Kindle News Roundup: NYReview of Books Kindle Ed., More on rumored Samsung/Amazon tablet; Kindle for Android Update; Amazon Germany's Kindlestore opens; publishing in Amazon.de Kindle Store

KINDLE NEWS THIS WEEK

New York Review of Books
This excellent resource is finally available in a Kindle edition.  The New York Review of Books reviews "...the most engrossing new books and the ideas that illuminate them."  There's a 14-day free trial and you can unsubscribe during that time.

Kindle for Android
The Kindle for Android app has been updated to tailor it for tablet-computers, with enhancements that take advantage of the larger screen. New features include
  . the Ability to pause, resume download at any time
  . enhanced word look-up capability (for Android-based phones and tablets)
    with built-in dictionary with over 250,000 entries and definitions.

Amazon.de Launches German Kindle Store
Amazon's press release says that the Amazon.de Kindle Shop will have the Largest Selection of Any E-Bookstore in Germany.
  It launches with "650,000 titles, 71 of 100 Spiegel bestsellers, and over 25,000 German-language titles with thousands of German classics downloadable for free only on Kindle.  Top German and international newspapers and magazines are also available for single purchase or subscription including Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Handelsblatt and Die Zeit."

 Also, Amazon announced yesterday that authors and publishers worldwide are now able to make their books available in the Amazon.de Kindle Books store in Germany, using the (kdp.amazon.de) Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) service.

  "German-language authors and publishers can utilize the new German KDP website to make their books available in Germany, Austria, the U.K., U.S. and over 100 countries worldwide. The popular KDP 70% royalty option, which allows authors and publishers worldwide to make more money on books sold to Kindle customers in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, is now also available for books sold in Germany and Austria. Additionally, publishers can now receive their payment in either Euros, British pounds or U.S. dollars. For more information and program terms, please visit kdp.amazon.de."

MORE on that Rumored Kindle Tablet via Samsung
Peter Rojas, who wrote the article this week about the probability of a Samsung-built Amazon tablet, was the co-founder and former Editor of Engadget and is now co-founder of gdgt.com.  He has very good connections in the industry and, while there's always the small chance he can receive bad information, his sources are probably more solid than the usual.

Also, on November 5, 2010, I wrote a blog article about the rumor of an Amazon Android tablet being quite strong because Computerworld's Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, aka cybercinic, had quietly included in a column the following:

' Sources at Amazon tell me that the company will indeed produce a mass-market Android tablet.  I can't tell you its size, pricing, when it's expected to ship, or anything else of substance.  The one thing I do know is that, like the Kindle, it will run Linux with a Java-based interface.  In short, this new tablet Kindle, let's call it "KinTablet," will run Android. '

 Some have said that Amazon would not want to upset its OEM partners by releasing a 'competing tablet' but Kendrick feels it would not be so much a tablet built to compete but "would be intended to extend the company’s retail operation into the next logical space."

  To speculation or hopes that this would be a particularly mighty tablet, ZDNet's James Kendrick writes, "Amazon’s intent would not be to produce a state-of-the-art mobile device" but would instead "be designed to have the Amazon retail system completely ingrained into a decent, economical tablet.  Amazon's own Android Apps store would probably be 'curated' (as Apple's is and B&N plans to be, for Non-rooted NookColors), but in effect, competing with Google's Android market, which is 'open' but also leaves non-computer-intense customers to their own security measures and is disorganized and confusing to many.

  In another article, about the Kindle with special offers and straight-out, large ads on its screensleepers and on the bottom area of the Home screen of book titles, Kendrick writes:

' If only 1 percent of ... Android activations resulted in a Kindle customer, that is over a million new customers every year for Amazon content.  That’s a conservative number, but the size of the Android market is huge.  Most Kindle app users probably buy multiple ebooks from Amazon...it’s no surprise that Amazon is selling so many ebooks..."

"So this ad-supported Kindle reader will probably get more devices in the hands of new customers, but that’s not the real story.  I wonder if this is Amazon’s first baby steps into developing its own ad network for its future mobile devices that it is probably working on.  I firmly believe Amazon is about to disrupt the mobile space by entering into the mobile space with a tablet device, and take Apple on directly.  An ad network would be another piece of the ecosystem to go head-to-head with Cupertino. '

I wondered the other day if Apple's sudden lawsuit against Samsung (a supplier for Apple), for look & feel concerns, might be explained by this rumored tablet partnership with Amazon.  I wasn't the only one wondering out loud.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   K3 Special, $114   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 £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!

Is Samsung building an Android tablet for Amazon?

AMAZON TABLET -- by SAMSUNG?? - gdgt.com staff
Peter Rojas, a staffer at gdgt.com, writes about the "open secret" that Amazon is working on an Android tablet.

  He even says he's "99% certain they are having Samsung build one for them."
 
  The Galaxy tablet is not doing that well with reviewers or with sales, though some really like it, so I hope it's either not true or that Amazon sets higher standards for them.

  BUT it would certainly explain the sudden lawsuit Apple filed against Samsung this week for look and feel (rounded corners on a rectangle, among other things -- maybe even words on a screen).  I'd thought it was odd that Samsung seemed that much of a threat to Apple -- but Amazon & Samsung?, probably.

 Rojas adds that, unlike Barnes and Noble, Amazon would use the tablet for more:

'...as a platform for selling music (see that cloud locker they just rolled out?), video (you can bet Amazon Instant Video will be a big part of this), and apps from the Android app store they just launched (which is the biggest indication of all that they've got something in the works).  You probably wouldn't have something as open as a regular Android tablet (at least not without hacking it), but I think most users would accept the trade-off if it meant a much lower price of entry.
. . .
  ...they have shown with the Kindle that they can produce a great product and then expertly tie that product into a content platform.  I'm not sure I can stress how non-trivial an accomplishment this is, especially for a company that's mainly known as a retailer. There are full-fledged consumer electronics companies that still haven't figured this stuff out. '

He thinks a tablet might be out no later than this summer although that seems off the top of his head.  A commenter to the gdgt.com site writes (and I agree) that while the stars are aligning, as he puts it, for something like this,  he hopes Amazon waits until Google "cleans up Honeycomb" - their Android operating system that was designed FOR tablet devices but has been very buggy.

In that Comments area, Rojas -- in his responses --  treats Samsung's role with the tablet as a certainty.

' I can't say specifically why Amazon partnered with Samsung, because I don't really know, but my guess is that Samsung was able to make it attractive enough from a financial standpoint and Amazon probably felt like they could deliver an iPad-quality tablet.

  Should also mention that this may be something neither party ever confirms publicly. '

Well, I guess they WILL confirm it if they actually release one together :-) -- or he's saying it would carry the Amazon name and not Samsung's and would not be touted as built by Samsung (which would be odd).


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   K3 Special, $114   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 £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!

More on Kindle Lending Library - How it would work. Reactions & Analyses

QUESTIONS AND SOME ANSWERS ABOUT THE COMING KINDLE LENDING PROGRAM

For basic details of the library lending program, see the original announcement, with the more important portions (in my mind) bold-faced.


ZDNet - Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
ZDNet's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes had a larger reaction than seen in most columns, most of which just reported details of the announcement with mild surprise. It begins with  "This is big. Huge. Massive."
Kingsley points out (emphases mine):

' Amazon has built up a massive digital ecosystem, ranging from books and music and audiobooks to streaming movies and Android software, and this move adds another feature to that ever-growing machine.  And best of all for the end user, it’s something that they can take advantage of without having to buy a specific reader since it works with the Kindle app or desktop software.  Amazon is using this to further cement the Amazon brand into people’s minds (and what better way to win over the love of readers than to make it easier to get books from a library?), and establish the Amazon Kindle ebook format as a dominant format, while at the same time showing the competition who’s boss. '

New York Post - Garett Sloane
Garett Sloane at the New York Post reports:

'[For example]...at the New York Public Library, if a member orders an e-book, others wait on a list until that digital version is free again.

That list can get awfully long.  Yesterday, the most popular title at the NYPL was Harlan Coben's mystery novel "Caught," with more than 275 people on the waiting list. '

New York Times - Julie Bosman
Julie Bosman reports that "...the New York Public Library said last month that e-book use in its system was 36 percent higher than it was one year ago."

  As so many have reminded us, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan still don't allow their e-books to be available in libraries, and HarperCollins (Murdoch) would allow use of an e-book only 26 times before it would have to be re-purchased by the libraries.  That hasn't gone over well with librarians.


From the Comments area of the blog entry on Amazon's announcement
  - a statement by an Overdrive manager
Commenters to this blog have pointed us to interesting articles, one of them a post by Overdrive's' manager for content sales, Karen Estrovich (this link often gives a database connection error). On her Overdrive blog, she clarifies for the company's partners how this would work for them. (Emphases mine.)

' The Kindle Library Lending program will integrate into your existing OverDrive-powered ‘Virtual Branch’ website.

Your existing collection of downloadable eBooks will be available to Kindle customers.

[AB here; Within the context of her statement to Overdrive's partners, this would actually mean "downloadable titles" rather than ebooks in specific format. ]

  As you add new eBooks to your collection, those titles will also be available in Kindle format for lending to Kindle and Kindle reading apps. Your library will not need to purchase any additional units to have Kindle compatibility.  This will work for your existing copies and units.

A user will be able to browse for titles on any desktop or mobile operating system, check out a title with a library card, and then select Kindle as the delivery destination. The borrowed title will then be able to be enjoyed using any Kindle device and all of Amazon’s free Kindle Reading Apps.

The Kindle eBook titles borrowed from a library will carry the same rules and policies as all our other eBooks.

The Kindle Library Lending program will support publishers’ existing lending models.

Your users’ confidential information will be protected.

The Kindle Library Lending program is only available for libraries, schools, and colleges in the United States. '

MY INTERPRETATION of this varies from others' I've seen
Caveat: It's only my interpretation and nothing more, but I think it has a good basis.

' Estrovich is writing to partners who have OverDrive-powered ‘Virtual Branch’ websites for the Overdrive library e-books program.  This is important to an understanding of what she's describing.

The existing collection of a partner's downloadable titles will be available to Kindle customers.

  When the partners add new ebooks to their collections available for loan, those titles will be available in Kindle- and ePUB formats for lending.  No one will have to, to my mind, convert from ePUB to Amazon's mobi format, as some have written -- for the reasons given below.

  This indicates strongly that the titles in Amazon Kindle/mobi format will be available from Amazon's servers directly once the requirements are met for the loan of a title to a Kindle customer.

  It's the only way Amazon would be able to (1) synchronize between the various Kindle/compatible devices and (2) back up annotations for a customer.  This would be done via matching the server's usual Amazon-formatted e-book and the copy on the customer's Kindle.

  The partners' libraries will not need to purchase any additional units as the partners are purchasing TITLES from a publisher via Overdrive, and the partners can decide which format a customer will get, depending on the customer selection of "destination" device.  Again, no conversion would be needed.  Amazon wouldn't be using ePUB-formatted books that are transformed, nor would ePUB books be affected.

  Most important, this would mean the partners' existing copies and units would continue to work, as-is, totally unaffected.

  The reason is that the Kindle ebooks would be handled (and sync'd and backed up) by Amazon servers.  The delivery of the Kindle format books to Kindle customers would not affect the ePub books in the overall collection one iota.  The e-books that Overdrive partners offer will be available in both formats.

 There would still be DRM involved in the library loan but probably Amazon's DRM rather than Adobe's.  I think that Amazon resisted partially because they don't want to pay Adobe for their DRM process when they have their own (and apparently they don't want to switch to ePub).

  This would be a better solution than most had expected. '

An analysis by Mike Cane
Peter Brantley, of Internet Archive --
in his "Reading 2.0" at posterus.com ("Musings on the publishing revolution" -- reposts most of a typically colorful and on-point analysis of the Kindle vs ePub battle by Mike Cane.

Brantley's alert asks "Does kindle library lending obviate the market need for epub as a format?"
and Mike Cane's title is the more provocative: "Kindle Library Lending: ePub Is Dead"



Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   K3 Special, $114   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 £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!

11, 000 Local Libraries in Kindle Lending Library - Amazon did it quietly.

AMAZON TO LAUNCH LIBRARY LENDING FOR KINDLE BOOKS

How did the libraries keep it quiet?

I had wondered if they would do this but how could they keep it secret?

From their press release today, the whole thing:

'   Customers will be able to borrow Kindle books from over 11,000 local libraries to read on Kindle and free Kindle reading apps.
  Whispersyncing of notes, highlights and last page read to work for Kindle library books

SEATTLE, Apr 20, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) --

(NASDAQ: AMZN)-- Amazon today announced Kindle Library Lending, a new feature launching later this year that will allow Kindle customers to borrow Kindle books from over 11,000 libraries in the United States. Kindle Library Lending will be available for all generations of Kindle devices and free Kindle reading apps.

"We're excited that millions of Kindle customers will be able to borrow Kindle books from their local libraries," said Jay Marine, Director, Amazon Kindle. "Customers tell us they love Kindle for its Pearl e-ink display that is easy to read even in bright sunlight, up to a month of battery life, and Whispersync technology that synchronizes notes, highlights and last page read between their Kindle and free Kindle apps."

Customers will be able to check out a Kindle book from their local library and start reading on any Kindle device or free Kindle app for Android, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, PC, Mac, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone. If a Kindle book is checked out again or that book is purchased from Amazon, all of a customer's annotations and bookmarks will be preserved.

[ No, they would not let anyone else see our annotations and bookmarks, as it would be handled just as it is now, with annotation records kept in our own Amazon area.  That takes a lot of programming beyond the norm in the ereader world.]

"We're doing a little something extra here," Marine continued. "Normally, making margin notes in library books is a big no-no. But we're extending our Whispersync technology so that you can highlight and add margin notes to Kindle books you check out from your local library. Your notes will not show up when the next patron checks out the book.  But if you check out the book again, or subsequently buy it, your notes will be there just as you left them, perfectly Whispersynced."

With Kindle Library Lending, customers can take advantage of all of the unique features of Kindle and Kindle books, including:

. Paper-like Pearl electronic-ink display
. No glare even in bright sunlight
. Lighter than a paperback - weighs just 8.5 ounces and holds up to 3,500 books
. Up to one month of battery life with wireless off
. Read everywhere with free Kindle apps for Android, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, PC, Mac, BlackBerry and Windows Phone
. Whispersync technology wirelessly sync your books, notes, highlights, and last page read across Kindle and free Kindle reading apps
. Real Page Numbers - easily reference passages with page numbers that correspond to actual print editions

Amazon is working with OverDrive, the leading provider of digital content solutions for over 11,000 public and educational libraries in the United States, to bring a seamless library borrowing experience to Kindle customers. "We are excited to be working with Amazon to offer Kindle Library Lending to the millions of customers who read on Kindle and Kindle apps," said Steve Potash, CEO, OverDrive. "We hear librarians and patrons rave about Kindle, so we are thrilled that we can be part of bringing library books to the unparalleled experience of reading on Kindle."

Kindle Library Lending will be available later this year for Kindle and free Kindle app users.  To learn more about Kindle go to www.amazon.com/kindle. '

Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   K3 Special, $114   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 £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 Tips - How to reverse an image's white on black and vice versa

REVERSING AN IMAGE'S FOREGROUND AND BACKGROUND COLORS
  This tip is for making a 'negative' version of an image on the page and is useful when there's text involved that is hard to read in its given white on black format or when reversing an image would make something in it clearer to you.  It's not something that most will ever want to do, but it was necessary in my case when I could not read the white text on black background in a Kindle book.

 The image-examples at the left (you can Click on them to see the larger versions) are from a book in which this situation came up too often.  Apropos of nothing except to identify the source of the examples, the Kindle book that presented this problem a few times is "Lost Ate my Life, a book which only LOST TV series fans could enjoy.

  This book often presented an image on a page which had tiny white text on a black background, to highlight that it was text being quoted from a forum discussion.  The person who did the layout made the image so small that it was totally unreadable and it was driving me crazy.

  I remembered that highlighting a sentence or a larger segment reverses the text foreground and background, so I tried highlighting an image to see if that would do the same to an image.  It does.  This works on Kindle-2 and Kindle-3 (UK: K3) models.

  When you do a highlighting of a segment of a Kindle book page, you arrow to the beginning of the area you want highlighted and then you Click the 5-way button to begin the highlight.   After that beginning-click, the straight, vertical line that is your Kindle cursor becomes a slanted vertical line, indicating that your highlighting begins there.

  If you then move that cursor to your right you'll identify what is to be highlighted and you'll see white text on black.  Then you would normally click the 5-way button again to End the annotation or highlight, but we don't normally want a permanent highlighting when reversing an image so we press the "Back" button instead, to cancel the highlighting process after viewing the image.

  (ADDED TIP: Actually highlighting an image {finishing the highlight process instead of cancelling it} makes an "annotation" that shows up in the Menu option "View Marks and Notes" just as a bookmark on that page would, with the text that follows the image given as context.)

  You use this useful annotations feature to do the same for an image.
  1. If an image is at the top of a page, normally you'd cursur-down to get to it faster, as the default cursor location on a new page is at the top.   So, cursor down to get to that image.

  2. Your cursor MAY go into the center of the image and give you the option to zoom it (showing you a tiny magnifying glass.)

  3.   Move the cursor to the left of the image using the 5-way button, unless your cursor already just went to the left of the image, which happens also.  You then see a straight, vertical line.

  4. Click the 5-way button.  The cursor line then slants, indicating you are beginning your highlighting.

  5. Then use your 5-way button to go right one step.

That will highlight the image and reverse it.

  6. When you're finished viewing the reversed image, press the "Back" button to cancel the highlight unless you want the Kindle to show that image-page as a highlighted, annotated section that you get to with via the Menu (button) selection to "View Notes & Marks" feature.

  There are other ways to do it, going backwards but this is the easiest way.

Hope some will find this useful on rare occasions!


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   K3 Special, $114   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 £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!

Experiments w/ Beatles 50 Fabulous Years book & a mobile scanner. Update

Testing a Flip-Pal mobile scanner on my Kindle.

The one-day sale on the Kindle DXG ended at midnight last night of course, but I suspect there'll eventually be another sale on it.  In the meantime, I used mine today as an item for testing to see what kind of job the Flip-Pal mobile scanner, which I received this week, can do.  Better than expected.   The Flip-Pal is a very portable scanner, which scans photos or documents in place -- in albums, magazines, etc.

  Clicking on the image at the left will get you the larger, clearer version.   Many have asked whether Kindle books include photographs and, if so, what to expect in quality.

  I also wanted to see how effective its scanning is, relative to the drawbacks of taking photos close up and doing screen-captures, the latter not displaying what the screen looks like to us in ambient light and showing only a screen-capture 'gif' file.  I use these images in the blog quite a bit, and that's why I'm writing about it.

  Other Kindlers may be interested in the Flip-Pal's capabilities, as it averages 5 stars out of 25 reviews so far.

  Most of us have snapshots going way back, for which we've lost the negatives or we don't want to fuss with them.  And some are glued onto pages in albums, so taking them off and putting them back on later can be a drag.

  I didn't think of doing a scan of a Kindle screen itself until today.
It's difficult to get a good, representative photo of the e-reader screens, and even this type of scanning doesn't get the text as well as it might, as the text display in 'real' life actually looks etched and is thinner, sharper, and darker, but it gives an idea and doesn't warp the image the way taking a photo with a camera close up can.

  The photos in this book on the Beatles, The Beatles: Fifty Fabulous Years, look as good on the Kindle 3 (UK: K3) also, but of course they're smaller on the K3.

  More details about the scanning are at the PBase page if anyone's interested in other aspects of this easy-to-use portable scanner.

  You can get a free Sample of the Kindle book, which is generous with photos, to get an idea of what the photo quality can be on a Kindle, though many publishers don't use higher-resolution photos in their e-books.

Images in Kindle books
As mentioned, forumners have asked about the quality of photographs, in general, in Kindle books.  This varies widely, depending on the person's expertise with image files and with Kindle formatting, but many use lower-resolution images because earlier Kindles didn't handle images that well.
  The new Kindle 3 screen (August 2010 - Pearl display) does.  High resolution photos are denser and will take longer to load though, so some might wonder if their Kindle just froze if the photograph is a bit too dense.

  The Kindle 2 display is not bad, but the newer Kindle 3 screens have considerably more contrast.  The Kindle 1 uses only 4 levels of gray while the Kindle 2 and 3 models use 16 levels.

  Here's a page of what that means to your eyes when viewing photos with only 4 levels of gray or 8 (previous e-Ink Sony) and those with 16.  Of course, color images are in the millions of shades, but the Kindle display is an e-Ink one and uses only black and white, with shades in-between displayed by combining those.

  The Beatles Kindle book itself is a fun read, but it's not a long book although superfans of the Beatles find it quite good, judging from reviews.  However, the print version (twice as expensive) has a DVD with videos and interactive menus, while the Kindle-edition of course does not.

Update - Found another book about the Beatles, pre-Beatle days, and receiving raves from long-time Beatle fans for new information.  This one is only $2.99.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   K3 Special, $114   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 £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 DX Graphite GOLDBOX Special Today Only - $299. Non-US also

GOLDBOX KINDLE DX GRAPHITE $299 TODAY ONLY

GOLD BOX LINK for the Kindle DX Graphite $299 TODAY for US customers
*BUT*  NON-USA can also order this for $299 today at the regular product page.
              *ENDED*

That's a screenshot at the left from my DX Graphite.
 
Here's an image showing the relative sizes of the DXG and Kindle 3.

This is on sale today only "(or until they're all gone)" ...

I don't know what this means for Amazon's larger-model, whether they're replacing it or not.  Since they're de-emphasizing 3G these days, as they pay 3G phone data charges, maybe they're planning a WiFi only DXG but I have absolutely no real idea.  Am just speculating.  As I've said, I personally prefer 3G because I can use that anywhere to access the Net for lookups.

It's a beautiful piece though, and I personally use it for PDFs hard to read on my smaller Kindle.  Here's a picture of my previous DX when I took it on a 3 week trip to Egypt & Petra because I needed to look at detailed diagrams of places we were visiting and because it's easier to read.  This shows it on my airplane's breakfast tray.
  This is a page of thumbnails of the previous DX to see the less contrasty screen which still shows how pages look on a Kindle of that size i portrait and landscape mode.

Below I've linked some initial blog articles on the Kindle DX Graphite when it was released.  It has the Pearl screen so is similar to the Kindle 3 but the text stands out even more so though it's hard to show this in photos for some reason.

. Graphite DX: Day 1 reports
. Reactions to DXG by tough
   Mobileread Forum folks
. A guided tour - of the older DX w/less contrast but a good slideshow of features.
. DX or Kindle 2? - I pointed out the pros and cons of the DX vs the 6" Kindle and these still apply.

Hope that helps somewhat.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   K3 Special, $114   DX Graphite non-Goldbox page

---

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 £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!

More Amazon quotes on $114 KindleSO. Controversial analyst thoughts.

MORE QUOTES FROM AMAZON REPS AND OTHERS
Read the first article for the earlier Amazon quotes including their response on the hope for a "free Kindle."

There are a few interesting quotes not mentioned yet that will answer a couple of questions and also an article that actually encourages Amazon to put ads into e-books.

Another columnist thinks this Kindle model is "the future of gadgets."
The controversial columns do invite comments and feedback at their linked pages.

PC Magazine's Don Costa has a few quotes in his story:

' Current Kindle users will not be able to upgrade or participate [in] the offers program, although Kindle representatives did not rule this out in the future.  "I wouldn't want to speculate on future implementations," said Grandinetti.
. . .
Screen saver ads could change and update over time, though the frequency of those changes will, Grandinetti added, depend on customer feedback.  The program is launching with relatively few advertising partners because, up until now, the Special Offer program was a confidential project within Amazon.
. . .
Since Special Offers isn't available with any other Kindle model, those initial ads may be seen by relatively few consumers.  Amazon execs, however aren't concerned. Grandinetti said Amazon obviously does its best to predict scale and is "confident advertisers will be able to reach a large group of people this way."
. . .
"Our goal is to make the device as available as possible," Grandinetti says. "I think $25 is a lot of money these days." '

Here's one from CNet's David Carnoy

' "If we do a great job with the special offers--and that's our intention--people are going to feel pretty excited about the option and having access to it," Grandinetti says. '

Business Insider's Dan Frommer:

' Grandinetti also tells us that the company is not trying to jam ads in e-books, at least not in the forseeable future.

"We're pretty skeptical" that people would want that, he says.  Like a paper book, the idea behind the Kindle is for it to "disappear" while you're reading.  So a jarring ad that interrupts that experience isn't something that Amazon is looking to do, he says. '

ANALYSTS - ARE THEY IN TOUCH WITH MANY DEDICATED E-READER OWNERS' THOUGHTS?
From my read of various forums, the reception is mixed, with some looking forward to it and some not, to put it gently.

Edward C. Baig
USATODAY's Edward C. Baig writes that

' [Forrester analyst James McQuivey] doubts there will be many customers put off by the new model. “Who is going to object to buying a cheaper Kindle just because the screensaver has a Buick ad,” he asks? '

Jared Newman calls for ad-supported e-books
Macworld's Jared Newman feels that "Ad-supported e-books are where it’s really at."

But Amazon doesn't agree, though they did get a patent for ads in e-books a couple of years ago (in case publishers want it, I suppose), but many authors would not like it either. 

' Amazon has no plans to stuff ads inside e-books, says Amazon vice president of Kindle content Russ Grandinetti.  Grandinetti told Business Insider that the company is “pretty skeptical” that ad-supported e-books are something people would want. '

Newman thinks that's "too bad" and adds, "If e-books could be had for cheap—or even free—in exchange for the occasional ad, I’d download them by the dozen."

He gives many reasons why he feels this would work better, and you can read them at the article.

I read a posts from a few forums last night that said that if the choice was between a $7.99 e-book with ads and a $12.99 e-book, they'd chose the former ... in other words, the idea here is that the reader gets a choice, but I do think the danger is that it would then eventually cost more to get an ad-free book than it does now.  At any rate, a provocative column by Newman.

Dan Frommer
Business Insider's Dan Frommer makes a spirited defense of the ad-supported model, calling it "the Future of Gadgets." Anyone interested should follow the link to read the whole thing there.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   K3 Special, $114   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 £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!

An Amazon answer to the free-Kindle? question More on $114 Kindle 3

WHAT'S THAT ABOUT AN EVENTUALLY FREE-KINDLE TOUTED IN THE ONLINE NEWS?

Microsoftoffice2010forums.com reports that when asked if the Kindle would ever be free (do they ask this about any other electronic reader or tablet??)

' “It’s not possible.  The economics don’t work,” Jay Marine, a Kindle director said in an interview.  “At $114, we think it is the best deal for a consumer electronic.  We sell a lot of consumer electronics, so we should know it’s a good deal.”

What if it were tied to other offers, like Amazon Prime, which costs $79 a year and offers free two-day shipping and access to free streaming movies?

“I don’t know how to do it.  I would not get your hopes up,” he added. '

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette carries the report from the NY Times' Claire Cain Miller, and I'm referencing that one because the New York Times is limited in access for most these days ... ALTHOUGH (I'd forgotten) that clicking on a link to the NYT from a blog will allow you to read the article even if you've reached your max at NY Times for the month... but it DOES count against the first 20 in a month, so I'll forego that for now.

  Select paragraphs:

' By selling ads that will show up next to digital content, Amazon is laying further groundwork that could enable it to someday sell tablet computers that would compete with Apple and Google Android tablets.
. . .
"This is really about having a Kindle that's more affordable," said Jay Marine, director of Kindle at Amazon.
. . .
Readers will also be able to get discounts through their Kindles.  Amazon will open the offers to advertisers, but to start, the deals are all from its site, like $10 for a $20 Amazon.com gift card or 50 percent off a Roku streaming player from Amazon.  By entering the daily deal business, Amazon is competing with Groupon and with LivingSocial, the group-buying service in which it is an investor.  Mr. Marine said that Amazon's service was separate from LivingSocial's.
. . .
An Amazon tablet could tie together the seemingly disparate parts of the company's business, Mr. McQuivey said, including e-commerce, e-books, video and audio.

"I can so easily see them selling a tablet in the future at a dramatically reduced price," he said.  "To me, this is a way for them to test that out and to start talking to advertisers."

When asked whether the new Kindle was a move toward a tablet, Mr. Marine said, "I don't want to speculate."  He also declined to say when the Kindle would have a color or touch screen...
. . .
...Craig Bierley, director of advertising and promotions for General Motors's Buick division... Because reading books is an intimate experience, he said he hoped people might pay more attention to the ads.

"The Kindle for many people is really a centerpiece of their entertainment, so their level of engagement with the device, and hopefully with the advertisers on it, will be higher," Mr. Bierley said. . . .

Bobby Calder, chairman of the marketing department at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management... books are one of the last ad-free zones, and by showing ads on an e-reader, Amazon risks alienating some users, he said.

"There's been research that shows that if you put an ad in an environment where people are highly engaged, that kind of intrusiveness can really backfire," he said. '

Read the information I left out, at the Pittsburgh Gazette.

The next quote is an especially interesting one because it answers some questions I saw in the last day.

' People could buy the less expensive Kindle and then avoid the ads by turning off Wi-Fi.  Mr. Marine said Amazon did not think customers would do that because they would value the offers on the new Kindle, which is now available for order and expected to ship May 3.

"We think the response is going to be really positive because it doesn't touch the reading experience," he said. '

I noticed these quickly before looking very far.  Also, there've been quite a few comments to this blog re the impact of the announcement for the commenters, and it's interesting, varied feedback, so I responded to it all and some of you may be interested in reading the reactions in the comments area for that story.

I'll have more on this...


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   K3 Special, $114   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 £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!

'Lower Kindle 3 pricing with...' deals being offered... Ads. My thoughts. Update

Amazon's press-release is being distributed by many online newspapers and blogs of course, and at this point I can't say it's that much lower (!) for the ads you will agree to see. I'll show below what the press releases say so you can find out about this sooner than later, and I'm adding a few thoughts here.

  First, they are essentially Kindle display advertisements that are being offered, and for that you spend a bit less for your Kindle.  I wish it were a better deal, but some will want to see special deals on their Kindles, I guess.

"Amazon Introduces New Kindle Family Member: Kindle with Special Offers for $114"

' $25 less for the same #1 bestselling latest-generation Kindle plus special offers and sponsored screensavers '

  What about our own personal screensavers???  Is this why we have not been offered that BASIC feature that other e-readers have ?   Why are personal screensavers not at all encouraged (as an Amazon feature rather than making loyal Kindle users search for workarounds that they have to redo with each software update) to go along with the screensaver (screensleeper) ads?

Special offers in the initial weeks include:
  . $10 for $20 Amazon.com Gift Card,
  . $1 for an album in the Amazon MP3 Store, and
  . a $100 Gift Card with a new Amazon Rewards Visa Card

There is more in the larger quote below from the body of the press release.

NOTE: There is no corresponding $25 lower price for the Kindle 3G model that is $189.  I guess they're not encouraging use of the 3G wireless that way so now the difference between the lowest-priced Kindle and the 3G model will be $75 rather than $50.

"Amazon also introduces "AdMash" - the new free Kindle app and website where customers vote for the most attractive sponsored screensavers. "

  I repeat:  What about our own personal screensavers???  Will those EVER be addressed?  Here's the rest of the press release, although I omit marketing paragraphs that most have seen on all the marketing and product pages

' SEATTLE, Apr 11, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) --

(NASDAQ:AMZN)-- ... Today, Amazon introduced a new member of the Kindle family - Kindle with Special Offers for only $114.   Kindle with Special Offers is the same #1 bestselling Kindle, plus special offers and sponsored screensavers.

  Kindle special offers and sponsored screensavers display on the Kindle screensaver and on the bottom of the home screen.  Learn more about all three latest-generation Kindle family members--$114 Kindle with Special Offers, $139 Kindle, and $189 Kindle 3G--at www.amazon.com/kindle.  Kindle with Special Offers is now available for pre-order to customers in the U.S. and will ship on May 3.

"We're working hard to make sure that anyone who wants a Kindle can afford one," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO.  "Kindle with Special Offers is the same #1 bestselling Kindle - and it's only $114. Kindle is the best deal in consumer electronics anywhere in the world."

  Buick, Olay (Procter & Gamble), Visa, and Amazon.com Reward Visa Card (Chase) are sponsoring the first series of screensavers specially-designed for Kindle's high-contrast, no glare electronic ink display (for screensaver examples, visit www.amazon.com/aboutkindlespecialoffers).
  Examples of deals that will be delivered directly to Kindle with Special Offers devices in the initial weeks include:

  * $10 for $20 Amazon.com Gift Card
  * $6 for 6 Audible Books (normally $68)
  * $1 for an album in the Amazon MP3 Store (choose from over 1 million albums)
  * $10 for $30 of products in the Amazon Denim Shop or Amazon Swim Shop
  * Free $100 Amazon.com Gift Card when you get an Amazon Rewards Visa Card (normally $30)
  * Buy one of 30 Kindle bestsellers with your Visa card and get $10 Amazon.com credit
  * 50% off Roku Streaming Player (normally $99)

To make sure customers don't miss any of the offers, a full list of active offers will be available from the menu of Kindle with Special Offers at any time.

  Note that this Kindle with special-deals advertising is a new "device" being marketed for the lower pricing.

' Amazon is also introducing "AdMash" - the free Kindle app and website where customers choose the most attractive and engaging display advertisements that will become Kindle sponsored screensavers.  Kindle's sponsored screensavers are specially-designed display advertisements that take advantage of Kindle's high-contrast, no-glare electronic-ink display.

  Before these advertisements can be presented to Kindle customers, they are first previewed by customers using AdMash.  Users are presented with pairs of sponsored screensaver candidates and asked to select which one they prefer.  Screensavers with the most preferred votes qualify to become sponsored screensavers.  The AdMash Kindle app will launch in the coming weeks - for a preview, visit www.amazon.com/aboutkindlespecialoffers.

In addition, Kindle with Special Offers customers can give Amazon hints on the style and types of sponsored screensavers they would like to see.

  From the Manage Your Kindle page on Amazon.com, customers can use Kindle Screensaver Preferences to indicate whether they like to see more or less screensavers that include elements such as landscapes and scenery, architecture, travel images, photography, and illustrations.

  Together, AdMash voting and Kindle Screensaver Preferences help Amazon present sponsored screensavers that customers find attractive and engaging.  For screenshots of Kindle screensavers, AdMash and Kindle Screensaver Preferences, visit www.amazon.com/aboutkindlespecialoffers.
. . .
"The opportunity to offer custom-designed Kindle screensavers was a natural fit for
Kindle with Special Offers includes all the same features that helped make the third-generation Kindle the #1 bestselling product in the history of Amazon.com:

  * Paper-like Pearl electronic-ink display, no glare even in bright sunlight
  * 8.5 ounce body for hours of comfortable reading with one hand
  * Up to one month of battery life with wireless off eliminates battery anxiety
  * Kindle Store with over 900,000 books - largest selection of the most popular books
  * Seamless integration with free "Buy Once, Read Everywhere" Kindle apps for iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, PC, Mac, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Android-based devices.

Learn more about all three latest-generation Kindle family members--
  $114 Kindle with Special Offers,
  $139 Kindle,
  $189 Kindle 3G --
at www.amazon.com/kindle.  Advertisers and agencies interested in learning more about Kindle sponsorship opportunities can contact kindle-sponsorships@amazon.com. '

I couldn't help adding a bit of editorial stuff in there and omitting a paragraph that actually says that the deal is a good fit for Buick because of the "unique device surrounded by a community of intelligent, passionate people" - Whaaat?  Amazon, yes we are..therefore, that sentence is not ideal, shall we say, in the press release.

I understand you're there to make a profit and not a loss for your shareholders, but I do wish you had not made the lower price only $25 less for the advertising, even if the advertising of deals is something probably many won't mind, I think, and some always want to know about when they're available.  Will it stop there?  With the Buick ads, I would guess no. Then the price should be lower.

I love my Kindle as a quiet refuge away from the advertising that surrounds me. But people will still have the choice of paying the usual $139 while the price remains at that level.

Update - After thinking on it more, I'll add that
  1. at least it is not (at this point) going into our Kindle books, and
  2. some who want a 'magazine' feel might like the ads :-)


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 £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!

Just a temporary alert to RSS readers about revised Free Kindle Books guide Revision

The Free Kindle Books guide has been revised to remove log notes (which had made it hard to read and repetitive) and to explain the features better.  Google Reader doesn't recognize an older post that has been revised with a current date, so this will let you know there's a large revision. 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!

Free Kindle Books -Special links, English-only, Contemporary - UPDATE9

From the Top 100 Free Kindle Books list, U.S.   (UK: here)

UPDATES 1-9. - Am updating lists and links because Amazon added tons of German books to pages 2 and on.  Have done them for U.S. and later revised the UK list somewhat, explained in the updates.

  NOTE: I'm trying to include only free full, contemporary books.  But in the UK, they also include, from what I can see, the classics also.

NEW experiment:   Amazon has new Kindle books in various categories and they don't all get caught in the various lists.  Here are attempts at still-free ones in  Last 30+ days and  Apr 2011.  I'll need to change these at the start of each month.
  These will be near the top of the A Kindle World blog's reference column at the right, and kept up to date each month.

  Have updated quite a bit today the ongoing Guide to Free Books and Resources and am moving it up to the top, as the changes are fairly extensive.  Will reorganize it later to remove Logged detail, as it confuses eyes and mind.

---

Original Post, with revisions
About 70% of visitors here each day are new to the page, arriving after a search on a specific topic, and won't know about the popular Top 100 free listing on Amazon.  The top-selling free Kindle books are shown alongside those that are not free, but Amazon gives them equal space on that page.

  I've included just a few at the top which have had a good number of customer reviews, which guarantees many of them will be identified as an 'Amazon Verified Purchase.'  Some were added to the Kindle store too recently to have much customer feedback yet despite receiving many downloads.

  Click on any image above to get details on the specific book.

  Backstage Pass was added as a free book about 3 days ago, probably as a temporary promotional listing, so if interested, get that one earlier.  A good number of contemporary books, non-classics, tend to be free for a short time.

  Last week, Amazon had about 16,000 free Kindle books, and they have doubled that this week, as now there are about 33,600 free.   Most would be new versions of public-domain classics and it's reported that the formatting tends to be somewhat better than on the earlier ones submitted to Amazon.
  Amazon currently has over 905,000 Kindle books.

Less known is the section for Foreign Language eBooks.

There's also a probably fairly lucrative section for Oprah's Book Club Series for Kindle.   :-)

  At the Kindle Store, browse the left column to see a lot more.

---

ONGOING LINKS TO TEMPORARILY FREE BOOKS AND 99 CENT PAGES
On this webpage, there are always links at the top right to temporarily free non-classics (contemporary) sorted by latest or bestselling.  I'll include some here, for those who spend more time with the Kindle Edition of this blog, which doesn't include the reference column on the right:

Kindle-Edition subscribers should go to the website via computer to use these:
    http://kindleworld.blogspot.com
Any of these can be bookmarked on your computer if you find them useful.
  Thanks very much for the subscription support.

TEMPORARILY-free books -
Non-classics - USA: by monyh and special sortings.

  As mentioned above, these will be near the top of the reference column of the A Kindle World blog so they can be accessed at any time and are changing

Also, the 99c Amazon Kindle books page
99c Notepad, for Kindle

  UK:
  Am flying blind in the U.S.- Can't see prices, but free ones seem to be at the front of the long list, which doesn't use U.S. search process.  Also, I can't see the number of stars for highest rating, so removed that link.  Have added one for 5 GBP and under, as many ask how to find these at the Amazon-UK Forum.  By:
    PubDate   Popular   £5 Max

---

Also check out the 30,000+ Project Gutenberg books and the "Magic Catalog" that you can download directly to the Kindle, where it can be browsed or searched, and ebooks of interest downloaded directly to the Kindle also.

Another blog article to bookmark shows you how to either get a free conversion to Kindle format of any free book(s) from Google's 1.5 million or more ePub books, as well as describing how you can do it yourself and customize it to your preferences, a conversion that after a set-up takes only a few minutes.

The footer of each article will have some of these links, plus one to to the guide to many sources for free books as well as pre-made searches for Amazon's Kindle books in the lower-cost ranges.  It's a lot of information, quite jumbled and will be reorganized soon.


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 £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!

High-rated mp3 albums with 99 classical pieces on them, costing $2.50-$5.00 now 99 cents.

This is just a pointer to an updated entry today with regard to finding low-cost mp3 albums that qualify us for the 20GB Cloud Drive.  The album I bought for $2.49 and one that was $5.00 that I almost bought are both 99 cents ($0.99) currently (priced back to normal later).  While I'm highlighting one I like, this is happening for other genres too.

  Here are the updates and more details. 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!

More on Kindle Apps and a Bit on the Internatonal Situation

MORE  ON   KINDLE  APPS

This set is another alert for Kindle apps but, they're still not available globally.

  The GOOD news is that apps developers say that the plan IS to make apps global, and it's just a matter of time.  It has also been pointed out that Amazon only recently released apps from the first batch of international developers of Kindle Apps.  These include developers from the UK and Montreal, Canada, so far.  There'd be legalities, of course, and data charges to be worked out (on apps using 3G wireless).  Anyway, international readers, hang in there!

Amazon's Kindle Daily Post, seen at the top right of the Kindle Store's front webpage, featured this week the popular Notepad by the 7 Dragons group and included the new photo at the left.

The Kindle version of the Kindlestore, which is always linked on the front-page of a Kindle visit to the Kindle Store (via the Menu or by doing an alt-Home shortcut on your Kindle) does NOT include (at least today) the games or apps that are on the website version.  Thanks to AthenaAtDelphi from The Netherlands for the correction in the Comments area.

Those new to Notepad might want to see the original blog entry for Notepad  There are some Kindle forum threads that discuss how people use it, what questions they have, suggestions for the future, etc., and the 7 Dragons Team gives specific links on their website pages that give more information and video examples for the questions being asked.  They also tend to answer questions rather quickly, while they do this on their own website.

Three Notepad forum threads I've seen: (1),  (2),  (3).

More New Apps to Try for Kindle: At the right, new apps getting good ratings. Clicking on the items take you to their Amazon pages and descriptions. There are other new ones, and you'l see those highlighted on most of the Kindle pages also. Among them, with fewer and mixed reviews, or none yet at this point, are Number Slide, Strimko, and The Citadel of Chaos. Diamond Crosswords   - Crossword puzzles more easily completed	Checkers Price: $0.99 Spelling Star Price: $2.99 Peg Solitaire Price: $0.99

 I just saw that Monopoly is on sale for $0.99 to celebrate global Monopoly Day on April 7, and the offer ends April 10.


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 £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!

NY Times paywall situation and the Kindle. 99 CENTS 1st 4 wks - UPDATE

UPDATE 4/4/11 (Original post was April 2, at 1:40pm.)
The NY Times has an introductory special for full access to the NY Times website and applicable devices:  99¢ for your first 4 weeks.

Some had already used up their 20/mo. quota already and were waiting for Amazon and the NYTimes to get the processes working for the NYTimes on Kindle-Edition option (which may take a few weeks before it's ready) so that they could get the NYT's web access that goes with the Kindle plan which isn't currently available.   This is key for existing Kindle subscribers and works for all the digital device plans being offered right now.

For KINDLE (no choice shown yet), I chose the smartphone app and it worked, as we don't need provide a smartphone model or install the app.

However, you are charged 99 cents and then you give Authorization for them to take autopayments near your due dates.  You can cancel and get refunds or credits and stop the subscription.  I used Paypal.  Some won't want to give such authorizations though.  However, I want my regular full access until I can decide what I want to do next month.

  This was seen by Caddis Nymph of the Amazon Kindle forums, and I finally found it on the Times site.

---

The original posting
When the New York Times site started charging, at the end of March, for access to the news website after 20 articles have been selected for reading in a month, they announced that full-access would be given to people who are either print subscribers or mobile-phone subscribers, and online columnists wondered aloud why e-readers were not also included for a combo deal.

 Within only a few hours, the Times website was changed to show that Kindle-Edition subscribers will also get full access to the new pay web-version of the New York Times.

  However, Amazon says it will keep in touch with subscribers on how it's proceeding during the next few weeks.  So it looks to be awhile before the access kicks in.
  There is no current option for the Nook, Kobe, or Sony e-readers.

  The plan for web-access + mobile phone access is
    $15 every 4 weeks (rather than every month).
  The plan for web-access + iPad access is $20 per month.
  The plan for access to all 3 types is $35.

  In the meantime, I explored the situation because I had taken the 60-day trial-subcription recently for the Kindle Edition and it is the one national paper I -might- subscribe to (in Kindle format) because their articles are so thorough and well written (otherwise I just go get the Sunday Kindle editions which are easily more than worth it), but I decided I couldn't justify $19.99/mo. and said so in the feedback I gave.  While we've been able read the text-only versions via the Kindle web browser, that won't be possible either, with the paywall as a barrier after 20 website-article accesses in a month.

NYT's first Paywall effort and this one - the differences
  The last time the NY Times tried a paywall, they did not allow access to the popular editorial writers' columns and that didn't go over well.  When something is wholly off-limits (and previously was not), people tend to be  resentful and resistant, so people found ways around it, with people getting the articles and emailing them to large lists of people.   So, that experiment failed.

  This time, they've left the full paper available to all, up to 20 articles accessed in a month, with other access possible and expected.
  The smart thing they've done is to allow further access to articles if you read them via a link from Facebook or Twitter.  Digital Faq wording from their help pages:

' Readers who come to Times articles through links from search engines, blogs and social media will be able to read those articles, even if they have reached their monthly reading limit...On all major search engines, users will have a daily limit on free links to Times articles. [!]
...
Here are a few examples of "section fronts":
Politics | Arts | Opinion

And here are some examples of "blog fronts":
Well | Bits | City Room '

For nonsubscribers, articles from their archives from 1923 through 1986 are $3.50 each, and views of archived articles outside that date range are free alhough they would still count toward the 20-article monthly limit for free access.  Subscribers get full access to the archives too..

Digital-only subscribers to The Times can create only one account (with one e-mail address and password).  I'm not including pricing information for print subscribers, because the focus here is what Kindle subscribers will get.

The NYT subscription options include unlimited access to NYTimes.com on any computer and on NYTimes apps for iPhone, BlackBerry and Android smartphones, as well as iPad tablets.

  BUT, they have no digital subscription to only the NYTimes.  It's always a part of a package, with smartphone apps, the iPad, or the Kindle.

Re the flexibility this time -- To the question below, the New York Times's responses to some questions (emphases mine) :

' Can I still access NYTimes.com articles through Facebook, Twitter, search engines or my blog?

We encourage links from Facebook, Twitter, search engines, blogs and social media.
  When you visit NYTimes.com through a link from one of these channels, that article (or video, slide show, etc.) will count toward your monthly limit of 20 free articles, but you will still be able to view it even if you've already read your 20 free articles. '

  BUT access to the web-NYT articles through Search Engines involves somewhat tougher rules:

' Like other external links, links from *search engine* results will count toward your monthly limit. If you have reached your monthly limit, you'll have a daily limit of 5 free articles through a given search engine. This limit applies to the majority of search engines. '

Interesting theory about the flexibility
allfacebook.com reports some theories on why the Times is giving Facebook and Twitter links unlimited access while click-throughs from links using a search engine like Google are limited to only 5 per day.

' According to Matt Rosoff from Business Insider, the Times sees a clear traffic pattern, where social networking sites are driving “a ton of newspaper traffic.”  MG Siegler at TechCrunch basically shares the same opinion, but adds an interesting nuance:  Because people who use Facebook and Twitter to access news are usually younger, tech savvy, and are used to getting information at no cost, the NYT is trying to preserve that relationship with those users… at least for now. '

Their last FAQ point is this:

' Subscribers to The New York Times on Kindle will receive full access to NYTimes.com.  We are currently working through the technical requirements to verify Kindle subscriber accounts and offer access.  More information will be available soon.

At this time, we're not able to connect other e-reader subscriptions to an NYTimes.com subscription.  Each must be purchased separately. '

So, the upshot is that the $19.99/mo. for a Kindle subscription to The NY Times becomes somewhat more attractive to those who enjoy that newspaper, with the unhindered access to the new NYT website included now.

Why the NYT is trying a paywall again
Like other U.S. newspapers, the NYT is losing money, with less print advertising revenue, falling circulation and readers going to to the Web for their news.  This has been documented.

Some might enjoy the article from The Onion on this situation.

Reaction to the new NY Times plans?
I haven't seen much reaction to the New York plans this time, probably due to the flexibility mentioned.  And I've not noticed forum threads on the New York Times inclusion of the Kindle edition.

  I'd like to read any thoughts some of you may have on this one.  In this climate, many may feel a national newspaper subscription is a luxury.  Some will find it worthwhile.  It's a gamble for the NYTimes.

 And if they succeed in this plan the way they have implemented it, will other newspapers decide they want to do this too?  Would other newspaper sites attract as many subscribers as the NY Times might?  I doubt it.  It's staid but it is incredibly thorough.

  Does bundling it to the Kindle make it more attractive?  It does for me, but it's only because I've become convinced The NYT has to do something to stay viable and I like that they've given free access to 20 articles a month and, in essence, unlimited access for those who will depend on getting stories from others linking to their NYT stories from places like Facebook and Twitter (although it's been said the NYT will not be supporting blog or webpages created just to hold NYT links).

  Also, Google searches will get you another 5 a day, and then so would bing.com and blekko.com ...

  Many of my friends forward New York Times articles for private e-mail group discussions of stories (ostensibly maybe not part of NYT and news-reader agreements, but reality enters here) and say it's the one paper they might find worth a subscription.  Some are thinking of finding a way to share a subscription by chipping in to be able to keep discussions going instead of finding links at Facebook.

  But I'm interested in the thoughts of others reading this blog article.  It's a bit of a sea change, for one thing.

Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   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.
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!

JK Rowling actively considering e-book format finally, spokesperson says

The Scotsman's Susan Smith reports that J.K. Rowling's spokeswoman confirmed "The e-book format is now something that is being actively considered."

She also writes that "Liz Thomson, editor of book industry website BookBrunch, said: 'I wouldn't be surprised if the rights for the e-books are sold for £100m.

"Experts believe that move could revolutionise the world of electronic publishing, triggering rocket sales of e-book readers such as Kindle and the iPad." '


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 £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!

Barry Eisler and Stephen Leather ride the indie charts in U.S./UK

Yet another self-published Kindle writer makes a killing

  In mid-March we had Barry Eisler turning down a $500,000 advance, which he explained in his long interview with J.A. Konrath.

  As the Daily Finance's Martin Cloake reported:

  ' At the heart of both authors' reasoning [Konrath and Eisler] is the publisher's advance. Traditionally authors received a lump sum advance against sales which they would use to write the book. But that money has to be earned back once the book is published, and at a royalty – between 10 and 15% – of the sale price.

Insurance policy
This can be seen as a loan, an insurance policy, even a bet. Konrath says: "Signing with a big publisher is like signing a life insurance policy, where the payments keep getting larger while the payoff gets smaller as time goes on."  Taking that loan, argues Eisler, only makes sense if "the loan is so big that you don't think you'd ever be able to make that much on your own". '


Stephen Leather - UK
A British thriller writer, Stephen Leather (U.S.)  (UK) sells his ebooks for as little as 71 p (US $1.50) and has enjoyed the #1 spot on Amazon UK's ebook bestseller lists for "90 percent of the last three months" and that's from selling "somewhere in the region" of 2,000 ebooks a day.

' Leather enjoys a successful parallel career writing "big international thrillers" for Hodder & Stoughton.

But last August, when Amazon.co.uk opened its Kindle store, he saw an opportunity: "I was lucky, in that I had three novellas Hodder had turned down because they were in a different genre from my other books and too short to work as conventional paperbacks.

"But I realised they might work for the Kindle." '

He realized the Kindle (UK: K3) was going to be very big on Christmas Day and that after people downloaded the ebooks they'd always wanted, most of them relatively (or absolutely) expensive, they'd start looking for cheaper books.

"I knew the wave was going to break on Christmas Day.  I got myself in position to take advantage, I got on and I've been riding it ever since."


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   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.
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!

H O A X - April 1 orig'l date The AMAZON BLAZE ANDROID PHONE? With MIRASOL? April 4 story, Not April 1

The Gadgets.Net's James Cushing reports that "Amazon is entering the smart phone business, and their entry is bound to make a stir once you get a look at “Amazon Blaze” Android phone!

WELL, that was a hoax, repeated on April 4,with no indication it was first posted on April 1, but the body of the article asked if it was for real, and the tweet said "Hoax? Real?" and I should have looked further. I'll leave this placeholder and the images but will edit out the remainder so as not to confuse readers.

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!