great kindle

Forrester? or an ignorant column on "demise" of dedicated e-readers ?

Demise of dedicated e-readers

It was pointed out to me in a comment today that not only will e-readers get ever less-expensive (as most certainly all have expected them to, as pieces of electronics), but we now have another column predicting the Death of dedicated e-reader devices.

Forrester seems most to blame for the false reasoning used in this most recent wish-for-attention column (and they're getting it) because Forrester sees tablets and e-readers in a contest that e-readers cannot "win."

Are simpler cars in ongoing contests with multi-featured cars that the simpler cars must "win" or "die"? Will they stop manufacturing sports car models because they are not as easy-to-operate and aren't able to carry families on vacation trips? Will the sports cars "lose" to the family sedan? Simplistic black & white thinking carries the day usually.

I've no patience with wishful thinking based on not understanding different technologies nor reasons why one technology, predicted soon dead by the same experts mentioned last year, proved so popular in the last year during the time that the iPad certainly claimed hearts and minds. Buyers knew the difference, if not some gadget columnists who think only in terms of 'appearance' (drab, plain, retro) and carry mainly the "cool kid" mentality as we saw for the last year and a half until many of them decided one type of technology actually DID seem "cool" to many hoping to just read books rather than flash around playing games and surfing the web at every chance (I'm one of the latter).

I'm behind in blogging because I was away, but I will (b)log this one before the others that I've put on a todo-list because obviously there will be much written about the latest research opinions, as happened in 2010 when all predicting the end of e-readers by the end of the year often seemed to hope they were right.

Inevitably, yes, if/when we can get color screens for dedicated-readers while keeping the relaxing quality of e-Ink effect on eyes that don't want LCD screens for reading novels, inevitably today's e-readers (or even today's tablets) will not be wanted or needed, even if dedicated e-readers are light to carry because they are dedicated to one activity. Everything in life does change.

I decided to blog the response I made to a note in the blog's Comment areas, which was a helpful link to the story (because e-readers WILL drop in price as was the comment-writer's focus, which is the good and obvious point of some of the researcher opinions).

I'm still reviewing the news of an inevitable Amazon Android Tablet (which I initially blogged (August 2010) when a long-time Computerworld columnist reported receiving confirmation from his Amazon sources in August that there WOULD be an Android tablet from Amazon.

The recent information on the technology involved in an Amazon order for tablets from Quanta Computer (with screen-panel properties licensed by E-Ink Holdings (for fringe field switching -- which is for LCD screens) has been vague and I'll write on that later today. Since some columnists have interpreted the "2nd half of 2011" as "by the holidays 2011" because of the time to produce, test and stock these, I hadn't jumped on it yet as the news traveled fast on Twitter, Facebook and Kindle forums, where I was involved in discussions.

Back to the column on latest expert research. Here's my response (slightly modified for the blog-post) to the Huffington Post article on the 'demise' of the dedicated e-reader and its days "being numbered." Catchy thought, no?

' Didn't Forrester and assorted columnists predict the end of the Kindle itself by the end of 2010 due to the popularity of the iPad and other tablets?

Also, never in a truly idiotic presentation of the premise for the death of dedicated e-readers does the article mention Forrester speaking to the issue of E-INK (which they may have! and it was columnist idiocy instead that produced the gist re the death of dedicated e-readers).

Or, it may have been Forrester's. The many studies done have been wrong about the popularity of e-reader devices before, when the iPad arrived, asking leading questions in their surveys.

I have [and enjoy] a NookColor and I intend to get the Amazon tablet if it comes, for the color magazine capability and for portable web-browsing but with Amazon features that I hope will be better done in software than is the B&N tablet-reader.

I would *never* give up the e-Ink model for an LCD tablet, for reading books. And there are voluminous notes on forums that say the same thing, by people who own tablets or semi-tablets along with their Kindles or other e-Ink readers.

If years from now they have non-LCD and e-paper-type capabilities for relaxing reading (eye care for many), along with color on a par with vibrant color in LCD tablets, then the dedicated e-reader may not be needed (though they'll always be lighter) -- but not mentioning e-Ink here at all is sheer ignorance when predicting demise of current e-readers due to interest in tablets. It reminds me of the columnist who idiotically placed a picture of a tombstone at the head of his column last summer with the wording that the Kindle would die and be buried as of 2010 due to the birth of the iPad. Experts want what they want.

There is a wish there that's just unseemly and speaks to a special kind of extreme love for electronic sleekness over everything else that has to do with their own disliking the "drab" or "retro" *look* of e-ink readers. Actual functionality is rarely addressed.

But you're right in your own emphasis that e-reader prices will go down. I thought most people have seen this with ALL electronics.

The FLIP camera? GOD. It has the same end result as a fine in-camera HD movie thing. It's not remotely like e-Ink vs color. '

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.

Kindle to be available at Walmart. Is ad-supported Kindle a primary focus?

KINDLE 3 AVAILABLE AT 3200+ WALMART STORES STARTING THIS WEEK.

The Editors of The Kindle Daily Post (national or international editions), which is always clickable at the top right-hand corner of the Kindlestore, announced yesterday (all emphases mine) that "...starting this week, Kindle will be available in over 3,200 Walmart stores nationwide. Most stores will have a Kindle on display so you can check out all the features before you buy. Walmart stores will be selling both Kindle 3G and Kindle with Special Offers.

Walmart is the latest in a growing list of retailers offering Kindle, including Target, Best Buy, and Staples, among others."

Note they mention "both" the "Kindle 3G" and "Kindle with Special Offers."
But they don't mention a third possibility, the Kindle3 WiFi-Only Without Special Offers

Is it possible there'll be no $139 WiFi-Only model at Walmart?

That would be of interest insofar as the Non-Ad WiFi-Only Kindle may be getting less production interest.
Or, it could be that the Kindle Post mention of 'both' Kindles was unintentional on the editors' part, but that'll be interesting to watch. The latest Youtube video has emphasized the "from $114" price point.

Kindle 3's (UK: Kindle 3's), K3 Special, $114 DX Graphite

Best New $0.69 MP3 Songs for your Kindle or other mp3 player - Update2

Amazon recently lowered the price of several popular songs to $0.69, and it happens that these songs are still $1.29 on iTunes..

Update - Commenter Ross just reported that these downloads are restricted to the U.S., which I didn't know. Apologies for not having warned those outside the U.S., then, who must be getting more frustrated over the geo/location situation with each new blog entry.

Update2 - Commenter mashadutoit writes: "What makes the amazon mp3 limitation doubly frustrating is that they allow you to go through the whole process of downloading their MP3 downloading software, and only when you try to use it right at the end do you get a message that this service is only available to US customers. :( "

That is especially thoughtless of Amazon. The only possible upside I can see in their allowing people to download the software with high hopes before they find out they're not even allowed to use it is that perhaps this is because they intend to find a way to enable mp3 downloads someday if they can get agreements with the music publishers internationally. I have no idea though.
If anyone at Amazon is reading, I hope you will say something somewhere about this double frustration for non-US residents.

Computerworld's Ed Oswald writes, "It's not clear as to whether the price drop was a blessing from the music labels, or if Amazon has decided to take a profit hit in the name of gaining market share. It's no secret that some music industry execs would like to limit iTunes' clout in digital music, and may have given more favorable terms to competitors.
. . .
These days, the $1.29 price point is reserved for special content (the Beatles catalog for example) or best-selling tracks from major artists. But with Amazon now apparently undercutting iTunes by nearly half, Apple may be forced to answer back."

Some of the songs at 69 cents are, Oswald notes:
Lady Gaga's hit "Born This Way" and "Judas," Taio Cruz's "Dynamite," Cee Lo Green's "Forget You," and The Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling."

Check the list of $0.69 top songs at any time. There are currently 204 of them.
Some of them will of course also be found in the "Bestsellers in MP3" page, which has the "Top 100 Paid" songs alongside the "Top 100 Free songs."

Remember that the Kindle has a 'music' folder which allows the playing of mp3's (as background music while reading) over the not-very-loud Kindle speakers or via headphones. But these mp3's play only in the order they are placed on the Kindle (or randomly on the original 2007 Kindle), although a favorite or two can be put in the 'Audible' folder which allows them to be Selected -- but you can't read a Kindle book while listening when using the Audible folder.

See the earlier mp3's on Kindle section for more information on how the Kindle handles mp3's.

(The Kindle-edition of this blog can be searched for the words "mp3 files" because the 24 latest blog-articles are kept in each edition. You can just type "mp3 files" to search the Kindle blog for this when you have it open for reading.)

Also, if you haven't read about the new Cloud Player, you might also want to check out the first blog article on Amazon's new Cloud storage and music-streaming feature, which provides all Amazon customers with 5 free gigs of storage per year. There is also a bonus upgrade available in most countries, to 20 free gigs total per year if you buy an mp3 album (there are 99 cent albums). However, that storage-upgrade isn't available in the 27 countries listed in the table at the bottom of that first blog article.

It'll be interesting to see how well Amazon's lower pricing works out. When I download an mp3, I can opt to put it into the iTunes library.

Reminder: Amazon is offering a $25 gift certificate with a purchase of one 3G Kindle (limited to one per customer) until Mother's Day.

Kindle 3's (UK: Kindle 3's), K3 Special, $114 DX Graphite

New useful app, USA-only for now (still) - Calendar Pro - UPDATE

JUST AN ALERT ON A GOOD CALENDAR APP FOR KINDLE - UPDATE

This was released April 28 and has 7 customer reviews, with 4-1/2 stars average.
No apps are available outside the U.S. yet, although Amazon has said they plan to make them available globally eventually. Apologies to non-US readers who see the news but can't access the products yet. I know it's frustrating.

AND, as is happening with my current favorite-app, Notepad, people are giving low "1" ratings for an app if the app is not available yet in their country. (I've not tried Calendar Pro yet.)

AMAZON: Why don't y'all just *identify* protest-feedback about unavailable products (especially when the delay is on Amazon's side) as "Other" and treat them as what they are: not reviews of the product. It's unfair to the authors and unfair to consumers trying to decide on products when we see ratings that are affected by protest-feedback that has nothing to do with the quality of the product nor even written by those who have the product.

Protest-feedback should be identified and should not be counted in ratings against the product itself, since reviews are expected to be on products actually bought and used, and based on effectiveness.

The protest-feedback could still show on the page, and customers interested in the product could read them, but the ratings really should not be made useless by Amazon's counting them in the actual review-ratings.

Back to Calendar Pro: it sounds good -- one caveat is that in this first update, it doesn't do recurring events, and Jujuba Software plans to add that in a future update. In the meantime, other apps have been updated and submitted, but Amazon seems more than a month behind in reviewing the updates.

UPDATE: I've tried the app now and after initial confusion on navigation, its Help menu, available via the Menu button, clarified puzzlements, such as
1. using the 5-way button to go right, to get into Edit mode
(rather than Return/Enter, which the Kindle navigation tends to use
2. first option to go to Today, or Agenda when 'Today' is not usually
my first choice, and displaying no way to get to other views.

Using Help, you learn that you just press 'm' to get the month and 'y' to get the year. And there is usually context-help for every page via the Menu button.

My favorite thing: AGENDA. This shows you a text list of what is coming up for you, from your calendar entries.

REQUESTS:
1. I think Go to Month should be an option at the bottom (space permitting)
2. A Week-view option would be great
3. Recurring events - a must for wkly/monthly events + birthdays, etc.
4. A Search mechanism as is used in Notepad.

This'll be an app I use regularly. It has a very clean feel and is easy to use once you get used to it. Also, it's very useful as a calendar that's always w/me that I can check and change easily for appointments.

Kindle 3's (UK: Kindle 3's), K3 Special, $114 DX Graphite

Q&A: Kindle Tips: The Kindle's "Real page numbers"

QUESTIONS: DO YOU HAVE ANY?
If so, add them to Comments area and I'll either reply with an answer or do blog entries on some. I'd like to start a Question Bag in any case.

Q: I don't see real page numbers in my Kindle books. Shouldn't they be there now?

A: That depends on several things:
1. Are you using a Kindle 3?
I have no idea whether Amazon will upgrade older Kindle software for Kindle 2 and DX's to have these. I would think they'd be included eventually. Amazon often takes 6 months to get to the old Kindles with updated software and it's been longer than that for some changes that should have been added to the DX Graphite at least. The Kindle 1 with its different type of screen probably would not be updated, as the added calculations could slow down more that slower model.

2. Is your Kindle 3 using Update v3.1 ?
Press Menu button, then Settings, and your software version no. will be at the bottom right. If by now, you don't have v3.1, I'd call Customer Support at 866-321-8851 but if you're outside the U.S., try Call me, which is able to call back people in several countries but provides an email form if your country is not on the Call-me list. Ask them to help you with it, if a manual download (rather than automated) is required at this point. Sometimes, they can send one to your Kindle, if the update should have been sent earlier.

If you're comfortable with using your Kindle's USB cable (that is part of your power cord), to download an update and put it on your Kindle, see this blog's article on software update v3.1 for information on how to do that.

3. If you have Kindle 3 with v3.1 software, have you tried pressing Menu button?
That is the only way to see the real page numbers. Amazon decided to keep the location and real-page numbers out of the way and showing only the percentage of the book you've read so far. Press Menu and you'll see the page number *IF* Amazon has added them to that book..

4. Most Kindle books don't have page numbers yet.
Amazon is adding page numbers to books and they definitely prioritize them.
The books must be matched to a specific printed edition and its ISBN #.
If a book has been processed by Amazon to add real-page numbers, this information will show up in the product page's Product Detail (you need to scroll down a bit to see that).

In their original announcement, they said they've "“added real page numbers to tens of thousands of Kindle books, including the top 100 bestselling books in the Kindle Store that have matching print editions and thousands more of the most popular books.”"

They've continued adding them at a fast pace, from what I read a couple of weeks ago, and they include the usual publishers and also university press books.

5. NON-Amazon books definitely won't have them, as Amazon can't calculate page numbers on books they don't have on their servers.

Amazon wrote the following in a Kindle Post Daily over a month ago.

' We created algorithms to match the text of print books to Kindle books and organized all of this in the cloud, using our own AWS platform. The results of this work are stored in Amazon’s Simple Storage Service, where we track the complete history of every page matching file we’ve produced.

We even found a way to deliver page numbers to books that customers had already purchased – without altering those books in any way, so customers’ highlights, notes, and reading location are preserved exactly as they were.

Some other e-bookstores have added virtual “page numbers” to e-books, but we’ve found that these approaches can be confusing and often inconsistent – they don’t map to the page numbers in physical books, and in some cases they don’t account for title pages, blank pages, and other nuances that we see in print books.
' [ Andrys' note here: Sony and iBook page numbers don't map to print-book pages. ] '
... We want you to lose yourself in the reading, so page numbers are only displayed when you push the menu button... '

Kindle 3's (UK: Kindle 3's), K3 Special, $114 DX Graphite

Language Trainer Kindle Apps On Sale at Half Price Until May 11

Saw this at Amazon's Facebook page: "Save 50% on Language Trainers from 24-7 TUTOR and brush up on your Spanish, French, Italian, and German."

Below are two examples (See the page with the full set.)

24-7 Spanish - Basic Phrases (A Language Trainer) by 24/7 TUTOR (Kindle Edition - Feb. 15, 2011) - Kindle Active Content - $1.99 (Regular price: $3.99)

24-7 French - Basic Phrases (A Language Trainer) by 24/7 TUTOR (Kindle Edition - Feb. 23, 2011) - Kindle Active Content - $1.99 (Regular price: $3.99

Kindle 3's (UK: Kindle 3's), K3 Special, $114 DX Graphite

Amazon offers $25 Gift Card with purchase of 3G Kindles for Mother's Day

Two images of text seen at Amazon's Kindle pages last night:

Amazon announces $25 Gift Card with Purchase of
a Combo 3G Cellular Wireless-and-WiFi Kindle

Amazon has made an entire page for Mother's Day ideas for gifts. But here's something new.

I was surprised to see the new $25 Gift-Card offer in a pink-purple band and in the less colorful ad-box tonight (see above) on the Kindles product page -- with word that Kindles that have both cell-phone wireless capability and local WiFi network access (home/office/cafes) and which are therefore more expensive, will include a $25 gift-card for the Mothers Day holiday if one follows the steps there. That last part is important. The gift-card has to be included when adding the Kindle order to the cart.

Be sure to read the underlined "details and terms" for the $189 6" model -- I'll point out a couple of them here.

NOTE: The 3G capability is also part of the larger 9.7" Kindle DX Graphite model, so the $25 gift-card offer applies to that as well. See the "details and terms" for that one if interested in that model.

This is, in essence, a $25 credit offer on both the 3G models but without "special offers and ads" as part of the Kindle as they are with the $114 deal (which has no 3G capability).

First: some important points cited in the 'details and terms" that you should be sure to observe if interested in the offer:

When adding a '...Kindle 3G (Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 6")' or the Kindle DX (Free 3G, 9.7"), you'll need to include the "$25 Amazon.com Gift Card described in the promotion when adding the order to your Shopping Cart" by either selecting the $25 gift card offer on the applicable Kindle product page or by adding the Gift Card from its own product page (which I think is strange).

For gift-card terms and conditions, read www.amazon.com/gc-legal

Promotional offer limited to one Gift Card per customer.

The promotion is valid from 11:00 4/27/2011 to 23:59 5/8/2011.
"Amazon reserves the right to cancel it at any time."

Does not apply to orders placed with 1-Click...

Much more at the linked "details and terms" for each model, as linked above.
I haven't seen any mention that this is limited to the U.S. but it may be.

The Kindle3 3G/WiFi at $189 minus $25 gift certificate = $164
(usable for a case or a couple of books, say)
See 3G or WiFi? What does each do?

The Kindle DXG at $379 minus $25 gift certificate = $354

I've seen one question quite a bit on forums and customer-review comment areas in the last few days: Why would one want the 9.7" DXG model?

The DXG model is expensive, but I prepared, almost a year ago, some
Questions you should ask yourself if interested also in the larger Kindle
but not sure which one would work better for you.

Also, Reactions to DXG by tough Mobileread Forum folks

Kindle 3's (UK: Kindle 3's), K3 Special, $114 DX Graphite

Forrester? or an ignorant column on "demise" of dedicated e-readers ?

Kindle to be available at Walmart. Is ad-supported Kindle a primary focus?

Best New $0.69 MP3 Songs for your Kindle or other mp3 player - Update2

New useful app, USA-only for now (still) - Calendar Pro - UPDATE

Q&A: Kindle Tips: The Kindle's "Real page numbers"

Language Trainer Kindle Apps On Sale at Half Price Until May 11

Amazon offers $25 Gift Card with purchase of 3G Kindles for Mother's Day

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