New Kindle App: "7 Dragons' Tips for Kindle" - UPDATE

See UPDATE added late afternoon (Original post 8:53 a.m. 9/10/11)

7 Dragons, maker of the popular Notepad, Calendar (which handles recurring events), Converter, and Calculator apps, just released their very useful Tips for Kindle, with over 100 tips you can browse through.  Here is their description:

' Did you know that your Kindle can play music, read text to you, and display your own pictures?  7 Dragons' Tips for Kindle shows you how to do these things and more.

Tips for Kindle has over 100 useful tips, and every time you open Tips for Kindle you are shown a Featured Tip.  You can browse through the Tips at your own pace, or use a slideshow mode that circles through the Tips for you.  You can add the Tips you like most to a Favorites List so they're easy to look up quickly if you forget one.  If you find a tip for Kindle elsewhere, you can type it in to Tips to become part of your Tips library... '

Many of my friends have Kindles, several of them having bought theirs before I got mine in 2008, and I know that they don't know about the many things you can do with the Kindle, described here.   They mainly want to read on it, and the Kindle (UK: K3) allows them do that very conveniently -- and that's the extent of the interest in exploring.

  However, for those who are more curious about other Kindle capabilities and who want to browse a guide to features (including undocumented ones) at their leisure -- a tip or two at a time -- this app is recommended.

  I've long recommended an interesting Amazon Kindle Forum thread on unique or creative uses of the Kindle, and that recommendation is one of the tips.

  The app opened, in my case, with information on the How to Manage your Kindle page, which has been expanded by Amazon from one page to several now.

You can export favorite tips in order to view and/or print them.  The Tips for Kindle app creates a text file for you, with the title and text of each of your favorites, and each time you use the Export feature it overwrites the previous text file of favorite tips.

TIP for using the app
The Menu's "Slideshow" option seems to function in the same way as "All Tips" selection on the Menu, but the "All Tips" doesn't move to the next tip as quickly.
  I wanted a Pause button for both and later found it in the Help area.  At the top right, there's an indication that you are in Play or Pause mode, something I hadn't noticed. Alt-M starts or pauses/stops a slideshow (which 'All Tips' is also).   You can change the speed of the slideshow with Alt-N.

What I'd like to see in the next version
I'd like to choose from categories of tips or be able to Search the tips for a keyword.

The purpose of the app
I noticed that a customer reviewed the app with expectations that it would be for very advanced users who want to "hack" (as she said) the Kindle.  But the app is for people who want to know what they can do with the Kindle as it is, with the many given features you won't find on other e-readers.

I just saw a customer review mentioning that even as an experienced user, the person found useful tips.  The customer also mentions a glitch with adding one's own tip.  I tried adding a tip on my own Kindle 3 and it added the tip and allowed me to edit it later also, so the customer should contact 7 Dragons.

UPDATE - After being gone for the day, I just got back and checked to see if the problem had been resolved and saw that the customer added this update to the review:

' It was a problem with my Kindle and not the app.  Kindle Customer Service solved my Kindle problem in minutes.  The app developer also followed up to make sure and I was able to tell them that it was not the app.  After fixing the Kindle problem the app works flawlessly when adding my own tips '

Summary
As I go through the app, I saw several items that many even-experienced users on the forums wouldn't tend to know.  I learned some of these from others in the forums, but not everyone gets to those places or has time to hang out in them.  The answers are concise and the tips are very useful for the non-hacker Kindle owner.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($139)   DX Graphite

---

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!

Kindle News 2/15-17, including costs of putting out a newspaper Kindle edition - UPDATE for Borders-Aus. & Lendle

KINDLE NEWS SNIPPETS actually.  Saw a few interesting articles and just want to mention them and give links for those interested in reading any of them at the source.  There are more than a few, so I'll keep these relatively brief.

UPDATE - 2/17 to include the new Lendle book lending site and to note that Borders Australia is telling customers that gift cards there can be redeemed only if customers buy double the amount of the card.

BARRONS: "Amazon Is Smoking With Kindle"
Barrons says they are raising their estimates for Amazon and taking their price target to $230 [from $195].  Reasons are higher unit shipments anticipated or assumed (for both models of the K3) and Amazon's web services (AWS "gaining traction much faster than expected.")  It's not just a shopping place anymore.  They add that:

'In our view, Kindle remains the best ebook reader in the market and competition is unable to dent its market share.

... As far as the influx of tablets is concerned, there is no doubt that reading ebooks is one of the dozens of features offered by the tablets, but we believe that for the core book readers the value proposition offered by Kindle remains unmatchable (i.e. selection of ebooks, battery life, no backlight and glaring screen, free 3G, overall form factor, convenience to buy new books, etc.). '

A lot more detail at the link, of course.

"E Ink Holdings reports record-high earnings"
Amy Su, reporting for The Taipei Times, writes that "E Ink Holdings Inc, the world’s biggest e-paper display supplier, yesterday reported record-high quarterly net earnings, aided by the global uptake of e-readers, such as Amazon’s Kindle series."

"Fourth-quarter net income grew more than seven times to NT$1.92 billion (US$65 million)..."

This is happening despite the flood of color tablets with e-reader capabilities flooding the market.

CNN: "Best business decision of decade: Kindle app?"
CNN Money's David Goldman writes that:
  "AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson called Amazon's Kindle e-reader app the 'gutsiest and savviest business decision of the past decade' during a keynote address on Tuesday."

  "At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the wireless giant's CEO said Amazon's decision to put its application on every conceivable kind of device -- even though it sells its own e-reader -- made the company 'the poster child' of the cloud computing movement."

  "When Amazon met the iPad challenge by giving users a chance to buy a competitors' tablet over its own [probably knowing they are so different and complementary that they would be co-existing devices for most], analysts called it a brave and bold move.  But Stephenson said it is now clear that Amazon's decision was incredibly intelligent."

The article discusses the cloud-computing aspect, which Stephenson considers "the path forward."

Computer World's report on Stephenson's talk, including opinions on Apple
There is also an extremely detailed report by Matt Hamblen on Stephenson's entire talk and his mentions of Apple policies, at Computerworld.

KindleLendingClub renamed BookLending Club
The size of the Kindle Lending Club seems to have caught Amazon's attention and it's been "rebranded" at Amazon's request.  The estimated 20,000 members going to the site will be automatically redirected to its new home, BookLending.com.

LendInk - Lending club for Kindles and Nooks
The Next Web's Martin Bryant reviews a new e-book lending club, LendInk, which offers a lending hub for Kindle and Nook users.  He considers using the site "as simple as could possibly be" and "the best-looking solution we've seen," adding that LendInk’s interface is "a little more streamlined and is targeting a wider audience with support for the Nook in addition to the Kindle."  Obviously, there's no reason why Kindle owners interested in using the feature would not use both.  While publishers might be concerned, it also creates even more interest in e-readers and e-books (though the large publishers seem queasy about e-book interest).

Update - 2/17 (Original posting 2/16, 3:40 AM)
Lendle - New lending club, this one for Kindles only
  The Guardian (UK) has a story on the new lending site, lendle.me.
    Note to publishers: Lendle founder Brian Ericford posts that, in the first week, they've actually sold more books than they've lent.
    The availability of these lending sites for Kindle books should be especially useful for those lamenting the lack of public library loaning.

BORDERS and bankruptcy filing - Giftcards
One story had an interesting last thought:
"One possible upside?  The demise of superstore booksellers could revitalize the neighborhood bookstore."

  Update continued - 2/17
  Borders did file for bankrupcy and the U.S. offices said they will honor giftcards and try to do business as normal while shutting down hundreds of stores and losing 75% of their value, with the stock at 23 cents.  However, Borders in Australia announced that their customers will have to buy double the amount in order to use their gift cards.  This is not going over well, per the Sydney Morning Herald.

 Another story cautions those holding giftcards to use them before the bankruptcy filing sometime this week.  Often they're not accepted after that, though Circuit City did honor mine.

"The True Cost OF Publishing on the Amazon Kindle" (in the UK)
PC Pro (UK explains the various costs involved with the distribution of newspapers and magazines in Kindle Edition format, in the UK -- why there are few photos (if any) in some editions (photos increase the size of a file by quite a bit relative to pure text), and the calculation of delivery costs of an issue sent over 3G wireless there (no delivery costs involved when/if delivered over WiFi).
  Notes in Brackets are mine.

' Amazon charges 10p per MB [about 16 cents per MB U.S.] for delivery of newspapers and magazines in the UK.

  By Amazon’s own estimates, a “typical newspaper” with 100 articles and 15 to 20 images would have a file size of between 0.5MB and 1MB – or around 10% of the overall revenue [16 cents per megabyte], considering most newspapers sell for 99p [$1.60 US] per day.
  It [distribution costs] would be an even greater share of the publisher’s profits if users signed up for a cheaper subscription.

  For a magazine like PC Pro those costs would be significantly greater.  Each issue of the magazine has somewhere around 75 new reviews – each with a picture – plus dozens more articles and features.  An issue of PC Pro with around 150 separate articles, and 100 photos would likely incur delivery costs of 50p-60p [80-97 cents) an issue.  We can pop a magazine in the post to subscribers for significantly less than that. '

 To make things worse -- in the UK, Value-Added Tax is charged on e-magazines but not on paper
Read more, including calculations for revenue sharing.  They point out that Amazon sets the pricing of the periodicals, just as they do for the blogs.  Too low a price means PCPro would "take a hit on the delivery costs" and could "severely undercut" their print edition, and if Amazon pushes for maximum profit, that can create extreme unhappiness with a newspaper's subscribers.


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

---

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 highest-rated 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!

Countries now getting the iPhone Kindle App

UPDATE to Kindle for iPhone in 60 countries

The 60 countries newly included have been announced:

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Br...azil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Rep., Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Republic of, Mexico, Moldova, Republic Of, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam

And, don't forget the Kindle for PC that everyone gets for free (whether or not you have a Kindle).  The Kindle for Mac release is imminent, and the Blackberry Kindle app is scheduled. 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!