Important Information For The Kindle Warehouse Readers
By Greg | February 20, 2010
I posted this last night on TKW Facebook page:
I was notified today by Amazon that I must stop using The Kindle Warehouse as a Facebook page and as a website. As of today I will not be making any more posts to TKW here on Facebook or on the website. However, I have purchased a new domain name and I will also be creating a new Facebook page using my new domain nam…e. The new domain name is Ereadernewstoday.com (but it’s not been set up yet) and the Facebook page is also Ereader News Today which has been set up. You can become a fan by clicking on this link: Ereader News Today Facebook Page
The page is pretty bare right now but I’ll have it up and running soon as well as the website.I will post all the relevant info at http://thekindlewarehouse.com so please make sure to check that site in the next couple of days and if you have not already done so, please join the Kindle Warehouse newsletter to hear all of the info about the switch to Ereadernewstoday.com. Although this is going to be a lot of work to switch everything over, I think it will be beneficial to you, the readers, once all the work is complete. I’ve been wanting to change the way the site looks for a while to make it more appealing to the eyes and now that I’m being forced to do it, I’ll finally get it done.
Thanks for being fans here on Facebook and reading TKW. Please remember to join the new Facebook page here: Ereader News Today Facebook Page
Greg
I’m working on the new site right now and hope to get it up and running smoothly very soon. Until then I probably won’t be making too many posts so please bear with me. I’m sure you’re going to like the new site a lot better.
Thanks again to all the readers of TKW.
Greg
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Amazon Adds New Languages To The Kindle’s Digital Text Platform
By Greg | February 19, 2010
Here’s some good news for our international readers. Kindle
Amazon had this to say:
“A month ago we made the self-service Kindle Digital Text Platform (DTP) available to authors and publishers around the world,” said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Kindle Content. “We’re now excited to offer even more languages in which content owners can offer their books to the fast-growing audience of Kindle owners around the globe.”
There will be even more languages added in the future. For more info about Kindle’s DTP go here: Kindle Digital Text Platform
Topics: Kindle, Kindle 2, Kindle Content, Kindle Publishing | No Comments »
Kindle For Blackberry Now Available
By Greg | February 18, 2010
If you have a Blackberry phone, the Kindle For Blackberry App
This app is only available to U.S. residents at this time.
To download the app go here: Kindle For Blackberry App
You can also download the app by typing “amazon.com/kindlebb” into your Blackberry browser.
Topics: Kindle, Kindle Apps, kindle for blackberry | No Comments »
More Free Kindle Books For You
By Greg | February 17, 2010
Here are some free Kindle books for you to download. As always, if you think you might want any of these get them quickly – not all of them will be free for long.
Love Yourself and Let the Other Person Have It Your Way
More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea
The Equivoque Principle
Off the Record
Fireworks
Daring Chloe
Devotions For Lent
Baby Bonanza
Hope you like these selections. Remember to get them while they’re still free.
Also, make sure to check back on the Free Kindle Books page in the next couple of days. I’ve found some more sites for free Kindle books that I’ll be adding.
Topics: Free Ebooks, Free Kindle Books, Free Kindle Content, Kindle, Kindle 2, Kindle Books, Kindle Ebooks | No Comments »
Free Kindles?
By Greg | February 16, 2010
I’m sure a lot of you have maybe heard this news already but for those of you who didn’t, Amazon is apparently considering giving away free Kindles. Of course, they’re not completely free but if you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber they want to give you a Kindle, according to TechCrunch.
The cost of Amazon Prime
We’ll see if this actually happens or not. My guess is that if Amazon actually does give away free Kindles it’s because they are going to be coming out with a new member of the Kindle family – as we’ve been discussing here recently – not necessarily a Kindle 3 but a new type of Kindle, e.g. Kindle DX. They’ll sell the new device at whatever price point they decide on and the Kindles they would be giving away would be the Kindle 2, which probably won’t be as popular as they are now, once they come out with the new device, so it won’t hurt their bottom line as much.
Of course, this is all just a guess, I may be right or wrong and Amazon may not even give away free Kindles. It does seem, however, that there is a lot of things in store for the Kindle in the upcoming months.
Topics: Kindle, Kindle 3 | No Comments »
British Library To Offer Free Kindle Downloads For 19th Century Authors
By Greg | February 12, 2010
Here’s some good news for Kindle owners that like the old classics. The British Library is going to release more than 65,000 rare first editions of 19th century fiction. This is another Kindle Exclusive as you will only be able to download these books from the Kindle Store
The classics that will be available are English literature titles such as Oliver Twist, Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Pride and Prejudice. Authors include some pretty big names like Charles Dickens, Jules Verne, Alexandre Dumas, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austin, Thomas Hardy and many more.
Lynne Brindley, the chief executive of the British Library, had this to say:
“Freeing historic books from the shelves has the potential to revolutionise access to the world’s greatest library resources.”
The books have been in the process of being scanned over the past three years by Microsoft. These are first editions that will be available for free download for the first time.
Now, even though these will be exclusive to Kindle for now, the deal that was made with Amazon doesn’t prohibit the books from being made available in other formats if separate agreements are reached. So, they could show up eventually on the Sony Reader or the iPad but for now they’ll just be available for the Kindle.
Topics: Free Ebooks, Free Kindle Books, Kindle, Kindle Books, Kindle Ebooks, Kindle Exclusives | No Comments »
U.S. Government Budget For 2011 Available For Free Download
By Greg | February 11, 2010
For those of you who may be interested, you can get the budget for the U.S. government for 2011. You can download it for free to your Kindle starting today. Here’s the link:
Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2011 by Office of Management and Budget
This free version is by the “Office of Management and Budget”. This is a pretty good deal if you’re into this kind of stuff. By comparison the paperback version, by the “Executive Office Of The President” goes for $32.80
To be honest, I’m not sure what the difference is between the two versions, other than who they’re from, but you can’t go wrong for free.
Topics: Free Kindle Content, Kindle, Kindle 2, Kindle Content, Kindle DX | No Comments »
More Kindle Exclusives
By Greg | February 11, 2010
Amazon has announced that best selling author Gavin De Becker has made some of his books exclusive to the Amazon Kindle Store
From the Amazon news release:
“The nationally bestselling ‘The Gift of Fear’ is a perennial bestseller in its category, and de Becker’s books have resonated throughout the years with our customers,” said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Kindle Content. “We’re excited to work with Mr. de Becker in sharing these exclusive electronic versions of his books, now available in the Kindle Store for wireless download in less than 60 seconds.”
Here’s a little background on Gavin de Becker. He has been on many television show’s including Larry King and Oprah on numerous occasions. He founded a company that provides protective services and consultations to some of the world’s most prominent people. This includes people in politics and the media among others.
De Becker had this to say about his Kindle exclusive books:
“Over the years, there have been about 25 different editions of ‘The Gift of Fear,’ and I am very excited that Kindle can free my books from the bonds of paper and glue and warehousing and shipping,” said de Becker. “These special Kindle editions of my books can efficiently and instantly be available to readers around the world, and offer many benefits unavailable in conventional paper books. For example, while readers of the physical edition may or may not have had access to a nearby dictionary, Kindle readers can now see the definition of a word at the moment it’s encountered. Now readers can also easily search for any reference, name, passage, topic or even individual word throughout the entire text.”
After the news we’ve been hearing the last couple of weeks about publishers raising prices and not really adapting to ebooks, it’s nice to see that some authors out there are embracing the technology that is available with ebooks. Let’s hope that more authors – and publishers – start seeing the positive aspects of ebooks too.
Topics: Kindle, Kindle Content, Kindle Exclusives | 1 Comment »
Amazon Job Postings Hint At New Kindle
By Greg | February 10, 2010
We’re pretty sure that a new Kindle will be coming out sometime this year and there’s now some more news that hints towards this. Checking out the Amazon job postings board there are some job postings that would indicate that Amazon is up to something – most likely the new Kindle. For example, there is a posting for a “Hardware Display Manager” with one of the requirements being that the applicant should have a “Strong engineering background and have significant experience with the development of display technology for portable electronic consumer devices.” Another interesting requirement is “you will know the LCD business and key players in the market.”
So does this mean that the new Kindle will have a color LCD screen? Maybe it does. It seems pretty certain though, that something is going on at Amazon with their purchase of Touchco last week, these new job postings and new technology that’s available like the Mirasol display screens.
It’s been about a year now since the Kindle 2 came out so it wouldn’t be too surprising to see the Kindle 3 coming out later this year. The question I have is this. Is the next Kindle going to be a Kindle 3 to replace the Kindle 2 or will it be a totally new device to add to the Kindle team like the Kindle DX was last year?
Topics: Kindle, Kindle 3, Kindle Color Screen, Kindle Technology | No Comments »
Another Publisher Decides To Stop Low Cost Ebooks
By Greg | February 8, 2010
Hachette Book Group has joined Macmillan in fighting against the $9.99 ebook. They said that they would join the agency pricing model which would put ebooks in the $12.99 to $14.99 price range. It also seems like the other big publishers are going to be using the same pricing model in the near future. So, it looks like the days of the $9.99 best sellers are over.
A big reason for this happening now is Apple’s iPad. The $12.99 to $14.99 is the price point that Apple proposed to publishers for selling books on the iPad and it looks like that’s what they’re going with.
David Young, the CEO for Hachette, had this to say about the new pricing model:
“There are many advantages to the agency model, for our authors, retailers, consumers, and publishers. It allows Hachette to make pricing decisions that are rational and reflect the value of our authors’ works. In the long run this will enable Hachette to continue to invest in and nurture authors’ careers–from major blockbusters to new voices. Without this investment in our authors, the diversity of books available to consumers will contract, as will the diversity of retailers, and our literary culture will suffer.”
So, according to Mr. Young there are many advantages not only for authors, retailers, and publishers but also for all of us consumers. I would like to thank him for thinking of the consumers. I’m sure that the “diversity of books available to consumers” will be well worth the extra $3 to $5 per book that we’ll have to pay if we decide to actually buy the books.
I’ve been checking out the forums and comments on other blogs and the majority of the ebook consumers aren’t very happy with the news that’s coming out from these publishers lately (not too surprising).
I guess they still haven’t heard about what happened in the music industry. Instead of fighting ebooks they should embrace them and change their business models to adapt to the changes in technology. If not, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of the major publishers having some major problems in the future and some new ebook publishers rising up from their dust.
Topics: Kindle, Kindle Publishing | 6 Comments »