Free Kindle books (Jan. 9-12-- 1,504 books), NON_angry-birds, Discount alerts, Specials

FREE KINDLE BOOKS, DISCOUNT ALERTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS BY FORUM MEMBERS JAN 9-10 + SOME RANDOM KINDLE NEWS

This week's Free Books from Joyce's multi-daily threads, going back to Monday, Jan. 9 through Jan. 12 (Thursday morning)
  These are newly announced (this week), temporarily-free books, along with recommendation-listings by forum members + discounted-book alerts as of Jan. 9-12
  Some of them are free for only a few days, others maybe two weeks.  ['Doublecheck the prices always.  Going backwards:

' JAN. 9-12, MONDAY-THURSDAY - 1,504 free books

  . Thurs., Jan. 12 - 303 books, followed by members' recommendations from this set.

  . Wed., Jan. 11 - 541 books, followed by members' recommendations from this set.

  . Tues., Jan. 10 - 350 books, followed by members' recommendations from that set from this set.

  . Mon., Jan. 9   - 310 books, followed by members' recommendations from this set. '

An unusual freebie
iBird Lite 2 from the Amazon Android appStore.

  This app was indirectly recommended by forum member ManyDawgs - The Snow Catche in the Discounted-Books alert thread, except that it's not a Kindle book but an Android app for those who own the Kindle Fire and other Android devices, including phones.

  It's offered at the Amazon Android AppStore, at $0.00.  The store is still available only to customers located in the U.S.
  I wonder what happened with that global AppStore test people noticed one night a couple of months ago. ?

  However, the free app version is a Sample from the full app/database that was chosen as Macworld's "Best Reference App of 2009."

  Sample vs Full - details:
  While the Full app includes more than 900 species of No. American birds, along with 1,000 drawings and 2,500 photos (and several hours of bird songs that can draw those birds closer to you for photos or to watch), this free sample app includes just 30 species of birds, though there are "50 illustrations, 127 photos, 58 audio recordings, 30 range maps, and thousands of facts to help you identify some of the most popular birds in North America."  It would be a good way to see if you want the full program or not.

The database of illustrations, photos and sounds must first be downloaded from the iBird server, they say, so a normal fast connection is needed. (It took only a few minutes on my WiFi with Comcast Internet, but the full paid app's database would take quite a bit longer.)  After that, no connection is needed.

With the full program you can select one bird type to download facts on but since you normally would want to ID one when when you see it, you're not likely to have WiFi in an outdoor setting where birds are.

The discount alert, though, was actually for yesterday's noted drop in price (temporary or permanent? -- it doesn't say,) from $9.95 to $4.99 for iBird Pro 2 - the full database.

  I tried the free one and then went straight to the full app at the new price of $4.99 because I've been taking some walks nearby and wondering what kind of birds those are.  I'm not a bird watcher.  Just curious and they've done great job with the app.  It makes me wish I'd paid more attention earlier.  It also links to other web pages for more info on a specific bird.

  At any rate, the full app was released September and it has 47 customer reviews with 5 stars average. Unusual ratings for a paid app.
  The Free Sample App was released in November (probably to encourage people to try to see if they like the app) and it has only 2 customer reviews with a rating of 5.0 also.

NOTE: The full database takes up 400KB - that's almost half a gig, and the Kindle Fire has only about 5.5 gigs available for all user data files, so that's a consideration.


  SIDE-NOTE: re WiFi-only devices (like Kindle Fire and the first iPad + Nook tablet) and "phone 3G tethering" :

  The iBirds app is for the Kindle Fire and other Android tablets and phones.  The Kindle Fire is WiFi only.  Some of us have taken advantage of the feature that most of the 3G carriers have now, of having a capable newer smartphone share its 3G access with other devices via the phone's creation of a WiFi "personal hotspot" for them, turning that "tethering" feature on as well as configuring it for a password that the Kindle Fire will enter on its end when seeing your phone's "hotspot"...

 I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 with AT&T, from Amazon Wireless (bought when Amazon had its one-penny price on cell phones November), which does this, when I make sure the phone is not connected to my WiFi and when I turn on Make Personal Hotspot on the phone after making a name and password to access it.  AT&T has a $20/mo. plan (on top of regular data plan) to provide support for something like up to 5 devices this way, and it works well, wherever there's good reception. Similar phones from other services should work, but check with them to make sure.  The AT&T purchase of the phone is $100 for new accts and $129 with existing individual ones.

  Where I live, there is now 4G also!, with AT&T, so it's very fast (up to 10x faster than 3G). This way, any WiFi-only devices with you when you're out can still have WiFi access wherver there's a 3G or 4G signal via a "tethering"-capable smartphone with you and when the carrier supports the tethering function.

My Samsung S2 requires no "rooting" for this -- it's a built-in feature.

  Bear in mind that the phone will use up the battery faster when it's providing a hotspot for your other devices. [END of Side-Note]

To sum it up: I highly recommend the free sample iBird app to see what can be done with these apps.

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LATEST DISCOUNTED Kindle books (some temporarily) -

Ongoing Forum Discount-Alerts thread, starting from the last exit point:

  Jan. 8-11


TODAY's KINDLE DAILY DEAL
Today's Kindle Daily Deal is His Last Duchess (Link: amzn.to/his-last-duchess ), by Gabrille Kimm, with 16 customer reviews (all seem to be review copies, some to other authors) and an average rating of 4.7 stars.
  Priced at $9.99 Wednesday, with a $9.00 discount today, it's $0.99 today (Thursday) (90% off)

Historical novel about Lucrezia de Medici and Renaissance Italy -- Tuscany and Ferrara.  I'm taking a chance on this one becaues I took a 3-week trip driving around Tuscany a few years ago and have a special interest in things that have to do with Florence...


Reminders
  . Amazon's specific mostly 99c Kindle books page
  . Amazon's monthly 100 Kindle book deals, from $1.99 to $3.99


UPDATE: LATEST temporarily-free non-classics for January 2012



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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Check often: Temporarily-free recently published ones
  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.

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