Kindle Ready

eBook lending coming to a site near you!

A while back a common complaints with ebooks was that it was not possible to lend friends your favorite books. With the Nook and the Kindle this has all changed, leading to an unexpected twist of global virtual lending. No longer is it a question of passing your favourite dog eared paper book to your friend, it is now possible to lend your ebook to a complete stranger in a far away city. It’s only a question of getting in contact with this person, which you can now do with ebook lending sites that are arriving on the internet landscape.

Sites, such as Booklending.com, eBookFling, and Lendle.me are quickly gathering thousands of subscriptions for people who want to lend and borrow ebooks. The subscription for these sites is free, as they generate commissions from Amazon when people purchase ebooks that can not be lend on their sites.

The lending sites have drawbacks. Firstly, the possibility of lending ebooks is available only to U.S. users. Another drawback is the limited selection. A large number of book publishers haven’t made their books lendable which restricts the sites selections. Also an ebook can only be lent once and for 14 days.

Not surprising books publishers are starting to cast a nervous eye on this budding activities as they fear that this may deter people from buying paper and digital books. Threat or possibility? Let’s see how the publishing houses respond. I know where I would put my money.

Do you know of any other eBook Lending sites? Let us know.

Amazon has launched the Kindle application for the Windows Phone 7, joining a large number of platform where you can “buy once and read anywhere”. The Kindle for Windows Phone application is equipped with the same features found on other Kindle reading, allowing users to read books downloaded from the Amazon Kindle store, bookmark their pages, and synchronize to the last read page on any of their Kindle enabled applications.

Today, Amazon is launching Kindle Singles. If you are thinking about getting out your old record player and LPs then think again. Kindle Singles is an unexploited niche for eBooks that don’t fall into the size of typical publishing formats. In many cases, 30 to 90 pages might be the ideal length for authors to convey an idea about their concept that can make all the difference. With the advent of Kindle Singles this is now a possibility.

“Ideas and the words to deliver them should be crafted to their natural length, not to an artificial marketing length that justifies a particular price or a certain format,” said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Kindle Content. “With Kindle Singles, we’re reaching out to publishers and accomplished writers and we’re excited to see what they create.”

Amazon did not say how much authors could charge for their Singles, however they will be much less than a typical book. Amazon is currently making a call to serious writers, thinkers, scientists, business leaders, historians to publish their singles which will be available in their own section in the Kindle Store.

If you would like to be considered for Kindle Singles, you should contact digital-publications@amazon.com.

Kobo, the Canadian based eReader maker has announced that it will be adding wifi connectivity to its latest eReader. The new Kobo will be priced at $139, aligning it with the Amazon Kindle with the same price, and Nook which is priced at $149.

Kobo has also taken the opportunity to fix one of the drawbacks with its eReader, namely, the slow page turning.  The new eReader comes equipped with a new processor which should speed up the device.

So why should you go out and purchase a Kobo. One of the main advantages of the Kobo is that an eBook brought from a Kobo can be read on any ePub compatible device, which is not the case for Amazon’s Kindle.  

Also, don’t forget that the eReader market is as much about selling the eReaders as the eBooks, so even if it’s doesn’t beat the Amazon and Barne’s and Noble in the eReader race, there are still a lot of other reading devices where Kobo can come into the market. Already Kobo has announced that they will be providing an eBook store for the Samsung’s Galaxy tab tablet.

Kobo plans to start shipping the new model in October, when it can be brought online through its website, Borders and Walmart Canada.

Amazon has recently updated their Kindle Android application for mobile devices.  For those of are confused and might think that we are talking about a robot from Lost in Space, maybe it requires a little explanation about Android is.

Android is an operation system, like Windows, but it has been specifically designed for mobile devices.  It is probably the most popular operation system for mobile devices with reports stating that 33% of all mobile devices sold in the U.S. use Android. When we talk about Amazon having updated their Android application, they have simply released a new version of Kindle for Android.

The latest version of the Kindle for Android has some minor enhancements.  You are now able to add, edit and delete notes and highlights.  With your mobile device you can search through the full text  for words and phrases and you can also look up words in Wikipedia and Dictionary.com

The download for the Kindle for Android is requires Android 1.6 or higher and is free. To download the latest application, visit the Android Market on your phone and search for “Kindle”.

Sony apparently bringing eInk and a touchscreen display to a store near you

Just when it was looking like the Kindle, and the Nook would be the last men standing in the dedicated eReader ring, along comes a rumor that Sony is stepping back for another round. If the rumors are to be believed, then Sony will be releasing a new eReader, the PRS-350 and the PRS-650. The later offering 3g connectivity.

Expectations are that it will be a thinner device, perhaps less than 10 mm in thickness and will have improved contrast, faster page turns, and increased memory capacity. The user interface has been reported to have been upgraded with the addition of note taking software.

While these new features don’t really capture the public imagination, Sony may be the first to release an eReader with touch screen technology with eInk. There are no official details yet, but rumors have it that the devices may be launched soon.

Needless to say that the price is unknown, but it doesn’t take rocket science to work out that it needs to be competitive with the Kindle and Nook.

Want to take a break from reading? Try one of Amazon's new literary games

Amazon has launched two games, Every Word and Shuffled Row. Shuffled Row presents players with a number of letter tiles and challenges them to make as many words from the randomly selected combination; if a tile is not used within a certain time it is replaced with a new one. Every Word asks users to find a number of words that have been hidden in a scramble of letters.

Although the Amazon Kindle platform is available for external developers to make games on, these first two offerings have been built in-house by Amazon. With limited computing power and a mono display, future games are also likely to be word-based. EA and Sonic Boom have both already said they will be developing Kindle games. Maybe you are not as big as software developement house, but if you would like to try your hand at creating applications for Kindles, then start by downloading the Kindle Developer Kit.

For a complete list of Kindle games, keep checking Amazon’s Kindle games section.

Yesterday, Amazon launched it UK Kindle Store, which offers over 400,000 books from the UK Kindle store. Amazon claims that it has the lowest prices “of any e-bookstore in the UK”.

It’s great that Amazon had given some Kindle love to the other side of the Atlantic, however, it is difficult to see the consumer advantage of creating a book store within the UK, as electronic books that are shipped over the internet and 3g waves.  Of course the books process will be displayed in pounds instead of dollar, but Amazon has already displayed multi-currency options at check-out. Maybe, an  advantage to the consumer is that they no longer see Kindle books that they can’t purchase due to publisher restrictions. Better not know what you can’t have to so that you’re not frustrated.

Most likely the real motivation for Amazon to create a “Kindle Bookshop” on Amazon UK is to develop a prototype for distributing to other countries. Already with the Kindle 3 there are a multiple new language character sets for the device. Keep your ears open for other virtual bookshops popping up in other places over the world.

Kindle already sold - maybe I could try a paper book.

The Announcement for the Kindle 3 came a little under a week ago and now both models of the Kindle 3 (wifi & 3g+wifi) are already sold out. The kindle 3 wifi undercuts Barnes & Noble’s Nook by a strategic $10. Little wonder that they are selling like hot cakes. Analyst’s believe that Amazon is not looking to make a profit on the Kindle, but rather they want to make it the de facto reading device, which will push sales to their Kindle ebook store.

Sales of the two versions continue, with shipments being prioritized on a first-come, first-serve basis.  People ordering their Kindle today, won’t receive it until the 4th of September.

The Kindle 3 - more an evolution than a revolution.

The announcement for the Kindle 3 is now official, and no doubt orders for the new eReader are piling up by the thousands.  For those of you who don’t know what a Kindle is; simply put, it’s an electronic book from Amazon which is about the height of a large novel and as slim as half a pencil.  Is all the excitement for the Kindle 3 merited or is it just the same old device in a new graphite case? Let’s look at what Kindle 3 brings to the table and what Amazon decided to leave out. However, before we do that we need to put some focus on the eReader market and what Amazon is trying to achieve with the Kindle.

Yes Amazon – it’s a jungle out there

It’s no surprise to say that Amazon is facing a very different world compared to when it first released the Kindle. The competition for the eReader market is getting crowded at both the budget end and the high-end.  Additionally, there has been a lot of talk about “kindle-killers’ which are looking to dethrone the Kindle king as the number one eReader. The Kobo eReader was released earlier this year, with a price tag significantly less than the Kindle at $149, and it will be news to nobody that Apple launched its attack into the eReader market with the media-rich iPad.

As well as a tough market, Amazon is faced with a strange situation where the implicit consumer demands are contradictory to the explicit demands. On the one hand, the unspoken implicit demands are telling Amazon that readers want an easy to use device that doesn’t distract from the reading experience. Something very “book-like.”  On the other hand, the explicit demands are requesting a new state-of-the-art device with multi-media functionality, with touch screen technology, video viewing, etc …

How has Amazon responded to these challenges? Firstly, they weren’t tempted to create an eReader which does everything and distracts from its main task; namely reading. The Kindle 3 has kept its simple interface and is still very “book-like”. Secondly, Amazon has counter-attacked the budget eReaders entering into the market by launching two versions of the Kindle 3. These being, a Kindle with 3G + Wifi ($189) and a Kindle with Wifi ($139). The Kindle 3G+ Wi-Fi device maintains the previous price tag of the Kindle 2 while adding a bunch of new functionality. The Kindle Wi-Fi undercuts a large majority of other eReaders on the market, while delivering a mature product which is backed up the Amazon book store with millions of titles to choose from.

Given the situation where Amazon finds itself, let’s look at what features they put into the Kindle 3 and what they decided to leave left out.

Kindle 3 – what they put in.

Amazon focused on improving the Kindle’s basic functionality, by letting the Kindle do what it does best: reading.

21% smaller body while keeping the same 6" size reading area

Amazon has improved on the readability of the device, which by all standards was already very good. They claim 50% better contrast than any other eReader, better readability on bright sunlight, and some new improved fonts to read your books with.

The physical device itself has also been improved. The size of the Kindle has been reduced while maintaining the same dimensions for the reading area. The battery life has also not been neglected. A simple charge can last up to one month.

The capacity for the Kindle 3 is now 3500 books which can be down loaded in under 60 seconds.

Wi-Fi is added to the 3G as a way of connecting with your Kindle so that you can browse the Amazon bookstore and the net with the new web-kit based browser.

Kindle 3 – what they left out

After the release of Apple’s iPad the expectations for the Kindle were sky-high. In a nut-shell people wanted an Amazon iPad. Now that some time has passed, the iPad is a slightly less attractive as a device for reading books. People are realizing it’s too heavy to hold for hours, and the display which is LCD is not easy on the eyes over long periods of time.

A lot of people were predicting color screens for the Kindle 3.  There was a lot of sense with this, as there are currently a lot of eReaders coming to the market that have color. A non-color device next to a color device looks quite dull in comparison. However to include color is not as easy as first thought. This would involve leaving the e-Ink technology behind which is responsible for the “book-like” text on the Kindle display. A possibility is that the eInk technology could be radically improved to incorporate color into the display, but Amazon and there R&D teams are not there yet. Another alternative is to use LCD technology as found in the iPad, but then you increase eye-strain over long reading periods and the inability to read in direct sunlight.

Touch screen technology was another rumor that was circulation for the Kindle 3. It seems logical that readers can flick through the pages of an eBook by swiping screen of their device. Earlier this year Amazon brought Touchco, a New York start up that, which specializes in … yes you guessed right… touch screen technology.  It seems that Amazon is moving in that direction, or at least investigating the possibility to include this type of interface in the future.

No flashy features, but a good reading experience

Lastly, another conspicuous absence is innovation. Amazon was 100% right to focus on the core features for the Kindle. However, it could have added at least one innovative feature to the device. The eReader market is no longer a side-show; it’s a central part of Amazon’s strategy and sales volumes. Ebook sales have passed hard-cover sales, and the CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos, recently predicted that eBook sales will exceed paper backs in the next 12 months. Given the importance of this market and the resources to develop these products, it is not unreasonable to expect the unexpected. A possible example of a new innovation might be to develop the social networking functionality for the Kindle. The Kindle has integrated networking with Facebook and Twitter, however there exists a lot more scope within the social networking for people who are passionate about authors or subject areas and want to share their thoughts about what they read. Another example could be location based services, where content is delivered to your Kindle depending on where you are in the world. These are just a couple of examples, which may not be even practical after a “real-life” analysis has been conducted, but they do show that the Kindle could think out of its new graphite colored box, and get more creative.

Kindle 4?

The Kindle 3 has successfully improved on an already mature product, in response to increasing tough market conditions and growing consumer demands. While the Kindle 3 will not surpass expectations, it nevertheless provides an improved reading experience that will not disappoint.  Jeff Bezos recently declared that the Kindle is in for the long haul and that he expects that there will be dozens more generations of Kindle ahead. Let’s hope that the Kindle 4 will do that little bit more than the Kindle 3.