Special Pages - Reports

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Free Kindle books Wed. Feb 29 -- 360+ chosen by forum members from 420+ listed (some duplicates if popular) - Blog Feed was Halted to Kindle devices and blog-feeds due to long e-books listing

This is a late Feb. 29 listing blog article that Google Feeds did not post, stopping the feed flow for 4 days.

  Therefore, it's showing on top, as I edited it to remove the long free-books listing from the blog article (placing it on a separate type of blogger page) to get the feed running again, and I did it after doing two March 4 postings and Google sees it as "latest blog article"... This means the longer listings these days will not go out on feeds and people will need to click a link to see them.  But using the links requires a wifi connection anyway.

FREE KINDLE BOOKS from Joyce and Annie B's daily forum threads (or equivalent thread while Joyce takes a rest and Nospin steps in to help) of temporarily-free Kindle book alerts and forumner recommendations.

First, FREE for probably a very limited time My Kindle Fire book, by Jim Cheshire which is $0.00, for a day or 4, list price $19.99. 288 pages and "optimized for larger screens."
  27 customer reviews, 4.6 stars average


Of course, Kindle Deal of the Day, which changes at ~midnight each day... I removed Wednesday's book from this post-Google-Halt revision.



Also, 420+ newly and temporarily free Kindle books released Wed., 2/29/12.
  There are 360+ suggestions for consideration, in listings by forum members,
  plus a link to more forum pages of them.

As usual, I'm drawing attention to the Kindle forum members' recommendations, which are done daily, and this will give you an idea where to to find the daily threads the rest of the time, although the various threads are proliferating lately.   I plan to draw attention to these when there's time.
  Some of these are free for only a few hours or a few days, others a bit longer.
*
Double-check* the prices always.

  Lists by forum members are compiled from the several forum postings they make while plowing through the titles on websites -- All their intermittent recommendations for a day are listed together under their forum names so we can easily see sets by each in these public forum threads.

  I also include some of the duplicated picks, as they give a sense of what strikes people, in general, as worth picking up.

  If you can see that some forum members choose the types of books you like, that'll help, and if you can see that any choose the types of books you may not find as interesting, that should help too!

  If a book is free for only ONE day and is no longer free, let me know and I may be here and able to strike it off the list for today.

  Listing-types and some genre identification
  Many also specify the genre involved, which is very helpful.
  This approach has been useful for some readers, when I have the time to do them.

  Kindle-Edition subscribers (thank you for the support) should use their computers at the web page to use these free-book links, at kindleworld.blogspot.com, OR maybe read the Feb. 17 blog article on how to handle linked free-book webpages on the Kindle. (Link: bit.ly/kwt0217 )


  MORE... ( If you are reading this from the main blog page, the links and discussion of temporarily newly-free books and discounted-book forum-alerts link(s) are on a SEPARATE PAGE now. (See below.)

 This change was necessary, as the The GOOGLE BLOGGER FEED stopped being sent to KINDLE DEVICES and Google READER because the length of the list of free Kindle book title recommendations became Too Long
*****

So, to see the rest of the (latest) listing that was posted here from the Kindle forum members, click on FREE KINDLE-BOOKS LISTING: Latest blogged from Kindle forums blogged from Kindle forums.


Both the GoogleReader and Kindle-Editions subscriber feeds were halted by Google as of Feb. 29 due to excessive listing of free book titles in one post.  So this is the method I'll use for the longer ones.

Apologies for the lapse between Feb. 29 and March 4. There were two postings on March 3 and it was then that I noticed the feed had stopped BEFORE anyone subscribing to the blog saw the listing of free Kindle books released on Feb 29 and recommendations from the forums.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Harry Potter series in Kindle to be in Libraries; Also Kindle bargain alert: One-Volume Collector's Edition of Tolkien Lord of the Rings + a good reference work

The Leaky Cauldron, a huge Harry Potter Social Network, points us to the news at TheBookseller.com that Pottermore has signed an exclusive worldwide e-book and digital audiobook distribution agreement with Overdrive for public and school libraries for J K Rowling's Harry Potter series.

  These aren't available yet but can be pre-ordered by libraries and schools.
"...the e-books will be available in ePub on PCs, Macs, Android devices, iPhones, iPads and Blackberries, plus reading devices including the Kindle and Nook, with Kindle support in the US only.  [The Nook has no international purchase arrangements at all.]   The audiobooks will be available in MP3 format.

Overdrive will "manage hosting and digital fulfillment for libraries" involving editions in 21 languages and over 18,000 public and school libraries globally.

What a breath of fresh air after Penguin Group's latest activities, library-wise, and also when I remember that  HarperCollins, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster all do not want their e-books available in libraries unless somehow it's made much harder for people to borrow them (appearing personally in the library, no matter how far away, etc.).  More on that when I see it.


AN ALERT TO A ONE-VOlUME COLLECTOR'S EDITION (KINDLE) BARGAIN PRICE for what may be a limited time

Regular commenter Mike Perry alerts us to a February 15 Kindle book release of the One-volume Collector's Edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, currently $9.99 instead of the Digital List Price of $20.

  After getting Mike's alert, I did a Kindle book search on this one-volume set and it didn't come up.  That may be why there is only one review of this Kindle Collector's edition and the review is mainly a complaint that it has been $20.  The review is dated February 1, although Amazon's Product Details says this Collectors Edition was published February 15, 2012.

  The 2,059 customer reviews include reviews of other editions, including the hardcover 50th Anniversary edition one.

  Mike points out that there is a full Table of Contents plus maps and that even the Text-to-Speech (TTS) works.  He adds that the Kindle edition of The Hobbit is also marked down, from $13.95 to $7.59, but that's not as striking a deal.

Mike Perry is the author of Untangling Tolkien:  A Chronology and Commentary for Lord of the Rings [Paperback]  (No Kindle version yet).

 It's the only book-length chronology of LOTR.
A bit from the description:
   "Beginning over 1400 years before the major events in Tolkien's epic, it describes, year-by-year, the amazing and imaginative background history that Tolkien created for his masterpiece.  Then for the main narrative, it becomes a day-by-day reference, describing what each character does on that day and all the places where those events are described in Tolkien's writings.  You can find out, for instance, what Merry and Pippin are doing as Sam perpares rabbit stew on the morning of March 7.
...
... A few facts illustrate how helpful this chronology is.  Most of the narrative is a deliberately confusing sea of next days and third days that leave readers as confused as the tale's main characters.  The middle 60 percent of The Lord of the Rings gives the current date only once.  In the narrative as a whole, the date is given only 23 times, or once for every 43 pages, and most of those come when the plot is moving slowly.  That's why those who want to dig deeper and understand better what Tolkien was saying will find this book a must-have."


For Wednesday, I'll do a roundup of forum recommendations of free books from the last day or two, with links.



Kindle Touch 3G, US-only   Kindle Touch WiFi (US)   Kindle Touch WiFi-Only, outside US    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 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.

  *Click* to Return to the HOME PAGE.  Or click on the web browser's BACK button

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Kindle Touch and its X-Ray Feature. Kiplinger on Best Color E-Readers

KINDLE TOUCH AND ITS X-RAY FEATURE
[Revised: Eliminated the one-day Oscar apps header]

I've been spending more time with the Kindle Touch (photo from physorg.com) because I finally went back to reading the Steve Jobs book by Isaacson, and there are SO MANY characters whose function and place I don't remember the 2nd or 3rd time I run across them, that I've been using the X-Ray feature more and really enjoying it for a book like this.  I took screenshots but will add them later as am rushed right now.

But, essentially, for a guy like Andy Hertzfeld, say, who was a member of the Macintosh team in the 80s, I can:
  . click on the top center of the page to get the Menu and options and
      choose "X-Ray" at the bottom-right
      to see a list of all names mentioned on that page and then
  . click on his name to get a Wikipedia summary on him
      (with a link to the full article) and,
        below that, a scrolling list of each mention of Hertzfeld
        in that book, in page/location order,
        with surrounding words for context and a link to each of those pages.

  I saw that although he was doing intense work for Jobs in late 1979 to March 1984 and remained close to him after leaving, the Wiki summary tells what he's done since then, and the last part reads:

  "Hertzfeld joined Google in 2005, and in 2011 was the key designer of the Circles user interface in Google+."

  Google Plus and its Circles are something new in the last year, and many of us find ourselves using them this last year, so he is still very much in the zone.

  I do like the X-Ray feature for non-fiction especially.


KIPLINGER'S MONEY POWER ON "The best color e-readers"
Kiplinger's Money Power's Jeff Bertolucci chooses the Kindle Fire, mentioning the "vibrant color display" -- and, about the 7" form factor, says --
' And smaller can be better.  The paperback-like Fire weighs nearly 7 ounces less than the iPad and is easier to hold with one hand.  The weight difference may not seem like a lot, but it matters when you're watching a two-hour flick or spending the afternoon reading a novel.

Recent software upgrades have corrected many early shortcomings.  Given the Fire's software and content, it gets our nod as the best of the current crop of color e-readers. '
He finds the Nook Tablet's screen is the best of the roundup and the unit has better specs but that the Kindle Fire has the better overall package, and he feels that the Kobo Vox isn't "as easy to navigate" and that the touch screen is "a bit balky."



Kindle Touch 3G, US-only   Kindle Touch WiFi (US)   Kindle Touch WiFi-Only, outside US    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 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.

  *Click* to Return to the HOME PAGE.  Or click on the web browser's BACK button

Friday, February 24, 2012

Kindle News: Amazon's removal of 5,000 IPG Kindle books (+ AWS pricing)

PublishersLunch's Michael Cader reported this week that Amazon removed Kindle versions of approximately 5,000 e-books from Independent Publishers Group (IPG) after talks broke down when IPG, which represents hundreds of small presses, refused Amazon's "demand" for larger discounts.

  This is happening before the Big 6 publishing houses' Agency Model agreements (responsible for price hikes of about 50% the last 2 yrs) are up for renewal and renegotiations.

  When Amazon did something similar with Macmillan in January 2010, removing Buy buttons for Macmillan e-books because pricing would be too high in their minds, customers wanted the e-books no matter what the cost, so Amazon gave in to the higher pricing although, at that time, they would have been paying publishers and authors more under the older traditional contract -- but the issue has been control over who sets the prices.

  Generally, Amazon goes for lower customer prices for most things they offer, which the Big6 felt devalued their hardcover books.

  One of the books included is the Kindle version of the American Cancer Society Nutrition Guide.  The print versions would not be affected though.

  With the small presses, Amazon would seem to have more leverage when it comes to pricing, though I hadn't read that they're specifically going for lower pricing.  They're under pressure from Wall Street and shareholders to get better margins.  And of course the middlemen (IDG) and publishers and authors don't want smaller ones.

  The New York Times's David Streitfeld writes that "At the same time, it is committed to selling e-books as cheaply as possible as a way to preserve the dominance of its Kindle devices" (and for reasons described in an article referenced below on their new and future pricing for Web Services).

 The IPG group feels Amazon's new terms are "unsustainable" for them but they don't want their small press publishers to say what those terms are although they describe them as "substantially" affecting the publishers' revenue.  Amazon may have asked them not to say what it is during negotiations, which have ended.  The ball is in Amazon's court.

 IPG, as a distributor is a sort of 'middle man' which has made life easier for Amazon in the past as they could go through one party instead of dealing with a few hundred individual publishers.  IPG's client-publishers, who use IPG for distribution of paper books, are required to agree to IPG "distributing" any e-book versions also, and IPG is said to take 10% of the Amazon royalty for that.

 Now that Amazon is wading into the publishing arena, they may be looking at things differently.  Also, Amazon is responsible for about 60% of the sales of IPG e-books, apparently.
  There's no doubt that publishers will be concerned about Amazon's dominance of the e-book market and the effect on their revenues and control, though Amazon's market share has decreased as others like B&N and Kobo catch up in this area.


RELATED ?  "Amazon Brings Price-Cutter Mentality to AWS" (Amazon Web Services)
Information Week's Charles Babcock looks at Amazon's insistence on lower pricing in general, and I couldn't help but wonder about the conflict between publishers and Amazon on Amazon's preference for lower e-book pricing.

The parts of the analysis of Amazon "price-cutter mentality" that struck me were these:
' Amazon.com is a unique company that has built a huge online retail business through aggressive pricing. It started with hawking books below store prices. It is now suspected of selling its popular Kindle Fire tablet at cost or even below cost, in order to build a clientele for future digital content downloads. And it has kept prices low on many other fronts. Now Amazon may be bringing its low-cost attitude to cloud computing, as seen in its Feb. 6 decision to lower prices on S3 cloud storage.

"We're highly predictable," said [Amazon VP Adam] Selipsiky, during a recent interview in InformationWeek's San Francisco offices. "We take the cost savings we produce and pass them on to the customer."  When Amazon lowered S3 prices, it didn't just apply the reduction to new subscriptions, but to existing subscribers as well.

This attitude is part of Amazon's DNA--and has earned the company periodic hits to its stock price
...
... Amazon's profit margins are slim, 2.4%, as it pours money into building its business. It's hiring people to staff 17 planned or recently completed fulfillment centers, and its head count increased 67% in 2011 to 56,200 full and part time workers. "We are investing in many different areas. The majority of new employees go into operations and customer service in support of that growth," said CFO Tom Szkutak during the earnings call.

Oracle, by contrast, likes profit margins closer to 30% and even bricks and mortar Wal-Mart would be unhappy with anything lower than its current 6% margins.
...
... [Selipsky said,] " A lot of technology business is a good business with high margins. But that's not Amazon’s strategy. We've lowered prices 18 times over six years. Amazon's approach reflects its roots in the business of retail. We drive the scale of business and lower prices. That part of the strategy is continuous across the company," whether it's selling Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne series or virtual servers and disk drives, he said. He wouldn't comment on which service might be next – DynamoDB? Elastic Block Store? ...

Update - When a current contract comes up for renewal, it's not normally surprising that one or both of the parties will want a better deal.  With the new distribution-realities of e-books, it could be that Amazon is counting on IPG to realize they may need to take a smaller cut from their handling of e-book availability than before without it badly affecting authors or small press publishers.

  I see an article from TIME that has a balanced summary of the situation and then ends with:
' Despite Amazon’s strong-arm tactics, it’s hard to fault the retailer for leveraging an opportunity in an industry ripe for disruption.  Amazon has been an innovator in a field that has dinosaur leanings.  Its genius has been its cheap, varied and seemingly limitless offerings from the likes of Random House to the solo book purveyor nestled in the midlands of England.  And it pioneered new concepts in publishing, such as “Author Stores” and an imprint that will work directly with authors. '

I hope they all come up with a decent compromise soon.


Kindle Touch 3G, US-only   Kindle Touch WiFi (US)   Kindle Touch WiFi-Only, outside US    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 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.

  *Click* to Return to the HOME PAGE.  Or click on the web browser's BACK button

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Kindle world news: B&N 'matches' KFire price with scaled down tablet. What it can and cannot do. Update

B&N MATCHES KINDLE FIRE PRICE POINT

B&N did what's been predicted the last week or so and announced a $199 NOOK Tablet with the following changes to match more closely the Kindle Fire pricing and specs.

RAM: 1 gig down to 512M (this is what the iPad2 still uses)
Storage: 16 gigs down to 8 gigs

Strange partitionings of storage space by B&N
However, it has kept the microSD expansion card option, which has been crucial for the Nook because B&&N partitioned its storage area so that only 1 gig was available for the user's own files that are not bought from B&N and which are side-loaded via USB connection.  That includes videos.  The other 15 gigs of storage space was kept for B&N content, and the files (even books you purchased from B&N) were now hidden from the customer so that you couldn't see them even with a USB connection to a computer using a file manager for transfers.

This change was finally noticed (the repartitioning was first done for the older NookColor tablets produced after April-May 2011 and then it was done for the Nook Tablet announced last November) about a week after the release of the Nook Tablet last November.  As a NookColor owner, I did see forum notes from customers confused by the sudden disappearance of Nookbook filenames and less space for their own files, earlier.

  There was quite a bit of unhappiness over that decision.  The Nook tablets were more locked into store content than Amazon's Kindle Fire is (and the Nook B&N content hidden from view, probably so it couldn't be copied by the customer as their rights-protection is done only by credit card numbers, which could have been expired and then passed on to friends etc.).

  As a result, not only was the tablet $50 more to start, but now the customer now needed to also buy a microSD card to read or play their non-B&N content (and yes, Amazon customers can have much more non-Amazon content on the Kindle Fire).

  So the difference between the Nook and Kindle Fire tablets was more like $70-$90 total difference if you wanted a good 16-32 gig SD card in addition to the basic $50 higher cost.

  Now, B&N has seen the light on the only 1-gig storage allowed for a customer's own media from other sources (though space is not allowed for *apps* from other sources) and are offering customers the option to have *repartitioning* done on existing 16-gig Nook Tablets, beginning March 15, if they bring their tablets to any B&N store, where the change will be done for them.

  Any NEW $250 Nook Tablets will have the new-partitioning in place when shipped, after this is all put into place (more details will be given by B&N in March).

  I've seen no mention yet of this change being offered for the newer NookColors produced after April-May though.  Here's one caution in a NookColor tips message-thread, about the repartitioning that was done on the more recent ones last year.


ACCESS to NON-store apps, to ones made for the Google Android Market
  What the new and old Nook Tablets will NOT have, though, is B&N's enabling of an option that allows customers to install Android apps from sources OTHER than B&N.

  Amazon left this Android option (to allow installs of apps from unknown sources) ENABLED, which makes a huge difference to those of us who want the access to regular Android apps (without needing to 'root' the tablet and therefore void our warranties or have to re-root it -- something not recommended for everyday users -- with every upgrade).

  It's quite huge not to have the easy option that the Amazon tablet has, of access to the vast availability of other sources for often excellent apps.

  I have an earlier article with mainstream magazine pointers to guides on how to do side-loading of non-Amazon apps, and now one can often just download them from one of several sites (though you should use only the generally trusted ones and choose files that have been online there for awhile without troubles reported).  The Amazon Kindle Community Forum is a good place to get advice from other Kindle customers about more-trusted sources and which apps which are not findable in the Amazon Android Appstore are worth getting.

  Add that the B&N Android apps store does not have the strength of Amazon's yet -- this week, it was announced that Amazon apps customized and approved for the Kindle Fire from versions originally for Google's Android market have made more in sales for developers than the versions from the Android Market, despite Amazon's app store having so much that is free plus specific pay-apps being made free-for-a-day on a daily basis.

  About half of my Kindle Fire apps are from getjar.com, slideme.org, and places like freewarelovers.com, which are distribution sites for Android apps which customized tablets like the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablets cannot access directly at Google's Android Market site.  I've found good ones in the Amazon app store this week though for avid readers and will do an article on that soon.

  That access is very important to me, and I'm glad Amazon doesn't limit us to only what they've approved and what they themselves sell.

  They handle this by competing for the customers' business rather than forbidding 'foreign' apps on the Kindle Fire and there is no 'rooting' of the device necessary to get these (again, any rooting must be repeated for each software update -- where it can be done -- and is not supported by the device vendors).


STORAGE SPACE and a Sharing Option
  So, the main advantage for the Nook (besides its having physical Volume and Home buttons) is the external microSD capability which can give you another 16 to 32 gigs on any card you use with it.

  For the $250 Nook Tablet model, that advantage has been watered down by the availability of Kingston's Wi-Drive shared-streaming storage device which lets you use a *wireless* external drive smaller than the size of an iPhone 4s to not only store 16 to 32 gigs of files but to have up to three people access the same or different media on the drive at the same time, from the Kindle Fire and other devices WHILE also using the Internet (the latter is something similar products can't do).

  The 16-gig version is $50 and the 32-gig version is $90.  I've been able to run media from it, smoothly,  (which is the only way on this device) from the Kindle Fire, my Samsung phone and larger Samsung tablet.  Since it's smaller than my cell phone it's always in my purse now when not being used.  I asked for a review copy, something I almost never do because I don't like to take time to review products, and found the 16-gig  device very smooth to use.  Streaming of nicely-converted mp4's (as from DVD Catalyst 4) from it didn't stutter or have artifacts).  I was told I could keep it, and my reaction was to buy the 32-gig version from them (via Amazon) so I could have even more stored to stream whenever I wanted.  One thing you can't do with an SD card is have 3 people running video from it at the same time on their individual devices.

  Then there is the free Amazon server storage for any music you've bought from Amazon which you can stream instantly from any computer you're at and from the Kindle Fire.   You can also stream non-Amazon music that you upload to your free 5 gigs of  "Amazon Cloud" storage.

  I do prefer the Amazon ecosystem of instantly streamable media that doesn't require subscriptions to other vendors' content although I also like to use Netflix and HuluPlus.  Much of what I want lately is from PBS, ABC, and Amazon has added these and  50% more in the last month in the way of PRIME-member-program (free 2-day shipping of products for $6.58/mo)  extra benefits of movie/tv streaming -- about 15,000 videos now.


OTHER ASPECTS OF NOOK TABLETS AND KINDLE FIRE
  The screen of the Nook Tablet is more matte-like and that's an advantage for B&N, less glare.  I do have the older NookColor and enjoyed it daily before I got the Kindle Fire, which has a faster processor.

  There are certain things that, as a card-carrying Barnes and Noble member ($25/yr), I don't like though. The vaunted in-store customer service is, in reality, very weak.

  The customer service policies, in general (return with refund periods, call-back times) are also not that attractive. .
  You can google the general feedback on B&N's Nook customer service and on Amazon's Kindle customer service at any time.

  If you use the tablets to read color versions of your e-books, you should know that Amazon gives refunds on Kindle books you didn't mean to download (and haven't finished) or which have layout problems that you find too problematical, within 7 days of purchase.

  Barnes & Noble's policies are strong that there is no refund, and they've applied that policy in the past to even books with missing pages and always to even really bad layout discovered once you have the book.  The free samples you download from B&N tend to be smaller.

  The Nook's strength, relative to Amazon
  Where I prefer the Nook Tablet is its programming for magazines.  They have far less in the way of newspapers and magazines available, but the National Geographic magazine and an electronics one I subscribe to are better designed than what I've seen with Amazon's magazines, so far, which often do not allow zooming into the photos (a big minus when it doesn't) and this goes for the text also, which makes some pages not very readable to me then.

  With the Nook, I can read the content in context of the page as seen in print format because of the effective zoom-in.  I like the quality of the lettering better too.  Amazon, I'm sorry, but some work is needed in this area.

  The Nook's "Article View" is easier for me to read and access than Amazon's.  To be fair, there are many who like Amazon's implementation.

 If you already have a Kindle Fire and want to try, though, a 90-day free trial, Amazon still has (until March 1) the special offer they've had for Kindle Fire customers since November -- an "exclusive free three-month trial of 17 Condé Nast magazines, including Vanity Fair, GQ, WIRED and Glamour.   Ironically, you can only try these if you already have a Kindle Fire.

  For those who would get a tablet primarily for magazines:   if the Nook's much smaller collection includes what you want and you need to be able to enlarge the text of a page as it is seen in the print version, then I recommend the Nook Tablet for that.  Me? I'd pay the extra $50 (plus cost of good SD card) if I wanted a Nook Tablet, to get the faster, larger storage one. (It's currently $244 at Amazon for some reason at the link above.)

  Definitely I'd not pay the $30 less to get the older single-core processor NookColor ($169 now but that price has not been adjusted on the Amazon B&N product-page yet), but I will keep the NookColor I already have, for my magazine subscriptions.  I give B&N Kudos for upgrading the old NookColor to do Netflix and HuluPlus though.  (I read that there's a slowdown due to the single-core processor of the NookColor relative to the later tablets but haven't tried it yet.)

   If only Amazon treated its Kindle DX customers as well with a software update for the simple PDF enhancements given the same "Pearl" e-Ink screen of the Kindle 3.   A software update is long past due on the expensive Kindle DX's  and it's the one area in which Kindle Customer Service has fallen down.

Update - Because we can add Google Android apps not available to the Kindle Fire at the Amazon apps store, I added the Nook reader app.  This does allow me to see my Nook-downloaded magazines with the zoom-in feature and the Nook design.  That IS a plus, but I still prefer reading these on the NookColor because it's smoother and the font clarity on the basic version is better.

  For everything else, I really love the access, with the Kindle Fire, to all types of non-Amazon apps in addition to Amazon's collection  (and I find some of the Amazon store apps improved for the Kindle Fire, from Android Market ones  that were focused on the smaller phones).

  The streaming media is beautiful, but I have Comcast which gives much faster streaming (than DSL setups --the default lower-tier plans) that is necessary for higher-resolution video from Netflix and Hulu and of course Amazon's instant video, which is beautiful.   The growing collection great for families that would appreciate the many excellent documentaries available in addition to some fine older movies.  They've also just made new video arrangements with Viacom.  They have current material from PBS as well and some BBC tv programs not findable on Netflix.

Prime Amazon can be accessed via the Nook Tablets too, the streaming is optimized for the Kindle Fire and there are bonuses only Kindle Fire owners can get.

SERVER ('Cloud')  BACKUP of your media
B&N also gives free storage of course for media purchased from them.

  What they don't do is give you 5 gigs of free space for any media files you want to store on their servers for easy retrieval when needed but which you acquired elsewhere or made yourself (videoclips).  Amazon does (against misinformation about their not allowing non-Amazon products).

  Nor does B&N give 5 gigs of free storage to Kindle owners who want to keep personal docs stored on Amazon servers and which are readable and *sync-able* between your various devices as with the Kindle books.

  Amazon, to Penguin Group's displeasure over "friction-less" borrowing, makes public library borrowing easier in that you can choose the library book and Amazon will deliver it over the air via WiFi when you're near a WiFi network rather than make you use the computer and a USB connection to transfer it and  without your needing to sync Adobe's approval process for rights-management with it.  B&N was going to be doing this eventually too, but I haven't heard that they've been able to yet.

  Again, for avid readers, only Kindle owners who are Prime members are able to borrow, from 50,000+ titles, a Kindle book (including 100+ current and former NY Times Bestsellers) once per calendar month, with no waiting period and no due-dates.  You can share the borrowed book with other Kindles on your account.

  Gizmodo headlined this program:  "Game Over: Amazon Prime is Officially the Greatest Deal in Tech"

  Here's Amazon's description of Prime Lending Library

  You can browse, at Amazon's website, the 50,000+ Kindle books that are borrowable this way.  The actual borrowing must take place on your Kindle though, something that hasn't been made clear on the product pages for the books.

In the meantime, the news is filled with the possibility of Amazon coming out with a larger Kindle Fire, some say 8.9" and some say 10" sometime in the 2nd quarter, which has always tended to mean at the end of the quarter if we're lucky.   And this 2nd, larger tablet has always been expected.  The rumors have not been that strong as no one was pinning down even what size screen would be involved or anything else about what they might be planning, although Digitimes, which was called "often reliable" (love what that means), said a couple of days ago that Foxconn has received an order for 10" Kindle Fires.  Judging from what has gone on before, the estimates are always too optimistic.

In the meantime, the 7" one has proved very popular, even with people who already own iPads or other large tablets.  It's just easier to take with you anywhere and the 16:9 ratio is great for the widescreen movies that are popular today.

Today's NY Times carries an article by Associated Press on B&N's announced quarterly income falling 14 percent, due to rising costs.  Both Amazon and B&N are seeing large development and warehousing + delivery costs on their devices while keeping the price as low as possible.

Photo credit: BusinessInsider.com



Kindle Touch 3G, US-only   Kindle Touch WiFi (US)   Kindle Touch WiFi-Only, outside US    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 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.

  *Click* to Return to the HOME PAGE.  Or click on the web browser's BACK button

Monday, February 20, 2012

Free Kindle books Sun. Feb 19 -- 192 chosen by forum members from 370+ listed .

FREE KINDLE BOOKS from Joyce and Annie B's daily forum threads of free Kindle book alerts and forumner recommendations.

370+ newly and temporarily free Kindle books for Sun., 2/19/12.
192 suggestions for consideration, in listings by forum members
  plus a link to more forum pages of them.

I'll be drawing attention to the Kindle forum members' recommendations, which are done daily, and this will let you know where to find them. I plan to do that when there's time.
  Some of these are free for only a few hours or a few days, others a bit longer.

*Double-check* the prices always.


THIS BLOG ARTICLE CONSISTS OF LISTS OF BOOKS SELECTED BY FORUM MEMBERS for themselves and posted so that others can see what was found to be interesting to them, out of over 370+ book titles made free on Sunday.

  Lists by forum members are compiled from the several forum postings they make while plowing through the titles on websites -- All their recommendations are listed together under their forum names so we can easily see sets by each in these public forum threads.
  I also include some of the duplicated picks, as they give a sense of what strikes people in general, as worth picking up.
 If a book is free for only ONE day and is no longer free, let me know and I can strike it off the list for today.

  Listing-types and some genre identification
If you can see that some forum members choose the types of books you like, that'll help, and if you can see that any choose the types of books you may not find as interesting, that should help too!

  Many also specify the genre involved, which is very helpful.
  This approach has been useful for some readers, when I have the time to do them.
  Kindle-Edition subscribers (thank you for the support) should use their computers at the web page to use these links, at Link: kindleworld.blogspot.com OR read the Feb. 17 blog article on how to handle linked free-book webpages on the Kindle.

  MORE... ( If you are reading this from the main blog page, the links and discussion of temporarily newly-free books and discounted-book forum-alerts link(s) are on the 2nd page, 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)
*****

Friday, February 17, 2012

Kindle Tips: To Kindle-Edition Subscribers: How to handle free-book link results



    Webpage result with tiny fonts


  After Choosing Menu and Article Mode


    After Pinch-zooming larger


KINDLE EDITION OF THE BLOG: HOW TO DEAL WITH LINKS LEADING TO IMPOSSIBLY TINY FONTS


I've received some understandable grumbles from subscribers that links to free books don't go to the Kindle-device version of the Kindlestore, which is easier to read, and that, instead, the links go to unreadable webpages with tiny fonts.

  That's true, and in the Free-book-alert blog entries, I mention that Kindle Edition Subscribers, who get the last 25 blog articles on an edition, should do those links from a computer.

  Having said that though, it's Amazon who decides where the links go, and they take subscribers lately to a fast-loading modified or simplified web-site version for mobile devices although not to the simplest version, the Kindle-device version of the store.  I can't do anything about it, unfortunately.


SOLUTION
What I do want to point out is that once you're on one of those result pages of TINY print for an item, there is a solution.

  You can press Menu and then "Article Mode" to read the book description there.
  It's extremely clear that way.  And it loads quickly also.

  I've made some screenshots above to show you the difference if you choose this reading mode that Amazon has provided but doesn't say much about.

  In Article Mode, however, you can't choose to buy or interact -- but once out of Article mode and back to Web Mode (you can use Menu or Back-arrow to get back to Web Mode), you can opt to press a button to get a free sample (from which you can later get the book if you like the sample) or to "purchase" it for $0.00 if the current pricing is still free.  If intrigued, the latter is wise, as the free-books last for only hours or a couple of days.

With a Kindle Touch, all of this is fairly easy.  While you can pinch-zoom the entire page of text and see it larger, you'd still need to scroll around.  So it's best to start with selecting 'Article Mode.'  Once you're back on the tiny-font webpage, use pinch-zoom to enlarge the text to find the box to request a sample if wanted, or to get the book.

With the Kindle Keyboard's results page, you get a ZOOM box that you can click on to enlarge that boxed section.  This can be good for getting a sample but it's awkward. You still do have, however, that 'Article Mode' for reading the book description.

I hope this helps.  Amazon's recent change to a faster-loading books-webpage makes clicking on links of interest with your Kindle device more worthwhile than in the past.



Kindle Touch 3G, US-only   Kindle Touch WiFi (US)   Kindle Touch WiFi-Only, outside US    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 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.

  *Click* to Return to the HOME PAGE.  Or click on the web browser's BACK button

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Kindle Touch gets a Sodoku puzzle book debuting Touch/Write technology

SUDOKU'S UNBOUND #3 PUZZLE FOR KINDLE AVAILABLE WITH TOUCH/WRITE TECHNOLOGY

That's write! right! This is the first puzzle, available exclusively on Kindle Touch, that allows entry of numbers on an e-Ink device by writing with your finger.

As you can see in the second image above:
' You can write small or large numbers, whichever you find easier.
  If you write small numbers (about the size of a puzzle cell), the number will go into the cell that you write in.  If you write large numbers, the number will go into the cell that you start writing in. '

As GeekWire's Todd Bishop put it, it's the debut of handwriting recognition in Puzzazz's newest puzzle book, Sudoku Unbound Volume 3, which is selling for $2.99, the same price as the other Puzzazz puzzles in the "Sodoku Unbound" series.

Unlike some handwriting-recognition in the past, such as that used in the Palm Pilot in 1996 when most gave up trying to get the Palm grafitti to work, Puzzazz's technology is smarter and more flexible.

  The user doesn't have to learn a special way of writing, as it recognizes many styles of writing numbers and letters, due to Puzzazz' using a large base of handwriting samples while developing the capability.

Will Amazon want to make it a basic feature of the Kindle Touch?  No one is saying.

Bishop was able to try TouchWrite and says "it worked reliably... the technology recognizes the number written invisibly on the screen, then places the digital version in the corresponding cell on the page of the puzzle book."

  Bishop also points out that the Kindle Touch is Amazon's top selling e-Ink reader at $99 for the ad-supported version (which doesn't have the 3G-cell phone network access feature).



Kindle Touch 3G, US-only   Kindle Touch WiFi (US)   Kindle Touch WiFi-Only, outside US    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 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.

  *Click* to Return to the HOME PAGE.  Or click on the web browser's BACK button

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Kindle Tips: Kindle Fire Books that Seem to Disappear - Solution to Glitch

THE KINDLE BOOKS APP ON KINDLE FIRE HAS A GLITCH THAT CAN CAUSE BOOK TITLES TO NOT DISPLAY -- THE SOLUTION

  This dilemma of Kindle book titles seeming to disappear from Kindle Fire listings of book titles on The Cloud especially (the server library area) and also from the listing for the Device has been happening to more than a few, per reports from the forums -- and it happened to me twice in a few days.

  Forum members, as usual (in this case, 'Q' and 'Mona') came up with the answer a few weeks ago, and more and more of us are needing to use their solution.  The problem seems to have started or worsened after the last Kindle Fire upgrade.

  I think it's important that all of Amazon Kindle Support be told about this solution, because I was told by two members of Amazon Kindle Support to set my KFire back to Factory Defaults (as a 2nd or 3rd step!) which would have lost me the personal documents I had on the device.  I told them I would NOT do that, as it has always been a last-ditch step when nothing else solves the problem and that it causes more unnecessary work for customers when there is a simpler solution.

  Later we were reminded by 'affinity" on the forum that Q and Mona had provided the simple solution, and it worked like a charm for me and for MANY others on the forums.

  I called Amazon Kindle Support back to let them know there was a simple solution and this time (when I asked to be connected back with 2nd level support as before), I got Kindle Customer Support representative Ryan.   He knew about this glitch and the workaround (and started to tell me what it was before I could tell him what forumners were doing) and was surprised that other areas of Customer Support apparently did not know about it, but he said himself that the 'factory default' settings was a FINAL step that shouldn't be taken until other steps proved not to work.

 Amazon, Ryan is a prize.  I wish I could talk directly to him whenever I have questions.  It'd be nice to have someone like him in charge of letting all of Kindle Customer Support know what the latest known glitches and workarounds are.  It would help situations like the one in which one of the two free-book-forum-thread leaders was told to go back to factory defaults and then had to gather (from her computer and Amazon's servers) the personal documents that were of course 'gone' when going back to 'factory' defaults.

For the future, here is, essentially, what Q and Mona discovered.
The first clue that something is amiss is that the Cloud listing doesn't show all your books, but the Amazon servers -will- have them there.  The servers and our libraries on the servers are the 'Cloud.'

  One may or may not be able to access the Cloud directly from the Kindle Fire - doable with music and books and not doable with personal docs (at this time).

  I'll do a blog entry later on the several types of storage (and sometimes streaming) that are referred to as the Cloud, at Amazon.

When the problem with the Kindle Fire that I'm writing about occurs, our books-app "Amazon Kindle Books" is not "seeing" all the titles that are on the Cloud (our personal server library where our Kindle books are kept by Amazon) due to a software glitch that is in the Kindle App on the Kindle Fire.  Some book titles MAY be missing from the 'Device' display (the Kindle Fire itself) also.

  Mona and Q discovered that to correct this software glitch -- you should make sure that "WiFi" is ON and then go to the Gear or wheel icon at the top right of the Kindle Fire and tap that, and then choose "More" -- then go down the Settings list a bit to see "Applications" and select "ALL Applications."  Once there, you can actually select the Amazon Kindle app to be managed in this way when there is a problem.

The Steps: (a clearer way to see them)

Make sure WiFi is 'ON' when doing this)

Go to the Gear wheel at the top right when you're at the HOME Screen

Then click on:
. More,
. Settings,
. Applications
... (choosing ALL applications to view),

Select 'Amazon Kindle' and then
. Click to option to clear DATA (which clears the cache at the same time)
. Press Home at bottom left

SIT BACK (as Mona says) as it all returns to The Way It Was. :-)

No restart needed.  No need to remove the app.  No Factory Default setting involved (and never should the latter be chosen unless nothing else has worked.)

The Kindle Fire then rebuilds the Cloud and "Device" library information, and it doesn't take that long.

Always back up personal docs (as opposed to Kindle books) onto your computers.

NOWadays, we can send those personal documents to our Kindle via email addressed to the Kindle (see earlier articles cited at the bottom of this post), and Amazon will back those up for us, since they give us 5 free gigs of space for personal docs on their servers now (in addition to the 5 gigs for ALL Amazon customers for personal data in general) and they even sync those personal docs across devices too, as long as you send them to your Kindle in email across the Net, which gives them permission to store these for you.

Thanks again to Q and Mona for the steps that have helped several of us.


EARLIER ARTICLES ON PERSONAL DOCUMENTS


US:
Kindle Fire  7" tablet - $199
Kindle NoTouch ("Kindle") - $79/$109
Kindle Touch, WiFi
- $99/$139
Kindle Touch, 3G/WiFi - $149/$189
Kindle Keybd 3G - $189, Free, slow web
Kindle DX - $379, Free, slow 3G web
UK:
Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £89
Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - £109
Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi, UK - £169
Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149
  Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB
OTHER International
Kindle NoTouch Basic - $109
Kindle Touch WiFi - $139
Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi - $189
Kindle Keybd 3G - $189
  Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

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

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Free Kindle books Sat. Feb 11 -- 232 chosen by forum members from 500+ listed .

FREE KINDLE BOOKS from Joyce and Annie B's daily forum threads of free Kindle book alerts and forumner recommendations.

500+ newly and temporarily free Kindle books for Sat., 2/11/12.
232 suggestions for consideration, in listings by forum members
  plus a link to 4 more forum pages of them.

I'll be drawing attention to the Kindle forum members' recommendations, which are done daily, and this will let you know where to find them. I plan to do that when there's time.
  Some of these are free for only a few hours or a few days, others maybe two weeks.

 Double-check the prices always.


THIS BLOG ARTICLE CONSISTS OF LISTS OF BOOKS SELECTED BY FORUM MEMBERS for themselves and posted so that others can see what was found to be interesting to them, out of over 500+ book titles.

  Lists by forum members are compiled from the several forum postings they make while plowing through the titles -- All their recommendations are listed together under their forum names so we can easily see sets by each in these public forum threads.
  I also include some of the duplicated picks, as they give a sense of what strikes people in general, as worth picking up.
 If a book is free for only ONE day and is no longer free, let me know and I'll strike it off the list for today.

  Listing-types and some genre identification
If you can see that some forum members choose the types of books you like, that'll help, and if you can see that any choose the types of books you may not find as interesting, that should help too!

  Many also specify the genre involved, which is very helpful.
  This approach has been useful for some readers, when I have the time to do them.
  Kindle-Edition subscribers (thank you for the support) should use their computers at the web page to use these links, at Link: kindleworld.blogspot.com

  MORE... ( If you are reading this from the main blog page, the links and discussion of temporarily newly-free books and discounted-book forum-alerts link(s) are on the 2nd page, 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)
*****

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Kindle for Android app v3.40.156 gets Real Page Numbers now. Also, info on how Page Numbers and Skip-to-Next/Prev Chapter features work, for each Kindle model



Kindle for Android App Software Update Version 3.40.156 now has real page numbers.


So, can the Android-based Kindle Fire app update to add real page numbers be far behind?

Other benefits of the Kindle for Android app update include greatly reduced size of the app and some bug fixes.  The photo comes from the Android Market site.  Here's Amazon's own page for the download and for additional information on the update.

 Interestingly (sort of), the Android Market customers have a much more favorable view on the app, with 51,733 giving it 5 stars and 14,691 giving it 4 stars. 6,115 aren't keen on it.  Amazon customers reviewing this Android app give it 195 5-star ratings, 52 4-star ones, and 102 give it 1 star.  That's a huge difference and I'm wondering why.  Please chime in if you have any ideas.

  I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 Android phone and a Samsung 10.1 Galaxy Tab, and the update works fine on both.  Yet I've seen comments from many at Android-focused websites who of course have very varying Android devices, who've posted that their phones or tablets, including the new Samsung Nexus phones using 'Ice Cream Sandwich" (ICS) operating system, have had some odd results.


Which KINDLE BOOKS have Page numbers rather than just Location numbers?
  Real page numbers are included in Kindle books for which the publisher and Amazon have processed page numbers to match those of a given print version (release date, edition, hardcover, or paperback, etc.)

  Amazon has been adding these, since February 2011, to "tens of thousands of Kindle books, including the top 100 bestselling books in the Kindle Store that have matching print editions and to thousands more of the most popular books"

  So far, Amazon does this only if there are matching print versions so that these can be aligned for classwork (which can be cited) or for bookclubs with mixed types of books and ebooks for easier matching-page access.  Other e-reader sometimes include page numbers that are not for the purpose of matching any other books but just to give a "#1 of #123 pages" for an e-book.


How do you find page number information on the various Kindle devices?
  1.  A light press of the top center edge of the screen for an open book on a Kindle Touch will show, at the bottom of the screen, any included Real Page number and Percentage of the book read, at that point.

  2.  On Kindle Keyboard models (UK: K3) and Kindle 2 and the $79 Kindle Basic NoTouch/NoKeyboard model, you press Menu button to get Page number information (if the Kindle book includes that) shown at the bottom of the screen as well as a progress bar.

  3.  On the Kindle Fire, there is no Page Number feature yet.


Little-known chapter-markings feature
  1.  On Kindle Keyboard models, you will usually also see the Percentage-read progress bar at the bottom of the screen, with the percentage indicated at the left.

  If the publisher HAS used the option to add chapter-markers, you'll see vertical markings on the reading-progress bar and a small downward-pointing arrowhead which shows where you were when you started that session and, in addition, the solid line which shows completion so far will show you how much further you need to read, relatively speaking, to get TO the next chapter or to the end of the book.

  From the User's Guide for Kindles with Keyboard:
' To go to the next or previous chapter, press the right (>) or left (<) button on the 5-way controller. '


  And when you want to retrace your steps (but not go to previous page), the "Back" button is the way to go.

  2.  On Kindle Touch models, the bottom of the screen of any open book will show the Location number at the left and Percentage-read at the right.

  Lightly press the top center at the edge of the screen and you'll get the Menu button as well as several other options shown.
  At the very bottom, you'll see "Page [x] of [xxx]" added.

  There is no progress bar shown on the bottom row of the Touch models because if there IS direct access to each chapter, you get them by just "swiping" UP to get the next chapter and swiping DOWN to get the previous chapter.

  Unfortunately, publishers don't use the Chapter-Access feature as often as they should.

  3.  On the Kindle Fire, you lightly press the top center at the edge of the screen and the orange Progress bar plus Location numbers and Percentage read will display.

  Again, there are NO Page numbers for the Kindle Fire book app yet, and NO way to get directly to the beginning of the next or previous chapters.

  Amazon's KFire is getting TWICE the amount* of downloads at USA Today over ALL other Android devices.  You'd think Kindle Fire customers would get this feature before the general Android app users.  But, juggling software development scheduling for various models and apps is never an easy thing.   Still ... hmmm.

  * Business Insider's headline: "A Leak From The USA TODAY shows
    How The Kindle Fire Is Blowing Away Other Android Tablets"


So Many Vays
Have you noticed that blog entries to explain how a feature or a related feature works on a Kindle is now a quite complicated task when there are so many different models co-existing?  Choice is good, but it takes longer to do a blog entry these days when going into detail on how to do things on the various models.

  If that sounds as if I'm explaining lag time between entries, that's true :-)  because researching news and news-comment areas, user guides, doing tests, and getting other forum-customer experiences in addition to trading info on the forums really does take a lot of time not shown on the blog.  Am hoping Kindle-Edition subscribers understand.



Kindle Touch 3G, US-only   Kindle Touch WiFi (US)   Kindle Touch WiFi-Only, outside US    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 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.

  *Click* to Return to the HOME PAGE.  Or click on the web browser's BACK button

Friday, February 10, 2012

Kindle News 2/9 - Penguin Quits OverDrive & public libraries. Update


PENGUIN GROUP TERMINATES ITS CONTRACT WITH OVERDRIVE

Michael Kelly, Editor, News for Library Journal, wrote in The Digital Shift that Penguin Group "has extricated itself from its contract with OverDrive, the primary supplier of ebooks to public libraries."

As of February 10, Penguin, will no longer offer any [more] ebooks or audiobooks through OverDrive.  In the prepared statement by Penguin Group's Erica Glass, they say they're continuing to discuss future plans "for ebook and digital audiobook availability for library lending with a number of partners providing these services."

You have to love how people treat contracts these days when they want out.   Kelley writes that Penguin is negotiating a “continuance agreement” with OverDrive, which would allow libraries that have Penguin ebooks in their catalog to continue to have access to those titles.  This is similar to what they did when they quietly removed library-lending access to Kindle books briefly last November.

3M is the big contender, Kelley says, but he describes 3M as "the still fledgling but growing competitor to Overdrive," which means Penguin has essentially shut down public library access to additional Penguin ebook titles.  New physical paper-bound titles will still be available. The Big6 publishing houses fear the effect of e-books, in general, on the 'value' of its hardcopy books.

OverDrive, which hasn't commented yet, sent the following email to its partners via a posting at InfoDocket.
' Starting tomorrow (February 10, 2012), Penguin will no longer offer additional copies of eBooks and download [of] audiobooks for library purchase.

  Additionally, Penguin eBooks loaned for reading on Kindle devices will need to be downloaded to a computer, then transferred to the device over USB.  For library patrons, this means Penguin eBooks will no longer be available for over-the-air delivery to Kindle devices or to Kindle apps.
[ AB here: I guess Amazon made it too easy for customers to get a book for reading from the library - Penguin will ensure that the method used for borrowing a book returns to the most inconvenient way -- and you'll see that spelled out below. ]
We are continuing to talk to Penguin about their future plans for eBook and digital audiobook availability for library lending. '

Kelly points out that, as a result, Penguin "joins Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Hachette among the Big Six publishers in search of an ebook library lending model."

  So, what remains? Random House hasn't withdrawn yet, but while it's been late to join the other Big6 houses in resisting Amazon's lower pricing of e-books (although Amazon still paid publishers the same amount as before based on the higher suggested retail price), Random House has given in before.

  Then there is the reality that Random House has led the field in discouraging -- actually, disallowing -- the use of text-to-speech on most of its e-books, fearing that the mechanical voice would take too much in sales from the intelligent reading done by trained actors.

During the November brouhaha that ultimately led to the final decision yesterday to "not allow library lending of its new titles (via any vendor), Penguin had initially also targeted OverDrive’s relationship with Amazon as a particular concern, which led the company to demand that OverDrive disable the “Get for Kindle” functionality for all Penguin ebooks."

While Penguin backed down on this, what they termed the "security concerns" apparently remain because the Kindle's Overdrive process removes the transaction from the public library "and takes place under the terms that Amazon has worked out with OverDrive" (by delivering the library books over the air, seamlessly).

All this too-convenient borrowing from public libraries has left publishers "feeling a bit left out in the cold."

Penguin insists it's still interested in the library business, mentioning that it was encouraged by recent talks with the leadership of the American Library Assocation (ALA).

The word 'Value' comes up again from a Big6 publisher
  In the past, books have been borrowable from the library without publishers referring to it (out in the open) as devaluing their books.

  They give lip service to it being "vital that we forge relationships with libraries and build a future together" (after demolishing what exists)... "We care about preserving the value of our authors' work as well as helping libraries continue to serve their communities."

Back to the too-easy borrowing made possible by Amazon's Over-the-Air method
  Kelley mentions "publishers’ concerns that if library loans become too “frictionless,” (too convenient, too easy)  "in other words, do not involve a physical trip to the library to borrow and return a book, that it will eat into their sales."

It seems that as in Europe, the Big6 are hoping to be able to "demand a business model in which they will only make their ebooks available to public libraries if they are used in the library or if a patron is required to bring their device to the library and load the title onto the device in the library, then bring it home.

Kelley sums it up:
This would essentially eliminate all the convenience of borrowing ebooks from a home computer or device.


Update - My favorite lighter-hearted forum reaction today (most were not so light) to this news about Penguin's longing for more friction to deter the urge to borrow:   Posted by The Queen of Creative Invective:
"So, there are so many "friction" jokes that I could make, but all of them would end up being deleted.  Like this one:

If Penguin wants to get friction with me, they are going to have to at least buy me dinner first."



Kindle Touch 3G, US-only   Kindle Touch WiFi (US)   Kindle Touch WiFi-Only, outside US    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 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.

  *Click* to Return to the HOME PAGE.  Or click on the web browser's BACK button

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

E-Ink Kindle game 'Every Word' equivalent is available in color on KindleFire. L.A. Times: Kindle Fire the next gaming console?


Jumbline 2 - Free with ads

Jumbline 2 - $1.99 - No ads

L. Doherty, like many others, had missed, when using the Kindle Fire, the free e-Ink Kindle game "Every Word", and decided to post this question last week:
' I would like to have EVERY WORD game available on the Kindle Fire. I had a bunch of word games on my old Kindle Keyboard (3rd generation) and now I cannot get any of them for my Fire. I am so disappointed in this. '
  At the Kindle Community Forums, where you can get good advice from other Kindle owners 24/7, here are a couple of replies on that:
' Joanne M. Manuel says:
Hi, L. Doherty- You should try Jumbline2 Free. It has the same features as EVERY WORD only it's a lot prettier with its colors and animations. There is also a paid version [no ads]...

  Q says:
Joanne,
I have missed "Every Word" on the Fire. THANK YOU for pointing out "Jumbline 2". Exactly the same .... only better! After trying out a level, I was happy to pay the $1.99 for a non-ad copy. '

  These are popular games similar to Scrabble that you can play with time limits to make it harder. On the eInk, I got addicted to it and had to go cold turkey :-)


L.A. Times article on Kindle Fire: "The next gaming console?"
Kindlezen tweeted this interesting story by Alex Pham in the Los Angeles Time's Businesss section, which points out that Amazon's been quietly recruiting game developers, posting dozens of jobs on its site.

  P.J. McNealy, founder of Digital World Research, apparently believes Amazon is preparing to become a force in mobile social gaming.  Pham says that gaming on tablets is taking off and that McNealy suggested that Amazon's well positioned to capitalize on this "because it is the No. 2 player in the tablet market, with its array of rapidly selling Kindle devices trailing only Apple Inc's ipads," and could become "next big gaming platform -- acting as a hardware and software gateway for games in the same way that the PlayStation, Wii and Xbox have for decades.   For details on what Amazon is looking for and what that means for its focus for the future, see the L.A. Times article.



Kindle Touch 3G, US-only   Kindle Touch WiFi (US)   Kindle Touch WiFi-Only, outside US    Kindle Basic   (UK: KBasic)   Kindle Fire
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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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Sunday, February 5, 2012

Kindle Tips: An easier way to make web reading more readable on Kindle Fire


REVISED:  READING FULL WEB PAGES WITH UNREADABLE TINY FONT ON A 7" SCREEN

This is revised from the earlier blog articles on making tiny fonts more readable when doing the web on Kindle Fire and Kindle Touch.

KINDLE TOUCH
The Kindle Touch no longer responds the same way to the Android feature or trick.
 With the KTouch, you now simply Double click a page to get the current text to fill the width of the screen but only at a certain font level which is not large enough for my normal needs, though I can read it.
  You CAN, though, then use two fingers to Pinch-Zoom the text-size to a desired size, but tnen you'll need to scroll around a bit.

 At least, with the Kindle Touch, though, if you are reading a web article (as with a lead individual feature on a product page or news story) you can choose Menu and select Article Mode and get a very readable screen as a result.  (You then select Web Mode to get back into regular web reading mode.)

  But, as an example, for the Customer Reviews that follow an Amazon product page description:  Since the Menu-->Article Mode feature pertains only to a lead article and not to the reviews that follow (and never to a full page), there is no 'Article Mode' for secondary text that gives you the nicely-programmed larger-sized text.   Again, you CAN pinch-zoom any text to a desired size (which is considerably better than what we had before).

  I can no longer, though, get a desired text size that would be adjusted to the screen width, with the Kindle Touch, via pinch-zooming to a largish font-size and then clicking.  Now, it's mainly a toggle that we can get  between tiny and medium-small -- or, we can then use the gradual pinch-zooming to a larger size:

    Again -- Double-click to see the full page with tiny text and Double-click again to see a specific column fit to the width of the screen -- but only in a smaller font size, after which you can pinch-zoom to a larger size and scroll around as needed.   It just no longer lets you fit a column to the width at a larger font-size you've chosen, which is inconvenient, but at least we can make adjustments. (Sorry for the redundancy, but I just want to be as clear as possible.)


KINDLE FIRE -- A really smooth way to get a larger text-size of our choice adjusted to width of the screen when doing the web

  I'd written earlier, in detail, on dealing with web pages or with PDFs in which you can see the full pages, which are usually unreadable in that format with screen widths that are considerably smaller than our computer screens.

  I'd found that many news-site reviewers don't know about a valuable Android feature that is crucial to enjoyment of web pages on small devices (this applies very well to Android smartphones too of course), and those just using a device like the Kindle Fire won't tend to know about them either.

While joining in discussions on Amazon Kindle Forums community where so many Kindle owners hang out to help other owners and get tips in return, I saw the following question and replied to it more briefly than I have in blog articles -- it's likely that a shorter answer can be more helpful, at least at first.

Important
  Kindle Fire Web SETTINGS - Here are the best settings for having this feature work well.
  When you're on the web-browser for the first time (this does not have to be done each time), lightly press the bottom MENU, which looks like a grid or an air-conditioner, with horizontal lines.  Then press Settings.

  At the second option, set Text size to "Normal"
  On the third option, set Default zoom to "Close'
  On the fourth option, set Auto-fit pages to "Format web pages to fit the screen"

' Posted on Jan 1, 2012 10:00:01 AM PST
RE says:

[Q]: I like my Kindle, but can't figure out how to surf the web and be
able to read things.  Yahoo com is so small a magnifying glass is
needed to see it.  I know this is off subject, but can someone tell
me how they do it?

[A} [I've edited my reply to to match how the Kindle Fire works in this situation today.]

Arts&HistoryFan/Kindleworld says:
RE,
You can use an Android feature to pinch-zoom the text to a larger size -- the paragraph of a column you're reading may or may not extend beyond the screen borders.

  Then, SINGLE-tap the screen (do that around the center of the screen), and it will keep this larger text size while adjusting the text to the width of the screen and wrapping it appropriately.

  That Single-tap actually acts to identify that column of text and to center and fit it to the width of the screen and at the same time SET the font at that size.

  If you Double-tap it at this point, it will adjust a bit more  if needed to set the width and margins even better while keeping that larger font size.

  You may, at first, have two columns up on the screen, but the Single-tap will indicate that this is the column of interest. The Double-tap afterward solidifies it and makes a further fine adjustment if needed.

  This works well for forum reading, when you have two or three columns and you want to read just the body of text posted by members of the forum, at a size comfortable for you on the Kindle Fire.

My favorite mode of casual portable web-reading as a result
  This also works well with things like Amazon Customer Reviews and news columns.  It's now my favorite portable way to read web text, because it's smaller than a 10" screen (I have a Samsung Galaxy 10.1 Tab tablet) and is easier to hold, with a screen width that is more like the width of a book I'd be reading, whether hard- or softcover.

  This means I can read web text in whatever size text is best for my eyes at the moment, in a smaller form factor that still presents largish text as needed.   This is called "re-flowing" the text and when it's done for a nicely large font-size, it is very nifty.


Give it a try and let me know if it makes a difference or if you have trouble with it, and in the latter case, let me know what kind of web page is being read, with the link, and I'll take a look.
  One area in which it doesn't work is Amazon product pages' Product Descriptions -- they seem to format those NOT to wrap for some reason.


SOMEtimes, if you Double-tap instead of Single-tap the first time after upsizing the text, the double-tap leads to the tiny version again, but if you double-tap once more, then it goes back up to a medium-sized text that adjusts to the screen-wrap. The initial Single-tap works better.


Reminder: With both these units, but especially the Kindle Fire, a barely perceptible, very light press or tap will be more likely to activate touchscreen responses.



Kindle Touch 3G, US-only   Kindle Touch WiFi (US)   Kindle Touch WiFi-Only, outside US    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 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.

  *Click* to Return to the HOME PAGE.  Or click on the web browser's BACK button