Kindle News Roundup: AT&T Kindle Fire 8.9" for $249 w/ 2-yr data plan. Amazon Cloud gets File Sync. Amazon's new Kindel, Director of mobile-something.

AT&T is offering, "for a limited time," starting April 5, the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 4G LTE (cellular network access) tablet for as low as $249 (rather than $399) if you agree to sign a two-year contract for an AT&T data plan.

  This is to clarify a bit what you get and what you agree to, for that price.

The lowest cost option for this is $10 per month to connect the tablet with an AT&T Mobile Share plan, which requires a smartphone with a data plan.

 As their press release states:
  "With Mobile Share, new and existing customers can share a single bucket of data across smartphones, tablets, and other compatible devices. Customers can select Mobile Share or choose one of AT&T's individual or family plans."

  As quickly as tablets are upgraded these days, a 2-year lock-in is something to ponder though.

  As mentioned -- for the Mobile Share plan, a smartphone with data plan is required.  And if you already have one with a data plan, it would cost you $10/mo. to share its 4G LTE (4G where it's available and 3G otherwise).

  I pay $20/mo. to do that tethering, using the cell phone as a modem, giving the Kindle Fire WiFi capability that way when no WiFi network is available.  It uses the smartphone battery at the same time of course.  And there is a limit to the amount of 4G data on the smartphone plan.

  According to their description you can get $100 off any tablet if you agree to a 2-yr wireless agreement with data for a minimum $14.99/mo.* or the Mobile Share plan.
  "...An additional $50 activation credit is available for customers who purchase their device at AT&T retail stores."  And that's how you arrive at the $249 figure.

  Once you've used the max data alloted for a month on any plan, it's "$15 per GB for add'l data."


* Currently, AT&T's normal $20/mo. plan covers only 300MB/mo and that's only enough to do some email and text reading (not so much web browsing and certainly not movies).  In January, AT&T's $20/mo. plan replaced their $15/mo. plan that offered only 200MB/mo.

  Amazon's own $399 price comes with the option of 4G/LTE for one year at 250MB/mo. for $50 per year the first year and there's no requirement to be on a data plan the 2nd year.
  That's a total of $449.

  That's important because with the cheapest, smartphone-sharing plan at $10/mo. that's $240 over the $249 price, or $489 total required.  For the $15/mo. individual plan for a tablet, it's only 300MB~ data/mo. and that would be $360 above the $249 cost, for a total $609 total price over two years.

  If you want that 4G data, 300MB/mo. won't be enough if you use it for web browsing, and it will cost another $15 per GB of add'l data in a month.

  If you do want 4G for your tablet (and why else would you buy the 4G model, except that it does offer 64GB storage space) and you already have a data plan on your smartphone, then that $120/yr to share your phone's data plan is worthwhile but they require a 2-year sign-up for that, so consider the $240 additional in your price comparisons.


"Amazon turns Cloud Drive into a Dropbox rival with file syncing."
  ArsTechnica's Jon Brodkin writes:

' "The new app for Windows and Mac now includes File Sync, which lets users easily store and access files in the Amazon Cloud from a folder on their computer," an Amazon spokesperson told Ars in an e-mail. "Files in this folder are automatically stored in Cloud Drive and can be accessed from a computer or the Web.

  When you install the app on a second computer all of your synced files are available there as well. The updated app makes it simple for users to put files in Cloud Drive and to access them from any of their computers, ensuring that they always have access to the latest version of their files from home and on the road."

... The desktop application supports all Windows versions from XP to 8 and Mac OS X 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8. '

Unfortunately, unlike Dropbox and Google Drive, it doesn't provide syncing to Android, iOS or other mobile platforms and apparently Amazon has "nothing specific to share" when asked about their future plans on that.


Kindle's Kindel
redOrbit's Enid Burns reports that Microsoft's former GM for their Windows Phone, Charlie Kindel, coyly updated his LinkedIn profile to post his new position at Amazon as "Director, Something Secret," per Mashable.  Burns wrote that Kindel added that he's working on "something wonderful" at Amazon.

  In her round up, Burns adds that GeekWire quotes Kindel's added description: "I’m building a new team going after a totally new area for Amazon.  I’m hiring cloud and mobile developers and testers, program managers, and product managers...”

  Burns points out:

' As mentioned in his LinkedIn profile, Kindel’s hire list suggests the secret project is related to a mobile product but also mentions cloud computing.  It is undetermined whether this could be a smartphone with cloud capabilities or a cloud-based service for smartphone users. '

That's the roundup for today.
(The photo used is of Google Earth on my Kindle Fire HD.)

---

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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Kindle News: Clarifying Amazon Cloud announcements and changes - Update/Revision 3

Revised/Updated late evening August 6

On June 12, I wrote about the Amazon Cloud Player app for iPhone and iPod Touch and that the Amazon Appstore was likely to hit Europe this summer.

  Both are obvious signs of Amazon's plans to expand access to its digital media wherever it can, although the Kindle Fire hasn't been sold internationally yet, due to time-intense negotiations for "fresh agreements for books, music, and movies in every market they launch," per 3G.co.uk's Simon D. Thomas.
  And they're strongly rumored to be adding another Kindle Fire with more hardware power to their line (with a good push by the Google Nexus 7" tablet).

On July 31, Amazon announced in a press release their music licensing agreements with Sony, EMI, Universal, Warner, and over 150 independent distributors, aggregators and music publishers.

  They say that their "scan and match technology" gives customers a faster, easier way to "get all of their music from their computers to the cloud," from which they can then play their music on their favorite devices -- Kindle Fire, iPhone iPod Touch, Android devices and any web browser -- and soon, Roku streaming players and Sonos home entertainment systems.

  New features:

• Any Amazon mp3 purchases, including mp3's bought from Amazon in the past, are automatically saved to Cloud Player, serving as a secure backup of the music bought from Amazon, free of charge.
• Amazon scans customers' iTunes and Windows Media Player libraries (I don't put mine in either of these libraries), matching the music on the computers to Amazon's 20 million song catalog.
  
    Any matches, even if purchased from iTunes or ripped from CDs "are instantly made available in Cloud Player and are upgraded for free to high-quality 256 Kbps audio.
  
    Music that customers have already uploaded to Cloud Players also will be upgraded."

It seems to me that any imported MP3s that had been in the old free drive might now be seen as part of the Cloud Player's storage and playback of songs up to the subscription limit OR it might be left alone and still stored on the Cloud Drive with no playback possible (as only Cloud Player can play it back).  Cloud Player has been separated from Cloud Drive, but it too is Free if you use space for no more than 250 imported songs.

MY question:  can you just store music files in the free 5-gig general storage with no intention of playback?  The Cloud Player is for music that you want to store AND play back.

  Other new aspects of Cloud Player, which is now available in two tiers: "Free" and "Premium."

• Cloud Player Free customers
    .  can store all mp3's purchased from Amazon at no cost and also
    .  import, store, and play back up to 250 songs from PC or Mac to Cloud Player, at no charge.
• Cloud Player Premium customers ($25/year)
    .  can store all mp3's purchased from Amazon at no cost and also
    .  import, store, and play back up to 250,000 songs in Cloud Player, at no further charge.

  In both cases, any Amazon-purchased mp3's are not counted against the limits of either plan.

  HOWEVER, though their press release doesn't mention it, their Manage your Cloud page also shows (at least for me) a NON-Free and NON-Premium category:
  20 GB of file storage space + Cloud Player w/ up to 250 imported songs, at $10.00/year
  That provides an additional 15 GB of file storage space over the Free plan.

That's confusing.   The $10/yr plan should have a label between Free and Premium, as it costs less than the premium $25/yr+ plans because it provides 20 Gigs of storage space but allows only 250 non-Amazon-purchased mp3s ("imported") rather than 250,000.

  The new Cloud Player features were to be automatically delivered to Kindle Fire users during the week following the July 31 announcement.
  Customers can also visit the Amazon Cloud Player page on the web or download the app on iOS or Android.

UPDATE 8/6, evening
I neglected to mention the "Importer File Formats"
Amazon's "Importing Music into Cloud Player" page has a section on these.

  Supported File Types: (See asterisk explanation below.)
  .  .mp3 -- Standard non-DRM file format
  .  .m4a -- AAC files (Windows and Mack, including iTunes store purchased files)
                and Apple lossless files* (Mac OS only)
  .  .wma* -- Windows Media Audio files (Windows only)
  .  .wav* -- Uncompressed music files
  .  .ogg* -- Ogg Vorbis audio files
  .  .flac* -- Free Lossless Audio Codec files
  .  .aiff* -- Audio Interchange Audio Format

*  For starred items: Only eligible files that match Amazon's catalog can be imported.

You can see more on this at the Music Import page

Starting July 31, 2012:
  Cloud Drive is being used for general file storage and
  Cloud Player will be used for music storage and playback.

  Amazon recommends the Cloud Drive "learnmore" page to learn how to get started on Cloud drive.


About Amazon MP3
  Per the same press release, Amazon's MP3 Store has over 20 million songs with everyday low prices on best-selling albums.
  "All Amazon MP3s are DRM-free, work on just about any mp3-playing device and can be played from Cloud Player on Kindle Fire, Android phones and tablets, iPhones, iPads, iPods, Macs and Pcs.
  Customers can also access the MP3 store via the iHeartRadio, Shazam, TuneIn Radio and SoundHound Android apps."


The 3 types of  *Free*  Amazon server storage
  .  Amazon's 5 free gigs of Cloud Drive space for Amazon customers, globally,
        for ANY data files, plus
  .  Another 5 free gigs for Kindle owners' personal documents, plus
  .  Free Cloud Player space for 250 imported music files that can be played back.

  I find that most Kindle owners I talk to don't know that Amazon gives all customers, globally, 5 free gigs of Cloud Drive space for data files of any kind.  That includes videos, photos, documents, and backup of books you didn't buy from Amazon (as long as they're not digital-rights-protected by the publisher/vendor) and any of your personal documents that you'd liked backed up externally.
  It also can include music but this won't be for playback or streaming, as playback is done via Cloud Player, which has separate storage space for music files, which you intend for playback or streaming.

  Amazon also sets aside, for Kindle owners, 5 additional gigs for personal docs -- and this also includes non-Amazon books that are not rights-protected.  This also applies to documents like Word Docs, or web pages sent to the Kindle via various Send-to utilities including Amazon's own.  And recently, Amazon added SYNC'g of the Kindle area personal docs in the way that Kindle books are sync'd between devices.

  Both the general free storage globally and the free personal docs storage and sync'g of them (if you send the latter to Amazon for the Kindle-owner's document storage area) are unique features not found with other e-readers.

I THINK that covers the basics and the changes.  If not, please do add to the Comments area. Thanks!

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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 - $99/$139 Kindle Paperwhite, 3G/WiFi - $179/$199 Kindle Keybd 3G - $139/$159, Free but slow web Kindle DX - $379, Free, slow web

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

OTHER International Kindle NoTouch Basic - $89 Kindle Touch WiFi - $139 Kindle Keybd 3G - $189   Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

  For daily free ebooks, check the following links:

Temporarily-free books - Non-classics USA: by:    Publication Date      Bestselling   High-ratings UK: PubDate   Popular The Kindle Daily Deal 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 Keyboard(U.S. only, currently):   99c Notepad 1.1,   99c Calculator,   99c Calendar,   99c Converter

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


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DROPBOX deal - still current. (The other promo offer, box.com, expired)

FREE EXTERNAL WEB STORAGE (with no real streaming and no syncing for individual customers, with the Box.Com option, but a LOT of free lifetime storage space)

BOX.COM is temporarily offering a promotion of their 50 GB file-storage plan, for life, for personal accounts.  The offer expires expired end of March 23, 2012.

Have struck out the details on the no longer available drop.com deal
At the Amazon Kindle community forums, SuzyD posted information about box.com's little known temporary promo.  ("box.net" redirects to Box.Com, their tech rep, Sherwin, said).

  Essentially, box.com normally gave up to 5 gigs of file storage for free on personal accounts, with a file-size limit of 25 MB applied.  They also offer a plan for up to 25 GB for $9.99/mo., but they had a limited time offer until 11:59 pm, March 23 to register for their 50 GB Personal plan, for free, for a "lifetime,"  with a file-size limit of 100 MB.

 That offer was for Android users, and that included Kindle Fire.  The site was created in 1999, and SusyD says they have many Fortune 500 clients.

DROPBOX.COM -- this is another external web file storage place, which most file hoarders are using already, with rave reviews:

  Before I give the info on limitations at box.com -- most of all, on sync'g files between devices and on streaming ('bandwidth') -- Dropbox(the most popular one today) has less stringent bandwidth limitations, allowing 10 GB/day while box.com restricts file transfers to 10 gigs per month for even free promo 50GB plans for individual customers.

 Dropbox, on the other hand, offers only a stingy 2 GB of free space, but you get much more file-transfer capacity per month than at box.com (music streaming is possible only with individual files -- there is no built-in media player functionality to play one number right after another, and CBR mode ("constant bit rate" rather than VBR ("variable bit rate") is more reliably streamed.  Video files can be streamed and whether they are downloaded or streamed depends on the browser and plug-in.

  However, there is an Android market app CloudAround music player, that works around that.  See How to sideload non-Amazon apps.

  To get more storage than 2GB at Dropbox (besides the referral bonus method -- very clever), there are $9.99/mo. and $99/yr plans for 50 GB of storage, but you also get the syncing of files and unlimited file size transfer on the desktop app, advantages over box.net's offering.  As mentioned, they both have almost complementary strengths and weaknesses.

  Using Dropbox's desktop application there's no file size limit (except for your plan's max file storage amount).  Using the webpage, the file-size limit is 300 MB files.

  Also, you get file-syncing, which is not an option for individual customers at box.com (which provides this only to businesses with at least 3 paid accounts).

Dropbox.com's SYNCing:  if you install their apps and programs to use the dropbox on computers and other devices: once you put a file in one, it will just show up on the other devices. This is extremely valuable.

So, both services are worthwhile in their own ways.  (See further below.)

REGISTERING FOR A FREE DROPBOX ACCOUNT
While you can register at dropbox.com easily enough -- if you instead use a referral link from an existing customer who has "invites" remaining to distribute and has a college email address (I'm one), you'll get an additional 500 megabytes for your account at registration, and so will the inviter -- otherwise it's normally only 250 megs add'l space per shared referral registration.

 Each person can build their storage allotment that way, sharing registration invites, getting up to 8 gigs of additional storage for regular users and up to 16 gigs of additional storage for those with *.edu addresses -- and, those from colleges without .edu extensions can write box.com to be counted as college registrants eligible to 500 megs additional per referral and to the higher 16-gig additional file space.

My Dropbox referrer link for the bonus 500 MB upon registration is http://bit.ly/dropboxab.   I was given a limit of only 28 invites though, so if interested, use it soon.

Both of these services will help with keeping files where you can get them to use on your Kindle Fire, as the files are downloadable as needed to your Kfire or, in the case of Dropbox, these can just show up on all your devices after being uploaded to one.


BOX.COM's [now expired] temporary free offer - More details
Limitations on streaming or file transfers
  (I'm naming the companies more than I normally would because their names are so similar.  Am hoping that'll make it less confusing which company I'm referirng to in any paragraph.)

  Please note: Box.com's is NOT a plan that includes usable streaming the way Amazon provides for its music.  It allows mp3 streaming but you are limited to bandwidth use (transfers of data) of only 10 gigabytes per month, after which you must wait another month before you can even download again.  Downloads are treated the same as streaming when counting transferred data.

 I don't remember what the helpful box.com customer support rep (Sherwin) said about counting uploads in that bandwidth limit.  Box.com's service is really mainly for smaller file transfers (up to 100 megabytes with this special free 50GB-storage offer) and is very good for that.
 In fact, all the files I have at dropbox and Amazon are quite small ones.

  Its plan is NOT a plan for moving a lot of videos then either.  It's primarily for storing files that you can access (say, an Android app that you can download or share with someone else, or files for work or school, all kinds of documents you want to have access to later, or even photos you want to back up (this is a very good idea!).

  box.com's Limitations on Syncing between devices
  While Dropbox's best feature is the easy file-syncing between devices, Box.com doesn't offer it to individual customers. It's available only to businesses with at least 3 paid accounts, and the minimum $15/mo. account for each -- or, then, $540/year for a business account with the minimum number of accounts.

  box.com's Limitations of file-transfer (bandwidth) per month
  Although you can STORE 50 gigs of files at box.com (not a small advantage, which I've taken), they don't expect it to be used for wild file-sharing or streaming of video or even mp3's since that would be a waste of only 10 gigs per month of file-transfers on this plan.

  To get MORE bandwidth/mo. if needed, they offer a $9.95 plan for the lower 25GB of storage but you'd get 2 TERAbytes of file-transfers a month and 1-gigabyte file-uploads.


HOW TO GET THEM
AT ANY RATE, both of these external web storage sites with easy-downloading to tablets are worth registering with for their free storage and file transfer plans.

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  1.  To get the box.com deal, go to Amazon's product page for box.com, check out the reviews, and once you click to "purchase" the app for $0.00, click to get the app.  Then, use your device to just download it from the Amazon apps store on your Kindle Fire.

 You can also search it with your device instead at the Kindle Fire's apps store.

  Once you've downloaded the app and opened it on your device, you'll get a notice you have 50 gigs of space but need to create an account at their web page.  It doesn't take long.

  2.  To get the dropbox.com app:   Amazon doesn't seem to be carrying a useful version of Dropbox for the Kindle Fire yet but you can, as I described, use my college-acct-based referral link from dropbox.com to get an additional 500MB of storage space when creating your free Dropbox account there and use it on your computer.
(You can also use How to install non-Amazon apps to install a more useful version of Dropbox for Kindle Fires, from 1mobile store, described in that article and also noted below.

  Once you get to Dropbox's site, you'll see a link to their video on how to use Dropbox and an option to read the Text Tour instead. You'll also see the Dropbox app is offered on that page.

Then, to actually download the Android Dropbox app that Amazon doesn't provide for the Kindle Fire yet but Amazon (unlike B&N) allows us to install non-store apps, follow these clear instructions nicely posted at the Amazon review by Amazon customer M. G. Marks, with the app-download link filled in by D. Rojas:

 As of this writing, the official DropBox app is not available in the Amazon App Store, but I was able to get it installed on my Kindle Fire anyway with the following steps:

'Lightly slide down the top of your Kindle Fire display.

'Click the gear icon in the top-right corner of the Kindle Fire home screen to activate the Settings window

'Click More [on some Kindle Fires]

'Scroll down to Device or to Applications (this differs with Kindle Fire models)

'Scroll down to `Allow Installation of Applications from Unknown Sources' and move the slider from `Off' to `On

'You'll be prompted to confirm you mean to do this; you agree

'Switch to the Kindle web browser and go to http://bit.ly/dropbox-android-app, and click Download App. This will download the Dropbox .apk file

'When the download is finished you'll see a notification in the top left corner. Click it and scroll down to the notification that the download of the Dropbox .apk file is complete.

'Click the file.

'You will be prompted to install the application.  Click the button

'Once installation is completed, start the Dropbox application and log in.

'Done! "

BOX.COM Promo as it applies applied to OTHER devices
For those of you with other devices, there are various deadlines for the promo.  For:

• LG Android: through 6/30/12
  
• Sony Tablet S and Tablet P: through 12/31/12
  
• HP TouchPad: through 12/31/12
  
• RIM PlayBook: through 12/31/12
  
• Sony Ericsson Xperia phones: through 12/31/12
  
• The Apple devices promo has ended.

Here is box.com's plans and pricing comparison (the Business one requires 3 minimum users).




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Kindle News: (Interim post 12/15) Amazon announces it's selling 1 million Kindles a week - Amazon's free Cloud storage

Update - Amazon's latest announcement is that "for the third week in a row, customers are purchasing well over 1 million Kindle devices per week, and the Kindle Fire remains the #1 bestselling product (though it has taken some flak from a few reviewers who insist it should have the features and power of devices $300 more expensive, though I agree they should improve the initial software which they say they'll do within the next 10 days or so).

  I feel it was unwise of Amazon to have device storage of only 8 gigs, but I also have to say that 6.5 gigs of it is for user's own files wherever they choose to get them, while B&N allows only 1 gig of their device storage for non-BN-purchased files and their "Cloud" is only for BN purchases.

  Amazon allows "side-loading" (via USB cable) of non-Amazon apps.  B&N does not.  There's a workaround the B&N wall, but it's added work.  An earlier article explained how this is done, and I'll link it later today here's the link for that.

  I should clarify since few know it, that every Amazon customer gets 5 free gigs of storage space for ANY data from anywhere (unless it's copy-protected by others) -- and any music you upload from your own stash is streamable for you from anywhere, at anytime, at no added cost.  Any mp3's you buy from Amazon are not counted against the 5 free gigs.  Just as with Kindle books, they're just automatically stored.

  All Kindle owners (globally) now get 5 additional gigs of storage for "personal documents" -- meaning doc, text, PDF, or non-Amazon books (with no digital-rights-management protecting them) received from other sites and this includes your own notes, which if sent via e-mail to your Kindle by you will be automatically stored for you and will be sync'able between all your devices just as Kindle books are, so that you can read them on your other devices, from where you last left off.

  Any notes you make for your personal docs sent by you to your Kindle will also be stored for you (with your consent by sending them to your Kindle) and annotations will be kept retrievable by you with the document.  5 gigs is quite a lot for this type of material.
  Amazon is alone in offering this kind of storage and retrieval (which includes non-Amazon-bought items), not to mention sync'g of these between the various devices you have.

  That you can remove books or documents from the device to leave it clearer (and faster because less indexing of countless books is needed that way) and then re-download any of it at any time you want, with your notes in place, means a kind of flexibility you don't get elsewhere, which is of real interest to me.

  For those for whom their entire music collection is important to have smoothly streamable from anywhere at all times on the web or through their mp3-player app, Amazon also has a not-much-mentioned add-on plan that's been available for months but is also a limited-time offer:

  For $20 per year they offer Unlimited space for storing and streaming all of your non-DRM'd music (they can't store or stream copy-protected music) AND 20 gigs of space also, for all your other files, any of which can be transferred to your Kindle Fire (or whatever tablet(s) will come next) when you want it.  I just tend to play mine from the Cloud but I have the big favorites on the device for when I'm not around Wifi. The files can be mp3 or AAC (m4a).  I should clarify that I don't want or need my entire music collection on Amazon's storage but others like the feature.

No other company offering tablets at this affordable price range has the vast amount of content in place, without sending its customers to subscribe to other services to get that content, and it does a beautiful job of streaming its own video and music.  Most tablets costing $400-$600 leave the general consumer asking "What do I do now?" which is why Apple is so successful and the individual Android tablets with such good technical specs have suffered in sales.

Amazon's "ecosystem" is such that existing consumers already have e-books, music and have tried the instant videos (most are for pay while about 13,000 will be included at no added cost for those who are already Prime members (they pay $79/year for 2-day free shipping on just about anything).

The photo at the top is of the Kindle Fire while it's accessing a Yosemite Merced River photo on my PBase site.  You can click on that image to see the larger photo of the Kindle Fire's web image or click here for the actual Yosemite river photo on the web (although the PBase site is having big problems the last day with displaying photos at all).


  The KFire does a great job with colors and contrast although that's quite hard to show when trying to do a photo of a slide-like photo on a tablet.

---

(Earlier)
This is just to say that I'm alive. Haven't forgotten the blog or its readers.

Did do a brief videoclip yesterday which I'll talk about after a meeting today that I have to be at, but it involves a little external speaker for the Kindle Fire that amazed me after having received craptastic other ones.

I did the videoclip so it could be heard rather than just described. Will also have other recommendations only from what I know myself, what I ordered for myself and wound up liking, since I don't accept products for review (one exception in 3 years because I already planned to get it) as I think I'd be too influenced by not paying to try it. Others can do it well. I tend just not to write about things I don't like.

More this afternoon.


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.

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

Cloud Player & Record Label Backlash / Top 100 free mp3 downloads - UPDATE2

CLOUD PLAYER STIRS UP A STORM
  (See Updates below.)

Also see the first blog article on this, as that introduced the feature and explains, more or less, how the cloud drive space upgrade to free 20GB space works.

  What does this have to do with the Kindle?  Anything we upload to our Amazon 'Cloud' drive is also downloadable to our various devices, and that includes our computer, and we can copy or move some mp3's to our Kindle's "music" folder, which is on the same level as the "documents" folder.

  However, the Kindle 2, 3, and DX all play the mp3's in the order they're installed and in the background while you're reading (the Kindle 1 plays them entirely in random order).  BUT if you want to be able to select an mp3 to play, you can put some in the 'Audible' folder and then they'll show up eein the menu, but you won't be able to read a Kindle book at the same time with that method.

  Remember also that mp3 files tend to be several times larger than book files, so it's best not to put too many on the Kindle.  (The Kindle doesn't stream music from the Net, of course.)  Most Kindlers tend to be Amazon customers who have a strong interest in sight & sound, in general, so I include that from time to time.

  ALSO, note that the Cloud Drive can be used for videos, photos, and documents as well, and that includes backup of books you did not buy from Amazon and your personal documents that you'd liked backed up externally.

  At the bottom of this blog article, you'll see some of Amazon's highlighted mp3 download pages.

Cloud Drive and Player Brouhaha
CBS News carries a CNet article by Greg Sandoval about Amazon's Cloud Player triggering a backlash, as Amazon did not obtain prior permission from the major studios and top record companies.  Many of them tell CNet they feel it violates their rights.

  Bear in mind this is storing recordings that an Amazon customer has bought and owns.  Presumably.  The service does not stream it to the multitudes as mp3.com does -- it streams the music to the customer who owns it.  In the agreement that we have to sign, we agree not to allow others to access this password-protected material to stream it for themselves.  It's not meant to be streaming to anyone but the person who owns the music files.

  For that reason, the record companies will have a hard time, I think, to stop this.  Furthermore, Amazon has said they got this up in place and are willing to negotiate the licenses for a customer to listen to his/her own music from the Net, once it is up and running:

' Sources said then that Amazon had met with some of their studio and label counterparts to lay out their plans. In those talks, Amazon executives said that they wanted to get up and running quickly and also wanted their blessing.  Amazon execs said in the meetings that they were prepared to unveil the service without licenses and would negotiate them at a later date. '

  However, CNet says that in an interview with the New York Times on Monday, they took "a more defiant tone" in that Amazon feels that with regard to music,  ' "We don't need a license to store music," Craig Pape, director of music at Amazon, said. "The functionality is the same as an external hard drive." '

  The 4 top labels, Sandoval writes, have made it clear that their current licenses don't allow for cloud distribution or storage.  OR STORAGE??  Are they kidding?  I can see how they would not like music streamed to the world, but NOT STORED???  How do they plan to stop us from storing our mp3s wherever we like?  Places like Mozy, Dropbox or Drop.net back up for us what we OWN the rights to STORE.  Now, streaming might be another matter, but I can see a problem if Amazon were streaming that music for *others* to hear rather than just the owner, and their Agreement makes clear that the streaming is only for the owner-customer.

What does this remind me of?
  This reminds me of the Big6 publishers who did not foresee the e-book or digital media changes coming and did not do licensing for that, specifically, when they first bought book rights.  A lawsuit to grab digital rights, after the fact, failed, because of what was considered the ‘new use’ – "electronic digital signals sent over the internet" being a separate medium from the original use."  In that case, it was whether the author, instead of the publisher, owned the digital rights, but the publisher was claiming rights to a publishing format that did not exist yet and that wasn't dealt with in a contract.

  Storing music that we purchase, on an external drive, has to be "licensed" ?  No good luck to them on that one.  Streaming music upon demand of the owner of an mp3 to that owner's ears only -- it'll be interesting how far they get on that one.  But we can bet that they'll try to include a clause against this on future recordings.

  Sandoval writes that "it's unlikely the labels would at this point file a lawsuit, but the potential for a legal fight is real" and adds that "EMI, the smallest of the four largest record labels, filed a lawsuit in 2007 against MP3tunes.com and founder Michael Robertson, one of the pioneers in cloud music" (who founded mp3.com).

  See the CNET article for more on what MP3Tunes and Sideload actually do.  It's just nothing like what Amazon is doing.  It involves tracking down and providing links to "pilfered" music files and then storing them on MP3Tunes.

  Apparently, Amazon risked being bogged down in negotiations for months and was determined to be "first out the door with a cloud service" and "time was running out."  CNet reported last week that some Google employees are doing internal testing of Google music, and Bloomberg reported that Apple is in talks with major labels on access to cloud-based tracks.

  Amazon's acting first may have offered too many advantages for the company to sit still, Sandoval writes.  The reality has been that customers who use cloud services are not enthusiastic about moving to another service after taking the time to upload their media.  First come, first serve(r).

  Sandoval reminds us that

' ...earlier this month, Amazon dropped a bombshell by announcing that members of the company's Prime service would receive free-of-charge access to a pool of 5,000 streaming movies and TV shows. Analysts noted that Amazon had the money and audience to challenge Netflix's domination.  The move put Amazon on the streaming-video map.

Not only did that send Netflix stock into a swoon, but it sent a message that Amazon is no longer satisfied with taking a backseat in digital distribution. '

  SOME AMAZON MP3 DOWNLOAD PAGES
Top100 free mp3 album downloads and Top 100 paid, on the same page.

Bestseller Mp3 Albums and Song Downloads

100 mp3 albums for $5, selected by Amazon editors

As non-U.S. customers know too well, new features come very late for them, partly because the U.S. customers are like a large test-sample for the later global offerings and because even more rights (countries differ widely in these) have to be considered.

  Right now, all Amazon customers get the basic 5 Gig Cloud Drive, but for some countries, the 20 GB upgrade feature is "currently unavailable," and only U.S. customers are able to use Cloud Player for streaming of their stored music at this point.
UPDATED, edited paragraph below
  As pointed out in the announcement post, the 20 GB upgrade is for a year and then it automatically reverts to the basic free 5 GB.  However, there is an opportunity for another 20 GB bonus that can be activated at the end of that first year.  See the original post for the details.

  In my case, I ran across the $2.49 $0.99 album {4/4/11) of 99 darkest classical-music movements by really good musicians, an mp3 collection which would otherwise be 99 cents per cut, or $95 :-)  But listeners don't usually buy just a movement from here and a movement from there, although sometimes compilations are made for a particular mood (or, in this case some would say, don't go there).

  However, it includes Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings in one of the best versions I've heard -- the Adagio was used for the movie, Elephant Man and is heard when the audience sees only a dark, starry night.  Very sad music, but it's mesmerizing with gorgeous chord changes and inner lines beautifully performed.
  On the piano are less known, but really excellent pianists like Arnoldo Cohen and Dubravka Tomsic.
  HOWEVER, really awful* is that the album's mp3-playlist shows NO composer names.

  * UPDATE2 - It turns out that the composers ARE credited on the mp3 file info fields and they show up in the data fields and playlist info of most computer mp3 players and libraries, including iTunes.  We need to ask Amazon to include the Composer names on the Cloud Player.

  For $2.49*  I decided this was a good album to get, to qualify for the Cloud Drive upgrade to 20 Gigs of storage.
  But on 4/4/11, this became $0.99 - and there are about 9 hours of music in this set.  (Price went back up later.)
Most customers writing about the quality of the music and performances are very happy (except those unhappy to see NO composer names on the Cloud Player). I just read this one line from a review:
"This is the best bargain I have bought in my entire life of 29 years."
And it's his first classical collection, as he likes other genres.  Most are posting it's a bargain at $5 (its price earlier) or at $2.50.  But it's 99 cents currently -- the price went back to $2.49 later [and went back up, to $5.99 later].

 FURTHER ON UPDATE2:  Also at $0.99 (price went back up later), people are enjoying The 99 Most Essential Relaxing Classics.  Definitely a 'mood' use of classical music but ratings are high.  However, the sound level is anything but consistent and I personally prefer the content in the "99 Darkest" album.
 Amazon benefits from customer Ekkehard Rohwedder's listing of composers from mp3 data fields, in the "Relaxing" one here though.  I notice iTunes's public listings omit the composers in these albums too, but the mp3 data fields does hold them.

  The vast majority will find, at the Top 100 links given above, other inexpensive, or free, quality mp3 album downloads in several genres.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   DX Graphite

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