It's interesting to me how often people misunderstand the appeal of Amazon and its products. Over at Digital Book World today, Beth Bacon asked, "When will Kindle's become free?" While it's not a bad question—and I do think the day of the free Kindle (or another brand of e-reader) is coming—I think she missed an important point. Consumers who think about their hardware purchases this way (do I want an e-reader, a tablet, or both?) are probably more likely to spring for a tablet with an Android, MacOS, or Windows OS if they can possibly afford it. Those who are looking for...

Amazon has lowered the price on its Kindle Fire HD 8.9" on the same day it introduced the device in Japan and Europe. The Fire HD now sells in the US for $269 for the Wi-Fi-only version, and $399 for the 4G version. Good news, or a sign that sales of the device are suffering? Honestly I don't think it matters much. Amazon isn't likely to go out of business if this particular device doesn't perform as well as expected. They are still more in the content business than the hardware business, and since the device's main competitor—the iPad—still allows users...

Q&A: Hydra DP and Digital Publishing Director Allison Dobson on New Author Contracts (Digital Book World) Is Social Reading the Future of Books? I Hope Not! (Good e-Reader) How to Use a Kindle as a Bookmark (Galleycat) Will Mobile Education Arrive in the Digital World? (Media Shift) Kindle Daily Deals: Blood Man by Paul Cleave (and 3 others)  ...

I just saw this posted on the soon-to-be-renamed KindleBoards (hence no link). Someone has created a very simple Web app to allow you to read your Google Reader feed on your E Ink Kindle. Check out Kindle Newsletter. Here's what it looks like on a computer screen, to give you an idea Don't be fooled by the name. It's not just for Kindles. It will work with any E Ink reader that has a Web browser. I compared it to logging directly into Google Reader on my Kindle Touch, and Kindle Newsletter does have a better layout on my device than the...

KindleBoards, a popular Kindle forum, will be changing its name and domain at 9:30 p.m. PST today (March 7, 2013). The new site will be www.KBoards.com. Other than changing your bookmarks, nothing else should change, according to Harvey, the owner of the site. The site is expected to be down from 7 p.m. PST to 9:30 p.m. PST while they make all the changes. Why are they changing? Did they receive a nasty letter from Amazon? Nope. According to "Ann in Arlington," one of the site moderators: Basically, Amazon has often asked sites to stop using the name 'kindle' which is, after all,...

A couple days ago, a well-meaning colleague of mine, who often sends me links to news stories he finds online that may be of interest to the TeleRead community, emailed me with a real whopper. The link he sent took me to a CNET article that certainly grabbed my attention; "E-book porn flourishes on Amazon's Kindle," it was titled. Naturally, I gave it a thorough read. (For professionals reasons, of course!) But my amusement was short-lived. Because this wasn't just any old news article, although it most definitely did present itself as such. No, this was actually an opinion piece masquerading as a news item....

Ten Proofreading Tips for Self-Publishers (Media Shift) McGraw-Hill Digital Learning Tools Released for Canadian Students (Good e-Reader) Buy a Nook HD+, Get a $50 Gift Card (The Digital Reader) How Some Authors Buy Spots on Bestseller Lists (Media Bistro) Kindle Daily Deals: Dead Asleep by Jaime Freveletti (and 3 others)  ...

By Nico Vreeland Ever since we first started ChamberFour.com, I’ve been staunchly anti-Kindle. I’ve disliked like Amazon’s DRM scheme, its reluctance to adopt library e-books, its inhuman use of “Locations” instead of page numbers, its attempt to hardball Macmillan by refusing to sell Macmillan books—the list goes on. When a Sony Reader was the only decent non-Kindle choice, I bought a Sony Reader. When the Nook Color came out, I got one of those. I’ve given my sister another Sony, and my mother a Kobo, and I’ve stayed firmly Kindle-less for more than four years now. But that changed last week, when I broke down and ordered the Kindle...

There's been indication for awhile that Amazon has been shifting emphasis from their various free-Kindle book promos to get more attention for Kindle books that bring them revenue (considering news that their margins are thin, partially due to reinvestment in expansion and jobs), although the free-Kindle book carrot will continue to be offered. They just no longer want them promoted ... at least not as a focus on websites belonging to Amazon affiliates. This week brings news of a stronger effort on Amazon's part to strongly discourage affiliate website promotion of those free Kindle books, an action which will have an effect on authors who have...

Yes, you read that headline correctly. When the DOJ lawsuit against the publishers came out last year, it became a lot more about Amazon and their alleged monopolistic practices than it was about the publishers and their alleged collusion. Now three independent bookstores are suing Amazon and the publishers for anti-trust violations around DRM. Lawsuits and most media coverage completely miss the point about Amazon's success. If a picture is truly worth 1,000 words, I'll save you a lot of reading: That's from an improptu D.C.-area get together of KindleBoards members (I'm the yellow sleeve on the bottom left.) Four Kindle owners; 12 Kindles. Think that's a...

By Stephen Silver {Note: This post originally ran on Entertainment Tell.} You may be familiar with the saga of the Amazon Kindle Bikini Girl, a character who has been appearing in commercials for Amazon’s popular e-reader for the last several years, most of which have included subtle or overt shots at Apple’s rival iPad. The first ad, in 2010, featured the bikini-clad lady, played by former NBA dancer Anna Zielinski, lounging poolside, telling an interested gentleman that she paid more for her sunglasses than for the then-$179 Kindle. The ad, according to a CBS News blog post at the time, “plunged the nation into civil war,”...

Does your Kindle sometimes start acting sluggish, for no apparent reason? If so, you might have an indexing issue. As you may know, when you download books to your Kindle, your device creates an index for each book to facilitate searching within a book. Most of the time, indexing goes smoothly. But sometimes not. Here's an easy tip to figure out if indexing is your problem. Go to the Search box on your Kindle's main page. The picture below shows what it looks like on a Kindle Touch. If you're using an older Kindle, your search box might look different. Type in a...