AMAZON'S JAY MARINE ANSWERS SOME QUESTIONS IN THE KINDLE CHRONICLES FRIDAY PODCAST
Kindle Director Jay Marine is interviewed by Len Edgerly for last Friday's podcast at thekindlechronicles.com.
Special Offers: some want these for older Kindles
For each podcast, Len has a text summary with a description of what's covered in the various regular sections, and it's the most relaxing way to catch up with the week's Kindle news.
They start out by discussing the new $114 Kindle with Special Offers and Ads (the Special Offers being a carrot for the currently low-key ads said to subsidize lower-cost Kindles).
The initial offers include:
. $10 for $20 Amazon.com Gift Card
. $6 for 6 Audible Books (normally $68)
. $1 for an album in the Amazon MP3 Store
(choice of 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
to get a $10 Amazon.com credit
. 50% off Roku Streaming Player (normally $99)
As more ads are bought by companies to be displayed on the ads-supported Kindle, it'll be interesting to watch the ratio of ads to special offers.
While I've not been interested in this for myself, others who have Kindles already are asking, on forums, that the older Kindles get updated software to get the special offers too. Of course, the ads would come along with those special offers.
Marine is asked if Amazon has plans to do something like this for those wanting the special offers in a software update. You can hear the answer at the podcast.
Kindle Library Lending
A question asked in the discussion of how the Kindle Library Lending will be run involved whether or not Amazon would use Adobe's DRM (digital rights management) process as Barnes & Noble, Sony, and Kobe do.
In my article on how the Lending Library would probably function, vs how it's run for the other e-reader companies, I didn't think Amazon would be using Adobe's DRM.
Marine confirms that they will not be using Adobe's DRM and that when you opt to borrow a library e-book that's available, you'll be able to have it within 60 seconds without needing to download any other software. That's a big advantage. And it means, to me, that Amazon will provide the download in order to track annotations and keep them for the users for possible future use.
According to Marine, they waited until they could do it 'right' because their entire goal with the Kindle has been to make downloads seamless and fast.
They discuss how it won't be ready right away. Len asks some good questions during the interview. He doesn't ask about the rumored Android tablet, he explains, since Amazon has a policy of not talking about possible coming products.
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.
'J. A. Konrath