Kindle download charges causing Visa to put a hold on some credit cards?
James Fallows at the Atlantic reports that Visa froze his credit card because of “suspicious” charges — many tiny charges from Amazon for Kindle deliveries that … happen to be the same sort of test transactions that credit card thieves use to see if a credit card is valid.
Perhaps Amazon should let the credit card companies know about this?
(thanks, @Sarahw!)
Kindle app for PC & Mac coming soon
According to Amazon’s Kindle blog, an application to read Kindle books on your PC is coming soon.
Fast Company reports that Amazon will also be making a Mac application as well.
Did you lose your Kindle?
Did you lose your Kindle in a taxi — and is your name John? if so, the editors at CNet may have found it for you!
Their photo editor Sarah found a Kindle in a cab on the way home from the airport. Unfortunately, there was no entry in the “edit personal info” tab for them to contact John and return his Kindle!
Here’s a lesson: put a note in the Personal Info setting with your name and phone number, on the chance that a generous soul finds it and wants to return it!
I’d also suggest adding a label to the Kindle, either to the machine, the case, or both, with your phone number! (Personally, mine mentions a reward if found. I know I’d be distraught if I lost it, so anything that might entice a would-be returner to give it back could help!)
(via blogkindle)
Sony amends regular price to $9.99/book, reduces prices for new readers
The New York Times reports today:
Sony Electronics announced Tuesday evening that it was lowering prices for new and best-selling books in its e-book store, to $9.99 from $11.99….Sony is also introducing two new electronic reading devices: the Reader Pocket Edition and Reader Touch Edition. They will sell for $199 and $299 respectively and will go on sale at theend of August.
How does this change the possibilities for the Kindle? Since the Kindle is still selling for the reduced price of $299 – equivalent to the Sony Reader Touch edition, I suppose you can choose for yourself which is more useful: a touch screen – which reportedly cuts the readability of the e-Ink screen – or the wireless capabilities for the Kindle, including the ability to email documents to yourself, as well as Amazon’s online store.
What do you think?
Apple reportedly talking to publishers about a new Tablet
The Financial Times reported today that Apple is hurrying to get a tablet-sized computer on the market for Christmas. Analysts expect the new tablet to have wi-fi but not necessarily phone network access -like the iPod Touch. It is predicted to have the ability to browse the web, listen to music and see liner notes, probably watch movies or TV. The Tablet screen could be up to 10 inches diagonally.
The FT also says:
Book publishers have been in talks with Apple and are optimistic about being included in the computer, which could provide an alternative to Amazon’s Kindle, Sony’s Reader and a forthcoming device from Plastic Logic, recently allied with Barnes & Noble.
“It would be a colour, flat-panel TV to the old-fashioned, black and white TV of the Kindle,” one publishing executive said.
Information Week has some interesting analysis on the proposition.
Apple’s success with the iPod, which redefined the market for portable music players, and the iPhone, which did the same for the smartphone category, has shown that the company is capable of bringing game-changing technology to market. But the tablet as described in media reports is not considered a slam dunk by some analysts.
The first issue is the price tag….For the device to be successful, it would have to be an affordable alternative to a netbook, the popular mini-laptops that typically sell for less than $500, and low-end full-size laptops. Wi-Fi would probably prove more popular for connecting to the Web than a wireless connection from a carrier.
What do you think? Will a large, flat-screen multipurpose tablet beat the Kindle in ease of use or readability?
Kindle Price drops to $299
Publishers’ Lunch reports that Amazon has lowered the price of the basic Kindle reader by $60 to $299.
“Having previously insisted that they could not afford to lower the price, spokesman Drew Herdener now says, “Whenever we are able to create cost efficiencies like this, we pass the savings along to our customers.”"
Is Kindle II slower than 1st gen?
Just back from a long weekend in Bermuda, where we met three (!) Kindle readers at our tiny beach. One couple (She: The Girls From Ames, on her Kindle II; He: a thriller, can’t remember what, on his 1st gen.) told us they buy several books per week between them, and report that the Kindle II has much slower download speed.
My wife and kept our manuscript-laden Kindles safely packed away, while I dug into a good old-fashioned paper copy of David Grann’s THE LOST CITY OF Z and a galley of the new Jonathan Tropper novel THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU. (I’m a new fan). She read & loved the very creepy Stieg Larsson’s THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATOO, in paperback.
Bezos Commits to Losing Money On Kindle Editions On Multiple Devices
The NYT reports more remarks from Jeff Bezos at the Wired conference: (boldface comments mine)
“The device team has the job of making the most remarkable purpose-built reading device in the world. We are going to give the device team competition. We will make Kindle books, at the same $9.99 price points, available on the iPhone, and other mobile devices and other computing devices.”
In other words, he both perpetuates the $9.99 is our top price fallacy, and commits the company to losing money on Kindle files even when it isn’t making money on the device sales. As for why they don’t sell the Kindle reader at a discount in exchange for an agreement to purchase content, “My opinion, and so far the market has responded to our approach, is very simple. Instead of driving the cogitative complexity of a two-year commitment, tell people, “This is the actual cost of the device.’”
He also states that the Kindle will be able to read other ebook formats in the future:
The latest Kindle model has better support for Adobe’s PDF file format, and he said that in the future, Kindle readers would support other formats as well. (He didn’t say anything about Adobe’s protected format, which competes more directly with the Kindle format.)
from publisher’s lunch
New Kindle announcement on Wednesday?
Publishers Marketplace reports that this Wednesday, May 6th, Amazon is holding a press conference – presumably to announce a new Kindle
Amazon will hold a press conference on Wednesday morning at a Pace University building (on the site of old NYT offices), presumably to debut a version of Kindle with a larger screen. At one point the media had decided the rumored bigger Kindle would be aimed at the educational/textbook market, but now they’ve decided it’s focused on displaying magazines and newspapers, trying to beat Plastic Logic and other devices in development to market. “People briefed on the plans” tell the NYT that the New York Times is “expected to be involved in the introduction of the device,” but a spokesperson for the New York Times declines to comment.
(however, Pub Marketplace links to an NYT page which doesn’t mention the news conference at all — so your guess of its accuracy is as good as mine.)
Here’s hoping for some much-needed improvements to the Kindle, including:
- Notes organization:
- All notes, bookmarks, and clippings are mixed together in the text file called “My Clippings” by the date entered; I’d like to see them sorted by book and book page (or even chapter heading!).
- All notes are cited only by location in the text.
- I’d like to email my notes on one document to myself – or otherwise retrieve them without jumping through the hoops of importing my clippings
- Book organization: I have 14 pages of books right now. I’d like to put them in folders: new submissions, client books, pleasure reading.
- Page numbers: My colleague would very much like to be able to tell how long a book or proposal is – while within the document as well as looking at the Home screen. Book page numbering is not yet obsolete, when we as readers go from kindle to book to computer screen every day!
- Chapter headings on our own documents would also be useful. Particularly if page numbering isn’t possible.
- Faster text entry. The keyboard has a painfully pronounced delay, which makes making notes difficult.
- Gifts: I’d like to be able to send a gift to another Kindle user
- I’d like it to be easier to switch credit cards for Kindle purchases – even to be able to on the device itself.
and an anti-wishlist:
- Do NOT increase the cost for sending your own documents — particularly if none of the above innovations for working on our own documents are made available.
Addendum: news of the announcement can be found here, at All Things D.
Amazon increases fee for sending documents
Amazon has announced that they will increase the fee for sending your personal documents to your Kindle — and apparently they’ll start charging for it at all!
Starting May 4, in addition to the existing list of supported file types (DOC, HTML, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TXT, AZW, MOBI, PRC), you can send RTF files to your Kindle email address for convenient wireless delivery. In addition to the existing experimental support of PDF, you can also send DOCX files for conversion. Some complex PDF and DOCX files might not format correctly on your Kindle.
We have also modified the fee associated with sending personal documents wirelessly to your Kindle. This fee is now based on the size of your file. The fee for Personal Document Service (via Whispernet) is 15 cents per megabyte rounded up to the next whole megabyte.
Until this point, Amazon’s official policy was to charge 10 cents — but formally and in practical terms, Amazon did not apply any charge. In a meeting with agents, Dan Slater at Amazon announced that they didn’t charge for sending documents, and they expected never to do so.
Personally, I’m quite disappointed in this policy – and that they announced this over their (largely book publicity) blog, with no email sent to Kindle owners.
If Amazon does put this into place, I would expect at minimum these files to be converted in better formats — the metadata changed to reflect the author and title, chapter headings and a table of contents indicated, and other functionality edits available. I would also hope that Amazon makes a better home converter for personal documents available – not just unofficially relying on Mobipocket’s PC only document creator (or Calibre for Macs).
From Gear Diary via Publishers Lunch
