A GUIDE TO THE KINDLE-COLLECTIONS FEATURE

HOW TO USE KINDLE COLLECTIONS
This is a folders-like feature available for Kindle 2's, DX's and Kindle 3's  (UK: K3's), implemented with 'tags' or category-labels (as seen with Google's GMail).

I'm placing here, into one blog entry, some excerpts from some earlier pieces on Collections and may modify it over the next week or two.

COLLECTIONS - BASICS
Modified from steps given us by Marc Miwords

. From Home, click on "Menu"
. Go to "Add New Collection"
. Name the Collection.  Repeat as wanted  *

. Go to your listing of books or documents on the Home screen
. On each title, push the 5 way controller to the right
. From that menu, click "Add To Collection"
. Using the 5 way Controller, scroll to a Collection label that you want to use for that particular book
. Click the 5 way controller
. One click ADDs it, another click REMOVES it -- from the collection but not from your device

. If you want to add a book to several collections, go down the Collections listing (alphabetized for the Add-Book-to-Collection process) until you see another Collection that should include the book and click on the Collection label to add the book.  Repeat as wanted.

. Press Back button to get back to where you were in the Home screen books-listing.
. Repeat until you have all of your books in collections.

ALTERNATIVE Collections-creation method
* NOTE: You can, instead, create a Collection, name it, and THEN choose to
ADD books to it, and you will be taken to your book collection on the Kindle Home screen and you can mark the books that are to be added to the collection.

  A book can be added to many collections. '

INTRO AND GUIDE - Main portion
The Kindle Collections feature was added with Kindle 2 and DX software version v2.5x and is a feature of the newer Kindle 3

 Basic answers to most questions on this feature are in the online documentation.
  So I've linked to the Amazon help pages that describe how this new feature works.

ALPHABETIZING KINDLE COLLECTIONS FOR THE HOME SCREEN
Amazon did not, for some reason, choose to show us our Collections-set in alphabetical order.  It's as if they expected that anyone browsing a library shelf would prefer to see the book titles in the order they were last accessed by us rather than in alpha order.

So this is an introductory workaround for that.

The Home screen image starting this section is of my Kindle screen after I applied  a workaround recommended by knowledgeable Kindle users from Kindleboards, including luvmy4BRATs who led an Amazon Kindle forum discussion on this, with some great ideas added by other ultra-creative people in those Amazon forums, ideas and examples which I'll use in another Collections blog entry in the future.

   Collection titles: Using certain prefacing symbols such as '*' or '[' or '{'  forces the Collections group-names into an alphabetical sort when using the  "By Title" sorting-option, which people with many Collections will find more useful than the official and separate "Collections" sorting-option that is given us by the new software.



That official Collections Home-listing, as seen in the image at the right, sorts only by most-recently accessed Collection, making it quite difficult to find the right collection if you have many of them.

  Note that the active Sort-type is shown at the top right and you can cursor up there to change it by moving the 5-way button to the right when you get there.

  With 30 Collections and three pages of those on my Kindle 2 (U.S.), I had problems finding any Collection I knew held the book I wanted because I had to check each Collection name on the Home screens, which took forever.

  Again, the image on the right displays the Default listing for sorting the Home screen books by Collections (rather than by Title, Author, or Most Recent).

  Then note the image above that, at the left, for the workaround using the Titles sorting-option that I mentioned

"Drawback" and "Bonus" of using Titles Sorting-option:
  Drawback: The individual books are shown BELOW your alphabetized Collections (which is why we'd make symbols prefixing the Collection titles -- to keep them above the listing of individual titles).
  It should be easy to ignore the trailing list of book titles though.

  Bonus: When you're viewing a Collections listing alphabetized via using the Titles sort, you can go directly to the Home screen section with the first letter of a Title if you want --  But ONLY THE FIRST LETTER because if you type two letters, the Kindle would start a Search of the entire Kindle for a word composed of those two letters.  That takes an eternity, so keep it to only the first letter.

    In other words, if you're looking for a title starting with the word "Nights," you'd type just 'n' and click the 5-way button, to be taken to a page with book titles starting with the letter 'n' -- this means that you can see your Collections in alpha order AND access a book title more easily when you want.

TIP
Periodicals - Amazon has a default Collection that holds your Kindle-edition subscriptions to newspapers and magazines when the issues are no longer the current ones.
 When you're not using the Title/alpha sort (and instead sorting by "Most Recent" or by "Author"), you'll see Periodicals at the END of your Home Screen listing, along with the "Archived Items" Collection always created by Amazon for books you've bought from Amazon but don't have on your Kindle at the moment.
  Tip2 - You can get to the last page of your home screen listing by typing the number of the last page and clicking on the 5-way button.

TIP 2
Getting a series of books into the right order within Collections
To get a series of books into the right order within a Collection while using the Kindle's SORT by Title work-around option as described above:

  Add another prefacing like-symbol to a Collection title as you ascend in order (or even use different symbols (to mean 1, 2, 3, 4, etc) but I feel the latter is more difficult and Amazon tends to change the ordering of its symbols in different software versions).

  Adding extra prefacing like-symbols to Collection titles (making them act as sub-collections, which the Kindle does not have) has worked well for some who were able to order their series this way.

  Quick example (remembering these are 'Collections' you are adding as a form of sub-collections (since Amazon does not offer sub-collections). You create them the same way.
    .. booktitle
    ...booktitle 2
    ....booktitle 3
or, using the symbol I used above:
    {{booktitle
    {{{booktitle 2
    {{{{booktitle 3


TIPS AND EXAMPLES FROM AMAZON HELP PAGES WITH ADDITIONAL TIPS I'VE ADDED
Following are some tips and examples from Amazon's help pages with tips I've added:

Amazon's 4th Qtr Results: Reactions, Kindle Profitability

The Wall Street Journal Blog's Dan Gallagher, after Amazon's 4th Qtr report Thursday, writes that while the Amazon Kindle is "far and away the most popular of the dedicated e-reader devices on the market"..."it remains unclear just how much profit – if any – the company is able to realize from the device and its associated e-books business."

It's an interesting angle because most of the stories are about how Amazon sold 115 e-books (not counting free ones) for every 100 paperbacks sold, during the first quarter of this year so far and that includes paperback books for which there is no Kindle edition.  This would include a spurt of e-book buying after Kindles were opened during the holidays, but it's not unlikely that the new Kindle owners would continue to buy e-books more often than they'd bought printed books, as that is a common report.

Retail Gazette in the U.K. pointed out that Jeff Bezos remarked:

' Last July we announced that Kindle books had passed hardcovers and predicted that Kindle would surpass paperbacks in the second quarter of this year, so this milestone has come even sooner than we expected - and it’s on top of continued growth in paperback sales. '

  I won't quote all the details of the dollar stats, as you can just read them in any of the financial articles, including the ones linked here, but the WSJ's Gallagher brings up an interesting point, re profitability on the Kindle.

  Although the company reiterated that it has sold more units of the Kindle 3 than the final book in the Harry Potter series, making it Amazon's top-selling product ever, Gallagher continues:

'...the revenue boost may not be flowing to Amazon’s bottom line; in fact, it may even be weighing it down.

  For one, it looks likely that Amazon makes little to no money on the device itself.   A study by market-research firm iSuppli last year estimated the total cost of materials for the 3G Kindle at $155.56 – about $33 less than the $189 selling price for the device.

 Since iSuppli’s estimates do not include the cost of software, licensing, royalties, manufacturing expenses (Amazon outsources production of the Kindle) and a cut for the wireless carriers, analysts suspect Amazon likely sells the Kindle at a slight loss. '

  When asked about this during a conference call with analysts Thursday, Amazon's financial officer, Tom Szkutak, "refused" to give specifics about the Kindle's profitability.

  Many have brought up the razor-razorblade model for the Kindle and Amazon's e-books.  But Ben Schachter of Macquarie Research feels that "lack of profits from the device, along with Amazon’s move to sell more lower-margin electronics and general merchandise, is keeping pressure on the bottom line" and therefore there is frustration that "margins are not improving."

  " 'That's why people are frustrated that margins are not improving,' Schachter says.  'Any margin improvement from e-books is being hurt by spending, the [cost of] Kindle hardware and the shift into [electronics and general merchandise] categories.  Amazon is willing to push margin on that to make money over the long term.' "

Even though Net Sales increased 36% to $12.95 billion in the 4th Qtr and Net Income increased 8% to $16 million, there was "unfavorable impact" from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, and shares sank 9% after hours Thursday.

  It's all about high expectations -- and even then Amazon's net income beat expectations, hitting 91 cents per share while analysts had expected 88 cents per share, per Factset.  However, they'd "expected" more than 36% net sales and Amazon also "warned that operating profit could decline as much as 34 percent [AB here: or as little as 2 percent] compared with the first quarter of 2010" as they invest long-term in building the company.

Other highlights:
  . It was Amazon's first $10 billion quarter.
  . The U.S. Kindle store now contains 810,000 books, including New Releases and 107 of the 112 books on the New York Times best-seller list.  About two-thirds of the books cost $9.99 or less, the company said.
  (Barnes & Noble, as well as Sony, count the ~1.5 million free public domain Google books in their totals.)

In its SEC 10-K filing dated January 28, 2011, Amazon has to set out all the possibilities, especially the negative ones, and it's an interesting read.  Of note for us customers, Authorlink.com writes:

Q&A from today: How to find past appearances of a character in a book - Update

FROM THE KINDLE FORUMS, A QUESTION TODAY

Saw the following question on an Amazon Kindle forum today and thought it might be good to post the Q&A here as well.  There are also good answers to new customers' questions on a number of common puzzlements in that thread.

Q: I have a kindle but I was wondering if there was a quicker way to go to the beginning of a book you are reading to review names from the previous pages.  I have been using the back button but it takes a long time to find what you want to know.  With a book you can just turn the pages.  This happens frequently when you may not get back to what you are reading for days...

A:  [There were several good answers at the forum.  The one below was mine (slightly modified for the blog), but you might enjoy reading the other ones on that page too, and you can click on the forum link to see them.]

Update - The answer is for a Kindle 3 as there were several million new owners of these in the last few months.  The steps for Kindle-2 and DX are on an earlier, separate page.  End of Update

  Here are the steps:

Kindles in schools - SRC Stock Charts on Kindle - Kobo2 Review - Colour Kindle

A Story About Another School Trying Out Kindles

In fact, 200 Kindles.  Nashville High School in Arkansas is using the Kindle in English classes, in hopes that it'll be possible to use them in other subject-areas as a replacement for paper textbooks.

School officials hope it'll encourage students to read more (this is likely, as it's a common experience for those who use e-Ink devices) and do their school work "more efficiently."  For non-fiction books especially, the way the Search function works and also the way that Annotations are kept on both the device and the special password-protected Annotations webpage are a boon in my case.

The brief video (delivered by the tv newsperson with strange inflections) includes a response by one student, who's not only happy to be able to use a Kindle but she wants one when she graduates -- it'll be interesting to see what the e-reader field looks like at that time though.

Securities Research Company's Stock Chart Books Now Available On the Kindle
From their PRNewswire:

' Securities Research Company's Digital Division, SRC Digital (www.srcdigital.com), today announced that it has released its best-selling "The SRC Blue Book® 12-Year NYSE Stock Chart®" and five other titles in the Amazon Kindle Store using Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing.

  Other titles released in the Kindle Store include "The SRC Orange Book® of 12-year NASDAQ Charts®", "The SRC Industry Book® of 12-year Charts®", "The SRC ADR Book® of 12-Year Charts®", "The SRC ETF Book® of 12-Year Charts®" and "The SRC Red Book® of 21-Month Charts®".  Customers can download these publications from the Kindle Store and receive weekly or monthly updates depending on the title.  Additional titles will be rolled out over the next few months until all of SRC's publications are available in the Kindle Store. '

 The cost is not trivial, of course.

Kobo, now with WiFi - a Review
Adam Turner reviews the new Kobo and its online store at Borders, for smh.com.au.  He finds the store slow-going and feels the Search option is where the Kobo "falls short" and makes him miss the QWERTY keyboard of the Kindle.  The onscreen keyboard uses the 5-way rocker to move from one letter to the next and doesn't always detect presses unless you go slowly.

  He's impressed that they squeezed in the WiFi features for the same price as the old model but says it has a "long way to go before it can rival the slick Amazon/Kindle user experience."  He doesn't recommend the Kobo over the Kindle "unless you're determined to stick with the ePub format rather than Amazon’s eBook format."

Our First Year With Amazon Kindle as an Independent Publisher
FutureBook's very upbeat report on the first year with Amazon as an independent publisher is an interesting read.  The main reason I'm mentioning it here, though, as a news bit, is what popped out at me in the paragraphs below written by steveemecz:

' Where is it going?  My contacts at Amazon can’t share anything specific, but they did say that the customer experience, both for consumers and publishers is a key focus.

Well, in 2011 we expect to see Kindle device sales and follow on book sales go from strength to strength.  Amazon themselves have big expansion plans and that will mean more footfall through the Kindle stores.  We expect them to launch Kindle into new countries ... and of course there has been lots of talk around the colour Kindle device. '

There has? With their Amazon contacts? Or with others? (See earlier reports.)  "Show me the money colour!"


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.

"Kindle Singles" are now available and look interesting

AMAZON SINGLES FEATURE READY TO GO.
Amazon announced today that the first set of "Kindle Singles is ready, and can be seen at Amazon's KindleSingles page.

  What are they?
  Below is what I wrote on October 13.  Essentially, they're shorter works not forced into the expected size of a regular novel, and, as a result, they're not as expensive either.  Pricing is between 99 cents and $4.99 and include original reporting, essays, memoirs and fiction.
  There are some really interesting looking offerings there, at good prices, and you can still get samples first.

When I first saw the PR release at MarketWatch, I thought Amazon was expanding into the Dating-Services area, but instead:

Library E-book feature overrated? New Lending site: eBook Fling

GETTING FREE E-BOOKS FROM THE LIBRARY MAY BE OVERRATED?

LibraryCity.Org reports on a blog article by Nathan Groezinger of The eBook Reader blog, opining that since more and more "people are turning to the library as a source for ebooks, the limitations of the service has [sic] become much more obvious."

He lists five problems he's noticed with this, and I'm just quoting the heading for each point and you should read the details there

  (Kindle-edition readers can now follow any article link and, after the article comes up, Kindle-3 users can click on Menu -> Article Mode to get rid of the non-article side-links) and read in larger fonts, with better contrast.
  Kindle-2 and DX users should use Basic mode to get larger fonts with better b&w contrast.

  He gives personal experiences as reasons for his doubt, and the commenters to the page's premise make interesting points on both sides.  The five problems listed (with his article-summary following the headings here) are:

#1. Limited number of copies and waiting lists
#2. 21 Days
#3. No library ebooks
#4. Fees for library cards
#5. Poor selection and random selection '

While access to library books is a real plus and the Kindle doesn't offer this feature (though the new lending sites are helping), Nathan G. wonders if libraries will be able to keep up with the demand, "especially with many publishers and authors feeling uncomfortable about library ebooks to begin with."

ANOTHER KINDLE-BOOK LENDING SITE AND THE EFFECT IT MAY HAVE
The L.A. Times's Alex Pham writes about eBook Fling as a "Netflix Instant Watch for digital books."

Downloadable Bookmarks file. Revised 1/25/11 - Ongoing file

UPDATE 1/25/11
This is to let readers know that the ongoing Kindle Bookmarks file ("Mobiweb WebLinks") has been revised.

I've added the download-link for this file + upload-date to the reference column on the right side of the website so that people can check the date of the latest one.

  I'll continue to add more sites as I go but won't be announcing revisions for smaller changes, so check the file every now and then.

TIP: You can bookmark pages in this 'book'-like file.
 A Kindle-3 user wrote to ask about skipping past the Kindle-2 section.  To do that make a bookmark with alt-b (this key-combo toggles a bookmark on and off for the page you're on -- check the dog-ear at the top right to see if it's "taken" when you do a bookmark).

The Kindle Chronicles interviews KindleLending founder. Kindle Notepads.

THE KINDLE CHRONICLES Podcast for this Friday
The Kindle Chronicles host, Len Edgerly,  interviews Catherine MacDonald, founder of Kindle Lending Club this week.

Len's text intro for the interview that begins at 16:22 of the podcast:

"Catherine MacDonald, who lives on the island of Gozo in the nation of Malta in the Mediterranean, spoke to me on Tuesday, January 18, 2011, by Skype about how she and her husband came to create the Kindle Lending Club.  It’s one of several startups taking advantage of the Kindle’s new lending capability to put borrowers in touch with lenders.  Their Facebook page already has more than 8,000 'likes,' and you can also follow the action on Twitter. "

American Consumer News distributes a Press Release about the new KindleLending site's function as a free website providing a "crowdsourced virtual library for Kindle" connecting e-book borrowers and lender via its current 7,000+ membership which has seen 2,500+ book loans in the past couple of weeks.


Taking Notes on your Kindle
On that podcast also: "Hunter Davis provides a creative solution to last week’s query about how to take notes on your Kindle." and Len suggests you try the free, downloadable Kindle Notepad from Will DeLamater's EduKindle.


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 Amazon Trade-in Program - 3 stores - Update

THE AMAZON TRADE-IN PROGRAM
This includes Movies & TV, Paper Books and Textbooks, Video Games

In general, the program enables customers to send in items to a third-party merchant in exchange for an Amazon.com Gift Card.

Amazon's Trade-in Program enables you to send in items to a third party merchant in exchange for an Amazon.com Gift Card and includes DVDs, Blu-ray discs, or HDDVDs; eligible used books and college textbooks matching editions wanted and which are in good condition; and video games in good working condition.

USED BOOKS (Paper)
Plus a side note on the book highlighted in Amazon's current ad for that

I personally didn't realize Amazon has a trade-in program for used paper books.  The current Amazon used-book ad (see image at top left here) happens to show a more unusual book that I actually bought (there is no Kindle version): Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940.

  This was during the years when The Chinese Exclusion Act was in effect.

  There are side-notes explaining references made in most of the poems (translated to English), interesting historical photographs, and some memories from some who made it through and later became citizens.

  For the few who might be interested in what that era and place was like for those getting off the boats and onto the West Coast's equivalent of Ellis Island, I made a recent photo gallery (Intro here)

NY Times: Web paywall soon, Kindle versions. Kindle DTP now Kindle KDP

THE NEW YORK TIMES PAYWALL RISES AGAIN

According to Bloomberg's Brett Pulley, a person "who declined to be identified" has told Bloomberg that the New York Times Co. will begin charging readers "less than $20 a month for full access" to the newspaper on the Web when it introduces this plan sometime this quarter.  The timing was mentioned by Times Co. CEO Janet Robinson last month at an investor conference in New York.

 The price would be less than the $19.95 price for special daily delivery of the NY Times on Kindle, but people accessing the web via computers have not been likely to pay that kind of price and in a previous 'exploration' of the paywall idea, they had to remove the wall they put in place for access to their popular opinion columns.

The moguls at Amazon buy out "the Netflix of Europe"

AMAZON ACQUIRES REMAINING SHARES IN LOVEFILM

Wall Street Journal's Ben Rooney writes, for TechEurope, that LoveFilm is Europe’s leading DVD-by-post rental service.

'Amazon already had a significant shareholding in LoveFilm, reported to be around 42%.  Unofficial reports put the cost of the deal at £200 million ($320 million).

The deal makes perfect sense for Amazon.  The company has all the bases covered now: books with Kindle, retailing mp3s and now video-on-demand with LoveFilm. '

  Actually, Amazon already has video-on-demand for U.S. customers.  I've found that many aren't aware of that.  This would allow Amazon to include much of Europe.

  With the U.S. video-on-demand program -- if you don't rent a video but buy it, Amazon stores a copy in "Your Video Library" on its servers so that you can watch it online if you want, from wherever you are, or you can also download it for off-line viewing on Windows PCs using the Unbox Video Player.  "Downloaded videos can be transferred to compatible portable video players so that you can watch your videos on the go."  Something I didn't know.  I also don't know the quality level of it vs getting a DVD or Blu-Ray disc.   A bit more:

' In just over seven years, LoveFilm has become one of Europe’s largest entertainment subscription businesses with over 1.5 million subscribers across the U.K., Germany, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
. . .
  Investors in LoveFilm are a pretty good 'who’s who' of top European venture firms [and] include Balderton Capital, DFJ Esprit and Index Ventures. '

Read more at the WSJ article

This is not about a Kindle-feature, but many of us who read on Kindles (UK: K3)'s probably tend to be interested in Amazon's expansion into the product areas of films and streaming video as well, whether in the U.S. or Europe etc.


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.

Send to Kindle: any web page text, with one click, using Chrome browser.

Using a Google's Chrome browser extension to send a web article to your Kindle with one keypress, more or less.

While this blog has an earlier article on using Instapaper to send articles to the Kindle and a revision of Instapaper has made it even easier now, what's described here is a new feature possible via the Chrome browser.

  With the new Send to Kindle option, you can specify that the text content of a webpage you're on be sent to your Kindle at [you]@free.kindle.com.  This Kindle address avoids the 15 cents per megabyte charge for sending a personal document over 3G Whispernet instead.  The [you]@free.kindle.com Kindle-address is designed for free delivery to the Kindle over WiFi.

 (If you don't have the WiFi capability (older models) and don't want to get the article by computer and move it to the Kindle via the USB cable, the 3G cellular network capability of any Kindle can be chosen instead by using the [you]@kindle.com address but the delivery would cost 15 cents per megabyte [99 cents per megabyte for non-U.S. Kindle owners]).

  See the earlier Kindleworld guide that explains how to use the no-cost [you]@free.kindle.com address for free delivery to your Kindle (UK: K3).

  Essentially, to use the Send to Kindle feature, Kindle users need to:

Kindle Book Swap Groups, Kindle Publishing Guide, Android Apps Pricing Model

A FEW WEEKEND STORIES, while I was away

KINDLE BOOK LENDING CLUBS
With the fast proliferation of sites for Nook and Kindle book-lending and borrowing, eBook Exchange offers something different in that this new site lets Kindle & Nook owners "swap e-books and "help kids while doing so."

 With the book-lending programs (however limited they are) now available at both Barnes & Noble and Amazon,  Tainted Green's Kathryn Robbins asks,

' But what if you could share your e-books outside your circle of friends and benefit children's literacy programs? eBook Exchange hopes that their used e-book idea can change the marketplace and help literacy programs aimed at kids.

  eBook Exchange is a hybrid of a second hand bookstore and library.  Kindle or Nook owners can use their sharing feature to share any number of their titles online.  According to their site, titles can be shared for free or borrowers may pay a fee that goes to childhood literacy programs.  Cheapskates will love the fact that the fee is essentially optional; if they score a title they are encouraged, not forced, to pay.  The company says that one hundred percent of their profits in 2011 will go to charity. '

I guess how "profits" are calculated is key, depending on what they expense, but it sounds promising.  See eBookExchange's page to read how this would work, but both will use the ebook lending functionality put in place by the two online book stores.

The earliest lending sites have geared up, the most successful one, at Facebook, needing to branch out in the last week to its own site because Facebook's setup was not able to handle the level of interest.

A Look at Nook, Kindle, Based on Twitter Chat? Libraries lending Kindles - UPDATE2

A COUPLE OF INTERESTING STORIES

Today, a strange piece of research by Crimson Hexagon on the relative frequency of chatter about various ereaders on Twitter gets stories by Daemon' Books, CNet, and others.

The Nook and Nookcolor, the Kindle, and Twitter
 The study focuses on the effect of the entrance of the Nook and the NookColor this last year and looks at the amount of interest in it vs other readers based on Twitter conversations.  Yes, really.  While it emphasizes that there is much more conversation on the Kindle  (UK: K3)  than on the Nook and other e-readers See the right-hand reference column), the Kindle has been around longer and the Kindle 3 has delighted many with its clarity, lightness, and very smooth functioning of features.  The Nook monochrome and Sony have been popular with those who prize ePub e-book format and the ability to use the public library lending feature of Overdrive.

Crimson Hexagon's summary

' It’s worth noting that while the Nook readers have certainly established a solid and growing position in the e-reader market during 2010, our analysis also revealed that Amazon’s Kindle is still by far the most popular e-reader on the basis of total conversation volume on Twitter.

  Looking at the daily volume of relevant Twitter conversation for each of the devices, we see that conversation about the Kindle far outpaces the Nook and Nook Color, consistently adding up to more Tweets-per-day than both Nook devices combined (an average of about 1,000 Tweets per day for Kindle vs. just under 500 per day for Nook).
  Conversation volume for the iPad is also much lower (120 per day), though this is due to our analysis of the iPad being limited to conversations about using the device as an e-reader.  Although the Kindle continues to leverage its first-mover advantage and enjoys a dominant position in the e-reader market, consumer opinion expressed online shows the Nook is making up for lost time and quickly gaining ground and market share. '

The NookColor
I have the NookColor, as a matter of fact, and enjoy it very much as a secondary reader for books with color illustrations, magazines, and fast web browsing on a ultra-portable device, and I think that the functioning of it received a lot of thought when it was designed.  It's a lot of fun to use although I can't read longer books on the LCD screen with much comfort as I can on the e-Ink screen of the Kindle, so I don't.  But National Geographic is just amazing on it.

  Not so much the books with illustrations, it turns out, as one cannot ZOOM an image (in a book) on the NookColor, to my extreme surprise (the Kindle can).  So, while I have the color, I lose the detail that is often in illustrations used.  Nor can I rotate books to see an image larger that way.  Nevertheless I really enjoy magazines on it.  And the (easily-portable, light) web access.

More on Nook (monochrome), comparison of e-Ink model features next ...

More on some problematical Amazon non-lighted Kindle covers, UK also. UPDATE2

Be sure to read the earlier blog article on for details on a problem affecting some non-lighted Amazon Leather Kindle3 Covers and the U.S. Amazon Kindle team statement concerning a resolution for those affected by problem batches of the non-lighted Amazon Kindle-3 cover.

  If anyone has one of the covers that cause reboots, Amazon has been giving refunds on that and have also often added credit toward buying the lighted version of that cover if the customer has reported problems earlier.  The Amazon post giving instructions and phone numbers to use, for U.S. Kindle owners, are in the earlier post.

  I just saw an article on what Amazon UK is doing.  The title of the article is "Amazon blames Kindle cover problem on plastic clips."  ExpertReviews' David Ludlow writes:

' Posted on 11 Jan 2011 at 11:48

Amazon customer services in the UK have told us that the Kindle leather cover problems, which cause the eReader to reboot and do other strange things, is caused by the plastic clips on the standard case.

The lighted leather case, which uses metal clips in order to conduct power from the Kindle to the light is immune to these problems...

As such, Amazon.co.uk will credit affected users with the £50.99 required to buy the Lighted Leather Cover (UK US) instead.

From our experience, the process is a painless one.  Just make sure that you phone the UK phone number, as the US site will attempt to refund in dollars instead of pounds. '

Since this problem is still being reported in the U.S. forums, this is a posting that includes U.S. Kindle owners as well.
  U.S. residents can find the U.S. Kindle phone numbers for this issue at the earlier blog article that goes into more detail.

The basic non-lighted Amazon cover is $35 U.S. and £30.99 UK, and an added external light that uses separate batteries would cost about $12 to $30 average.

  The lighted cover costs $25 additional, does not need separate batteries, and shuts off automatically when the Kindle goes into "sleep mode."
  It is a tad heavier because it has the light built in.  Bear in mind that the light does not go 'On' until you actually start up the device.  It's not an ultra-bright light but some find this better for spouses closeby at night or for airplane use.

Customer Kindle forum message threads discussing the lighted cover:
  K3's Lighted Cover Saves the Evening! and Lighted cover too bulky for me

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

Here's the CNet Review - Amazon's secret weapon: Kindle Lighted Leather Case.

UPDATE - 1/13/11, 8:13 PM (Original posting 1/13, 8:28 AM)
I'm adding below, a section taken from the first Kindleworld blog entry made about the non-lighted case problems, as it gives alternative links to more types of Kindle covers.

Corrected link to downloadable Bookmarks file (being revised this week)

This is just a quick blog entry to correct the conditions for a download of the ongoing Kindle bookmarks file in its current form.

 However, I'm revising it and the newer one coming later this week should be considerably easier to use.

  In the meantime, let me know if you have any trouble getting this one.  Thanks!

Photo credit: petittscreations.com.

Copy/Paste limitations for Facebook, Kindle Notes, Annotations Webpage

MORE INFORMATION ON COPY AND PASTE OF HIGHLIGHTS INSIDE YOUR KINDLE NOTES ON THE KINDLE, AT FACEBOOK, AND ON YOUR ANNOTATIONS WEBPAGE

In the Comments area the other day, a commenter (Anonymous) brought up a limitation I'd not noticed when copying a passage by highlighting it and then pasting it to a Kindle Note as described in the blog article on how that's done.

In response to the commenter's question about this, I experimented a bit with three Kindle models to see, for each Kindle, how much of a highlighted passage IS:
  1) pastable to a Kindle Note that is to be referenced on the Kindle
  2) forwardable and displayed at Facebook
      (Twitter tweets take only 140 characters total anyway)
  3) displayed on one's own private,
       password-protected Amazon Kindle Annotations webpage

Amazon Kindle-Edition blogs now allow 'new window' links to be followed

AMAZON KINDLE-EDITION BLOGS NOW ALLOW SUBSCRIBERS THE ABILITY TO FOLLOW LINKS THAT ARE CODED FOR "NEW WINDOWS" ("new tabs" on a computer web browser, but not recognized formerly in the Kindle Editions).

This is a long-desired feature, and its absence in the new Kindle 3, despite its more capable web browser, was lamented.

  With this kind of link which is meant to bring you to another website via a new window while keeping the blog-website in place in the original window, we'd get a Kindle-edition blog error message instead, saying:

          "Web Browser could not open this link
          because opening multiple windows is
          not supported"

Now, the Kindle Edition blogs can now just follow links like this!

And you can get back to your last Kindle-Edition page merely by pressing the BACK button.

  (The image at the top is a screenshot of a page in the Kindle-Edition (UK edition) of this blog.
   The blog holds the last 25 blog articles as of that day.)

Amazon programmers were apparently able to enable this feature, finally, from their servers (which makes sense), so that no new software change was needed on the Kindle itself.

Earlier Kindle devices
  As a result, subscribers can not only follow links now, with Kindle 3, but I tested my DX Graphite, which uses software version 2.5.x rather than Kindle 3's v3.0.x and it worked for that software version also.  It, however, made me realize how much faster the website-response time for Kindle 3's  (UK: K3's) is, relative to how long it takes a site to load on the Kindle 2.

  I've always been patient with loading time on the Kindle because the experimental web browser is free.  I'd forgotten just how patient I was until I tried this on the Kindle 2 -- but if you're not in a hurry, this is now doable.

  Kindle 1's are enabled also.  I accessed the last Kindle blog received on my Kindle 1 and tried a link to a businessinder.com page.  Well, I thought the Kindle 1 probably was not able to do it, at least not in my lifetime, but after 45 seconds, the page actually came up.  This will not be what most Kindlers will want to do on a Kindle 1, but it's nice it was enabled for all Kindles, for the Kindle-edition blogs at least.

Twitter and Facebook links, not enabled in this way
  However, new-window type links are still not doable, with Twitter and Facebook.  Hyperlinks placed by users on those services almost always involve coding for the 'new window' (or new tab) process.  In these cases, there is just no response to clicking on one of those links.  Nothing happens.

  Since so many of us are on (costly to Amazon) 3G cellular network access when trying to get on the Net when outside our homes, I can see the lack of motivation to enable this capability ASAP for those extremely popular, somewhat addictive social-network sites.

Undocumented Copy and Paste of 1) Highlights into Notes 2) Search phrases

COPY AND PASTE HIGHLIGHTS INSIDE YOUR KINDLE NOTES AND FOR KEYWORD SEARCHES

This is updated information from two postings for the Kindle 2 a year and a half ago, including the one for Searching a book for a name or character in the book without typing the name which was posted on June 14, 2009.

  Since then, we have the Kindle 3 (UK: K3), which changes the process just a bit.

Kindle-Edition version of this blog not updated again - Apologies and a rant - UPDATE

Amazon was not getting this blog's updates out on the Kindle Edition this week - Apologies to Kindle-Edition subscribers

UPDATE Sunday afternoon. - I received a very helpful call today from a representative from the Amazon's blog publishing department, who went through the details with me, very thoroughly, with a plan to sort this out with careful monitoring.   It was such a helpful conversation, in fact, that I offered to modify the blog entry but he said that wasn't necessary, as they were valid concerns.

  BUT, in light of the fast response and the high quality of it, I'm modifying the blog post anyway to remove the descriptions of the issues that we discussed since they're not issues anymore, as they will be on top of it.

Kindle Software Update v2.5.7 is ready for Kindle 2, DX, and DXG

AMAZON HAS PLACED A SOFTWARE UPDATE ON THE SERVERS TONIGHT for all Kindles earlier than the Kindle-3 model but later than the Kindle 1, and it further refines the large update last summer which introduced Collections ('virtual folders" or category "tags") plus Pan & Zoom and several other features.

This would be primarily a performance enhancement or maintenance update, as they have recommended this update privately to Kindle owners who reported a glitch or two at times, Amazon is now making it available for download if you want to get it earlier than you would if waiting for it to be slowly distributed over wireless globally during the next few weeks.

They don't say what the update includes and they seldom do with the smaller updates.  For now, their explanation is:

' Software version 2.5.7 includes performance improvements to software version 2.5.  We welcome your feedback about this latest software version.
  Please send us an e-mail. '

  The Kindle Community forums already have reports that the Kindle seems faster to some who have tried it and that the screen contrast seems improved.

Instructions at their Update page are detailed, and for convenience I'll include the bulk of it here, but you should bookmark that page and also go there to see troubleshooting procedures if you don't see the update starting.  The page also summarizes the new features of v2.5 when it first came out last summer.

Tips for using the New York Times Crossword Puzzles for Kindle - UPDATE

THE NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD PUZZLES

Released December 21, there are four sets for Kindle now from which to choose:
Vol. 1   30 World Famous Easy Puzzles
Vol. 2   90 World Famous Easy Puzzles
Vol. 3   30 World Famous Challenging Puzzles
Vol. 4   90 World Famous Challenging Puzzles

  Current pricing is $1.99 for each 30-puzzle set and $4.99 for a set with 90-puzzles.

As NY Times regulars know, the crossword puzzles that come out on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are easier to do.

By the end of each week, on Thursday and Friday, they get very 'challenging' (and I'm already challenged by the "easy" ones).

Of interest to me was that the larger set of 90-puzzles, Vol. 2 (probably chosen by crossword puzzle enthusiasts), has received 4 reviews, all 5-stars though they note the slowness of navigation.

  The smaller, 30-puzzle Vol.1 has more reviews, but they're quite mixed, with most liking it very much but not liking at all the lag time involved in the navigation of the puzzle, due to the clues-text changing with each cursor up/down and across.  The text has to change on the sides and at the bottom because the text shown is tied to the cell, column, and row that your cursor is in and it gives you new information with each movement to another cell.

  It seems to me that the programmers (who otherwise did a great job with this) could hold off on changing the surrounding text until a certain amount of time after a pause.  It'd be better if no surrounding text is changed until the player actually stops moving the cursor (whatever calculation would be involved).  It would also help battery drain also, since there'd be fewer page changes.

  In reading the reviews for both "easy" sets, I saw that those who chose the 90-puzzle set are, on the whole, happier, maybe because they show more evidence of having read the "Instructions" and "Options" and can use, among other features, the "Jump" method to get around more easily.  Also, they're probably more motivated.

  The Kindle's Menu button is used for quite a few help options.
      There's another important key though which gives direct access
        to game "Options," a choice too far down on the Menu button.

Amazon announces Kindle for Android and Windows-based Tablets and Windows for Phone 7 (Update)

UPDATE JAN. 5, 2011 - This update is NOT about the tablets story below, but I'll add it here as a new apps-release to be noted.  This is straight from the Amazon press release:

Kindle for Windows Phone 7
"Kindle for Windows Phone is the first major eBook app for Windows Phone 7-based devices.
Amazon's free Kindle apps give readers access to the largest selection of the most popular books and lets them sync their reading across all major devices and platforms.

SEATTLE, Jan 05, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) --(NASDAQ: AMZN)-Customers can already read Kindle books on their Kindle, Kindle 3G, Kindle DX, as well as their iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, PC, Mac, BlackBerry and Android-based devices.  Today, Amazon's wide selection of free "Buy Once, Read Everywhere" Kindle apps is expanding to include Windows Phone 7 devices.  Kindle for Windows Phone 7 is the first major eBook application available for Windows Phone 7, and includes new features built into a Kindle app for the first time, including personalized recommendations integrated into the Kindle app home screen and the ability to send book recommendations to a friend without leaving the app.  Customers can learn more about Kindle for Windows Phone 7 at www.amazon.com/kindleforwindowsphone and can download the free app from Windows Phone Marketplace. "

---

Original blog entry for January 4, 2011 - Kindle for Android and Windows Tablets

Kindle Books for Lending will grow. / High interest in Kindle by Net users.

UPDATE ON KINDLE-BOOK LENDING SITUATION

As I mentioned in the initial announcement of Kindle-book lending, people were reporting very low percentages of books marked as "Lendable" and almost none of mine were so I felt they were still implementing the system but wanted to announce it before year-end as expected and that they would continue to enable Lending on the books as it went or when they had publisher approvals assured.

Since then, I've seen a report of what one Kindle customer representative had to say about the situation, and others have chimed in on what they see with their own libraries.  Here's a sampling from the latest posts at the same forum thread but shown there as sorted by Newest Post First this time.

Amazon Kindle Blog's own Tips for New Kindle Users

AMAZON KINDLE BLOG'S KINDLE-STARTER GUIDE

Welcome to Year 2011! :-)   Last week, I made sure people saw the Kindle Top10 FAQs and its information areas that Amazon Kindle Team pointed us to at the Amazon Kindle Community Forums.

  That's a very detailed and thorough guide that Kindle Team made for those who attend the very active forums.

This week, I noticed that Amazon's often not-noticed "Kindle Blog" offered their own shorter guide in two parts.  The Kindle Blog is always seen and linked to on the front page of the Kindle Store when you access it through your Kindle.

It's also usually seen at the top right at the Kindlestore website when Amazon isn't using it to highlight other Kindlestore features.

Here then is a version of the shorter starter-guide they made for the Kindle Blog that you can reference when reading A Kindle World blog.