Kindle News: All Harry Potter eBooks coming to Kindle Owners' Lending Library; E-Ink Color Kindle E-Readers may launch 2nd Half of 2012; Wi-Drive gets web-browser update; 3 Solitaire programs in one set, by 7 Dragons, for Kindle Fire

Kindle Owner's Lending Library will carry all 7 Harry Potter eBooks.

  The Potter eBooks had already been part of an exclusive worldwide e-book and digital audiobook distribution agreement with Overdrive for public and school libraries.

  However, waiting lists at libraries are notoriously long, and books are due within 2 weeks in some.  So, the PRIME Kindle Lending Library will be a boon for many.
  There are no waiting lists and no due dates.

  Remember that you can borrow only one Kindle book per calendar month though.  For more info on the PRIME lending program, which now includes 145,000 books, "including over 100 current and former New York Times Best Sellers," see:

  Prime's Lending Library:
    Rules;
    Borrowing;
    How to Browse List

  Remember that you can borrow an e-book ONLY on a Kindle Device and NOT via a web page on a computer.

 Amazon purchased an exclusive license from Pottermore to make these titles available on the Kindle Owners Lending program.

  PRIME was originally created to offer Free Shipping of Amazon products in two days, for $79/yr, or essentially, $6.58/mo.

  It now includes unlimited free streaming of over 17,000 movies and TV episodes.   Jeff Bezos, Amazon's CEO, pointed out that "Over a year, borrowing the Harry Potter books, plus a handful of additional titles, can alone be worth more than the $79 cost of Prime or a Kindle. "

As with Kindle books, your annotations and bookmarks will be saved for you (unless you don't want them backed up) in case you want to borrow the book again or buy it later.


Color E-Ink Kindles due in 2nd Half of 2012?
Forbes points to Digitimes' article today that Amazon is 'likely' to launch these sometime during the 2nd half of this year.
  However, this is very SOFT info, since with E Ink Holdings's plans to unveil "color EPD products" soon, according to company chairman Scott Liu, "sources" describe the products as "likely" to be adopted by Amazon.  NOT exactly firm rumors.

  They mention "makers in the supply chain to begin shipping related parts and components in May" -- to whom?  They don't say and it would probably be to E Ink holdings, whose first quarter was below expectations.

  Digitimes highlights two item, which I forgot to insert while linking to their article:

' Amazon's new color e-book readers will be built with multi-touch capacitive touch panels instead of infrared touch panels used in the previous mono-color e-book readers, the sources noted.
...
Touch panel maker TPK Holding reportedly has landed touch module orders for Amazon's color e-book readers, the sources added. '

Wi-Drive Update
The Wi-Drive is a small flash drive that stores files and allows streaming of media (video, text) to up to three devices at one time and I've used one with the Kindle Fire since January.   See the article from January 24.  I have two, and one is always in my purse, as it's smaller than a cell phone.  The Wi-Drive app update announced today enables web browser support for the WiDrive.

  While they've been available in 16 GB and 32 GB versions, Kingston is now adding a 64 GB model though I don't see it shown at Amazon yet.

  The Wi-Drive app update is available at Google Play's app store.  The Kindle Fire Wi-Drive app doesn't show an update ready yet though, but it shouldn't be long.  I received an update for my Samsung devices, but Amazon's vetting processes for its Android apps always take longer.


New Solitaire, Mahjong Solitaire, Spider Solitaire app for Kindle Fire
7 Dragons, the popular creator of Kindle E-Reader and Kindle Fire apps has just released a new app for Kindle Fire -- a combination of several Solitaire games released in just one app, for $1 as a launch sale, as the permanent price will be $3 later.

  This won't work on other Android tablets, and is available only for the Kindle Fire.   It was released May 8, and there are two reviews so far, both verified Amazon purchases, with 5 stars each.

Optimized for the 7" tablet, it's very customizable, has Autosave, unlimited Undo, and hints plus optional background music.  There are 19 levels from "easy" to "very challenging."

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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.

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HARRY POTTER books are now on Kindle and will be globally too. Updated w/ forum tips

QUICK NOTE for now.  More will be coming today was added Wednesday morning.

Here's the new Harry Potter page at Amazon (Link: amzn.to/pottermorepage).

To purchase a book shown, you'll need to also create an account at the Pottermore store to buy a book, (Link to Pottermore's Help page: amzn.to/pottermoresite).

  They seem reasonably priced at $7.99 for the most part, considering what we've been used to with other larger publishers.  But I'm getting this out right away and will add the usual details in a short while.

  When actually buying a book from Amazon for the Kindle, you'll click the usual button but will be taken to the Pottermore store.

Update, 3/27/12 - Here's the detailed Amazon Help page for Harry Potter books on Kindle (Link: amzn.to/kpotter)

Update 2, 3/28/12 - More details
A discount is given if you buy a full set of 7 books at the same time. $57.54, about a 10% savings.  This includes taxes.

A DRM-free ePub copy can be one of the 8-allowed downloads from Pottermore site.

Below is what is fairly common language now for Terms and Conditions of e-book purchases, but some may be interested in what Rowling's attorneys decided to use:

  From Pottermore Terms and Conditions - Section 12 Use and Limitation of Use of Books
    Excerpts from 12.1, What a purchaser can and can't do:

'
12.1 When you buy a downloadable book from us, what you are buying is the right to use that book in the way we explain below for your own personal, non-commercial use only:

§ You may download one (1) copy of each book you purchase for storage and use on your reading/listening system, which could be your computer, your tablet, your MP3 player, your mobile phone, your eBook reader or any other compatible electronic device, or any compatible reading/listening service linked with the Pottermore Shop ("System").
  You may also download up to seven (7) further copies of the book for storage and use in the same ways but this is subject to the continued availability of the book via the Pottermore Shop...
...
12.3 You may not and may not permit others to do any of the following things in relation to any book or extract:
  sell, distribute, loan, share, give or lend the book or extract to any other person including to your friends (except in the limited circumstances explained at 12.1 above)...

However, there are various upsides, including the reasonable pricing relative to other in-demand e-books today, the number of times (8) that you can download a purchased copy while being able to take advantage of a Kindle copy being automatically sent to up to 6 of your Kindle-compatible devices while it is counted by Pottermore as only one copy downloaded, etc.
  And with the Kindle copy served by Amazon, you can redownload that as often as necessary.

Here are some tips exchanged from the experience yesterday of Kindle forum members -- one focus is on being able to get the original English version of the books when you live in the U.S. and use a U.S. credit card with Amazon.com US:

Thomas Palmer
"Warning (or note) to everyone.  When you send a HP book to your Kindle account, it is also automatically sent to every device and app you have registered on your account, up to 6 of them."

___
Jolie Griffin mentions the "availability of the last book as a digital audio production, which even itunes didn't get!"

___
Fanny V. Darling says:
"you link your Pottermore account and your amazon account, then the books show on your MYK [ManageYourKindle] page"

___
CBRetriever says [in order to get the Great Britain or original English versions of the Potter books vs the US English versions)
"When I signed up, I set my language to GB english"

__
Thomas Palmer says
"I just did a test. If you set your country of residence on your account to be one where the GB version is available you can put it in your cart.  But if you enter in a US CC when checking out then the system will automatically change it to the US version and send you back to the start of the checkout process."

Thomas Palmer adds:
"OK. I was able to figure out how to buy the UK version of the HP books when you have a US account.  You will need 2 Pottermore Store accounts.  You will need your main US one to buy the book and a second UK one to get the books.  So you will need 2 e-mail addresses.

1) Set up your main US account.  This one will be where you buy the GB version.

2) Change the Book Language to English(GB).  Not the site language, the book language.

3) You won't be able to use the buy button.  Use the gift link just below the buy button.

4) Send the gift to yourself at a different e-mail address.  Use UK as that gift recipients country.

5) You can now check out as normal using your US credit card.

6) Set up a second Pottermore Store account with the other email address, but this time select UK as the country of residence.

7) You will get the gift code in that email account you set when you bought the gift.  Use that code to accept the gift in your second Pottermore account.

8) You will now have the UK version of the book. :)  Go ahead and link your Amazon account and send it off to your Kindle.  Even though it's a US Amazon account it works just fine.  You will get Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. YAY!!! :)  In fact I now have both in my account with no problems..."

___
H. kendall says:
"Thanks Thomas Palmer! I now have the UK version which I wanted.  It really was easy to follow your instuctions."

__
Thomas Palmer says:
'"CLS10 says: "Can you tell me how to unlink my amazon account? I don't see any options to do so."

When you are logged in on the Pottermore Store page, click on "My shop account" at the top of the page.  You will see a bunch of big icons for all the different account settings sections.  Click on Linked Accounts.  It will show you the accounts that are linked.  Click on "Remove linked account" on the right side of the account you want to unlink from the Pottermore Shop account.'

___
Satellite Girl says:
'This is actually better than "real" kindle books because you can get multiple versions for different countries regardless of where you live and you can download up to 8 versions which means you can get versions for different devices in different formats without rebuying it.  So having purchased it once you can get it for Nook, Google, Kindle etc. All having purchased it once.  This basically gives you all the advantages of having purchased it from Amazon but unlocks it so you don't have to read it in Kindle format or be bound by the restrictions.'

___
Stephanie Wheeler says:
"...SO happy to see that the artwork is still there in the ebook version. I loved all the little drawings! "

___
CBP the bookworm says:
"...it doesn't work if you've already bought the books - you can only do the gift option at checkout."

___
AmeliaAT says [re full-set discount, for 7 individual books]
"It's the very last option, right next to the Deathly Hallows book, and it has a little "10%" sticker-thingy over it. So if you want all 7 and want to buy them all at once, you can save 10% over buying them individually."

___
ProfCrash says:
"Password wise, use at least one capitol letter and two numbers and you are good to go.
  As for the 8 downloads, I sent it to my Kindle account and it counted as one download even though it went to 4 devices (k1, K3, and 2 DXGs).  My second download was to my computer, I saved the EPUBs on my hard drive just to be safe.  I have 6 downloads left.  So if I wanted to, or needed to, I could send it to a IPad, Nook and a Sony and still have 3 downloads left..."

___
Robert Berryman says:
"Thanks to Thomas for his instructions; I'm in the US and now have the UK
version. One thing I discovered is that you don't need two Pottermore
accts, just two email addresses which I already had.  Use the same email
you use for Amazon and gift it to the other email, telling Pottermore
that the send-to address is UK. Worked great! Thanks again, Tom."

___
CLS10 says:
"Here's a site that notes the differences between the US and UK versions
of the first book:

http://www.hp-lexicon.org/about/books/ps/differences-ps.html

I'm good with the American version. That's what I always read. plus, in
this instance only, i don't want to have to figure out that 'comprehensive' means public school."

___
Paxton says:
"I was interested to find that, at least with the first book, text-to-speech is enabled. TTS is turned off by publishers on so many books that this was a pleasant surprise."

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 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!

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

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!

Overdrive to handle Harry Potter e-books - UPDATE

HARRY POTTER GOES DIGITAL, VIA OVERDRIVE

You can skip to the update.

Bookseller.com's Philip Jones and Charlotte Williams confirm that "J K Rowling to sell Harry Potter e-books exclusively from Pottermore website."

That's a longish, very detailed article, and Kindle-edition readers of this blog will find the linked Bookseller page not a pain to load because it's mainly text.

  Kindle 3 users: When you click on the link to the story and get the page, it will be sized to screen width and so the words will be tiny.

  You will, though, be placed right ON the article, which means that you can press MENU button and then select Article Mode to get just the body of the text to read on your Kindle and the size of the text will be normal and in good screen contrast.

A few points from the article:

' J K Rowling has confirmed that she will release paid-for e-book versions of her incredibly successful Harry Potter books from her new website Pottermore "in partnership with J K Rowling’s publishers worldwide".  The news was unveiled via YouTube and at a press conference held today (23rd June).  Her UK publisher Bloomsbury will receive a share of the revenues, which put out a Stock Exchange announcement to make clear the revenue was already in its forecasts.

The e-books will be released in October, and will be available only on the Pottermore website, but will be compatible across a range of devices, including Amazon's Kindle.  The facility is being provided by the e-book vendor OverDrive, which also serves the Waterstone's and W H Smith's e-book stores, as well as being a major player in the library e-book lending market.

Rowling has written extensive new material - 18,000 words - about the characters, places and objects in the much-loved stories, which will inform, inspire and entertain readers as they journey through the storylines for the books.  The website itself has been built in partnership with Sony. It is ultimately intended to become an online reading experience, "extending the relevance of Harry Potter to new generations of readers, while still appealing to existing fans".

On the decision to sell direct to the reader, not through another e-tailer, J K Rowling said today: "It was quite straightforward for me . . . It means we can guarantee people everywhere are getting the same experience and at the same time. I am personally lucky to have the resources to do it myself and I could do it, I think, right. I could find the right people and take my time. There was no other option for the fans or for me.  Potter fandom was probably one of the first with an online community . . . so this felt like an extension of JKRowling.com." Neil Blair, her agent at Christopher Little, added that another motivation was that they did not want to restrict the content to a particular device. '

Pottermore CEO Rod Henwood also mentioned they'll set the pricing.

Rowling has a rather amazing statement there, since she had long resisted putting the series in e-book format.

' "It is my view that you can't hold back progress.  I love printed paper . . . This year for the first time I have downloaded e-books and it's miraculous . . . I feel good about bringing it into this world."  She added that she did come up with the name "Pottermore". '

She talks about the back stories of characters and not knowing if the additional material will ever appear in a printed version, adds that there might 'possibly' be a Harry Potter encyclopaedia and if so, the proceeds would go to charity.

Also included is her description of how this all came about.

While the site won't open until October, 1 million winners of a competition will get exclusive access to the site from the end of July.  They really know how to market all this.

MORE DETAILS
Metro (UK)'s Tom Phillips adds considerably more detail.

The Potter e-books will be DRM-free.  The article's headline says the news is sparking Twitter confusion.  Phillips' story states that the website will actually carry "the full text of the books, plus what appears to be a combination of a social network and a game, letting readers explore other previously unpublished material and submit their own additions to the site.

' The website will allows fans to access material cut from the original books and read insights from the author along the way, and will include a game-style mechanism based on the contents of the boosk - where readers gain house points for completing tasks, and use an in-game currency of galleons.

But the announcement left some on Twitter confused by what exactly the website added to the Harry Potter experience. The BBC's technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones tweeted: 'So Pottermore is an interactive website with some nice touches - but main aim seems to be platform to sell ebooks.
...
Fans will be able to register from today for an online challenge on the website on July 31 - which happens to be Harry Potter's birthday... [ to be among the first million successful challengers to see the full site 2 months earlier ].
...
The site immediately experienced some problems from the early flood of people applying, with some unable to register - the Pottermore Twitter account tweeted: 'We know a lot of people are unable to submit their email address right now. Please be patient with us and try again in a few minutes.'   '

Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($164)   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.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

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