The Kindle Chronicles

News - 1)  Via Eolake Stobblehouse, news that the U.K. Kindle Store lists Kindle Fire HD 7" without Text to Speech. 2) DigiTimes reports shipment delays for the Kindle Paperwhite. 3) Wal-Mart stops carrying the Kindle. 4) Barnes & Noble introduces its new Nooks. Tech Tip - Q&A on WhisperSync for Voice and Immersion Reading. More on Bluetooth keyboard problems with Kindle Fire HD. How to use the free Pulse News app to subscribe to the RSS feed of The Kindle Chronicles blog on your Kindle Fire. Interview (Starts at 20:40) - James McQuivey, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, tells where Amazon's latest devices are likely to cause the most disruption. Content - The Song of Achilles, a novel by Madeline Miller, is a good example of how the traditional publishing apparatus does bring excellent books into the world, in this case after 10 years of writing and revision. Click here for the Kindle version with audio/video extras playable only on iOS devices. Next week's interview guest - Yael Goldstein Love, cofounder of Plympton, creator of serialized fiction for digital readers. Other links mentioned - Computer Science 50 (CS50), Harvard's most popular undergraduate course, soon to be available at edX.org. If you have purchased and read my new $2.99 Kindle article, Inside the Hangar at Amazon's Santa Monica Press Conference - thank you! And thanks to those who have left reviews. Please consider adding one if you have not already done so. Click here to sign up for a Kindle Nation Daily Digest free email subscription which includes my weekly Contributing Editor's column in the KND Weekender each Saturday. Listener Survey - Please click here to take quick, four-question survey that will help me make sure The Kindle Chronicles continues to meet your needs.

News - A closer look at a sometimes overlooked member of the new Kindle family, the $159 Kindle Fire. It's a great Fire for reading, because of its half-inch narrower width, and it offers Text-to-Speech which will not be available on the Kindle Paperwhite models shipping next month. One thing it doesn't have is line spacing, a feature quietly dropped from the new lineup of Fires, as noted by David Rothman. Also, Marcy McKenzie reports trouble getting a Kindle Fire HD to work with Bluetooth keyboards. Amazon sent her a new one, with an earlier system software version, 7.1.1 compared with 7.1.5 and that seemed to solve the problem. And Guven Witteveen reports the Kindle Keyboard 3.4 update seems to have speeded up the device's ability to make speedy annotations. Tech Tips - Via Bufo Calvin and others, here is how to make a screenshot with your Kindle Fire HD: hold down the lower-volume button and the power button at the same time for a second, until you hear a camera-like click. Also, Bob Anderson's no-touch Touch tip for turning the page. Interview (Starts at 26:24) - Jeff Belle, Vice President of Amazon Publishing, reports the sale of 10,000 Kindle Serials during the first week since the program was launched and describes what he hopes will take place between authors and readers in "virtual-watercooler" discussions as the serials unfold. Content - Linda Hopkins notes that you have to be a member of Audible.com in order to take advantage of the free test pairs of Kindle/Audible books using Whispersync for Voice. My eBook article, Inside the Hangar at Amazon's Santa Monica Press Conference is available at the Kindle Store for $2.99. Thanks to all of you who helped edit and proofread it! Next Week's Guest - James McQuivey of Forrester Research.

News - My thoughts on the Kindle Fire HD 7" on the topics of audio quality, size, the new and improved Text To Speech lady, WhisperSync for Voice, and Immersion Reading. Also: a quick look at $69 Kindle, an eBook price war launched by Amazon, Mike Shatzkin's praise of Amazon and thoughts on eBook pricing, and a big boost for WorldReader from major publishers. Tech Tips - An update of the Kindle for Mac app, new software update for the Kindle Keyboard, and how to change the default search engine from Bing on your Kindle Fire HD. Interview (starts at 18:27) - I returned to the US Headquarters of E Ink Holdings on September 11 to visit with Sri Peruvemba, chief marketing officer, nearly four years since the last time he and I met in person for the interview in TKC 18. Much has changed, but E Ink still sets the standard for technology driving the eBook Revolution. Content - Oral Literature in Africa  by Ruth H. Finnegan is available as a free download from UnGlue.it, the startup's first completed pledge drive to raise funds in order to "unglue" books for Creative Commons distribution. Amazon is offering 22 free Kindle/Audible titles that you can try out as a test of the new WhisperSync for Voice.  If you would like to help proofread and offer feedback on the working draft of my upcoming eBook article, Inside the Hanger at Amazon's Santa Monica Press Conference, please send me an email at PodChronicles AT Gmail DOT com with "Proofreading" in the subject line. I will email you back .doc and .mobi versions of my draft. Thanks! Next Week's Guest - Jeff Belle, vice president of Amazon Publishing, which publishes Amazon's latest invention in publishing, Kindle Serials. And a Hat Tip from the Kindle Chronicles to the E Ink team that enabled the launch of the Kindle Paperwhite reader:

This is a special edition of The Kindle Chronicles podcast, filed from Santa Monica, California, and devoted entirely to today's Amazon press conference at which the following new Kindles were announced, all ready for pre-order: Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 4G for $499, ships November 20. Kindle Fire HD 8.9" for $299, ships November 20. Kindle Fire HD 7" for $199, ships September 14. Kindle Paperwhite 3G with Special Offers for $179, ships October 1. Kindle Paperwhite with Special Offiers or $119, ships October 1. Click here for full video of Jeff Bezos's presentation at the press conference. I want to thank Garrett Riley for accompanying me to the event as tech assistant and helping me organize coverage of the press conference. You will find his blog post about it here, with some great photos. And thanks to everyone who has contributed to the podcast to help defray costs of my trip to Santa Monica for the Amazon announcement. If you'd like to help out and make a donation through the PayPal link at the upper right of the page here by the end of the day Friday September 7th, you will receive a free advance copy of the eBook that I plan to write about the new products and Amazon's latest bold strokes in business strategy. It's going to take a while for the full extent of Amazon's latest inventions to sink in, but I hope you will enjoy this report from Santa Monica to get a feel for Day One of the next generation of Kindles. My thanks to Brad Stone of Bloomberg Businessweek, Andrys Basten of A Kindle World, and the Amazon execs and staffers who took time out after the formal presentations for interviews. CORRECTION: I misunderstood Jay Marine's description of the Kindle Paperwhite's WhisperSync for Voice feature and assumed you can listen to an Audible book on the Paperwhite or hear Text to Speech. This turns out not to be the case. There are no speakers or a headphone port on the Paperwhite. What the new Audible sync feature does is to enable you to listen to an Audible book on another device, and then pick up the reading on your Kindle Whispernet as text only.

News - 1) The Verge has a purported photo of the next Kindle Touch, but something looks fishy about it to me. Too white a background. We'll see, in Santa Monica on September 6 at 10:30 a.m. PT. 2) Yes, we have no Kindle Fires, Amazon announces. 3) Now we know how much we might be receiving in Kindle gift credits if the state attorneys general settlement is approved, but it might be a while before we can buy more eBooks thanks to the big eBook price fixing lawsuit. 4) In a PaidContent scoop by Laura Hazard Owen, we learn that Amazon makes a deal with Ingram to sell eBooks through other eBook retailers. 5) The American Booksellers Association chooses Kobo as its new eBook partner, now that Google eBooks have left the building. Tech Tips - How to use Instapaper to create a custom collection of web clippings as a handy eBook for your Kindle(s). Also, an update for Kindle for iPad with Rapid Highlighting. Interview (starts at 25:23) - I spoke with John Mitchinson, co-founder of Unbound, via Skype on August 24th. Content - Art Space Tokyo: An Intimate Guide to the Tokyo Art World by Craig Mod and Ashley Rawlings is a gorgeous example of eBook formatting, as detailed in Craig's blog. Also, Amazon Publishing acquires 1,000 titles at auction from Dorchester Publishing. Next Week: I'm not sure exactly whom I will talk with at Amazon's press conference in Santa Monica, but I'm sure you will find next week's show worth listening to. My plan is to upload TKC 214 by Thursday night, while the news is fresh. On Friday I hope to draft a longform account of the new products and the event, with an eye to providing another eBook title for your enjoyment. If you'd like to get into the mood, you might want to buy a copy of my account of the press conference last year. Thanks!  

News - 1) Amazon sends out invitations to a press conference in Santa Monica on September 9  September 6 at 10:30 a.m. Pacific Time. I'll be there, of course, eager to see what new Kindles will be announced. 2) Amazon announces that it is opening a new India Kindle Store. Tech Tips - 1) If you want to transform your physical books to digital, with no going back, you might want to check out 1DollarScan. 2) Bufo Calvin describes the process of updating his Love Your Kindle Fire eBook. Interview (starts at 22:34) - I spoke with Glenn Thrush, senior White House Correspondent at Politico, on August 22nd from Washington, D.C. His new eBook, Obama's Last Stand, was published this week and represents a continuing experiment by Politico in providing long-form campaign coverage before the election. The prior two titles in their Playbook 2012 series are The Right Fights Back and Inside the Circus: Romney, Santorum and the GOP Race, both written by Evan Thomas and Mike Allen. Content - Digital Book World creates a weekly list of eBook bestsellers. Click here for coverage by Laura Hazard Owen in PaidContent. Next Week's Guest - John Mitchinson, founder and CEO of Unbound, an experiment in crowdsourcing the connection between authors and readers.

News - 1) The State Department backs away from a $16.5 million Kindle deal (PDF). 2) Have tablets already overtaken dedicated eReaders as the preferred way to read eBooks? Jeremy Greenfield analyzes the data. 3) I love the new Sony Reader PRS-T2's Evernote connection, even though it seems flawed at its debut. This is one handsome unit, weighing only 5.9 ounces. I hope Amazon announces something soon that will be even better. Tech Tips - The new Send to Kindle extension for the Google Chrome browser works great. Just be sure you have Chrome Version 17 or higher before installing it. Also, a column by Mitch Lipka in The Boston Globe explains what to do if you mistakenly send a Kindle gift book to the wrong e-mail address. Interview (Starts at 19:43) - Gigi Whiteside is an assistive technology specialist for the Fulton County school district, which has approximately 92,000 students in central Georgia.  Her column about how Kindles in her classrooms have helped slow and nonreaders was featured at the Amazon.com landing page recently, so I was interested in tracking her down to hear more of the story. I spoke with her by Skype on Wednesday, August 15th. Content - Open Road Integrated Media has a nice presentation of late-summer reading to consider, organized like a way-back time machine. A couple that caught my eye were Six Days of the Condor by James Grady and Marlon Brando: A Biography by Patricia Bosworth. Also, Amazon Instant Video on the iPad gets an update adding a useful search function. Next Week's Guest: Glenn Thrush, White House correspondent for POLITICO and author of Obama's Last Stand, the third in a series of groundbreaking Kindle Singles covering the Presidential campaign.

News - By the time you hear this episode, we may have already heard an official Amazon announcement of new Kindles, but meanwhile here are some other good stories: 1) New York Times Book Review Editor Sam Tanenhaus metaphorically falls off his chair during the July 22nd Book Review podcast in the face of news that U.S. publishers sold more adult fiction eBooks last year than print copies. 2) unglue.it is looking for a new way to process pledges and payments after Amazon, citing regulatory obligations, notifies the startup it can no longer do the processing. Founder Eric Hellman's blog post is here, and Laura Hazard Owen's story is here. unglue.it's first successful project, Oral Literature in Africa, is still moving forward toward free eBook distribution. 3) E Ink Holdings announces another quarter of net losses. Click here for Nate Hoffelder's post. Tech Tip - Here's a handy place to get help in several languages for all the Kindle devices: Kindle.com/support . And yes, you really can keep a Kindle book for seven days and then return it for a full refund. Not so with a Nook eBook. Interview (Starts at 18:31) - Eric Loss completed his solo circumnavigation of the world on July 22nd, and I spoke with him this week on August 8 about his amazing adventure. One can glean numerous morals from his story, from "Don't toss your satellite phone onto the screen of your Kindle" to how to stay sane during months of solitude. Click here for videos of a gale. My first chat with Eric before he embarked on his voyage is here, and our conversation in January during an unplanned layover repairs in Chile is here.  In a separate post, I will share with you Eric's long list of great books that he read, mostly on his Kindles, during his trip. Content - At the Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA) annual conference last week in Tunica, Mississippi, I met a prolific outdoor writer named John E. Phillips who is taking full advantage of the Kindle platform. One of particular interest to me is Courage: Stories of Hometown Heroes. Fellow workshop presenter Tovar Cerulli spoke about his journey from anti-hunter vegetarian to game-eating hunter, artfully chronicled in The Mindful Carnivore: A Vegetarian's Hunt for Sustenance. Highly recommended.  For Kindle Fire content, be sure to check out the new, free Spotify music app. Next Week's Interview Guest: Gigi Whiteside, an English teacher in Alpharetta, Georgia, who is using Kindles to help struggling readers fall in love with books.

News - Since I created this episode earlier in the week than usual, I'm not including news that might be stale by Friday. Tech Tips - Why you might, from time to time, find that a book published through Kindle Direct Publishing has a smaller font than you're used to. Also, an update on a persistent annoyance in my Kindle Fire's WiFi connection. If you've experienced multiple listings of the same WiFi address on your Fire, please let me know at PodCharonicles AT Gmail DOT Com. Interview (starts at 9:14) - On July 27th in Seattle, I interviewed Nancy Pearl, creator of the Book Lust Rediscoveries series introduced by Amazon in January. She hosts a monthly TV show and is a regular guest on NPR's Morning Edition.   A portion of the proceeds of the Book Lust series is benefiting the Nancy Pearl Endowment for Public Librarianship at the University of Washington's Information School. Content - Here are books mentioned by Nancy Pearl in the interview: A Gay and Melancholy Sound by Merle Miller; After Life by Rhian Ellis; Fool by Frederick G. Dillon; The Last Night at the Ritz by Elizabeth Savage; The Cowboy and the Cossack by Clair Huffaker; The Girls from the Five Great Valleys by Elizabeth Savage; A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire (Book Five) by George R. R. Martin, The Fear Artist by Timothy Hallinan, and Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan by Rajiv Chandrasekaran. One I mentioned is George F. Kennan: An American Life by John Lewis Gaddis. Free Kindle Fire App: Pocket (Formerly Read It Later). Next Week's Guest: Eric Loss, back home after his Kindle-enhanced solo circumnavigation of the globe. Other Links Mentioned: Click here to have The Kindle Chronicles blog posts delivered wirelessly to your Kindle for 99 cents a month and here to sign up for a free Daily Digest email subscription from Kindle Nation Daily that includes the KND Weekender email each Saturday. The Weekender is the first place where my KND Contributing Editor's column appears each week, based on my Kindle Chronicles interview for the week. I want express my thanks to Pete Kraft at Splash Media for creating the handy navigation buttons that you now see at the top of the Kindle Chronicles web site. Well done! I'm looking forward to my trip to Tunica, Mississippi, later this week to present workshops on eBook formatting and podcasting at the Professional Outdoor Media Association's 2012 business conference. For the eBook session, I will be relying on Kate Harper's updated and expanded How to Publish and Sell Your Article on the Kindle: 12 Tips for Short Documents. 

News - Amazon announces that second-quarter earnings fell by a whopping 96 percent compared with last year's quarter, but the stock price goes up. Stephen Windwalker explains why. Tech Tips - All about X-Ray on the Kindle Touch, including a video clip from the Amazon press conference last fall. Also, how to sideload a photo from your computer to your Kindle Fire. Interview (starts at 11:45) - On the very day of this podcast's fourth anniversary, I had the chance yesterday, July 26th, to interview Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, at the company's headquarters here in Seattle. He told me what the biggest surprise has been in the seven years since early design work began for the Kindle, and he explained why he thinks there will always be a role for purpose-built reading devices. Plus: what's up with Stephen King, why missionaries make better products than mercenaries, and much more. Content - Nancy Pearl's Book Lust Rediscoveries series is a heart-warming project for anyone who loves books, and you'll hear all about it in next week's double-length interview with Nancy which I just finished recording here at the hotel in Seattle. Meanwhile, I hope you will check out the first two books of the series, now available for purchase and delivery--A Gay and Melancholy Sound by Merle Miller and After Life by Rhian Ellis--as well as these two that you can pre-order for delivery later this year: Fool by Frederick G. Dillon and The Last Night at the Ritz by Elizabeth Savage. On my Kindle Fire, I'm enjoying His Girl Friday starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. My thanks to all my listeners whose support and feedback have made doing this podcast every week for four years an amazing journey. And thanks to the team at Amazon, and their happy dogs--you'll find out why in my intro to the interview--for daring to be misunderstood long enough to change the way we read.

News - 1) My comparison of Google's Nexus 7 with the Kindle Fire for reading books 2) GeekBeat.TV's John P has a fun and smart video comparison of the Nexus 7, Fire, and Nook Tablet. 2) Jeremy Greenfield reports on a doubling of eBook revenue in 2011 versus 2010. Tech Tips - Check out ITTT.com for automating tasks like sending each Kindle Daily Deal to your email. Ebook Friendly has more. Also, some fine points on using notes and highlights on your Kindle Touch. Interview (Starts at 24:05) - I spoke with Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild (From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail), on Tuesday, July 17th, about her savage self, getting a call from Oprah Winfrey, the metaphor of hiking, and why she might take a Kindle on her next long trip. Be sure to check out Oprah's two-hour interview with Cheryl, which will premiere on “Super Soul Sunday" July 22nd at 11 a.m. ET/PT on the Oprah Winfrey Network and will simulcast online worldwide via Oprah.com and Facebook.com/OWNtv. Content - Highly recommended: Cheryl Strayed's novel, Torch, and her newest book, a collection of personal essays in the form of advice columns, Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar. Also, I found an excellent, free mindmapping app for the Kindle Fire, Mindjet for Android.  

News - 1) Via Andrys Basten and DigiTimes, news of a possible delay in launch of the next E Ink Kindle.  2) The Financial Times publishes a five-part series analyzing Amazon, and the main author, Barney Jopson, is Tom Ashbrook's guest for an "On Point" appearance. Some pretty strange ideas thus gain some traction. 3) Jon Cog finds lots of missing Kindle titles on the Library of Congress's "Books That Shaped America" list. 4) BusinessInsider comes up with a wish list for the Amazon Phone. Tech Tips - Bob Cope suggests a stylus for better typing on my Kindle Touch. This one works great! SendToReader gets an update, via Kindle World. Also mentioned: The Readability app for Kindle Fire and the Send to Kindle app for Mac and PC. Interview (Starts at 26:20)- On July 10th, I spoke by Skype with Jeremy Greenfield, editorial director of Digital Book World. We discussed his blog post, "Commenting on the Publishing Wars of 2012," which referenced an earlier DBW blog post by Bob Mayer, and what's ahead for the Department of Justice's lawsuit against Apple and five defendant publishers. Content - OverDrive makes it easy to find its most borrowed books worldwide with this list containing links to public libraries. Two Kindle Fire apps that may help with your summer entertaining duties: Grill-It! and Domino's Pizza USA. Next Week's Interview Guest: Cheryl Strayed, author of the first book chosen for Oprah’s Book Club 2.0. The title is Wild (From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail). Please Subscribe to The Kindle Chronicles for your Kindle!

News - CNET reports four new Kindle Fires are in the works for introduction this year. Bloomberg sources claim Amazon is working on a smartphone. Tech Tips - I am frustrated with trying to type notes on my Kindle Touch. If you have learned how to use the onscreen keyboard with proficiency, please pass along your tips to me at PodChronicles AT gmail DOT com. Thanks! Also, I recommend Stitcher Radio for listening to podcasts on your Kindle Fire. For iOS, I recommend Instacast and Apple's new Podcasts app. Interview (starts at 10:57) - Marshall Poe, a professor of history at the University of Iowa, is creator and editor-in-chief of New Books Network, a consortium of podcasts in which scholars interview authors of scholarly books. This is a good way to find content for your Kindle that's off the beaten path and often rewarding. Poe wrote an essay in The Chronicle of Higher Education in March titled "Every Monograph a Movie" in which he urged scholars to translate written history into video history. Kindle book mentioned: Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, and Assassination During the 1934 Tour of Japan by Robert K. Fitts. Content - If you'd like to join my Kindle Chronicles Book Club experiment, please email me at PodChronicles AT Gmail DOT com with your kindle.amazon.com profile name and, if you want to, begin reading A Gay and Melancholy Sound by Merle Miller, leaving notes and highlights that the rest of us in the club can see.  Also, I expect to have an interview in two weeks with Cheryl Stayed, author of the first book chosen for Oprah's Book Club 2.0, so you might want to start reading that one. The title is Wild (From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail).  Other Links Mentioned: A hotel in England is replacing the Gideon Bible in each of its rooms with a Kindle preloaded with the Bible. Listener Lauren from Ft. Meyers, Florida, has posted a video extolling a key benefit of the Kindle Keyboard. Next Week's Interview Guest - Jeremy Greenfield, editorial director of Digital Book World, talking about the Department of Justice's anti-trust lawsuit against Apple and the defendant publishers. Note: If you'd like to have the weekly podcast show notes and other posts from The Kindle Chronicles delivered directly to your Kindle, please consider a subscription for only 99 cents a month after a two-week free trial!

News - 1) The Wall Street Journal reports, "Your eBooks are Reading You." Link mentioned: Coliloquy. 2) Boy Genius quotes a source who has handled both of the new Kindle Fire models. 3) PC World thinks about what Google is up to with the Nexus 7. Tech Tip - How to send an author a question right from your Kindle. Problems on the Kindle Fire with the HBO Go app. Interview (Starts at 22:34) - I spoke with Christian Hupfeld, creator of eReaderIQ, on June 26th. Links mentioned: Book Basset, Kindle Nation Daily's eBookTracker, Luzme, eBook Price Drops, zooLert, and Edward Tufte. Content - A Byliner Original for $1.99, Everybody's Reading Bastard by Nick Hornby. The Kindle Chronicles Interviews for Kindle Nation Daily - Vol. 1.  A 99-cent game I like for the Fire: Cut the Rope. Next Week's Guest: Marshall Poe, editor-in-chief of New Books Network.

News - 1) An eBooks adoption milestone. 2) eBook library borrowers also buy lots of eBooks, survey shows. 3) Amazon's invitation for developers around the world to submit apps for international distribution sparks expectations of Kindle Fire availability outside the U.S. 4) Rumor has it the Fire's price will be trimmed by $50 when the new Fire is launched later this year. Tech Tips - How to trim what's stored on your Kindle Fire, if your memory is full. Also, how to sign up for the brand-new Kindle Chronicles Book Club (KCBC). Short version: set up your profile at kindle.amazon.com and send me an email at PodChronicles at Gmail Dot com with your profile name.  Follow me (profile name: Len Edgerly), and buy the first book we'll read for KCBC, A Gay and Melancholy Sound by Merle Miller. It costs $5.99 at the Kindle Store but you can also borrow it for free if you have a Prime membership. Miller's novel was the first pick by Nancy Pearl in her Book Lust Rediscoveries partnership with Amazon. Interview (starts at 22:42) - Kevin Eagan, creator of the Critical Margins blog, spoke with me by Skype on June 19th about social reading, Goodreads, Imagine by Jonah Lehrer, what he misses most about print books, and more. Content - Throw Me a Vowel, a terrific word game for $1.99, is now available for the Kindle Touch. Flipboardis now available for the Kindle Fire. Kinder Kindle donates Amazon Associates proceeds to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF). Eolake Stobblehouse recommends How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler, but Simon & Schuster has set the price at $13.99. I used eReaderIQ to alert me if the price falls to $9.99. Meanwhile, I'll wait. The Kindle Chronicles is now available for Kindle subscription, delivered wirelessly to your Kindle device for 99 cents a month. You will receive podcast show notes each week, plus four written posts each week with information not included in the podcast. And if you are subscribing, please consider leaving a review and ranking at Amazon! Thanks! Free Webinar - Click here to register for a free webinar that I will give on Wednesday, June 27th from 3 to 4 p.m. EDT for the Professional Outdoor Media Association. The topic will be how you can publish articles in the Kindle Store, and I will be relying heavily on Kate Harper’s essential 99-cent guide, How to Publish and Sell Your Article on the Kindle: 12 Steps for Short Documents. Space is limited, so if you want to participate, please register soon! Next Week's Guest - Christian Westergaard Hupfeld, creator of eReaderIQ.