Showing posts with label kindle for android. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kindle for android. Show all posts

Kindle for Android newspapers & magazines / Borders, Barnes and Noble dilemmas

LIST OF 100+ NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES IN COLOR, MANY WITH HIGH-RESOLUTION IMAGES, for KINDLE FOR ANDROID

Amazon has a page now that leads to the listing of magazines and newspapers for the Kindle for Android app update.

  But here are the separate listings for magazines and newspapers for the Android app update.

  They also have a listing that combines newspapers and magazines for Android.

  When you compare these Android-app lists against the usual newspapers and magazines available at the Kindle Store for the Kindle itself (in the listings for bestselling newspapers and bestselling magazines), you'll see which publishers haven't signed up at this point for the Android version.

  For newspapers, the topmost bestsellers missing currently are Wall St. Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, Financial Times, etc
  For magazines, the more obviously missing ones currently are The New Yorker, TIME, Technology Review, PC Magazine, The Nation, Bloomberg Businessweek, etc.

  The periodicals not included for Android are explained this way:
' The publisher may have opted out of making it available on certain devices, or the Kindle Reading App experience may not yet be optimized for this publication. '

"JUST NUTS:  TITANIC RUSHING TO JOIN FORCES WITH THE ANDREA DORIA"
Ed Renehan's e-publishing, etc. blog had that colorfully apt title in early December for his blog entry on whether Borders was really serious about buying Barnes & Noble.


  Today's The China Post has an interesting article on the financial dilemmas facing both Borders and Barnes & Noble, the latter having made themselves available for sale and the former hoping to be the buyer! Barnes and Noble are in better shape than Borders, thanks to their NookColor debut and sales figures.
  In fact, I bought a NookColor last week and have been enjoying it as a secondary, supplemental reader for color material, including National Geographic.  It has its birthing pains and I'll probably discuss workarounds in a subsequent blog I'm starting, but it is a very nicely designed e-reader although for full books I'll be using the Kindle's E-Ink screen.

Some excerpts from the China Post article:
' Christmas to be decisive for Borders, Barnes & Noble
. . .
In the latest chapter, Barnes & Noble Inc has put itself up for sale, while Borders Group Inc has put its hand out to lenders in hopes of avoiding a cash shortfall early next year.
. . .
Borders is in worse shape, bleeding sales and closing hundreds of stores.  Last week it reported yet another double-digit centage decline in same-store sales and said it could violate terms of its debt agreements in the first months of 2011 if it cannot refinance.

Last week, Borders' second-largest shareholder, William Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management, offered to fund a merger of Borders and Barnes & Noble. The idea was dismissed by analysts because of how much the retailers' store locations overlap.

A Borders spokeswoman declined to comment on whether the company was considering a bankruptcy filing.

Larger rival Barnes & Noble is on better footing thanks to its popular Nook e-readers and rising e-book sales. But physical books — a shriveling business — still make up the lion's share of its revenue.

The company put itself up for sale in August and is under the gun to show that the Nook is generating e-book sales quickly enough to warrant a high price for the company.

“Holiday e-reader sales this year will show where you have a clear leader,” said Wahlstrom.  Five suitors are eyeing Barnes & Noble, a source has told Reuters.

The difference in the companies' fortunes was plain to see last weekend in Santa Barbara, California. The Borders store there was holding a going-out-of-business sale, even selling the kitchen sink used in its cafe. Across an intersection, a Barnes & Noble teemed with shoppers... '

There's twice as much in that story at the website.


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 highest-rated ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

Kindle in the News - Sept 26, 2010: Shelfari, Top Gadgets, Cover with light.

KINDLE FOR ANDROID'S SHELFARI ADDITION
The Motley Fool's Darleen Hartley, of The Motley Fool, at MSNBC, points out that Amazon bought Shelfari, a social-networking startup at about the same time it acquired AbeBooks.

For some reason, she posts that "Previously, the Kindle's 3G wireless connection could access only Amazon's bookstore" which isn't at all true though most news columnists are under that mistaken impression -- the various Kindles have had the experimental web browser since 2007 (see my Kindle 1 accessing google search in 2008 as well as website-access comparisons between Kindle 1 and Kindle 2 done in February 2009.

Hartley points out though that the Kindle for Android update this week makes it  possible to view book details from Shelfari on smartphones running Android and adds:
' Shelfari lets you create a virtual bookshelf, where friends can see what you are reading and you can review and discuss them. A Shelfari widget works on most blogs and social networks, including Blogger, LiveJournal, MySpace, TypePad, Xanga, Vox, WordPress, and Facebook.
. . .
Members can post their shelves, reviews, and comments. '

NEW ZEALAND'S THE STAR ADDS KINDLE TO ITS TOP 5 GADGETS LIST
The Canterbury Star's Top 5 Gadgets List includes the Kindle 3 (UK: K3) along with such items as:
The Limit Hockey Table, SlushMagic: By Sunbeam, COOLPIX P7000: By Nikon, and Skycaddie SG5 GPS

It was odd to see the K3 in this type of listing.  The Star's description:
' If you still can't decide the eBook reader for you, the Kindle 3 is about to make the choice a lot tougher.
  I was lucky enough to get my hands on one of these and was impressed by its performance.  These readers are light, manageable and have great contrast and clarity.  It also packs PDF support, has a built-in keyboard and long battery life.  Uploading books couldn't be easier, just sign up with internet retail giant Amazon and a massive world of reading is available at your fingertips.  Sadly you still have to order these bad boys from overseas. '
I enjoyed the last line's description of the Kindles.

FROM THE WEST COAST - WHY THE CASE WITH LIGHT
I will be doing an article in the coming week on lights I've preferred when using the Kindle, but for now here's StarkSilverCreek's Loni Kao Stark explaining why, after thinking about it for 2 weeks and not leaning toward integrated multi-purpose electronics, she decided she wanted the Amazon cover with light, which is essentially $35 for the cover plus $25 more if getting the basic cover with the built-in light:
' Technology, especially personal technology, changes your expectations.  Whereas before I was happy with the limitation that I could only read my paper book if I hauled around a book light or moved myself to an area that was lit, the very knowledge of what is possible makes me, well, dissatisfied.

With winter approaching, the days are getting shorter.  As the passenger of a car that travels frequently up and down 280 and 101 highways, there are several occasions I want to read on my Kindle when it’s dark.  At each of these moments, I imagine the convenience of a lighted Kindle case.  I brought my book light one time and something that seemed pretty compact before now is an unpleasant projection.'
As simple as that.  The light's always there.  For me, the case is a bit stiff but some like that for better protection and the light is dimmer than I like, but for briefer use when it's too dark, it's fine.  I also find that the case can take away from the slimness and it's not as easy for me to hold with one hand for a longer period -- but a positive feature of it is that when I am VERY sleepy and wind up dozing off for hours, the cover's light will go off as soon as the screen-sleeper comes on, not only saving expense of normal light-batteries (it uses the Kindle's battery) but protecting against unnecessary draining of the Kindle's battery.

For opinions from other Kindle owners on the Amazon Kindle forums, see these two threads: "Lighted cover too bulky for me" and "K3's Lighted cover saves the evening."


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.
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

Hands on:Kindle for Android prototype - a report by ArsTechnica

This is an UPDATE to the blog article on the Kindle for Android app that is coming this summer.

Ars Technica's Ryan Paul reports on a hands-on demo on the prototype, which Amazon brought to Google I/O. As mentioned earlier, it has the usual Kindle app features, including syncing across all supported devices.
' Screen readability is good and offers a solid reading experience. Users can select from several different font sizes and background colors. Options include a sepia mode and a white-on-black mode for night reading. The application user interface has a brightness adjustment slider, but it wasn't yet functional in the prototype that I tested.

The application lacks a built-in bookstore, but it can automatically sync content that the user has purchased. To add a book from the device itself, the user visits Amazon's website, purchases a book, and then uses the reader application's synchronization feature to pull it down onto the device.
  When the user deletes a book from the device in order to free up storage space, it is still accessible from an "archive" menu which can be used to re-download the content. '
He notes that if you want to read free e-books from places like Project Gutenberg's site, you'll still need a separate third-party reader application like FBReader or Aldiko. Ryan adds:

' I often read e-books on my cell phone when I travel.  I recently managed to get through two William Gibson novels during the flights to and from the Ubuntu Developer Summit that took place earlier this month in Brussels.  Getting e-books on my phone today is often a bit of a chore.  The ability to buy books over the air and have them available and fully synced on all of my devices will be a welcome addition to the Android platform. '


 See the ongoing Guide to finding Free or Low-Cost Kindle books and Sources
   Check often:  Latest temporarily free non-classics or late-listed temporarily free nonclassics.

Kindle for Android announced as "Coming soon"

Kindle for Android has been announced as
"Coming soon" with details at
http://amzn.to/kindleforandroid, including a sign-up box for e-mail notification when the app is available for download.

In addition to being able to buy a book from the Kindle Store optimized for your Android phone and getting it auto-delivered wirelessly, the features include the basic ones in other Kindle mobile apps (including the Blackberry) and adds:

  * Read in portrait or landscape mode
  * Tap on either side of the screen or flick to turn pages

Technical details are as follows:

  * Requires Android OS 1.6 or greater
  * Requires an SD card
  * Supports Droid Incredible, Google Nexus One, HTC MyTouch,
        Motorola CLIQ, Motorola Droid,
        and many more Android phones

There is no date or date range given on the product page, but their Seattle press release states that it will be "coming this summer."



 See the ongoing Guide to finding Free or Low-Cost Kindle books and Sources
   Check often:  Latest temporarily free non-classics or late-listed temporarily free nonclassics.