Thursday, May 10, 2012

Kindle News: All Harry Potter eBooks coming to Kindle Owners' Lending Library; E-Ink Color Kindle E-Readers may launch 2nd Half of 2012; Wi-Drive gets web-browser update; 3 Solitaire programs in one set, by 7 Dragons, for Kindle Fire

Kindle Owner's Lending Library will carry all 7 Harry Potter eBooks.

  The Potter eBooks had already been part of an exclusive worldwide e-book and digital audiobook distribution agreement with Overdrive for public and school libraries.

  However, waiting lists at libraries are notoriously long, and books are due within 2 weeks in some.  So, the PRIME Kindle Lending Library will be a boon for many.
  There are no waiting lists and no due dates.

  Remember that you can borrow only one Kindle book per calendar month though.  For more info on the PRIME lending program, which now includes 145,000 books, "including over 100 current and former New York Times Best Sellers," see:

  Prime's Lending Library:
    Rules;
    Borrowing;
    How to Browse List

  Remember that you can borrow an e-book ONLY on a Kindle Device and NOT via a web page on a computer.

 Amazon purchased an exclusive license from Pottermore to make these titles available on the Kindle Owners Lending program.

  PRIME was originally created to offer Free Shipping of Amazon products in two days, for $79/yr, or essentially, $6.58/mo.

  It now includes unlimited free streaming of over 17,000 movies and TV episodes.   Jeff Bezos, Amazon's CEO, pointed out that "Over a year, borrowing the Harry Potter books, plus a handful of additional titles, can alone be worth more than the $79 cost of Prime or a Kindle. "

As with Kindle books, your annotations and bookmarks will be saved for you (unless you don't want them backed up) in case you want to borrow the book again or buy it later.


Color E-Ink Kindles due in 2nd Half of 2012?
Forbes points to Digitimes' article today that Amazon is 'likely' to launch these sometime during the 2nd half of this year.
  However, this is very SOFT info, since with E Ink Holdings's plans to unveil "color EPD products" soon, according to company chairman Scott Liu, "sources" describe the products as "likely" to be adopted by Amazon.  NOT exactly firm rumors.

  They mention "makers in the supply chain to begin shipping related parts and components in May" -- to whom?  They don't say and it would probably be to E Ink holdings, whose first quarter was below expectations.

  Digitimes highlights two item, which I forgot to insert while linking to their article:
' Amazon's new color e-book readers will be built with multi-touch capacitive touch panels instead of infrared touch panels used in the previous mono-color e-book readers, the sources noted.
...
Touch panel maker TPK Holding reportedly has landed touch module orders for Amazon's color e-book readers, the sources added. '

Wi-Drive Update
The Wi-Drive is a small flash drive that stores files and allows streaming of media (video, text) to up to three devices at one time and I've used one with the Kindle Fire since January.   See the article from January 24.  I have two, and one is always in my purse, as it's smaller than a cell phone.  The Wi-Drive app update announced today enables web browser support for the WiDrive.

  While they've been available in 16 GB and 32 GB versions, Kingston is now adding a 64 GB model though I don't see it shown at Amazon yet.

  The Wi-Drive app update is available at Google Play's app store.  The Kindle Fire Wi-Drive app doesn't show an update ready yet though, but it shouldn't be long.  I received an update for my Samsung devices, but Amazon's vetting processes for its Android apps always take longer.


New Solitaire, Mahjong Solitaire, Spider Solitaire app for Kindle Fire
7 Dragons, the popular creator of Kindle E-Reader and Kindle Fire apps has just released a new app for Kindle Fire -- a combination of several Solitaire games released in just one app, for $1 as a launch sale, as the permanent price will be $3 later.

  This won't work on other Android tablets, and is available only for the Kindle Fire.   It was released May 8, and there are two reviews so far, both verified Amazon purchases, with 5 stars each.

Optimized for the 7" tablet, it's very customizable, has Autosave, unlimited Undo, and hints plus optional background music.  There are 19 levels from "easy" to "very challenging."




Check often: Temporarily-free recently published Kindle books
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published free books, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

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3 comments:

  1. Anything to help get Potter books onto the device is a good thing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. HP: wish they offered the UK English editions (i.e. the actual language used by the author). French, German, Spanish, are available, why not this? These regional restrictions have got to go. What is it that "they" don't want us to read?

    I assume Wi-Drive allows any web access, not just with a browser? I.e. Kindle Store, streaming audio/video etc.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tom, I haven't tried my new Wi-Drive app yet. Downloaded it though. The older version already had a dual mode thing that allowed it to also attach to your router so that you could stream from it to 3 devices AND be on the Net with the regular browsers.

    Have not seen yet what their own browser is like but will do that when I get back - am going to Adobe HDQ here to see a free event on using their Adobe Touch app on Android and iOS. It's pretty amazing.

    ReplyDelete

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