creegan's guidance, at the university's Speech and Hearing Clinic.

The lightweight, hand-held wireless device allows users not only to download books, but also to convert text to synthesized speech, change font size and control the rate at which the text is presented.

"It's fun to use," said Calteux, 61, a former photo editor at the Journal Sentinel.

"I sit and read. It's so much easier than moving pages and stuff like that," said Calteux, who had a stroke in 1998 that robbed him of his reading ability.

The Kindle's text to speech function is helpful. Hearing the words can aid him in understanding passages if he has trouble grasping the meaning of words he sees.  The Kindle's easily accessible dictionary is another aid, Calteux noted.

He has been in therapy since 1999 to help him regain his reading skills.

At the start of his rehabilitation, Calteux could not identify the letters of the alphabet or even sound out letters, Puglisi-Creegan said.

The years of rehabilitation after the stroke involved hours of work, using flash cards and worksheets. It was tiring and sometimes frustrating.

It's like going back to school, Puglisi-Creegan explained.

"When he had trouble you could see tears develop," she said.

After using the Kindle, which is owned by the clinic, Calteux says he wants to buy his own.  Other patients also use the device, said Puglisi-Creegan.

"It's a joy to see how it has taken off. People want to be like everyone else," she said.

A representative of Amazon.com, which sells the Kindle, said there are a number of anecdotes from stroke patients nationwide using Kindles to help them read. '

The article continues with how an iPad is used to provide a voice.  See the full article to read how that's done.  About its effect, they point out:

' One goal of integrating the iPad into rehabilitation is to increase interaction with other people, said Courtney Miller, a student clinician working with Erin.

Using an iPad doesn't "flag the user as a person with a disability," Brueck said.

"A person with a vocal impairment could pull this out and no one would know that this was a device for communication," she said. '

The article goes on to talk in detail about what works and why and also what doesn't for some and cites the advantage of the two devices as less bulky and "easier to use than conventional speech augmentation devices," the latter often overwhelming for clients, therapists and caregivers.

Then it mentions some drawbacks of non-'dedicated' rehabilitation devices (specifically the touch keyboard on the iPad as the example given) and that government funds can't be used to buy expensive iPads, though they're still "one-tenth the cost of conventional dedicated speech devices."

Gregg Vanderheiden, director of the Trace Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which focuses on making computer technology accessible to the disabled, says that devices like the iPad can be a "powerful new base from which to build assistive technologies..."

He adds that when looking at these new general-use devices, "Putting wheels on a regular chair can't simply substitute for a wheelchair and that "...there is danger that the availability of quick or less expensive solutions may prevent someone from finding a solution that really is effective."


SIDE TOPIC - YELP!, AMAZON? AND LOCATION-BASED CHECK-INS FOR BUSINESSES
An article about Yelp's new business offering was of interest because the Google News link introduced the item by saying that Amazon was in talks with Yelp about using the new technology.  But this would indicate an app on a mobile device.  So I clicked on the article link.

  When I got to the article, Amazon is not mentioned at all, which indicates that amy mention was removed from the article.  This stirred my interest even more. :-)
  The technology involves offers and discounts that are location-based.  I use yelp.com often to find others' favorite places in my area for just about anything.  Got my favorite dentist that way and cured my fear of dentists.  Am wondering what Amazon might be interested in there.

  I explored a bit and see that according to Dave Marin, a search and data-mining engineer at Yelp, which generates about 100GB of daily log data, the Yelp team discovered Amazon's Elastic MapReduce (EMR) service.
 "O'Reilly's radar" writer Julie Steele reports, "That's when they decided to migrate their entire code base over to Amazon so they could dispose of their own Hadoop cluster and rent such services on an as-needed basis..."
  Amazon seems to be into everything these days, while some still like to say "They're just booksellers."


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

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

The "Free 3G" Kindle 2 at $89 for Black Friday - UPDATED 11/24

Melville House Publishing reports that CNet's David Carnoy alerted the world that the Facebook page for Amazon carried this announcement about the Kindle 2 though Amazon doesn't like using the numbering system.

This would be the Kindle 2 International, as the Kindle 2 U.S. has not been carried by Amazon for awhile.  The Kindle 2 International has better screen contrast than the Kindle 2 U.S. model that I have and is quite close to the Kindle's screen contrast, by many reports and from my own experience with a friend's Kindle 2 bought in July.

' Black Friday Deal: This Friday, 11/26, you can get our previous generation Kindle for $89!

Our previous generation Kindle uses the old E Ink technology (the same E Ink as in the current Nook).   Our all-new Kindle [the Kindle 3  {UK: K3}] uses the latest generation E Ink (Pearl) for 50% percent better contrast, and is available at the everyday low price of ...$139. '

  Again, that's the Kindle 2 International that's being sold for $89, which has better screen contrast than the earlier Kindle 2 U.S. models.

  I'm surprised that they have any left.  However, the sale doesn't start until 9:00 AM on Black Friday, November 26 (see the link below).

It's definitely a limited quantity item.

  While the $149 B&W E-Ink Nook with the same screen but NO 3G wireless (WiFi only) will sell for $99 on Black Friday (at Best Buy, I think) as will the smaller Sony without wireless, the Kindle 2 is definitely a better deal for navigational ease, free 3G cellular wireless web browser, and the Text-to-Speech capability.  It doesn't have the local WiFi module but the Kindle's 3G works almost ANYwhere without your needing to find a WiFi hot spot that's also free and which doesn't require a passkey, which is why 3G models are more expensive for both the Kindle and the Nook.

  The Nook will be better for those who need to get books from the public library if their library carries a good e-book selection and they are ever in stock (some are 'out' for months).  The Sony is nice but very limited (no dictionary, no searches, no folders, no annotations, no wireless of any kind).

  Here's the Consumer Reports video review of the current higher-priced E-Ink Nook , the Kindle 2, and the Sony.
  Also, there's ABC7/Consumer Reports on 9 e-readers that include the current e-Ink nook (though with 3G, which the $99 Black Friday Nook e-Ink model doesn't have) and the Kindle 2.

  Amazon always carries a flexible 1-year warranty with instant replacements if there's a problem.  Their phone support for that is 866-321-8851.

IF YOU WANT TO GET THIS EARLY ON THE 26TH
LATE Thursday night, at midnight which will start Friday, November 26 --
  Go to U.S. Black Friday specials page: Shortcut: http://bit.ly/blackfriday-2010

UPDATE - I said 'midnight' because many stores post their releases ahead of time.  In the Comments area, amoderngirl asked about the time differences.

Since Seattle is on Pacific Standard time, one would think it would be 9:00am PST, which would be noon on Friday. Again, I think they might well post the ad earlier. It's not likely they'd make it function to take orders earlier, but I would arrive earlier than 9:00am PST on Friday to check what's showing.  I'm reposting this at 2:16 pm Wednesday, for the updated information.


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

---

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

New: Give mp3 gifts - Amazon Italy launches - Price Check for iPhone

NOW THERE'S MP3 GIFTING TOO

Amazon has just announced instant mp3 gifts, and as with kindle book gifts, the recipient can always exchange MP3 gifts for an Amazon.com gift card.  All songs and albums sold by Amazon MP3 can be given as gifts, and of course we can personalize them with special messages.  Your recipient will get an Amazon email letting them know theres's an mp3 or mp3 album waiting for them.

AMAZON ITALY LAUNCHED TODAY
Amazon announced the launch of their Amazon online store in Italy.

This is of course an Italian-language website offering customers the usual large selection of books, DVDs, video games, music and consumer electronics at Amazon's everyday lower prices.  Amazon says that Amazon.it is launching with more categories than with any other Amazon web site's initial launch, the selection including computers, software, small home appliances, watches and toys.  Included is Amazon Prime, the membership program with unlimited free guaranteed 2-3-day delivery at an annual fee of 9.99 Euros.  Prime members also get guaranteed one day Express shipping for 3.98 Euros per item if the shipping address qualifies for one day shipping .

Per the press release, the store will offer international bestsellers to hard-to-find Italian-language items.  For example, customers can find over 2 million Italian- and foreign language-books in stock, over 450,000 CDs and over 120,000 DVDs and a large selection in video games, music, consumer electronics, as well as software, small home appliances, watches and toys -- with selection growing every day.
  To celebrate the launch of www.amazon.it, Amazon is offering a special 30 percent discount on most of its books and more throughout the rest of their store.

I have great memories of a 3-week visit to Italy in 2006.


AMAZON'S NEW PRICE CHECK FOR
And now, for Apple users, Amazon is working overtime.  The latest is their Price Check for iPhone

iPhone users can use the new feature "instantly compare prices with Amazon.com and its merchants while on-the-go -- search Amazon products quickly using barcode, picture, voice, and text search.  All prices are in US Dollars. Compatible with iPhone 3Gs and iPhone 4 devices with auto-focus cameras and iOS 4 or greater.  This should be a quite a boon for Amazon, I mean, the customer :-) This will show product descriptions and customer reviews and also uses Prime if you have that.  Click on the linked landing page and that'll take you to the iTunes page for more info.

Here's Amazon's Mobile for Iphone, Ipad, and iPod Touch support page in case it's needed.


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

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

Amazon Kindle and general e-reader/ebook news 11-22-10

KINDLE TOPS BEST ALL-TIME FREE APPS FOR ANDROID

  That heading came from a Google news-lead.  As it happens, the article from Techcrunch, "Top 30 Android Apps Of All Time" is a useful list of good free and paid apps for the Android, and those of you who have Android devices or will, eventually, since they're about to flood the market, might enjoy the videos of what it's like to use each one.  The Kindle App for Android gets the #1 free Android App slot.

I was away yesterday, so today's blog article is even wordier than usual.

MORE ON EARLY BLACK FRIDAY DEALS AND THINGS TO REMEMBER
Amazon has started the "lightning deals" today.  Some prices are as low as $3 for regular DVD’s and $5 for Blu-ray DVD's. The "lightning" specials are for limited-quantity items but I've read that they can time out after 15 minutes of being in the cart, though you'll get a 10-minutes-remaining alert.

There have been questions whether Kindles might be included, but with the current state of stocking - unavailability outside the U.S. and UK for a few weeks for the Kindle 3's - that's unlikely.  Some expect that Kindle-related items (accessories) will be involved at some point.

Reminder: Bookmark these for significant sales from approximately today through the day after Thanksgiving and probably beyond to some extent:

U.S. Black Friday specials page: Shortcut: http://bit.ly/blackfriday-2010

U.K. Black Friday specials page: Shortcut: http://bit.ly/blackfriday-uk


E-READERS AND TABLETS: WHAT SHOULD YOU BUY?
Wilson Rothman, who writes for both Gizmodo and MSNBC has advice on which to buy and why (or why not).  His story includes the NookColor.

 He mentions that the 3G feature, costing $50 more for the Kindle 3G-WiFi model, is not needed but neglects to mention that the Kindle's 3G also includes free web-lookups (slow browsing) in 60+ countries and doesn't limit users to the bookstore as the other e-readers do.

 For those interested in that, here is the Table of 61 countries at http://amzn.to/uk-3gwebwhere which the Amazon UK site shows currently (their residents are more likely to travel often in Europe and apparently need this information more).  You can see more information on the countries in the blog article from October which incorporates the table.

  And here, for newcomers, is my article on the main differences between 3G+WiFi and WiFi-Only access that should help some who are trying to decide between the two Kindle-3  (UK: K3) models.

  Here's Rothman's summary:

' For those of you who think that this was a long-winded way for me to say "Buy a Kindle and/or an iPad," you are nearly right.  After all, they are the two most solid products on the market this holiday season, with proven value.  But for those plucky early adopters with cash to spend (if they still exist in this cramped economy), the Nook Color and Galaxy Tab represent innovations that may well evolve, even in hand, after they're purchased.  But as for the rest of the gadgets in this increasingly crowded field, I ask, why get lost in the weeds when the paved road is so easy to see? '

E-BOOKS RISING IN FAVOR FASTER THAN ANTICIPATED
The latest story on this comes from California's Richard Hart for KGO-TV.

He mentions that Andrew Savikas's e-reading habits are part of "a movement that is surprising even the most optimistic sellers of electronic books."  Savikas, VP for Digital Initiatives at O'Reilly Media, adds that in direct sales,
  "Our e-books outsell the print books by more than 10-to-1.  We're seeing an extraordinary shift in preference for digital and especially for mobile, consumption."

  The article also quotes statistics from Forrester Research and Simba Information, and "according to Consumer Reports, 10 percent of adults plan to give an e-reader as a gift this year. Only 4 percent did so in 2009."

  "In 2009, revenue from sales of e-books made up 1 percent of book sales.  This season, they will constitute 10 percent.  
  They also reference "Publishers" for the statement that "e-book revenues exploded from $105.6 million in the first part of 2009 to $304.6 million so far this year, a 290 percent growth rate" but that is a strange and meaningless comparison, as written, as it compares the FIRST part of 2009 to "so far this year" and 2010 is almost over.  That has to be an error.

  So I looked it up and found a reference that makes somewhat better sense, by Richard MacManus, at readwriteweb.com, who writes:

' eBook Sales Nearly Double, Now 9% of Total Consumer Books

A recent report from the Association of American Publishers stated that eBooks sales grew 193% between January and August 2010.  In dollar terms, eBook sales for January to August were up from $89.8 million in 2009 to $263 million in 2010.

UPDATE Stephen in Comments points out that the percent increase is not 290% as mentioned in other articles interpreting what the Association of American Publishers said and which I quoted from Hart's write-up, but that readwriteweb.com is correct in saying 193%, which happens to be almost a tripling of the numbers last year.

A "doubling" of the numbers would have been almost $179.60 million in sales rather than the $263 mllion quoted vs the $89.8 million the year before or almost 3 times what it was in the same period of 2009.

What's more, according to the Association of American Publishers, eBooks now make up 9.03% of total consumer book sales - compared to 3.31% at the close of 2009. '

The Comments area there is a real wasteland, since they accept all spammers (why can't they use a simple filter?).

 ONE comment did strike me though.  It's from Bronwyn at the interesting writers' blog Guerrillareads.com - "The online video literary magazine," who says:

' One of the most interesting things I've discovered is that in the Kindle store, the visual difference between big publishing houses, small independents and self-published books is almost invisible.  This can only help level the playing field between them in ways both readers and writers can benefit. '

KINDLE CUSTOMER SUPPORT GETS SOME KUDOS FROM AFAR
IrishTimes had featured, last week, a "good news item on online retailer Amazon.com after it replaced a reader’s broken Kindle e-reader quickly and without a quibble.  Within minutes of the item appearing in print and online we were bombarded with a chorus of “Shut up! That’s awesome” (the catchphrase of the Irish winter) from readers who wanted us to highlight their stories of Amazon’s awesomeness."

' First up was Cillian Daly. He only had his Kindle for three weeks when it suffered an unfortunate fall at the hands of his mammy. A third of the screen was damaged and it was effectively unreadable. “The next day I rang Amazon, had a pleasant conversation with tech support and within three days, I had a brand new e-reader. They even processed the refund on the shipping for the return of the broken Kindle while the unit was in transit back to them.” He was doubly pleased because he was terrified it would take weeks if not months to get a replacement due to the popularity of the device and he was set to go on holidays two weeks after the incident so all the books he’d bought for the trip would have been wasted. “However, I got an e-mail the following morning telling me my replacement had shipped. I can’t recall this kind of service from an Irish company.” Then there was Gary Hoban who had an experience with his Kindle which was “almost identical”. He points out that “in one of the e-mails passing between us, the company described itself as ‘striving to become the world’s most customer-centric company’. It’s getting there,” he writes. “Irish companies, please copy.” '

Remember to use the quick-response Kindle customer service ("Call Me") explained in an earlier article here.


FROM JUST ANOTHER APPRECIATOR OF "REAL BOOKS" (the smell of them, etc)
Almost daily, although I've almost never linked to them because the stories are so common, comes a 'testimonial' type article from someone who had been adamant about not using digital e-readers.  Since the holidays bring more people to the blog wondering why others are getting e-readers and why the e-book market is exploding, here's just one article I saw today, titled, "Ten top reasons why the Amazon Kindle is my new boyfriend."


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

---

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

Kindle for PC Update ready. GiveKindleBooks report by Thomas Palmer

The Kindle for PC page has again been updated (see features of original, basic Kindle for PC) with the following new features:

* Use the built-in dictionary to seamlessly look up the definitions of
    English words without interrupting your reading.
* Read in the standard one-column mode or take advantage of a larger screen
    with a multi-column view, which will automatically adjust
    according to your screen size. [ Very slick. ]
* Choose whether you'd like to browse your library in a tile view or in a list view.

I don't know when the Kindle  (UK: K3) Search feature was added, but it's there now and very speedy.

Being a keyboard-shortcuts type (speedier for me and avoids repetitive mouse/arm movements), I especially like the keyboard shortcuts they made available in the prior update.

The general Kindle for PC Help webpage is easily reachable through the app's Help option, and the most helpful sections for day-to-day functions, can be found under the Using Kindle for PC page.

  The Navigation icons are explained under Using the Reading Tool Bar section which also details the three methods for turning pages.

  The highlighting and notes guide is at the Using Highlights and Notes section.

At the Future Improvements page for this app (easily reachable from the app's Help menu's Future Improvements choice), Amazon tells us what they are thinking of bringing to the app in the "near future."

* Library Management
    A new way to manage and organize your content

As before, the Kindle team says they'd like to hear from Kindle for PC users.
  "You can send them to the Kindle team at kindleforpc-feedback@amazon.com or via the feedback form available in the application - we'd love to hear what you think!"


HOW THE NEW GIVE-KINDLE-BOOKS FEATURE WORKS - BY THOMAS PALMER
While browsing the Amazon Kindle Community Forums, I saw a posting by Thomas Palmer describing what he experienced using the new feature to gift himself a Kindle book and letting us know what we should expect.  For those of you who don't do the forum scene, here is his write-up

' Thomas Palmer says:
OK folks, I just tested it.  I used one of the books in my Kindle Wishlist to test it out. (I already wanted it so what the heck, gifting it to myself. ;) )

When you buy it as a gift you are sent to a new type of shopping cart page where you can enter in the recipients email address, their name, your name and some text for the gift email that will be sent.
  You are asked to log in again if you have not already fully logged in (like when you normally use the shopping cart) If you went to the book through the person's Kindle Wishlist the email address is already filled in.

[ Note by Andrys: Gifters cannot see the recipient's email address though. ]

It looks like you can send it to anyone even if the book isn't available in their country as well.  The fine print on the gift order page says "Title availability may vary by country.  If this title isn't available for your gift recipient, we will exchange your gift for an equivalent value Amazon.com gift card."

Your order receipt will list it as "[Kindle Gift Purchased]" instead of "[Kindle Edition]".  The recipient will get an e-mail from Amazon with the subject "Amazon.com: A Gift from Thomas Palmerþ", with your name instead of mine of course. ;)
  The body of the email is designed like a little gift box with the book you gifted them in it, your name and the message text you wrote down when you ordered it.  It includes a link that says "Get your Kindle Book Gift Now".

When the recipient clicks on that link they are sent to a new type of Kindle Book product page.  The main part of the page is the same as the book's normal product page, but now the top of the page says "Accept Your Kindle Book Gift", it again gives the senders name and message, and the buy box on the right side has an "Accept Kindle Gift" button instead of the "Buy Now" button.  It has the same drop down Kindle selection box as normal.

It also has the standard "Send Sample Now" box as well.  I guess so the recipient can check the book first to see if they want it.  While the buy box doesn't have a button to not accept the gift, the "How does this work?" link informs the recipient that they can exchange the gift for a gift card by contacting customer service and referencing the gift order number, which it also gives them.

The "How does this work?" link also gives them links to pages about the Kindle apps and the Kindle devices in case they are "new to Kindle".

Once you click on the "Accept Kindle Gift" you get a confirmation page and the book is sent to the Kindle you selected in the drop down box and it's added to your Kindle account, just like any other Kindle book you order. '

It's worth noting that you cannot gift any of the free Kindle books.  As someone else noted, if you really want someone to see or read a specific free Kindle book, just send them the link.

Also, for convenience, here again is the tiny FAQ at the givekindlebooks page posted yesterday:

'

Frequently Asked Questions about Giving Kindle eBooks

• Do I have to own a Kindle to give or receive a Kindle ebook as a gift?
  No. Kindle ebooks can be given and received by anyone with an e-mail address.  Kindle ebooks can be read either on Kindle or on your PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, or Android Phone using one of our free reading apps.

• What if the recipient doesn't like or want their gift?
  Kindle ebooks received as gifts can be exchanged for Amazon.com gift cards.

• Are all Kindle ebooks eligible to be given as gifts? All ebooks available for purchase in the Amazon.com Kindle Store can be given as gifts. '

The Kindle forum discussion on this feature may be of interest to some of you, as there are people who'd rather not be getting Kindle books as gifts and there are more people who are building their public Wish Lists to make it easier for friends and family :-)


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

---

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

Amazon finally does Kindle-book gifting - UPDATE

AMAZON FINALLY DOES GIFTING OF KINDLE BOOKS

I'll just quote the press release while providing my earlier version of of the portion in this press-release that highlights again the Editors' choices for the best Kindle books of 2010.  Amazon starts it off with this:

"For the First Time, Give the Gift of Kindle Books (No Kindle Required)
Kindle Store the first major bookstore to offer eBook gifting"

Well, in fact, Kobo offered eBook gifting a day earlier (Thursday), and since the Kobo is sold at Borders and other stores, I think that qualifies -- Amazon nodded off at the wheel there but they're awake now and ready :-)

 Here's the press release with my modifications that include links to the books they have recommended for 2010.

' SEATTLE, Nov 19, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) --

(NASDAQ: AMZN) - Kindle is the most gifted item in the history of Amazon.com and millions of people around the world are reading Kindle Books on Kindle devices and free Kindle apps.  Beginning today, just in time for the holiday season, customers can give Kindle Books as gifts to anyone with an e-mail address -- no Kindle required.  Kindle Books can be read on Kindle devices and free Kindle reading apps for iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry and Android-based devices.
  For more information or to give a Kindle Book as a gift, go to amzn.to/givekindlebooks.

"We are thrilled to make it easier than ever for our customers to give their favorite Kindle book to a friend or family member as a gift," said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Amazon Kindle.  "We're making this functionality available in time for the holidays to offer an easy, stress free holiday shopping option for anyone - not just Kindle owners."

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

Just in time for holiday gift-giving, Amazon editors' picks for the best books of the year are:

  [ CAUTION: A small change for this list only:
    These won't open a new window, so don't close the book-browsing window
    but instead use the Back button to get back to this page --
    otherwise, it would be hard to get back here. ]

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


[And here's the usual press-release paragraph that I `normally omit, but some new to the Kindle may be interested.]

  With over 725,000 books, the U.S. Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore) has the largest selection of the most popular books that people want to read - including New York Times Bestsellers and New Releases from $9.99. Kindle lets you Buy Once, Read Everywhere - on Kindle, Kindle 3G, Kindle DX, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry and Android-based devices.  Amazon's Whispersync technology syncs your place across devices, so you can pick up where you left off.  With Kindle Worry-Free Archive, books you purchase from the Kindle Store are automatically backed up online in your Kindle library on Amazon where they can be re-downloaded wirelessly for free, anytime. '

As I said, finally !

UPDATE - For convenience, here's the tiny FAQ at the givekindlebooks page linked earlier above:

'

Frequently Asked Questions about Giving Kindle eBooks

• Do I have to own a Kindle to give or receive a Kindle ebook as a gift?
  No. Kindle ebooks can be given and received by anyone with an e-mail address.  Kindle ebooks can be read either on Kindle or on your PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, or Android Phone using one of our free reading apps.

• What if the recipient doesn't like or want their gift?
  Kindle ebooks received as gifts can be exchanged for Amazon.com gift cards.

• Are all Kindle ebooks eligible to be given as gifts? All ebooks available for purchase in the Amazon.com Kindle Store can be given as gifts. '

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


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

---

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

Amazon Kindle 3 out of stock outside the U.S. and UK / Black Friday sales

2-3 MONTHS DELAY TO SHIP OUTSIDE USA AND UK
  per Kindle 3 product pages

This situation came without warning, except that about 2 weeks ago, one could order up to five Kindle 3's (UK: K3's) at a time, and then it became only three at a time "due to strong customer demand."

  While Kindle 3's are still available for immediate shipment in the U.S. and UK for now, a look at the product page for deliveries outside those two areas shows the following estimated ship date: "Expected to ship in 2 to 3 months."

Even Canada and Australia, two areas very much represented in Amazon Kindle Community Forum discussions, have this shipment delay shown.

At the Kindle forum thread about this today, a posting by Rod Govers reports:

' This is Amazon's reply to a query regarding the 2-3 months delivery on K3s to **international** addresses:

"Due to strong customer demand, Kindle (Latest Generation) is temporarily sold out.  Order now to reserve your place in line.  Orders are prioritized on a first come, first served basis.  We will ship your Kindle to you as quickly as possible and will keep you informed by e-mail as we get more precise delivery dates." '

WAIT MAY BE CONSIDERABLY LESS THAN STATED 2-3 MONTHS THOUGH
From some experience with past temporary stock shortages (some longer than others), the DEFAULT time period is given as 2-3 months, but more often than not, in the past year, the factories seem to catch up much sooner than later and the wait is not as long as mentioned in the alert.

  However, that long a period covers Amazon in case, I imagine, they don't get more in stock soon enough.  But I remember this happening with the Kindle 3's when new, also, and the estimated shipping dates with temporary shortages were way off.

 Amazon is now sold (in dribbles and as fast as the stores stock the VERY LIMITED supplies for some reason) at Target, Staples and Best Buy, but in the U.S., the Kindle 3's are still available online.  I tend to prefer to buy these at Amazon online due to their very fast, flexible handling of returns if you don't want the Kindle after all (within 30 days) and of replacements if needed, usually within a day or two.

Interestingly, the far more expensive, less portable Kindle DX Graphite ('KDXG'), better for PDFs, textbooks, and sheet music) is not seeing similar shortages that affect international shipment.  An entire Kindle 3 fits in the screen of the KDXG and it's 1.2 lbs, so is quite a bit heavier.  These are due to be in the stores for holiday shopping, and some of us wonder if there'll be any changes that have kept them from going to stores sooner.  Remember that Amazon has a 30-day full-refund return policy on Kindles for any reason, such as just not wanting it after all.

  They seem very secure with this unique policy on e-readers.  Amazon also has 30-day price protection, returning the difference if a product's pricing is reduced within 30 days of purchase.  That's along with the 30-day full-refund return policy for any Kindle that is just not wanted.

At any rate, I expect that the Kindle 3 shortages will not be the stated 2-3 months.  That would indicate poor planning or far-higher-than-expected demand, and there are a lot of competing products these days even if Consumer Report gives the Kindle highest marks again this week.


BLACK FRIDAY Specials - U.S. and U.K.
While we're on the topic of the online store, both Amazon U.S. and Amazon UK have started their Black Friday week alerts, with some pre-Black Friday specials also..

Bookmark these for significant sales from approximately the 22 through the day after Thanksgiving and probably beyond to some extent:

U.S. Black Friday specials page: Shortcut: http://bit.ly/blackfriday-2010

U.K. Black Friday specials page: Shortcut: http://bit.ly/blackfriday-uk



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

---

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

NookColor reviews - a look at several of them

NOOKCOLOR E-READER REVIEWS

Paul Biba of Teleread had the first blog and Twitter alerts I saw on the various reviews, and three of the big gadget blogs came out about the same time.  By the way, I've had email and comments that some Kindle owners don't like to see blog entries here about other e-readers as they come here for Kindle information, but the blog is about a Kindle world and in that world, there are competing devices and other aspects of all this, which have their effect, and many seem curious about the other readers even when delighted with what they/we have.  I'll report today on what's been said in early reviews, as it involves a large change in the dynamics of the e-reader arena.

  Bear in mind that the NookColor is an LCD-screen reader rather than an eye-calming but slow monochromatic e-Ink one, but even for those of us who have e-Ink readers which will remain our primary readers, many of us are interested in a secondary reader that is color-capable for shorter-term reading (magazines, travel books, photography) and for children's books, not to mention comics.  Also, some of us want a DRM'd ePub reader and the ability to use the library if we want though I can understand why Amazon might not want to latter feature.  I saw a posting from someone today who mentioned that in a year of using the Nook, she'd never had to buy an e-bok.  Not the best news for e-book-selling companies and understandably sensitive publishers :-)

  As I wrote in several postings to this Amazon forum thread last week, I've thought Barnes and Noble made a very smart move with an LCD reader, going for "the rest of the story/audience" (those who are not interested in an e-reader unless it's in color) and that I would be interested in getting the NookColor as a secondary reader for color-focused travel and photography books as well as for magazines if it's easy to use -- and it appears it has a very good start.

Those who ordered early will probably start getting them tomorrow but B&N has said the quantity is limited, and orders made today are due to ship Nov 26..

Since Paul's early alert (on Crunchgear, Engadget, and Gizmodo reviews), other sites have weighed in, including Wired, Laptop Magazine, Network World, with hands-on reviews.  Here are notes I took for interested Kindleworld readers.  They look like lengthy quotes but I left out usually 65 % of what was said, so please read the full reviews for a much better handle on it all if seriously considering a purchase.

Engadget's Joshua Topolsky

' As far as the web browser goes, the experience is pretty standard Android 2.1 fare, though as with the homescreen and general navigation on the Nook Color, the fun of using the device is hampered by touch response and refresh rates that seem way behind the curve. The team working on this software really needs to clear up some of these lag issues to make the Color a more viable choice for those considering this instead of a dedicated Android tablet. Of course, this price point helps to make a powerful argument.
...
Videos were another issue -- we couldn't get anything besides M4Vs to play, and even then we had trouble with some HD trailers. Obviously this isn't a crucial task for this device, but having a strong set of codecs and some decent video support would be really nice (and should cost next to nothing for this platform).
...
Dealing with galleries and PDFs, on the other hand, was a joy. We jumped into really large PDFs with no trouble whatsoever (though it is weird that you don't flip through them like books, rather swipe up and down). Galleries loaded up reasonably quickly and the included image viewer gives you a healthy amount of options (along with pinch zooming). The Nook Color also does Microsoft Office documents, and we were able to view DOCs and PPT files with a reasonable level of success. Just like most things on the device, it wasn't the fastest experience in the world, but it worked well.
...
We really liked reading with the Color, and even though the device doesn't sport animated page turns (a la the iPad), it does offer great options for notation and word or phrase discovery (you can do dictionary, Google, and Wikipedia searches right from a contextual menu).
...
We hate to beat a dead horse, but as with the rest of the interface, the magazine experience is hampered by the sluggishness of the UI.

Score: 7 out of 10
THE GOOD
Beautiful industrial design
Clear, crisp display
Lots of quality content available

THE BAD
UI is buggy, sluggish
Android 2.1 is dated
No apps or app store yet '

CrunchGear's John Biggs
"...The newspapers are a real dud, at least right now. The New York Times appears just as it has on the Kindle and Nook for years now – a list of headlines and then a series of long articles. There is no interface for tapping articles in a newspaper layout right now although this is expected soon along with the article view in the magazines available in the Kindle store..."

Biggs says that it won't run Angry Birds, but Engadget tried a development model that did run it.

' Another problem is that there is no visible “back” button for returning to screens you’ve just visit[ed].  It is a one-way system and very rarely is there a visible way “back” to the main pages for each of the features.  If this sounds confusing it’s because it is.  The persistent menu always keeps you on an even keel, though.  However, you must forget everything you think you know about mobile OSes and allow for the Nook’s own special interface.
...
The trade-off, then is clear – absolutely clarity vs. eye-soothing e-ink.

While devices like the Galaxy Tab and the iPad do many things adequately, the NookColor does one thing very well.  Many may be put off by the idea of a single-purpose device like this and I don’t blame them.
...
  While the screen is surprisingly bright and clear, I took this outside hoping I’d be able to read the screen under an overcast sky.  Nope.  It was as washed out as the iPad in direct sun....
...the $249 you’d spend for a NookColor may be better spent on a more capable Android or iOS device. But if you’re looking for a color e-reader for reading a few black and white books as well as some color enhanced e-books and kid’s titles, this incarnation of the Nook is hard to beat. '

Gizmodo's Matt Buchanan
(who makes so many good, often unique, points I've probably included too much) :

  "This is a capable little thing, potentially the first of a new kind of cheap tweener tablet with functionality that's both broad but limited."

' It's dense. As in, deceptively heavy—15.8 ounces, despite being legitimately thin. ... I hope you don't mind glare when you're reading.

At 7 inches, this Technicolor Nook is ironically still best for reading straightforward ebooks. And it's about as good as reading can be on a backlit glass screen (more pixels and less glare would be more better, but it actually bests the Kindle 3's pixel density, 169ppi to 167).  Reading stuff other than ebooks is an interesting set of tradeoffs, largely because of the constraints of a 7-inch screen.

  Magazines are presented as full-page, unreadable facsimiles of the real thing, which you can zoom in and pan around. Or you can use Article View, which pops the text out from the page and reformats it in a narrow column—exactly like Safari Reader. It's more readable, but completely breaks any fidelity to the magazine experience.  Newspapers go through similar contortions to fit: B&N reformats them so that they're presented the same way as ebooks: page by page.
[ which seems to me a good choice on a small screen ].

The web browser works, but it generally tells sites it's a desktop browser instead of a mobile one, so you sometimes get weird formatting (like with Gmail) or a site that's too big for the Nook's tiny ereader britches (new Twitter wreaks havoc).  Mobile YouTube and Vimeo videos work, but they come in super low-res.  Still, it's important to note that it can do these things.

Reading text is totally comfortable on the 1024x600 IPS display, which is the ideal size for ebooks.  And how can you not love the price?  It overrules nearly every tradeoff and compromise.

Interaction is more chunky peanut butter than butter smooth.  Animations, touch response and transitions all feel slow, even when they're not exactly lagging, which happens a fair bit—whether you're opening books or pinch-zooming in magazines.  It's like they were animated without enough frames.

...  Online video experience is often crummed out with super low-res video. I couldn't get any of several correctly encoded videos that I loaded up through the SD card to run either (pictures and music worked fine).

[The Verdict]
...It's not quite a tablet, but it's more than a simple ebook reader.  It can do things that an e-ink reader simply can't -- even if it doesn't excel at them -- but it's nearly as cheap at $250.  At half the price of the Tab or iPad, if you're looking for a super portable tablet thing primarily for reading, it's hard not to give the Nook a serious look, even if you might wanna wait 'til the B&N app store opens and it gets its first major update early next year. '

WIRED/Gadget Lab's Tim Carmody

"I was expecting tradeoffs. I wasn’t expecting its advantages.
...
...text entry on the NOOKcolor may [be] the best experience I’ve had using a software keyboard on any device.  It’s light-years ahead of the Kindle’s shrunk-down hardware keyboard."

' ...full-color children’s books and magazine subscriptions.  The storefront and reading implementation are better here than anything offered by Apple or Amazon.
...
Magazines are nearly exact copies of printed issues, with full-color illustrations and advertisements.
...
Article Mode is also just flat text: if a magazine Q&A distinguishes between interviewer and interviewee by using different-colored text, all that formatting is stripped out in article mode.

In general, everything about transitioning between vertical and horizontal, landscape and portrait on NOOKcolor is probably more awkward than it needs to be...
...
...Magazines, children’s books and the web are all more exciting and more readable at ten inches.  So are textbooks, if [the 7"] Nook ever gets there... '
...First, there is something ingenious about the 7″ form factor. It fits naturally in a coat pocket or purse. It’s easy to hold, as I mentioned above. And it works really, really well for most books
.
... It doesn’t have the 3G connectivity or battery life of the Kindle, which makes it harder for road warriors. Even though it’s an Android tablet, it doesn’t have full access to the Android market.
... [The audience?] Millions and millions of people — who have a phone and a PC, who don’t scour the web for tech news, and for whom a device that costs $250 that does a little bit of everything pretty well and a subset of things extremely well is [an] extremely compelling proposition. '

Much more by Tim Carmody at the Wired/Gadget Lab

PC Magazine
Similar points to the ones made above and worth reading those; however, there are a couple of detailed caveats here that new owners should be aware of

' The Amazon Kindle will run for a week with its 3G radio on, and as long as a month without it disabled.  That is certainly not the case with the Nook Color.  The company says it will last up to 8 hours, and my testing confirmed that number.  After a day of heavy reading, about 3-4 hours, I went to bed to find the device dead in the morning.  The next day, I got the Nook Color to survive the night by turning off Wi-Fi.  If you read for more than a few hours a day, you should plan on charging daily.  This is much better than the color-screened Sharper Image Literati's ($159, 2.5 stars) measly 4-hours of battery life.

Make sure you bring your charger wherever you go.  Although the Nook Color looks like it has a standard micro USB port, it will only charge with the Nook AC adapter.  I tried both 5V and 10V adapters, with no luck.  Nor can you charge the device by connecting it to a PC...'

  Here are more photos.

Laptop Magazine
One of the two most thorough reviews, with a full section on functioning of study-features such as annotations, search, dictionary, etc.  There are 8 separate detailed sections in the report, so do read the full report.  Their summary:

' you get a first-class color screen, a robust content ecosystem, and reader-friendly features, but not as much freedom as a full-fledged tablet.  On the flip side, the Nook Color costs $100 more than the Wi-Fi only Nook and $110 more than the Kindle Wi-Fi, both of which are easier to hold and view during longer reading sessions.

Overall, the Nook Color is an excellent choice for consumers who want color, web browsing, and a focus on reading. '

Network World's Melissa J. Perenson
"...a superbly integrated, largely satisfying, and (for now) unique e-reading experience."

' The NookColor's display and its intuitive interface form an extraordinary one-two punch. The display employs an in-plane switching (IPS) panel, just as the iPad does, to provide a wider viewing angle and better color reproduction than standard TN LCDs.  And like the iPad, it supports 16 million colors.  The NookColor's 1024-by-600-pixel display carries a pixel density of 169 pixels per inch
...
Under conditions where the Galaxy Tab or iPhone 4 were essentially unreadable mirrors, the NookColor could, at least, be seen.  I wouldn't have read the final volume of Harry Potter on it, but I could see well enough to navigate around, and to read for short stints.

And in most circumstances, I found the screen dramatically easier to read than other touchscreen devices I had on hand.  Again, it's not as good as E-Ink, and Barnes & Noble has by no means eliminated the concept of glare on an LCD; but the screen goes far toward mitigating the effects of glare, and this is a critical accomplishment for a device designed for reading.
...
Barnes & Noble says it plans an update to NookColor to an Android version that supports Adobe Flash via the Web browser "sometime next year."  For now, YouTube videos will play via the browser, but they look choppy and full of artifacts.

By launching with 100-plus strong collections for its periodicals and children's books, NookColor makes a strong case for the color e-reader, and it does so in a far more compelling way than any other device has so far.  Still, for all of its screen enhancements, I wouldn't suggest an LCD e-reader like NookColor if you will primarily use it outside in direct sunlight.  But for anyone else, NookColor is a worthy contender-especially for those who want to consume books, periodicals, kids' fare, and PDFs...'

CNet's K.T. Bradford
...what you have is an eReader that excels at its primary purpose while offering enough extras to justify the price."

'  "While this [heavier weight] definitely made the Nook Color feel very solid, it became an issue during long reading sessions.  We found ourselves switching hands more often than we normally do to alleviate wrist fatigue and much preferred to prop the eReader on our body or against a nearby surface whenever possible.  Thanks to the rounded edges and soft-touch back, it's at least comfortable to hold.

Traditional LCDs aren't as reading-friendly as ePaper displays, and if you're looking to get away from bright screens beaming light into your eyes when you settle in for your reading session, the Nook Color isn't going to be your thing. However, for those who've found reading on a smart phone satisfactory or have eyed the iPad or Galaxy Tab, Barnes & Noble's offering is compelling.
...
Orientation switched automatically, though landscape view wasn't available on all screens or applications. We couldn't flip books, for instance.
...
The times we noted the touch sensitivity falling off were after we'd left several smudges on the glass. Users may want to keep a cleaning cloth handy or buy a screen protector.
...
The individual keys are nice and large, so we were able to type accurately while holding the Nook Color with two hands.  Like the rest of the eReader, we didn't notice much lag.
...
Plus, users can adjust the margins and space between the lines to fit whatever they find most comfortable.  There's also a screen brightness slide accessible within books or periodicals, which helped minimize eye strain.
...
...in a darker room, the light annoyed us, and even the Night theme didn't make reading easier.
...
Though notes sync to most of the apps in the Nook ecosystem, there's currently no way to export them.
 There's not even a text file with all notes and highlights, as with the Kindle, that users can extract.  We hope B&N adds this functionality in a future update, as it would be extremely useful for students.
...
You get a first-class color screen, a robust content ecosystem, and reader-friendly features, but not as much freedom as a full-fledged tablet. On the flip side, the Nook Color costs $100 more than the Wi-Fi only Nook and $110 more than the Kindle Wi-Fi, both of which are easier to hold and view during longer reading sessions.
...
Conclusion: "As long as you don't expect full tablet functionality, and you keep your Barnes & Noble-approved AC adapter handy, the Nook Color makes a perfectly amiable reading companion if you want to see your books in full color. '

ZDNet's Michael Miller
This reviewer is a nice guy who is "a huge fan" of the first Nook, stating it was the Kindle Killer before trying one and then later showed us his video of the first Nook taking 25 seconds to open a book and thought that was fine.
 If you'd like to read all pro's and no cons, you should catch this one, and there are a few more hands-on pictures of the NookColor also.

That should do it for the roundup of first-day reviews, a much happier set than the one for the first Nook.  One of these reviews credited the designer and I'd say he did a very good job.

 But now some will wait for the 'real world' reports by those who spend a lot of time with it.  I think it sounds very good though, and is priced particularly well if it functions smoothly long-term, and again I MAY get one as a secondary reader, though I'm also tempted to wait for a regular Android 7" tablet because ALL the online stores will have their buying apps on those and then we can buy from Amazon, B&N, and Sony rather than have another device that uses a somewhat proprietary digital-rights method (so that Sony cannot read Nook books although it works in the opposite direction), and certainly B&N wouldn't be using a Kindle app just as the Kindle wouldn't be used for selling B&N's books.
  An independent Android tablet would run all Android apps rather than just the ones allowed by an online-bookseller.


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

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

Students' use of Kindles increases reading and collaboration (Pennsylvania)

Students' use of Kindles increases reading, bringing recognition to Chambersburg Area School District libraries.

Public Opinion Online's Keith Paradise writes that "e-readers in Chambersburg schools [Pennsylvania] are increasing time spent reading and creating new reading enthusiasts among students, drawing the attention of school libraries nationwide."

Chambersburg Area School District library leaders Joanne Hammond and Susan Berrier gave a presentation to the school board Wednesday and explained that "the electronic devices were purchased as a way to interest students in reading books and provide them technology to work with. The school has 30 Kindles and a cart to charge and store them in.

"The devices have increased the number of minutes students have spent reading and also the number of books that have been read."

' Chambersburg's experiences with reading devices were featured in this month's Library Media Connection magazine, in a three-page article written by CASHS librarian Melissa Engel-Unruh.  She is now fielding calls and questions from school librarians around the country about the club.

"We really are on the cutting edge on what libraries are doing with technology," Hammond said. '

The Kindles were purchased in early 2009 "as a way to encourage some of the school's lowest readers as determined by test results."

' "This generation is so gadget-centric and with the Kindle we thought we could get them to read in a gadget-centric format," Hammond said.

The students participate in Kindle clubs, where they would meet in the library and use the devices to read books. Since the club was started, there has been a 12.1 percent increase in the amount of time the students have spent reading.  Students, when asked, estimated that they've read 31.2 percent more books this year over last year.

How students present the information they are taking from books is also changing, thanks to technology.

In the past, students would write book reports and critiques and turn them in to a teacher. Now, students are posting the critiques on online blogs that other students can view and comment on. Additionally, students are also creating and narrating video book reports that involve pictures and graphics. '

More at the Public Opinion Online site.


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

---

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