Within the last 60 days there has been a bevy of announcements of new ereading devices. Amazon announced what is popularly called the Kindle 3 and Sony has announced 3 new models — the 350, 650, and 950. How far behind other makers will be is hard to tell, but the upcoming holiday season should be a good one for device buyers. So the question is this: Is this the time to take the plunge and buy a dedicated ereading device if you don’t already own one? The companion question, of course, is if you own one that is more than...

Tim Carmody, late of Snarkmarket, has taken a new posting as media and tech writer at The Atlantic, and has kicked things off with an interesting article looking at ten “reading revolutions” that pre-dated e-books—major or minor events that changed the way people read or wrote, going all the way back to the dawn of recorded history (in fact, one of those revolutions is the invention of the alphabet that was used to record history). (Also worth seeing are the annotations to the photos that illustrate the article, posted to Snarkmarket.) The invention of the printing press receives...

 The Kindle for PC app has been quietly updated.  Some have chosen the option to have it updated automatically when they open the program and an update is available. I like to choose the time, but then I didn't get a notice that there was an update waiting to be 'noticed.' I read about it when @MikeCane tweeted it the other day in his inimitable way. See below: So, I went to my Kindle for PC program, still showing a bright, plain white background, chose the menu's install-update option, and got what ...

Over the course of this summer I've read a couple of great Yankees books: Munson and The Bronx is Burning.  The former was read on my iPad and the latter, because it's not available digitally, was read from a dead tree.  After seeing countless references in both to another Yankee classic, The Bronx Zoo, I decided that should be on my reading list too.  Unfortunately for me, that's another book that's not available digitally.  I also was unable to find a copy at the local brick-and-mortars or even the second-hand bookstore, which got...

Cnet has a good interview, done by David Carnoy, with Amazon's Ian Freed, vice president of digital. Here are two excerpts. The first is about market share. Carnoy asks Freed to comment on B&N and Apple saying they each have a 20% market share: Honestly, something doesn't add up because we're pretty sure we're 70 to 80 percent of the market. So, something, somewhere isn't quite working right. I encourage you to do some more research. Obviously, from the beginning of Amazon we've been very metrics-focused and we don't typically throw out numbers we don't firmly believe in....

Donna Fasano’s first novel was published by Harlequin Silhouette in 1990, and it was chosen by the Romance Writers of America as a finalist for its Golden Hearts Award. In the twenty years that followed, Fasano–sometimes using the pen name Donna Clayton–published over 30 novels via the traditional publishing route, won the HOLT Medallion three times, and sold over 3.5 million copies worldwide. In December 2009, however, she tried something different: she self-published her new book The Merry-Go-Round, which had at one time been in the hands of a large publisher (more on that below), through Amazon’s Kindle Store. Now it’s...

WHICH KINDLE SOFTWARE VERSION IS THE ONE FOR YOUR KINDLE? No one outside Amazon knows, I imagine. But as long as you have Kindle software update v2.5.x (the "x" meaning any number), you can use the new Kindle features such as Collections, Pan & Zoom, Sending of highlighted passages to Facebook and/or Twitter, etc. The Amazon Kindle software-update files currently on their servers for download are all labeled v.2.5.2 within their long filenames and should be chosen for the Kindle model you have, which is explained there. See Intro and Guide to Software version v2.5.x for information on: 1. how to...

I have “bought” more than 400 ebooks since I received my Sony Reader as a gift 2.5 years ago. I put “bought” in quotes because about half of the ebooks I “bought” were free ebooks; the other half I paid for. But I’ve noticed a significant downward trend in my buying of ebooks in the past few months, and I have finally realized why that is occurring: frustration with the ebookseller experience. Before someone jumps up and says how wonderful and easy the buying is at Amazon with the wireless downloading to the Kindle and the 1-click payment system, let me...

Resource Shelf has this great tip. Quoted in full: Here’s one to share with others either on your library web site, blog or directly to users when they visit the library. The Internet Archive/Open Library and Amazon.com/Kindle have created a cool and useful service for Kindle owners who use (or should be using) the Open Library (OL). The Open Library is an “initiative” of the Internet Archive and through a partnership with Amazon.com allow some public domain titles accessible in the OL to now be sent directly to a Kindle device (with just a couple of clicks). Of course, transmission fees may apply. The...

The long-delayed march of the Penguins? It wasn't worth the wait. After its agency price-fixing model co-conspirators came quickly to agreements with Amazon so that their ebook titles would remain in the Kindle Store right through the April Fool's Day transition date, the Penguin Publishing Group held readers hostage for about 8 weeks before finally reaching the end of the impasse, reported here moments before it was announced last week. Penguin has a terrific backlist and plenty of popular bestselling authors, and Kindle owners were waiting impatiently for an opportunity to purchase and download various among about 150 of the company's new...

By Stephen WindwalkerOriginally posted to Kindle Nation Daily 5.31.2010 Potentially big news for international readers here. Although Amazon has yet to make an announcement about it, the Kindle for PC and Kindle for Mac apps now render the Japanese language and alphabet. And thanks to an email that I received overnight from Mr. Toru Suzuki with my Japanese publisher Nikkei Business Publications, I'm happy to announce that one of the first Japanese language texts available to read with the Kindle for PC and Kindle for Mac apps is a lengthy free excerpt from the Japanese translation of my bestselling Kindle guide.   So,...

When I've thought about the bookstore of the future, I have envisioned it as a mix of ebook and print book---a print on demand machine that can scan the barcode and order you up an e-version, custom coupons delivered to your e-reader while you're in the store and that sort of thing. But what if the bookstore as simply a seller of books is entirely too narrow a vision? A local entrepreneur has opened a new bookstore in my area that he sees as the 'bookstore of the future'  and it's an interesting spin on things: "He envisioned a collective. One that...