Amazon Prime adds new streaming content, from ABC/Disney, for Kindle Fire

Amazon adds NEW library content to PRIME from ABC Studios, Disney Channel, ABC Family...

Finishing vacation today, without much access to WiFi at all.

  The first new person I met opened up a small case to take a note, and I saw she had a... Kindle :-)
  Peeking in and will pass on an Amazon announcement for those who don't get them - as this is another set of streaming video that will be available for the Kindle Fire.

Here's the announcement. Will do some regular blogging later tonight.

' SEATTLE, Oct 31, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) --

Amazon.com today announced a new licensing agreement with Disney-ABC Television Group that will allow Amazon Prime members to instantly stream a broad selection of library content from ABC Studios, Disney Channel, ABC Family and Marvel. The agreement was brokered by Disney-ABC Domestic Television with Amazon.

Popular Disney-ABC Television Group offerings for Prime members will include:

    * Prior seasons of current ABC hit series "Grey's Anatomy"
    * All episodes of recent ABC favorite "Lost"
    * Prior seasons of Disney Channel's popular animated series "Phineas & Ferb"
    * Prior seasons of ABC Family's groundbreaking series "The Secret Life of the American Teenager," including the most recently aired episodes from summer 2011
    * Prior seasons of Marvel's animated shows "Spider-Man," "X-Men Evolution," "Thor & Loki: Blood Brothers" and "Iron Man: Extremis"
    * All episodes of ABC Family's "Greek"
    * All episodes of "Felicity" from ABC Studios

Amazon Prime members can watch these TV shows on over 300 different devices, including the recently announced Kindle Fire--the Kindle for movies, TV shows, music, magazines, apps, books, games, and more. Kindle Fire customers enjoy a free month of Amazon Prime right out of the box.

"We are excited to add some of the very best content available from Disney-ABC to Prime instant video," said Brad Beale, director of video content acquisition for Amazon. "This includes every episode of past seasons from the ABC hits Lost and Grey's Anatomy, fan favorites like Felicity and Greek, the popular Disney Channel show Phineas & Ferb and great animated series from Marvel. We're working hard to add even more selection for Kindle Fire customers and Prime members leading up to the holidays, and expect to have nearly 13,000 titles available in Prime instant video by early next year."

About Prime Instant Video

Prime instant video is a benefit for paid Amazon Prime members. Prime members get unlimited, commercial-free, instant access to nearly 13,000 movies and TV shows at no additional cost. Since the launch of Prime instant videos, Amazon has secured licensing deals from partners such as CBS, Fox, PBS, NBCUniversal, Sony, Warner Bros. and many more.

About Amazon Instant Video

For customers who are not Prime members, or who are looking to instantly purchase or rent movies and TV shows, Amazon offers Amazon Instant Video. Amazon Instant Video is a streaming video service that provides more than 100,000 titles including new release movies, TV shows the day after they air, as well as contemporary and classic videos in SD and HD. Customers can instantly watch movies and TV shows from Amazon Instant Video or Prime instant video on a Mac, PC or directly on a TV with any of the 300 compatible devices, including the new Kindle Fire.

About Prime

Amazon Prime is the annual membership program for $79 a year that includes access to Prime instant videos as well as unlimited Free Two-Day Shipping on millions of items including books, home and garden products, electronics, video games, clothing, and much more.

Customers who receive free Prime shipping benefits through the Amazon Student and Amazon Mom programs can upgrade to an annual paid membership to receive Amazon Prime's digital benefits.  '

  Basically, all these added videos will be streamable at no added cost for those on a regular Prime membership.  The Kindle Fire will be one way to view them on an affordable portable device.



Kindle Touch 3G   Kindle Touch WiFi   Kindle Basic   (UK: KBasic)   Kindle Fire
Kindle Keybd 3G   (UK: Kindle Keybd 3G)   K3 Special Offers   K3-3G Special Offers   DX

---

Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or £5 Max 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.

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A Q&A with Amazon VP on what Kindle Fire can and can't do -

KINDLE FIRE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS REVIEWED A MONTH LATER

The story about a Q&A after the big Kindle demo on Sept. 28 was posted by The Seattle Times's Brier Dudley.  I hadn't posted on this earlier, but at least one answer was interesting vs what has been written about the Kindle Fire.  There have been all kinds of estimates, some thinking a $40 profit, some saying a $5-$10 loss, but the general trend has been to say that, just guessing, without looking at the insides of a product they can't examine, Amazon might be taking a loss on each device while looking at long-term gains from customers interested in content for the tablet-reader.

Dudley reported that Amazon VP Dave Limp, when asked if Amazon would lose money on the device and make it up on services, said:

' That's not how we look at our business. ... We need to try to make money off both devices and services and do that in a way that's sustainable.  That's what we owe to our shareholders and we continue to do it. '

When asked if there'd be a lower-priced version of the Fire with Special Offers [ads] as there are with the e-Ink Kindles, his answer was:
  "Nothing to announce today."

  On the other hand, with browsers, ads abound.

He confirmed there's a headphone jack and a USB - the latter of the type that allows the user to transfer files to and from the device via the USB cable that comes with most Kindle power cords.

He said they hadn't "optimized" for that use but "if you plug it into a PC or Mac, folders will show up and you can drag fires files onto it. Thanks to Len Edgerly for catching the dragging of fires :-)

Media purchased elsewhere can be played on the Fire. Limp said that he had uploaded his entire iTunes library to the Amazon Cloud, where it becomes visible to the device, -- but the files have to be DRM [digital rights management] free.

When asked if it supports ePub or other book formats besides Amazon's, he said,
  "We don't support that.  We think our book selection and magazine selection are broad.  It does support a great new PDF engine.  The PDF reader is great — [a] desktop-class PDF reader."

  However, the Amazon Android AppsStore has "Aldiko" app, a third-party app which reads non-rights protected ePub files.  It would surprise me if they didn't make that available to the Kindle Fire.

Photos can be shown of course in a 'Gallery' but that wasn't ready for presentation on 9/28.

It does two-finger multitouch and you can pinch-to zoom (verified by another Amazon rep on the Kindle forums recently).

Re cameras, he said they think most tend to carry around a smartphone of some type and most of those have great cameras.
  "To get to these price points, that was one of those trade-offs we were willing to make to get to $199."

It will come with mail, but they've optimized it for "media consumption."

What is battery life like?

' I like to start with the worst-case scenario: if you got on a plane, no Wi-Fi, and you wanted to watch movies straight through. You're going to get up to seven hours [of battery life]. If you do more mixed use — reading, movies, those types of things — you'll get up to eight hours. '

Re Productivity apps:

' We have a mail app and the mail app will treat enclosures as first-class citizens so you can open up Word documents and Excel documents. '

Re portable computing:
  "I watch my movies and read magazines on this [Fire] because it's such an amazing experience.
  But then, when I sit down and want to read a novel, I take out my Kindle 3G. At $199 and $79 you can buy two of these and it's still lower cost than other people's first device.

Here's an interesting answer on popular apps that will be available:

' I haven't talked to Hulu.  We have talked to Netflix, Pandora, Facebook and Twitter, and they all seem very enthusiastic to put an app on the device. '

The version of Android:
  "It's a Gingerbread-based Honeycomb variant of 2.3.  People will get periodic updates of the software."

Read the article to see a bit more I didn't include though.


Reminder: Check Current Kindle Daily Deal at ANY time.  It changes at midnight each day.


Kindle Touch 3G   Kindle Touch WiFi   Kindle Basic   (UK: KBasic)   Kindle Fire
Kindle Keybd 3G   (UK: Kindle Keybd 3G)   K3 Special Offers   K3-3G Special Offers   DX

---

Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or £5 Max 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.

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(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
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Free Kindle books (10/28-29) - 24 for 10/28 + discounted-book alerts + usual promos

FREE/DISCOUNTED KINDLE BOOKS DISCOVERED BY FORUM MEMBERS

Writing this on Saturday morning as I go ON VACATION for 2 days, and unable to convince either housemate to update the blog but will try to tune in, although WiFi isn't readily available at Yosemite.

Oct. 28 - 29: - Friday: Morning - 1 newly-free book; LATE evening, at about midnight - 23 MORE (total 24).  Nothing for Saturday yet at 3:40am


Clues to Christie, from Agatha Christie, Pre-Order (November 22), $0.00
Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers  (It's not likely it'll stay $0.00 for long, since it's HarperCollins.)

From Product Description: "This fully authorized and comprehensive guide to the Queen of Mystery includes an introduction by award-winning Agatha Christie expert John Curran with features on each of her classic detectives including Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot and Tommy & Tuppence; guides to reading each of her series and her stand-alone novels; and an A to Z of Agatha Christie.
  Interspersed throughout are quotes from Christie, a list of the Christie novels that were her personal favorites and three of her classic short stories..." (There is no book image yet, so I used one from Destination Unknown.)




Kindle Daily Deal (Often U.S. only, unfortunately) (The Daily Deal link above changes at MIDNIGHT each day.
      Click it to see what the daily deal book is, at any time.)
Brave New World Revisited, by Aldous Huxley, 106 customer reviews, 4.6 stars
    Daily Deal until the end of Friday 10/27:
      Thursday's Price: $5.79
      Friday's Discount: $3.80
      Friday's Daily Deal Price: $1.99 (65% off)

"A thought jabbing, terrifying book." -- Chicago Tribune
""It is a frightening experience.... to discover how much of his satirical prediction of a distant future became reality in so short a time." -- New York Times Book Review"



  MORE... ( The temporarily newly-free books and discounted-book forum-alerts are on the 2nd page now, to load the main page more quickly and so that those wanting to go through the details can do so by: clicking on "MORE" just below)
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Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
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Free Kindle books (10/27) - 36 + discounted-book alerts + usual promos - UPDATE

FREE/DISCOUNTED KINDLE BOOKS DISCOVERED BY FORUM MEMBERS

Oct. 27: - Thursday: Morning - 30 newly-free books; Late Evening, 6 more (Total 36)
Also, Thursday there were a few higher-rated, lower-cost newly (temporarily) discounted books.



Zero Sum Book 1 - Kotov Syndrome, by Russell Blake, 5 customer reviews, 5.0 stars, $0.00

Genre: Action and adventeure - Wall Street
First book in the Zero Sum serial trilogy of Wall Street thrillers.
Customer reviews, mostly Amazon Verified Purchases are mainly raves+.





Kindle Daily Deal (Often U.S. only, unfortunately) (The Daily Deal link above changes at MIDNIGHT each day.
      Click it to see what the daily deal book is, at any time.)
Robert Ludlum's (TM) The Bourne Betrayal, by Eric Van Lustbader, 107 customer reviews, 2.6 stars
    Daily Deal until the end of Thursday 10/27:
      Wednesday's Price: $9.99
      Thursday's Discount: $7.00
      Thursday's Daily Deal Price: $2.99 (70% off)

Genre: Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue Also, Contemporary Fiction



  MORE... ( The temporarily newly-free books and discounted-book forum-alerts are on the 2nd page now, to load the main page more quickly and so that those wanting to go through the details can do so by: clicking on "MORE" just below)
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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.

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Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

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Kindle News: Sun-shade for iPad/LCD, Amazon net income, accessories for new Kindles, Kindle Fire: "Millions more" built + good video of demo

COVERS FOR LATEST KINDLES

I saw the "Snugg Amazon Kindle Fire leather case and flip stand w/ elastic hand strap and Premium Nubuck Fibre Interior, high quality" case in a press release today.  It stated a normal price of $39.99, with a"Sale" price of $29.99 currently and will be released on November 15, the same date as the Kindle Fire tablet/reader itself.
  I'm partial to flipstands, but I wish this didn't have that stitching showing.  The product is not eligible for Prime.

Here's Amazon's entire assortment of covers for the Kindlefire.

Update: - See the later article on less-expensive covers also.


These are two more unusual covers I've seen and are for the Kindle Basic (NonTouch) and the Kindle Touch.  The first one is the New "York Times cover" ("View from Riverhouse") and the second one is the "Verso Prologue" cover.  Click on the images to

Here are the covers Amazon has for the new e-Ink Kindles.

Click on the images for more info at the product pages for those.

The most useful bookmark for these is the page for all accessories for each Kindle model.

 Note that although the Kindle Touch is a bit larger than the Kindle Basic (NonTouch), cover makers are making covers that will work for both units.


A good Kindle Fire demo on video
Richard B. Drake at the Amazon Kindle forums recommended a YouTube video'd demo of the Kindle Fire, saying it's the best demo he's seen so far.  It's the best one I've seen also.
  To Kindle-Edition subscribers: The video link for use on your computers is: bit.ly/kindlefirevideo.


A Kindle Confession
I got a kick out of this news story by Pat Snyder for Columbus Local News when I spotted the opening paragraph:

' This is hard to admit in pubic, but I'm finally coming out.

After telling my book club, my children, and the English major in me that real books are better, I've been sneaking around with a Kindle. '

  It goes on to describe the realities of public library lending, so if you have time, read the full article at the link.


"iPad to Kindle: ‘Move Over. You’re in My Sun"
Gadgets Technology features iclipstore.com's iclipse sunshade for iPad ! which is for shading the LCD screen from the sun, "solving the outdoor readability issue."

  I wonder if they or someone will make one for the Fire and other smaller LCD screens.  It's something extra to carry around (flat, they say, and doesn't need to be attached to the tablet) but will mean the difference, sometimes, with whether or not you can view or, especially, read the screen outdoors.


Amazon's lower profits in the 4th Quarter
I mentioned the other day that profits would 'dip' for this quarter and they certainly did, as reported by betanews.com -- a big increase in sales (39% increase over same qtr last year) and a decline in net income, which was down 73% year over year.  Shareholder reactions were as expected.  But Amazon finished the quarter with $2.8 billion in cash -- quite a bit over the same quarter last year, which closed out with $1.5 billion.

"Shareholders reacted poorly to the earnings report, driving down Amazon shares by 15 percent in after-hours trading."

  However, a really excellent article on Jeff Bezos by SUCCESS Magazine's John H. Ostdick, that I meant to post earlier, reminded readers of another period in which long-term growth was Amazon's focus rather than short-term gains.

  The familiar story of Amazon's beginnings with a "book beta test among friends" in a garage/basement in 1994 to a TIME magazine "Person of the Year" cover in 1999, involved an initial business plan that "projected that it would not show a profit for four to five years, and bottom-line anxiety created the first cadre of outside doomsayers Amazon would encounter."

Kindle sales in September after the new Kindles announcement
Expenses for the 4th quarter included development of new technologies - e-Ink Touch Kindles, Kindle Fire, the Amazon Cloud, etc., and now, Amazon needing to build "millions more" Kindle Fire units than originally planned.

 Other related costs are the building of many warehouses and hiring of thousands of new employees all over the country and abroad to handle the growing business, but here's what Bezos said about September:

' September 28th was the biggest order day ever for Kindle, even bigger than previous holiday peak days," Bezos said in a statement today.  "In the three weeks since launch, orders for electronic ink Kindles are double the previous launch.  And based on what we're seeing with Kindle Fire pre-orders, we're increasing capacity and building millions more than we'd already planned.” '

Kindle Touch 3G   Kindle Touch WiFi   Kindle Basic   (UK: KBasic)   Kindle Fire
Kindle Keybd 3G   (UK: Kindle Keybd 3G)   K3 Special Offers   K3-3G Special Offers   DX

---

Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or £5 Max 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!

Free Kindle books (10/26) - 3 (morning) + discounted-book alerts + usual promos

FREE/DISCOUNTED KINDLE BOOKS DISCOVERED BY FORUM MEMBERS

Oct. 26: - Wednesday: 3 newly-free books. Also, today there are several highly-rated, lower-cost newly (temporarily) discounted books.



A King in a Court of Fools, by Larry Enright, 21 customer reviews, 5.0 stars, $0.00

Genre: Humorous fiction, coming of age, nostalgia
Growing up in the 50s. The customer reviews are extremely positive





Kindle Daily Deal (Often U.S. only, unfortunately) (The Daily Deal link above changes at MIDNIGHT each day.
      Click it to see what the daily deal book is, at any time.)
Crossing Oceans, by Gina Holmes, 208 customer reviews, 4.4 stars
    Daily Deal until the end of Wednesday 10/26:
      Tuesday's Price: $9.59
      Wednesday's Discount: $7.60
      Wednesday's Daily Deal Price: $1.99 (79% off)

"...haunting tale that packs an emotional wallop. Keep tissues near. --Publishers Weekly   Holmes's characters are so real they pop from the pages...dramatic, emotional, faith-based novel" --Booklist


  MORE... ( The temporarily newly-free books and discounted-book forum-alerts are on the 2nd page now, to load the main page more quickly and so that those wanting to go through the details can do so by: clicking on "MORE" just below)
*****
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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Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

[... CLICK HERE for MORE ... »]

Kindle News 10/25/11 - UPDATE - 39 free Kindle books Tuesday. Also, Kindle Fire, Amazon customer service, Steve Jobs's cancer.

KINDLE FIRE SELLING FASTER THAN EXPECTED BY J.P. MORGAN

Mobile Entertainment's Zen Terrelonge writes today that J.P. Morgan is "eating its words" that the Kindle Fire wouldn't do well relative to the iPad, and the financial services firm's hardware team now projects that Amazon will move 4.5 to 5 million devices in the 4th quarter.

  This is based on checks of supply chains that show production on this model has increased due to a large number of pre-orders and vendors reporting "an abundance of rush orders over the past fortnight."

  Douglas Anmuth, an internet analyst there who monitors Amazon, anticipates several models in 2012, including 7" and 10" devices with 3G and WiFi.

  One J.P. analyst disagreed saying the tablet is under-featured, something that was said about the iPad last year too.  Consumers seem to have different requirements from those with a largely technical focus, from what has been seen in pre-orders.  Other articles have explained that the minimum iPad cost of $500 has been more than some want to spend, and some want a smaller, maybe more personal style tablet for web browsing and email.

  Considering the streaming media content that Amazon offers (12,000 streamig-videos, including more current PBS ones, that come with Amazon's Prime package of free two-day shipping on most products for $79/yr ($6.58/mo.), it's not a surprise that this new, smaller tablet is doing so well on pre-orders.

  Amazon currently has over 100,000 movies and tv shows at a time that Netflix has lost about 800,000 subscribers due to their pricing decisions.  Despite better earnings than expected, Netflix stock plunged.  I'm a fan of Netflix's streaming video library, though, which works well through my Comcast.  At least we have several options these days.


Amazon expected to to show a profit dip this quarter due to low margins (if any) on the Kindle Fire
Slashgear's Chris Davies reports that some believe Amazon is taking a loss on the Kindle Fire, relying instead on resulting digital media sales to be enjoyed on the tablet.

Geeky-gadgets's Roland Hutchinson writes that Google's Andy Rubin has said there were around 6 million Android tablets out there, so if Amazon sells as many the next quarter as most analysts are expecting, the Kindle Fire would be the most popular Android tablet released so far.

  In the meantime ViewSonic will launch the 7" ViewPad 7e tablet soon, with several more features but an inferior display (800x600) and touchscreen ("resistive").  While Amazon should welcome the release of more tablets that can access their content, I imagine they'll be customizing (beyond the special accelerating features of the Silk browser on the Fire) content for their own tablet.


Reviews of Steve Jobs book by Walter Isaacson (Fixed link)
SecondAct's Patrick J. Kiger has a good summary round-up of reviews of Isaacson's book, which Amazon thinks could be the year's bestseller.

A couple of observations from the roundup:
  His summary of NY Times critic Janet Maslin ends,"Isaacson also explains that Jobs' mean streak, unpleasant as it was, also helped drive Apple to its phenomenal success."

  Salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams focuses, he writes, on Jobs's controversial decision of postponing conventional medical treatment for a tumor in 2003.  As a cancer survivor, who knows how unpredictable cancer can be (and how unnecessarily destructive some treatments), I noted her sensible, "Jobs lived eight years after his initial diagnosis.  Anyone with experience of cancer will tell you that five is considered a relative triumph."

  I've known many who obeyed all the doctors' recommendations, and even when after the requisite operations their lymph nodes were diagnosed to be free of spread beyond the local area and they were announced to be cancer free, they were given chemo for 'prevention' and were dead in a few months to two years.  Others fare well.  It's just not utterly predictable as has been presented by too many about Jobs' cancer.

  I think people should get off his case, post mortem, for his personal decision though of course he would wonder what would have happened had he had the operation.  Not only did he survive 8 years with the less aggressive form of pancreatic cancer, he led a quite productive life during those 8 years.


CBS News story on Amazon's good customer service noted on Reddit (Link fixed)
CBS News's Chenda Ngak writes about a Reddit thread and Ngak's own experience with customer service.  I've posted a link to a recent customer support forum thread on the Kindle forums.


Tuesday's free Kindle books
UPDATED on Wednesday to show each book link for Tuesday, since most will stay free for a few days.  These will be shown on the 'next' page showing "More", so that those wanting to go through the details can do so by: clicking on "MORE" just below)
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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.

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(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!

[... CLICK HERE for MORE ... »]

Free Kindle books (10/24) - 12 + discounted-book forum alerts + usual promos

FREE/DISCOUNTED KINDLE BOOKS DISCOVERED BY FORUM MEMBERS

Oct. 24: - Monday: 12 newly-free books


Hidden Steel, by Doranna Durgin, 34 customer reviews, 4.5 stars, $0.00

Genre: Romantic Suspense, Thrillers
Fans of the genre give it high marks. Prolific author, no major reviews shown




Kindle Daily Deal (Often U.S. only, unfortunately) (The Daily Deal link above changes at MIDNIGHT each day.
      Click it to see what the daily deal book is, at any time.)
BoneMan's Daughters, 182 customer reviews, 3.6 stars
    Daily Deal until the end of Monday 10/24:
      Sunday's Price: $7.99
      Monday's Discount: $8.00
      Monday's Daily Deal Price: $1.99 (75% off)

This book has some of the most negative customer reviews I've seen, and I agree that just the plot sounds really sick but there's no actual violence in it, "only" violent thoughts.  Others complain it is also Christian Fiction but not identified as that and because of that, no 'swear words,' to avoid offending his readers.  It's an Amazon Daily Deal selection and has 40% of customers rating it 5 stars and almost 60% 4-5 stars, despite reports of bad writing from dissenters and what seems a misogynist focus.
 It's #1 in Thrillers/Suspense and in Literature & Fiction.
  "Well known for taut, supernatural thrillers (Sinner; Skin) that push readers to the brink, Dekker goes over the edge with a gruesome plot that may make sensitive readers squirm.  A serial killer is kidnapping young girls, breaking their bones, and leaving them to die..." --School Library Journal.  Not my own cup of tea.


  MORE... ( The temporarily newly-free books and discounted-book forum-alerts will be on the 2nd page now, to load the main page more quickly and so that those wanting to go through the details can do so by: Clicking on "MORE" just below).]
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-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

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(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!

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Free Kindle books (10/23) - 30 + discounted-book forum alerts

FREE/DISCOUNTED KINDLE BOOKS DISCOVERED BY FORUM MEMBERS

Oct. 23: - Sunday: 30 newly-free books (VOOK books)

What is EPUB3?, by Matt Garrish, Publisher O'Reilly, $0.00
Only 1 customer review, which found it too simple, which won't likely be the case for most people

 As many know, this has been a hoped-for "standard" format, although Adobe rights-protection added to ePub books to protect publisher rights is not standard (Nook, Apple) and there's a form of (small) tribute paid to a competing software company who would take care of the rights-protection for all (Adobe).

  Since Amazon, with largest market share, probably sees no reason to go to Adobe and pay them for the DRM protection or use a format they don't have total control over, ePub adherents have been very disappointed with Amazon's disinterest in going ePub other than to convert ePub submissions to Kindle Format 8, which will be far more flexible and effective than Mobi 7 format and is causing some excitement among smaller publishers.

  Apple's ePub iBooks can be read only on Apple devices.  B&N, Amazon, Kobo, on the other hand, have all taken pains to get their e-books readable on almost all devices via free "apps," and Amazon keeps customers' reading sync'd between their various devices.

  If you're curious about what "ePub" even IS, here's a chance to get an intro for $0.00 from a very good publisher of tech books while the promo is still available.  This is not a large book and would be just an intro.  I've downloaded a copy.


  (Off-topic Sidenote: The Steve Jobs book by Isaacson was downloaded to Kindles before 8pm PDT, rather than at midnight.  The 60 Minutes segment on the iPad or tablet and autism was really interesting.)




Kindle Daily Deal (Often U.S. only, unfortunately) (The Daily Deal link above changes at MIDNIGHT each day.
      Click it to see what the daily deal book is, at any time.)
The Intruders, by Stephen Coonts, 26 customer reviews, 4.3 stars
    Daily Deal until the end of Sunday 10/23:
      Saturday's Price: $9.99
      Sunday's Discount: $8.00
      Sunday's Daily Deal Price: $1.99 (80% off)

"A sequel to Coonts's Flight of the Intruder, this novel puts fighter-pilot Jack Grafton on board an aircraft carrier, piloted by novices." --Publishers Weekly   "Coonts's latest technothriller stars Jake Grafton, hero of the best-selling Flight of the Intruder (Naval Inst. Pr., 1986) --Library Journal



  MORE... ( The temporarily newly-free books and discounted-book forum-alerts and newly-free books will be on the 2nd page now, to load the main page more quickly and so that those wanting to go through the details can do so by: Clicking on "MORE" just below)
*****
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[... CLICK HERE for MORE ... »]

Convert EPub books to Kindle format. ALSO, almost a Million free Google books already in Kindle format

EPUB TO KINDLE - Example: Free Google Books

I'm updating an older post on converting free ePub books from Google to work on the Kindle.  (The earlier blog article was updated often for Google-book changes and lost its basic focus.)

  The conversion is actually easy to do, and although we can now easily get free Kindle-versions of these Google books, it's good to know how to do this for any ePub book that doesn't have a form of digital-rights-protection or management (DRM) placed on it.

Google now combines its free Google books with the ones they sell in the the newish Google Book Store.  If you'd like to see how easy it is to convert a free ePub book, go to Google's "Best of the Free" page and select one.


USING CALIBRE TO CONVERT EPUB TO KINDLE ("MOBI" or "PRC") FORMAT
You can use Calibre to easily convert any free ePub file to Kindle format.
  You can also use the Retroread.com site to have it done for you for free but only for the free Google books.

  HOWEVER, almost a million of these free Google books are already in Kindle format and ready for simple downloads, thanks to Internet Archive, which will be covered right after the "Convert ePub to Kindle" section.

---

Google offers over a million free e-books in EPUB format as well as in PDF format.  (Many don't know that the Kindle 2, 3 ("Keyboard"), DX and of course coming Touch models can read PDFs direct -- but this isn't ideal on the 6" screens.)

  The added ePub versions of the free Google books are better to work with than PDFs because they involve text-reflow capabilities instead of a focus on keeping a page exactly as originally laid out, giving us words too tiny on small screens.

  Also, with the ePub books, Google has done that text-reflow for us, which should bring more reliable ePub-to-MOBI conversions for e-books with complex layouts.

  The ePub file converted to Kindle Mobi format will also allow the Kindle features of highlighting, note-adding, font-size adjustments and a better book-Search process, and the converted book will be included in search results when the full Kindle is searched for key words.

  There are currently at least three popular free tools that can convert ePub files to Kindle-compatible MOBI files:  (1) mobigen.exe (not intuitive);  (2) Mobipocket Reader 6.2  (loses some of the styling); and (3) Calibre, which has a nice interface, is easy to use, works with pc's and Macs, and gets the best results.

So, Calibre it is.  Many use it already for organizing computer records of their Kindle books or for retrieving combinations of newspaper feeds for their Kindles (not as easily navigated as the paid subscrptions).
  This blog article focuses on converting the ePub file-format to a Kindle-readable one (Mobi or Prc).

  If you don't already have this free software, created and maintained by Kovid Goyal, download Calibre here.

  GETTING THE FREE GOOGLE BOOK IN EPUB at Google's "Best of the Free" page.
  If you have a Kindle DXG, you might prefer to just get the PDF.  If the words on the PDF are too small or if you want to use the Kindle features mentioned, then get the ePub file.  IF you download an ePub file, then it's time for

  CALIBRE
  Open and run Calibre.  On the LEFT will be your choices for set-up when you're converting a document.  Hovering over anything will usually bring a help tip.

  Accepting defaults is fine.  The ability to change the "meta information" is nice - so you can have names and authors as you like them.  If there is no Table of Contents you can 'force' Calibre to create one.  But there's no need to do any of that.

  At the top are choices to "Edit meta information: as well as "Convert E-books." Follow the instructions, and then press the 'OK' button and the conversion will take a few minutes.  I did one and moved it to the Kindle DX and it looks great.

Also, Calibre gives you the option to optimize your converted file for a specific Kindle model.

So, yes, despite news stories and story commenters who still post that the free Google books are not accessible on the Kindle, they are, with this one added step, but it's also great to be able to customize so much of the layout if you want.  Play with the software a bit.


ALMOST ONE MILLION FREE GOOGLE BOOKS ARE ALREADY IN KINDLE FORMAT
and ready for download, thanks to an amazing resource:

THE INTERNET ARCHIVE's Free Google Books - downloadable in multiple formats (direct to Kindle too).

  You'll see, on their main Google Books page, lots of interesting features.   At the top center is a box with the title "Internet Archive's Google Books" and the number of items currently available for that set, currently 903,273.

  There's an advisory that the files have been downloaded from the Google site and uploaded to the Internet Archive by users...and that they've been made text- searchable as a finding aid.

Then you're given a link to "All items (most recently added first)."

From that, select an e-book, like the one in the image above.  After I saw one I wanted to download, I got my Kindle 3 (UK: K3) ("Kindle Keyboard) and:

  1. I pressed "Menu / Experimental Browser" and pressed "Menu /EnterURL" and then typed in the URL, using the Sym key, which brings up a number/symbol box that can stay up while you enter alpha characters and forward-slashes as needed, etc.

  2. Then I asked it to Go and it took me to the book's page, which loaded almost instantly (it's all text).

  3. On a 6" Kindle, the full page is set to fit the width so the characters are small, but the Kindle then displays a movable zoom box with a "+" sign. (When you don't see a zoom box but you want one, you press the 'Aa' key at the bottom.)

  4. Then, using the 5-way controller, I went to "Kindle" on the Internet Archive's book page, left column, and clicked on it, which brought up a dialog box asking if I wanted to download the book and I clicked on "Yes."

  5. It took only about 7 seconds to get the half-megabyte file to my Kindle since my Comcast is fast and therefore my WiFi is too.

That's all it took.  Might add a screenshot of the Kindle downloading but this blog entry is already image heavy.  You can also save the Kindle file to your computer and then move it to the Kindle's "Documents" folder via the USB cable that's a part of the Kindle power cord.

---

IF a free google book is not available from Internet Archive and you don't want to convert on with Calibre, then try RetroRead's Automated Free-Google-Book Conversions.

  The Kindle is covered well, with Calibre, Internet Archive and Retroread.

---

Related articles:
  What is the Internet Archive?
  Read foreign-language Google-books in English online
  Google describes its own book conversion process
  How to download any of the 30,000 Project Gutenberg books to your Kindle, direct.

---

---

Current Kindle Models for reference, plus free-ebook search links.
NOTES on newer Kindles.

US: Updated Kindle Fire Basic  7" tablet - $159 Kindle Fire HD 7" 16/32GB - $199/$249 Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 16/32GB - $299/$369 Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 4G 32/64GB - $499/$599 Kindle NoTouch ("Kindle") - $69/$89 Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - $119/$139 Kindle Paperwhite, 3G - $179/$199 Kindle Keybd 3G - $139/$159, Free but slow web Kindle DX - $379 $299, Free, slow web

UK: Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £69 Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - £109 Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149   Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - £109 Kindle Paperwhite 3G, UK - £169

OTHER International Kindle NoTouch Basic - $89 Kindle Touch WiFi - $139 Kindle Keybd 3G - $189   Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB France Boutique Kindle Deutschland - Kindle Store Italia - Kindle Store Spain - Kindle Store

Check often: Temporarily-free recently published Kindle books
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published free books, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

  *Click* to Return to the HOME PAGE.  Or click on the web browser's BACK button
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Free Kindle books (10/22) - 5 + discounted-book forum alerts

FREE/DISCOUNTED KINDLE BOOKS DISCOVERED BY FORUM MEMBERS

Oct. 22: - Saturday: 5 newly-free books


HTML5 for Publishers [, by Sanders Kleinfeld,
no customer reviews yet, $0.00

Amazon just announced the new Kindle Format 8 ("KF8") which will include HTML5 support, giving publishers much more flexibility and control over page layout.  Publishers will be getting guidelines soon, and this intro should be somewhat helpful.   Also HTML5 support is officially a part of the ePub standard.
  This overview of some of the features provided to ebook content providers is probably worth a look at the $0.00 price, especially when it's published by O'Reilly.  It was released mid-Oct, and the free promo may be over soon.




Kindle Daily Deal (Often U.S. only, unfortunately) (The Daily Deal link above changes at MIDNIGHT each day.
      Click it to see what the daily deal book is, at any time.)
Deeply Devoted (The Blue Willow Brides) by Maggie Brendan, 48 customer reviews, 4.4 stars
    Daily Deal until the end of Saturday 10/22:
      Friday's Price: $9.22
      Saturday's Discount: $7.23
      Saturday's Daily Deal Price: $1.99 (77% off)

Genre: Romantic fiction

---

LATEST DISCOUNTED Kindle books (some temporarily) -
  Forum-thread starter RandomizeME cautions, "This thread is [only] for discounts and price drops that readers find from publishers."  Another main finder is Emily Bronte.
  For 10/21-22

---

TEMPORARILY-Free Books:  Alerts from the Amazon Kindle forums - via the tireless "Happy Reader" Joyce, who is ever on the lookout on behalf of forum members.

  NOTE: The alerts are quoted from Joyce's collecting of mostly temporarily-free books.  They're *not* recommendations by anyone but are a popular, unfiltered daily set of forum release-alerts by Joyce, logged here for those who don't make it to the forums.  The eBooks can become no longer free within days, sometimes, within hours.  Thanks to Joyce for gathering and organizing them for us.

If, on this Home page listing (in orange), you see "MORE" books available,
* CLICK at the bottom to get the REST of any long listing of free books *

' Happy Reader "Joyce" says:

Bruin Redemption
Author: Alan Hahn
Genre: Sports

DESCRIPTION: Relive the Moment When the Bruins Won It All! After thirty-nine torturous, winless years, the Bruins finally returned home with their prize--but bringing the Stanley Cup back to Boston was no easy feat.The heated series, arguably the scrappiest in play off history, took a toll on the Black and Gold and their fans. Brutal hits and at-the-buzzer losses were enough to wane anyone's faith. Fans couldn't help but cringe as they watched their favorite team repeat their history of nightmarish defeats. 2011 was not going to be the year for them. Yet, the Bruins somehow pulled through, winning four out of the last five playoff games including a thrilling shut-out in Game 7. Not only did the Bruins fulfill their incredible wish, but they also won recognition as the only NHL team to ever win three games en route to the Stanley Cup. Bruin Redemption captures every moment of the Bruins' journey toward victory. With an in-depth background of the team's struggles and thrilling snapshots of the games leading up to the big win, readers will want to relive this unforgettable ride again and again.
*****

  MORE... (4 more books: Click on "MORE" just below)
*****

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[... CLICK HERE for MORE ... »]

Kindle News - 10/21/11 - Kindle Format 8. EFF 'clears' Amazon's Silk browser, Android tablet market share: big jump, Steve Jobs on Android, Amazon to do ao phone?

AMAZON'S NEW "KINDLE FORMAT 8"  (KF8)- with HTML5 Support ... Also, Android tablet sales growth

Despite what has effectively been a one-tablet market, FierceWireless' Phil Goldstein writes that research firm Strategy Analytics is reporting that the Android tablet market share grew from 2.3% to 26.9% in 12 months.

  And that's before the Kindle Fire hits.  The Kindle Fire is of course Android-based.  Google just intro'd Android 4.0, called "Ice Cream Sandwich" enticing buyers again with powerful memories of childhood's ideal-food types (which I didn't outgrow).  Android 4 bridges the differences between Android smartphones and "Honeycomb," which was designed to optimize use of tablet space.

  Andy Rubin, Google's sr. vp for mobile, said this week that there are 6 million tablets running Android but readily concedes that it's dwarfed by Apple's 30 million.  The operating system version "Ice Cream Sandwich" will eliminate the need for tablet-specific apps.  There's a link at the end of this blog entry to the news story on Steve Jobs'  promise to focus on destroying Android for stealing from Apple's work.

Kindle Format 8  ('KF8')
I first heard about the Kindle format enhancements from a tweet by the vigilant Mike Cane leading to his take on it.

  Amazon's announcement
  Amazon's MOBI format and the ePub format are HTML-based, but Amazon's addition of HTML5-based options will add flexibility and layout control missing from the current Mobi version7 at a time when ePub revision 3 has  finally been put in place to make for a more consistent experience on different reading systems.  (HTML5 is the base language of ePub3.)
  The KF8 format change from Mobi7 is also timed with the release of the Kindle Fire Android tablet.

The types of books that will benefit from KF8 are those that benefit from complex graphic layout -- textbooks, children's books, comics, graphics-oriented books, cookbooks, etc.  There'll be over 150 new formatting capabilities, including fixed layouts, nested tables, sidebars, etc.

  You can see the List of supported HTML tags and CSS elements, which will be very familiar to HTML programmers and gives an idea of what they'll be able to do in the way of page layout.

Essentially, the HTML5 support includes the following (from Amazon's table):

CSS3 support	Floating elements
Fixed layouts	Text on background images
Embedded fonts	Numbered and bulleted lists
Drop caps	And much more

Some important points in Amazon's KF8 FAQ

• Embedded fonts are supported, so those of us who couldn't stand the TOPAZ format (preferred by publishers who felt they wanted more control over the Look but who didn't seem to know how ugly those books could be and the software problems they could cause) have reason to be hopeful.
  
  
• The Kindle Publisher Tools for KF8 including KindleGen2 and Kindle Previewer 2 will be available soon. Publishers can still submit only what they did before and the conversion (w/o the special features) will be done, but they'll be getting, soon, Guidelines on how to take advantage of the new capabilities.  
  
  
• The Kindle Fire will be the first Kindle device to support KF8, and in the coming months Amazon will roll out KF8 to their latest generation e-Ink devices as well as their free Kindle reading apps.
  
  
• Mobi files: "All currently supported content will continue to work."
  
  
• "ALL Kindle books currently available in the Kindle Store will be available on Kindle Fire."
  
  
• Publishers won't have to provide two versions of titles, since the upcoming updates to the publishing tools will take care of that.  KindleGen2 will convert submitted content "so that it works on all Kindle devices and apps."
     Publishers will be able to preview, with Kindle Previewer 2, how their titles will look on the range of Kindle devices and apps.
  
    This would mean that current Kindles would be able to read the books formatted with KF8 but without seeing the enhancements that allow the many new features mentioned.

OTHER NEWS
I'll just give links to these for those interested in the many Kindle-related news stories on the Net over the last two days when I couldn't be here. The shorter links are noted at the end of each for Kindle-edition subscribers.

CNet's Seth Rosenblatt's headline is "Amazon's Silk browser: Now EFF approved. Really!"
  Customers can turn off the "cloud acceleration" feature if they have privacy concerns.  Most of it is aggregated information and it's more important that the Silk browser get you to secure sites fast (since they have slower processes) than to bring you back to their servers first, etc.  But some concerns remain.  (Link: cnet.co/silk-eff-ok )

Will Amazon produce a Kindle phone? (Link: cnet.co/amznphonemaybe )

Steve Jobs reveals to biographer Walter Isaacson his strong intent to destroy Android.  (Link: tcrn.ch/sjobs-android )
  The reactions in comments are interesting.  There's a fine line between "inspired by" and "stealing from"... (Two words: Xerox, PARC)



Kindle Touch 3G   Kindle Touch WiFi   Kindle Basic   (UK: KBasic)   Kindle Fire Kindle Keybd 3G   (UK: Kindle Keybd 3G)   K3 Special Offers   K3-3G Special Offers   DX

---

Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones   Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1 UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or £5 Max 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.

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Free Kindle books (10/20-10/21) - 43 + discounted-book forum alerts

FREE/DISCOUNTED KINDLE BOOKS DISCOVERED BY FORUM MEMBERS

Oct. 20-21: - This is for Thursday and Friday and will be maily the free ebooks and a link to discounted-book alerts, to make it easier on your eyes this time although people have said they like the forum discusison links.

Tip for Kindle-edition subscribers: These book lists that are done 5-6 times a week can take time to plow through, BUT if you look at the bottom of a Kindle blog-page, you'll see that you can click on the bottom line, middle area, to get a listing of articles -- this acts like a table of contents so that you don't have to go through each blog article, and at the sides in that bottom row are 'Previous' and 'Next' -- the left and right choices will let you just skip to the start of the Next or Previous article.  I hope that helps.



So, You Want to Start a Business?: 8 Steps to Take Before Making the Leap, by Edward D. Hess and Charles D. Goetz,
13 customer reviews, 4.8 stars $0.00



Kindle Daily Deal (Often U.S. only, unfortunately) (The Daily Deal link above changes at MIDNIGHT each day.
      Click it to see what the daily deal book is, at any time.)
A History of the World in 6 Glasses, by Tom Standage, 88 customer reviews, 4.4 stars
    Daily Deal until the end of Friday 10/21:
      Thursday's Price: $8.61
      Friday's Discount: $6.62
      Friday's Daily Deal Price: $1.99 (77% off)

"[The Economist's technology editor] Standage starts with a bold hypothesis -- that each epoch, from the Stone Age to the present, has had its signature beverage—and takes readers on an extraordinary trip through world history...[He] has the ability to connect the smallest detail to the big picture and a knack for summarizing vast concepts in a few sentences. " --Publishers Weekly

"Historian Standage explores the significant role that six beverages have played in the world's history.  Few realize the prominence of beer in ancient Egypt, but it was crucial to both cultural and religious life throughout the Fertile Crescent, appearing even in the Gilgamesh epic..." --Mark Knoblauch, Booklist

---

LATEST DISCOUNTED Kindle books (some temporarily) -
  Forum-thread starter RandomizeME cautions, "This thread is [only] for discounts and price drops that readers find from publishers."  Another main finder is Emily Bronte.
  For 10/19-21

---

TEMPORARILY-Free Books:  Alerts from the Amazon Kindle forums - via the tireless "Happy Reader" Joyce, who is ever on the lookout on behalf of forum members.

  NOTE: The alerts are quoted from Joyce's collecting of mostly temporarily-free books.  They're *not* recommendations by anyone but are a popular, unfiltered daily set of forum release-alerts by Joyce, logged here for those who don't make it to the forums.  The eBooks can become no longer free within days, sometimes, within hours.  Thanks to Joyce for gathering and organizing them for us.

If, on this Home page listing (in orange), you see "MORE" books available,
* CLICK at the bottom to get the REST of any long listing of free books *

' Happy Reader "Joyce" says:

[Oct. 20, early (9)]

Overcoming Redundancy
Author: Gordon Adams
Genre: Self-Help - Trade

DESCRIPTION: So you've been made redundant? Join the crowd. Redundancy is now a common life experience, especially in a global recession! Almost a quarter of adults will be affected by redundancy during their lifetime. But you are not a victim. What matters now is how you react to the challenge. Overcoming redundancy will help you make the right decisions at this crucial time and it will help you choose the right future direction. Overcoming redundancy contains advice from survivors - from those who have been made redundant and have not only survived but turned it to their advantage. Many now look back on redundancy, with the benefit of hindsight, as the best thing that ever happened to them. Use this book to learn from their experience and advice. Redundancy is an intensely emotional experience. It can affect your self-esteem and motivation. You are only human if you feel a sense of anger, betrayal or loss when you are made redundant. Overcoming redundancy will help you cope with the social and emotional impacts of redundancy. It will also provide valuable tips on managing the financial effects of redundancy. And most importantly it will help you look forwards, not backwards. If you've been made redundant, reading this book is the first step towards bouncing back. Good luck!

*****

Diary of a Discontent
Author: Alexander Lurikov
Genre: Contemporary Fiction

DESCRIPTION: In this defining work of fiction by Alexander Lurikov, a disillusioned man records his thoughts about life in a world from which he feels increasingly alienated. He spends his days wandering through the city, spying on his beautiful neighbor, impersonating a college professor, and writing controversial essays for the local newspaper - all the while dreaming of a pseudonymous existence. Though he is aware of the sadness and despair that have crept into his life, he seems oblivious to the humor that accompanies his various endeavors.

  MORE... ( 41 more books: Click on "MORE" just below)
*****

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Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

[... CLICK HERE for MORE ... »]

Amazon finally offers trade-in incentive for older Kindles

EARLIER KINDLE E-READERS CAN BE TRADED IN FOR ... A TABLET, SAYS DAILY NEWS CORNER

  One could ask, "What happened to the idea of keeping separate, as meeting different needs, the e-Ink readers and Amazon's new tablet (though Amazon doesn't use that word)?"

  However, that isn't precisely the case, as it turns out (despite the Daily News Corner headline), and some Kindle 1, Kindle 2, and DX (2nd generation) users MAY be happy to find that they can now trade in their older Kindles for credit toward a KFire or a later Kindle e-reader ... or almost anything else.

  The Daily News Corner's Mark Schnitzler writes that Amazon is offering "anywhere between $28 and $135 in store credit for those choosing to trade in their current Kindle models."

  So, ACTUALLY, it's not the idea of trading in older models specifically to get a new model of the "Kindle family" since the trade-in is part of the overall trade-in program, which I wrote about May 22 when Amazon added Electronics to its general Trade-in program.

  NOTE, however, that at that time, NO E-readers were included in product listings for trade-ins, although tablets were.  If interested in how the trade-in program works, you can see several info links at that earlier story.  So it's intriguing that they are finally offering customers Kindle trade-ins or trade-ups.

  Did you note the text in that last image?  A white 2nd generation Kindle DX (not the Graphite model) in "like-new" shape can get owners up to $111.75 in gift card account credit (gift cards can be gifts for yourself).  The Graphite model can get up to $135 in credit.  Personally, I'd never give up my DX Graphite.  I use it for eyesight-saving qualities when reading PDFs and figure tables with small fonts, and it's very good for sheet music.

  Going from the DX trade-in we're brought to the listing of Electronics Trade-in items sorted by popularity and, as it turns out, currently headed by recent 3rd generation Kindles.

  Here's a page (via the Search mechanism) for listing mainly "Kindle" trade-in items although there are other models that show up despite my search for only "kindle"...

  So, you CAN trade in an older Kindle model now for a more recent Kindle e-reader or anything else you'd like, since you get general store credit in a gift card.  I can't say the the trade-in amounts are particularly large, but they can be worth 50% or more off the newest coming lower-cost e-Ink models, depending on whether or not you choose ereaders with "Special Offers" and screensaver ads.

  I should reiterate that, as mentioned in an earlier article on the Kindle Touch w/ 3G & WiFi vs the "Kindle Keyboard" (meaning "Kindle 3" w/ 3G & WiFi) -- while the older keyboard Kindle included free 3G web access to the entire Net, albeit slowly, this feature is not included with the Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi model. Web access via 3G is limited to the Kindle Store and to Wikipedia, on the Kindle Touch.  Many of us think it's because the Touchscreen and faster processor would make web lookups more common and frequent and, since Amazon pays for the 3G access, it wouldn't be cost-effective for them.

So, if you have an older Kindle or two lying about, unused, you can get a bit of credit on these toward something else and someone else will be able to use yours, refurbished for a very decent price (refurbished units are tested, repaired as needed, and carry very similar warranties at Amazon).


Kindle Touch 3G   Kindle Touch WiFi   Kindle Basic   (UK: KBasic)   Kindle Fire
Kindle Keybd 3G   (UK: Kindle Keybd 3G)   K3 Special Offers   K3-3G Special Offers   DX

---

Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or £5 Max 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 Prime adds PBS day-after-broadcast videos + FoxTV shows. Two unusual memories of Steve Jobs. Kindle Daily Deal 10/19

Amazon adds NEW content to PRIME from PBS and others.

 There's an announcement on the main store page today, which I'll quote here, in part.

' ... We have more good news for Amazon Prime members – Prime Instant Video is growing again.  We've now licensed TV programs from PBS including day-after broadcast shows like Frontline and NOVA, more than 1,000 episodes of shows like Masterpiece, Antiques Roadshow, and popular Ken Burns documentaries The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz, and, for a limited time, the first episode of Prohibition.  PBS joins recently announced FOX television shows 24, Arrested Development, The X-Files, Ally McBeal, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The Wonder Years. '

  They'll be adding Malcolm in the Middle, King of the Hill, and episodes from Julia Child's classic cooking series, The French Chef, and will continue to add new Prime Instant Video titles.  Prime membership remains $79 a year and includes free two-day shipping on "millions of items" (almost anything that's shipped from their own warehouses).

  Basically, all these added videos will be streamable at no added cost for those on a Prime membership.  The Amazon Fire will be one way to view them on an affordable portable device.



Kindle Daily Deal (Often U.S. only, unfortunately) (The Daily Deal link above changes at MIDNIGHT each day.
      Click it to see what the daily deal book is, at any time.)
Death and the Lit Chick (A St. Just Mystery), by G.M. Malliet, 17 customer reviews, 4.3 stars
    Daily Deal until the end of Wednesday 10/19:
      Tuesday's Price: $9.19
      Wednesday's Discount: $7.20
      Wednesday's Daily Deal Price: $1.99 (78% off)

The Amazon editor who wrote this did an especially good job:
  "A sure-fire hit for old-school mystery fans, Death and the Lit Chick tracks Detective Chief Inspector St. Just's flustering murder investigation in a castle full of cagey mystery connoisseurs who live and breathe malicious murder and artful alibis."

  From a review: "...We are treated to an old-fashioned Agatha Christie-style mystery in which all the suspects are gathered under one roof.  Lots of humor and a bit of "guess who this writer is" make this one a good choice for readers who enjoy intelligent cozies and traditional mysteries. --School Library Journal


BOOKENDS: TWO ESPECIALLY INTERESTING MEMORIES OF STEVE JOBS
With the book on Steve Jobs by Isaacson generating much interest, with articles that don't indicate an unnaturally hagiographic focus for a very complex man, I enjoyed reading today a set of memories in two parts by international photographer, Jeffrey Aaronson, who was assigned by Newsweek to photograph young Jobs when they were both 29 and Jobs was not generally keen to be photographed.

Part 1 (Link: bit.ly/sj-1 ) and Part 2 (Link: bit.ly/sj-2 ), by Becky Green Aaronson.

  The other was a short piece by Christopher Hynes, who recounts a sweetly ironic moment a couple of months ago (Link: bit.ly/sj-3 ), and commenters to the article hope that staff is able to find the family who had no idea who it was that did them that small favor.


Kindle Touch 3G   Kindle Touch WiFi   Kindle Basic   (UK: KBasic)   Kindle Fire
Kindle Keybd 3G   (UK: Kindle Keybd 3G)   K3 Special Offers   K3-3G Special Offers   DX

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For daily free ebooks, check the following links:

Temporarily-free books - Non-classics USA: by:    Publication Date   Late-listed    Bestselling   High-ratings UK: PubDate   Popular What is 3G? and "WiFi"?       Battery Care Highly-rated under $1,  Newest: $1-$2, $2-$3

Most Popular Free K-Books U.S. & Int'l (NOT UK):    Top 100 free UK-Only:    Top 100 free USEFUL for your Kindle (U.S. only, currently):   99c Notepad 1.1,   99c Calculator,   99c Calendar,   99c Converter

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Free Kindle books: (10/18) - 47 + discounted-book-forum alerts - Update

UPDATED POST ON FREE/DISCOUNTED KINDLE BOOKS DISCOVERED BY FORUM MEMBERS

Oct. 18: - I wasn't here most of Tuesday, and after 1 book in the morning, Joyce discovered another 6 through the day, and then 40 more, late evening.



Kindle Daily Deal (Often U.S. only, unfortunately) (The Daily Deal link above changes at MIDNIGHT each day.
      Click it to see what the daily deal book is, at any time.)
The Phoenix Apostles (Seneca Hunt Mystery, by Lynn Sholes and Joe Moore, 5 customer reviews, 4.8 stars
    Daily Deal until the end of Tuesday 10/18:
      Monday's Price: $9.99
      Tuesday's Discount: $8.00
      Tuesday's Daily Deal Price: $1.99 (80% off)

"In the non-stop thriller, The Phoenix Apostles, magazine journalist Seneca Hunt is reporting on the opening of Montezuma’s tomb in Mexico City when the dig team learns that the remains of the Aztec emperor are missing. Within moments of the discovery, an apparent terrorist attack kills everyone at the site. Seneca barely escapes the carnage and begins a hair-raising investigation into the cause of the tragedy. " --Amazon editor

A memory brought up by the description
That description interested me because something like this happened in 1997 at The Queen Hatshepsut temple in Egypt, which I did visit in late 2009, remembering that event.  Over 50 tourists arrived early morning and were about to climb ramps and steps to the various levels, accompanied by guards and police, when they were all mowed down by terrorists, shot and then stabbed in case any were still alive.  I think one policeman survived.  Needless to say tourism was way down for years afterward.  While walking the site, I couldn't help but think of what those tourists had gone through a dozen years before that.

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LATEST DISCOUNTED Kindle books (some temporarily) -
  Forum-thread starter RandomizeME cautions, "This thread is [only] for discounts and price drops that readers find from publishers."  Another main finder is Emily Bronte.
  For 10/17-18

A notable discount on a book with high ratings is this 99c book:
Alert by M. Ratcheson
  "In Her Name (Omnibus Edition) is back down to $.99. I believe the last time I noticed the price it was $4.99.
  It contains the first three books of the series."
  [ It has 165 customer reviews, and 4.6 stars   Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy ]

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TEMPORARILY-Free Books:  Alerts from the Amazon Kindle forums - via the tireless "Happy Reader" Joyce, who is ever on the lookout on behalf of forum members.

  NOTE: The alerts are quoted from Joyce's collecting of mostly temporarily-free books.  They're *not* recommendations by anyone but are a popular, unfiltered daily set of forum release-alerts by Joyce, logged here for those who don't make it to the forums.  The eBooks can become no longer free within days, sometimes, within hours.  Thanks to Joyce for gathering and organizing them for us.

If, on this Home page listing (in orange), you see "MORE" books available,
* CLICK at the bottom to get the REST of any long listing of free books *

' Happy Reader "Joyce" says:

Innovative Business Solutions based on Design Strategy (Collection)
Author: Robert Brunner
Genre: Business - Investing

DESCRIPTION: Three remarkable eBooks take you to the cutting edge of business innovation, design strategy, and value creation! Predictable Magic: Unleash the Power of Design Strategy to Transform Your Business introduces a breakthrough process for crafting rewarding, empowering customer experiences that create deep emotional connections with your products, services, and brands. Do You Matter?: How Great Design Will Make People Love Your Company shows how to build a truly design-driven company: one that can consistently create designs that drive sustainable business performance improvements. Finally, in Disrupt: Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation in Your Business, frog design's Luke Williams integrates powerful creativity techniques with business discipline in a five-step program for identifying disruptive opportunities and successfully executing on them!


EDIT TO ADD [ 6 books were added later and then 40 more, late evening]

  MORE... ( 46 more books: Click on "MORE" just below)
*****

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