Kindle Review – Kindle 3 Review, iPad Review

Another week, another round of interesting little Kindle snippets. Let’s start with a kindle audiobook deal and other free stuff -

1. The First Rule by Robert Crais is $7.49 at Audible. It’s an audiobook that normally retails for $25.89.  
2. (Courtesy MobileRead) We have Indie Fantasy Novel Mighty Hammer Down free at Smashwords with coupon code: WV84F.
3. Public Domain – Cranford by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell is shooting up the sales charts. 
4. Teleread point to a free book on how to run Windows on a Mac using VMWare Fusion 3.

Audible has a few deals -

1. A Knock at Midnight: Original Recordings of Martin Luther King Jr. for just $7.49 (regular price is $27.99). It’s 8 hours long.  
2. Audiobook on Haitian Creole free at Audible.

Apple woos Harper Collins

It’s becoming obvious that Steve Jobs’ ‘People don’t read any more’ was just misdirection. Well, some people did point out the likelihood from the start.

Jeffrey Trachtenberg at WSJ reports -

HarperCollins Publishers is negotiating with Apple Inc. to make electronic books available for the introduction of a new tablet device from Apple, according to people familiar with the situation, posing a challenge to Amazon.com Inc

Other publishers also have met with Apple, people familiar with the matter said.

They also point out that Harper Collins are one of the Publishers delaying ebook releases. It might all be a ploy to hold off releasing more eBooks until the Tablet is in place.

There’s not that much more to the article.

Apple has also sent out email invites for a January 27th event - finally confirming that something’s definitely happening on that date.

Another Indie Author (sort of) gets a Book Deal via Kindle Store

The Lewis Four blog writes about Gayle Trent -

1. Gayle had a deal with indie publishing house BelleBooks.
2. Her book, Murder Takes the Cake, was featured along with a few other BelleBooks publications as a free book around Christmas.
3. It became a Kindle Store Bestseller.
4. That has led to a deal with Robert Gottlieb of Trident Media.

It’s great news and the Kindle Store is becoming rich ground to find new authors.

Baby Dual Screen eReader – Astri eReader

If you love the Entourage Edge and wish it were available in paperback size, ARM devices has the perfect eReader for you -

1. It’s by Astri. Never heard of them before.
2. It has a 5″ eInk touchscreen with wacom i.e. capability for writing and note-taking.
3. It has a 4.8″ LCD screen running Android.
4. There’s a great video.

This is exactly the kind of device we need more of.

A few interesting Kindle articles

1. James Fallows at the Atlantic talks about the joys of people not knowing what you’re reading.
2. Newsosaur wonders - How long can print newspapers last?
3. 21 Publishers in Japan are banding together and re-negotiating copyright law with the Japanese Government. If you thought it was something to do with eBooks and Kindle in Japan you’d be right.

How long can newspapers last in print?

That’s a really good question – Perhaps 20 to 30 years. However, the tipping point would be when a print-only newspaper is no longer viable and that should be in 7-10 years.