Today Amazon offer to enrich your e-books collection by The Siege of Washington: The Untold Story of the Twelve Days That Shook the Union written by John Lockwood and Charles Lockwood just for $1.99.

On April 14, 1861, following the surrender of Fort Sumter, Washington was “put into the condition of a siege,” declared Abraham Lincoln. Located sixty miles south of the Mason-Dixon Line, the nation’s capital was surrounded by the slave states of Maryland and Virginia. With no fortifications and only a handful of trained soldiers, Washington was an ideal target for the Confederacy. The South echoed with cries of “On to Washington!” and Jefferson Davis’s wife sent out cards inviting her friends to a reception at the White House on May 1.

Lincoln issued an emergency proclamation on April 15, calling for 75,000 troops to suppress the rebellion and protect the capital. One question now transfixed the nation: Whose forces would reach Washington first: Northern defenders or Southern attackers?

For 12 days, the city’s fate hung in the balance. Washington was entirely isolated from the North–without trains, telegraph, or mail. Sandbags were stacked around major landmarks, and the unfinished Capitol was transformed into a barracks, with volunteer troops camping out in the House and Senate chambers. Meanwhile, Maryland secessionists blocked the passage of Union reinforcements trying to reach Washington, and a rumored force of 20,000 Confederate soldiers lay in wait just across the Potomac River.

Drawing on firsthand accounts, The Siege of Washington tells this story from the perspective of leading officials, residents trapped inside the city, Confederates plotting to seize it, and Union troops racing to save it, capturing with brilliance and immediacy the precarious first days of the Civil War.

Flick Kick Field Goal is a game for your Kindle Fire which could attract your kids and free your time for a while. One of advantages of this game is that you can get it free. But only today. Tomorrow it’s price will be different. So, do not lose your opportunity – click here.

Bring the fun and accessibility of flick football to your Android device with this casual sports title from PikPok Games. Try to make kicks from different angles and distances, and even take into account shifting wind speeds and directions. Choose from Sudden Death, Arcade, Time Attack, and Practice modes, then use the intuitive flick controls to begin playing right away. Easy to pick up but hard to put down, this classic time-killer is sure to appeal to casual gamers and die-hard football fans alike.

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Admittedly there are also less conventional, free avenues for movie acquisition, but we won’t go into that here.  For these times when you have a movie that you need to load onto your Kindle Fire, it’s important to be aware of the best way to go about it.  Let’s assume that, through whatever avenue might have worked for you (third party purchase, DVD rip via freely available software like DVDFab, etc.) you have acquired some DRM-free video.

Since it’s what I’m familiar with and because it is freely available, I’m going to use a video conversion tool called Handbrake for Windows.  In the end what matters most is choosing the right settings, so most any video conversion software will do.

• Install and Run Handbrake (Free software available for most computers at handbrake.fr)
• Find your Source Video
• Large button labeled “Source” will drop down and offer you the choice of either one file or a whole folder.  The whole folder option is important is converting raw DVD data.
• Assuming you want the whole video, nothing more should be required.  If you are trying to convert just a section, you can cut that out either by chapter, frame, or time period in the obvious menus provided.
• Choose your Destination
• Since you will be putting this onto the Kindle Fire, it is often best to have it output somewhere obvious like the desktop unless you are planning to retain converted video for storage.
• Do not output directly to the Kindle Fire at this stage.
• Under Presets, on the right side of the screen, choose “iPad” (Kindle Fire will use the same format) and check the settings that appear to make sure they match this:
• Container: MP4
• Uncheck “Large File Size”, “Web optimized”, and iPod 5G Support”
• Width: 720
• Cropping: Automatic
• Anamorphic: Loose
• Modulus: 16

Note for those not using Handbrake: Video Codec is H.264, Audio Codec is AAC

Not claiming these are the only working settings, merely what I recommend based on personal use.

• Click on the Start button at the top of the window
• Conversion will take between 15 and 45 minutes, on average, for a full length movie.
• Connect your Kindle Fire via USB
• Copy New Video File to Kindle Fire
• Folder: Video
• Can take 3-5mins for most USB transfers.
• Open Gallery App on your Kindle Fire
• User video will not show up under the Video tab at this time, but the Gallery comes pre-installed on your device.

Hope that helps a bit.  The process is a bit tedious, but considering how little can be held on the Kindle Fire at a given time it should not be too much of a chore to pack it fill of whatever you want when this proves necessary.  For a larger variety of options you can always root your Kindle, but understand that doing so will require a slightly greater initial time investment and could prove annoying as the step will have to be repeated with each Amazon software patch.

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Bernard Levy was always a mystery to the community of Guilford, Mississippi. He was even more of a mystery to his son, Mickey Moe, who was just four years old when his father died in World War II. Now it’s 1962 and Mickey Moe is a grown man, who must prove his pedigree to the disapproving parents of his girlfriend, Laura Anne Needleman, to win her hand in marriage. With only a few decades-old leads to go on, Mickey Moe sets out to uncover his father’s murky past, from his travels up and down the length of the Mississippi River to his heartrending adventures during the Great Flood of 1927. Mickey Moe’s journey, taken at the dawn of the civil rights era, leads him deep into the backwoods of Mississippi and Tennessee, where he meets with danger and unexpected revelations at every turn. As the greatest challenge of his life unfolds, he will finally discover the gripping details of his father’s life—one filled with loyalty, tragedy, and heroism in the face of great cruelty from man and nature alike.

A captivating follow-up to Mary Glickman’s bestselling Home in the Morning, One More River tells the epic tale of ordinary men caught in the grip of calamity, and inspired to extraordinary acts in the name of love.

Feeling a tad stressed? Need a little more artistic beauty in your life? Gravilux is a gorgeous, very Zen-like app for Android that will both entertain and soothe you whenever you use it.

Gravilux lets you touch a universe of simulated stars beneath your fingertips, exerting a gravitation-like force to twist them into an infinite variety of colorful new galactic forms. Just launch the app and start moving your finger across the screen. The stars will react, moving in slow waves and forming amazing shapes and fascinating effects. As these pinpoints of light float across the screen of your smartphone or Kindle Fire, you’ll be overcome with sense of peace and serenity.

Gravilux combines elements of painting, animation, art, science, and gaming. Before it became a mobile app, this kind of interactive art was only found in galleries and museums. Now it’s right on your Android, available to you anytime and anywhere.

The app gives you many options to tune to your liking. Start out by selecting classic black and white or vibrant color. In the color setting, you have a veritable rainbow of shades from which to choose.

Hit the Settings button and you can choose an attract or repel effect, adjust the brightness, determine the spacing of the stars, and more. You can also touch the Optimize option and Gravilux will adjust itself to your particular device. The app is specifically designed for your Amazon Kindle Fire, so you’ll enjoy an incredible experience with Gravilux on that device.

Hugely popular as an iPad app, Gravilux was created by Scott Snibbe Studio, a leader in the development of digital applications. You’ll want to reserve a prominent space on your home screen for this enchanting work of art for your Android.

“Apps like Gravilux awaken an ‘Avatar’-like sensitivity to electricity in the body, power in the palms, and general connectedness.” – New York Times

“Every once in a while, an app will come along that has no practical application whatsoever but is just SO COOL that you have to have it! Gravilux is that sort of app.” – iphoneapplicationlist.com

“Of the millions of apps out there, none quite capitalize on the sheer fun and beauty of interactivity the way that Scott Snibbe’s do.” – Cool Hunting

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The Emergency App (Kindle Fire Edition)

This is one of those interesting things that could easily pass under the radar.  It is intended, at face value, to keep you ready for any emergency.  To a certain extent, it seems like it would?

Features include:

Lights (both a basic night light and assorted signal lights)

Alarm Sounds

Emergency Phone Numbers

Emergency Contact List

Medical Information List

Guide/Lists for Emergency Situations

Links to external Emergency related web resources

Most of that doesn’t strike me as useful, especially the audio alarms and sirens given the Kindle Fire’s mediocre audio capabilities, but as a thing to have around the house I would consider this one great anyway.

Parents especially should give it a look, as the medical information list is perfect for anybody with children.  You can store any special instructions, allergy information, medication needs, etc. in a convenient place that won’t be getting lost.  It is a newer app, still in development, but at $1 it would be hard to argue against buying.

All In One Remote Pro

On the side of less tragedy-related utility, we have a neat little app that will help build your Kindle Fire into your home network in a productive way.  All in One Remote lets you hook up to a PC on the network and take control of various things as an interface device rather than remote desktop management.

Using this app, you can control pretty much anything.  It works as a remote touchpad, extra keyboard, game controller, and more with varying degrees of usefulness.  You are also able to stream music through it, which is nice.  My own experience has been that you get the most out of this app with HTPCs and presentations.  The Kindle Fire isn’t particularly well suited for use as a controller for games, but it handles general interface tasks from a couch quite well and makes it much simpler to manipulate PowerPoint presentations in any setting.

Badass Battery Monitor

Not a whole lot of description necessary here.  It is an app that will keep track of your Kindle Fire’s battery life, given you an estimate of time remaining, and let you know which apps are causing the most power drain during use.  If you are regularly finding yourself in situations where the Kindle’s battery is just barely enough between charges, this will be a useful tool.  Rather than just a percentage you can get actual time estimates, both in terms of time remaining to depletion and time remaining to reach full power while charging.  Strongly recommended.

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This book is about Dani North, a filmmaker, who just won at the Tribeca Film Festival for her documentary, The Drugging of Our Children, a film critical of the pharmaceutical industry. When she is handed “whistleblower” evidence about the U.S. vaccination program, she has to keep herself alive long enough to expose it before a megalomaniacal pharmaceutical company CEO can have her killed. Excerpts from Trojan Horse, The Gravy Train and Bull Street, David Lender’s other thrillers, follow the text of Vaccine Nation.

Some words about the Author

David Lender writes thrillers based on his over 25-year career as a Wall Street investment banker. He draws on an insider’s knowledge from his career in international mergers and acquisitions with Merrill Lynch, Rothschild and Bank of America for the international settings, obsessively driven personalities and real-world financial intrigues of his novels. His characters range from David Baldacci-like corporate power brokers to Elmore Leonard-esque misfits and scam artists. His plots reveal the egos and ruthlessness that motivate the players in the business world, as well as the inner workings of the most powerful of our financial institutions and corporations.

Also you can get Glow Tic Tac Toe Ad Free – a game for your Kindle Fire or any other Android device for free.

It’s glow time! Play an illuminated version of Tic Tac Toe with this classic game for your Android device. Glow Tic Tac Toe features smart, simple gameplay and a distinctive look that’s easy on the eyes. Challenge a partner or take on the computer–you’ll find yourself playing again and again.

You’ve played plenty of Tic Tac Toe in your life, of course, but not like this. Neon-like graphics make the game board seemingly leap from your screen, offering a fresh, newly entertaining experience with this age-old favorite.

What makes Glow Tic Tac Toe really stand out, though, is what’s under the hood. The game’s AI (artificial intelligence) adapts to your playing style and makes moves that are highly unpredictable. So even if you don’t have a friend nearby to play with, you can enjoy a consistently challenging experience that evolves with each game.

In addition, the AI’s skill level can be adjusted on the fly, in the middle of a game. There are three difficulty levels to choose from, so you can crank up the challenge while you’re playing–or bring it down a notch if you get cornered.

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The amount of technology including social media, e-readers, tablets, computers, and more, is overwhelming.  Technology is a very good thing because it puts the world at our fingertips.  Social media has formed a global community of users.  It has also helped us keep up with the lives of our friends and family more easily.

Social media can be used to share what we are reading.  We can share passages from our Kindle via Facebook or Twitter.  We can also follow Amazon or other Kindle related users to keep up with the latest news and reviews.

The drawback is that it is all a major time suck.  The time we used to spend curled up with a book or playing outside is now spent on Facebook.  More and more of our interactions with others are done online rather than in person.

So, how does this all relate to the Kindle?  Well it is more of a topic for discussion than anything.  If you could take a break from social media for a period of time, would you do the same for your Kindle?  I am excluding the Kindle Fire from this question because it is more tablet than e-reader.

In my personal opinion, there is something that sets the e-ink Kindle apart from other gadgets.  It is considered electronic, but it is built in a way that simulates that feeling we get when we read a real book.  I curl up on the couch and escape into my Kindle books often.  Does anyone ever say they’re addicted to the Kindle?  If so, do you consider that a bad thing?

I think social media also affects the quality of what and how we read.  We are exposed to so much information that we have to filter it out.  So we spend less time reading more in depth material.

So, how can we use the technology more effectively?  We will have to actively allot time for various things. Check e-mail or Facebook twice a day, get outside for an hour each day, etc.  Read for an hour a day.  Those are just examples.

It is amazing to me that just 10 years ago a majority of what is out there now wasn’t even invented yet.  However, books have been around for a very long time.  Now e-readers add another medium for reading them.  Happy reading!

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James Ellroy and Otto Penzler mined the past century to find this treasure trove of thirty-nine stories. From noir’s twenties-era infancy come gems like James M. Cain’s “Pastorale,” and its postwar heyday boasts giants like Mickey Spillane and Evan Hunter. Packing an undeniable punch, diverse contemporary incarnations include Elmore Leonard, Patricia Highsmith, Joyce Carol Oates, Dennis Lehane, and William Gay, with many page-turners appearing from the past decade.

Some words about the Authors

James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles in 1948. His L.A. Quartet novels—The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz—were international bestsellers. His most recent book is Blood’s a Rover.
Otto Penzler is the founder of the Mysterious Bookshop and Mysterious Press.

Also we would like to quote only one review: “Well worth its impressive weight in gold, it would be a crime not to have his seminal masterpiece in your collection.” –New York Journal of Books

“Learning to Draw is Fun” is a name for a game for your kids which you can get today only for free.

If Rembrandt and Picasso had smartphones as kids, Learning to Draw is Fun would have been their favorite app. If you want to teach your kids how to draw, try this easy and fun app. Learning to Draw is Fun allows kids to try their hand at 20 different pictures, and then gives them a full color palette to finish their masterpiece.

Art School on Your Android Device

First, the budding artist chooses which design to draw. Learning to Draw is Fun features twenty cute pictures including a butterfly, snowman, pig, flower, and birthday cake. The artist then follows four easy steps to reproduce the picture. You can erase the picture at any time.

Artsy Tools

Once the picture is done, the child can go to a full color palette to finish the picture. Choose from 15 different colors with six different brush stroke sizes.

Share the picture through e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter, or set it as a wallpaper. You can also get the details of the picture’s file size and resolution within the app.

Warning: This app may inspire your child to become an art major. But at least your kid won’t be drawing on the living room wall.

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Irving touches on major issues like abortion, love, AIDS, death, gender, sexuality, and disability with a great deal of candor.  In One Person is no exception.  It is set in the 80′s when AIDS was rampant.  So, it is sure to deal with the emotions and heartbreak that came along with dealing with that disease  during that era.

I have read three of Irving’s novels.  A Prayer for Owen Meany has stuck with me the longest.  It is about a dwarf named Owen, but the story is told from the point of view of his best friend.  Owen Meany has a lot to show the world, and has some psychic powers that shape the way he lives his life.

The World According to Garp is a very gender and sexuality focused book.  This book is best for the mature audience.  All of Irving’s books include issues that only adults can fully grasp, but I stress that fact for this one in particular.

The Last Night in Twisted River is Irving’s latest book currently available.  It features father-son protagonists who start off as cooks in a logging town.  An unexpected turn of events forces them to skip town.  The son later becomes a novelist, but fate catches up to both of them in the long run.  It took me a really long time to get through this book.  It moved too slowly for me.  Out of the three books I’ve read by Irving, this one is my least favorite.  It does have good reviews though, and others give high marks, so it is just a matter of preference.

Irving’s novels work your brain.  If you want a book that has depth, includes a well defined and complex plot, and steamrolls through controversial issues, this if your type of book.  On top of that, Irving has been a highly successful author for many, many years.  So, I am eager to read what he has to say in his newest novel when it comes out in May.

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Kip—a New York jazz pianist whose career was cut short by a neurological disease—returns from a failed suicide attempt with a vivid, detailed memory of his journey through the afterlife. Resembling the world as he knows it, but unlimited in space and time, it’s unlike any eternity he has contemplated. Its residents are those who choose not to reincarnate, which would erase all memory of who they once were. Kip has a quest: to find his beloved Lucy, a yoga teacher who shared his apartment for years but died of leukemia before he took his own life. Is she still here? Has she waited for him, or “gone back” to become someone else? In his odyssey across centuries and locales (Istanbul to the Marquesas Islands, India to Oklahoma and New Guinea) to find her, Kip is guided by Walt Whitman—who urges him to write this memoir on his return.

Some words about the Author

Anthony Weller was born in 1957. His books include novels—The Garden of the Peacocks, The Polish Lover, and The Siege of Salt Cove—and a travel memoir of India and Pakistan, Days and Nights on the Grand Trunk Road. He is also well known as a musician. His poems and stories have appeared widely. As a journalist he traveled through Europe, Asia, the Middle East, the Pacific, Central America and the Caribbean, for National Geographic, G.Q., Forbes, GEO, the Paris Review, the New York Times Magazine, etc. He recently edited two books of his father’s Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting. First into Nagasaki:The Censored Eyewitness Dispatches on Post-Atomic Japan and Its Prisoners of War (introduction by Walter Cronkite) was named by Kirkus one of the best books of 2006, followed by Weller’s War: A Legendary Foreign Correspondent’s Saga of WWII on Five Continents.

Manage your personal finances in the most comprehensive manner with Money for Android devices. Track different accounts (wallets), record your transactions, budget your income and expenses, and keep full control of your personal finances.

Financial Planning in Three Easy Steps

Manage all your bills and arrange them via a calendar with bill reminders included in the application, and catch up with any deadline.

Do you have several credit cards, debit cards, and bank accounts plus cash? The Transaction Register is included in the application together with a list of all your accounts. OFX import is supported, so you can import your bank records to the Money app easily and instantly review your accounts, all on the same screen.

Plan all your income and expenses, and check with the available reports to determine whether your plans are accurate. Create reports for each item or category, or check a full report over time.

Elegant Organization
iBear’s Money offers 13 expense categories including car, miscellaneous, taxes, entertainment, and more. When you are ready to analyze your assets and liabilities, Money has four main tabs for reporting: Transactions, Balance, Budget, and Reports.

Money uses a beautiful, realistic design reminiscent of a leather organizer, creating a more personal user experience. Everything works as closely as possible to a real-world organizer with paper reports, making your finance management more intuitive and enjoyable.

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 Remove Apps From The Kindle Fire

It has always been possible to just delete the local data that an app installs on your Kindle.  Just press and hold on the app’s icon and choose “Remove From Device”.  What if you want it gone entirely though, even from the Cloud tab of your App selection?

• Go to Amazon.com
• Go to Kindle > Manage Your Kindle
• Sign in now if prompted
• Select Manage Your Apps from the menu bar on the left
• Find the App or Apps that you want gone in this list
• Select “Delete This App” from the drop down menu next to each one
• When prompted, choose “Delete”

Now, don’t be too upset when it does not disappear from the device’s menus immediately.  I found that it usually takes an overnight wait to get results right now.  Not sure why Syncing and such don’t do it immediately, but they don’t.  Regardless, now that Kindle Fire app is gone.

Return Library Book

I’ll start this out by mentioning that this advice may not complete the whole process.  Consult with your librarian in case it doesn’t, as some libraries have their own individual proceedures.

• Go to Amazon.com
• Go to Kindle > Manage your Kindle
• Sign in now if Prompted
• In your Kindle Library, find the book you want to return
• From the drop down menu next to it, choose “Return This Book”
• Do NOT choose “Delete”, as that will not return the book to the library system early

For the most part that is all that’s required.  Since all of the OverDrive software seems to be routed through the Amazon.com page when dealing with Kindle Book borrowing, it makes sense that this is the way you have to return.

Access All Magazine Issues

While the Kindle Fire might appear to only allow you to read the most recent edition of a magazine, but fear not!  All of your subscription should still be hanging around.  Simply navigate to the most recent issue, press and hold.  An option will appear to view back issues.

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Obviously these are far from all of the useful things that one needs to be aware of when using a Kindle Fire, but there’s only so much room to work with here.  Let me know either here or in my email what you are interested in finding out and I will do the research and follow up!  No point in waiting and wondering how things work.

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The paperback version is kind of heavy and has really small print.  So for a more comfortable reading experience, I recommend getting the Kindle edition.  The prices for each are about the same.

Abraham Verghese is a doctor and professor of medicine at Stanford School of Medicine.  He also has a degree in creative writing and has written two other nonfiction books.  You can see his expertise reflected in the medical descriptions in Cutting for Stone.

Cutting for Stone follows twins Marion and Shiva, born to a nun and skilled surgeon in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  The delivery is a difficult one to say the least, and changes the lives of Missing Hospital’s staff forever.  The story is told in the past and a much older, present day Marion is the narrator.  Throughout the book, the reader will find various themes such as love, family, medicine and politics all woven together to form an intricate storyline.  Despite the rifts and hardships that each character faces, it all works out in the end.

I have to warn you.  Cutting for Stone is very detailed.  It can really suck you in, but it can also wear you out keeping up with the story’s progression.  So, take breaks!  I love the writing style and the characters’ personalities.  Even though the majority of the book was set in another country 50 years ago, I could still relate to the characters as if they lived in America today.

Kris

“Cutting for Stone is a coming of age novel which emphasizes the way in which we are shaped by the forces and intricacies of our past. Verghese pays particular attention to themes around loss. He writes about the desperation to fill voids and the struggle of letting go. Verghese also writes about freedom, both psychological and physical. He writes about love as a terror and as a savior. He writes about sacrifice and passion. He writes of the importance of perspective in order to foster empathy. The themes are plentiful, profound, and woven together throughout each of the characters’ stories.”

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Here are some reviews of this book:

It was a wonderful story that really opened my eyes to what life used to be like, and made me thankful that life has changed so much since then. — Aaron

I picked this up completely on a whim after hearing someone mention it online. It is absolutely an amazing work. To really get a feel for how far this country has come in 50 short years, and to really understand how far we have left to go, you need to read this.

As a white male, I’ve always been offended by the term ‘white privilege’, because it implies that I somehow didn’t work for what I have. But having read this, I can finally appreciate it. My ‘white privilege’ has nothing to do with me not working hard and not deserving the things that I have accomplished. I have worked hard, and I do deserve those things.
But these are things that blacks never had the opportunity to do. No matter how smart they were, no matter how well dressed, or well spoken, no matter how *white* they tried to appear to blend in, they would never be given the opportunity to prove themselves on their own merits. Their opportunities were taken away before they ever had a chance to even attempt to do grab them.

And while I can definitely appreciate how far we have come in a relatively short time, I am now able to see with a fresh new perspective the things that are still wrong with our thinking today. – Alex Malinovich

Galactic Striker is a game for your Kindle Fire which you can get for free, but only today.

Blast aliens into space dust, save your own skin, and make smart-alecky comments–all at once–in Galactic Striker, an arcade-style, accelerometer-based Android game. This exciting shoot-em-up adventure boasts 3D graphics and even comes with a fully developed comic-book style backstory.

In Galactic Striker, you’re Jack Panic, the world’s greatest (and cockiest) astronaut and hero. As the story begins, you’re called upon to protect Earth once again–this time from a renegade asteroid. But during this routine mission, you accidentally damage an alien mothership (oops) and insult their leader (double-oops), who subsequently teleports you to the other side of the galaxy (not cool, bro).

To get home again, you’ll have to shoot your way through waves of alien attacks and other deep-space obstacles. Tilt your phone to navigate your spaceship, and choose from an ever-expanding list of futuristic weapons as you fight your way through space. You’ll need your strongest firepower, steeliest nerves, and sharpest wisecracks to make it back to Earth.

Are you up to this massive challenge? Of course you are–you’re Jack Panic! (Let’s assume that “Don’t” is your middle name.)

A free, ad-supported version of this game is also available.

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In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen R. Covey presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and pointed anecdotes, Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, service, and human dignity — principles that give us the security to adapt to change and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change was a groundbreaker when it was first published in 1990, and it continues to be a business bestseller with more than 15 million copies sold. Stephen Covey, an internationally respected leadership authority, realizes that true success encompasses a balance of personal and professional effectiveness, so this book is a manual for performing better in both arenas. His anecdotes are as frequently from family situations as from business challenges. Before you can adopt the seven habits, you’ll need to accomplish what Covey calls a “paradigm shift”–a change in perception and interpretation of how the world works. Covey takes you through this change, which affects how you perceive and act regarding productivity, time management, positive thinking, developing your “proactive muscles” (acting with initiative rather than reacting), and much more. This isn’t a quick-tips-start-tomorrow kind of book. The concepts are sometimes intricate, and you’ll want to study this book, not skim it. When you finish, you’ll probably have Post-it notes or hand-written annotations in every chapter, and you’ll feel like you’ve taken a powerful seminar by Covey. –Joan Price

Dreams are, as Freud said, the “royal road to the unconscious.” Now you can map these roads with Dream Journal Pro, a dream journaling app for Android.

The Stuff of Dreams

Dream Journal Pro allows you to record your dreams for convenient reference and analysis. Adding a new dream is as easy as tapping the button and then filling out the Dream Form. Highly detailed, this form prompts you to analyze your dreams guided by Jungian Dream Theory. You’ll enter information such as title, date, type (Lucid, Nightmare, Premonitory, Anxiety, Initial, and others), dream text, general notes, setting, age, feelings, and much more. You may gain considerable insight into your dream as you record this information. As time passes, your journal can become a valuable reference tool for interpreting new dreams.

Features and Other Stuff

Dream Journal Pro is packed with useful features. Night Mode darkens the screen to avoid disrupting your sleep but remains active so you can access your Dream Journal as soon as you wake. Backup and restore your dreams from your device’s SD card, and backup your dream database through e-mail. Find a particular dream with the convenient search feature and enjoy the security of keeping your dreams private with password protection.

Embark on the adventure of a lifetime. Journey into the landscape of your unconscious with Dream Journal Pro.

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For kids, the the portability and easy video access can cause issues.  Content meant for mature audiences are everywhere.  Controlling what kids watch and the constant worry over whether they might stumble over something inappropriate can be exhausting.  You can check what they’re watching on a TV or computer, but a tablet can be easily concealed.

The good news is that MeFeedia has developed an app called Kids Videos for the Kindle Fire and iPad.  The app includes family friendly videos from YouTube, Vimeo and DailyMotion.  So parents can get peace of mind knowing what they kids are watching is appropriate and even educational.

Kids Videos allows you to search by genre, “like” your favorite videos and save for later.  The videos are pulled from all over the web so there is a huge library to choose from.  Watching educational videos on the Kindle Fire makes learning so much more fun and interesting.

At the time of writing this app was available for free in the Amazon Appstore.  There are other kid video apps available for the Kindle Fire, but this is the first one that has shown real promise with highly favorable reviews.  For the most part the reviewers echo what the product description says.  So it appears to do what it set out to do.

The age range for tablet users has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few months.  The Kindle Fire is inexpensive enough for the average consumer to justify.  It also offers a lot more kid friendly content thanks to apps like Kids Videos, games, and e-books written for children.  What used to be a niche market is fast becoming the norm.

Related Posts

• January 26, 2012 -- Apple Attacks Kindle Publishing With iBooks Author, Drama Ensues (0)
• January 22, 2012 -- “Send to Kindle” First Hand Review (1)
• January 22, 2012 -- Apple Launches E-Textbook Service (0)
• January 11, 2012 -- What the Future Means for E-Readers (1)

Today Amazon offer to your attention the following book: City of Masks (Cree Black) by Daniel Hecht just for $1.99.

Superb…A thoroughly satisfying, disturbing novel. -Cleveland Plain Dealer 
In City of Masks, the first Cree Black novel, parapsychologist Cree and her partner take a case in New Orleans’s Garden District that leaves them fearing for their own lives. The 150-year-old Beauforte House has long stood empty, until Lila Beauforte resumes residence and starts to see some of the house’s secrets literally come to life. Tormented by an insidious and violent presence, Lila finds herself trapped in a life increasingly filled with childhood terrors. It takes Cree’s unconventional take on psychology and her powerful natural empathy with Lila to navigate the dangerous worlds of spirit and memory, as they clash in a terrifying tale of mistaken identity and murder.

If it’s New Orleans and the novel’s main characters have been dead for years but are still walking around terrorizing people, it must be an Anne Rice adventure. But it isn’t–it’s the first in a new series starring a fascinating heroine, Seattle parapsychologist Cree Black, whose own murky past and special gifts make her the perfect choice to investigate a haunted house in the Garden District and the family that’s slowly being scared to death. Lila Beauforte has moved back into her ancestral home, now inhabited by ghosts who seem bent on driving her out. Cree, her senses more attuned to the presence of revenants than flesh-and-blood bad guys, shakes enough closets in Beauforte House to bring the skeletons out, solve mysteries of the past as well as the present, and fall in love with an equally appealing if more traditional investigator of the unconscious who may be able to help her free herself from her own emotional prison. She’s a smart, vulnerable, and attractive character in an unearthly and unusual thriller that starts off a promising new series with a howl and presages a long run on the bestseller list. –Jane Adams

Also you can download into your Kindle Fire Router. It is free for you, but only today.

Test your mental might with Router, a circuit puzzle game that’s fun for the whole family. Your goal is to connect identically colored points with continuous lines without any of the lines overlapping each other. Game controls are easy to master, but some of the puzzles will have you quite perplexed until you find the right solution to connect the dots. With multiple challenging chapters to solve and engaging game-play features, Router is a winner for puzzle lovers.

Router features nine different chapters, each full of more than a dozen puzzles that increase in difficulty as you progress. In each puzzle, you will connect the similarly colored dots with continuous lines by tracing your finger on the screen. More advanced levels will present you with more dots in new and unique positions. You will earn more points for making shorter connections. An undo button is provided if you make a mistake.

As you would expect, Chapter 1 starts off easy enough, but the difficulty soon picks up. Each subsequent chapter will require increased intellectual dexterity. Once you hit Chapter 3, you will be required to earn enough points in prior chapters to unlock more.

If your mental acuity is up to the task, you’ll be able to solve each puzzle with a perfect five-star score. For your efforts, you will be rewarded with a Star Point, which you can spend to gain Hints if you find yourself stuck in subsequent puzzles. With a worldwide leaderboard, you can see how your scores stack up with other players from around the globe.

Router brings you hours of brain-teasing fun along with smooth touch controls, which makes for a completely satisfying puzzling experience. Depending on your device, you can adjust the quality of the graphics as well as the sound volume and other game settings to ensure it suits your preferences.

What are you waiting for? Get puzzling!

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Ross Sandler, an analyst from RBC Capital, has managed to estimate that your average Kindle Fire will be the source of around $136 of income for the company during its lifetime.  Naturally this is speculative to a certain extent, but it was based on an independently conducted survey of over 200 Kindle Fire owners regarding their spending habits thus far.  The findings are actually somewhat surprising to me and I have to wonder if they don’t reflect a certain amount of skewing due to early adopters with narrow expectations of the tablet’s potential.

Personally, despite having had the Kindle Fire since the day it came out, I can’t imagine sitting through so much as a single book on it.  It works for the occasional article or academic publication when needed, and I couldn’t be much happier with the PDF functionality for my own purposes, but owning E INK eReaders has left me with higher expectations.  It was therefore interesting to find that the most popular use for the Kindle Fire among those surveys was eBook reading by a wide margin (71% citing this as among their most frequent uses.

Also interesting is the fact that video streaming, which has seemed to be Amazon’s primary focus with the Fire so far, is relatively unpopular with only 13% of those surveyed reporting it as a frequently used feature.  That seems to include all video streaming, including things like Hulu Plus and Netflix, which works against Amazon even further given their efforts to built the Instant Video service into something impressive.

So where is all of this money that the Kindle Fire will supposedly earn coming from?  It looks like the current numbers support an estimation of around 5 eBooks per quarter, 3 apps per quarter, and a noticeable but unaccounted for increase in the number of general Amazon purchases each quarter.  My inclination would be to say that this is an overestimation of eBook purchasing and an underestimation of app appeal that will turn around once people get more comfortable with the capabilities of the tablet, but that is admittedly a matter of personal observation with no backing in numerical research.

The problem with any survey of this sort is that it the recent surge in Kindle Fire owner numbers has led to potential inaccuracies.  This is especially the case since all those surveyed came to own the Fire during 4th quarter 2011, nearly half of them as gift recipients.  It is hard to know for sure if things will change once the primary pool of new owners is made up of people buying for themselves.  Even so, chances are good that the numbers will level out somewhere along these lines.  Amazon clearly made a smart move here, and the Kindle Fire is going to pay off big in the long run.

Related Posts

• November 19, 2011 -- Kindle Fire Demand Exceeds That Of First iPad (2)
• February 3, 2012 -- Kindle Fire Video Conversion (0)
• February 2, 2012 -- Kindle Fire App Recommendations: Utility Apps (0)
• January 30, 2012 -- Kindle Fire Tips & Tricks (0)

New offer from Amazon: A Drowned Maiden’s Hair written by Laura Amy Schlitz just for $0.99

Maud Flynn is known at the orphanage for her impertinence. So when the charming Miss Hyacinth chooses her to take home, the girl is pleased but baffled, until she learns of her new role: helping to stage elaborate séances for bereaved patrons. As Maud is drawn deeper into the deception, playing the “secret child,” she is torn between her need to please and her growing conscience. It takes a shocking betrayal to make clear just how heartless her so-called guardians are. Filled with fascinating details of turn-of-the-century spiritualism and page-turning suspense, this novel from Newbery Medalist Laura Amy Schlitz features a feisty heroine whom readers will not soon forget.

Some details about the Author

Laura Amy Schlitz, the author of THE HERO SCHLIEMANN: THE DREAMER WHO DUG FOR TROY, has spent most of her life working as a librarian and professional storyteller. She has also written plays for young people that have been performed in professional theaters all over the country. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

Reversi is a classic Game of wits for your Kindle Fire and other Android devices.

AI Factory’s Reversi brings the classic board game to your Android phone. Reversi sports a clean and intuitive interface, features 10 levels of difficulty, and provides an Undo button if you want to make a different move. Play against the AI or a human opponent.

Reversi is played on an 8×8 grid. The game begins with four tokens: two light tokens for the first opponent and two dark tokens for the second opponent. The tokens are placed next to each other at the center of the board.

You must place your token so that two of your tokens are on two sides of your opponent’s single token or line of tokens. The tokens between your two tokens are then flipped over to your color. Conversely, your opponent flips your tokens to his color in the same manner.

The object of the game, of course, is to end up with more tokens by the time game board is filled up. Reversi, much like chess and go, is a duel of cunning strategy and cold logic. The corners and edges of the board are crucial to the game. You should do your best not to give up these positions.

This Reversi app comes loaded with options. Choose from two different boards and tokens, and toggle the sound, screen transitions, and legal moves. Get suggestions from the AI on your next move, and keep track of your games against the AI at all 10 levels. Reversi also comes with the full rules.

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You see, there is a bit of a problem with the program’s EULA.  It won’t be a deal breaker for just anybody, but there is definitely important information to be aware of.  By using the iBooks Author program, you are agreeing that not only will anything you sell be available in Apple’s eBook store but also will never never be sold for the Kindle, Nook, or any other non-Apple device.

Before going into the subtleties of the wording, and there are a few arguments with varying degrees of merit that have been made toward the harmlessness of this clause, consider that this can definitely be read as a response to the recent Amazon effort to gain author exclusivity.  The only difference is that Amazon brings in authors with a chance at more money while Apple just quietly restricts their distribution rights with a clause that users not only never explicitly accept, but don’t even see unless they go out of their way.

That said, there are a few situations where I think this will be an extremely valuable thing to have.  If you are planning to create and distribute your work permanently free of charge, I have yet to find a more intuitive, affordable tool for making textbooks or manuals.  If your book was always intended to be marketed primarily to users of the iBooks store, this probably won’t have much of an impact on you.

Now, let’s acknowledge some ambiguities in the wording and clarify some of the many common points of contention:

Restrictions Only Apply To iBook Format:  FALSE

The definition of “Work” used in the EULA clearly indicates that anything generated using the software counts.  It does not matter if you export to PDF, for example.

Apple Is Stealing Author Copyrights:  FALSE

Anything you create is yours from the moment you create it unless you explicitly hand over permission.  What Apple is doing is telling you where you can sell it.  Using iBooks Author allows them to restrict distribution of your work, but otherwise seems to offer them no rights to it.

All This Applies To Is The Formatted Product, Not The Content:  AMBIGUOUS

Leaving aside the textbook for a moment and assuming we are talking about a book that is completely text based.  If you want to release a Kindle version, it would seem possible to just copy the text and reformat.  The wording of the EULA describes “Work” recursively as “any book or other work you generate using this software”.  This can, and hopefully would be, read to mean that only the final, fully formatted output is affected, but the ambiguity is troubling.

It Is Free Software, They Have A Right To Expect A Return:  TRUE-ISH

Nobody is forcing you to use this program.  It is being provided free of charge by Apple and provides far greater functionality than any other free program out there for the same purposes.  Most such restrictions are aimed toward restriction the active use of the software rather than restricting how a creator can manage their own work, though.  Neither illegal nor unprecedented, but odd and somewhat troubling.

Not A Consumer Targeted Software Anyway:  FALSE

This one comes up a lot.  Despite the large number of advertisements being done involving the cooperation of such publishers as Pearson and McGraw Hill in the iBooks Textbook initiative, there has been no indication that they are contributing work under the same agreement.  This is free software pointed at teachers and authors in the advertising (particularly the promo video).  It has bundled templates to simplify the work, a simple drag and drop interface, and tons of automation.  There is depth for those who need it, but definitely not aimed solely at experienced professional textbook publishers.

Apple Can Prevent A Finished Book From Ever Being Sold:  TRUE

All that is required for a book to be covered by these restrictions is that it be a product of iBooks Author.  Publication is neither automated nor guaranteed, and just because Apple turns you down does not mean that you are free to market your work through another platform or sell through your own means.

Apple Offers Better/Worse Royalties Than The Competition Anyway:  FALSE

Apple is effectively offering the same cut of all sales to authors as the vast majority of authors receive when selling for the Kindle and nearly the same (within 5%) as that offered to Nook sellers.

Now, I’m not about to claim that this is the most horrible thing ever done to authors or even that it is deliberately malicious.  Some have claimed that just as this is a 1.0 software, so is the EULA in early versions too and ambiguity will inevitably be removed.  If so, and there was no intent to deceive or control, so be it.  It is already a complicated enough process to get anything out of your eBooks that authors should be aware of what they are getting into, though.  I, for one, wouldn’t want to be locked out of the Kindle platform by accident when that’s where all the readers are.

This is good software.  Possibly great software.  But the limitations aren’t the same as you get when publishing a Kindle Edition, where all you need to worry about is not selling things cheaper elsewhere.  Under the current wording it seems to literally stop you from reaching an audience.  That’s just unpleasant, and something that people need to be aware of when deciding whether or not iBooks Author is for them.

Related Posts

• January 10, 2012 -- Kindle Success Spurs Apple To New eBook Moves (1)
• August 19, 2011 -- Class Action Lawsuit Seeks To Bring Value Back To Kindle eBooks (1)
• July 7, 2011 -- Why Amazon’s Upcoming Kindle Tablet Has A Chance Against The iPad (0)
• November 28, 2011 -- Kindle Fire & Nook Tablet Video Focus Brings Android Attention (0)

England 1161: Ellen, a blacksmith’s daughter, wants to become a swordsmith, but for a girl this profession is unimaginable. Forced to run away from home, she disguises herself as a boy and wins the opportunity to travel with a famous swordsmith to Normandy, where the sons of the greatest barons are trained to be knights. Under the assumed identity of Alan, Ellen is able to learn the trade and become familiar with court life. But when she falls in love with Guillaume, a brilliant knight, her secret is threatened and Ellen must run for her life. Across countries and time, Ellen struggles to achieve her dream of working as a swordsmith and eventually forging a sword for the king. It is a quest rich in intrigue, betrayal, and treachery. As epic as it is intimate, The Copper Sign is a passionate tour de force that will leave you breathlessly awaiting book two, The Silver Falcon.

Some words about the Author

Katia Fox, born in 1964, grew up in Germany and southern France, and started her career as an interpreter and translator. After the birth of her third child, she turned her attention to the English Middle Ages and started to research blacksmithing. That research directly inspired the first installment in her captivating trilogy set in medieval England, The Copper Sign. Katia Fox lives with two of her three children splitting her time between a small town near Frankfurt and Provence. She also visits England as often as possible to continue her research.

Translator Lee Chadeayne is a former classical musician, college professor, and owner of a language translation company in Massachusetts. He was a charter member of the American Literary Translators Association and has been an active member of the American Translators Association since 1970. His translated works are primarily in the areas of music, art, language, history, and general literature. Most recently this includes the bestselling The Hangman’s Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch and The Copper Sign by Katia Fox.

Test your adventuring skills in Twist n’Catch, an action-packed game of puzzles and dexterity for your Android device. You’re the intrepid explorer Emmet Black, and your gig is treasure hunting. Travel the world over, discover exotic places, and bring back riches galore!

Accompanied by your faithful companion, Sergeant Cookie, you drop yourself into dangerous realms in search of diamonds and sapphires. Held in mid-air by nothing but a rope and your own self-confidence, your task is to find a way to collect gems while avoiding innumerable obstacles and traps.

There’s no shortage of fun in this test of skill and prowess. Solve more than 120 levels as you explore three full universes of adventure.

You’ll swashbuckle your way through Aztec temples, ancient Egyptian tombs, deadly pirates’ lairs, and much more, marveling at the exotic sights and steeling yourself against unknown terrors you have yet to face.

Do you have the courage to forge ahead where other adventurers have turned back? Will your rope twist at just the wrong moment? Will Sergeant Cookie toss his cookies? There’s only one way to find out. Good luck!

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Kindle Library Lending is available to anyone who has an e-ink Kindle, Kindle Fire, or Kindle reading app.  The books can be downloaded via Wi-Fi or USB.  Loan periods vary by library.

So it looks like a win win situation for both parties.  Customers who want to keep a book can purchase them on Amazon.  Amazon has the broad customer base and selection of books to bring to the table.  I do hope that they can eliminate some of the steps to downloading a book.  In some cases it takes a lot of digging to even find the e-book collection on the library’s website.

OverDrive is the repository that is used for holding digital book collections.  This includes both e-books and audiobooks.  The e-book collections are available on the Kindle, Nook, and any other e-reader that supports ePub format.  E-books can also be accessed on the computer.  If the service is offered at your local library, a link to it should be fairly prominent on the library’s website.

Most states have a digital library account with OverDrive.  North Carolina’s is called the NC Digital Library.  From there, select libraries subscribe to the account and offer e-books.  If your library doesn’t currently offer them, keep checking back.  More libraries are constantly being added to the service.  I see articles about individual libraries launching e-book lending all the time.

Between Kindle Library Lending from my local library and the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library, I’ve been able to find a lot of good reading material for free.  There are also a lot of reduced priced Kindle books available as well.  Each month features 100 Kindle Books under $3.99.  The major bestsellers aren’t available on either yet unfortunately, but they do offer a chance to explore new authors and catch up on older bestsellers.

Related Posts

• September 10, 2011 -- A Tribute to Michael Hart, Founder of Project Gutenberg (0)
• January 7, 2012 -- New York Public Library Launches E-book Central (0)
• December 4, 2011 -- What Impact will Kindle Library Lending Have on E-book Sales? (2)
• July 1, 2011 -- OverDrive Prepares for Upcoming Kindle Library Lending (1)

Things have settled in a little bit better now and Amazon was kind enough to let us in on what the entirety of the patch was meant to accomplish.  There are a couple perks:

Kindle Fire Silk Browser Customization

Users are now able to set their browser to disable Flash.  This was possible previously, but through the setting for “Enable Plugins”, which some users found confusing and overly broad.  By default, Flash will be disabled.  Check Silk’s Settings menu under the Behavior heading to turn it back on.

It is also now possible to disable the constant encrypted data shuffle through Amazon’s servers.  While you are still able to turn it on in settings by clicking on “Enable Optional Encryption”, users should find significantly improved performance now that it is non-mandatory.  This will not have any effect on encrypted connections to web pages.

Also, to access the previously mentioned full screen browsing, simply click on the square of four outward facing arrows in the lower-right corner of the Silk browser’s menu bar, next to the bookmark button.

Performance Improvements

There has been some small but noticable improvement made to the speed and smoothness of rendering on the Kindle Fire.  Scrolling, panning, and pinch to zoom all seem to work more fluidly and without the occasional stutter than previously occurred during fast movements.  Hard to say how impressive this is for most things at the moment, but there’s never anything wrong with optimization.

Email Control

It is now simpler, and in some cases possible where it was not before, to get email addresses set up manually.  Doesn’t fix all gmail complaints, but for the most part that has to do with the gmail end of things being updated so often (for the record, my own gmail account works fine with IMAP enabled, but other experiences may vary).

Many users have been somewhat disappointed to note that this update did not include the addition of finer control over the carousel or Kindle library collection management.  Presumably, however, a project this large has more than one feature being worked on at any given time and so we can probably assume that something is being done to address the vocal complaints of the user base even if it is not quite ready for release yet.  Personally I found it beyond tedious to manually delete my entire Kindle library from the carousel when the feature was introduced and would love a Mass-Remove type of option as soon as possible.

Related Posts

• January 19, 2012 -- Kindle Fire Update 6.2.2 Now Live (1)
• December 14, 2011 -- Amazon Addressing Kindle Fire Criticisms In Upcoming Update (0)
• January 21, 2012 -- Kindle Fire January Re-Review (8)
• November 21, 2011 -- Kindle Fire Review (1)

Today Amazon offer to your attention Tom Anthony’s high-octane military thriller follows a covert operation designed to take down terrorist insurgencies before their mission to create civil unrest in the tropical Pacific can be realized. The name of the book is Rebels of Mindanao. It is cost $0.99 but only today.

Al Qaeda terrorists are spreading silently throughout the globe wreaking violence on all who oppose them. Their newest target: the remote Philippine island of Mindanao. On the brink of civil war, success in Mindanao would trigger a chain reaction across the Pacific, threatening democracy and peace around the world.

Haunted by the failure of his last mission and the lost lives of his team, Thomas Thornton had hoped to escape his former life as a military operative, seeking the calm beauty of tropical Mindanao. When two West Point friends, now high ranking officials in the government and military, ask him to run one last op, he finds himself in the fray once more. Thornton recruits a hunter-killer team of Manobo tribesmen to begin covert actions against the insurgency. The mission: eliminate a Turkish warrior carrying millions in cash into Mindanao to finance an Islamic revolution. The deal: make the Turk and the cash disappear, no questions asked.

Some words about the Author

Also you can get KeepTrack Pro for free today only.

Organizing and tracking different areas of your life couldn’t be easier with KeepTrack Pro. Turn your Android device into a personal assistant that can help you stay on-time, meet your goals, and track what is important to you. KeepTrack Pro helps you get a handle on aspects of your life that require careful attention.

KeepTrack Pro lets you track any details you wish over time. Keep tabs on serious details, such as the medication you’re taking, and more whimsical details, such as how many buses you see each day. You decide what you wish to track, how often, and what to do with the information. The app’s clean interface makes it easy to create new fields and enter data into existing ones. Keep Track Pro also provides helpful graphs and statistics if you wish to examine what you’re tracking in greater detail.

To start, add a new task by identifying it with a name, selecting the values data type, setting a default value, name the value units, choose the increment/decrement amount, and identify the goal, if any. Choose from the following data values:

• Text: Free text, which is ideal for reminders, ideas, and more

• Boolean: Yes or No option to track simple questions, e.g., ‘did I work out today?’

• Marker: Includes a specific time so you can track occurrences

• Group: Perfect for using multiple data values to track your task

Once you’ve been tracking the items that are important to you, use the data to make improvements, adjustments, or to simply keep yourself informed. Click on a specific task to see the data breakdown. View a pie chart, statistics, and calendar. For those difficult to remember tasks, KeepTrack Pro features an alarm setting to remind you.

KeepTrack Pro makes it easier than ever to track information that is important to you in a way that works for you.

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Kindle Touch

Along with the Kindle Fire update, the Kindle Touch also got one as well.  It is currently only available for manual download at the moment.  If you want to download it see Amazon’s instructions on how to transfer it via USB here.

I don’t really see anything major in this update that is worth racing to the computer to download, so I’d sit tight and wait for it to be available via Wi-Fi.  The automatic update does all of the work for you.  But, it is a matter of preference, and the option is there if you want to take advantage of it.

I think it is worth pointing out how to check for updates.  I learned my lesson first hand when I realized my battery was draining really quickly on my older Kindle.  If you need assistance with the process, Amazon’s support is excellent.  It is good to do this periodically because it can affect security, battery life, and the content on your e-reader.

So here’s how:

Tap “Menu’.  Select “Device Info”  If it says “5.0.3″ then you’re good.  Most likely it will say “5.0.”  That will be greyed out until the automatic update is available.  For the manual download, you will need your USB cord.

Amazon is really vague about what is in this update, but one thing I’d like to see if smother page transitioning.  My Kindle Touch has frozen before after being incredibly slow.  This has only happened once, but there have been other reports of freezes.  Touch screen technology is not quite up to speed with physical button transitions from what I can tell.  You can’t turn pages as quickly as you can with the buttons.

Another good improvement that goes along with smoother transitions would be to erase the previous page shadowing that seems to linger when I move on to the next page.

Other than those two issues, I have really enjoyed my Kindle Touch.  I especially like the grip on the back and sides, and the compact size.  It fits much more easily in my purse than my Kindle 2 did.

Stay tuned for the automatic update announcement.  As I mentioned earlier in the post, until then the manual download with instructions is fully available on Amazon’s website.

Related Posts

• November 16, 2011 -- Kindle Touch Review (hands-on) (18)
• October 26, 2011 -- Amazon to Offer Trade in Option for Older Kindles. (0)
• September 28, 2011 -- Kindle Touch, Kindle Fire – New Amazon devices announced… (9)
• July 29, 2011 -- The Amazon Kindle’s International Future (3)

You can use your opportunity to get historical book about Roman Empire last days for $1.99. The name of the book is The Fall of the Roman Empire : A New History of Rome and the Barbarians and the book is written by Peter Heather.

The death of the Roman Empire is one of the perennial mysteries of world history. Now, in this groundbreaking book, Peter Heather proposes a stunning new solution: Rome generated its own nemesis. Centuries of imperialism turned the neighbors it called barbarians into an enemy capable of dismantling the Empire that had dominated their lives for so long. Heather is a leading authority on the late Roman Empire and on the barbarians. In The Fall of the Roman Empire, he explores the extraordinary success story that was the Roman Empire and uses a new understanding of its continued strength and enduring limitations to show how Europe’s barbarians, transformed by centuries of contact with Rome on every possible level, eventually pulled it apart. He shows first how the Huns overturned the existing strategic balance of power on Rome’s European frontiers, to force the Goths and others to seek refuge inside the Empire. This prompted two generations of struggle, during which new barbarian coalitions, formed in response to Roman hostility, brought the Roman west to its knees. The Goths first destroyed a Roman army at the battle of Hadrianople in 378, and went on to sack Rome in 410. The Vandals spread devastation in Gaul and Spain, before conquering North Africa, the breadbasket of the Western Empire, in 439. We then meet Attila the Hun, whose reign of terror swept from Constantinople to Paris, but whose death in 453 ironically precipitated a final desperate phase of Roman collapse culminating in the Vandals’ defeat of the massive Byzantine Armada: the west’s last chance for survival. Peter Heather convincingly argues that the Roman Empire was not on the brink of social or moral collapse. What brought it to an end were the barbarians.

Cubicle Golf is a game which can help you to spend some free time with a fun.

Tee Up at the Office
Golf is a great way to get a break from less important things–like work! But we all know it’s a long way from the office to the golf course.

Luckily, there’s Cubicle Golf. This fun and challenging game for your Android device provides an easy way to get a few rounds in without leaving your desk.

Beware the Water Cooler Hazard

Cubicle Golf features a full, 18-hole course that will test even the hardiest office golfer’s skills. Choose from two control options to suit your playing style. It’s easy to track scores at each hole, and you’ll even hear fun shot-by-shot commentary as you play.

Build team unity by playing the always-challenging Office Links. Take advantage of your co-workers’ strengths as you navigate the course: one colleague wields the driver, another the iron, another the putter, and one possesses the hallowed Secret Weapon.

But keep a wary eye out as you work on that handicap. Make sure you avoid Mr. Hazard (also known as your boss) if you want to keep playing!

No Golf Cart Required

Unlike the outdoor version, this golf game progresses quickly and is easy to learn. Also, and most important, it’s fun. Play through all 18 holes, improve your score, and blow off some steam. (Just make sure the boss isn’t looking.)

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I downloaded the new “Send to Kindle” app on to my Kindle Touch with ease using the detailed instructions that Amazon provides and the prompts from my browser.

Right now this program is only available on Windows, but a Mac version is coming soon.  Once downloaded, you can access the application in two ways.  Through Windows Explorer, you can right click on the document and select “Send to Kindle”.  You can also go into a program such as Microsoft Word that supports printing and select “Send to Kindle” from the list of printer options.

To test it out, I sent my resume to my Kindle.  It appeared on my home screen within seconds, and formatted nicely to fit the screen.  Just make sure the Wi-Fi or 3G access is enabled.  Something like this is much more useful for sending documents like articles set up as a PDF that would be easier to read on the Kindle than the computer.  I could have used this during graduate school when all of my classes required reading a lot of PDF articles.

The Send to Kindle program is also great for storing documents and can be used to email the documents to contacts on your pre approved contact list.  Instructions on how to manage your Kindle’s email address are available as a link from the Send to Kindle page.  Just search for send to kindle in the AMazon search box.

Send to Kindle works on all Kindles and devices that support it such as the iPad, iPhone, and iPod.  There’s no mention of Blackberry or even Android yet.

As with all of your other Kindle content, any documents you send to your Kindle is stored in the archives for retrieval from your Amazon account anytime.   Send to Kindle also saves your last page read, bookmarks, and highlights and includes the ability to sync across devices.

With such easy access to portable storage and unlimited cloud storage, there should be no more excuses for losing a document again.  So much for the “the dog ate my homework” excuse.

Related Posts

• October 1, 2011 -- Inkstone Finds A Way To Compensate For Apple’s Anti-Kindle Stance (0)
• May 23, 2011 -- AccessTechGeek now a Kindle Blog (0)
• February 16, 2011 -- More on Apple vs Kindle for iOS devices (13)
• February 2, 2011 -- Kindle Applications (3)