new Kindle tips - things worth knowing

1. There is no spoon. And by spoon we mean power adapter. There’s a delicious irony in Amazon promoting Kindle with the tagline ‘No Computer Required’ but not shipping a product adapter. The only way to charge it (if you don’t buy an adapter for $10) is via the USB cable – which presumably will be attached to a PC or laptop. No Computer Required – Unless you want to recharge it.
2. You can get a screenshot by pressing the Menu and Keyboard buttons at the same time. Thanks to Mike at KDL Apps and Nate at The Digital Reader for this shortcut.
3. Don’t know of a way to refresh the screen.
4. It really is as good for core reading experience as any other Kindle. Finished The Strain in the last two days without eye strain or wrist strain or any other sort of strain. The eInk Pearl screen continues to do a fine job.
5. Special Offers might actually save you money. Despite all the (justified) anti-Ad sentiment, some of the Special Offers are straightforward things like $10 for a $20 gift card. You will probably find a few (perhaps even quite a few) money-saving deals. I’ve been very negative about ads but if Amazon uses this for Groupon type 50% off deals then – no complaints whatsoever.
6. The compactness is very good. As is the light weight. Hadn’t thought it would help with reading since Kindle 3 is already very small and light – However, it does help a bit.
7. $79 is the price for the new Kindle with Ads included – it’s not clear on the product page unless you look carefully. It’s beginning to stack up – Calling Ads as ‘Special Offers’, Listing ‘Kindle’ for $79 and then the small type indicates $79 is for ’Kindle with Special Offers’, the Power Adapter being separate but no clear indication that it has to be bought separately. Wonder how many people are going to realize only when their new Kindle arrives that there is no power adapter and that there are special offers instead of screensavers.
8. It looks quite a bit better than earlier Kindles. It’s also helpful that there is a black border around the eInk screen (which helps bring out the contrast too) and a frame/border around the bezel of the Kindle. ‘Kindle’ has replaced ‘Amazon Kindle’ on the front and back. An improvement and a simplification.
9. The page turn buttons’ size and placement is going to make some people unhappy.
10. There are two very interesting metallic contacts/squares at the back. When combined with the mini-slot at the bottom it makes you wonder if Amazon is going to make a stand or dock for new Kindle. Perhaps it’s just that the Reading Light for the new Kindle will be powered differently.
11. What a lot of people aren’t realizing is that no keyboard also means we lose a lot of shortcuts – Alt+B to bookmark, Alt+G to refresh the screen, etc.

Here are a few things existing Kindle owners will know but first time Kindle owners won’t:

1. You can press the Menu key to see – page numbers, time (at the top), and connection strength (at the top right). Note: The status bar at the top disappears once you move away from the first page you start reading from. Pressing Menu brings it back – You can see Book Title and battery life in it.
2. In the Settings section you can set your Kindle’s time. You can also find out various information and choose a WiFi network.
3. Please read this Kindle Tips post. Most of the tips will apply to Kindle 4 too.
4. Check this list of the best Kindle sites.

The Kindle Help Guide for new Kindle is just 21 pages. Seems a bit rushed.

new Kindle is the Kindle for Kids

Maurine reviews new Kindle at our Kindle App blog and her conclusion made me realize that Kindle 4 is close to being the Kindle for Kids -

 I highly recommend this as an option for children and teenagers that will not be taking notes on it.  The price is low enough that you can consider it a reasonable investment, they will not spend a lot of time using the keyboard or searching the web on it, and it will allow an e-reader to get into the hands of a young reader who will want to move up in value as they get older. If I am looking at the Kindle 4 from that point of view, I would give it a rating of 4 to 4.5.  It would make an awesome birthday or Christmas gift for the young reader.

If Amazon could – add gorilla glass and make the new Kindle screen crash-proof, make the eReader flexible or capable of taking shocks and falls, add more children’s books and more textbooks – it would turn new Kindle into a near-perfect Kindle for Kids.

Please Note: Some of the points in the earlier section are also based on Maurine’s Review of the New Kindle.

new Kindle as the Economy Kindle

$79 really does make new Kindle a Kindle nearly anyone can afford. It also becomes the Kindle that organizations and schools and companies can hand out to everyone in their ranks.

The friction in the path of buying new Kindle is minimal. At $79 its perfect for a world facing a global recession.

new Kindle book review

The Strain by Chuck Hogan and Guillermo del Toro. A poor man’s The Passage. A very poor man’s The Old Man and the Wasteland (4.5 stars on 244 reviews, indie author in the Top 100).

There are parts where the authors get all emotional in their writing and then get emotional trying to convey they are getting emotional. It’s also the most difficult-to-emphathize-with group of characters since Real Housewives of New York.

Here’s an example -

Life doesn’t go at all the way you think it will.

Eph nodded. “After what my parents went through, what they put me through, I always told myself, never, never, never, never.”

“I know.”

He folded in the spout on the milk carton. “So forget who did what. What we need to do now is make it up to him.”

“We do.”

Kelly nodded. Eph nodded. He swirled the milk around in the carton, feeling the coldness brush up against his palm.

“Christ, what a day.” he said.

The story itself is amazing. It’s just that the writing doesn’t match and at times is laughably bad. If you’ve seen Tropic Thunder – Imagine someone making that exact movie after having started out with the intention of making Platoon or Apocalypse Now.

Perhaps it’s appropriate that the Vampire/Apocalypse hybrid book read on the $79 Kindle doesn’t live up to the Vampire/Apocalypse hybrid books read on the $189 Kindle 3. Perhaps it’s just what has to be done to reach the lowest common denominator.

Law of Unintended Consequences

Highlighting on Kindle 4 is awkward and note-taking is painful. What that will probably lead to is people highlighting far less and reading straight through. Not bad for Amazon but it might take away from your personal experience if you tend to like highlighting or taking notes.

After the first 3-4 highlights – I just stopped highlighting. Probably because the process is -

1. Move to the start of the passage (same as on Kindle 3).
2. Press on 5-way (same as on Kindle 3).
3. Get Menu where sometimes first option is ‘Detailed Definition’ and sometimes first option is ‘Start Highlight’. Definitely differently from Kindle 3. Click ‘Start Highlight’. Screen Flashes (a flash that isn’t present on Kindle 3).
4. Move cursor to end of highlight (same as on Kindle 3).
5. Press down on 5-way (same as on Kindle 3).
6. Choose ‘End Highlight’ from a Menu – always the first option. Press down and get screen Flash. Kindle 3 also has one screen flash here – at the end of doing a highlight.

You have to admire the infinite skill of the person who designed it such that you have to click the 5-way 4 times, get two screen flashes, and choose Start/End Highlight from a Menu twice - all just to be able to highlight a passage.

Perhaps its a good thing – unless some passage transforms your life you’ll decide it just isn’t worth the effort to highlight it.

Amazon’s continued persecution of the Keyboard

It would be remiss to not point out the backwards evolution of the Kindle keyboard -

1. Kindle 1 – Reasonably large keyboard. Number Keys. Clunky but usable.
2. Kindle 2 - Smaller keys making it harder to use. Slightly less usable but still usable. Number keys still present.
3. Kindle 3 – Tinier keys so that Tom Thumb feels at home. No Number Keys. Tougher to use.
4. new Kindle – No keyboard.

It almost seems as if Amazon made a conscious decision to slowly kill off the keyboard. Decided that rather than wasting time writing notes people should finish the book.

new Kindle really is a new sort of Kindle

It hasn’t all fallen into place yet. However, there’s something more to this than no keyboard and $79 and Special Offers. There’s a very definite attempt by Amazon to do something significant. If there were a way to put all the improvements and all the negatives in the proper context – my suspicion is they would all end up being part of a very well-defined blueprint that morphs the Kindle into a new sort of Kindle.

new Kindle is a very significant shift. Kindles to this point have been primarily for dedicated readers and new Kindle is for casual readers. Kindles were meant to replace published books and new Kindle is an attempt to replace more than just books.

The shift isn’t complete yet. We aren’t yet at the stage where the pain of memories of home tears at our hearts. It’s just an inflection point. Kindle has gone from a device meant for people who love books to a device meant for everyone.

Kindle Touch Review – Main Features

Here’s what you get for $99 -

1. eInk Pearl Screen. This is optimized for reading and is the latest eInk technology available. It’s readable in sunlight but doesn’t come with a backlight.
2. 6″ screen with 600 by 800 resolution at 167 ppi.
3. Touch Screen. Lets you do things easier and quicker. Also page turns are noiseless.
4. Very simple to use. Touch adds even more simplicity to an already intuitive Kindle experience.
5. WiFi. Also free WiFi access at AT&T hotspots.
6. Solid Battery Life. If you read half an hour a day with wireless off you get 2 months battery life.
7. Wireless Downloads of books in 60 seconds over WiFi.
8. Kindle Store which has the best range of new books. It also has lots of free book offers and deals and the best book prices.
9. Library Book Support.
10. A compact and light eReader. It’s 6.8″ by 4.7″ by 0.40″. It’s also 7.5 ounces. It is supposed to be around 18% smaller than Kindle 3.
11. Experimental Browser.
12. 4 GB of memory of which 3 GB is available for you. Free Cloud Storage with unlimited capacity for Amazon content.
13. Text to Speech. Only available when Publishers haven’t disabled it. Available on all your personal documents.
14. Lending. One-time lending to one person. Only available when Publishers haven’t disabled it.
15. Kindle Reading Apps, WhisperSync, and other Amazon Infrastructure based features. You can continue reading across devices. You can sync notes.
16. PDF Support. Please Note: The 6″ screen is rather small for PDFs and there are still bugs with highlighting in PDFs etc. So this isn’t really a very good PDF reader.
17. There’s a new feature called X-Ray which lets you explore the bones of a book. Somewhere, House is laughing at the ridiculous analogy.
18. Faster page turns than Kindle 3.

Overall, you get a very impressive amount of value for money.

It is worth pointing out some disadvantages -

1. To get the $99 price you have to get the Kindle Touch with Special Offers. That means ads instead of screensavers and an ad on your Kindle home page.
2. There is no ePub support. That means you can’t really get ebooks from any of the other big ebook stores. It also means that if you decide to switch to another eReader you can’t take your Kindle books with you.
3. Touch is convenient – However, the typing will not be as convenient as with a physical keyboard. The lack of physical page turn buttons is also an inconvenience.
4. No 3G. The 3G version is $50 more expensive. It lets you download books via 3G and lets you do free Internet browsing in over 100 countries (only if your Home Country is the US).
5. Perhaps some things I’ve missed.

To be quite honest, there aren’t that many disadvantages. The Ads are annoying but at $99 you can’t really complain.

Amazon has taken back its ’Best eReader’ Crown. It’ll be interesting to see what B&N and Kobo do to counter.

Kindle Touch Review – Top 5 Kindle Touch Features

A quick summary of the 5 main benefits -

1. An eInk Pearl eReader for just $99.
2. Access to the Kindle Store.
3. Text to Speech.
4. Touch screen and generally very easy to use interface.
5. Compact, Light and Portable.

Everyone expected Amazon to try for a $99 Kindle – No one expected it to deliver a $99 Kindle Touch.

Kindle Touch Review – How important is the Touch Kindle price of $99?

The Kindle Touch at $99 is really good value for money. The key figure here is $99. It’s a really important price since it means that we go below the mythical $100 price barrier and lots of people who were unwilling to pay $114 for a Kindle 3 with Special Offers will now supposedly be psychologically compelled to buy the Kindle Touch with Special Offers for $99.

My gut feeling is that it’s going to work and the $99 Kindle Touch will sell like crazy. The $79 Kindle and $99 Kindle make price and value for money their main selling points and with their sub-$100 prices they remove what was perhaps the last big barrier to wide eReader adoption.

Kindle Touch for $99 or Kindle Keyboard for $99?

Not even going to discuss the $79 Kindle because its lack of speakers and lack of keyboard/touch make it a horror in my opinion. Just pay $20 more and get Text to Speech and background music and easy typing of notes.

Kindle Touch advantages – touch-screen, more compact, lighter, 4th generation kindle, easier interface thanks to touch.

Kindle Keyboard advantages – keyboard, page turn buttons, known to be very good, available now.

If you prefer a keyboard and/or must have physical page turn buttons and/or can’t wait for a month and a half, then Kindle Keyboard is a better option. In most other cases the Kindle Touch is the better choice. They both are very similar in most other ways. I’ll update this Kindle Touch review when the Kindle Touch ships.

You can find Kindle 4 photos and a more detailed review at the Kindle 4 Review, Photos page.

Kindle 4 Review – $79

The biggest selling point of the Kindle 4 is the $79 price. The general assumption has been that once Amazon hits $99 with a Kindle it will open up the floodgates. Well, Amazon has hit $79 and it is definitely going to lead to a huge number of sales.

First, we’ll look at the main features of the Kindle 4. Then we’ll look at whether you should get the $79 Kindle 4 or the $99 Kindle Keyboard or the $99 Kindle Touch.

Kindle 4 Review – Main Features of the $79 Kindle

Here’s what you get for $79 -

1. The latest eInk screen technology. It’s eInk Pearl and it’s optimized for reading. You can read it in sunlight but there is no backlight.
2. The screen is 6″ with 600 by 800 pixel resolution and 16 levels of grey-scale. Note: This is a black and white screen, not color.
3. A very light and compact eReader. It’s just 5.98 ounces (170 grams) and it’s small enough to fit in your pocket. Exact dimensions: 6.5″ x 4.5″ x 0.34″ (166 mm x 114 mm x 8.7 mm).
4. WiFi. Also included is free access at AT&T hotspots.
5. It has 2 GB of internal memory with 1.25 GB available for you. That can hold 1,400 books.
6. Free Cloud Storage for all Amazon content you buy.
7. Battery life of 1 month with wireless off (and half an hour a day of reading). Battery life of 3 weeks with wireless on (again with half an hour a day of reading).
8. USB 2.0 connector.
9. Formats supported: Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC.
10. Formats Supported after conversion: HTML, DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP.
11. Experimental Browser.
12. Faster page turns than Kindle 3 had.
13. Adjustable Font Sizes and Fonts optimized for the eInk Pearl screen – for speed and readability.
14. Support for Latin, Greek, and Non-Latin characters including English, Cyrillic, Japanese, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), and Korean.
15. Option to switch between Portrait and Landscape Mode.

That’s a bit overwhelming so let’s look at Top 5 Benefits.

Kindle 4 Review – Top 5 Kindle Benefits

Here is why you might want to get a $79 Kindle -

1. It’s just $79.
2. It’s the same excellent-for-reading eInk Pearl screen the $189 Kindle 3 had (now just $99 if you don’t mind ads in screensavers and at the bottom of your home page).
3. It’s very light and compact and portable and WiFi lets you carry it around and get books and browse anywhere there is a WiFi network you can access. It has great battery life which adds to the portability.
4. You get access to the Kindle Store and Amazon’s infrastructure. Including free Cloud storage for your Amazon purchases and features like WhisperSync.
5. You get support for library books.

There are also some concerns -

1. With neither a keyboard nor a touchscreen the usability will be bad – and downright terrible for taking notes or writing down anything.
2. No Speakers – That means no text to speech and no music in the background.
3. For just $20 more you can get a Kindle Touch or a Kindle Keyboard which are much better. Both in value for money and in overall features.
4. The memory is on the low side – With 1.25 GB available and with no memory card slot you are stuck if you like carrying a lot of books around with you.
5. Battery life is less – just 1 month compared to 2 months for the Kindle Touch and the Kindle Keyboard.
6. Update: Without ePub support it means you can only buy books from Kindle Store.

We keep coming back to the comparison with the Kindle Touch and Kindle Keyboard so let’s look at it in more depth.

Kindle 4 Review – What about $20 more for the Kindle Touch or the Kindle Keyboard?

If you don’t need touch and don’t need a keyboard - then the $79 Kindle is great. Please do note that the lack of a keyboard (physical or touch based) will make some things difficult. Also, it doesn’t have speakers so no Text to Speech which is one of the biggest Amazon/Kindle advantages.

If you like to take notes or like having a physical keyboard – then the Kindle Keyboard is the best choice. It’s not as compact and page turns are not as fast. However, it’s a pretty good deal at $99. It also has speakers. Note: It is the third generation Kindle so it’s not as new as the $79 Kindle or the $99 Kindle Touch.

If you want a touchscreen and are OK with an on-screen touch keyboard – then the Kindle Touch is the best choice. It also has speakers. It’s also a Kindle 4 i.e. a fourth generation Kindle.

In my opinion, it’s a far better decision to get the Kindle Touch or the Kindle Keyboard. In either case, for just $20 more, you are getting a far more usable interface. I’ll update this Kindle 4 Review by Friday or Saturday. However, it’s pretty clear in my mind that you lose a lot by choosing the $79 Kindle over the $99 Kindle Touch or the $99 Kindle Keyboard.

The international version is $109 and is also available now.

Key selling points -

1. 5.98 ounces. Making it 30% lighter than Kindle 3.
2. 18% smaller body. Fits in your pocket. Just don’t use your back pocket.
3. No keyboard.
4. 6″ screen size.
5. Most advanced eInk display – Guess that means eInk Pearl.
6. WiFi.
7. Library Book Support.

The $79 Kindle is super compelling. It blows away expectations. People expected it to be $99. If you don’t need touch then $79 Kindle is the ideal choice.

Kindle Touch is here and it’s just $99

Mr. Bezos introduces the Kindle Touch.

1. It has an IR Touch System.
2. There’s something called Easy Reach. So the Tap Areas for various functions like Previous Page and Next Page and Menu are different and supposedly easier.
3. The lack of physical buttons is disconcerting.
4. A new contextual reading feature called X-Ray. It takes information from Shelfari.
5. Built-in Wikipedia – Now it’s stored on your Kindle Touch.
6. Mr. Bezos talking about what would happen if Kindle were $99. Will Kindle Touch be less than $100?
7. Yes, Kindle Touch is $99. That’s a very impressive price.

Various Interesting Snippets from Kindle Tablet Event

Pre-conference thoughts.

1. The $199 price for the Kindle Fire got leaked around 15 minutes before the event actually started.
2. The $99 Kindle price got leaked too – though the claims were $79.
3. Reports that B&N’s Nook Color has been cut to $224 to compete. However, I don’t find it on their site.
4. Two point multi-touch screen. For comparison the iPad has 10-point multi-touch. On the other hand, Kindle Fire is just $199.
5. It’s WiFi based with no 3G.
6. There is no camera

Note: There’s some funny business going on at Amazon with Kindle related links. So new Kindles are likely to be here. There are rumors of a $79 Kindle.

Thanks to TechCrunch for some of the details of the Kindle Fire.

Jeff Bezos on why he thinks Kindle is working:

because Kindle is an end-to-end service, and I believe it is because we have been inventing and improving that service at a rapid pace for the last four years.”

Apparently that rapid pace doesn’t apply to the screen technology.

There was a graph shown of Kindle Books catching up with physical book sales in just 3 years.

First 12 or so minutes is all rehashing what we all already know. Even the Graph isn’t really new news.

Then, long section on Kindle Touch – listed above.

Well, there are two more Kindles.

Kindle Touch 3G for $149

Kindle Touch with 3G. $50 more.

$79 Kindle

This is the big deal. The really big deal.

1. It’s for people who don’t need Touch. It doesn’t have a keyboard.
2. It ships today. You can get the $79 Kindle at Amazon.
3. It is less than six ounces in weight. 5.98 to be precise.
4. Extra Long Battery Life – No specifics yet.
5. Free Storage in the Amazon Cloud.
6. Most Advanced eInk Display – presumably that means eInk Pearl.
7. 18% smaller than Kindle 3.
8. Faster page turns. Page turn buttons and no keyboard.

The price just destroys the competition. $79 is unreal. $99 for the Kindle Touch is pretty unreal too.

At least that’s what Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (who used to work at DigiTimes earlier) claims. Given his background at DigiTimes there’s a 50% chance he’s 100% spot on and a 50% chance Amazon never ever releases a touch Kindle.

His $99 Kindle and Kindle Touch predictions are at Apple Insider. Which makes sense given how much Apple Blogs care about the lost art of animated page turns.

Here is what he says Amazon will reveal on Wednesday (in addition to Kindle Fire, the Kindle Tablet) -

1. $99 Kindle with a 6″ eInk screen, 256 MB RAM, and a faster Freescale processor. He claims it will not have 3G, not have a touch screen, and not have speakers. The $99 price-point will move 8 million of these $99 Kindles. At least that’s what Mr. Kuo thinks.
2. Kindle Touch with a touch screen (via Infra Red), 6″ eInk screen, 3G capability, and speakers. The processor and RAM will be the same as the $99 version. Ming-Chi Kuo expects that 4 million of these will ship by end of 2011.
3. A 7″ IPS Kindle Tablet. 512 MB Ram, capacitive touch screen, no 3G connection. He expects Amazon to target a $199 or $249 price point and sell 3 million units by end of 2011.
4. The release dates are rumored to be – end September for the $99 Kindle and for the Kindle Tablet; early October for Kindle Touch.
5. The final rumor – That Amazon has a 10.1″ iPad competitor lined up for early 2012 and a 8.9″ Tablet with an amazing form factor that manufacturers are struggling to recreate.

Apparently, Amazon is going to follow up Kindle Fire with Kindle Inferno and Kindle ‘Burning Hell’. Let’s hope Amazon doesn’t take those suggestions seriously.

What would a $99 Kindle mean?

A lot of sales. Sony Reader gets destroyed. Nook Touch sales dip. Kobo sales decimated.

Every other eReader company would have to cut prices immediately and drastically. B&N has a new eReader lined up and it would have to make some hard decisions about whether it would match Kindle on price or not. Nook’s big advantage was library book support and now that’s gone. Which means price becomes very, very critical.

What would a Touch Kindle mean?

Amazon finally catches up with Kobo Touch and Nook Touch. It seems to me that Amazon was forced to do this - that Amazon’s heart wasn’t really in making a token touchscreen eReader.

For people who love touch and/or love having the newest features – Kindle Touch becomes a worthy challenger to the other touch screen eInk eReaders.

Is Amazon making a mistake by playing its hand so early?

Perhaps.

With the $99 eReader – other companies might find it very hard to match the $99 Kindle on price. So no big issues there.

With the Touch eReader – gives Kobo and Nook time to figure out how to beat Kindle over the Holiday Season. Perhaps a mistake.

With the Kindle Tablet – Definitely. Nook Color 2 has the advantage of being a second generation Tablet. By knowing exactly what Kindle Tablet will be, B&N can strategize around it. It probably already has a very solid Tablet and now it can counter Kindle Tablet much more effectively.

It’s very strange. The news of the $99 Kindle and the Kindle Touch is very unexpected. Logically, these were the two options Amazon had and everyone expected it to embrace one of them. No one expected Amazon to do both at the same time, and definitely not in September. Wednesday just might be the next very important date in the annals of eReader history.

Actually, it’s not.

It’s just the latest sign that Kindle 4 (AKA Touchable, Delectable Kindle with Politically Correct But Totally Boring Name that Kills Brevity and Chops it into a Thousand Little Pieces) is about to be announced in two to three weeks.

Given that there is a small chance we might see something exciting -

1. 3% chance we’ll see a 100% amazing color screen or something equally cool like gesture recognition.
2. 97% chance we’ll see a 10% amazing touch screen or a 1% amazing low-priced Kindle with Super Special 1-Day Only Offers with Cashback.

It makes absolutely no sense to buy a Kindle right now.

Of course, if you belong to the grand tradition of ‘Reading is not worth more than a $100 device’ then congratulations – You can get a refurbished WiFi for $99, and then write about how it sucks because unlike a real book it doesn’t work without external lighting … ummm … that’s confusing … you mean to say real books never used to work without external light.

Does this really mean a new Kindle is around the corner?

Yes, because Amazon loves to go indirect and put ‘refurbished’ Kindles on sale. Of course, it doesn’t mean that every (or any) refurbished Kindle sold for $99 will actually be new.

Please Note: This is conjecture – there is little chance that you’ll get a new Kindle. Assume that there is a 100% chance you will get a refurbished Kindle with Tommy loves Becky carved into the Silicon motherboard.

Amazon tends to do one or more of the following when it has a new model about to arrive – put the current model on sale or cut the price (which it did via the Kindle 3G with Special Offers move), put the ‘refurbished’ version on sale (which it just did today), organize a leak to BusinessWeek or another main stream publication (which should happen next week).

All signs point to a Kindle 4 being right around the corner. Amazon has become so obvious that even the main stream blogs are taking a break from writing about how iPhone 5 might be 0.05 picometer thinner than iPhone 4 to write about the amazing, journalistic-insight-filled news that Kindle 4 might be arriving soon.

Tip of the Hat to Google

Our favorite ‘All Your Books are Belong to Us’ company Google has managed a feat that Schroedinger’s Cat would be proud of -

1. Google Spectral Presence 1 – It is so wrong that Apple and Microsoft are buying up patents and will make more money from Android than we will. Patents are wrong. Patents are just standing in the way of innovation. All these telecom patents are just limiting progress. After all, who cares about some algorithm that lets you get data faster?
2. Google Spectral Presence 2 – Hey, did you hear about the cool new patent we got for our Google Doodles. Because it’s such a cool amazing idea – to draw Doodles and use that to get people interested in visiting our site. It’s deep and meaningful and not trivial and unworthy of patents like some random telecommunication patents which cover technology that billions of cellphones use.

It’s interesting how people develop religion around companies.

The person who has Google religion refuses to acknowledge that iPhone is easier to use.

The person who has Apple religion refuses to acknowledge that Microsoft’s Kinect is a pretty cool technology and probably more revolutionary than something like FaceTime which was already available via a dozen different companies.

The person who has Microsoft religion refuses to acknowledge that it’s impressive (and disconcerting) that Google still has the clearly best Search Engine. That even after fitting in 19 ads and 19 links to Google’s other sites, Google still has better search results than its competitors. If that isn’t a miracle, what is?

Will we start seeing the same thing with Kindle and Sony Reader and Nook?

What happens if Amazon releases a totally pointless Kindle 4? Will Kindle owners be able to recognize its lack of impressiveness or are they wedded to the belief that Kindle is untouchable?

What happens if Amazon releases something truly impressive? Will Nook owners just pretend that color (or gesture recognition) means nothing?

What if Sony’s new eReaders (yes, those are around the corner too and promise to have WiFi) are way better than Nook Touch and Kindle 4?

What about the Kindle Tablet?

Truthfully, if Kindle 4 only has touch then it’s as unremarkable as a doorknob in a house with 25 rooms.

In that case, the Kindle tablet becomes far more interesting.

Will it talk to you and ask you how your day at work went? Will it come in for under $200? Will it be possessive and be jealous of your long walks with your dog? Will it come with free movies and free music?

The Kindle Tablet is the promised Tablet that shall turn the iPad market into a Tablet market. Will it really do that? What effect will it have on the delightful Nook Color? Will there be a Nook Color 2 that will steal the Kindle Tablet’s thunder and send Amazon back to the drawing board?

Exciting times – we live in exciting times. And sometimes the excitement ends up being justified.

Thanks to some intrepid investigative journalism by the Wall Street Journal (or perhaps due to a planned leak by Amazon’s ultra-efficient and effective PR team) we find out the following -

1. Amazon has an iPad competitor lined up for an October release (it has a 9″ screen – which of course means it sucks compared to the iPad 3 with its 10″ RetinaPlus screen that shows things in 3D even when they are 1D and has a magical 23% extra screen real estate so you can see the tears fall on your daughter’s shirt when you tell her how much Facetime means to you). At this point the Kindle Tablet is such a given that WSJ’s only contribution is furnishing a release date.
2. Amazon has two Kindles lined up for an October release. These are rumored to ship around the same time as the Kindle Tablet - which would suggest a Kindle 4 Release Date of October 2011. Quite plausible.
3. Kindle 4 Touch will be an improved and updated Kindle 3 with a touchscreen. It is rumored to be aimed squarely at Nook 2 and Kobo Touch.
4. Kindle 4 Value (you know Amazon is never going to pick a name that short) will also be an updated and improved Kindle 3 but with no touch screen and a new, low price. It is probably aimed at people who think paying more than $99 for a device dedicated to reading is a terrible, terrible travesty.
5. The rumors also suggest (and hopefully they are wrong in this case) that the screen technology will still be eInk Pearl.

Given Amazon’s amazing ability to release leaks at the most appropriate times, and through the most well-established newspapers and magazines, it’s highly unlikely that this information was gleaned by hacking through discarded hard drives or other investigative means. It seems to be part of a well planned offensive to take on Kobo Touch and Nook 2.

In fact, what’s the probability that this scoop would arrive on the EXACT SAME DAY as the $139 Kindle 3G with AT&T blessings?

Update: Rough guesses for what Amazon is going to name the two new Kindle 4 versions -

Kindle 4 Touch – Super-Newest Kindle with magical eInk Pearl screen and UltraTouch touch capability with free 3G sponsored by AT&T with super special get-paid offers (Global Wireless).

Kindle 4 Value – So Cheap It Makes Us Cry To Sell It Kindle with blissful eInk Pearl screen and revolutionary $99 pricing and Security-Enhanced WiFi (which is not the same as 3G but does pretty much the same thing).

Kindle 4 Release Date of October 2011 – Is it likely?

Actually, yes. It would be 1 year and 3 months since the Kindle 3 and Kindle WiFi launched. It would also be right in time for Holiday Season 2011.

There are a few reasons this ‘two Kindles released in October 2011′ strategy seems very likely -

1. Amazon was probably waiting for new screen technology (color eInk) and found out it wasn’t arriving in 2011. That forced it to release Kindle 4 this year with something that isn’t that big a deal (touch) to keep up with Nook 2 and Kobo Touch.
2. The release of two versions of Kindle 4 seems very consistent with Amazon’s modus operandi of targeting the middle (earlier $189, now $139) and lower (currently $119, possibly $99 by October 2011) segments of the eReader market.
3. Wall Street Journal doesn’t really print things unless it has a good source. In this case, for reasons stated above, it might have the best possible source.
4. It makes a lot of sense. Amazon competes more effectively with 2 of its main competitors and also goes for the casual reader market (not to mention the magical price point of $99 where people magically forget it’s just $1 less than $100).
5. Amazon has to release something. A Kindle Tablet to counter iPad 2/3 and Nook Color 1/2. A new Kindle 4 to counter Nook 2 and Kobo Touch. October 2011 is about a year too late – better late than never.

It just seems very plausible that a Kindle 4 Touch and a Kindle 4 Value are slated for an October 2011 release.

Kindle 4 in October 2011 – Why leak the news now?

It’s strategy similar to something Sony tried in 2009 (with limited success) – It released a Pocket Edition that was cheaper than Kindle 2 and a more expensive Touch Edition that had Touch (years before touch became a feature almost every eReader had).

Sony tried to squeeze Kindle 2 between value for money (Pocket Edition) and latest features (Touch Edition).

Amazon is now trying to do the same to Nook 2 and Kobo Touch. Kindle 3G with Special Offers attacks them on the value for money front. You can’t really fight against free global 3G (for US customers only) unless the customer just doesn’t want 3G. The Kindle 4 promises to be the ‘technologically better’ version with the latest features (which possibly help it outshine Nook 2).

The leaked news that a new, improved, shinier Kindle 4 is around the corner just ensures that people who are willing to wait a bit (or those who can’t bear to buy a device that might soon get surpassed by a competitor) will wait to see what the Kindle 4 is like. Nook 2 can’t compete with people’s wishes and imagination – so a lot of eReader purchase decisions get put on hold until October 2011.

Amazon also throws in two Kindle 4 versions – an ultra-cheap one, and one with touch and ‘improvements’. So, whether you are a person inclined to wait for a newer device, or a person looking for a sub-$99 eReader, Amazon is telling you that it’s best to wait 3 months and see what Kindle 4 Touch and Kindle 4 Value have to offer.

It’s a really interesting move. Amazon has probably taken its years and years of customer purchases data and figured out the best ways to fight against Nook 2′s evil touch (evil in Amazon’s eyes, not mine – lest Nook 2 owners get hurt).

$139 Kindle 3G and Kindle 4 Double Whammy

Consider the contrast -

Yesterday: Nook 2 was arguably the best eReader. Kobo Touch was fighting with Kindle 3 for the #2 spot. Nook 2 was also, arguably, offering the most value for money.

Today: Everything’s been blown up. $139 Kindle 3G with Special Offers is now offering the most value for money. Kindle 4 Touch (arriving by October 2011, supposedly) might be the new best eReader and what’s a wait of 3 months. Kindle 4 Value (possibly arriving in October 2011 at $99) is another contender for most value for money eReader.

In the course of one Press Release and one ‘scoop’ Amazon has ensured that Nook 2 won’t eat its lunch in the Back to School season. Amazon is likely to succeed in preventing Nook 2 from carving out a huge share of the eReader market. B&N still has time to make a big move but how do you compete against a black hole which prospective eReader owners will fill with their ideal features and wishes and dreams?

1. Kindles in a pure and unadulterated form.
2. Groupon Kindles. The basic Kindles transformed into a means of offering deals on everything Amazon sells (and on lots of things it doesn’t).
3. Ad Kindles (thanks to Mickery for the name AdKindle – it’s perfect). The basic Kindles transformed into an advertising vessel.

If you consider Amazon’s long-term approach to everything, it’s pretty obvious that Kindle with Special Offers isn’t where the journey ends – it’s just the first step.

Why would Amazon want to add deals and/or ads to the Kindle?

For lots of reasons -

1. Amazon can cut down on price and increase sales. While the $114 AdKindle isn’t impressing too many people, a $99 version would have a big impact.
2. There are people who want Groupon type offers. Tens of millions of people follow deal sites like SlickDeals and subscribe to Groupon and Living Social. Quite a few of them would want a deal delivering Kindle – even ones who don’t read very much.
3. Rather than challenge other niches like phones and tablets head-on, it makes a lot of sense to expand the Kindle’s functionality and market gradually.
4. Amazon is making a concerted push in advertising. It’s been showing ads on Amazon.com and it’s probably begun thinking of the Kindle as a means to add to the advertising push.
5. Groupon and Living Social are threats to Amazon in the long term. They are the #1 and #2 destination for group buying deals on ‘events/experiences’ - they could easily expand into deals of all sorts. Imagine Groupon having deals on computers and books. It’s not very far-fetched.
6. Google is bound to bring advertising to books. Perhaps Amazon wants to do it before Google does. Perhaps Amazon is just beefing up its advertising in books patent defence by introducing a product that uses ads to an extent.
7. There might be a very big market for people who want to use Kindle as a shopping device for everything.
8. Perhaps ebooks going to $1 (or even zero) is looking like a strong possibility. Amazon might need to figure out a way to make profits from the Kindle in other ways.
9. Amazon might have hit a wall in its attempts to increase Kindle sales (or perhaps it expects to). If so, then the only way to further increase sales would be to expand what the Kindle can be used for.

There are actually a lot of very good reasons for adding in Groupon style deals and iAds style advertisements.

It’s very interesting that Amazon is going about it in such an incremental fashion – All it is, is a minor software upgrade.

Economies of Scale

Amazon has brought the Kindle price down to $139 (for the Kindle WiFi). The next big milestone is $99.

How does it hit $99 quicker? One option is Kindle with Special Offers.

What does it do after hitting $99 (to expand further)? One option is a Groupon Kindle that offers deals in addition to ebooks.

To develop eInk and Kindle further Amazon needs money. To get money it needs lots of sales. To get sales it needs to offer lots of value for money and low prices. To lower prices and increase value for money Amazon needs a better Kindle. It’s a bit of a cyclical problem. One way out is to sell AdKindles and Groupon Kindles.

Amazon is stuck – It needs to compete against devices like phones and tablets that are evolving very quickly. It doesn’t yet have the economies of scale to do so - So, it has to figure out a way to get similar economies of scale. Increasing Kindle sales is the only option.

Why would Amazon want to create a Groupon Kindle?

Because it sells everything.

Amazon always talks about how people buy a lot more books from Amazon once they own a Kindle. It never mentions another possibility – That Kindle owners buy more ‘things that are not books or ebooks’ from Amazon than they used to.

The last thing it wants is for WalMart and brick and mortar retailers to know that it’s found the next big magical step in customer loyalty and increased sales.

It probably has.

Kindle with Special Offers is a tentative step. Trying to get one step closer without anyone realizing what this is really about. Once Amazon has gotten a Kindle into a customer’s hands, and gotten that customer onto Amazon Prime, it’s game over – other companies can’t touch that customer 90% of the time.

Its enemies are probably using lobbyists to attack Amazon via the sales tax movement (just conjecture). Meanwhile, Amazon is building up two channels/advantages (Kindle and Prime) that will more than make up for the lost sales tax advantage.

Why would Amazon want to create an AdKindle?

The signs are clear that ebooks are migrating towards very low prices. Water for Elephants is at #1 and it’s priced at $4.17. There are lots of $1 indie author novels, and quite a few sub-$5 published author novels, in the Top 100. In just a few years we’ve gone from $5 books being considered deals to $1 books being deals.

All along, the premise has been that low-priced Kindles don’t make much profit but ebooks do. What happens if ebooks drop in price to $1 and $3?

Perhaps an AdKindle is a hedge. A device for a world where eReaders are $99 and ebooks are $0.99. It might not be a very far-fetched scenario given the speed with which ebooks are spreading and the rate at which ebook prices are dropping.

The other possibility is that Amazon knows, and it should be pretty obvious, that Google will burn up yet another market to protect search. Google could care less whether ebooks are $0 or $1 or $10 – As long as it owns one more source of content and can channel those readers into Google search and show them ads. The Book Settlement was struck down so one of the two golden pillars is gone – the other is ads in ebooks.

Amazon can’t fight ad-sponsored books with purity – because there will always be a non-trivial number of readers willing to bear ads for a 50% discount. Amazon has to be prepared to sell actual ebooks with ads. Which means that AdKindle and Kindle with Special Offers are necessary releases – a pre-emptive defence against the Destroyer of Profitable Markets.

Where does that leave us readers?

In an unsettling place. Amazon might not have very much choice. In the end it will have no option but to offer -

1. Regular Books for $9.99 and $4.99.
2. Ad-sponsored Books for $4.99 and $1.99.

AdKindles and Groupon Kindles are a given. AdKindles to preserve Amazon’s place in selling books and Groupon Kindles to preserve Amazon’s place in retail.

Hopefully, there will always be pure Kindles and pure books available.

There’s a very interesting discussion currently going on at the official Kindle forum - ‘A wishlist for the 4th generation Kindle’.

Kindle owners’ Kindle 4 wishlist

Here’s what people are wishing for, with my thoughts in italics -

Note: Have put my favorite suggestions at the top.

1. A faster processor, with faster web page downloads. Faster processor would definitely be nice. Web page downloads are probably restricted by speed of the 3G connection, or perhaps by some sort of throttling courtesy AT&T. 
2. Nested Collections (collections within collections). This would be a sweet feature addition.
3. 7″ screen. A wonderful suggestion.
4. Higher resolution screen. Another great suggestion. We have had more than enough contrast improvements – time to improve the resolution.
5. Custom Screensavers. We can hope. Also a few people asking for image packs – what a splendid idea.
6. Support for Library Books. Not many people mentioned this – which was very surprising.
7. Number keys with @ in a row above QWERTY keys. Please bring this back, Amazon.
8. Slide-out keyboard. An interesting suggestion.
9. Better Keyboard. Yes. A proper keyboard would be a huge Kindle advantage – it’s time Amazon built a top notch Kindle keyboard.
10. Flexible Kindle that can be bent as the user pleases. It would also make the Kindle very hard to break when dropped – hopefully.
11. A more streamlined interface with better sorting. Quite a few people asking for this.
12. Multiple user profiles on a Kindle. Different readers could share a Kindle better. Amazon probably wants each user to buy a Kindle of her/his own so it’s doubtful Amazon will ever add this.
13. Turn on the microphone. Amen to that.
14. A backlight. There’s no reason the pull out light can’t be ‘in the Kindle’.
15. Allow books from other sources. Not a lot of people asking for this. Little chance Amazon adds this feature.
16. Bring back the memory card slot. Another great suggestion.
17. Color – with the option to turn it on or off. Color would certainly be nice.
18. A touchscreen. Just one person asked for this – this would add a lot if done right. Most of the gains would not be in reading though.
19. Ability to manage Kindle collections on the PC. That would be a useful feature.
20. Letters that don’t rub off. It would be nice if Kindle owners didn’t find the letters on their Kindle’s keyboards getting rubbed off. 
21. Books that are already read being marked as such. Such a simple addition and it would add so much value.
22. Better support for images in books.
23. Download all ebooks to Kindle in one go. This would certainly be nice – except Amazon and AT&T would both have heart attacks.
24. The ability to choose what music to play and the ability to organize music. Agreed. The current music controls are painful.
25. Make the menus wrap-around so that pressing down at the bottom goes to the top-most item, and pressing up at the top goes to the bottom-most item.
26. 1-click bookmark. If something simpler than Alt+B can be done that would be nice. Perhaps use Shift as the bookmark key.
27. Option to reset ‘last page read’.
28. Smaller Bezel. This is already too small for some people, so not sure if it’s a good idea.
29. Buttons to feel more rubbery. Don’t even know what that means.
30. More Graphic Battery Monitor. Agreed.
31. Battery Indicator as a Percentage. This would do the trick too.
32. Wireless headset. Lots of requests for this. Kindle 4 would have to have bluetooth added in.
33. More Graphic Memory Monitor. Don’t know.
34. Bigger battery that supports 2 corner reading lights. Don’t know about this one.
35. Brightness settings for the reading light. A good idea – a dimmer would be nice.
36. Replaceable battery and battery life monitor. The latter sounds too macabre – Your Battery has 27 days to live. Get the coffin ready. Buy a book of poems by Sylvia Plath.
37. Ability to organize books by publication date. Very useful.
38. Spill and Water Resistant. Interesting.
39. Ability to specify the time period after which the Kindle screensaver will appear. A good suggestion.
40. Discount on Kindle 4 for existing Kindle owners. This would be beautiful.
41. Voice Commands. A very cool feature.
42. Louder sound settings for those with hearing problems. Great suggestion. 
43. On/off slider at the top instead of at the bottom. Wonder if there are any manufacturing benefits to having it at the bottom.

That’s a very impressive list of suggestions. It’s doubtful that any single person could have come up with a list half as good. You can find the Kindle 4 wishlist thread at Amazon – thank to Capt. D for starting it.

Here’s an interesting tip from Paxton -

you can directly select music now. Just add the MP3 to your documents folder instead of (or as well as) your Music folder. Then create a “Music Collection” to store them in. Then if you want to play songs one at a time, you can pick whichever one you want.

Will have to check that out. Note: It only plays one song at a time, and a song played this way doesn’t play in the background when reading.

My Kindle 4 wishlist

A Kindle Tablet that is Amazon’s equivalent of the Nook Color.

That’s it.

A hacked Nook Color with Kindle for Android is just too ghetto – It’s like someone did everything Steve Jobs asks his designers not to do. Kindle for Android just doesn’t cut it on Nook Color – the app needs to be built from the ground up as a reading tablet app.

The Nook Color’s default reading app is very good – However, it does keep losing your place in the book. More importantly, you don’t have your Kindle library.

If a Kindle Reading Tablet is not possible, then a flexible, foldable, ‘fits in your pocket’ Kindle 4 with handwriting recognition would be great. Color would be a nice bonus.