Find eBook Readers Blog » kindle dx

New Kindle feature lets readers connect with authors

Richard — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 17:38:36 +0000

On its Kindle Daily Post blog Amazon has announced a new social reading feature for the Kindle ereaders. @author lets readers ask authors questions about their books. To use the tool highlight a passage in the book on the Kindle ereader with the 5-way controller and then type “@author” followed by your question. Amazon will tweet the question and it will be posted on the Author Page. If the author answers your question you will be notified by email.

The feature us still in beta — some of the authors currently participating:

Ted Dekker: (@tedDekker) Forbidden and The Priest’s Graveyard
Timothy Ferriss: (@tferriss) The 4-Hour Body and The 4-Hour Workweek
Marie Force: (@MarieForce) Ready for Love and Fool for Love
Barbara Freethy: (@BarbaraFreethy) Love Will Find a Way and One True Love
Steven Johnson: (@stevenbjohnson) Where Good Ideas Come From and Everything Bad Is Good for You
Robert Kiyosaki: (@theRealKiyosaki) Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Rich Dad’s Cashflow Quadrant
J.A. Konrath: (@jakonrath) SERIAL and Endurance
John Locke: (@DonovanCreed) The Love You Crave and Lethal People
Elisa Lorello: (@ElisaLorello) Ordinary World
C.J. Lyons: (@cjlyonswriter) Blind Faith and Borrowed Time
Debbi Mack: (@debbimack) Identity Crisis and Least Wanted
Brad Meltzer: (@bradmeltzer) The Inner Circle and The Zero Game
Scott Nicholson: (@hauntedcomputer) Ashes and Write Good or Die
Susan Orlean: (@susanorlean) Rin Tin Tin and The Orchid Thief
Deborah Reed: (@DebReedAuthor) Carry Yourself Back to Me and A Small Fortune
James Rollins: (@jamesrollins) The Skeleton Key and The Devil Colony

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E Ink and Epson announce sharper, faster e-ink display

Richard — Tue, 17 May 2011 16:57:07 +0000

E Ink and Epson today announced that they have jointly developed a new e-ink display with a resolution of 300-dpi. This compares to current ereader displays which have a resolution of 160-dpi. The sharper display combined with quicker page turns, thanks to Epson’s high-speed display controller platform, will result in ereaders that the two companies hope will be more appealing to businesses and educational users. The sharper display should also work better for character-based written languages such as Japanese and Chinese.

"As the adoption of eReaders continues to rise worldwide, the opportunities for our EPD technology are expanding in new market segments including business and education," said Scott Liu, chairman of E Ink. "We continue to improve E Ink’s technology to meet the demands of our customers and the needs of consumers, and this new EPD delivers the low power, sunlight readability and thin, lightweight form factor users have come to expect from E Ink at an even higher resolution."

"We developed this device specifically to meet the high data demands of business and academia," said Torao Yajima, managing director at Epson. "Our IC controller and processing power enables the display to handle large files while maintaining the excellent display control and operability found in today’s EPDs, including fast page navigation and a sophisticated user interface."

The new display is 9.7 inches and will feature a resolution of 2400 x 1650 pixels. This could be the next Kindle DX. No word on when the new screens will be available in ereaders on the shelves, but I’m guessing first part of next year. E Ink will be showing a demo of the new screen at SID this week.

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Kindle Mother’s Day promotion

Richard — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 15:59:01 +0000

To promote Mother’s Day Amazon has started offering a $25 Amazon.com gift card with the purchase of either the Kindle 3G or Kindle DX ereaders. The promotion will end on May 8, 2011.

To take advantage of this offer you need to put the gift card in your shopping cart by checking the “Add a $25 Amazon.com Gift Card at no extra cost” button located under the buy buttons.

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Kindle ereaders will soon be able to borrow library ebooks

Richard — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 15:48:16 +0000

Well, this is something I didn’t expect to be writing about any time soon. Amazon has announced that it is indeed working with OverDrive to bring library ebook checkouts to the Kindle ereaders.

The new feature will launch later this year and will work on all models of Kindle ereaders as well as the free Kindle apps. Note taking and highlighting will be supported, and if you borrow the ebook again or buy the Kindle book all of your annotations and bookmarks will be preserved.

Being able to borrow ebooks from public libraries on the Kindle (provided the library is one of the 11,000 plus in the US that are powered by OverDrive) will remove one common complaint about the Kindle and a reason some consumers might have for buying an ereader other than Amazon’s. The Kindle Store seems to get the most free promotional ebooks, and now Kindlers will also have access to public library ebook holdings. At the moment this feature may not seem really important, especially if your local public library does not have many ebooks yet. But in the future the ability to borrow library ebooks will become increasingly valuable as libraries grow their digital collections.

Reading library ebooks may not be a perfect fit for you if your are into the instant gratification of your need to read. There is usually a waiting list, and sometimes it can be quite a long one for popular titles. You have limited time to read the borrowed book and usually can not renew it — if you don’t finish a book in the allotted time you will have to get back in line to check it out again. The maximum checkout period at my library is 21 days. While this is normally plenty of time, it may mean putting down your current read unfinished to accept your requested title when it does become available.

There also appears to be some sort of “When it Rains it Pours” clause written into the fine print on the back of my library card that seems to dictate that all titles on my waiting list shall become available at the same time regardless of whether requested six days or six months prior.

One nice thing about digital books as opposed to the paper books you might borrow from the library — ebooks don’t get stinky, dirty and full of questionable stains. That’s right, you can toss the reading gloves.

Update: OverDrive notes that once the Kindle Library Lending program goes into effect a public library’s existing collection of ebooks will all be Kindle compatible. Libraries will not need to purchase new Kindle versions of their existing ebooks.

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Kindle DX on sale

Richard — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:21:15 +0000

Amazon is offering the Kindle DX for $299. This is an $80 (21%) discount off the regular price of $379. This appears to be a one-day sale as it is also one of the Gold Box Today’s Deals.

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Kindle DX software updated

Richard — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 17:10:27 +0000

There is a new software update for the Kindle DX. Version 2.5.8 appears to be a minor update and is said to include performance improvements. I have updated my DX with the new version, but have not yet noticed any changes.

You can download the update from the Kindle DX software update page.

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Refurbished Kindle DX Graphite

Richard — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 16:19:56 +0000

Amazon is currently offering the second generation refurbished Kindle DXfor $319.99. These were most likely returned within the 30 day (or longer over the holidays) return period, are factory refurbished and come with Amazon’s A-to-Z Guarantee.

This is probably very limited, so if you are interested you should jump on it.

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Kindle book lending arrives

Richard — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 18:03:35 +0000

Amazon has enabled lending of Kindle ebooks as promised. Of course, this feature will also need to be enabled by the publisher — for many titles it isn’t, just as on the Nook ereaders.

You can see if an ebook is lendable by looking in its Product Details on its page at Amazon. If you already own a title you can also check the Your Orders section in Manage Your Kindle(click the + button to the left of the title).To initiate a Kindle book loan you will also need to go to the Manage Your Kindle page or the ebook’s product page at Amazon. You will need the borrower’s email address so that they can be notified. The recipient will have seven days to accept the loan.

Kindle books that can be loaned can only be loaned one time ever and only for 14 days. When one of your ebooks is loaned out you will not be able to access it yourself until it is returned (same as if it were a paper book). These are the same basic lending rules as on the Nook ereader.

Recipients of loaned Kindle books do not need to have a Kindle — any Kindle device app will do. Currently Kindle book lending can only be initiated by customers in the US. US customers can loan an ebook to someone outside of the US as long as it is not restricted by geographical rights.

One drawback appears to be that Kindle book loans cannot be initiated from the library of the Kindle ereader itself. With the Nook you initiate the loan from the ereader, rather than having to do it from your computer.

The Nook’s LendMe program actually has some cool features, like being able to discover ebooks that are in the libraries of your friends that you might like to borrow (discoverability can also be turned off if you don’t want your friends browsing your library). Of course, all of this is somewhat crippled by the publishers. The Kindle will probably get there too; ebook lending is one area where Amazon has not been the leader of the pack, yet.

For more info, see Amazon’s lending Kindle Books page.

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NY Times Crosswords for the Kindle ereaders

Richard — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 06:16:24 +0000

I was just thinking to myself this morning that it is odd we have not seen any crossword puzzle apps from the New York Times, USA Today, or suchlike for the Kindle ereaders. It seems like such a natural. Well, the NYT released four crossword apps today:

NY Times Crosswords Vol. 1: 30 easy puzzles; $1.99.
NY Times Crosswords Vol. 2: 90 easy puzzles; $4.99.
NY Times Crosswords Vol. 3: 30 challenging puzzles; $1.99.
NY Times Crosswords Vol. 4: 90 challenging puzzles; $4.99.

Each volume of crossword puzzles is edited by puzzle master Will Shortz. The apps can provide assistance by revealing single letters or entire words if you so desire. You can also have the app check for errors in the words you have entered.

Having just been released some time today, these don’t have any ratings yet. I’ve bought one but have not yet had a chance to try it. I like the crossword app on the Nook Color ereader, but for some reason the touchscreen is not very responsive in that particular app, which makes it frustrating.

I like the layout of the Kindle crossword app much better than that of the Nook: the Kindle shows you the clues for all of the columns and rows just as you would see it in the newspaper. The Nook only shows you the clues for the particular column and row you have highlighted.

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New Kindle Game – Monopoly; EA Holiday Sale

Richard — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 17:57:43 +0000

Electronic Arts is having a Holiday Sale. Now through Jan. 2, 2011 all of the Kindle Games from EA are 50 percent off. This includes EA Sudoku, EA Solitaire, Texas Hold’em and Scrabble. EA has just released a new Monopoly game for the Kindle ereaders and this is included in the sale as well.

Monopoly lets you play against the Kindle ereader or against up to 3 friends using Pass ‘N Play. When playing against the Kindle you can select from Easy, Medium or Hard difficulty-rated opponents. The game also lets you customize how some of the house rules such as Free Parking, Taxes, Get Out of Jail and other rules work.

Normally priced at $4.99, until Jan. 2, 2011 Monopoly is priced at $2.49.

As is usual for Kindle games, Monopoly will only work on the Kindle 2, Kindle 3 and Kindle DX ereaders and not on the Kindle apps.