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TKC 182 Eric Loss

News – 1) Amazon’s Russ Grandinetti tells a publishers’ audience at Digital Book World that early data indicate the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library is boosting customer purchases of books by authors whose work is available in the library. Laura Hazard Owen has the story. 2) NBC is proud as a peacock over its new e-book venture, NBC Publishing. I hope one day I’ll be able to read an enhanced e-book by this veteran NBC reporter.  3) Brad Stone’s profile of Larry Kirshbaum, vice president and publisher of Amazon Publishing, is a must-read explanation of just how much revolution the Kindle hath wrought.

Tech Tip – More on highlighting across pages on the Kindle Touch, and Dave Sparks’s tip on how to turn off auto-renew for those three-month free trial subscriptions you might have signed up for when the Fire came out in November. Also, a pretty good external battery for the Fire by PowerGen that costs $39.99 and weighs just 4 3/8 ounces. And Clearly from Evernote, a great way to read articles online.

Interview (Starts at 15:20) – On January 19th I reached Eric Loss by Skype in Concon, Chile, where he had detoured to fix a problem with the mast of his boat after 70 days at sea. He is now set to resume his solo circumnavigation of the globe. The eclectic reading library on his Kindle and a backup Kindle includes scifi from Baen Books, Les Miserables, Moby Dick, The Essential P.G. Wodehouse, Patrick O’Brien’s Master and Commander series, and Alone by Admiral Richard E. Byrd.

UPDATE: Eric’s mother, Katie Loss, e-mailed me this report early Friday morning:

Eric got off this Thurs. morning at about 11:30 a.m. with a tighter, snugger ship having successfully cleared the Chilean Navy’s walk-through and approval process.  They have asked him for daily position updates as long as he is in Chilean waters.

Content – How to sign up for e-mailed alerting you to the Kindle Daily Deal, where I got great prices on The Paris Wife: A Novel by Paula McLain, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, and Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany by Stephen Ambrose.  For the Fire, I’m getting ready for our stay on St. John, USVI, by watching Miss Marple solve a murder in Caribbean Mystery, a two-part rental from the BBC.

Mentioned in Comments – Video demo of an impressive page-flipping scheme for tablets developed by KAIST Institute of Information Technology Convergence.

Next Week’s Show will be an all-comments edition that I pre-loaded this week in preparation for an unplugged 10-day stay on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. I hope to interview some Kindle-toting guests on the beach for a special TKC episode to be uploaded on Friday, February 10.  My interview for TKC 185 on February 17th will be with Peter Meyers, author of Kindle Fire: The Missing Manual. You can pre-order the Kindle version of Peter’s book now for delivery on February 15.

The Next TKC Google Plus Video Hangout is tentatively set for Wednesday, February 15th at 2 pm EASTERN time. Look for details in the show notes for TKC 184.

 

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Posted 27 January 2012 † Len Edgerly § Kindle ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged: , , , , , ,

TKC 181 Catherine MacDonald

News – 1) OverDrive reports tremendous growth in borrowing of e-books at public libraries and schools during 2011.  2) Apple makes a bold move into the e-textbooks market. John Gruber and others ponder the fine print of the End User License Agreement, which contains language restricting what you can do with an iBook that you create using Apple’s free iBook Author tool. 3) Amazon releases firmware updates for the Kindle Fire and Kindle Touch. 4) Via Business Insider, a surprising new survey breaks down what we’re using our Kindle Fires for.

Tech Tips – From Jim Cheshire’s excellent new book, My Kindle Fire, we’ll learn a handy way to save steps when punctuating with the virtual keyboard of the Fire. (Click here for my interview with Jim in September, 2008, for TKC 10.)

Interview (Starts at 18:00) – Catherine MacDonald, founder of BookLending.com, spoke with me from Nova Scotia on January 16th about the impressive growth her site has experienced in its first year of operation. Click here for my interview with her a year ago, from the island nation of Malta.

Content – In Topazon’s latest list of the top-ranked products on all of Amazon, there is only one book, The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick’s Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption by Jim Gorant.  Via Pastor Mark Pierce of Church Requel, I learned of an impressive Kindle Fire App by YouVersion that offers lots of ways to encounter The Bible. Click here for a sample of Pastor Mark’s sermon notes, using YouVersion, and here for his podcast.

The Next G+ Video TKC Hangout: Wednesday, January 25, at 1 p.m. Mountain Time.

Next Week’s Guest: Eric Loss, making a stop for repairs in Chile during his solo circumnavigation of the world.

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Posted 21 January 2012 † Len Edgerly § Kindle ‡ Comments (3) ° Tagged: , , , , ,

TKC 180 John Tayman

News – 1) Amazon announces a brisk beginning for KDP Select at the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, with impressive numbers reported for December. Jon Cog covers the story at Beyond Black Friday, as does Jeremy Greenfield at Digital Book World. If you’re still wavering on signing up for Amazon Prime membership, Jason Calacanis will probably tip you over the edge. 2) Amazon releases tools for Kindle Format 8 (KF8). CNET has the story, and the EBook Ninjas have the details in their latest podcast episode, Number 63.  3) Amazon’s Kindle Content VP, Russ Grandinetti, address the topic of ebook pricing a year ago at Digital Book World expo. Click here for the full presentation, and look for the video player in the right column partway down the screen.

Tech Tips – If it still bugs you that the Kindle Fire does not have a physical volume controller, you might want to download a clever free app named Volume Control 1.1 that will add a discreet controller to your screen, always available to adjust your Fire’s volume.  James Schorr recommends SquareTrade for Kindle extended warranties.

Interview (Starts at 16:38) – John Tayman, author of The Colony and founder and CEO of Byliner.com, spoke with me by Skype and phone from San Francisco on January 11. He explained how he chose the length of Byliner Originals, great nonfiction and fiction stories published for Kindle and other ebook platforms. Among the topics discussed: And the War Came by Jamie Malanowski, Three Cups of Deceit by Jon Krakauer, Rules for Virgins by Amy Tan, and Apple Quick Reads.

Content – Nancy Pearl, the author of Book Lust: Recommended Books for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason,  partners with Amazon to create a new series, Nancy Pearl’s Book Lust Rediscoveries. The first of six planned books in the series is A Gay and Melancholy Sound by Merle Miller, available for preorder. Northwest Book Lovers are unamused. On my Kindle Fire, I’m enjoying Monopoly and Downton Abbey, but my music listening has migrated back to my computer’s better speakers.

Next Week’s Guest: Catherine MacDonald, founder of BookLending.com .

Next Week’s Google Plus Video TKC Hangout: Wednesday, January 18, at 3 p.m. Mountain Time.

 

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Posted 14 January 2012 † Len Edgerly § Kindle ‡ Comments (4) ° Tagged: , , , , ,

TKC 179 Dr. Eric McLuhan

News – 1) Via a clumsy email, Amazon bobbles a pilot launch for a new Kindle publication named Kindle Compass, irritating Amazon forum commenters and generating some unfavorable press coverage in All Things Digital and elsewhere. 2) Is Google readying a Kindle Fire Killer? DigiTimes has a widely noted report, citing the usual sources from upstream in the supply chain in Asia.  If true, I wonder if a Google Tablet will make as much of a mark as this Google-inspired product did.

Tech Tip – How would you describe the right way to touch the screen of a Kindle Touch to a new user, over the phone? Using my BookGem Kindle holder, I made a discovery. Also, a tip for adjusting the Default Zoom setting on your Kindle Fire’s browser, for better viewing of web sites. And, why I might just need a solar-powered Kindle case for $79.99 that I saw profiled in Forbes. 

Interview (starts at 12:50) – I spoke with Dr. Eric McLuhan on Wednesday, January 4th, reaching him at his home office near Kingston, Ontario. The author of The Human Equation: The Constant in Human Development from Pre-Literacy to Post-Literacy and other books, some co-authored with his father, the late Marshall McLuhan, Eric spoke of his own explorations of media and what his father might have made of the Kindle.

Content – After an enjoyable period of Kindle Fire frenzy, I have rediscovered the slow delights of reading a novel by Henry James on my Kindle Touch. It’s The Awkward Age, available for free at the Kindle Store with an intriguing and lengthy forward by the author. As for the Fire, I’ve discovered that it sits nicely on the cross trainer across the street during my 45-minute aerobic workouts, the better to admire the fierce beauty of Baltimore’s mean streets as rendered in Season One of The Wire. In music, check out Jon Cog’s fun appreciation of an Amazon mp3 sampler. In apps, when I use the Fire in bed, the screen is too bright even at the lowest brightness setting. Solution: Screen Filter, a third-party app not available in the Amazon Android Appstore – click here for discussion of it in the Amazon forums, as well as tips for installation.

Next Google Plus Video TKC Hangout: Wednesday, January 11 at 3 p.m. Mountain Time. Please e-mail me your G+ profile page URL, if you’d like to be added to the TKC Circle for invites. For help on how to do this, you can e-mail me at PodChronicles AT Gmail DOT com.

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Posted 07 January 2012 † Len Edgerly § Kindle ‡ Comments (7) ° Tagged: , , ,

TKC 178 Darlene

News – Amazon announces a record holiday season for the Kindle, and touts the Kindle Direct Publishing success of Darcie Chan. 2) M-Edge Accessories charges Amazon with “unlawful corporate bullying” in a lawsuit filed this week. Nate Hoffelder sees a veiled response to the lawsuit in Amazon’s year-end press release.

Tech Tip – Stephen S recommends SanDisk Memory Zone, a free app available at Amazon’s Appstore for Android, as a way to see which files are taking up the most space on your Kindle Fire. Other handy free apps Stephen mentions are Quick System Info Pro, Gemini App Manager, File Expert, ES File Explorer, and AndroXPlorer. Tom Semple offers a smart tip for preventing unintentional navigation or user-interface activity if your Kindle Touch’s power button gets turned on by mistake in a pocket or a purse. Hint: It’s about a password.

Interview (starts at 11:50) – My wife Darlene gives her first impressions of the Kindle Touch and explains why she hates the Fire.

Content – Books: Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes; Queen Elizabeth’s Christmas Speeches, 1952-2010 (click here for Forbes story); a free preview of Breaking the Page: Transforming Books and the Reading Experience by Peter Meyers; and Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander and the rest of his Aubrey-Maturin series (via Katie Loss who hopes to zoom Kindle copies of the books to her son, Eric Loss, during his circumnavigation of the globe). Video: Arrested Development and The Wire. Music: Amazon’s 100-song playlist sampling  “Outstanding 2011 Albums You Might Have Missed” led me to purchase Delicate Steve’s Wondervision album for $5. Apps: Solitaire and Bejeweled 2.

Next Week’s Guest: Dr. Eric McLuhan, son of the late renowned media theorist Marshall McLuhan and an internationally known lecturer and author on communications and media in his own right.

Next Google Plus TKC Hangout: Wednesday, January 4 at 3 p.m. Mountain Time. If you are not yet in my TKC hangout circle, please email me at PodChronicles at Gmail Dot Com with the URL of your G+ profile page.

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Posted 31 December 2011 † Len Edgerly § Kindle ‡ Comments (10) ° Tagged: , , ,

TKC 177 Mark Isero & Antonio Beasley

Mark Isero, left, and Antonio Beasley

News – 1) Amazon updates the Kindle Fire software to version 6.2.1 . Consumer Reports and David Pogue are impressed. As is Stephen Windwalker.  2) Kindle for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch receive an update.

Tech Tip – Why I had to reset my Fire to factory default, how to download a Project Gutenberg book in Kindle format to the Fire, and why the E Ink Kindles are more convenient for Project Gutenberg downloads.

Interview (Starts at 16:08) – Mark Isero, an AP English teacher at Leadership High School in San Francisco, is using five Kindles in his classrooms. He and Anthony Beasley, a senior at the school, talked to me by Skype on Monday, December 19th, about how the Kindle experiment is going.

Content- BOOKS: A Kindlesphere blockbuster arrived this week and is available for 99 cents through Christmas. It’s The Complete 2012 User’s Guide to the Amazing Amazon Kindle: Covers All Current Kindles Including the Kindle Fire, Kindle Touch, Kindle Keyboard, and Kindle by Bruce Grubbs and Stephen Windwalker, creator of Kindle Nation Daily.   Also, Our Dog, Lucca by Moe Zilla (free).  VIDEO: NSFW and probably offensive to most listeners, comedian Louis C.K. is breaking new ground with his $5 direct sale of the video for a show he produced. In 12 days he’s earned $1 million from the project, and he’s putting the money to innovative use. If you liked the late George Carlin, you may enjoy Louis C.K., who gave this tribute to Carlin. MUSIC: How to use Amazon’s MP3 Uploader to copy your iTunes music to the Amazon Cloud and Kindle Fire. APPS: Wattpad is an innovative and successful content site offering unlimited stories. ES File Explorer and AndroXplorer are free apps for managing your Kindle Fire files. This just in (and received too late for the audio): 7 Dragons has launched a solid 99-cent app available for the Fire. It’s named Alarm Clock, Calendar, ToDo List – Productivity Helper. Another app worth noting: a free app connecting you with Kindle Nation Daily. PODCASTS: The Unofficial Kindle Fire Podcast is worth checking out!

The Next Google Plus TKC Hangout will be Wednesday December 28th at 3 p.m. Mountain Time, since we’ll be back in Denver.

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Posted 23 December 2011 † Len Edgerly § Kindle ‡ Comments (4) ° Tagged: , , ,

TKC 176 Sven Birkerts

News – 1) Jakob Nielsen pans the usability of the Kindle Fire and elaborates in an interview with David Streitfeld of The New York Times. Click here for Nielsen’s review of the second-generation Kindle back in 2009. 2) Meanwhile, Amazon reports that Kindles — Fire and others — are selling more than a million a week. Bloomberg/Businessweek tracks how the market reacts.

Tech Tip – Sorry about my mixup last week on WiFi security. The one you want is WPA, not WEP. I had them reversed, but George from Tulsa set me straight. Also, be mindful of where you tap your Kindle Touch screen, or you may go skittering off to some web site you had no intention of visiting.

Interview (Starts at 13:22) – Sven Birkerts, editor of the literary journal AGNI and author of The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age, sees the Kindle as a step back from the cultural commonality of the book. I spoke with Sven by phone and Skype on December 12. His latest book of essays is titled The Other Walk, and his 2009 Atlantic essay is titled “Resisting the Kindle.”  As director of the Bennington Writing Seminars, he sees little evidence of Kindles among students earning their MFAs in creative writing in the program. Also mentioned: “The Machine Stops,” a prescient 1909 short story by E.M. Forster.

Content – Music: Goat Rodeo Sessions with Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile. Movies: Return of the Pink Panther and Fahrenheit 451. Apps: Bufo Calvin’s overview includes ColorNote and WiFi Explorer. I also like Any.do, a To Do list maker. Books, etc.: Sven’s books and Eric Loss’s latest blog post.  Plus my essay titled “Visual Intensity of Words” in the Winter 2001 2011 issue of Nieman Reports.

Other links mentioned: Mark Roberts on “Will E-Books Destroy the Democratizing Effects of Reading?”

Next Google Plus video hangout: Wednesday, December 21 at 3 p.m. Eastern. Please e-mail your Google Plus profile URL to PodChronicles AT Gmail DOT com if you’d like an invitation to participate.

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Posted 17 December 2011 † Len Edgerly § Kindle ‡ Comments (3) ° Tagged: , , ,

TKC 175 Robert Darnton

News – 1) Amazon announces KDP Select. 2 ) The Department of Justice joins the European Commission in investigating the agency model for e-book pricing, via ComputerWorld.

Tech Tips – Fire: WiFi Analyzer helps you see if you’re camping on your neighbor’s WiFi channels. Click here for the steps to add Screen Filter (not in the Amazon Adroid App Store) to your Fire as a way to lower the screen brightness when you’re reading in bed. Kindle Touch: Andrys Basten’s rundown of tips includes navigation tips for the Touch. Correction: I confused WEP and WPA in the podcast. George from Tulsa caught the error and states  ”The SAFE WiFi Security Standard is WPA. WEP has long been hacked.” My apologies for the mixup!

Interview (Starts at 13:04) – Robert Darnton, University Professor and Director of the Harvard University Library, gives a thorough update on progress toward the planned April, 2012 2013, launch of the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). I visited him at his office in Harvard Yard on Wednesday, November 30. He is the author of The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History and The Case for Books: Past, Present, and Future, as well as a New York Review of Books essay in October titled “Jefferson’s Taper: A National Digital Library.”

Content – Music: 25 Days of Free Holiday Music at Amazon’s mp3 Store. Free Prime Movies: “The Gay Divorcee” starring Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers and “You’ve Got Mail” starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. App: Stitcher for listening to podcasts on your Fire. Kindle Single: Playbook 2012: The Right Fights Back by Evan Thomas and Mike Allen.

Next Google Plus TKC Hangout: Wednesday, December 14 at 3 p.m. Eastern.

Next Week’s Guest: Sven Birkerts, author of The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age.

 

 

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Posted 09 December 2011 † Len Edgerly § Kindle ‡ Comments (4) ° Tagged: , ,

TKC 174 Russ Grandinetti

News – 1) Amazon reports record Kindle sales on Black Friday. Laura Hazard Owen has details on estimates of the Kindle Fire’s market share compared with Apple’s iPad 2. At Best Buy, the Fire bests the iPad 2, but you need to read the fine print on that one.  Amazon posts a point-by-point comparison of the two tablets.  2) Amazon announces new Kindle Stores for Spain and Italy.

Tech Tip – Fire: Reports surface of WiFi connection problems with the Kindle Fire. Bruce Beris posts an overview and troubleshooting suggestions. Also, how to get some hot orange color into the name of your Fire. E-Ink: How to make screenshots with your basic Kindle (hold down the menu and keyboard buttons at the same time, then release) and Kindle Touch. Also, how to tell your Kindle with Special Offers which city you want to see offers in.

Interview (Starts at 16:03) – Russ Grandinetti, Amazon’s Vice President for Kindle Content, gives details of the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library for Amazon Prime members and describes the similar mentality of the Kindle Fire and the e-ink Kindles. He doesn’t sound worried about the Nook Tablet or Big Six publishers’ lack of enthusiasm for the Lending Library. I spoke with Russ by phone and Skype on November 28.

Content – Jean Remple shares content possibilities for the Fire, including two blockbuster comic books by Alan Moore and Co., Watchmen and V for Vendetta. Also, Jean’s favorite music station and his wife Laila’s recommendation of handsome art books by the Ankele husband and wife team showcasing the art of  Rembrandt, Jean-François Millet, and Honoré Daumier. Garrett Riley recommends a great web tool for seeing the order of books in a series. The Wall Street Journal is now available as an app on the Fire.

Other links mentioned – “After the Wedding” on Amazon Prime instant video.

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Posted 03 December 2011 † Len Edgerly § Kindle ‡ Comments (5) ° Tagged: , , ,

TKC 173 Laura Hazard Owen

News – 1) My Nook Tablet has arrived. It’s a beautiful device, but I confess I have not spent much time using it, because there is so much more to learn about the Kindle Fire. On a comparison of hardware only, I give the Nook a slight edge over the Fire, but that’s not all of the story. 2) M-Edge Accessories makes an excellent cover for the Fire. 3) Free Kindles with newspaper subscriptions? This may be an idea whose time is getting closer.

Tech Tip – Gib Wallis of Brief Episode helped me load the Nook app onto my Kindle Fire without rooting or jailbreaking the Fire. Here are the steps he e-mailed me: 1) Allow the Kindle Fire to install apps from other app stores, emails, and web links: Tap the settings from the Home screen or any screen with it visible; Tap More; Tap Device; At Allow Installation of Applications, tap ON. 2) Get the GetJar app, for a free app store for Android: Go to the mobile version of GetJar at: m.GetJar.com; When prompted, download the GetJar app; Let the app download. 3) Move the GetJar app to your app folder; Download a file manager that’s free from the Amazon app store, like File Expert; Move the GetJar app from the Kindle Fire’s Downloads folder to the Apps folder; Go to your apps and start GetJar; In the GetJar store, look for the Nook app – it’s often on the front page, but there’s also an option to search; Download the Nook app; install the Nook app just as you would an Amazon app store app.

Also, George from Tulsa sent me this link which offers easy steps for adding Dropbox to your Fire. And finally, tips on how to highlight on the Kindle Touch and the Mystery of the Missing My Clippings File.

Interview (Starts at 24:17) – Laura Hazard Owen, a Staff Writer at PaidContent, describes how Penguin Group USA this week directed Overdrive to pull Kindle versions of Penguin books at public libraries, then rescinded part of the decision. I spoke with her by phone and Skype on November 25th.

Content – Bufo Calvin’s Love Your Kindle Fire: The ILMK Guide to Amazon’s Entertablet and Moe Zilla, aka Jon Cog’s The Turkey Mystery Rhyme: A Short Thanksgiving Day Mystery for Kids. Also, I found a mindmapping app for the Fire, called Mindmaps by Endare. It costs $3.99 at the Amazon App Store for Android, and it’s pretty good.

Next Week’s Interview Guest: Russell Grandinetti, Amazon’s vice president for Kindle content.

Next Google Plus Video Hangout: Wednesday, November 30, at 3 p.m. Eastern.

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Posted 26 November 2011 † Len Edgerly § Kindle ‡ Comments (9) ° Tagged: , , , ,

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