Wow, Amazon! We're going to read more

Today's announcement is what was promised moths ago: the public library for kindlemen (kinelepersons? kindlepeople?).

The exact quote says:

Dear Customers,

Today we're announcing a new benefit for Kindle owners with an Amazon Prime membership: theKindle Owners’ Lending Library.

Kindle owners can now choose from thousands of books to borrow for free, including over 100 current and former New York Times Bestsellers — as frequently as a book a month, with no due dates.

Not without a big fat hornet in the ointment of course: you should be a client with the Prime membership. What, in turn, means that you'd be better the US resident as only there you can benefit most of Prime.

Well, even if not absolutely free, it's a small step for a man and a big one for the Internet giant.

Kindle for PC 1.8.0: working with collections improvements

As I noticed while've been testing 1.8.0 on two desktops, there has been done some bugfix. Many may remember, that when one created a collection on a device in a locale not the same as at the time the collections have been imported from the device, suffixes applied to collections names like

collection@sp for a collection created when the locale has been set to es-es,

collection@sv is a result of creating collections when the locale was set to sv-se and so on.

Today I changed the locale thrice, every time creating a collections, and after importing, these collections appeared without suffixes. Maybe the reason is that I haven't restarted the device, since the collections I created previously still have the suffix, even to delete and to re-import them.

I'll continue testing the app and describe if possible the logic of creating and import collections.

Kindle for PC 1.8.0 for serious language learners

Amazon delivers a new version of Kindle for PC on a two months' or quarter basis.

First and foremost, why one should use a desktop application if the goal to make reading comfortable for eyes? I use the desktop version as well as web and cloud versions (are there now two or one web-based version?) primarily to read technical books. That is, if I need search and read from several sources, I put on my Kindle on a cradle (a $1 cradle for paper books :)), open cloud and desktop version and it's better than navigate on a slow device.

Well, about the news: since several days ago, Kindle for PC support several language GUIs as well as several mono-language dictionaries. Gratis.

Okay, may you say, there is nothing useful if you use Kindle for PC only for technical reading. Yes, of course, no more languages for technical reading than English. However, there may open possibilities to take a time for foreign-language reading. Along with excellent Oxford and New American Oxford, and Duden, Amazon blessed us with Portuguese-to-Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish-to-Spanish, French-to-French and Italian-to-Italian dictionaries. Enjoy, learners, enjoy!

Brand-new Kindle family members came to light!

What I say more? Nothing. Well said, and a great offer:

Dear Customer,

There are two types of companies: those that work hard to charge customers more, and those that work hard to charge customers less. Both approaches can work. We are firmly in the second camp.

We are excited to announce four new products: the all-new Kindle for only $79, two new touch Kindles – Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G – for $99 and $149, and a new class of Kindle – Kindle Fire – a beautiful full color Kindle for movies, TV shows, music, books, magazines, apps, games, web browsing and more, for only $199.

These are high-end products – the best Kindles we’ve ever made. Kindle and Kindle Touch have the most-advanced E Ink display technology available, and the 3G Kindle Touch adds free 3G wireless – no monthly fees and no annual contracts. Kindle Fire brings everything we’ve been working on at Amazon for 15 years together into a single, fully-integrated experience for customers – instant access to Amazon’s massive selection of digital content, a vibrant color IPS touchscreen with extra-wide viewing angle, a 14.6 ounce design that’s easy to hold with one hand, a state-of-the-art dual core processor, free storage in the Amazon Cloud, and an ultra-fast mobile browser – Amazon Silk – available exclusively on Kindle Fire.

We are building premium products and offering them at non-premium prices.

Thank you for being a customer,

Jeff Bezos
Founder & CEO

p.s. – Kindle Fire has a radical new web browser called Amazon Silk. When you use Silk – without thinking about it or doing anything explicit – you’re calling on the raw computational horsepower of Amazon EC2 to accelerate your web browsing. If you're curious, watch this short video to learn more about how it works.

Buzz: Kindle Fire to fire today

BlogKindle admires technical data that are ascribed to the new toy. Dual-core OMAP with fantastic 1.2 Hz frequency should serve well at least a year, being ahead of NookColor.

The screen is 7''th typical one, of readable quality of course.

In addition, with competitible price equaling to Nook Color's, the tablet will include out of the box Amazon Prime subscription, free for a year.

As a consequence of this release, there may be a pleasant price fall, as said at TechCrunch, down to $99.

We're awaiting, Amazon. :)

Kindle appstore expands

Hmm, today's news says http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2011/09/19/amazon-appstore-expands-to-australia-elsewhere/ .

Today, that's a strange fact, I filled up a new tablet with software. I set up a number of e-book readers and tried to set up Kindle for Android. I won't read much on an LCD screen, but what's not to set up e-book readers? Well, I found the Kindle app and set it up. I was shocked, having thought previously that it's not possibly to do. But I managed to set up.

To my amazement, after some time I found news where was declared that appstore is available across a bunch of countries.

What's a coincidence! I tried to set up the app the same day it perhaps was announced as for not only the US market.

A small Cloud Reader bug is reported

Today I reported the following (in the next post I'll describe the pleasant Cloud Reader that I discovered recently):

"Hello,

first of all, I would thank you the Amazon team for this amazing Cloud Reader.

What is the most demanded thing for technical people? To see code samples or technical details in paralel with the related work in process. And to make highlights (i.e., quotes) and to put them into code or into letters as a proof in a discussion. Along with the kindle.amazon.com -> Your Highlights, the cloud Reader is a promising feature.

But there I found a bug. I use highlights intensely. The book I'm working with for now is of thirteen thousand locations long and I have hishlights in various areas of the book. Of course, I don't read technical books from cover to cover, instead I read what I needed now leaving gaps in 'highlights space'.

Coming close to a bug, the bug is that I can see in the Cloud Reader only highlights before location 2195, whereas I have at least several highlights near 7775th location and in other locations.

Th highlights list simply ends up at 2195th.

My chrome is 13.0.782.112 m.

Thanks, Alexander

P.S. Another minor bug is the window where I'm writing this - its size is unchangeable.

P.P.S. Time ago I asked for the ability to open several books in parallel. Cloud Reader is the answer. Thanks again!"

Below the screenshots of what was described in the letter. The first figure displays the highlight in Kindle for PC 1.6:

The same book in Cloud Reader is deprived of highlights after location 2195: