It kind of happened by itself… So I grabbed my camera and captured the moment…
Thought-proviking Kindle Photo
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On this blog we will track down the latest Amazon Kindle news. We will keep you up to date with whats hot in the bestsellers section, including books, ebooks and blogs... and we will also bring you great Kindle tips and tricks along with reviews for the latest Kindle accessories.
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I would like to invite you to check out another blog of mine that I’ve recently started: netbook-expert.com. It covers news about netbooks and ultraportable computing in particular. It also allows you to compare netbooks side by side. At the moment there are a little bit over a hundred models in the comparison engine but I’m adding new ones on a regular basis. So with time coverage will become more comprehensive. I’ve made it available on Kindle marketplace along with this blog. As this blog is relatively new I would like to ask your help in attracting visitors. I encourage you to visit it and review it on your blog or website if you like it or if you think that it should be improved. As a small incentive I can offer one Google Wave invite to first 30 people to write and post reviews about it be these reviews positive or not (honest and objective is what I’m looking for actually). Just email the link to your review to contact@netbook-expert.com and I’ll send back invite your way. Since release of international Kindle 2 was announced this blog started getting significant number of visitors from outside of US. I decided that it would be nice to deliver the blog in many languages. However I’m only fluent in two and don’t have the resources to translate it manually to many languages that my visitors speak. I’ll have to go with automated translation for the time being. I’ve enabled it for the following languages (based on the countries visitors come from): You can also find the translation control at the bottom of left side-bar. If your language is not among these – drop me a comment. If I get enough requests I’ll add more languages. The reason I didn’t enable them all is because the translation quality is rather poor. However this is something that you can help me with. The translation plugin that I use supports wiki-style modification of the translated pages. However in order to prevent spam and vandalism I don’t want to open editing to the entire world. If you speak one of the listed languages and would like to correct the automated translation now and then, I can email you login credentials for the translation editor. Enjoy!  Apple iPod Touch 32GB Take a look at the list of best selling products in electronics section on Amazon.com. As of recently 3rd generation Apple iPod Touch 32GB has climbed to the second place. Currently it is outsold only by Kindle 2 and is trailed by Kindle DX. This is interesting since Kindle has had prime advertising spot on Amazon.com homepage for quite some time now, while the Apple product generates sales only because of this popularity and the fact that Amazon sells it at $20.00 discount compared to the official Apple store and provides free shipping. Technically it also can be considered Kindle related merchandize since it can run Kindle application that is available in Apple app store. While it has been widely rumoured that Apple will release tablet PC type device that will compete with eBook readers, the fact that two companies cooperate this much indicate that Apple will not be competing with Amazon in this space. Just look at all the current news about Apple Google feud around Google voice application for iPhone. There’s clearly competition there and no cooperation at all.  Google Book Store Google has unveiled their newest addition to Google news: Fast Flip. Fast Flip is really just a nice, snazzy interface to browse through Google news feeds, but the best way to describe it is to have you try it yourself. So go ahead and check it out a bit before reading on. Fast Flip seems like it’s trying to be the end-all solution for newspapers’ transition to digital. Users can quickly browse and scan articles until they find something they want to read in depth, and then they can open the article itself. It’s a perfect example of mimicking, and even improving, some aspects of the hand held tree paper experience. Fast Flip has also been optimized for Android and the iPhone, which means that smart phone owners can comfortably browse their news on the go. Google’s emphasis on mobile devices means that Fast Flip is, in a way, a competitor to current eReaders. Instead of paying for a subscription to one newspaper and reading it on a device like the Kindle (or the Kindle iPhone app), many people may prefer the ability to skim across articles that Fast Flip provides. Really, it’s this kind of interface innovation that is going to help newspapers stay afloat in the digital age and it’s now up to the eReaders to respond. Some sort of application like this on a Kindle DX would be a killer news app. Sure, the slow refresh rate of eInk would mean no fancy transitions, but a sampling of articles across that huge screen would help close the gap between digital and print news. Let’s hope Amazon can produce something like this with the next generation of Kindles.
Have you already gone through everything on your Kindle? Don’t know how to fill up that 2 gigabytes (or the whopping 4 on DX)? Let The Book Seer come to the rescue! The Book Seer is really just a combination of several recommendation engines, including Amazon’s. Sure, you could just let Amazon give you their recommendations, but you would lose out on the dramatic presentation and woodcut graphics. Plus, the Book Seer gives you a lot more results than just Amazon’s suggestions alone. It’s also kind of interesting to see how Amazon’s recommendation algorithm compares to the others. At the very least, The Book Seer will provide you with a time waster for a couple minutes.
There isn’t really any major technological developments involved. The ink changes color depending on its temperature. By evenly layering the ink across paper, and adjusting the ink’s temperature via various electric voltages, the appearance of the paper can be altered. At the moment, this is really just a proof of concept. It’s planned use is for integrated displays in affordable scientific tools, such as a water tester. But what if the technology was refined and used as a cheaper alternative to an E-Ink display? A fine tuned electric grid placed across a thermochromic surface could create a durable, relatively inexpensive, dynamic display. The refresh rate wouldn’t be fast enough to be a computer monitor, but it could work as an eReader. Such an application is probably unlikely due to the long head start of eInk technology, but display is fairly cool nonetheless. If you want, you can try to build one yourself, but I’ll warn you that the paper can get a bit technical. Once again I forgot to restore full-text feed after Wordpress update so Kindle subscribers could have gotten snippets today instead of full posts. I’ve fixed the error and wrote a 12 posts-its to myself to it doesn’t happen again. Sorry for the inconvenience. A bit old but funny. A sketch from Late Night With Jimmy Fallon which has the Kindle 2 reading passages from The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe and Dreams of My Father by Barack Obama. All set to candlelight and classical music. Oh, and it tells jokes too! In regards to the lawsuit against Arizona State University, over the Kindle DX’s inaccessibility for blind people, a quick search for braille eReaders brought up this prototype design. Unfortunately, no such device is yet in production, but the basic technology already exists. Braille displays for blind computer users have been around for decades, and it’s only the prohibitive cost that has kept an eReader like this from being developed. As research continues, it can be expected that something like this prototype will one day exist. A braille device that fell under the Kindle brand, or at the very least had support for the Kindle Store, would solve any problems surrounding the current suit against ASU. But even more important would be the larger effect a braille eReader would have. Unlike the purchase of a normal eReader, which essentially comes down to a consumer’s personal preference, a braille eReader would have near universal acceptance in the blind community. With braille, a refreshable eReader with a limitless digital library would have clear benefits over the limited supply of bulky paper braille books. If such a device could be developed at a reasonable price, the maker would not only stand to help the disable but also to make a huge profit. I was just informed that people who subscribed to this blog via Kindle Store were getting snippets instead of full articles. This was an unexpected side effect of me upgrading to Wordpress 2.8. I’ve addressed the issue so from now on articles should be full text again. I apologise for the inconvenience. In case you have been missing that booky smell when you read eBooks on your Amazon Kindle – there is a solution for you – “An Aerosol E-Book Enhancer” now available in 5 flavors:
 Smell Of Books Once again I regret that it’s nowhere near 1st of April. But hey, who said people have to be serious all year-round? And the winner is Jay from Florida. He correctly guessed the Kindle DX release date. Here’s what he has to say about himself:
This time I received only 29 valid responses because Amazon announced the release date soon after the contest got started. Only 2 people guessed the correct date. Results were more or less evenly distributed. Here’s detailed breakdown:  Kindle DX Release Date Contest Results
The prize (Amazon Kindle DX Leather Cover) is pre-ordered and will ship on the same day as Amazon releases Kindle DX. Congratulations, Jay! There will be more contests in the future so subscribe to this blog or follow it on twitter if you are interested. If any of you were wondering what new features would be included in the device that will replace Kindle 2 – watch this video. According to Adam and his friends, Kindle 3 will boast the following features:
Too bad it’s still long time until 1st of April. I couldn’t hold on to this post until the next year… :) …about not going to tweet myself. Tweeting fever has got the better of me and by the power of Twitter Tools Wordpress plugin you’ll see a tweet every time I post something here. But this is as far as it goes… Honestly :) Now you can follow BlogKindle.com :) For one reason or another, Amazon has knocked down subscription price for BlogKindle.com to 0.99/month from $1.99. Same thing has recently happened to iReaderReview.com. Either it’s some global policy change or blogs are evaluated on a regular basis and both blogs fell into the same pricing bucket. Even paying 12 cents per megabyte, Amazon would still make some profit since my blog would generate only 1 MB of compressed content per month at best. Thanks to WPTouch Wordpress theme and plugin, BlogKindle.com now renders nicely on iPhones, iPod Touches and Android phones…  BlogKindle.com on iPhone If you want full version of the website – there is a switch at the very bottom of the page that would let you do just that.
Unless this is your first visit to BlogKindle.com, you probably noticed that website looks quite different. I was planning it for quite some time and finally did it. I’m looking for your honest opinion. Did I make BlogKindle better or worse. Please vote! Below is the screenshot of how it used to look before…
Do you like new design of BlogKindle.com?
Couldn’t resist posting this picture of wooden Kindle. Folks at Incredible Stuff I Made with some help from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories created it. Enjoy!  Amazon Kindling Made Of Wood Until May 20th, 2009 you can get one on eBay. And put it to some good use… Here is what the seller has to say about it:
… With Amazon Kindle 2 shipping in just a few days there is a lot of related activing on the internet auction eBay going on. There are Kindle 2s that actually already sell for $400+. Some people who have confirmed shipping resell their Kindle 2s for profit in hopes that Amazon will not be able to satisfy the demand during the launch. Something like that actually happened with Sony PRS-505 was released. Supply was much lower than demand and for months after the official launch it sold on eBay for double it’s retail price… I don’t think that this will be the case for Kindle 2 but I’ll still keep track of the prices with this widget out of pure curiosity. Either way there are also many Kindle V1s sold there by the owners who are upgrading. So if you wanted to buy Amazon Kindle at great discount eBay would be a great place to do it now. If you want to get some extra cash for Kindle 2 upgrade, selling V1 on eBay would be a way to go. Just remember to de-register the device first. Update: since flash widget would keep displaying wrong items – here is a manual update from me:
Update 2: it looks like some would be enterpreneurs are trying to cut their losses and there are some Kindle 2s selling below Amazon prices. Another discount opportunity. I normally don’t go offtopic and try to keep this blog to the point but what are rules for if not for beaking them once in a while… I was going though my paper mail today and this one letter caught my attention. It was addressed to me but no return address… Interesting… First thing out of this envelope was this form:
If you are lazy however here is the scoop: If you are really into winning the $1,000,000.00 and don’t want to buy the membership – turn this form over check the “NO, thank you” checkbox on the reverse, stick the stickers as instructed and attach a stamp (current stamp price is Stamp price¢) at your expense. Odds of winning million are 1/130,000,000 so your expected return is 0.77 cents though. But that’s the idea of sweepstakes… Why did I take the time to write this rather than making a meaningful post about what you, readers care – the Kindle? It’s because I’m big on the environment issue (and hence – kindle – ebooks – trees get to live) and just think about all the trees that went into paper for these sweepstakes, and all the carbon that USPS trucks are going to put into the air while hauling this mail. And there is no reason at all why all of this couldn’t have been done electronically for a fraction of a fraction of carbon footprint… Oh, and the kindle post – it’s coming too – stay tuned. |
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Scientists have developed an incredibly cheap method to build an electronic display. They made it out of 
Now who doesn’t want to win a million bucks? However before you rush to your mailbox for your chance to cash in and beat the recession take real good look at the third line which says: “membership order form”. I know that it doesn’t catch your eye because of the way text is placed on the page but it’s there. Then you would want to carefully read at least the reverse of the form for details on the price of this membership. You would be glad you did. Other less colorful but more informative papers are also worth reading. What makes this one subtle is that it originates from a credit card company so you don’t need to provide your billing information in order to get billed – they already have it!
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