WSJ expands article considerably. WashPo-Techcrunch comments on it.

WALL STREET JOURNAL ADDS INFO TO SAME ARTICLE (LINK) NOW DATED JULY 14

The link to the WSJ article July 13 now leads to a largely-rewritten one putting even more emphasis on Amazon challenging the iPad (a dramatic angle), when, as the Washington Post/Bloomberg/Techcrunch article points out, the Amazon tablet is more of a 'threat' to Google for the reasons they give in their article.

Word changes are interesting.  Yesterday, it was that the tablet would be 'introduced before October' and today it's that it'll be "released by October."

The article now goes extensively into the battlefield aspect of it all, and you can read that at the same link, as I'm not including much of the iPad angle here.

  Newly worded paragraphs of more interest:

' Amazon's tablet will have a roughly nine-inch screen and will run on Google's Android platform, said people familiar with the device.  Unlike the iPad, it won't have a camera, one of these people said.  While the pricing and distribution of the device is unclear, the online retailer won't design the initial tablet itself.  It also is outsourcing production to an Asian manufacturer, the people said.

  One of the people said the company is working on another model, of its own design, that could be released next year. '

  I actually mentioned yesterday that a more advanced model was said to be expected in 2012.

  Then they mention (and the Washington Post does also) that an Amazon tablet might cannibalize sales of its Kindle.   Despite all the current news stories that e-reader sales have been going through the roof while tablet sales have slowed, the idea of a Kindle killer persists.

  More new material:

' A person familiar with Amazon's thinking said it [is] still figuring out how to market the tablet computer.  One issue is whether customers will want to buy both the tablet and Kindle, which is viewed as a dedicated-reading device for bookworms. '

' Amazon spokespersons have said that surveys show that many who value reading books have chosen an e-ink reader AFTER buying a tablet.  Some will want one or the other and some will want both.  I have a Kindle and a NookColor (more of a tablet), as they complement each other.

WSJ writers Stu Woo and Yukari Iwatani Kane, with contributor Amir Efrati, mention that Sony unveiled, yesterday, prototypes of a tablet and a wallet-shaped dual-screen portable device to be available later this year.  That should be interesting.

New wording re the two updated versions of its e-Ink Kindles now omits yesterday's description of an "improved and cheaper adaptation of the current Kindle," which has me hoping again that the second 'improved' Kindle is the 9.7" e-Ink Kindle DX Graphite rather than what they termed "the Kindle" yesterday, which is a term usually used by Amazon, since August, for the WiFi Kindle 3.

 Here's the rewrite:

' Amazon plans to introduce two updated versions of its black-and-white Kindle in this year's third quarter, people familiar with the matter said. One of the new Kindles will have a touch screen, which current models don't have. '

The word "cheaper" for "the Kindle" is gone.

Forrester's "Ms. Epps" mentions that "Amazon is also in a position to offer a cheaper alternative to the iPad" and "could sell the tablet at a loss while hoping to make money on sales of movies, music and books" but says that Amazon lacks a natural brick-and-mortar outlet and that the tablet "may be less refined than the iPad."

The Washington Post/Bloomberg's Techcrunch.com article explains how the tablet could be very successful for Amazon.  They consider the coming tablet a "sort of placeholder until Amazon's own version is ready."

When describing the threat of an Amazon tablet to Google, they point out that the Android appstore is complicated (Amazon's target crowd is one that doesn't want to depend on computers). Their take on this:

' Amazon needs devices they can ship with the store pre-installed.  And more importantly, their stores pre-installed.  As in, any device they ship is going to be filled with Amazon to the brim.  That includes the ability to sign in to your Amazon Prime account [to] buy things with one click...When that happens, Amazon will have an Android tablet that is more compelling than any other Android tablet on the market on day one '

They also say that Amazon will be less dependent on Google 'carrots' (Google branding, Google apps) offered to partners and this will be interesting to watch.  For sure.


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.

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Non-Amazon free books, one NOT readable on Kindle

UPDATE 12/26/09 at 9:43 PM PST - Apologies, the University of Chicago Press book below is a PDF that's protected by Adobe Digital Edition, which I did download to the computer (it's free to pc and Mac users), following instructions there.

  The book, protected by Adobe with "Digital Rights Management" (called "DRM") is readable on the computer.  I browsed the book on my pc and yet managed to forget it needed the Adobe rights protection and that the Kindle would then need the special Adobe digital-rights software for one to read it on the Kindle, even though I'd recently explained the Adobe/Amazon DRM sitation at Kindleboards forum and at the Amazon Kindle forum when people felt it doesn't matter that Amazon hasn't paid Adobe for Adobe's DRM package.

  In August, I explained the possible problem for Amazon in using Adobe's DRM and opined that

' Adobe and Amazon are competitors in some ways, so that might be a problem, but it'd be nice if Amazon could get/buy the full licensing from Adobe for annotating PDFs and also whatever it takes for Adobe's DRM over ePub.

Amazon owns Lexcycle which makes Stanza and focuses on ePub, so it's all possible, but they will have $$business reasons for not doing this (but I think they'll eventually have to, to stay on top of the e-readers stack).'

  I should delete this blog entry so as not to raise hopes as I did re that free-book series, but it's a good example of varied DRM-use.  Amazon is decried by anti-DRM groups because they use DRM on their books to protect them from piracy.

 The DRM Amazon uses, furthermore, is its own (no surprise) -- Sony also used their own until this month, when they switched to Adobe's DRM (with payment to Adobe) which is used over any purchased or rented ePub and PDF formats.
  For mobile e-readers, Sony and other e-reader manufacturers are starting to use "The Adobe® Reader Mobile software development kit (SDK), available by license."

"MOBI" format (which Amazon uses) used to be "the open format" before ePub took hold, which is one reason Kindle users can download easily and read the mostly-free MOBI files from Project Gutenberg (30,000)), Freebooks.com, Manybooks.net and even Fiction-wise (as described in the ongoing free-books blog article here.

  The "free" book by University of Chicago Press below is normally sold and is protected by Adobe's Digital Rights Management protection, but Amazon would have to buy the Adobe rights-software/firmware for use on their Kindle device before the book can be read on the Kindle.  My Bad.

So, for Kindle users, your computer is where you can read the books protected by Adobe, and the instructions for downloading the 'free' book below leads us to the free user-software for Adobe (allowing us to read it on our computers).

  I've corrected the title.   The free Adobe Editions app for PCs and Macs is described by Adobe this way:

' Adobe® Digital Editions software offers an engaging way to view and manage eBooks and other digital publications.  Use it to download and purchase digital content, which can be read both online and offline.  Transfer copy-protected eBooks from your personal computer to other computers or devices.  Organize your eBooks into a custom library and annotate pages.
  Digital Editions also supports industry-standard eBook formats, including PDF/A and EPUB. '

It's similar to the situation of a non-Kindle owner being able to buy any Kindle book for reading, with no Kindle, on their computers after downloading the also free Amazon "Kindle for PC" application (Mac and Blackberry versions coming any day).

Similarly, non-Kindle owners can read a Kindle book (purchased or free) on their iPhones or iPods (with the free Kindle app for iPhone and iPod) w/o owning a Kindle.

So, if Kindle owners really want to read a book that's protected by Adobe's method of DRM, it's not readable on the Kindle unless Amazon has purchased from Adobe the software for use in the Kindle's firmware.  But they can read them on the computer the way non-Kindle owners can read purchased or free Kindle books on their computers. (as of early November).

(Original posting of University of Chicago's free monthly book, below)

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1.   The University of Chicago Press makes available, in PDF* format, each month, a free e-book version of one of their books.  December's is Headless Males Make Great Lovers And Other Unusual Natural Histories.

  From their description: ' The natural world is filled with diverse—not to mention quirky and odd—animal behaviors. Consider the male praying mantis that continues to mate after being beheaded; the spiders, insects, and birds that offer gifts of food in return for sex; the male hip-pocket frog that carries his own tadpoles; the baby spiders that dine on their mother; the beetle that craves excrement; or the starfish that sheds an arm or two to escape a predator's grasp.'

A review in New Scientist says:

' “It’s not just about insect sex—though there is a lot of it here. Marty Crump’s book is a trawl through the whole gamut of weird animal behaviors. Watch out for spine-anointing, toad-chewing hedgehogs; tortoises that stomp the ground to draw up worms; and the mantids of the title that mate more effectively once the female has bitten off their heads.… This beautifully written and charmingly illustrated book combines acute observation with helpful explanation. Nature has never seemed so bizarre and splendid.”—Adrian Barnett, New Scientist '

The regular pricing on this e-book is between $5 to $14 depending on how long you want to keep it, and the paperback copy is $14 while the cloth version is $25.  Here's the page for their explanation of their pricing.
  But until the end of December, this e-book is free.



2. As written last week here, TechCrunch's Paul Carr is offering a free PDF* of his book Bringing Nothing to the Party - True Confessions of a New Media Whore, and you can read about its background and how to get it free here.

* PDFs are now readable on Kindle (US) and Kindle International.  You'd need to download them to your computer and then move them to the 'documents' folder of your Kindle.

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LINKS FOR SEARCHING FOR FREE OR LOW-COST E-BOOKS
Here is the ongoing set of links for various Searches for free or low-cost Kindle-compatible books. 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. )
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Apple 'netbook' due October. And, the CrunchPad?

Computerworld reports that the coming Apple netbook (others say tablet) will sell for about $800, with a 9.7" screen (the size of the Kindle DX) according to a Taiwanese news site [I linked a Google automated, though primitive, web-translation].

The expected price is high but Technology Business Research's Ezra Gottheil says "Apple has never been above squeezing early adopters."  As either a touchscreen notebook or Internet tablet, this would be the cost before adding on monthly wireless charges as Apple of course would need to do for Internet access outside the home or office, but for customers who want color and video, the $800 cost plus $720/year wireless access charges (or ~$1,520 for first year) would probably be worth it.  Computerworld says that, according to Infotimes,

' Apple has placed orders with three Taiwanese electronics manufacturers -- Dynapack International Technology, Foxconn and Wintek -- for components that will be assembled into a netbook. Wintek, said InfoTimes, will produce the 9.7-in. touch screens. Foxconn is a contract netbook and notebook maker, and it will be the primary manufacturer for Apple's netbook. '

Gottheil wonders what it will do about a keyboard, though I don't see anything indicating it wouldn't have either a physical or virtual one.  He is hoping for an external one.  Computerworld ends its report with

' But Gottheil was sticking to his "iPod on steroids" vision of whatever Apple introduces to fill the gap between the top-end iPhone and the low-end MacBook Pro.  "That's more likely, I think, than a traditional netbook," he said.  "Even outside of Apple, this has to happen.  PCs, even Macs, are a combination of a professional tool and a hobbyist's device." '

And then there's the announcement still expected, for July, of TechCrunch's CrunchPad, which is a 12" tablet web-browser expected to sell for $350 which will be dedicated to browsing the web in color with no internal storage but with a card slot for external storage.

  In the Chicago Sun-Times report by the always pragmatic Andy Ihnatko, he (unlike other columnists) mentions the need for either WiFi or 3G wireless access and wonders whether 3G capability will be included.

  As of now, no one has said publicly whether the capability is only WiFi (useable at home or office with your WiFi network or at hotspots when out) or also 3G wireless, but there have been hints from salespeople mentioning 3G when apologizing for some halting in the video.

 3G Wireless would be great but will be a capability that requires (except for the Kindles) that the customer buy the monthly wireless (usually $60/month).  However, the other option of WiFi access at home, while relaxing in your chair, and webbing that way, would be great.  I think they'll sell plenty of these for people with WiFi in the house, and WiFi is easy to set up for a total of $50 or less.

Neither of these are e-readers, but the Apple tablet would almost surely have Apple apps capability which means that one could read e-books even if with backlighting, which many would appreciate at night.  But for $800 it would be a luxury to get it for e-book reading.  And battery life would be shorter.  For Net access away from home/office networks, the Apple would cost about $1,520 for the first year and then about $720 plus taxes and fees in subsequent years.

This will be interesting to watch since the Apple tablet wouldn't be as capable as a Netbook with hard drive and normal apps and would be overkill for book-reading while not as easy on the eyes for pure-reading as is the otherwise more limited e-ink screen.  But Apple always makes devices that attract.
  Here are speculations on the form factor and operating system.

I think the CrunchPad will be an easier sell though.  Ihnatko's report includes a video of a demo of the CrunchPad in April. 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!