Oscar-nominated films on Kindle, Dvd/Blu-Ray. HarperCollins limits library loans.

          OSCAR CENTRAL



Click on the image at the left or on this line to get Amazon's Oscars page.

For books that either inspired or followed Oscar-nominated films, see Kindle Film Reads: 2011 Oscar Nominees and more, on Kindle.   I loved The King's Speech and Colin Firth's performance in it, but for some reason, that particular title is not available on Kindle at this time.

  It's available only in paperback, and the video is to be released April 18 on Blu-Ray and DVD, although there are 114 reviews of the movie when normally we will want to see reviews of the DVD/Blu-Ray quality and any extra features.  People are pre-ordering with a lower-price guarantee.

There are Kindle books for other nominated films though, including The Social Network

Ultimate Movie Quiz, is a recently-released movie trivia game for Kindle, with 10 rounds of questions that increase in difficulty or in a continuous stream, and with a countdown timer if you want a bigger challenge.

NEWS: HARPER COLLINS LIMITS PUBLIC LIBRARY E-BOOKS TO 26 LOANS
New York Times Media Decoder's Julie Bosman reports that while a print book can be checked out of a library countless times, HarperCollins, announced that:

'... it had revised its restrictions for libraries that offer its e-books to patrons."
. . .
HarperCollins said on Friday that ... beginning March 7, its books may be checked out only 26 times before the license expires.

“We believe this change balances the value libraries get from our titles with the need to protect our authors and ensure a presence in public libraries and the communities they serve for years to come,” it said in a statement. The policy does not affect books already licensed by libraries.

Steve Potash, the chief executive of OverDrive, a provider of e-books to public libraries, said HarperCollins was the first publisher to limit how many times an e-book may be checked out.
. . .
While hundreds of publishers make their e-books available to libraries, at least two major publishers, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan, do not.
. . .
Librarians fumed about the limit, complaining that it would require them to pay more for HarperCollins’s books when budgets are being cut.
. . .
Overdrive's Potash said the change would force some libraries, especially those that stock a lot of best sellers, to be more careful about the publishers from which they buy.  “Libraries will have to consider whether they want to invest in titles that, after a year or 18 months or so, they’ll have to replenish or buy additional units,” he said.  “There will be some who may have to be more selective about how they can use their digital book budgets.”

On Sunday, he said that OverDrive would take HarperCollins titles out of its general e-book catalog, which would keep them available but make them less easily accessible. '

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. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
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Free Kindle books, more info. Are new e-book royalties cheating authors?

A REMINDER RE ONGOING FREE AND LOW-COST KINDLE-BOOK LINKS

At the end of most recent posts here you'll see a section of links like the one just below, so you won't have to wait for a blog entry to see the latest free nonclassics at Amazon.

  You can check for yourself at any time:

---

' 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. '

---

I recently added to the reference section a newer Amazon page of Kindle books that are tagged by Amazon customers as "99 cents kindle" to make these easier to find.

  A problem there is that e-book prices are always subject to change, so the tags on some are no longer accurate.  Amazon asks that customers use the tagging system to "vote down" those that are no longer related to the "99 cents kindle" tag.

  Kindle books that are tagged only "99 cents" might be missed using the link above, depending on other tags involved.  This link is to the shorter-tag results for Amazon products in general because the word "kindle" is not part of the tag and may interest those looking for low-cost products in general.

The ongoing Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources includes links to non-classic/contemporary ebooks that are within the range of $1 to $2 as well as free.

More important to many will be the section titled:
FREE CLASSICS AND PUBLIC DOMAIN BOOKS AVAILABLE ELSEWHERE,
as many, if not most, gadget columnists are unaware that Kindle owners can download e-books from other sources.

KindleClassics
New to me is a guide to some of the better editions of the classics blog that will be useful for many who may not know where to start with all that's available or who have been frustrated by the bad formatting too often seen in public-domain e-books.  Marilyn Sue recommends (for both US and UK readers) classics she's enjoyed and also warns of the downsides of some releases.  The blog header explains "Because some conversions are sloppily done, a free download can be a waste of time." The blog is ranked #1 on the Amazon UK Literature Blogs list & is in the Top Ten listing of Amazon US Literature Blogs.

NEWS: "How E-book Royalties are Cheating Authors"
andyrossagency writes that the Authors Guild posted an analysis of the dynamics of competition in the e-book market and "came down very hard on Amazon" but that they posted another analysis, this one showing how "the prevailing formula for author royalties on e-books unfairly diminishes authors’ income even as publishers earn more for each e-book sold."

  Many of us cautioned authors about this when their publishers sent them to the Kindle forums to explain how customers, publishers, and authors would be much better served under Apple's Agency model.  We explained in detail how the traditional reseller model used by the online bookstores was better for authors.

  The Big5 execs explained in interviews that the pricing of e-books was too low and "devalued" their books (their hardcover or paperback books).  They were also worried about the power that Amazon could have over publishers, explaining to us that Amazon, once they owned the market, would raise prices on us all.

  Their solution to that was to raise prices now.   :-)

The reality is that publishers were primarily concerned about Amazon's power over publishers, of course, and that's understandable.  What's not is their decision-making on e-book pricing and their open disinterest in what today's book customers want.

  At the end of the blog article, andyrossagency gives a breakdown on the numbers, as they read them, from the Authors Guild analysis (emphases mine) :

' Here’s the math:

“The Help” has an e-book list price of $13 and is sold under the agency model.  Publisher grosses 70% of retail price, or $9.10.  Author’s royalty is 25% of publisher receipts, or $2.28.  Publisher nets $6.32. ($9.10 minus $2.28 royalties and $0.50 encryption fee.)

“Hell’s Corner” is also sold under the agency model at a retail list price of $15 list price.  Publisher grosses 70% of retail price, $10.50.  Author’s royalty is 25% of publisher receipts, or $2.63.  Publisher nets $7.37. ($10.50 minus $2.63 royalties and $0.50 encryption fee.)

“Unbroken” is sold by Random House under the reseller model at a retail list price of $27.  Publisher grosses $13.50 on the sale.  Author’s royalty, at 25%, is $3.38. Random House nets $9.62.  ($13.50 minus $3.38 royalties and $0.50 encryption fee.) '

However, other analyses have shown that because Amazon took a loss on $10 bestsellers (making this up elsewhere) while guaranteeing publishers 50% of the list price set by the publishers -- under the traditional reseller model -- both publisher and author would tend to make less under the Agency model.

  The brouhaha has actually been over control rather than current profit-taking.  One publisher focus was to try to slow e-book sales because they hurt hardcover sales, and if customers were willing to buy e-books at those higher prices, all the better.

---

Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   DX Graphite Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
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IMSLP - 85,000+ free, downloadable, classical music scores, staying alive

"FREE TROVE OF MUSIC SCORES ON WEB HITS SENSITIVE NOTE"
The New York Times's Daniel J. Wakin writes about the amazing International Music Score Library Project site and its (successful) battle to stay alive, with its treasure of 85,000 scores or parts (for nearly 35,000 works - public-domain, classical) available for free download.   There are "several thousand being added every month." Included also are performances on recordings.

  While publishers have challenged the right to download, for free, music scores written a couple of hundred years ago, the challenges have been weak, and a primary challenger, Universal Edition (Europe) has been making more conciliatory sounds,saying several times in an interview that:

'...“there’s room for both of us.”  At the same time, Mr. Irons said, it is important to separate “this very valiant and completely kosher and clean repository of public material, which we perfectly endorse, and this kind of firebrand ‘We want to show the publishers they’re wrong’ kind of attitude." '

 The photo at the top-left (larger one here) is of the owner, Edward W. Guo, who founded the site 5 years ago, when he was 19.  He's now at Harvard studying law, the copyright questions having stoked his interest in that.

' With the reports of billion-dollar valuations floating around other interactive Web sites, has Mr. Guo ever thought of trying to profit from his site?

“That’s really not my M.O.,” he said. “As a musician I have a duty to promote music. That’s the basic philosophy behind it.” '

You can read how he began the site, and what's involved, at the NYT article.

I wrote a blog article on this (and on sheet music for the Kindle) in 2009, and I'll include some of that below for any of the several million later Kindle-3 owners who might be interested in the free classical music scores.  It's a wonderful resource.

FROM THE 2009 BLOG ARTICLE
  I've a few files of sheet music on my Kindle DX in PDF format and they look really nice.  At the bottom, I've placed a link to a couple of examples.

You can scan sheet music, that you already have, to images at about 150 dpi (dots per inch), as 300 dpi is not needed for this, and they'll load or give you faster page turns).  You can't take notes on the sheet music, on the Kindle, but you could learn pieces, write notes on them and then scan them for carrying around or always having with you.
  (I preface the sheet music filenames with 'sm-' for sheet music so that I can find them easily.)

Google "sheet music pdf" and you'll find many places that offer music in PDF format.  For classical, there is the IMSLP / Petrucci Music Library - "The free public domain sheet music library" with downloadable PDFs, and you can search by composer name, time period, genre, or instrumentation.  The full name of this amazing website is International Music Score Library Project, and the files are legal.  Here is their FAQ explaining the organization.
. . .
I have a couple of photos of some sheet music (PDFs) on my DX, in vertical mode and rotated to landscape mode.  It's very clear, but the display is still somewhat smaller than an 8.5 x 11" piece of paper.  Best used when you've become acquainted with the notes.  And if the images are very high resolution it may take a few seconds for a page turn.  On the whole, the ones I have take about 2 seconds to turn.  For me, pressing the button (on the inside) is much easier than trying to do a page turn with paper.

  As for music in general on the Kindle, all the Kindles play mp3's.  
On the Kindle 2 & 3 and the DX, they play in the order in which they were placed in the "music" folder.  (On the original Kindle (Kindle 1), they play in random order.)  The features are minimal in that the music can play in the background while you're reading and you can rewind 30 seconds back or fast forward by the same, but you don't get information on what's playing.

  If you want a specific mp3 to play you can put it in the "audible" folder and select it from the Home page, as it will look like a book title, but in that case you wouldn't be able to read a book at the same time.

  I should add that the 6" Kindle (UK: K3) is too small (for reading sheet music while playing it), except for study purposes now that we can use the Zoom feature on PDFs.  Also, with either Kindle you don't want to turn pages in a panic and knock the Kindle off the stand :-)


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. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

Why Kindle books will be readable & sync'd on Apple devices no matter what

PREFACE
What Apple has actually said about One-Off E-Bookreader apps so far and what it has said about Subscription-Content apps

What we've read, for the most part, is what an online news-site paraphrased from whatever Apple said and then interpreted in an extended way as fact, which was repeated by other sites by the hundreds (although ultimately they could still be right if Apple does prove quite that self-destructive and actually tries to apply their 70/30% rule to ebookstore non-subscription, one-off book-sale apps).

We've had quite an uproar since the Apple press release about Subscription-Content Apps on February 15.
  In the meantime, many of the quotations we've seen on the general rules of Apple were put into place in November 2010 and are accessible to App developers only, as guidelines for their apps.

However, 3 months after those newly edited guidelines were released, there was a "clarification" given by an Apple media rep about the reason for Sony's eBook-Reader app being rejected -- it was given in response to media questions:

QUOTE FROM APPLE REP TRUDY MULLER ON SONY'S *E-BOOK READER APP REJECTION
In response to the Sony rejection on its e-reader app, Trudy Muller said, on February 1:

' "We have not changed our developer terms or guidelines," Apple spokesperson Trudy Muller told Ars. "We are now requiring that if an app offers customers the ability to purchase books outside of the app, that the same option is also available to customers from within the app with in-app purchase." '

  [That means an alternative option to purchase via Apple rather than just accepting an in-app option to leave the app to buy at the bookseller's store.  Again, this quote is for an e-reader app, not a subscription one.]

  While that is the only Apple quote about one-off e-bookreader apps, so far, we're waiting for the other shoe to stomp.  Until then, the one-off, non-subscription e-book shoe is up in the air.

QUOTE FROM STEVE JOBS in that February 15 press release, the entire focus of which was on Subscription-content apps whether by publishers or subscription-content providers in general (the bracketed comments are mine]:

' Apple® today announced a new subscription service available to all publishers of content-based apps on the App Store℠, including magazines, newspapers, video, music, etc. This is the same innovative digital subscription billing service that Apple recently launched with News Corp.’s “The Daily” app... [subscription-based, of course]
...
“Our philosophy is simple—when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO.

  “All we require is that, if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same (or better) offer be made inside the app, so that customers can easily subscribe with one-click right in the app.

[ This is a harsh rule to some, but original subscription-publishers still get 70% share of revenue with this subscription-app rule.  Subscription-content apps provided by an e-book store would be subject to the same split, which would make an e-book store's subscription-app wholly unfeasible because it would leave the online competitor bookstore nothing after its 30% share is given to Apple instead and the other 70% to the original subscription-publisher.

 It would certainly explain why Kindle for Android DOES offer newspaper and magazine subscriptions while Kindle for iPad does NOT.

  Add that the Kindle for iPad app for e-books update was approved by Apple mid-February and it currently offers an option to purchase Kindle books at Amazon via Safari and then brings the customer back to the Kindle app on the iPad.  Apple probably won't allow this scenario July 1, unless Amazon gives an option to do an in-app purchase via Apple, but Apple's app rules allow them to decline approval of any Update at any time and they approved this update.

  Many feel that if Apple insists on in-app Apple-purchases, Amazon could just no longer offer a link within the app to leave the app to purchase at Amazon via Safari, and the Kindle app would become a reading-app only but one which still allows the Kindle owner to sync the reading material with other Kindle devices.]

"We believe that this innovative subscription service will provide publishers with a brand new opportunity to expand digital access to their content onto the iPad, iPod touch and iPhone, delighting both new and existing subscribers.” '

I'm not alone in noting that Apple's quotes apply, so far, only to subscription-content when quoting any 70-30% split or requirement that a subscription-publisher's website not be linked to at all within an app for Apple devices.
  See bottom FootNOTE for excerpts from Mashable and from The Telegraph.

ALSO, if Amazon and Apple agreed to a read-only Kindle-for-Apple-devices app, with no purchasing offered at all, in the app, this would be one solution.

KINDLE FOR WEB TO THE RESCUE
In the Kindleworld blog article on the coming Kindle for Web, it was noted that this web-app will make Kindle books readable IN FULL on web browsers and will support Chrome OS devices, including the new Chrome OS Notebook, as well as the Chrome browser and other web browsers."  Also, Amazon's web app description states that anywhere we have a web browser, we'll see that our Kindle reading library, last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights are always available no matter where we bought the Kindle books or how we choose to read them.

  For this reason and because Kindle books and the ability to buy them via a web-browser will be accessible on Android tablets, it will be Apple's loss if Apple execs decide to discourage Kindle or other ebook-reader apps for Apple devices.

 They would no longer be able to say that we can read any ebookreaders' books on Apple devices (except via a web browser, connected to the Net) and it will make Android and probably HP webOS devices much more attractive to avid e-book readers if people find they can't read Kindle (UK: K3), Nook, Sony, or Kobo books offline, directly on an Apple device anymore.

  The iPad would no longer be much of an offline-ereader at all when the iBook store has something like 35,000 contemporary e-books for sale vs Amazon's almost 800,000 contemporary e-books.

  Today, author Chuck Toporek noted:

' Amazon isn’t worried. They have a solution already in beta testing and it works just fine.  Instead of using the Kindle app, iOS users can just point Safari to Amazon’s site, buy the Kindle ebook, and read it right there in Safari.  No app required.

Again, Kindle for the Web is just a beta right now, so full text isn’t available at the moment. You can bet Amazon will make a big splash about this, though, once they have all the publishers lined up and ready to go. '

FootNOTE - Others who noted that Apple's quotes refer, so far, only to subscription apps:

' Here's The Telegraph (UK) on Subscription vs "One-Off"
Shane Richmond, Head of Technology for Telegraph Media Group, wrote:

' ...That has led to speculation about what this will mean for an app such as Amazon’s Kindle app, which provides a link to purchase from Amazon’s website.  It may be that Apple intends to force ebook retailers to offer ebooks for sale within their apps and take 30 per cent of thosee sale. That would force ebook retailers to raise their prices or lose money.  Maybe that’s what will happen.

  However, that’s not what Apple has announced today.  This is about subscription not sales of one-off products.  If you’re a publisher and you want to allow people to subscribe to your publication then you must offer the same subscription price within your app as you offer on your website and Apple will take 30 per cent of the in-app subscriptions. '

'

  And here's Mashable's:  Christina Warren drew attention to the fact that the focus of the February 15 announcement was on subscription apps.  Here is her take on that aspect:

' Earlier this month, the Sony Reader app for iOS was reportedly not accepted into the App Store because it violated some of Apple’s policies.  At the time, it was unclear if the cited policy violations would extend to other e-book applications like those from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Because Apple’s latest remarks concentrate on subscription content, it still isn’t clear to us if these new provisions also apply to other types of apps.  We don’t know if this means that applications — like Amazon’s Kindle app that sell purchases a la carte — must now remove links to outside web stores.
  The Kindle app for iOS received an update Monday and, for the record, the link to the Amazon Kindle website is still in the app. '

UPDATE - Also note that there apparently is, as written earlier, an awkward restriction with the In-App-Purchasing system in that it might handle no more than 3,000 or so items in a catalog for an app.  If true that's certainly an obstacle to in-app purchasing for an e-bookstore. [End of Update]

It's Apple's call if they want to make themselves irrelevant when it comes to the rather wildly surging e-book market.


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. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

Does Apples in-app-purchase allow > 3,000 items sold? Readability app rejection

I've no idea how accurate the assumptions are in the stories below.

Ubergizmo.com's George Wong writes that in connection with the Apple subscription pricing brouhaha much discussed last week, he's apparently found that:

'...the catch is that Apple’s in-app system has a restriction of being able to only sell 3,000 items – Amazon and Kobo each have around 2.5 million different books available.

  And unless Apple removes this restriction and increases the amount of items that their purchasing system can store, these major book stores will have no way of using iOS to sell their books through in-app purchases, thus putting them in violation of the App Store rules.

  When June comes around, these apps will not be able to comply with the rules and will be pulled out of the App Store, and opening up the field for Apple to come in with their own bookstore service.   And Apple will obviously be able to bypass their own rules since it’s their app store after all. Sneaky? Definitely. Fair? Who’s to say. Let’s see how this situation gets resolved in the coming months. '

But here's another aspect
Venturebeat.com's Matthew Lynley writes that the team behind the popular article tool "Readabiity" (which strips unnecessary material from the body of an article, presenting just the essentials and in a more readable way often) was one of those that had an application rejected, as they did not use Apple's in-house in-app purchase (IAP) service.

Lynley thinks that Readability might be the first company that works closely with Apple (Readability appears in Safari) to publicly trash Apple's new service.  (He wrote an open letter to Apple yesterday, "attacking the company for a 'new policy [that] smacks of greed.' "

Richard Ziade, Readability's creator said that Subscriptions represent a “sliver of a sliver” of revenue for Apple and Lynley said that's true — "most of Apple’s revenue comes from iPhone, iPod and iPad sales. Apple brought in $26.7 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter last year, and only $1.1 billion of that came from the iTunes store — which includes app sales and in-app purchases."

 I guess they were tired of it being a sliver.

In pointing out Google's more welcoming way with developers, Lynley claims that "Google recently overtook Nokia and other phone manufacturers with the largest mobile operating system market share.  And despite a few hiccups with the application approval process, most apps make it onto the Android Marketplace without having to pass through anything like Apple’s black-box approval procedure."

In also saying, though, that

'Google also launched a more publisher-friendly Google One Pass that will allow publishers to sell subscriptions with better terms than they can get with Apple. And Google is only taking a 10 pecent share of the revenues, '

he doesn't mention (or doesn't realize) that the 10% deal is for subscriptions that are WEB-based and must then be read by accessing the web.

Also, for actual Android device apps, Google does charge 30%.  "However, unlike Apple, Google allows publishers to avoid selling within the app and instead to send customers to a mobile Web browser to make a purchase (NYT)." '

Lynley adds that Ziade apparently said that the new Apple policy feels like a greedy move... and Lynley wonders "if the new subscription plan will be the final straw for developers across the board.  But for Ziade, and for Readability, it looks like enough is enough."


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. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

Amazon intros free video streaming for Prime members

Amazon Introduces Free Video Streaming For Prime Members
Huffington Post's Amy Lee reported this today, as it was announced in Amazon's business wire, which has not gone out in Amazon email as I write this.

' Amazon Prime Members Now Get Unlimited, Commercial-free, Instant Streaming of More Than 5,000 Movies and TV Shows at No Additional Cost

...Prime membership will continue to be $79 per year. Amazon Prime's all-you-can-eat free Two-Day Shipping has already attracted millions of members. Customers can learn more about an Amazon Prime one-month free trial and start watching instantly at www.amazon.com/primevideos.

"Millions of Amazon Prime members already enjoy the convenience of free Two-Day Shipping," said Robbie Schwietzer, vice president of Amazon Prime. "Adding unlimited instant access to thousands of movies and TV shows at no additional cost is a great way to give members even more value for their $79 annual Amazon Prime membership."

Movies and TV shows included with an Amazon Prime membership can be watched instantly on Macs, PCs and nearly 200 models of Internet-connected TVs, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes that are compatible with Amazon Instant Video.  The selection of videos available for instant streaming currently includes movies, such as "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" trilogy, "Amadeus," "Syriana," and "Chariots of Fire," noted documentaries such as "Food Inc.," "March of the Penguins" and "Ken Burns' National Parks," plus TV shows, such as "Doctor Who," "Farscape," "Fawlty Towers" and children's shows, such as "Arthur," "Caillou," "Super Why!" and "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood."
. . .
Amazon Instant Video is a digital video service that offers customers more than 90,000 commercial-free movies and television shows to buy or rent on an a la carte basis.  New-release movies are often available as soon as they are released on DVD, and many TV shows are available the day after their first broadcast.  Amazon Instant Video also offers thousands of movies and TV shows in high definition.  With Amazon Instant Video, customers can watch instantly on Macs, PCs, and nearly 200 Internet connected TVs, Blu-ray players, and set-top boxes.  To learn more about Amazon Instant Video on your TV, visit www.amazon.com/watchontv. '

They add:
  "Customers who receive Prime shipping benefits through our Amazon Student and Amazon Mom programs can upgrade to receive paid Prime benefits for just $79 a year."


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. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

Kindle software v3.1 ready to go for real page numbers and other features

Software version 3.1 is ready for delivery to all Kindle 3's.  (Full Details were given earlier in the "Preview" blog article.)

  This is the update which gives the Kindle 3  (UK: K3) "real" page numbers, extended features for sharing annotations, and some very nice enhancements to the layout of Kindle-edition newspapers and magazines.
  Here's Amazon's info page for the v3.1 software update.

Amazon has made a change in delivery in that 3G cellular wireless will not be used this time at all for over-the-air delivery.   They say:

' We have a new, free software update available for your Kindle that is being delivered via a Wi-Fi connection over the next few days.

  To receive the update, please turn your wireless on and connect to an available Wi-Fi network (learn how to set up Wi-Fi on your Kindle).  The software update will automatically download in the background and install the next time your Kindle goes into sleep mode.  You can also manually download the update to your Kindle right now '

MORE ON THE NEW FEATURES

' * Public Notes -- This feature lets Kindle users choose to make their book notes and highlights available for others to see.  Any Kindle user -- including authors, their fans, book reviewers, professors and passionate readers everywhere -- can opt-in to share their thoughts on book passages and ideas with friends, family members, colleagues, and the greater Kindle community of people who love to read... '

The private, password-protected Kindle Annotations Page which I wrote about earlier, with examples, has been expanded and has a somewhat different look.

  Our highlighting and notes made are all there but formatted somewhat differently, with more focus on the current book and a lot more options, including adding notes, editing and deleting, which I assume are then sync'd with the Kindle's annotations.

' * Real Page Numbers -- Our customers have told us they want real page numbers that match the page numbers in print books so they can easily reference and cite passages, and read alongside others in a book club or class.   We've already added real page numbers to tens of thousands of Kindle books, including the top 100 bestselling books in the Kindle Store that have matching print editions and thousands more of the most popular books.

  Page numbers will also be available on our free "Buy Once, Read Everywhere" Kindle apps in the coming months.  If a Kindle book includes page numbers, press the Menu key in an open Kindle book to display page numbers. '

  See examples of how Page Numbers will appear.

' * Before You Go ... -- When you reach the end of the book, you can immediately rate the book, share a message about the book with your social network, get personalized recommendations for what to read next, and see more books by the same author. '

That is of course an advantage for publishers, authors, and booksellers, but it's the type of social interaction that is very popular today.

' * New Newspaper and Magazine Layout -- We're introducing a new and improved layout for newspapers and magazines. This new layout gives you a quick snapshot of the news and helps you decide what you want to read first. '

As noted above, here are examples of the new layout, and it's definitely more intuitive than the previous columns of Sections alongside a 'NUMBER of articles' heading which acted as a link to the listing of articles, a function not obvious to many Kindle reviewers and owners.

All emphases above in the quotes are mine, of course.

If interested, see the earlier preview-article for questions that I hope Amazon will answer soon about software changes.

NOTE: Other information from Amazon that I had noticed later:

' Kindle books that include page numbers will list "Page Numbers Source ISBN (the print book identification number)" for the matching print edition under "Product Details" on the detail page at Amazon.com...

Because Kindle books allow you to change font size and other features, you may be able to view more than one page on your screen at once.  Only the corresponding page number for the text displayed at the top left of the screen will be shown. '

  HOW do you get the updated page numbers for e-books you already own?
    (for e-books with page numbers added currently)
  Answer: When you press the Menu button, turn your wireless ON (to make sure you can access the Amazon servers) and select "Sync & Check items," Amazon will download small auxiliary files that provide real page numbers for the books that have been updated by the publisher for that feature.  I noticed that my Hachette books had these, while HarperCollins didn't, the first week, but real page numbers are being added when they're made available.

  The expanded Notes-Sharing feature
This feature may be quite useful for book clubs.


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. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

New Kindle TV ad / Some simple Kindle apps/tools

Amazon has a new TV ad out, and they're taking on big LCD screens again, emphasizing their 'performance' in strong daylight and showing the Kindle  (UK: K3) in comparison.

  This time, there's no hint of smugness from the Kindle owners in this video, just somewhat mysterious exuberance with an emphasis on the 18-30 crowd, which is possibly a target audience that hasn't been Amazon's Kindle strength yet.

Called "The Book Lives On," the ad's featured song is "Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk" by The New Pornographers, available for download but, alas, not a free mp3 this time.  It's 99 cents.

BELOW are some newer tools I haven't mentioned before, but which may be useful for some.  I don't include tools with many reviews mentioning awkward navigation and which don't have a higher customer rating.


Easy Calculator.  This app has 20 ratings so far, with an average rating of 4.5 stars.  Info from the product description:
  "...simple and easy to use calculator for your Kindle. Whether you are calculating your restaurant tip, adding your recent expenses or just checking your math ...
  "Specifically designed for the Kindle, Easy Calculator features all the basic operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, as well as percentage, square root, memory functions and more.

  "Our calculator is built around an innovative matching keyboard design which associates each key of the calculator with a key on the keyboard. This allows fast and easy keyboard input for all your calculations..."

1900-2101 Kindle Calendar and Day Planner (Holidays and Notes). This has 6 reviews, with an average rating of 3 stars out of 5.  Get a sample first, as this team (Blog Kindle's Andrei Pushkin and Dima Suponau) has also put out TWO versions of the calendar for Year 2011 only and the reviews for these are not encouraging.
  THIS one, though, has some enthusiastic reviews and they explain what they like about it.  From the product description:

"   ... easy to use day planner, calendar and holiday reminder.   It is very easy to navigate to any month in any year from 1900 to 2101.  Note taking is streamlined and convenient with this calendar.  Just select the date and start typing.

"   ...designed using United States time and date standards with weeks starting on Sunday.  This calendar also uses rich formatting to highlight United States holidays and weekends.  Weeks are numbered beginning from the first week of the year"


2011 Kindle Calendar.  By Duane Cook, it has 4 ratings, and an average of 4 stars out of 5.  This is a very simple calendar for viewing only - there is NO way to make a note.  Nevertheless, some like it as that's all they want and it's 99 cents.


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. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

Google subscription terms vs Apple's / Kindle for Android's subscription access

The New York Times's Claire Cain Miller reports on Google's announcement of their own periodical subscription offerings via its Google One Pass system.

  Timed to contrast it against Apple's set of rules detailed in a much discussed press release Tuesday about Subscription-content apps for Apple devices, it offered the following:

' Publishers have control over how users can pay to access content and set their own prices. They can sell subscriptions of any length with auto-renewal, day passes (or other durations), individual articles or multiple-issue packages. Google One Pass also enables metered models '

There is a link on that page to their FAQ, which promises that, unlike conditions of Apple subscription apps:

  "Publishers decide the price and terms of the content they choose to sell through Google One Pass."

  Also, "Google One Pass will enable users to access content on connected, browser-enabled devices and from mobile apps where the mobile OS terms permit publishers to access the web via the app for Google One Pass transaction or authentication services."

In other words, this describes a WEB-subscription, which some columns yesterday said is more similar to a newspaper with a paywall.  As the New York Times reports:

' When publishers use One Pass, which for now is limited to online newspapers and magazines, Google will keep 10 percent of the sale price and share the customer’s name, ZIP code and e-mail address unless the customer specifically asks Google not to. '

That sharing of customer information is important to publishers.  Apple will share it with publishers only if the Apple customer permits it.

More from the NYTimes article.

' Unlike Apple’s service, Google’s is aimed more for use on Web sites than in apps, making it similar to services like Journalism Online’s Press+, which offers log-in and payments technology to online publishers.  Ms. Hornung said publishers could use One Pass in an app only if the mobile operating system’s guidelines allowed it.
  ...
  ' But Mr. McQuivey of Forrester said One Pass would be of little use to Web publishers until Android is built into many more phones, tablets and other devices, like televisions. “No publisher in their right mind would sign up to give away 10 percent of Web-based revenues,” he said.

On the other hand, if a publisher offers access to subscriptions through an Android app:

' Publishers selling content within an app running on the Android operating system, for instance, would have to comply with Android’s revenue split, under which Google gets a 30 percent share.
  However, unlike Apple, Google allows publishers to avoid selling within the app and instead to send customers to a mobile Web browser to make a purchase. '

So, that's key.

KINDLE FOR ANDROID APP DOES INCLUDE SUBSCRIPTIONS
Since December 20, this Amazon app for Android includes over 100+ Kindle subscriptions readable on your Android device.

NOTE that Amazon does NOT include the Subscription-content feature in its apps for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.  We now have an idea why they don't.
  The Apple devices have usually been the first app to get such updates, but subscription-content was never made available on the Apple ones.

  Apple may have communicated to Amazon earlier its plans for subscription-content apps.

  In the meantime, Amazon just had its Kindle for Apple devices updated last week for real page numbers, and a few other features.  The update was approved by Apple, though they can decline to approve any updates, and the Kindle app retains the link to the Amazon site for purchasing e-books.
  We'll know more details about precise plans for e-reader apps on Apple devices before July 1.

APPLE DRAWING SCRUTINY OVER ITS SUBSCRIPTION POLICES
I won't go into it here, at this point, as these are "inquiries" and may not develop into formal investigations.   But for those interested in reading articles on that, here are the two main newspaper articles on that from the last day (Kindle-edition blog links now work):

  NYT: IPad Service Draws Scrutiny
  WSJ: Regulators Eye Apple Anew
          Enforcers Interested in Whether Digital-Subscription Rules Stifle Competition


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. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

Kindle News 2/15-17, including costs of putting out a newspaper Kindle edition - UPDATE for Borders-Aus. & Lendle

KINDLE NEWS SNIPPETS actually.  Saw a few interesting articles and just want to mention them and give links for those interested in reading any of them at the source.  There are more than a few, so I'll keep these relatively brief.

UPDATE - 2/17 to include the new Lendle book lending site and to note that Borders Australia is telling customers that gift cards there can be redeemed only if customers buy double the amount of the card.

BARRONS: "Amazon Is Smoking With Kindle"
Barrons says they are raising their estimates for Amazon and taking their price target to $230 [from $195].  Reasons are higher unit shipments anticipated or assumed (for both models of the K3) and Amazon's web services (AWS "gaining traction much faster than expected.")  It's not just a shopping place anymore.  They add that:

'In our view, Kindle remains the best ebook reader in the market and competition is unable to dent its market share.

... As far as the influx of tablets is concerned, there is no doubt that reading ebooks is one of the dozens of features offered by the tablets, but we believe that for the core book readers the value proposition offered by Kindle remains unmatchable (i.e. selection of ebooks, battery life, no backlight and glaring screen, free 3G, overall form factor, convenience to buy new books, etc.). '

A lot more detail at the link, of course.

"E Ink Holdings reports record-high earnings"
Amy Su, reporting for The Taipei Times, writes that "E Ink Holdings Inc, the world’s biggest e-paper display supplier, yesterday reported record-high quarterly net earnings, aided by the global uptake of e-readers, such as Amazon’s Kindle series."

"Fourth-quarter net income grew more than seven times to NT$1.92 billion (US$65 million)..."

This is happening despite the flood of color tablets with e-reader capabilities flooding the market.

CNN: "Best business decision of decade: Kindle app?"
CNN Money's David Goldman writes that:
  "AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson called Amazon's Kindle e-reader app the 'gutsiest and savviest business decision of the past decade' during a keynote address on Tuesday."

  "At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the wireless giant's CEO said Amazon's decision to put its application on every conceivable kind of device -- even though it sells its own e-reader -- made the company 'the poster child' of the cloud computing movement."

  "When Amazon met the iPad challenge by giving users a chance to buy a competitors' tablet over its own [probably knowing they are so different and complementary that they would be co-existing devices for most], analysts called it a brave and bold move.  But Stephenson said it is now clear that Amazon's decision was incredibly intelligent."

The article discusses the cloud-computing aspect, which Stephenson considers "the path forward."

Computer World's report on Stephenson's talk, including opinions on Apple
There is also an extremely detailed report by Matt Hamblen on Stephenson's entire talk and his mentions of Apple policies, at Computerworld.

KindleLendingClub renamed BookLending Club
The size of the Kindle Lending Club seems to have caught Amazon's attention and it's been "rebranded" at Amazon's request.  The estimated 20,000 members going to the site will be automatically redirected to its new home, BookLending.com.

LendInk - Lending club for Kindles and Nooks
The Next Web's Martin Bryant reviews a new e-book lending club, LendInk, which offers a lending hub for Kindle and Nook users.  He considers using the site "as simple as could possibly be" and "the best-looking solution we've seen," adding that LendInk’s interface is "a little more streamlined and is targeting a wider audience with support for the Nook in addition to the Kindle."  Obviously, there's no reason why Kindle owners interested in using the feature would not use both.  While publishers might be concerned, it also creates even more interest in e-readers and e-books (though the large publishers seem queasy about e-book interest).

Update - 2/17 (Original posting 2/16, 3:40 AM)
Lendle - New lending club, this one for Kindles only
  The Guardian (UK) has a story on the new lending site, lendle.me.
    Note to publishers: Lendle founder Brian Ericford posts that, in the first week, they've actually sold more books than they've lent.
    The availability of these lending sites for Kindle books should be especially useful for those lamenting the lack of public library loaning.

BORDERS and bankruptcy filing - Giftcards
One story had an interesting last thought:
"One possible upside?  The demise of superstore booksellers could revitalize the neighborhood bookstore."

  Update continued - 2/17
  Borders did file for bankrupcy and the U.S. offices said they will honor giftcards and try to do business as normal while shutting down hundreds of stores and losing 75% of their value, with the stock at 23 cents.  However, Borders in Australia announced that their customers will have to buy double the amount in order to use their gift cards.  This is not going over well, per the Sydney Morning Herald.

 Another story cautions those holding giftcards to use them before the bankruptcy filing sometime this week.  Often they're not accepted after that, though Circuit City did honor mine.

"The True Cost OF Publishing on the Amazon Kindle" (in the UK)
PC Pro (UK explains the various costs involved with the distribution of newspapers and magazines in Kindle Edition format, in the UK -- why there are few photos (if any) in some editions (photos increase the size of a file by quite a bit relative to pure text), and the calculation of delivery costs of an issue sent over 3G wireless there (no delivery costs involved when/if delivered over WiFi).
  Notes in Brackets are mine.

' Amazon charges 10p per MB [about 16 cents per MB U.S.] for delivery of newspapers and magazines in the UK.

  By Amazon’s own estimates, a “typical newspaper” with 100 articles and 15 to 20 images would have a file size of between 0.5MB and 1MB – or around 10% of the overall revenue [16 cents per megabyte], considering most newspapers sell for 99p [$1.60 US] per day.
  It [distribution costs] would be an even greater share of the publisher’s profits if users signed up for a cheaper subscription.

  For a magazine like PC Pro those costs would be significantly greater.  Each issue of the magazine has somewhere around 75 new reviews – each with a picture – plus dozens more articles and features.  An issue of PC Pro with around 150 separate articles, and 100 photos would likely incur delivery costs of 50p-60p [80-97 cents) an issue.  We can pop a magazine in the post to subscribers for significantly less than that. '

 To make things worse -- in the UK, Value-Added Tax is charged on e-magazines but not on paper
Read more, including calculations for revenue sharing.  They point out that Amazon sets the pricing of the periodicals, just as they do for the blogs.  Too low a price means PCPro would "take a hit on the delivery costs" and could "severely undercut" their print edition, and if Amazon pushes for maximum profit, that can create extreme unhappiness with a newspaper's subscribers.


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. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

Apple enforcing 30% take on e-reader apps for Amazon/B&N ? Not likely. - Update3

WHAT WOULD APPLE BE SMOKING?  (That image to the left applies only if they'd actually do what is described below.)

See also, UPDATE to include online zines that noted the stress on subscriptions today

 As I write this blog article, I see that AppleInsider is quoting ONLY Apple's wording to publishers of *SUBSCRIPTION* apps and so far I see nothing new, especially anything saying the 30% wording applies to non-subscription legacy apps such as e-reader apps.  At the time I wrote on Feb 1 and Feb 4, Sony had not detailed yet what the billing plans they submitted actually were.

30% of a bookseller's transaction would be 100% of bookseller's take via Apple's Agency Plan, and the e-reader-app bookseller would get nothing.  That makes no sense.

 Would Apple want to guarantee that those interested in reading e-books on a portable device will not choose the iPad for that?  Would they be trying to help Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Android tablet makers sell their devices?

  Why would I buy an iPad 2 when I know that Android tablet makers will not be charging e-reader vendors 30% of a sale when that is ALL the vendors and e-book sellers will be getting before an Apple fee, thanks to Apple's encouragement of the Agency Plan now used by the Big5 and responsible for raising e-book prices by about 50%?

  In other words, as I said, the online booksellers make 30% on a sale, and Apple would want 100% of that.  That's not possible. AppleInsider's Slash Lane writes that "Legacy apps must comply with Apple's App Store subscription rules by June 30" -- that's the headline.  And the interpretation is:

' Software currently available in the iOS App Store that does not comply with Apple's newly enforced in-app subscription rules, such as the Amazon Kindle or Hulu+ applications, have until June 30 to comply or they could be removed. '

As I wrote February 4, Apple sent the following to subscription publishers and there was concern the policy would be extended to online-bookstore e-book reader apps:

' "For existing apps already in the App Store, we are providing a grace period to bring your app into compliance with this guideline," the letter to publishers from Apple reads. "To ensure your app remains on the App Store, please submit an update that uses the In App Purchase API for purchasing content, by June 30, 2011." '

So, that is old news.  Apple Insider also uses the Digital Daily's interpretation:

' That means applications like Amazon Kindle, Hulu+, and Netflix now have less than four months to add an in-app purchasing option to their App Store software.  And for those content providers, Apple will take a 30 percent cut of all sales made within the application. '

Apple Insider and Digital Daily are applying subscription "30%" rules made for subscription publishers to non-subscription e-book seller apps  As I said before, I think most might understand attempting to dun Sony/BN/Amazon 5% for space in a highly-traffic'd area for one's sales-stand, and even that might be questionable to online booksellers where book-sales margins (expenses etc) are small.

  Such a move would probably hurt Apple in many ways.  Would Apple allow books sold through their device to be priced higher to take care of that 5% or 30%?
  30% (100% of e-book profit) would ensure that all e-reader apps would leave the Apple store.  Maybe Apple wants that? That's pretty doubtful.

Would loyal Apple users pay the premium just to get an e-book on the iPad? Would the booksellers get customer data from sales?

At any rate, there's little doubt that Steve Jobs's Apple would try to get all that it could, but 30% of e-bookseller transaction (100% of seller-profit) would be just irrational.

We'll see. The main question from today's articles would be, "Is Apple Suicidal?" because that's what they'd be, but I think that the percentage-rules cited for subscription-publishers in early Feb are being applied by the article writers to non-subscription e-booksellers.

 Again, might Apple enforce an in-app iBookstore fee for other-vendor e-books?  Sure.  But not 100% of the bookseller's take -- and the wording cited today is still from early February communications.

  Most of us had already said back then that there's a concern that the Sony e-book app rejection and in-app buying option (which differs from the subscription language) will apply to Amazon, B&N, and Sony et al.

UPDATING AS I GO
STEVE JOBS from TODAY
Steve Jobs in Press Release from today (prefaced by purpose of Apple statement:

' Apple® today announced a new subscription service available to all publishers of content-based apps on the App Store℠, including magazines, newspapers, video, music, etc. This is the same innovative digital subscription billing service that Apple recently launched with News Corp.’s “The Daily” app...
...
“Our philosophy is simple—when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “All we require is that, if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same (or better) offer be made inside the app, so that customers can easily subscribe with one-click right in the app.

We believe that this innovative subscription service will provide publishers with a brand new opportunity to expand digital access to their content onto the iPad, iPod touch and iPhone, delighting both new and existing subscribers.” '

TRUDY MULLER ON SONY AS E-BOOK SELLER FEBRUARY 1
In response to the Sony rejection on its e-reader app, Trudy Muller said:

' "We have not changed our developer terms or guidelines," Apple spokesperson Trudy Muller told Ars. "We are now requiring that if an app offers customers the ability to purchase books outside of the app, that the same option is also available to customers from within the app with in-app purchase." '

TRUDY MULLER IN RESPONSE TODAY TO COMPUTERWORLD ON SUBSCRIPTION MODEL
Computerworld *interpreted* a response from Trudy Muller today as applying to Amazon/B&N e-book sales through their device-apps.

' Apple today unveiled the details of its App Store subscription plan, and confirmed that it will demand its usual 30% from publishers who sell content within their apps. '

  [Note the word 'content' for subscription content, later interpreted as e-book content.]
...
[Computerworld goes on, below, to describe what subscription-content providers must do and then interprets it as a general requirement for Amazon's general content (the current Kindle apps don't yet do blogs or periodicals but someday may and would likely be separate apps that are subscription apps, and subscription rules would then apply to them at that time though not precisely the 30% for publishers, who are not re-sellers and who still 'earn' the other 70%).]

[Computerworld goes on to interpret the Apple statement about subscription-apps to include one-time e-book apps situation too.]
 'Publishers and content sellers must remove any links within their apps to outside-the-App Store purchasing options, Apple said, a requirement that means Amazon.com must eliminate the link to the Kindle Store that it currently provides in its iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad apps.'

  [Later on, Computerworld reports on Trudy Muller's response to their questions about today's press release on subscription content. ]

' Later Tuesday, Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller confirmed that those rules apply not only to newspaper and magazine publishers, but also to content sellers like Amazon.com, which offers a Kindle app for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.'

[ All emphases mine. ] '

The concern today has to do with interpreting "content sellers" to mean e-book content sellers as well as "subscription-content sellers" in connection with a press release focused on subscription-apps.

Now, Apple's Trudy Muller may have meant e-book apps too, but she answered in the context of the subscription-content press release.  If she does mean Amazon and B&N e-books also, it contradicts what she said about the Sony e-reader app two weeks ago and it means that the e-reader apps will leave Apple or charge 143% on top of the book price (if Apple allows) and no one would use Apple's iBookstore for these other vendors' e-books unless they were iPad loyalists in the extreme, willing to cover Apple's added fee for the books.

UPDATE - 5:40 PM same day (Original post 2/15/11, 2:41 PM)
Mashable's Christina Warren does draw attention to the fact that the focus of today's announcement was on subscriptions.  Here is her take on that aspect:

' Earlier this month, the Sony Reader app for iOS was reportedly not accepted into the App Store because it violated some of Apple’s policies.  At the time, it was unclear if the cited policy violations would extend to other e-book applications like those from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Because Apple’s latest remarks concentrate on subscription content, it still isn’t clear to us if these new provisions also apply to other types of apps.  We don’t know if this means that applications — like Amazon’s Kindle app that sell purchases a la carte — must now remove links to outside web stores.
  The Kindle app for iOS received an update Monday and, for the record, the link to the Amazon Kindle website is still in the app. '

UPDATE2 - Here's another way to look at some differences that must be taken into consideration for any vending-stand fee coming down the pike.

  30% of an EBOOK SELLER's transaction is 100% of the seller's take/
  30% of a PUBLISHER's transaction is 30% of the publisher's take.

Also, read Mike Perry's thoughtful analysis in two parts in the comments area

UPDATE3 - Here's The Telegraph (UK) on Subscription vs "One-Off"
Shane Richmond, Head of Technology for Telegraph Media Group, writes today:

' ...That has led to speculation about what this will mean for an app such as Amazon’s Kindle app, which provides a link to purchase from Amazon’s website.  It may be that Apple intends to force ebook retailers to offer ebooks for sale within their apps and take 30 per cent of thosee sale. That would force ebook retailers to raise their prices or lose money.  Maybe that’s what will happen.

However, that’s not what Apple has announced today.  This is about subscription not sales of one-off products.  If you’re a publisher and you want to allow people to subscribe to your publication then you must offer the same subscription price within your app as you offer on your website and Apple will take 30 per cent of the in-app subscriptions. '

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. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

Update v2.6 for Kindle for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad - Real page numbers etc

The Kindle for iPhone (also for iPod Touch and iPad) app has been updated with version 2.6 with the following new features:

• Real page numbers for thousands of books in the Kindle Store.  Now you can make proper citations in the classroom or follow along with people reading print books in a book club.
• View your percentage completed while reading [new for iPhone/iPod Touch].
• Home screen now shows your progress through books in list view.
• Look up words on Google and Wikipedia without leaving the app.
• Instant word lookup on included dictionary with 250,000 entries and definitions

You can see full details and download the new update by clicking the top image at the Kindle for iPhone/iPod Touch app page.  You'll get the same info at the Kindle for iPad app page except that it doesn't include "View your percentage completed while reading" as a new feature for the iPad (it may have been included before).

Thanks to Golf11 (Randall) again for the alert Sunday.


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. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

Panda Poet 50% off thru' today, 2/13. Newer: Chess, Word Search

CATCHING UP ON RECENTLY RELEASED GAMES
Apologies to non-US readers that Amazon is not offering these outside the US yet.  They say they plan to.  Could be we're the guinea pigs and you'll get the ones that were updated after much feedback.

I've added, on the web blog, some extra links for eBooks if that might help.

Oak Systems Leisure Software released Chess for Kindle this week after some anguished waiting by a few members of the Amazon "kindle active content" forum.

Forum message-thread loading problems (repeated, because it's still very needed).
  NOTE: If your web browser (Firefox, IE, or Chrome) 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, including Comments to Customer Reviews.  Forum threads seem to be prevented from loading at first try by some boxes that are drawn for info or ads.  This continuing problem has been discussed by members of the forum.

Back to Chess:  The authors write: "Choose between 10 levels of difficulty and choose whether you want to play with an optional time limit to increase the challenge. You can also take back a move if you have made a mistake, as well as save your game at any time."

The Customer Reviews are mixed, with some more knowledgeable chess players missing important options normally used while others are very pleased with it.

WORD SEARCH
Word Search, released 9 days ago, has quickly become the most popular puzzle in the Kindle store.  In fact, it is #1 in Kindle eBook paid "Non-Fiction" currently and is #2 Bestseller in the Top 100 Paid "eBooks" as I write this (the rankings change quickly). :-).

  Has anyone else noticed the changed spelling recently, from "e-books" to eBooks, used by many?  It seems more permanent and less apologetic.   No longer non-real books, in a way.

  Oak Systems Leisure Software (Creator of the first Kindle Chess) is the company behind Word Search also.

  In their product description, they write: "Locate and mark off words in the grid using the 5 way controller.  Each word appears in a straight line, horizontally, vertically or diagonally in the grid - but be careful, sometimes the words are backwards!  Play at your own pace or against the clock and see who can get the fastest time for each puzzle.  Pause partway through a puzzle and return to where you left it.  You can reset each puzzle and try it again as many times as you like.  If you get stuck on a more challenging puzzle then you can give up and see the correct solution.

Fun for all ages, with categories from Animals to Best Movie Oscar, there are 50 themed 13x13 puzzles included in Volume 1 covering a wide variety of subjects..."

PANDA POET - 50% OFF THROUGH SUNDAY FEB 13 (Sorry I didn't notice the sale)
Spry Fox, creator of "Triple Town released Panda Poet in November.  It has 24 customer reviews and 4-1/2 out of 5 stars.

Product description: "Discounted 50% off for a limited time (offer ends February 13th)...

With Panda Poet you use the letters on the game board to form words.  Words formed from letters in open spaces create pandas.  Words formed from letters near pandas make existing pandas grow.

The goal is grow the biggest panda possible.  You get the highest scores from either creating the biggest possible panda or from forming the longest possible words.

To add to the challenge, each letter is only available for a fixed number of turns. Each time you enter a word, all the letters on the screen come one step closer to expiring.  When a letter expires, it is replaced by a skull, which prevents you from growing your pandas in that direction.  This makes playing Panda Poet a delicate balancing act: you must consider where a letter is located on the grid and how soon it will expire, not simply spell the longest word you can."


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. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

New Kindle for PC Update w/ Real Page Numbers & Touch for Win7 Tablets

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

Download the new version to enjoy these new features.

• Real Page Numbers
  See real page numbers for thousands of books in the Kindle Store. Now you can easily reference and cite passages, and read alongside others in a book club or class.
• Popular Highlights
  See what our community of Kindle readers think are the most interesting passages in your books.  If several other readers have highlighted a particular passage, then that passage will be highlighted in your book.
• Touch for Windows 7 Tablets
  Enjoy a touch-friendly interface on Windows 7 tablet computers.

As with all of our services, we plan to continue improving Kindle for PC.  Below are some features we are thinking about bringing to Kindle for PC in the near future:

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

Here's an image of how they implemented the Page numbers display that are included with Locations display for the computer version of Kindle.

The PREVIOUS big update in November added these 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.

Examples of normal one-column book page mode and the multi-column view:
By the way, in the November changes that allow us to view by covers or by a detailed text listing, we have new sorting options:

  1. TEXT listing: Sort by TYPE (New or Sample, at the top or bottom)
  2. TEXT & COVER: Sort by LENGTH of book.

UPDATE, later same day
Les Bell posted in the Amazon forum the following:

' ... the problem seems to have been resolved - I just downloaded the latest version of K4PC [1.4.1 (31629)] and it seems to be displaying math & Greek characters correctly - albeit the book (Modeling and Reasoning with Bayesian Networks...) is displaying in a sans serif font, rather than the serif font I believe it was in previously. '

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"


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. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

Notion Ink Adam Tablet vs Kindle & an LCD tablet in sunlight. Kindle for webOS.

NOTION INK'S ADAM, WITH PIXEL QI, VS KINDLE AND PANDIGITAL NOVEL IN DIRECT SUNLIGHT

The long awaited Adam Tablet by Notion Ink has a combo display of LCD switchable with an E-Paper display, with backlighting Off.

Good E-Reader Blog has a report and VIDEO and I've linked you to the larger YouTube one.


Here's an image-link to another, separate video, by Charbax, that also shows the e-paper display with backlight off.  When the backlight is On, the display is a sort of light blue-gray in the videos.  Nevertheless, both videos show reflections from the glass from the lighting above.

The first video gives you an idea of how the Adam looks in direct sunlight and how it compares with the e-ink and LCD displays.

They were disappointed to see that the dual layer of glass that it uses was "highly reflective in the sun, and even the matted screen protector is pretty useless."

' Our first comparison is with the Amazon Kindle and the Notion Ink Adam in Pixel QI mode.  We give you a great visual example of how the Adam ranks against one of the premier e-ink based electronic readers.  We have to give the advantage in this test to the Amazon Kindle.

The next comparison we show is how the Notion Ink Adam ranks with the Pandigital Novel 9 inch edition.   This test is mainly ... to show how Pixel QI in the Adam compares to the standard LCD based tablet and e-reader combination found in most competing devices.  We have to decide this contest in favor of the Adam, as the LCD was unreadable in direct sunlight. '

AMAZON ANNOUNCES KINDLE FOR PALM's webOS IS COMING
This is in connection with HP's Palm webOS press conference today.
  Of special interest was the last part of the following statement:

' "We're working with Amazon to bring HP customers the free Kindle app and, along with it, the largest selection of the most popular books," said Jon Oakes, director, TouchPad Product Marketing, HP. "TouchPad's beautiful, fully featured Kindle app supports the Kindle features users already know and love, and it's one of the first Kindle applications to support the latest Kindle features like Collections." '

Collections.  That last is key and I hope it shows up soon in the Kindle for PC and for Mac 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. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!