Get Kindle 3 Review, Kindle DX Review …

Posted on April 19, 2009 by switch11

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Kindle 3 Freezing minimization, Amazon testing fix

Posted on September 3, 2010 by switch11

If the Kindle 3 is giving you trouble with automatic restarts or freezing you’ll be glad to know Amazon might be close to a solution. This post will also add some details on how to minimize the freezing.

Please note that these are workarounds that reduce the frequency, not remove the problem. The real solution is for Amazon to release an update that fixes the underlying issue - which Amazon seems to be in the process of doing.

Should you return your Kindle 3?

No, all signs point to a software issue that’s fixable and Amazon is already working on a fix and testing it. Two users left comments that they have the new firmware for testing, one left a photo showing the new firmware version, and another user was told by Amazon customer service that a fix would be out in 10 days.

Additionally, Amazon is offering a free replacement Kindle 3 if you’re running into freezing issues.

If you’re thinking about getting the Kindle 3 please note that this Kindle 3 freezing issue isn’t happening for everyone - From the responses on the Kindle forum it seems that there are more Kindle 3 owners not experiencing the Kindle 3 freezing issue than there are Kindle 3 owners experiencing it.

Keep in mind Mike deMaria’s advice -

To those of you who are second guessing your purchase/being sad/etc –> DON’T BE (smile) All that is most likely wrong is a bug that can be found and fixed without you doing much – other than connecting to Whispernet Via 3G or WiFi when the fix is released.

Should it have been caught before shipment? Maybe. But I do know from all my experience on the other side of things (being the programmer), sometimes bugs like these escape even the best testing. It happens.

A fix should be out soon and even in the rare case it’s an unfixable problem you can get a free replacement Kindle 3.

Possible firmware upgrade on the way to fix Kindle 3 Freezing Issues

Here’s a comment from BobLenx -

Hey gang, I got an email back from Amazon support today – good news I think. The email was as follows:

“I have heard back from the development team on our issue. It appears this problem will be addressed in an upcoming software update for the Kindle which will be sent wirelessly to you in approximately ten days or so.

In the meantime for a temporary fix you can slide the power button to the right for about 15 seconds to reset the Kindle.”

That would certainly be a good thing. Hopefully, that’s a reliable customer service representative.

K. Scarpelli even wrote to say the new firmware is being testing on his Kindle -

Good news people. I just received a call from tech support about a half hour ago and they pushed the new firmware to my Kindle. I’m running 3.0.1 (525120101).

That’s really good news. He’s even put up a picture and it clearly shows he has a different firmware version. Another user, CLS10, also got the new firmware.

In the meantime let’s figure out how to minimize Kindle 3 freezing.

What seems to work best to minimize Kindle 3 Freezing?

Here’s a rough list of things that seem to decrease the probability of restarts and freezing -

  1. A hard reset (hold down power button for 15 to 20 seconds) seems to often fix the issue. The reset via the settings page isn’t effective – you have to use the power switch reset.
  2. Let Kindle 3 charge for 3 to 6 hours before using it.  
  3. Don’t download hundreds of books at the same time.  
  4. If you’ve just downloaded books and they’re indexing (Kindle is preparing them for searches) don’t do lots of intensive things. If possible even hold off for a few hours and let Kindle index. Do a search for ‘xqwe’ and it’ll show a list of books (if any) that haven’t been indexed – Wait for that list to go to zero.
  5. Don’t visit lots of complex websites one after the other. The web browser seems to be causing a lot of crashes so if you can avoid it that’d be best.
  6. Don’t load up lots of PDFs from strange places. If you’re having problems with PDFs delete a few of them and then try reading the remaining PDFs.
  7. Don’t add tons and tons of highlights quickly.
  8. WiFi might play a part so if you have the option of either work with 3G. Using 3G solved the freezing issue for some Kindle 3 owners.
  9. Importing Collections is causing a problem often enough that it might not be a bad idea to hold off on it for a bit.

Some users are taking up Amazon Customer Service’s offer of a replacement Kindle. Will update this post if they report back that the replacement fixes the issues – since lots of people aren’t seeing the freezing there’s a high chance the replacement Kindle 3 will be free of the freezing issue.

Kindle 3 Freezing – Possible Causes

Let’s look at the various situations which seem to cause freezing or reboots. We’ll also look at what people found worked. Most of these are from the official kindle forum.

Freezing right in the beginning -

  • It’s recommended to let your Kindle 3 charge for 3 hours before using it. There are claims that if you don’t do this it’s likely to cause more crashing – No idea whether these claims are valid but it certainly doesn’t hurt to let Kindle 3 charge fully.

Freezing and Restarts when Indexing a large number of books -

  • For some people the problems occur only when they are downloading/adding a lot of books at once. This suggests it might be an indexing issue.
  • The solution here is to not load up lots and lots of books at once.

Freezing and restarts when doing things very quickly one after the other -

  1. If you go into the photo viewer and do lots of changes at the same time sometimes the Kindle 3 freezes.
  2. The solution for this would be to not change settings multiple times in rapid succession.

For some people Every Word is causing problems – Well, Kindle Apps do freeze up on Kindle 3 and didn’t on Kindle 2. Kindle Apps presumably take up a lot of memory and processing power so if the crashing is related to processor overload or Kindle running out of free memory it would make sense that games crash more often.

Freezing and restarting due to WiFi -

  1. Quite a few people have had freezing when they were using WiFi. 
  2. A few people have had freezing disappear when they stopped using WiFi. It probably means the WiFi feature’s code is doing whatever causes the freezing more often than other features’ code.  

It seems more and more likely that there’s a single bug underlying all these freezing problems.

A common thread of a Memory Leak or a Processor Overload

If you look at all the things that might be causing freezing and restarts it seems that whenever you do memory intensive or processor intensive tasks on the Kindle 3 it crashes or freezes. We get errors more frequently when -

  1. Indexing lots of books.
  2. Doing lots of changes one after the other.
  3. Loading complex websites in a row.
  4. Loading lots of PDFs.
  5. Highlighting frequently.

It definitely suggests that either there is a memory leak or the processor is getting overloaded and is unable to cope.

Here’s a comment from Mike that suggests the same thing -

Being the good programmer that I am, to me it appears we are all having a memory leak issue.

The other day I could see things getting slower and slower until finally the K3 locked up and needed a hard reset. It would also explain the random reboots if something is eating program space.

A memory leak would make the most sense as it would be something that just gradually builds up and then suddenly when you do something that needs additional memory - it causes a crash. A problem related to a memory leak would also be be triggered more frequently when doing memory intensive tasks like web browsing or loading PDFs – which is exactly what we’re seeing.

the PDF restart issue 

There’s a particular, rare bug that causes a Kindle 3 restart every single time you open a PDF. There are two things found to work for this -

  1. This is sometimes fixed by a hard reset of the Kindle. Slide and hold the power switch for 15 seconds.
  2. Another solution is to delete a few of the PDFs you have. This suggests certain PDFs might be causing an issue or that PDFs aren’t cleared out from the memory properly until they are deleted. If PDFs aren’t properly removed from memory it would make sense that all PDFs cause a restart - PDFs and the PDF reader probably need a lot of memory and the PDFs left behind in memory would reduce available memory and the PDF reader wouldn’t have enough memory to load.

This will probably also be fixed by the new firmware. It’s good to know there’s a possible Kindle 3 freezing fix being tested and everyone will soon get back to enjoying the Kindle 3.

Filed under: kindle 3 | Tagged: , | 2 Comments »

Thursday kindle free books, $1 books

Posted on September 2, 2010 by switch11

First, we have our free kindle book -

  1. Cybil Disobedience by Cybil Shepherd and Aimee Lee Ball. 

    ‘How I survived beauty pageants, Elvis, sex, Bruce Willis, lies, marriage, motherhood, Hollywood, and the irrepressible urge to say what you think.’

    From wholesome beauty queen to saucy cover girl, from heartbreaking movie star (THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, TAXI DRIVER) to one of television’s most loved comediennes (MOONLIGHTING, CYBILL), Cybill Shepherd is renowned as sassy, shocking and sexy. In CYBILL DISOBEDIENCE, she opens her heart with the wit and honesty of a star who’s seen and knows it all.  

Then we have two $1 Kindle book deals -

  1. A Woman named Smith by Marie Conway Oemler. Rated 5 stars on 4 reviews and just $1.

    Sophronisba Smith, known as Sophy, inherits a large mansion, Hynds House, from her great-aunt-by-marriage, Sophronisba Scarlett. She and her closest friend, Alicia Gaines, decide to move into the house.

    The house, they learn from the servants, who rejoice in the names Mary Magdalen and Queen of Sheeba, has a reputation for being haunted by an ancestor of the great-aunt who disappeared in mysterious circumstances. And, there is rumour of the family fortune being hidden somewhere within the house.

  2. Texas Tangle by Leah Braemel is rated 4 stars on 3 reviews and priced at $1.

    Thanks to her cheating ex-husband and her thieving brother, all horse breeder Nikki Kimball has left is a bruised heart, an overdrawn bank account and an empty home. When sex-on-legs Dillon Barnett and his brooding foster-brother Brett Anderson start showing more than just neighborly attention, Nikki is intrigued…and a little gun-shy.

    Dillon and Brett have a history; back in high school, the two friends fought a bitter battle over Nikki.  

Next, we have a few good indie books –  

  1. Reunion by J. L. Penn is not $1 (it’s $3) but it’s very well rated with 4.5 stars on 32 reviews.

    Meet Jessica Stratford, a level-headed girl next door with an enviable life of professional and marital success … well, except for that one little uncharacteristically impetuous detail that changes everything. When a friend talks Jessica into finally embracing the digital age, Jessica’s life slowly turns upside down.

    You see, Jessica finds her old high school crush on Facebook. In fact, she finds him quite attractive even after twenty years. A simple hello seems harmless enough until he suggests that they meet for lunch. Of course, lunch is … just lunch. Then harmless lunch becomes harmless text messages, late night chats, and dinners.

  2. IVRRAC by Peter Robert Jordan sounds really interesting. It’s $2.99.

    Simon, a convicted serial killer of the rich, undergoes treatment at a fledgling private criminal rehabilitation firm, IVRRAC. Simon is then sent to the alpine village of Trentsworth, a town full of rich socialite women, to ascertain whether he is cured of his murderous impulses or not.

    “One mistake, one tiny error in that psych report, the treatment won’t hold and that will spell disaster. Suicide, massacre or most likely both! I’ll stay with him and watch events carefully, but I won’t be held responsible.” – Alistair Wall

  3. Finding Margo by Susanne O’Leary is rated 5 stars on 7 reviews. It’s also $2.99.

    When Margo misreads the map while travelling through France, her husband Alan flies into a rage. Tired of his constant bad moods, Margo walks out on him in the middle of the motorway, into the French contryside. She hitches a lift with a woman truck driver and what follow are adventures and romance far beyond her wildest dreams.. Will Alan find her before she finds herself?

Finally, we get some free books from outside the Kindle Store -

  1. Manual of Style from the University of Chicago. It’s only readable in Adobe Digital Editions or using an app that allows DRMed ePub.

    The Chicago Manual of Style has evolved to become the definitive reference work for writers, editors, proofreaders, indexers, copywriters, designers, and publishers.

  2. Harper Collins has The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett and United States of Americana by Kurt B. Reighley available to read online for free. Click on the ‘Full Access’ tab to get to the books.
  3. Suvudu Free Library has two free short stories - The Literomancer by Ken Liu and The Precedent by Sean McMullen.

The ‘Free Bestsellers List to Paid Bestsellers List’ Trick

Once a book goes from free to paid it automatically gets a slot in the Top 100 Paid Bestsellers list. 

It seems that when a free offer ends Amazon takes some of the ‘purchases’ made when the book was free and uses those to assign the book a spot in the top 10-20 spots on the Paid Bestsellers list.

This becomes especially interesting when you see a book be offered free for a few days, then become paid, and magically show up at #15 in the paid bestsellers list. It gets a ton of free publicity and more sales as a result. So, in addition to the free marketing due to it being a free offer, it gets the added bonus of being a pretend Paid Bestseller.

Perhaps Amazon shouldn’t be counting free downloads of a book when compiling the paid bestsellers list.

Filed under: free books | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

What the new middle-men in Publishing will look like

Posted on September 2, 2010 by switch11

Taking a break from the Kindle 3 to talk about a really interesting example of what the new middle-men in Publishing might look like.

First, let’s jump into what we mean by middle-men and how they’re different from enablers.

Enablers vs Middle-men (aka Stealers)

Let’s start with a rather simplistic model -

  1. Author. 
  2. Enablers or Middle-men. 
  3. Reader.

Anything that comes between the author and reader is an enabler if it provides a valuable service for a reasonable or low price. It’s a middle-man if it provides a service but overcharges or if it creates the illusion that a service it provides is necessary and inserts it in between the author and the reader.

Here are a few examples -

  1. Publisher asking for 20% to 25% – Enabler.
  2. Publisher giving 25% – Middle-man/Stealer.
  3. Platform asking for 10% to 30% – Enabler.
  4. Platform asking for 50% – Stealer/middle-man.
  5. Agent asking for 10% to 15% and handling ebooks – Enabler.

Any company that is an enabler is tempted to become a stealer. The more its power, the less the competition, the more naive the customers (readers and authors) – the higher the temptation for an enabler to paint itself as an ‘infinitely valuable’ middle-man that is more important than readers and more important than authors.

Scribd’s latest move shows it’s got a middle-man mentality

Initially Scribd was trying to make money by showing ads next to free documents. This is a bit of a middle-man thing to do – what differentiates it as a middle-man strategy is that the people creating and putting up documents weren’t getting any share of the money.

The argument/justification was that it was paying for server costs. That’s a nonsense argument since the company exists to make profit and trying to pretend it’s ‘just covering the costs’ and not trying to make money from other people’s free documents is hypocrisy. It’s fine to make money as long as the enabler/middle-man makes sure authors make money too - It shouldn’t try to steal their work under the guise of giving them publicity or covering server costs.

Now, Scribd has gone even further into middle-man/stealer territory by asking readers to start a paid subscription to download free documents - a paid subscription whose proceeds are not shared with the authors and other people who have put up their documents.

At Teleread Paul Biba covers author Lynn Viehl’s unmasking of this rather creepy move -

It’s been brought to my attention that Scribd.com has begun charging people to download my free e-books hosted on their site.

To get around my copyright and the free distribution notice I’ve placed in each e-book, they are using an archive subscription scam to make their money (this also neatly avoids them having to pay me any royalties on the profits they make).

Evidently all the money they’ve been raking in from the Google ads they’ve posted on my e-book pages hasn’t been enough for them.

Sites like Hacker News have also discussed this and a lot of people think it’s a rather scammy move.

There’s an opt-out – However, it’s rather wrong to claim that an opt-out is enough. If the default behavior is to enroll authors’ documents into the subscription service and not pay authors anything then it’s stealing.

Hiding behind ‘it covers server costs’ or ‘there’s an opt out’ is weak. This is so bad and dishonest that won’t compare it with anything Publishers do – Publishers are only guilty of over-charging plus they share book revenue with authors. Scribd’s move is a revoltingly scummy move – authors get zero percent of the money they help generate.

This is the perfect example of how middle-men will try to steal from Authors and Readers

Scribd is doing us all a service by using such a weak argument and being so bad at being evil. If a company were very efficient they would make enough money from ads against free books, not pay authors whose books were generating the money, and enjoy the profits.

Scribd isn’t competent enough so it has to resort to a ‘subscription’ service. It’s also not smart enough to offer authors a small 15% cut by default with the option to opt-out if they don’t like the cut. By not giving authors anything they’re exposing the fact that they’re stealing from authors.

It’s an important lesson for authors – If someone can profit from your work and exploit you they will.

There are always middle-men or people trying to be middle-men

There is a continuum of approaches - Starting from people who will help others selflessly to those who will exploit others heartlessly. We aren’t making any judgements here since they are all strategies – We’re simply pointing out that there will always be people who try to steal value.

Authors and Readers have to be aware that there will always be people like Scribd – that charge readers for stuff that is free under the guise of ‘server costs’ and don’t share the money generated with authors. It’s the latter part that is particularly painful since Scribd is doing nothing except providing hosting for the authors’ work and instead of a 10% or 30% cut it wants to keep all 100%.

Add on the fact that Scribd hosts a lot of pirated books and things look even worse. There, again, they have an ‘opt-out’ of sorts – They’ll remove any pirated works you report but don’t really proactively fight piracy.

It’s up to us to not let middle-men steal from us. They’ll always hide under excuses and try to trick us if we let them.

How can Readers and Authors avoid the middle-men?

We’re at a stage with ebooks where we have three working models -

  1. Authors self-publish and get 70% while the platform (also the device creator) gets 30%. 
  2. Authors publish via an agent or via a new Publishing upstart and get 55% while platform gets 30% and agent/upstart gets 15%.
  3. Authors publish via Publishers and get 25% to 50% while Platform gets 30% and Publishers gets rest.

The first two are ideal models and the third is ideal if Authors get 50%.

  • Any model that offers Authors less than 50% is likely to be a scam.
  • If a model doesn’t provide the value a platform does (including a device to read on) and still wants 30% then it’s likely to be a scam.
  • If a model doesn’t provide the value a platform does and doesn’t help authors like Publishers/Agents do and still wants 50% then it’s likely to be a scam too.

As long as we avoid new middle-men like Scribd that pretend server costs take up 100% (or even 25%) of book revenues we will be fine. We also need to be wary of free models that claim they’ll make enough money from ads to sustain books and authors.

The Myth of Sustainable Free Books supported by Advertising

As readers we’re tempted to believe that we can magically pay nothing, click a few ads once in a while, and get books for free – it’s an illusion. Advertising isn’t enough to sustain books and it’s going to affect authors and books in the long run. That, in turn, will affect us readers.

Scribd has shown that free doesn’t work – It pays nothing for all the documents that are uploaded and it pays nothing to authors. Still it can’t make a profit.

If a company comes in and claims that not only can it make a profit from books it can also pay authors you have to wonder what magical potion it has - How can it generate so much profit when Scribd can’t even be profitable?

If you look under its marketing/PR cover you’ll notice that its model doesn’t guarantee authors anything but guarantees the company itself profits and power. Then you know it’s just our good old middle-man/stealer in a new guise. Publishing is in flux and we have the inefficient Publishers that want 75% of ebook revenue, the efficient Platforms that want 30%, and all the stealers that either want 100% or want a share disproportionate to the value they provide.

Filed under: publishing | Tagged: , | 2 Comments »

Kindle 3, eReader Wars – Sept 2010

Posted on September 1, 2010 by switch11

The Kindle 3 faces two interesting new challenges – Sony released its new eReader models today and Borders cut the prices of the Kobo and Aluratek eReaders.

How much of a threat to the Kindle 3 are the new Sony Readers? What impact will the $99 Aluratek eReader have on the eReader wars?

Let’s dive into the specifics and see what impact these changes might have on the  eReader Wars.

Kindle 3, eReader Wars – Borders selling $99 eReader

Borders has reduced the prices of two eReaders – Aluratek Libre is now $99 and Kobo eReader is now $129. All the talk of us seeing $99 eReaders by end 2010 seemed presumptuous until a few months ago. Today, we already have $99 eReaders.

The Aluratek Libre at $99 puts some pricing pressure on Kindle WiFi but not much since Aluratek’s eReader isn’t very good. The Kobo at $129 isn’t really a factor since Kindle WiFi is much, much better than the Kobo eReader.

A few months ago the Kobo eReader at $149 was the first eReader from a big/well-funded company to break the $150 price barrier and there was talk of it stealing away market share from the Kindle. It’s a reflection of how quickly things are changing that today, even at $129, it’s an after-thought. The Nook WiFi at $149 and Kindle WiFi at $139 are much better options.

Not having a competitive eReader is the least of Borders’ problems.

A World without Borders?

Borders is really struggling. For Q2, 2010 it had a loss of $46.7 million and NY Times chronicles Borders’ dismal state -

  1. In the last  3 years Borders has reduced its store count by almost half. This includes exiting the UK.
  2. It raised capital in Q2, 2010 by selling $25 million worth of shares to a cigarette executive who became the largest shareholder. 
  3. It sold its Paperchase chain for $31 million.
  4. It still has debt of $262.1 million.
  5. Sales at Borders stores open at least a year fell 6.8% in Q2, 2010.

Its share price also took a hit – falling 4.5%. Basically, Borders doesn’t look like it’s going to survive – It is hardly in a position to mount a serious threat on the eReader market. With the $149 Kobo Reader and the Aluratek Libre it was trying to corner up the lower end of the market but Kindle WiFi has destroyed that opportunity.

The lower prices of the Kobo and Aluratek eReaders don’t change the fact that they aren’t very good – they couldn’t even compete with Kindle 2. Put them up against the Kindle WiFi and the new Sony Readers and they are terribly inadequate.

Kindle 3, eReader Wars – Sony releases pricier eReaders

Sony seems to have given up on trying to beat the Kindle 3 and seems focused on creating the perfect product for a market that only exists in its imagination. It talks a lot about how it couldn’t afford to put WiFi into its $179 Sony 350 and its $229 Sony 650 without taking a moment to wonder how Amazon and B&N managed to produce WiFi capable eReaders at sub $150 prices.

It’s also got really strange priorities – It seems to be more interested in building a device, selling it, and running away than in earning money from ebook sales. In a sense it’s trying to build TVs and hoping cable companies supply the service and content. The only problem is the cable companies in this market have their own TVs.

The net result is a beautiful eReader (good-looking, good features, touch screen) that doesn’t really have good infrastructure or a good store to back it up. It’s an eReader made by a company that doesn’t really grasp that people are going to read books on the eReader. Sony is trying to provide one part of what the customer is asking for and is hoping the other parts just magically appear.

Is Sony using really smart strategy or deluding itself?

There are three entirely reasonable possibilities -

  1. Sony has figured out that it can get a solid #2 or even a #1 spot by selling higher end eReaders with touch screens and selling them all over the world via their retail channels.  
  2. Sony has decided it’s just too much work to compete with the Kindle 3 and has given up on the US market.
  3. Sony is delusional and it’s convinced itself that the product it has to offer meets the needs of the eReader market perfectly. If you look at Sony 650 and contrast it with Sony 600 the only thing Sony has changed is that the touch screen now doesn’t hurt readability. In almost every other way it’s the same product.

We do have to give credit to Sony for differentiating and managing to release eReaders with touch screens. The lack of WiFi and the high prices are madness - However, the touch screen gives Sony an angle that it might be able to leverage to generate sales despite the high price.  

Kindle 3 to be sold at Staples

Amazon isn’t exactly sitting still and it’s begun to expand the Kindle’s retail presence. Kindle 3 will be sold at Staples stores starting this Fall. Reuters reports on Kindle 3 at Staples -

Staples will start selling the Kindle at its more than 1,500 U.S. stores starting in the autumn, the company said.

It plans to sell the $139 version of the Kindle, the 3G model and the more expensive Kindle DX.

Staples makes a lot of sense as the $139 Kindle WiFi and the $189 Kindle 3 are both good products that meet the needs of businesses looking to cut down on paper and printing costs. Additionally, the prices are low enough to entice some Staples customers into impulse purchases.

5 million Kindles sold?

The Reuters report goes on to talk about Kindle sales estimates -

Forrester Research estimates that Amazon has sold about 5 million Kindles since the product’s launch in 2007, and that Barnes & Noble has sold 1 million Nooks since their introduction last year.

Every day there’s a new Kindle sales estimate – 5 million is one of the higher ones. Keeping Kindle sales figures secret is the gift that keeps giving.

Nook 2 still missing in action

If Nook 2 really is slated to be launched in parallel with B&N’s big in-store push for the Nook (which starts around September 4th/5th) then we might soon find out what B&N has in store for us.

At the moment, Nook 2 is missing and every day readers are picking Kindle 3 and Kindle WiFi over Nook and further increasing Amazon’s lead. It’s hard to understand what’s stopping B&N from announcing Nook 2 and letting readers place preorders.

Google Editions still missing in action

The other mystery is around Google Editions which was supposed to launch in summer 2010. It would make so much sense for Google to team up with one or both of Sony and B&N and with every smaller eReader to take on the Kindle Store.

It already has Android in nearly every non-Kindle eReader and it’s already providing a million public domain books (via Google Books) to nearly every non-Kindle eReader. It might as well add the store. Most eReader makers are desperate and this would be the perfect time to push and promote Google Editions. 

Apple doesn’t announce iPad 2 at today’s Apple Event

There were rumors that an iPad 2 would be announced at today’s Apple iPod event. That didn’t happen and there wasn’t any mention of iPad sales figures either. Perhaps they are being saved for a later conference that would also see the announcement of the iPad 2.

It’s pretty likely that we’ll see the iPad 2 arrive by October/November of 2010. The main question is price - At $350 or higher there is little threat to the Kindle 3 but at $300 or below iPad 2 would start eating up pieces of the eReader market.

There’s still a lot left to be unveiled

Nook 2, iPad 2, and Google Editions are far more important than the over-priced Sony Readers and the irrelevant Aluratek and Kobo eReaders.

Kindle 3 has the eReader market all to itself but that might change any day as Nook 2 is probably going to be released/announced soon. Apple will probably wait till holiday season to make a splash and Google might just be waiting for a certain settlement. Sony has kicked things off and Borders is doing it’s part – However, the real fun has not yet begun.

Filed under: kindle 3 | Tagged: , | 2 Comments »

8 kindle free books for Wednesday afternoon

Posted on September 1, 2010 by switch11

For your Kindle 3, Kindle 2, Kindle 1, or DX we have 8 Kindle free books this Wednesday afternoon.

First, some books for young adults with a Christian theme -

  1. Sophie’s World by Nancy Rue. Rated 4.5 stars on 3 reviews. 

    Sophie isn’t happy. She’s convinced that her parents, especially her father, don’t love her as much as they love her high-achieving sister; her grades are poor; her classmates think she is weird; and her teachers tell her she daydreams too much (indeed, she does).

    If Jesus could only help her make just one friend . . . Then Fiona, new to the community, arrives on the scene. She is smart and self-assured, but best of all, she shares Sophie’s love of make-believe. Suddenly, Sophie’s life doesn’t seem so bleak.

  2. Sophie’s Secret by Nancy Rue. Rated 4.5 stars on 2 reviews.  

    Sophie and her friends launch an ‘archaeological expedition’ and make a disturbing discovery. Sophie keeps digging to uncover a shocking family secret. In light of this new revelation, will she ever be able to trust her parents again?

  3. Motorcycles, Sushi & One Strange Book by Nancy Rue. Rated 5 stars on 11 reviews. 

    Jessie thought her father died before her birth, but after her mother is hospitalized for her bipolar disorder, she realizes that not only is he alive and well but that she is being sent to live with him in Florida.

    As angry as she is to be stripped of her familiar friends and freedoms, Jessie finds safety and structure in Florida, as well as a special book, a contemporary version of the New Testament, that changes her perspective on life.

Next, we get some books for adults –  

  1. Catwalk by Melody Carlson. Rated 5 stars on 6 reviews.

    Big Apple. Bigger Problems.The success of the Forrester sisters’ On the Runway TV show lands them a hot ticket to Fashion Week in New York City. Paige is determined to garner the attention of New York’s top designers, but her newfound fame threatens to go to her head. Erin wants to help promote the work of some eco-minded designers, but struggles to be taken seriously.

  2. Hostile Intent by Michael Walsh. This was free about a year ago and it’s free again today.

    Code named Devlin, he exists in the blackest shadows of the United States government–operating off the grid as the NSA’s top agent. He’s their most lethal weapon-and their most secret.

    But someone is trying to draw him out into the open by putting America’s citizens in the crosshairs–and they will continue the slaughter until they get what they want.

  3. The Pearl at the Gate by Anya Delvay, Anya Richards. Rated 5 stars on 2 reviews.

    For her transgression, she will pay-with screams of forbidden pleasure. After a lifetime of hard work, Captain Roake Barbenoir finally has all he has ever wanted. Wealth, social position, and the epitome of an ideal wife, the beautiful and well-born Jenesta.

    Of all his treasures, she is his favorite – a pearl, perfect and pure – and Roake vows never to tarnish her with the dark sexual knowledge he gleaned from a life at sea.

  4. The Dangerous Dimension by L. Ron Hubbard. This is a repeat free offer. Rated 4 stars on 4 reviews.

    Dr. Henry Mudge undergoes a striking personality change when he discovers a mathematical formula “Equation C” that defines a mysterious negative dimension. He is instantly transported to any location in the solar system by merely thinking of it–even when he doesn’t want to

  5. Overcoming Perfectionism: The Key to a Balanced Recovery by Ann W. Smith. Rated 5 stars on 4 reviews.

    For nearly 30 years Ann Smith’s clinical focus has been in addictions, family systems and experiential therapy.

    Do you have to be perfect to lead a healthy life? Ann Smith discusses how perfectionism may have benefits but is ultimately an obstacle to quality living as it prevents intimacy and lowers self-esteem. This book offers practical hints to letting go of your superhuman syndrome and being imperfect.

Finally, we have Woot offering a cover with light for the Kindle 2 for just $10. It won’t fit the Kindle 3.

We have now had 27 kindle free books in the first 3 days of this week – It’s marvellous.

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