Back from vacation! Video review and demo of $79 Kindle Basic + a few pros and cons from me. Amazon is talking Early "Black Friday" deals

Vacation ended
Am back and will start up the free-book alerts again.  Thanks for your patience while I was in a place with very little Internet access -- not even cell phones tended to work, so it was hard to communicate even when trying to coordinate with others there.
  But it was worth it!

Back to things Kindle and Amazon - a good video review/demo on new Kindle
  Jon Rettinger at TechnoBuffalo has done a good video demo of the new $79 Kindle Basic which is smaller and lighter than even the coming Touch models because there's no physical keyboard and no touchscreen.

  In the UK, there isn't a less-expensive version with Special Offers, and this model is £89.00 there, the equivalent of $143 U.S. today (free shipping included) while the U.S. version w/o Special Offers is $109.

  Since this is WiFi only, it does not have 3G and therefore doesn't have the free (slow) 3G web browsing from almost anywhere that the Kindle 3 or "Kindle Keyboard" model has.  Both of these models are currently offered in the UK and U.S.

  Rettinger demos the VCR-style keyboard from which you select characters when you need to type a word or phrase or numbers.  It would tend to annoy ME to use it since I do a lot of searches and enjoy doing small notes while reading, but many friends insist they never care to type and they own a Kindle just to read.  Doing one keyword for a search is not difficult, but any more than that could be tedious.

  The video is in HD and you can click on the default "360p" and select "1080p" (which will stutter on most systems) or "720p," which gives a good picture for the demo.  Rettinger explains well (including the 'Special Offers' situation and gives good advice on several aspects of this Kindle.

  Bear in mind that this scaled down model has no audio, no music player, no Text to speech, and it has half the storage space and battery life of the Kindle 3 ("Kindle Keyboard") and the coming Touch models.   But the equivalent of 1400 novels and two weeks of battery life if reading 1/2 hr each day will be enough for many.

  There's no choice to get this with cellular network 3G for almost-anywhere downloading of Kindle books or free access to Wikipedia (globally), so you would rely on a local WiFi network at home, office or cafes or download to your computer and transfer Kindle books via a USB cable.

Early Black Friday Deals (already)
 Amazon is already starting Black Friday deals (UK also) since, they say, people are already on the old Black Friday deals page looking to see what might be there.

  I just checked and saw no early BF deals for today.  But their press release previews "some of the deals that will be available at various times leading up to Black Friday.  (Link: amzn.to/blackfriday-us ):

• Fujifilm FinePix F505 Digital Camera (includes 4 GB Memory Card): $179 (list price: $399.95)
• TomTom XXL 5-Inch Widescreen GPS Navigator: $79.99 (list price: $169.95)
• Philips Speaker System for iPod/iPhone with LED Clock Radio: $49.99 (list price: $79.99)
• Altec Lansing Digital Boombox: $199.99 (list price: $299.95)
• Invicta Men's and Women's Subaqua Watches: $169.99 (list price: $995)
• "Arrested Development: The Complete Series" (DVD): $28.99 (list price: $89.98)
• Up to 20% off Disney Nintendo video game bundles
• Buy two, get one free on select Electronic Arts sports video games including best-selling titles like FIFA Soccer 12, Madden NFL 12 and NHL 12
• Sony 9-Inch LED Digital Photo Frame: $69 (list price: $139.99)
• $20 off purchase of $100 or more on select Porter-Cable power tools and accessories
• Up to 50% off contemporary clothing for Women, Men, Kids and Baby

I hesitated to place what is essentially a straight ad there but felt many probably would like to know what kind of deals will be available.

I see no Kindle items though.


Kindle Touch 3G   Kindle Touch WiFi   Kindle Basic   (UK: KBasic)   Kindle Fire
Kindle Keybd 3G   (UK: Kindle Keybd 3G)   K3 Special Offers   K3-3G Special Offers   DX

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Check often: Temporarily-free 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 Chronicles Interview with Nicholson Baker

Update to my blog article on The New Yorker essay by Nicholson Baker on what he felt were unattractive qualities of a reading device "not ready" for the market.  My response was a longish one to what was a long article AND to the Q&A session that followed the publishing of the report -- which caused an acolyte to dub the Kindle an "inadequate device" based on the power of words alone.

  Baker's review serves as a sincere anti-ad that counterbalances Amazon's ad campaign, which Baker clearly resents and asks be slowed down despite Kindle-user excitement that he notes.  The power of a strong dismissal from a formidable platform like The New Yorker has had large, somewhat destructive effect in the past, as the interview linked to in the next paragraph reminds us.

  But a good product should be able to take it, even if the criticism left out important context.  Balance is something we can't really expect from an opinion piece, from any side of the issue.

Len Edgerly of the weekly The Kindle Chronicle podcast has done a 47-minute interview with writer Baker, and the tape was uploaded today to TKC 55 Nicholson Baker and can be streamed or downloaded (the latter is best for sound quality).  Len is always a good listener, so Mr. Baker has good time to expand on his thoughts on things Kindle and iPod in response to Edgerly's excellent questions and observations which are never confrontational but which lead to useful conversation (rare in this world?) and it's a good interview. 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!