Google gets an e-reader. What it can and can't do. UPDATE

GOOGLE GETS AN E-READER

The iriver Story HD is the first e-reader to have the open Google eBooks platform integrated.  Target has exclusive rights to sell it for 6 months, at $139.00.  iriver details are here.  They'll be on sale July 17.

The unit has a higher resolution (768 x 1024 at 213 ppi] vs the Kindle's 600 x 800 pixel resolution at 167 ppi) though I haven't read about the darkness of the font (the Nook Touch has less-dark fonts than the Kindle or even than the first Nook), but that display sounds good, and it's said to have faster page turns.   Here's their HUGE photo of the device.

  However, as you can see, it looks like a Kindle, with bronze-color lined keys (38 of them) and is not a touch-screen model.
Google has about 3 million books for download, the free ones primarily public domain books and historical documents from academic libraries, but whether its paid books are competitively priced is another story.

The images to the left, above, are of Kindle and Google versions of a book I ran across last week, when I was surprised at the price difference.  Google has this bio by Michael Munn for $14.72, while the Kindle price is $0.99 -- I didn't look further, but the difference in cost really caught my eye.

Besides the comparison-pricing of paid books, there are some other interesting considerations:

  . Google eBooks, which come in the ePub format and which use Adobe ADEPT for its digital-rights management ("DRM"), can be read on other e-readers, but cannot be purchased on other e-readers yet (LA times.)

  . The iriver connects to and syncs with the Google store via WiFi (no 3G cell phone wireless with this) and while it works via direct downloading of Google books, it doesn't allow customers to download them to their computers and then transfer them to the iriver.  Odd, if someone does not always have WiFi available.

UPDATE - The above was from TekGoblin's Andrew Wilson, but Commenter Tom Semple says that books that show "Nook/Sony" can be downloaded [to the computer] and sideloaded using Adobe's DRM, though there used to be some ebooks sold that didn't allow this option, he added.  Will have to check that out further. [End of update]

  . Also, TekGoblin's Andrew Wilson points out "...[the Google Books system] puts a crutch on the Story HD by not allowing it to [directly] download ebooks from anywhere else but from Google."

      Contrary to some misinformation, the Kindle can download ebooks from many other sites.

  . The dictionary used is 'Collins Dictionary.'

Essentially, this is a dedicated e-reader, made for just Google Books, but that means a lot of books.  As for Amazon's Kindle and open systems, Kindle books can be read on almost every type of device these days via its Kindle apps for Apple devices, Blackberry, Windows 7 Phone, Android, PC, and Macs.

The stories don't mention various features such as highlighting, note-taking, clippings (how they function if they're available), nor the many other features that other e-reader owners are used to -- they are targeting people new to e-reading (probably for that reason).  If curious what other functions to look for (if they're of interest), see the Nook vs Kindle features comparison here.

GeekWire's Todd Bishop opens his report with:

' Will this device give Amazon’s Kindle a run for its money?  Probably not, at least not on its own, but it’s a notable step for Google’s digital books initiative, as the first dedicated device with the search company’s eBooks platform integrated into the experience out of the box. '

Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($164)   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.
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Amazon Tablet Rumors: Icewarp claims compatability with the Amazon tablet - UPDATE

MORE RUMORS, BASED ON EARLIER, CONFLICTING ONES

In a press release July 8, Icewarp stirred more dust clouds in the rumor fields by headlining their release, "IceWarp is Compatible with the Upcoming Amazon Tablet"

Way to get attention!  There are a ton of gadget news sites reporting that this is somewhat based on the June 22 Digitimes report that I also included in my monitoring of stronger rumors 'back then' and many are quoting WSJ's Matthew Jarzemsky's pick-up of that June 22 Digitimes article when they quote the numbers expected for August and September.  They were quoting Icewarp's press release.

UPDATE - ZOKnowsGaming was one site, saying, "After taking a look at this press release from IceWarp, it quickly became evident that there is an official Amazon tablet, and it will be launching soon." Most of the others like Marketwatch and iStockAnalyst were just press releases.  Google now lists only 12, and when you click on the 12 articles noted, only 4 exist now.  Another one, XYDO, saying "...other things are being made clear.  One of them is the fact that there will be full support for the IceWarp unified communications server system" in a piece titled, "Upcoming Amazon Tablet Will Have IceWarp Support."  OpenSource merely quoted the press release, under the same "IceWarp is Compatible with the Upcoming Amazon Tablet" headline.  It's amazing how many carry these business wires, even Quicken/Intuit site.  There were 33 left, but a search of 'icewarp' and 'tablet' brought up an MSN Money story by Kim Peterson (same date as the others), an 'icewarp' search 'found' result, but that search word is not in there now, although her report includes: "A report in DigiTimes says Amazon has shot up to the No. 2 spot in terms of tablet orders from manufacturers.  ... But Amazon takes the second spot, placing orders for 1 million to 1.2 million units..."."

  One that no longer shows up in search results is ZDNet UK's by Jack Schofield, on July 10, which reported, "However, IceWarp has recently fanned speculation by issuing a press release with the headline: IceWarp is Compatible with the Upcoming Amazon Tablet." [End of Update].

 A later rumor [than June 22], by Canaccord Genuity analyst Bobby Burleson was cited by Motley Fool in the article on July 8 which reports that Burleson "waxes favorably on NVIDIA and Atmel as he's hearing that Nvidia's Tegra chip and Atmel's maXTouch touchscreen controller will be part of Amazon's device."

  However, the earlier June 22 article mentions "TechnoBuffalo's Noah Kravitz writing about his own sources giving him information that conflicted with the previous strong rumors of "Hollywood" and "Coyote" code-named models that would be based, earlier reports had said, on NVIDIA processors.

  Not so, says Kravitz.
  "My sources tell me Amazon’s tablet computer will run Android but feature Intel-based innards, and not an Nvidia Tegra processor, but what beats at the heart of Jeff Bezos’ secret creation is barely half the story here."

So, what will Icewarp's compatability involve?
  Will Icewarp be compatible with a tablet with NVIDIA or with INTEL chips?  Icewarp mentions neither in their press release, but see their subtitle of their release:

  Their subtitle is: -- Unified Communications & Collaboration provider’s standards-based architecture currently supports all standards-based devices, regardless of clients --

  From Icewarp's release:

' SPRINGFIELD, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--IceWarp is compatible with the upcoming Amazon tablet, the global provider of unified communications and collaboration solutions announced Friday.  A rare exception in the UC space, IceWarp’s architecture is based on universal standards, doesn’t depend on any client and supports all mobile devices currently on the market.

“We are looking forward to testing this new exciting product and providing IceWarp customers with the option to use it as a part of our versatile and extremely secure business communications system,” says Jakub Klos, IceWarp Chief Technical Officer (CTO) and co-founder.  “IceWarp’s philosophy is not to dictate what device people should be using.  We rapidly embrace any new communication gadget that improves today’s mobile worker productivity.”

IceWarp has full ActiveSync capability that allows it to offer full synchronization for both personal and public data - email, calendars, contacts, and tasks delivering rich user experience.

“Future Amazon tablet users will be tapping rich Android Apps market, that delivers a plethora of solutions, such as Jabber (XMPP) for mobile Instant Messaging, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) for mobile multi-media conferencing – all supported by IceWarp,” explains Mr. Klos. “Paired with IceWarp, the tablet will deliver a full-fledged mobile UCC experience.”

They're saying that Icewarp is compatible with everything that's based on universal standards. Whether they're assuming the Amazon tablet will be or whether they've had any look at or involvement with any Amazon tablet isn't clear from this.

The press release continues:

' According to Dow Jones reporter Matthew Jarzemsky, Amazon (AMZN) is expected to hit the ground running in the tablet race, behind only Apple's (AAPL) dominant iPad in shipments seen in the 3Q. AMZN is likely to ship 1M to 1.2M units, beating the 750,000 to 900,000 seen for Acer (2353.TW), Samsung (005930.SE) and others, but trailing Apple's 14M to 15M. Total tablet deliveries, excluding unbranded generic models, seen topping 21M units, up from 13.5M to 14.5M in 2Q, Dow Jones reports. '

ALL that is quoted in maybe 50 stories today, but that one is an old story from June 22.  Well, old by today's rumor standards.  More:

' Already recognized as a leading email solutions provider, IceWarp (formerly Merak Mail Server) is deployed in more than 20,000 organizations and supports over 50 million users worldwide. The company disrupts the Unified Communications (UC) category by delivering all UC components (email, mobile synchronization, SMS, chat, voice and video) in one integrated, extremely secure and easy-to-deploy solution. Its customer include such market leaders as Marriott International, Inc. (NYSE: MAR) and Verizon Communications, Inc. (NYSE: VZ, NASDAQ: VZ), as well as small to midsized firms.

For more information, please visit IceWarp (www.icewarp.com) on Twitter and Facebook. '

So, was this just a deft way to get attention to Icewarp's email solutions program??  Or, am I missing something?  The fact that many news sites are reporting this as meaningful and citing WSJ's 6/22/2011 article [because Icewarp did) seems to indicate that it means more than I can see.  So, if you know what I'm missing, please add a comment. Thanks.

See the ongoing List of stronger Amazon tablet rumors with dates, titles and links to the Kindleworld blog articles, with linked sources.  [This won't be one of them.]

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For daily free ebooks, check the following links:

Temporarily-free books - Non-classics - USA: by: NEW:  May  June  July 2011    Publication Date   Late-listed    Bestselling   High-ratings UK: PubDate   Popular 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 (U.S. only, currently):   99c Notepad 1.1,   99c Calculator,   99c Calendar,   99c Converter

Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($164)   DX Graphite 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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Kindle news + other bits. Project Gutenberg history giftbook download. Flipback books. Video on EInk? - UPDATE

For Project Gutenberg's 40th anniversary on July 4, they have a gift ebook for all their volunteers and visitors - a mini picture guide, in PDF format and downloadable, on "the history of Project Gutenberg; from the founding of the project by Michael Hart, to the first native French ebook, the inauguration of the Distributed Proof-readers, to the posting of ebook #30,000."

  The ebook has 15 pages of images, each with a paragraph covering the main milestones throughout PG’s 40 year history.  This would be best read in Landscape mode, if on a 6" display such as the Kindle 3 (UK: K3), if that mode is available).

  In fact, the Egyptian painting at the top-left accompanies the text for this milestone: "The 30,000th English-language ebook was posted on 12 April 2011.  Its title was The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia (1903), by Archibald Henry Sace.
  eBooks were also available in 59 other languages. 13 languages were lucky enough to have more than 50 books. 46 languages had up to 50 books.  Please join Distributed Proofreaders and contribute."

  The history is a very interesting read, no surprise.  The photo at the right, is one I took 1.5 yrs ago, about 4,000 yrs after the painting shown.

  To find out more about how to download free Project Gutenberg books directly to your Kindle (and to browse and search them from the Kindle, see the blog article explaining that.


"Wee book versus eBook in the battle of light reading"

Flipback books are in a recently created print format which you can see in the accompanying image, with the thought that book lovers "can enjoy the feel of a printed novel and the portability of an e-book, too."  Note that these books are almost as light as an iPhone, according to the article.

The publishers may not understand the many reasons for the increasing appeal of e-books, which has little to do with having one book at a time with a humongous amount of text facing you as you try to read, the print being even smaller when placed in a wee book like this.  People who read e-books have a tendency to increase the size of the font and they revel in being able to have many different books available to them at one time, on a light ebook holder.  The smaller screen size has been a boon for many who find the smaller chunks of text less formidable, and Kindle users have a good dictionary on hand, so to speak.

Add that most don't appear to want small books or e-books to cost $20 each either :-) I'll explain that last remark with an excerpt from the story by Justin Norrie for The Sydney Morning Herald, which also explains how a Flipback book is made:

' The format was invented in 2009 when a Dutchman, Hugo van Woerden, chief of the Christian printing house Jongbloed, was looking for ways to use excess Bible paper.  He put the lightweight, high-quality "onion skin" into a series of miniature sideways books that can be read using only one hand.

The books were an instant success, prompting claims about a paper fight-back against electronic readers.

The publisher will release 11 titles in the flipback form on Tuesday next week.  The recommended price is $19.99 '

The comments are quite funny, and my favorite one, by Ugetsu, has to do with the ability to adjust fonts on an eReader:

' Now what we need is for restaurants to start providing their menus on an SD card so we plug them into our portable readers, hit enlarge and be able to read the bloody things! '

VIDEO on eInk Readers? (for masochists only but ok as comic book stills)
Video On A Kindle Now Possible with iPlayer
  "With iPlayer"?  How did Frisnit Electronic Industrial get (keep) that name from Apple?  (It's probably older and stands for "Internet.")

  Steve Andersen, writing for nexus404.com, says, "...how [the Kindle] goes about it is going to prove downright astonishing, if not necessarily all that useful."

  It reminds me of people trying to play "Angry Birds" on a Nook eInk Touch.  It's pretty grotesque.  But, The Challenge's the Thing.

  iPlayer converts video "into what amounts to a big comic strip with subtitles," Anderson writes.

' [iPlayer] takes DVB digital television and the accompanying subtitles, and then takes any frame that has dialogue involved and puts them up together. Then it goes through and takes out some extra frames to intersperse with the dialogue frames to show things like movement.

It then takes the resulting file and converts it to an HTML file, which can then be converted into PDF for “watching” on your Kindle, just like a big old comic book.

  The conversion process really does an impressive job of compressing the file–reportedly, a 30 minute show gets compressed down to a 20 meg file–and the file even looks pretty good for black and white. '

But is there actually a market for this?  You never know, but it sounds so painful to do, so there'd be $$$ involved.

UPDATE Here's a story that I put through google-translation to read in English.  It's by Michael Ilegems writing for ereader.nl -- "BBC's Mark Longstaff-Tyrrell developed a system that automatically converts a television episode into a sequence of static images with subtitles.  This can be viewed as an HTML or PDF file, and is therefore accessible to a larger number of carriers."  See Frisnit's online sample.

---

For daily free ebooks, check the following links:

Temporarily-free books - Non-classics - USA: by: NEW:  May  June  July 2011    Publication Date   Late-listed    Bestselling   High-ratings UK: PubDate   Popular 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 (U.S. only, currently):   99c Notepad 1.1,   99c Calculator,   99c Calendar,   99c Converter

Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($164)   DX Graphite 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!

Latest Amazon tablet rumor (they all tend to conflict with one another)

CANACCORD GENUITY ANALYST BOBBY BURLESON PROVIDES LATEST RUMOR

The Motley Fool's Rick Munarriz references analyst Bobby Burleson's news the other day, "that Amazon plans to build more than 1.5 million tablets this quarter, with as many as 5 million rolling off the assembly line by the end of the year."

  Munarriz adds, "Amazon can do it. Perhaps more importantly, Amazon can sell each and every one of those tablets."  For the usual reasons we've seen in all the articles on Amazon's ecosystem.

' Burleson's report waxes favorably on NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) and Atmel (Nasdaq: ATML), as he's hearing that Nvidia's Tegra chip and Atmel's maXTouch touchscreen controller will be part of Amazon's device.

These may both be multi-billion-dollar companies, but playing a key role in what will easily be the market's second most popular tablet by year's end is a needle-moving event. '

(More at the Motley Fool article...)


Below is the ongoing list of earlier blog articles on the many stronger rumors circulating on online gadget news sites about a coming Amazon color LCD tablet or family of tablets (by year end).

ONE rumor has been about a smaller e-Ink Kindle as well, with touch screen, some time during the fall (via David Carnoy at CNet, who's repeated it twice since then).)  Another rumor involves Qualcomm's Mirasol.

Kindleworld ANDROID TABLET blog articles on the larger rumors:

Friday, July 8, 2011
Latest Amazon tablet rumor (they all tend to conflict with one another)
http://bit.ly/kwtab0708

Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Mirasol color e-paper readers due from someone soon, they say
http://bit.ly/kwmira3

Friday, July 1, 2011
Apple's boost in orders for touchscreens may stall Amazon tablets
http://bit.ly/kw0701

Wednesday, July 22, 2011
Kindle News: Latest Amazon Tablet Rumors - by Aug or Sept
http://bit.ly/kwatabs

Wednesday, June 15, 2011
RUMOR: Amazon 10" color tablet to offer free streaming video as promo. Updated
http://bit.ly/kwtstream

Monday, May 16, 2011
Amazon tablet family rumors grow, with 'Coyote' and 'Hollywood' code names
http://bit.ly/kwamtab2

Saturday, May 14, 2011
Amazon's Android Tablet(s) later this year - more on the likely display
with samples of the type of screen resolution we might see
http://bit.ly/kwamtab

Thursday, May 12, 2011
Jeff Bezos talks about possible Tablet and concerns over adKindles
http://bit.ly/kwcrjb

Thursday, April 21, 2011
Is Samsung building an Android tablet for Amazon?
http://bit.ly/kwatss

Tuesday, May 24, 2011
SMALLER E-INK Kindle [possibility] with touchscreen - per David Carnoy
http://bit.ly/kwksmall#ksmall

Friday, November 5, 2010
That Amazon Android Tablet May be a Reality - UPDATE
http://bit.ly/kwktab2

Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($164)   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!

Apple Denied Injunction in Amazon 'App Store' Battle (PC Mag)

Well, a bit of sense in this world

PC Magazine's Chloe Albanesius reports that Apple did NOT get its way this time in one of their many lawsuits focused on forbidding others to use common words they want for their own.

  She writes: "Apple was dealt a blow in its bid for exclusive rights over the term "app store" this week when a California district judge denied Cupertino's request for an injunction against Amazon's AppStore."

' Apple has failed to establish that its "App Store" mark is famous enough to be considered prominent or renowned, the court found.  Essentially, people automatically think of Apple when someone says iPad, iPhone, or iPod, but the same association is not necessarily made with "app store." '

As others have said, 'app store' IS a term "used by other companies for a place to obtain software applications for mobile devices," Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton wrote in her decision.

When Apple filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2008 to register the mark "App Store," the PTO, by January 2010, put out a call for any objections.  Microsoft objected, which kicked off a legal battle between the two companies, Albanesius says.  And when Amazon launched its Android Appstore in March this year, "Apple filed suit, demanding that Amazon stop using the term."

Microsoft and Amazon of course argued that the term is a generic one and doesn't apply only to Apple's App Store, while Apple claimed it was a well-known term and that use of it by others would dilute Apple's App Store brand.

  Judge Hamilton, however, found that "Apple has not established a likelihood of success on its dilution claim."

  Albanesius explains the PTO's classifications -- which ones are granted federal trademark protection.

  Judge Hamilton found that the term is, at this point, more "descriptive than it is distinctive" and didn't meet the bar for federal trademark protection.

  Apple went so far as to claim that the Amazon AppStore's use of the term would "tarnish" Apple's App Store by allowing "inappropriate content, viruses, or malware to enter the market" but didn't make clear to the judge just how that would harm Apple's reputation when the Amazon apps are not offered for Apple devices.

(More at the article...)

---

For daily free ebooks, check the following links:

Temporarily-free books - Non-classics - USA: by: NEW:  May  June  July 2011    Publication Date   Late-listed    Bestselling   High-ratings UK: PubDate   Popular 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 (U.S. only, currently):   99c Notepad 1.1,   99c Calculator,   99c Calendar,   99c Converter

Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($164)   DX Graphite 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!

Amazon's new offering of unlimited music space on the Amazon Cloud

AMAZON OFFERS UNLIMITED MUSIC SPACE FOR $20/YR, AND FREE STORAGE FOR ALL MP3's PURCHASED FROM AMAZON, PLUS SUPPORT FOR THE IPAD

Here is the new area for managing your Amazon Cloud Drive and seeing the storage plans.

  See earlier basic information (now expanded to drop limitations on space when music is involved)

  The earlier Amazon offer of buying one low-cost album to become eligible to a total of 20 gigs of storage space has ended.

  That has been replaced by a

  . limited-time offer to choose a storage space upgrade and get unlimited music space along with the increased general storage space.

  . free storage space for all mp3's purchased from Amazon, including music purchased before the Cloud feature was born.  All Amazon customers are alloted 5 gigs of basic, general storage space, but the Amazon-purchased mp3's won't count against storage-space limits.

  Unfortunately, the storage-upgrade feature isn't available, at this time, in 27 countries, which are listed in the table at the bottom of this blog article.


MORE ON THE NEW OFFERINGS BY AMAZON
  What's different today then?  Instead of getting an upgrade to a total of 20 gigs for year 1 when buying one mp3 album, customers in countries eligible for the upgrades can now receive an unlimited amount of space for music stored (and streamable in the U.S.) with purchase of any of the storage upgrades.

  Amazon-purchased mp3's will just not count against a customer's storage quota.

  The lowest-cost upgrade option (beyond the basic, free 5 gigs of space that everyone gets automatically) is for 20 gigs of total general storage space per year.

  How it worked before -- for those who did buy mp3 albums after the Cloud features launched.
  Under the original plan, I had bought a low-cost mp3 album and found myself with an upgrade to the 20 gigs per year storage plan for my Amazon Cloud of music and data.

 I subsequently bought another low-cost album (99c) and received another 20 gigs of storage space for a future year.  That was the end of bonuses for rebuying any albums though.
  Just a reminder: Cloud storage space can be used also for videos, photos, and documents.

How this affects Kindle users
  Anything we upload to our Amazon 'Cloud' drive is also downloadable to our various devices, and from our computers, we can copy or move some mp3's to our Kindle's "music" folder, which is on the same level as the "documents" folder.

  Player limitations: 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).

  However, 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 in the menu, but it'll no longer be treated as background music, which means you won't be able to read a Kindle book at the same time using this 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.)


WORDING from Amazon's announcement Wednesday in its press release (emphases mine):

' "Customers are already enjoying Cloud Drive and Cloud Player and now for just $20 a year, customers can get unlimited space for music," said Craig Pape Director of Amazon Music.

  "Additionally, we are adding free storage for all MP3s purchased from Amazon MP3 and support for the iPad..." '

  In March, Amazon help pages for Cloud features explained:

'...When you save your Amazon MP3 Store purchases directly to your Cloud Drive, they don't take up any of your storage space and are always stored for free. '

  What is new here is that before yesterday, this unlimited storage for Amazon-purchased mp3's applied only to NEW Amazon mp3 purchases.

  TODAY, even your OLDER Amazon mp3 purchases will not count against any of your Cloud storage space and will always be stored for free there.  This had been much requested.

Unlimited Space for Music (ANY mp3's, purchased anywhere) for $20 per year
Amazon's press release explains:

' Now, for a limited time, Amazon customers who purchase a Cloud Drive storage plan will receive unlimited space for their MP3 and AAC (.m4a) music files.  This offer is available for even the lowest price plan: $20/year for 20 GB of file storage plus unlimited space for music.  Customers can visit (www.amazon.com/clouddrive/manage) to purchase a Cloud Drive storage plan and receive unlimited space for music. '

Amazon Mp3 Purchases

' Customers can now store all of their Amazon MP3 purchases for free in Cloud Drive, including future MP3 purchases as well as all purchases made before the launch of Cloud Drive and Cloud Player.
  MP3s purchased from Amazon MP3 and stored in Amazon Cloud Drive will not count against a customer's storage quota. '

Cloud Player for Web on iPad
Earlier Amazon offered Cloud Player for Web and for Android.
Now they're offering Cloud Player for Web on iPad also.  From the press release:

' Amazon customers will be able to play music stored in the cloud on any Android phone, Android tablet, Mac, PC, and now on their iPad.  "Cloud Player for Web has been optimized to offer customers streaming playback of their Cloud Drive music using the Safari browser for iPad. To access Cloud Player for iPad, customers simply open their Safari browser and visit (www.amazon.com/cloudplayer) to start listening to their music.

Storage for Music and More

'All customers automatically start with 5 GB of free Cloud Drive storage to begin uploading their digital music library, and for a limited time, those who purchase any Cloud Drive storage plan will receive unlimited space for music at no additional cost.

  In addition to unlimited space for music, Cloud Drive allows customers to upload and store all kinds of digital files, including photos, videos and documents which are stored securely and available via web browser on any computer.

  Customers who qualified for 20 GB of free storage from earlier promotions will receive the unlimited space for music at no additional cost.

In March, Amazon launched Cloud Drive (www.amazon.com/clouddrive), Amazon Cloud Player for Web (www.amazon.com/cloudplayer), and Amazon Cloud Player for Android (www.amazon.com/cloudplayerandroid).

Together, these services enable customers to securely store music in the cloud and play it on any Android phone, Android tablet, Mac or PC, and now iPad, wherever they are. Customers can easily upload their music library to Amazon Cloud Drive and can save any new Amazon MP3 purchases directly to their Amazon Cloud Drive for free. '

Cloud FAQ.  The Cloud FAQ includes a table that shows the countries for which storage upgrades are not available at this time.

' Where is Amazon Cloud Drive [not] available?

The 5 GB free storage plan is available to all Amazon.com customers, however further upgrades to the storage plan are currently unavailable in the following countries:

Austria	Belgium	Bulgaria
Cyprus	Czech Republic	Denmark
Estonia	Finland	France
Germany	Greece	Hungary
Ireland	Italy	Latvia
Lithuania	Luxembourg	Malta
Netherlands	Poland	Portugal
Romania	Slovakia	Slovenia
Spain	Sweden	United Kingdom

'

OTHER NEWS: Hundreds of new jobs in a few Amazon fulfillment centers
With Amazon's announcements this week of the opening of 1) fulfillment centers in Plainfield, Indiana and Phoenix, Arizona, each one "creating hundreds of new jobs" and 2) the Allentown, Pennsylvania fulfillment center now "hiring for hundreds of full-time jobs with great benefits," the Amazon tablet rumors can only increase.

---

Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($164)   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

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Kindle-Edition NYTimes subscribers finally get full access to NYT-Web

NEW YORK TIMES FULL WEB ACCESS NOW READY FOR KINDLE-EDITION NYT SUBSCRIBERS

That full web access to The New York Times is finally available after silence for over 3 months -- "Kindle subscribers are entitled to complete online coverage of breaking news, articles, videos, audio clips, multimedia and blogs on NYTimes.com."

Kindle customers can now link their Kindle New York Times subscription to their NYTimes.com account by visiting www.nytimes.com/kindleaccess.

To order The New York Times for Kindle, visit the Amazon page for the New York Times.

---

Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($164)   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!

Mirasol color e-paper readers due from someone soon, they say

MIRASOL ANSWERS QUESTIONS ON FACEBOOK

This is just an alert to a Kindle Forum thread about what Qualcomm's Mirasol reps are reported to have said on their Facebook page recently in response to questions.

Wiiman writes that he's been watching the discussions there.

  As most Kindlers who watch the ereader news know now, Mirasol is an e-paper technology that has similarities to e-Ink except that it's in color (muted and subdued colors) and has a fast refresh rate.  Because of that much faster refresh rate, unlike the Kindle, Mirasol screens can handle video.

  Last I heard, they were thinking of a 5" display (and the 6" screen is already too small for most PDFs, for many of us).  Wimman reports at Kindle forum the recent Qualcomm responses:

' "Hi Wei, thanks for the question.  As a display component supplier, we'd like to see our consumer-facing partners ship mirasol enabled product before the end of the year.  We'll keep you posted."

  And also from mirasol's FB page "Hi Kevin, thanks for the question and for your frequent participation.  You are exactly right about product schedule control.  We, along with our customers, expect to see products later in 2011.  That's about as specific as we can get at this point (deferring to our customers)."

 It's a known fact that Amazon has had the mirasol tech in their labs for "testing" for some time now... '

  I'm not sure why he doesn't provide links to the described quotes at Facebook.  I imagine he'll update the thread when/if he reads anything that might be of interest re Amazon.

Also, see a recent blog article here about Mirasol and ereaders:

---

For daily free ebooks, check the following links:

Temporarily-free books - Non-classics - USA: by: NEW:  May  June  July 2011    Publication Date   Late-listed    Bestselling   High-ratings UK: PubDate   Popular 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 (U.S. only, currently):   99c Notepad 1.1,   99c Calculator,   99c Calendar,   99c Converter

Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($164)   DX Graphite 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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Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

July 1 and Kindle for iPad still has a Buy Button - UPDATE

Appolicious' Phil Hornshaw points out that the Kindle 4 iPad app still shows a Buy button and no option for in-app purchase after the June 30 deadline for removal.

He wonders (me too) "Did the two companies reach some kind of deal, or [was] Apple unwilling to chuck such a popular app as Kindle?"  (See UPDATE.)

We saw that Hulu removed any statement about being able to subscribe to its Hulu Plus and no longer have a link to Hulu's website.  A few others left the app store.  Hornshaw wonders also whther Holu might try to 'change back' now.

Apple and Amazon have been silent.  The day is young though.

I think they probably made a deal -- they both benefit from this too much not to, but you never know with either of these companies.  How will other companies with apps react if Apple seems not to have enforced the much-discussed rule in this case?

UPDATE - Original post was July 1.
  Macworld's Dan Moren and Lex Friedman report that "sources tell Macworld that the deadline was less of a hard-and-fast date than a rough target for bringing apps into line with the new policy."

  They also report that Netflix "sidestepped the restriction" in a way that I had said Amazon certainly could.

  Netflix added a note on the image of its log-in screen that says to "Visit netflix.com" to sign up if you're not already a member -- WITHOUT a Link.
  Just the Url showing, with no active link.  There's never been a reason that this shouldn't work unless Apple mgmt didn't mind that Apple would look quite weak then, which it would if app developers could not even give the UNlinked-URL of their own websites.

  In the meantime, as of today, the apps for Google Books and for Barnes & Noble still have active links to their own stores.  Macworld writes:

' However, Macworld’s sources can confirm that Apple has been working with various prominent developers to help them ensure their apps comply with the in-app content policies; expect to see updates to these apps in the near future. '

  June 30, 2011 was a 'deadline' for legacy e-reader apps, and if nothing else, it has been a very soft one after all the warnings.   For all we know, Google, B&N and Amazon decided, together or alone, to resist and let Apple get the ensuing media play if it tossed their bookstore apps from the iPad.

  There's also the virtual certainty now that Amazon will be out with its tablets that will be connected to a very strong Amazon ecosystem of streaming media as well as video-enhanced books, and maybe for once Apple will want to even consider making its own iBooks available OUTSIDE its own system, on an Amazon tablet, on which Amazon's massive base of customers will be able to visit Apple's iTunes

 Apple is the ONLY major bookstore which sells e-books that cannot be read on other devices, unlike Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobe, and Amazon.

  Apple also already has links from Amazon to iPad pages for features like the British Library books in enhanced version, and the Amazon Kindle store includes enhanced Kindle books, the features of which can be used ONLY with the Kindle for iPad app currently.

 They are at least potential "partners" on certain features, if battling ones, including 'disagreements' such as Apple's lawsuit against Amazon for using the "appstore" word for Amazon Appstore for Android, because, Apple asserts, the word 'Appstore' would 'confuse' people and make them think they were on the Apple site.
  For all its financial success, Apple often acts like an insecure youngster.

Maybe they'll all just allow portions of their audiences to co-exist on all tablets rather than only Android, WebOS, Windows7, or RIM tablets allowing this while Apple just spends time, alone, in its heavily fortified garden. (The NookColor is another walled-off system and, "unrooted," allows only certain apps rather than the full Android Marketplace and is not a full-fledged tablet, as sold.  I own one and it's very enjoyable for what it is.  For one thing, Youtube is great on it! since the last update.)

I don't think Apple is self-destructively narrow.  But, I often give them too much credit when it comes to playing well with others.

---

For daily free ebooks, check the following links:

Temporarily-free books - Non-classics - USA: by: NEW:  May  June  July 2011    Publication Date   Late-listed    Bestselling   High-ratings UK: PubDate   Popular 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 (U.S. only, currently):   99c Notepad 1.1,   99c Calculator,   99c Calendar,   99c Converter

Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($164)   DX Graphite

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!

Apple's boost in orders for touchscreens may stall Amazon tablets

Digitimes Yenting Chen and Steve Shen focus today on Taiwan-based touch panel makers who may have some involvement with touch panel orders from Amazon for its tablet PCs "to be launched in the second half of 2011."

Apparently, it's an idea somewhere but any actual action on them may be delayed due to Apple's large boost in orders for the same type of touch screens in the same time frame.   Digitimes writes:

' The first batch of touch panels to be delivered to Amazon slated for September is likely to top 1.5-2 million units, according to industry sources.

Amazon reportedly has held talks with TPK Holdings, Wintek, HannStar Display and J Touch for the supply of touch panels, indicated the sources, noting that Amazon targets to ship four million tablet PCs before the end of 2011.

TPK, a major supplier of touch modules for Apple's iPad tablet PCs, has been reluctant to make a commitment to suppling [sic] touch panels to Amazon on concerns of capacity, the sources noted. TPK declined to comment.

Wintek has also landed a fair amount of orders from Apple recently and will see its revenues edge higher in the third quarter. However, the company also revealed that its production schedule will become tight in the second half of the year and it may be difficult for the company to accommodate orders from Amazon. '

The Telegraph's Shane Richmond (while pointing out that HP's tablet computer, the TouchPad, launches tomorrow in Britain tomorrow) points us to another Digitimes article, by Max Wang and Joseph Tsai, which adds that

'Apple is turning more aggressive in placing orders for its iPad 2 and is set to ship 12-14 million units in the quarter, up from 7-9 million units in the second, according to market watchers.

In order to significantly increase its shipments in the third quarter, Apple has been piling up its inventory of iPad 2 components such as panels in the second quarter to minimize the risk of facing component shortages.

The companies they name here, expected to benefit from the increased orders are: LG Display, Catcher Technology, TPK Holdings and Radiant Opto-Electronics Corporation

At this point, just more conjecture, really, although Apple's boost of orders at the same time may be natural or a delaying-tactic, as news analyses have been in agreement that Amazon's ecosystem presents the first real challenge to the iPad, and timing is everything in this business.

Below is the ongoing list of earlier blog articles on the many stronger rumors circulating on online gadget news sites about a coming Amazon color LCD tablet or family of tablets (by year end).

  ONE rumor has been about a smaller e-Ink Kindle as well, with touch screen, some time during the fall (David Carnoy at CNet, who's repeated it twice since then).)

Kindleworld ANDROID TABLET blog articles on the larger rumors:

Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Kindle News: Latest Amazon Tablet Rumors - by Aug or Sept
http://bit.ly/kwatabs

Wednesday, June 15, 2011
RUMOR: Amazon 10" color tablet to offer free streaming video as promo. Updated
http://bit.ly/kwtstream

Monday, May 16, 2011
Amazon tablet family rumors grow, with 'Coyote' and 'Hollywood' code names
http://bit.ly/kwamtab2

Saturday, May 14, 2011
Amazon's Android Tablet(s) later this year - more on the likely display
with samples of the type of screen resolution we might see
http://bit.ly/kwamtab

Thursday, May 12, 2011
Jeff Bezos talks about possible Tablet and concerns over adKindles
http://bit.ly/kwcrjb

Thursday, April 21, 2011
Is Samsung building an Android tablet for Amazon?
http://bit.ly/kwatss

Tuesday, May 24, 2011
SMALLER E-INK Kindle [possibility] with touchscreen - per David Carnoy
http://bit.ly/kwksmall#ksmall

Friday, November 5, 2010
That Amazon Android Tablet May be a Reality - UPDATE
http://bit.ly/kwktab2

Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($164)   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 app for iPad - it's June 30. Hulu has removed its "Buy" button

The Bookseller has reported that while the world (well, the interested-world) wonders what Amazon and B&N will do about its e-reader apps for iPad and other Apple devices, it is now June 30, and the last day that Apple has indicated it wants "compliance with Apple's strict new rules for in-app payment and subscription links."

Apple has said that e-reader Apps are expected to remove from the app any Buy buttons that link to an external store via a web browser, as Kindle for iPad does. Otherwise, Apple wants an option programmed in to buy it in-App from Apple, which would be easier for iPad customers.

Apple rep Trudy Muller had explained, February 1, re Apple's rejection of the Sony e-reader app:

' "We have not changed our developer terms or guidelines," Apple spokesperson Trudy Muller told Ars. "We are now requiring that if an app offers customers the ability to purchase books outside of the app, that the same option is also available to customers from within the app with in-app purchase." '

  It's been assumed that Apple's demand would be a 30% cut, which would mean 100% of the Amazon or B&N share of any Big6 publisher book.  However, in connection with that percentage, the only quotes of 30% from an Apple rep were from Steve Jobs during the Subscriptions announcement and then Apple's Internet Services boss Eddy Cue, who said that the announcement applied only to Subscriptions.

  While then it could be possible that Amazon and B&N might agree on something more like 3-5% in order to have a Buy button that would allow iPad owners the option to buy from Apple, it's also possible they wouldn't go for paying Apple whatever fee might be asked, since Apple benefits as much as the other bookstores from having those books readable on its own device and has used that availability in its marketing.  Since iBooks can be read only on Apple devices, the iPad could definitely look less appealing to prospective book-loving buyers, especially those who shop a lot at Amazon and B&N.

  In the meantime, the bookstores could just decide to make their Apple apps read-only and not try to sell books from the Apple apps, since just who does not know how to get to Amazon or B&N these days?

  I had said that Amazon should be able to add wording that the book could be found at their website and do an UN-linked URL to Amazon on the page.

  CNNMoney has an interesting quote from Richard Stephenson of YUDU Media, which has developed mobile apps for magazines including Reader's Digest, who goes further.

' [Stephenson] says he's "pretty certain" that Apple wouldn't block a link that simply says "visit our website."

  "[The problem] is really when you say, 'buy subscriptions from us direct' and there is a clear button to click," Stephenson said in an e-mail to Fortune. "If it's 'visit our website,' then [Apple] will not be able nor wish to block that." '

CNNMoney adds that "Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said he could confirm only that the App Store terms were recently updated, and wouldn't comment on specific apps or whether a "visit our website" link would be blocked."

  Maybe the online bookstores are sending Apple updated apps that are rejected :-).  Those bookstore apps will be on every tablet EXCEPT Apple if apple makes the wrong decision.  Guess who would lose there.

  In the meantime, CNNMoney said yesterday that:

' Hulu updated its iPad app last week to remove a link to its website. The app's opening screen used to feature the line: "Not a Hulu Plus subscriber?  Visit hulu.com/plus to learn more and sign up."  That line -- and the website link -- are now gone, bringing Hulu into compliance with Apple's rules. '

That's a bit of an indication that a linked "Visit us" may not be acceptable :-)

CNN Money's Julianne Pepitone points out that "...digital booksellers rely on customers buying a steady stream of new e-books to read.  Removing all links from within their apps to make new purchases is pretty user-unfriendly."

Maybe they'll compromise on a small fee.  Apple may actually admit to themselves that iPad sales (and retention) will benefit from certain other bookstore books being readable on their devices, since that's been touted as a feature.

 We should know by tomorrow, I imagine.  I'd think the simplest solution, to keep peace in the bookstore universe, would be for everyone to be on a no-Buy button but I suppose if the price is right we could see one.

---

For daily free ebooks, check the following links:

Temporarily-free books - Non-classics - USA: by: NEW:  Apr  May  June 2011    Publication Date   Late-listed    Bestselling   High-ratings UK: PubDate   Popular 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 (U.S. only, currently):   99c Notepad 1.1,   99c Calculator,   99c Calendar,   99c Converter

Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($164)   DX Graphite

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!

The free CK-12 Foundation Math/Science books. Free eBookMaps books - UPDATES

The CK12-FOUNDATION

With so many-books that are free for awhile, I thought it'd be good to remind people that the currently eight CK12-Foundation Kindle books at Amazon are always free.  They're "customizable, standards-aligned, free digital textbooks for K-12" and the subjects include Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

  UPDATE - Note that there are 11 books rather than 8.  In the comments section, AthenaAtDelphi found that doing a search on "ck-12" with the quote marks specifying just that, three more CK-12 books were found than when using Amazon's own Author's Link for CK-12 Foundation

  That's because those three books did not include "Foundation" in the author name.  The three more that he found that way are:
  1. CK-12 Engineering: An Introduction for High School , by Dale Baker
  2. CK-12 21st Century Physics: A Compilation of Contemporary and Emerging Technologies , by Andrew Jackson and James Batterson
  3. CK-12 People's Physics Book Version 2 , by James H. Dann

The CK-12 Foundation's "About" statement explains: "CK-12 Foundation is a non-profit organization with a mission to reduce the cost of textbook materials for the K-12 market both in the U.S. and worldwide.  Using an open-content, web-based collaborative model termed the 'FlexBook,' CK-12 intends to pioneer the generation and distribution of high quality educational content that will serve both as core text as well as provide an adaptive environment for learning through the FlexBook Platform™."

The ones at their site are in PDF format, not in best-reading format, so get the Kindle versions where available.

  UPDATE2 - a CAUTION - Stay with the Kindle copies when those are available of course.  More reason: Besides the fact that the PDF versions on the CK-12 site would be barely readable on a 6" e-ink screen, with headers, footers and many originally full-color illustratrions, Commenter Tom Semple found that some of the PDF books are huge, one of them 150 megs and another 500 megs (which is half a gig).

  We have about 3.2 Gigs (3,000+ Megs) of room on the Kindle 3's (and DX's), as the rest is for the operating system.   An average novel takes about 800K or just under 1MB.  That's quite a bit of room, but not when you're faced with loading extremely bloated PDFs of textbooks.  Those would be very slow on an e-Ink reader at the least, so if you need a CK-12 PDF book because no Kindle one is available for that one, just load the one PDF you need.  They can be backed up on your computer and moved to the Kindle as needed. &nbpsp;In the meantime, now we have 11 of the CK-12 books in the much more readable and lighter-weight Kindle editions.

  Thanks to both AthenaAtDelphi and Tom Semple for the added information.

  UPDATE3   I once mentioned you could get the often very useful Comments from this blog if you enjoy RSS feeds.  Using Google reader, for one example, (at http://reader.google.com to "Add a subscription" (there's a field at top left of that page for this), the following will work to add a subscription to comments-only with Google Reader and other readers:
http://kindleworld.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default


Back to CK-12:  CK-12’s FlexBooks earned perfect scores in Phase Two of former California Gov. Schwarzenegger’s Free Digital Textbook Initiative.

As ZDNet's Christopher Dawson wrote in 2009

' ... the efforts of the Foundation seem to have paid off, as they provided electronic textbooks through a California initiative that were clearly more aligned with state standards than any electronic texts from major publishers. According to a report from the California government,

Of the 16 free digital textbooks for high school math and science reviewed, ten meet at least 90 percent of California’s standards. Four meet 100 percent of standards, including the CK-12 Foundation’s CK-12 Single Variable Calculus, CK-12 Trigonometry, CK-12 Chemistry and Dr. H. Jerome Keisler’s Elementary Calculus: An Infinitesimal Approach. '

And eight of these are free at Amazon, for the Kindle.


eBookMaps.com
Paul Biba announced this new website's offerings the other day, quoting its press release, which I'll add here also (all emphases mine):

' Free maps for readers of electronic books are now available on the new eBookMaps.com website.  The website, which presents itself in many languages, lets users download eBooks with maps in both popular formats, i.e., mobi (for Kindle reader from Amazon) and epub (for most other readers).

eBookMaps website offers free downloadable e-books with maps of major cities of the whole world.  Currently there are more than 200 eBooks, each in two formats – epub and mobi, among which are not lacking those of big US cities, cities of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and South America.

All the maps are optimized for e-book readers.  They are thus divided into many smaller parts that can easily be displayed on a small monochrome display with eInk technology.  To switch between different parts of the map users can use the buttons Next page/Previous page and they can also use index of streets, which is included in every e-book.

Maps from eBookMaps offer another choice of content for owners of e-book readers.  They can be useful as a good alternative to online maps, which may be expensive to download in many countries (due to telco fees).

Maps of some of the cities represented at eBookMaps are not yet common and are not available even on Google maps.  eBookMaps use data from Openstreetmap.org project licensed by CC-BY-SA and are distributed in accordance with this license. '

Here are their Tips and tricks for maps and e-books
Tips: How to load e-books with maps to your reader (there is a how-to video which displays the Kindle on the screenshot) and Help: How to use maps from eBookMaps.

The easiest method described is for the Kindle, which has a web browser.  With images as the main focus for these books, downloads to the Kindle could be expensive for Amazon (they pay the 3G cost) if 3G is your only method for direct download to the Kindle (true for Kindle 1, 2, DX, DXG).  The size of the Cairo book is only about twice the size of an average novel, but the size of the London file is 8 megs, 8 times the average novel.  It's a long download and costs can add up for Amazon, so it's better to encourage Amazon to keep the free 3G feature as they've done for 4 years, by using your home or local WiFi instead where you can, if you have the Kindle 3, OR download it to your computer and then move it to your Kindle's "documents" folder with the USB cord.

 They'll always be free, apparently, and most of us would usually download a book only as needed, so it shouldn't be a problem if done infrequently.

The books can also be placed in "My Kindle Content" subfolder of "My Documents" (on a Windows computer) and then can be read on your free Kindle for PC app as well, and the same, with different details, for Kindle for Mac.  But the Amazon versions are optimized by eBookMaps for the Kindle.


Things are really picking up in the e-reader world!


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($164)   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!

National Academies: all PDF books free to download. Also, Darwin's Notes & Comments. made available.

The National Academies - National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council - have been offering, since 1994, "free downloads of most of our titles and of all titles to readers in the developing world."

But effective June 2, they started offering, free of charge to all Web visitors, "PDFs of reports that are currently for sale on the National Academies Press (NAP) Website and PDFs associated with future reports*.

' NAP produces more than 200 books a year on a wide range of topics in science, engineering, and health, capturing the best-informed views on important issues.

  We invite you to visit the NAP homepage [www.nap.edu] and experience the new opportunities available to access our publications.  There you can sign up for MyNAP, a new way for us to deliver all of our content for free to loyal subscribers like you and to reward you with exclusive offers and discounts on our printed books. '

  * There are a small number of reports that never had PDF files and, therefore, those reports are not available for download.  In addition, part of the series, “Nutrient Requirements of Domestic Animals” are not be [sic] available in PDF and future titles in this series will also not have PDFs associated with them. '

  Despite the "loyal subscribers" wording, their NAP website's wording is this:

' All PDF Books Free to Download
  As of June 2, 2011, all PDF versions of books published by the National Acadmies Press (NAP) will be downloadable to anyone free of charge.

  That's more than 4,000 books plus future reports produced by NAP -- publisher for the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council. Please share this news with your friends. '

That's impressive.  The International Business Times's Business and Books column by Edward B. Colby points out that only 65% of the PDFs were available for free overall, earlier, but with the few exceptions mentioned above, all PDFs in their catalog will now be downloadable at no cost although printed books will still be sold.  They say that The NAP expects the change to increase its PDF downloads from about 700,000 per year to more than 3 million by 2013.


DARWIN'S NOTES
Here's the Darwin Manuscripts Project at the American History of Natural History, which is "a historical and textual edition of Charles Darwin's scientific manuscripts, designed from its inception as an online project.  The database at its core—DARBASE—catalogues some 45,000 Darwin scientific manuscripts.

  These are currently represented by 15,125 high resolution digital images.  Thus far 7,428 manuscript pages have been transcribed to exacting standards and all are presented in easy to read format."
They'll be constantly adding new material to it.

Cambridge University Library announced June 23:

' Notes and comments scribbled by Charles Darwin on the pages and margins of his own personal library have been made available online for the first time.

Darwin’s personal scientific library, the majority of which is held at Cambridge University Library, has been digitised in a collaborative effort involving Cambridge, the Darwin Manuscripts Project at the American Museum of Natural History (see below), and the Biodiversity Heritage Library. '

  730 of the 1,480 books in Darwin's personal scientific library "contain abundant notes in the their margins" and are being digitalized."

  The first phase is completed, "with 330 of the most heavily annotated books launched online at the Biodiversity Heritage Library for all to read.
...
  "Although the majority of the books are scientific, some are humanities texts on subjects that Darwin transformed into scientific topics.

  "The series of transcriptions accompanying each page allows everyone to see which passages Darwin found relevant to his work, stimulated his thinking, or just annoyed him as he read the work of others."
...
  "...the information is fully indexed so that people can search for topics and ideas relevant to their interests or work."

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