Update 2pm: Hawaii tsunami warning canceled; no damage seen in Islands. It is great to hear that tsunami passed without any damages and we also had a chance to see some tsunami effects in a safe small scale demo from the ocean.

Water in Ala Wai harbor raised and droped about 7-8 inches within 20 minutes or so. Now it is slowly raising again. It is strange to see that the actual tsunami effects came at the moment when people already started walking outside and boats started to return.

Here is a shot when it started. I marked a level to which it raised.

Here is a shot with water at the highest level.

And here is one more when water receded again leaving wet mark on the stones.

I’m watching KHNL (hawaii news) now and they just showed water slowly receding from Hilo bay and then surging back. But it was at most one feet water level difference. So looks like even if there was a tsunami it was a very small one. And without TV I doubt anyone would notice it. False alarm… Correction: it doesn’t mean that it is safe to go outside until warning is cleared!
Update 11.59am: watching hilo bay now – and it looks like water is running out of it quite fast. So there maybe some wave coming in.
Update 12:56pm: seen some water change here in Honolulu – about 1/3 of a feet. Still pretty empty outside. Warning is still in effect. Even though Honolulu Advertisers writes that Isles appear to have been spared there is still chance that more waves could come.
Update: 1.05pm: KHNL is showing some interesting pictures with some Hawaii reefs being exposed by tsunami. “Hilo Bay is continuing to fill and drain every 20 minutes, said warning center oceanographer Nathan Becker.”

I’m in Honolulu, Hawaii on short vacation right now. And I’m staying in the hotel right in front of the Ala Wai bay in Honolulu.

Today I was woken up by a very loud alarm at 6am today and police car going circles around the bay with a following message: “Attention. Attention. This is a message from management. Tsunami warning has been issued. Please immediately leave the bay.”
Also I overheard couple people talking downstairs that this tsunami warning is the most severe since 1964 and they strongly recommend boaters to evacuate to the nearest shelter. It should be safe for anyone higher than 3rd floor. I’m on 5th so hopefully it will be ok…

I’ll keep you posted. If tsunami comes I should have front view to it from my balcony. You can follow it on my twitter account

Even though it is interesting to watch real tsunami from the safety of 5th floor (I hope this statement is true) I still wish that the wave won’t come. Entire state life is completely disrupted now. So many people had to change their plans and evacuate…

Video of Ala Wai bay and loud tsunami siren alarm. It sounds every 30 minutes and it is very loud…

Here is a photo from my room. I never saw so many boats in the ocean here in Honolulu (even during Friday fireworks)…

Here is another photo of boats leaving Ala Wai harbor to avoid damage from the tsunami wave.

As of this morning I’ve received an email from Amazon (which resulted from leaving my email at KDK page earlier). Right now Amazon is considering first candidates for the limited KDK beta. You can head to https://kindlepublishing.amazon.com/gp/vendor/kindlepubs/kdk/request-seat and fill out a form with your contact information as well as brief description of the content you plan to develop, hit submit and hope for the best.

I was away from home for extended period of time without access to a machine that I could rebuild UFH packages for the newly released International version of Kindle DX. Fortunately one of blog subscribers did.

I’ve uploaded updated hack binaries to the Unicode font hack page.

In welcome move, Amazon has decided to open up the Kindle platform to authors who are situated outside the US. So now authors from all over the world can sell their works on the various Kindles. This ensures a win-win situation for everyone involved — Amazon, Kindle users and the authors/publishers.

A lot of good literature gets published outside in the US. In fact, if you look at popular fiction genres, you will see that many of the world best sellers come from outside the US. I mention works of fiction mainly because those are the ones that sell the most. And with those facts in mind, it is easy to see why this would benefit Amazon. Amazon has really ushered the era of eBooks by making the Kindle and tying it up with the Whispernet platform. With this new move, they ensure that there is a steady supply of fresh material that is much greater in number than their current competitors. The great diversity that the Kindle Store will gain as a result of this will be really good for Amazon’s business.

For the average user, this means more choices and that is always a good thing. Plus it will also mean that you can finally carry your favorite non-US author on your Kindle, in addition to having the printed editions. With better choices and more diversity, you will probably end up buying even more books on your Kindle and less from physical bookstores. And that is exactly what Amazon wants.

As for the Authors, this basically means a new market has opened up to them. Book sales have been down for a long time now and they have been getting worse. But eBooks are gaining momentum by keeping the print media relevant. So many of them will undoubtedly see the great opportunity that it is for them and jump right in.

The Kindle is great for what it does, but it is by design somewhat limited to Amazon’s vision.  I’ve written on this blog before about allowing third party developers on the Kindle.  It looks like with the upcoming holiday season, talk over whether Amazon should release an SDK has started again.

New York Times makes the argument that since Amazon won’t likely release any new hardware (Both the Kindle 2 and DX are new enough that they’ve never been holiday gifts), it may be beneficial for them to find some new way to innovate before the holidays.  Creating an SDK where anyone could make and sell applications would not only increase the Kindle’s possibilities, but also give it a sort of iPhone recognition for innovation.

Of course, Amazon hasn’t already done this for a reason.  Perhaps over the worries of the publishers, or fears of piracy that could result from opening up the ecosystem, Amazon has not allowed third parties into the Kindle.  But here is where the iPhone example really applies.  iPhone apps undergo a nearly draconian review process, yet the iPhone and its apps continue to be a commercial success.  Amazon could easily decide to create a Kindle app marketplace where they vetoed any programs that, say, abused the wireless or allowed ePub on the device.  Some people would definitely gripe about the restrictions, but the sdk would still be an overall success.  Like the NYTimes article suggests, apps could be created for medical or other specialized niches.  The apps would be in high enough demand and would still be okay with Amazon.

One easy entry into Kindle apps could be board games like chess, go, checkers, monopoly, etc. These can be computationally light, especially if you are playing against the Internet server or another human, cause minimal wireless traffic and look well on Kindle’s eInk display. Right now there are two games on Kindle DX – minesweeper and Gomoku. More can be easily added – either free or for a charge. The ecosystem need not be as open as iPhone from the start and can still bring Kindle success. Lets not forget that even for iPhone it took a year for App store to materialize.

Will this really happen? In my opinion it’s a coin toss. Amazon has to come up with something to generate some Kindle buzz this holiday season when competition is stepping on it’s heels. And I’m pretty sure they will. But it might not be an app store.

Also, just wanted to say thanks to the New York Times for linking to Blog Kindle.  Hello any new readers!

Here’s some bad news for Amazon and the Kindle.  Best Buy is planning on selling the iRex and Sony Reader in their stores.  Now not only will customers be able to see the eReaders physically on display, but many people will just come upon them out of happenstance.

This blog has made the point before that Amazon should sell the Kindle in more places.  Best Buy is the perfect kind of place to sell eReaders to people who would normally not even think about them.  Best Buy, after all, is not generally thought of as a destination for tech-savvy people.  Their bread and butter customer is someone who comes in wanting a computer/tv/etc, but doesn’t know a lot about it.  Now with the iRex and Sony Reader, people who would never normally be early adopters will hold the devices and have a sales rep walk them through the features.  I wouldn’t be surprised if eReaders become a big holiday gift this year, even among those with no interest in gadgets.

According to the article, the iRex’s wireless will also be entirely paid for in the cost of the device.  But, in a followup to Andry’s comments, it turns out that the iRex will not include web browsing functionality.  So when they say the cost of wireless is included, they really mean the cost of downloading books that you are already paying for.

Barnes & Noble has announced that they are planning to open their own ebook store.  That the brick and mortar chain would make moves to compete with the Kindle isn’t much of a surprise since, like Amazon, they already are a major retailer with deep-seated ties in the publishing industry.  In order for Barnes & Noble to ensure that they retain their massive share of book sales, it only makes sense that they would move in on digital media.

What is interesting is how Barnes & Noble is setting themselves up to be competitive with the Kindle platform.  As of now, they are planning to price match Amazon’s standard $9.99 pricing and supply a library of 700,000 books.  These books, however, can’t be read on either the Kindle or Sony’s eReaders.  Instead, a partnership is being made to use Plastic Logic’s upcoming reader.

It seems like in the future Barnes and Noble and Amazon will offer very similar eBook platforms, with with similar stores and exclusive formats/DRM.  The only real difference could end up being the Plastic Logic versus the Kindle.  Amazon shouldn’t be too worried yet, however, since the Plastic Logic Reader doesn’t come out till next year.  The Kindle is already at the forefront of eReader competition, and its household name status won’t be any different a year from now.  Also, Plastic Logic designed their reader with business uses in mind, unlike the Kindle which was planned for the everyday consumer all along.  It will be interesting to see how this pans out.

George Orwell is a pen name of English author Eric Arthur Blair; he is most known for his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four and the concepts like “thought police” and “doublethink” derived from it.  In 2005 the book was listed among the hundred best English-language novels published since 1923. Now this novel as well as some other works by George Orwell are available in Kindle edition.

Nineteen Eighty-Four (published in 1949) is a classic dystopia showing a repressed society with a totalitarian regime where the rights of an individual are totally sacrificed for national politics. To keep control over population, the government develops a complex invasive system of surveillance (“Big Brother is Watching You“), propaganda and “Newspeak” (a language based on English but with a much smaller vocabulary and grammar simplified to make it impossible to commit “thoughtcrime”, any alternative thinking). The book was written in 1948; some scholars believe that the title was derived from this year as Orwell reversed the numbers on purpose to show that the events taking place in the novel were not so distant, rather they might be contemporary. “The story of one man’s nightmare odyssey as he pursues a forbidden love affair through a world ruled by warring states and a power structure that controls not only information but also individual thought and memory, 1984 is a prophetic, haunting tale.”

Animal Farm (published in 1945) is another dystopian masterpiece by George Orwell. In 1996, it won a Retrospective Hugo Award; Modern Library ranks it 31 among Best 20th-Century Novels. At first, the author had great difficulty getting it accepted; one of four publishers finally agreed but later refused to publish the manuscript, having consulted with the Ministry of Information. At last, the first edition was published by Secker and Warburg in 1945. In a satirical allegory, Orwell severely criticizes Stalinism and outcomes of Bolshevik Revolution; though allegedly stating that all are equal, they created “more equal species” corrupted by power and greed. “Fueled by Orwell’s intense disillusionment with Soviet Communism, Animal Farm is a nearly perfect piece of writing, both an engaging story and an allegory that actually works.”

George Orwell On Kindle

Aldous Huxley’s books are often received with mixed emotions or even controversy. In 2006 Time magazine excluded Brave New World, Point Counter Point and Island from Best 100 novels list, which caused a lot of commotion; the American Library Association ranks Brave New World # 52 among most challenged books. Despite different views on his works, one can’t deny they’re thought-provoking and plentiful of interesting ideas. Some of Huxley’s novels are available now in Kindle edition.

Brave New World (published in 1932) was actually written as a parody of by H.G.Wells’ utopia Men Like Gods; as a result it turned into “a negative utopia” with a pessimistic vision of the future world where reproductive technologies and hallucinogenic drugs mutilate the society. The book may even seem scary and too gloomy, but it’s well worth reading. “Huxley foreshadowed many of the practices and gadgets we take for granted today–let’s hope the sterility and absence of individuality he predicted aren’t yet to come.”

Crome Yellow (published in 1921) is a satirical novel about English aristocrats dwelling at a country estate during a summer vacation; it entertains with lengthy conversations and interesting psychological portraits. “The end of the world is announced, virginity is lost, and inspirational aphorisms are conceived in a trances. When our hero, Denis Stone, tries to capture it all in poetry, love disappoints him.“

if you’d like to read about this controversial man, you may consider Aldous Huxley: A Biography by Nicholas Murray. Having accessed diaries and documents not available earlier, Murray draws a thorough picture of Huxley’s colorful life and “the gloriously kinetic chemistry of his erudite, playful, and deeply spiritual mind”.

Aldous Huxley on Kindle

It is perfectly possible to access your Gmail account using Amazon Kindle browser. All you need to do is visit the mobile version at http://m.gmail.com rather than full version. Loading full version will cause some kind of error after you enter your login and password. I don’t think it would render well anyway.

So here you go: you can now send and receive emails using your Amazon Kindle anywhere there is WhisperNet (read Sprint) coverage absolutely free of charge courtesy of Amazon :)

I meant to publish this post yesterday but got carried away by other business. First of all – kudos to Amazon for timely shipment and large supply. I don’t think that anyone who ordered Kindle 2 was left without one. Sony should take the time to learn from this good example. A friend of mine was sitting on the fence until the last day and finally placed his order at 3PM pacific time on the 23rd and he received his Kindle about the same time I did – around 3PM pacific time on the 24th. I checked the Amazon website and looks as of today (February 25th there is no backlog) – you can still order and get it on the next day (or later if you want to save on shipping).

Here it is…

First impressions are really good. Amazon Kindle was a good thing to begin with and they didn’t do anything wrong in the second version. In fact I wouldn’t call it v2 (nor does Amazon say so anywhere on the device itself) – it’s a nice evolutionary development of well engineered device:

• Photos and pictures look better with 16 shades of gray rather than 4
• 5-way button is a bit more convenient than scroller (but that’s just my opinion)
• The geek in me misses the SD card slot as it (the geek) would like to eventually stuff entire library of congress in the device but the rational part of me realizes that 1.4GB is quite enough given that device is almost always online.

These are just my first impressions. I’ll keep using Kindle 2 and will post on my impressions again in 2 weeks, than in 1 month, then in 3. Of course I’ll post about other related topics much more often… Stay tuned.

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:

• Kindle 2 prices dropped to the official retail price of ~360 USD. There is no underproduction as was the case with the Sony reader. This is confirmed by a friend of mine who ordered Kindle 2 around 3PM PST on the February 23rd, 2009 and he’s on track to receive it on the next day. He didn’t have Kindle 1 so he didn’t get priority shipping (nor he needed one)
• On the other hand there is predictably increasing number of Kindle 1s that steadily sell for around 270 USD as people are upgrading. Some are never opened. So if you were looking for that $100 off kindle coupon – here is your chance :) I’ve bought and sold 100+ items on eBay and never had any problems.

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.

As you may remember some time ago Amazon completely dismissed all rumors about upcoming Kindle 2 release.

But yesterday all the web was screaming about leaked Kindle 2 images which are available at http://www.boygeniusreport.com/gallery/devices/amazon-kindle-2/.

As you can see new Kindle shape is nice and slim and it has round corners. It will be slightly bigger in size which is probably done to hold it comfortably and not accidentally hit Previous/Next page buttons. Screen size stays about the same which is a bit of disappointment to me since I like books of larger size (big fonts are better for eyes).

If you look on the picture you see that more buttons are placed on the right and left side to improve browsing experience. Plus they’ve been made larger and comfortable. On the right we have: Home, Next Page, Menu, a joystick, and Undo. On the left: Previous Page, and Next Page. So it will be hard to miss the button.

A big plus for a new model is a miniUSB charger. So now you don’t have to carry a separate charger for the Kindle.

An interesting change is two speakers on the back. Hopefully this will make sound quality better. Time for Bose like surround sound Kindle?

Also the back is made of solid metal now. So it will make next Kindle more sturdy and break resistant.

It is hard to speculate whether keyboard is going to be any more comfortable in new kindle but buttons look to be much nicer now and they’re not split into two sections any more.

Overall I’m impressed with upcoming design changes and can’t wait to hear the new Kindle release date.

So stay tuned!