Amazon may shrink publisher margins on e-books

Amazon's price cut of its Kindle 2 e-book reader have prompted some in the publishing industry to worry that the online retailer, which is far and away the leading provider of e-books, may put pressure on them to drop the prices for electronic versions of their books for the device, according to a Bloomberg report. Amazon reportedly pays between $12 and $13 to publishers for Kindle editions of books that are on the New York Times bestseller list and sells them for about $10 to customers. Many publishing houses are concerned the giant online vendor will put price pressure on them in order to bump its own profit margins.

Publishers earn about $2.15 per digital book versus 26 cents for a print copy.

The $10 price cannot be maintained indefinitely from a financial standpoint by Amazon nor publishers, according to analyst Claudio Aspesi. He believes Amazon is likely to raise prices to $12.50 while at the same time asking publishers to drop their price points. This strategy could help the company reach its projected $1 billion in profits for the Kindle by 2010.

Publishers are hoping for added competition to the Kindle, that will reduce their reliance on Amazon as a client for e-books, and to avoid what Apple managed to accomplish with iTunes in becoming a near-monopoly or at least the top place to go to when looking to purchase digital music online.

This may come from Sony with its Reader, although Sony is hoping to tap into a different revenue stream by selling third-party ads on the device., News Corp. is to be developing its own device as well. Google has plans to sell e-books via the web as well, though it is not yet tied to any related hardware. Plastic Logic and FirstPaper are expected to introduce e-readers in the future.

E-Ink's Acquisition Could Mean Cheaper Kindles

Electronic ink, the screens used in reading devices like Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Reader, is about to take a well-worn path for new innovations: The display technology's ownership is moving from the outskirts of MIT to Asia--a switch that could mean more e-reader devices on the market, at a much lower price.

Cambridge, Mass.-based E-Ink, the company that makes the displays, said Monday that it agreed to be acquired by Prime View International (PVI), a Taiwan-based manufacturer, for $215 million. PVI already owns other electronic ink components, including the chips and transistor backplanes.

The E-Ink acquisition is the latest in a series that PVI has made to solidify its hold on the growing electronic ink display market: In 2005, PVI acquired Phillips' ePaper display business, and in 2008 bought Korean Hydis technologies, both of which built elements of electronic ink screens. All that vertical integration by a volume-focused Taiwanese company will likely add up to cheaper E-Ink devices, says Sarah Rottman Epps, an analyst with Forrester Research ( FORR - news - people ).

"If E-Ink is the technology that all these devices are hinging on, they'll need to have more than a couple factories in Massachusetts," Rottman Epps says. "To have a major Taiwanese manufacturer add to that capacity will be a real boon to the market."

In a report published Monday, Rottman Epps predicted that the price of new electronic ink readers will fall to $199 by late 2010. The devices' screens, which currently cost manufacturers around $60 per device, have been one element keeping electronic readers relatively high, she says. Amazon's Kindle 2, for instance, retails for $360. Sony's ( SNE - news - people ) latest Reader sells for $400.

E-Ink Chief Executive Russ Wilcox told Forbes that the acquisition won't affect e-reader prices in the short term because integrating the two companies will take time. But Wilcox said that PVI's greater resources would help E-Ink ramp up its production capacity and would also contribute to faster development of new technologies like color and video E-Ink display screens, both of which Wilcox expects late next year. "The pace of innovation will pick up," he says. "This is very good news for the Sony Reader, the Amazon Kindle or other electronic paper devices."

Even without cheaper screens, the price of E-Ink gadgets has already started eroding. Last month, U.K.-based start-up Interead launched an electronic ink reader it calls the Cool-er, also using E-Ink's screen technology and selling for just $250. And unlike Sony's or Amazon's devices, the Cool-er will sell in retail stores.

"It's a big jump to go from a niche product that you only buy on Amazon's Web site to being able to buy a cheap device like this in Walmart," says Forrester's Rottman Epps. "The shift to a more mass market product requires the kind of capacity that this PVI acquisition will enable."

David Byrne: 'Inevitably someone will hack the Kindle'

You know David Byrne, right?

Founder of the acclaimed (and Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame-worthy) Talking Heads, solo musician, artist and author?

Apparently he’s a sometime-technologist, too.

Byrne decided to plunk down the “almost $500!” for Amazon’s large-format Kindle DX e-book reader to see if it was worth the money.

Then he reviewed it. (Just like I did.)

Despite the hefty price tag, Byrne likes the device. But he really didn’t like the fact that Amazon locked his purchases down faster than Shah Rukh Khan at Newark International Airport:

Here’s where the rub is. This machine only reads Kindle files and PDFs. And nothing else out there reads Kindle files. It can read other types of files — Word DOCs, MOBI, TXT etc. — but you have to go through Amazon via email, where they’re converted for a small charge, then sent directly to your Kindle. And, you can’t share a book with your friends, even if they too have a Kindle. No doubt, as with MP3 and iTunes, book publishers would only agree to this system if people couldn’t share their purchases.

And you know what? Byrne’s right. Say what you want about EPUB — ZDNet sister site SmartPlanet makes a case for it here — but the whole proprietary format thing goes against everything books are meant for, Byrne writes:

Will that mean I can share a book with my friend? It’s surely a way we make friends sometimes: “I just finished this GREAT book, do you want to read it? I’ll pass you my copy.” As with music, sharing things is a way of getting to know one another and a form of reciprocal debt — if I “lend” you my book, you sort of owe me… a book, or something. We’re linked now, which is how we use these things that represent our inner selves — as social connectors. Take that ability away, the ability to exchange stuff that represents us, and I’ll bet some of the “value” of these kinds of e-books goes too… the social interconnectedness value, not the dollar value.

In his lengthy review, Byrne touches on educational use (students will love it!), the rumored Apple tablet (backlit = battery drain, but color!), content publishers (will be crying!) and the issues around content management, an issue close to Byrne’s heart as an artist of many persuasions.

The walls tech companies put up around content is a major problem, he writes:

Inevitably someone will hack the Kindle (or other formats) — and the books will become shareable… and copiable and infinitely reproducible, just like MP3s. People laughed at the record companies, with their reputations as money squanderers and for their waste and extravagance — but music hasn’t suffered, and writing and magazines might not either, especially if both writers and publishers can learn from the record companies and not pretend that publishing is any different.

I couldn’t have put it better myself: access dictates everything.

Reader Plates Now Available on the New Amazon Kindle DX

General Aviation Pilots enjoy benefits of easy-to-use U.S. Instrument Approach Procedures on the large-screen Kindle DX electronic book reader

AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Reader Plates, LLC is pleased to announce immediate availability of their combined approach plates and Airport/Facility directories for the Kindle DX electronic book reader. The FAA/NACO terminal approach procedures are organized for ease of use and are formatted for exceptional readability on the Kindle DX. Each procedure is viewable and sunlight readable on a single page, without scrolling, using the lightweight reader that runs for days on a single charge.

Reader Plates were created for the Sony PRS-505 reader more than a year ago and have become quite popular with instrument pilots. While many appreciate the convenience of the small & compact 6-inch reader, the most popular request has been support for a larger screen. That request has been fulfilled with Reader Plates on the new 9.7-inch Amazon Kindle DX.

Reader Plates for the Kindle DX feature nearly full-sized plates that are easily chosen for display using the Kindle's 5-way controller. Airports are listed in an index by identifier and in a table of contents by state and city. Choosing an airport is as simple as selecting and clicking. Plus the table of contents for each airport now includes a link to the Airport/Facility Directory page along with the usual selections for approaches, arrivals, departures, minimums and airport diagrams. So there's never a need to dig through multiple books to find the facility information needed -- it's just a click away.

Each page is sharply rendered at the full screen resolution of the Kindle DX for maximum readability. And pages are tightly compressed to allow the Kindle DX to carry both a current and upcoming cycle of Reader Plates for the entire U.S. With two complete cycles installed on a Kindle DX, there is still space available for more than 500 additional books.

John Lemberger, Reader Plates, LLC President said, "We have two key requirements for any new approach plate product: the plates must be easy to read and the user must be able to quickly and easily find the one they need. We are confident our customers will agree we have met both goals with our new product for the Kindle DX."

Reader Plates are available for download at http://readerplates.com via subscription for $9.99 per month. Subscriptions include the most recent cycle of all 13,000-plus approach procedures and Airport/Facility Directories. The Amazon Kindle DX is available directly from Amazon.com, and the Sony PRS-505 electronic book readers are available from many electronics retailers. Purchase links for both readers are provided on the Reader Plates website.

About Reader Plates, LLC

Located in Austin, Texas, Reader Plates, LLC provides general aviation pilots with Terminal Approach Procedures and other reference material on inexpensive portable electronic book readers. Additional information is available on the company website at http://readerplates.com.

    Contact:
   John Lemberger
   (512) 850-5510
   3736 Bee Caves Road, MSC 1-135
   Austin, Texas 78746

This release was issued through eReleases(TM). For more information, visithttp://www.ereleases.com.

Will E-readers Help Save Newspapers?

E-readers like Amazon's Kindle DX represent a way for news publishers to cut costs in addition to capturing new readers and revenue streams. Newspapers are drawn to cutting general print and circulation costs, which often represent 30% to 50% of their total costs. In an e-reader model, this distribution would cost the publisher virtually nothing. Dallas Morning News publisher James Moroney thinks e-readers give newspapers a new lease on life.

By 2012, Forrester anticipates an e-reader market potential of 12 million people. In comparison, daily newspaper circulation was roughly 48 million copies in 2008. So far, The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Washington Post offer subscriptions on the Kindle DX.

The Post is working on a trial in which the paper subsidizes the cost of the DX -- currently going for a hefty $489 at retail -- as part of a bundled subscription. The missing link, however, is the advertising model. "The biggest unknown right now is, how much are advertisers willing to pay for an ad on an e-reader," says a Cox Media executive.

The experience of reading a newspaper in a print format still appeals to many people and publishers would be foolish to discount the many readers who still like packaged, edited content. E-readers' strength is that they are closer to the print product than content delivered on a Smartphone or even on the Web.?

UVA Students Test Kindle DX

Students at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business are testing out a new technology that could make their classwork a little easier.

Out of 300 first-year students, 62 were chosen at random to test out the Amazon Kindle DX. It's a wireless electronic reader that takes the place of text books.

Joe Chard is among the lucky few to get a Kindle DX.

He said, "I found out you basically had a one in five shots of getting it and I'd never won a scratch lottery ticket, I never won a raffle, so thought there's no way I'm going to get a Kindle."

Instead of thumbing through paper books, the Kindle DX allows users to scroll, highlight and type notes with just a click of a button.

"It's all very user friendly. there's only five buttons on this thing," said Chard.

The Kindle DX is compact and can hold up to 3,500 books. Users can bookmark pages and refer to them later and search for key words, but the it does take some getting use to.

"On the kindle you kind of have previous page, next page and it can kind of take a minute to go from page to page," said Chard.

Robert Carraway is the Associate Dean for MBA Programs at Darden. He said the future of education is pointing toward electronic readers.

"The ability to carry all their text books on an e-reader, I think is just going to be revolutionary," said Carraway.

He said Darden was chosen by Amazon to be one of seven institutions in the world to pilot the program.

"What we hope to come out of it is to figure out ways to use the Kindle above and beyond just a reading device," stated Carraway.

The Kindle DX usually costs about $500, but the Darden students get to use them for free for the year. Then, they have the option of buying them at a discounted rate.

99 cent books

Double Life

Product Description
What if you could leap into your own overactive imagination? And what if you met your imaginary friends there? What if it was real? This all happens to an intelligent, imaginative boy named Josiah Jones, who finds a portal into his own world. Now, stuck inside, he has to fight the battle of his life inside his own head. This remarkable piece of storytelling is fast, fresh, and fun, and keeps you engaged in this boy's strange double life between the imagined and the real.

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IRRETRIEVABLY BROKEN

Product Description
Irretrievably Broken is the haunting, funny, and heart-breaking account of German ex-patriots Nora, Ruth, and Bettina Adler. The plot takes us across the U.S., to the bush country of Canada, and to a cold case murder scene in Germany, as this multi-cultural family deals with diversity and racism. The novel is populated with unforgettable characters in a sometimes shocking and always unflinchingly honest exploration of the past. Nora is obsessed with her Native-American husband she's about to divorce and consumed with guilt over the harm she may have caused a friend; Ruth, whose blunt statements are often inappropriate, witnessed a brutal murder and saved a life during the Holocaust; and 12-year-old Bettina, child of a black African-American and a white German, is devastated by the death of her mother and neglect of her father. Irretrievably Broken is a novel of family and friendship, of love and loss, of secrets and revelations, of guilt and forgiveness.
Jacket art by Kellie von Beck, www.kellievonbeck.com

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Drifting along the Edge of Eternity

Product Description
- Death is not dead; it’s alive and well! Abraham drifts alongside Death-only he doesn't know it.

Drifting along the Edge of Eternity is written in the perspective of viewing Death from an edge.

Abraham drifts along the outskirts of the edge to approach Death. He seeks understanding; instead what he discovers is petrifying! As truths are revealed, Abraham finds himself in a struggle to survive. Face to face with Death; life becomes clear to Abraham. He is overwhelmed with knowledge beyond his wildest imagination. Death continues to consume everyone around him. Can he unlock the final secret behind the killings before it’s too late?


Come open Abraham’s box to see what secrets lies within...

Kindle Price: $0.00

A Very Special Delivery

Product Description

It was the surprise of a lifetime for recluse Molly McCreight when single dad Ethan Hunter entrusted her with his infant daughter while he delivered medicine to an elderly man during an ice storm. Past experience had taught Molly how fragile life could be, but she was touched by this stranger's faith in her abilities. Once the storm had passed, though, and her guests returned home, normalcy eluded Molly. The Hunters' presence had brought much-needed joy to her quiet world, but their absence threatened to crush her forever. Still, was she ready to admit that this tiny family held the key to the future she'd always secretly craved?

• File Size: 487 KB
• Print Length: 256 pages
• Publisher: Steeple Hill

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #158 in Kindle Store (See Bestsellers in Kindle Store)

Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

#1 in	Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Evangelism > Missions & Missionary Work
#1 in	Books > Romance > Religious
#1 in	Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Fiction > Religious Fiction > Romance

this vividly penned thriller

Advantage Disadvantage

Kindle Price: $0.99

Review

Those immersed in the basketball community will read Advantage Disadvantage and recognize many of the "usual suspects" and familiar situations that will make you chuckle...or bring your emotions to anger, disgust, sadness, excitment, and joy.- Readers foreign to the world of hoops will gain some insight into the machinations of prep basketball, recruiting, officiating, and the cracks in the system that allows the slime to sometimes find its way into our beautiful game.

Advantage Disadvantage is a fictional tale with high school basketball as the backdrop for an intriguing story of a cast of characters who are faced with some very real life temptations and we follow them-as they try to reconcile right from wrong - all the while wondering whether their decisions will prove to be an Advantage or a Disadvantage.

Coach Ray Lokar, West Covina, California

Product Description
A neighborhood bookie peddles athletes to college coaches and develops a sport betting operation centered on high school games. He recruits an accomplice to execute his last bet, one that could set them up financially for life but is fraught with danger. The Chicago Police investigate the greedy gamblers who might try to manipulate a high school basketball playoff game. A chance meeting between the father of a mediocre student-athlete and the bookie puts in motion a sequence of events transforming the player into a Division 1 prospect using unorthodox basketball training methods. Corrupt adults, who selfishly engage in risky and exploitive behaviors, surround the athlete: gangland profiteers, win-at-all-cost coaches, greedy street agents, shoe company representatives, college recruiters, disloyal lovers, and others. Advantage Disadvantage examines the motivations that drive the surrounding adults to corruption, betrayal, and greed.

Advantage Disadvantage is a nail-biting, behind-the-scenes pass into the world of high school sports and the people who make and break it. Set in Chicago, its innately urban backdrop is full of distinctly Windy City landmarks. This is the perfect read for sports fans that love an insider's view...an insightful and deliciously-sinful plot full of twists and turns. You'll find the perfect blend of bravery, betrayal and who-done-it adventure in this vividly penned thriller.

Publisher: BookSurge
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #46,922 in Kindle Store (See Bestsellers in Kindle Store)

Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

#21 in	Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Sports > Basketball
#21 in	Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Sports

Kindle Price: $1.99

The Walk

Product Description
"Can books be better than TV? You bet they can -- when Lee Goldberg's writing them. Get aboard now for a thrill ride," Lee Child

"Lee Goldberg can plot and write with the best of them," Mystery Scene Magazine

It's one minute after the Big One. Marty Slack, a TV network executive, crawls out from under his Mercedes, parked outside what once was a downtown Los Angeles warehouse, the location for a new TV show. Downtown LA is in ruins. The sky is thick with black smoke. His cell phone is dead. The freeways are rubble. The airport is demolished. Buildings lay across streets like fallen trees. It will be days before help can arrive.

Marty has been expecting this day all his life. He's prepared. In his car are a pair of sturdy walking shoes and a backpack of food, water, and supplies. He knows there is only one thing he can do ... that he must do: get home to his wife Beth, go back to their gated community on the far edge of the San Fernando Valley.

All he has to do is walk. But he will quickly learn that it's not that easy. His dangerous, unpredictable journey home will take him through the different worlds of what was once Los Angeles. Wildfires rage out of control. Flood waters burst through collapsed dams. Natural gas explosions consume neighborhoods. Sinkholes swallow entire buildings. After-shocks rip apart the ground. Looters rampage through the streets.

There's no power. No running water. No order.

Marty Slack thinks he's prepared. He's wrong. Nothing can prepare him for this ordeal, a quest for his family and for his soul, a journey that will test the limits of his endurance and his humanity, a trek from the man he was to the man he can be ... if he can survive The Walk.

"Harrowing and funny..."
—Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

"Lee Goldberg's hard-to-classify but not-be-missed The Walk, set in the aftermath of a major Los Angeles earthquake, pokes fun at the TV industry in the midst of disaster..."
—Jon Breen, The Year In Mystery and Crime Fiction, 2004

ABOUT THE AUTHOR - Lee Goldberg is a two-time Edgar Award nominee. His TV writing and/or producing credits include "Hunter," "SeaQuest," "Spenser For Hire," "Diagnosis Murder," "Martial Law" and "Monk." His books include "My Gun Has Bullets," "Man with the Iron-On Badge," "Successful Television Writing," and the "Diagnosis Murder" and "Monk" series of original mystery novels.

From the Publisher
The powerful new thriller by two-time Edgar Award-nominee and acclaimed TV writer/producer Lee Goldberg.

Kindle Price: $0.99

Sudden Death

Review
Pure fun, pure intrigue. The action never stops until a fascinating climax! --Clive Cussler

You like golf, you like murder mysteries, then Sudden Death is your book! --James Patterson

Product Description
Reid Clark is a pro golfer at the top of the leader board during the PGA tour; he's also a hot-head with a reputation for trouble. Reid receives a death threat right before teeing off on the final day of the Master's Tournament, and hires a P.I. to track down the perpetrator. Suspense builds throughout as Reid tries to compete in one of golf's most prestigious contests...and woo the woman he loves...while dodging death at every turn. For golfers and mystery lovers in general, Sudden Death will score big.



"You like golf, you like murder mysteries - then Sudden Death is your book!"

- James Patterson Bestselling Author, Over 130 million copies sold worldwide



"Pure fun, pure intrigue. The action never stops till a fascinating climax."

- Clive Cussler Author, Adventurer, Car Collector Extraordinaire, Published in more than 40 languages, 100 countries with over 125 million avid fans.

The Colorado Sequence

Product Description
Physicist Dr. Amy Levine has discovered a mathematical sequence--the Colorado Sequence--that describes an underlying pattern and a guiding force within the very fabric of reality. Now she's on the verge of an astonishing breakthrough, and the U.S. government wants to know how she has done it. How has Dr. Levine learned to accurately predict the future? And they're willing to kill her to find out. Levine and a group of friends escape to Colorado to unravel the mystery of the sequence, but there they become snowbound. They must locate a secret treasure room, find a hidden key, and answer an ancient riddle before a devastating eruption destroys them all ...and the power of the Colorado Sequence is lost forever. Visit the author at StaceyCochran.com

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,035 in Kindle Store

Kindle Price: $0.99

Turning Idolater

Product Description
Philip Flaxen, who strips past his jockstrap on the Internet for manluv.org, acquires a rare gift - a book that transforms his life. With it, he sparks with a famous author, whittles away at a new craft, swims with an odd circle of new acquaintances and is swept up in mayhem. Philip leaves the world of the Porn Nazi and enters the realm of crisp possibilities - great expectations and dark secrets that unravel over deep waters.

Follow this whodunit as Philip Flaxen "turns idolater" and never looks back - a tale of Internet strippers, back street murders, Provincetown glitz, New York City nightlife and a love story for the ages. If you liked "No Irish Need Apply" and loved "Bobby's Trace", you will absolutely adore "Turning Idolater". Life is filled with serendipity, pleasurable and bracing, but on the fringes and in the heart, life can be a very bloody business.

Review from Rainbow Reviews:

"Turning Idolator is filled with excitement, strippers, murders, books, romance ~ what more can we ask for?

All the characters have their own quirks which not only make them extremely interesting but also very lovable. Philip, who has been wronged, ends up in the porn industry trying to make a living by taking his clothes off. Then he meets Tdye, a well known author at the peak of his fame. And what happens? Well, as they say, sparks fly here!

There is so much emotion in these pages, it made me laugh, made me sniff and at some points take short walks around my desk. Look out for the 'Moby Dick' quotes and the hidden meanings. There are fishy things going on here and you don't want to miss them.

This is a book that pulls you in ~ Patterson's story is a catchy one and as the author says 'life can be a bloody thing' but ohhh, so good. The plot is so charmingly good plus the mystery will keep you on the edge of the seat, so go read! A roller coaster of emotions fills this story and the end will make you Weeep!

Discovery may launch its own e-book reader

Discovery Communications, which operates such cable channels as Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, may be working on its own e-book reader, according to a U.S. patent application made public Thursday.

The diagrams included with Discovery's patent application, which was filed in February, depict a rectangular device with physical controls for user navigation. The device would be for reading e-books and "providing for e-commerce," and would be a direct competitor to the Amazon Kindle electronic book reader and the Sony Reader digital book reader.

The Silver Spring-based media company holds a patent on some security and copy protection features, and earlier this year sued Amazon for its alleged infringement of them with its Kindle and Kindle 2. According to the patent application, the Discovery e-book's user can view information about products and services, view an online electronic catalog, and receive samples of products available for purchase - all similar approaches used by Appe Inc.'s iTunes and Amazon's online store.

A call to the company Thursday afternoon was not immediately returned.

Streamline your business needs with Amazon’s Kindle

Business owners and senior managers are finding the Amazon Kindle to not only provide comfort next to the fire with the writings of Jules Verne, but also provide comfort in the proverbial fire of a highly competitive and dynamic global marketplace. Yes, you read this correctly; businesspersons are now engaging their Amazon Kindle for a myriad of business needs.

Amazon Kindle is a hand held device that resides in the electronic book (ebook) domain allowing a person to read his or her favorite books electronically. The device is slightly over 1/3 of an inch in width, similar to a standard magazine. The Amazon Kindle weighs about 10.2 ounces with a paper like display by way of electronic ink. The Amazon Kindle can hold over 1,500 of your favorite books from a selection of over 300,000 books and a large selection of magazines, blogs, and newspapers. In addition, the Amazon Kindle has a built-in dictionary with instant lookup features. Furthermore, the Amazon Kindle has “3G” wireless connectivity that allows one to download a book directly to the device or connect to Wikipedia from anywhere a Wi-Fi spot is available, and the best part…the wireless service is free.

Across the world users are spotting the Amazon Kindle on college campuses, local coffee shops, and public transportation. However, more users are starting to set their Amazon Kindle down in the boardrooms, client-facing meetings, and investment meetings. From the classroom to the boardroom, the Amazon Kindle is meeting a plethora of needs, especially for the modern businessperson. With it’s highly dynamic and flexible attributes, the Amazon Kindle is fitting well for such a dynamic and explosive business battlefield.

The professional user is now using the capabilities of Amazon’s Kindle for not only downloading ebooks to read while on the tarmac, but also to Email documents, review presentations, meeting minutes, and text to speech read backs on technical manuals and white papers for example. Other Amazon Kindle users check for airline information and check-ins, locating restaurants using Zagat or Yahoo, checking the news, weather, and GPS locations, essentially creating a small white PDA traveling buddy providing services that your mobile phone or computer notebook can not.

Amazon’s Kindle has made it easy to convert any document to a readable file which may also be read back to you. For example, a user has a technical manual or meeting minutes that must be read before a critical customer meeting, but you are driving. Amazon provides a converting service that allows any typical word document or PDF to be converted to an Amazon Kindle readable file and sent wirelessly to your device. Upon receipt, which may only take a few moments, the user can then have the device read aloud the information to them.

What would the marketplace be without competitive products to Amazon’s Kindle? Other competitive devices do indeed exist consisting of Google ebooks, Sony Reader, Plastic Logic, and Apple iPod touch for example. However, the Amazon Kindle does have one particular differentiator; the free wireless via Whispernet. Any well-informed businessperson will indeed find this to be particularly attractive, especially in an economy of cutting cost and increasing productivity simultaneously. The Amazon Kindle is a highly informative device with seemingly unlimited capability that turns this small white electronic book into your personal traveling assistant.

The Fallacy of a "Kindle Killer"

By Scott Anthony

On Tuesday, Sony announced plans to introduce an intriguing new e-reader in time for the Christmas season. Analysts immediately asked: Is the device a Kindle killer?

That's actually the wrong question. The right question is whether Sony can create a viable growth business with its new reader. I suspect it can — if its device delivers on the features it promised earlier this week.

It's been painful to watch Sony's struggles in the e-reader space. It entered the category in 2006 with an elegantly designed device that sold slowly because actually getting reading material onto the device was cumbersome and slow.

Then Amazon brought out its Kindle product.

The first generation Kindle was not the most beautiful of products. But Amazon nailed the business model. It partnered with Sprint so customers could get content delivered to their device wirelessly. Not only did it take me less than a minute to download The Silver Lining onto my Kindle for my television interview on FOX, I now use my Kindle to review Word documents and PDF files.

Amazon's position as the world's leading online retailer certainly helped its sales efforts. While Sony spent more to advertise its products, Amazon had the benefit of showing the Kindle on the front page of its storefront to millions of potential customers.

The 2000s really have been a rough decade for Sony. There's no reason it couldn't have created the iPod, Wii, Flip Video Camera, and Kindle. Instead the company has always seemed to be a step behind.

That's why Tuesday's announcement was so encouraging. Sony finally realized the importance of a simple business model. Its new device (called the "Sony Reader Digital Edition") will access AT&T's wireless network to simplify content delivery. Sony has formed partnerships with a number of content providers to help customers find great material. Its device features a touch screen (a feature missing in Amazon's device).

If Sony delivers on the promised feature set, it has a chance of creating a nice e-reader business.

Will it "kill the Kindle?" Who cares. Remember, the e-reader category is still in its infancy. Analysts estimate that only three million devices will have been sold by the end of 2009. Other companies like Plastic Logic have plans to introduce devices; everyone expects that Apple will jump into the market as well. Amazon surely has more innovations up its sleeve.

It's possible that an overwhelming winner will emerge over time, but it's equally possible that the category will be big enough to support a number of players.

For example, while the Apple iPhone has been a stunning success in the smartphone market, it hasn't been the sole victor. The market incumbent that pushed the pace of innovation the most in the category — Research in Motion — has also seen its sales surge. Perhaps the two companies will someday end up in a head-to-head death match, but it's also possible that both companies can build nice smartphone businesses.

Any company seeking to create new growth should build its business around the customer, not the competition. If you focus on the competition, you can lock yourself into replicating the competitor's last innovation, leaving you gasping for air when they inevitably change the game on you.

Kindle Price: $1.59

A Princess of Mars

Darden Students Test the Amazon Kindle DX

August 24, 2009 — More than 300 full-time first-year MBA students arrived at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business last week, and 62 of them were presented with a box containing Amazon's newest wireless electronic reader, the Kindle DX.

The students of "Section D" – one of five sections that represent the demographic and professional diversity of the entering class – were selected at random to take part in the Kindle DX Pilot Project. Sponsored by the online retailer Amazon, the program will test and assess how the Kindle DX can support the needs of higher education. The students and 10 Darden professors will evaluate whether the Kindle can enhance the case method and the business-school experience.

On Thursday, Amazon delivered a live orientation via video feed from Seattle, during which the students learned the features of the new Kindles, wrapped in a Darden-branded orange and blue leather cover. [Video.]

"I am typically an early tech adopter," first-year student DeVer Warner said afterward. "I come from a venture capital background, so I am excited I was selected. Everyone is still figuring out how it's going to work and how to use it, but it was a pretty good introduction."

Darden is the first school to kick off the pilot project and one of just seven colleges and universities in the world to take part.

"The participants will use their Kindles throughout the school year to access case studies, as well as textbooks, newspapers and other learning materials," said Michael Koenig, director of MBA operations.

Darden Business Publishing – the second-leading publisher of business case studies in the nation, after Harvard Business School – has established a relationship with Amazon as a distribution partner for its portfolio. Nearly 70 Darden case studies are now available through Amazon's Kindle Store.

Throughout the year, the Darden School will explore how the Kindle DX can enhance teaching and learning, promote effective applications of technology in higher education, improve environmental sustainability and lead to potential cost savings to schools and students.

In addition to saving students from lugging around heavy backpacks, the technology could substantially reduce the use of paper.

"The Kindle could help Darden achieve its goal of becoming 'carbon neutral' by 2020," Robert Carraway, Darden's associate dean for MBA programs, said.

Darden aims to become a top 10 school for teaching and research on sustainability by 2013 and has launched several other new "electronic" initiatives this school year. For the first time, all first-year students will have the option to receive electronically the more than 300 case studies they will review. For several second-year courses, paper is not an option.

Darden first-year student Emily Cherry looks forward to trying out some of the Kindle's newest features, including the ability to take notes, highlight and display native PDF files.

"I had never seen the device before, in person," Cherry said. "I'm excited to play around with it and to see if it might make sense."

Market for electronic 'paper' to hit $9.6 billion by 2018

August 26, 2009 | 1:06 pm

Sales of electronic "paper" displays such those used in the Kindle and Sony Reader will approach $10 billion by 2018, up from an estimated $431 million this year, according to a report released today from DisplaySearch, a technology research firm.

“E-paper displays are taking off with consumers due to their low power consumption and ease of reading, especially in sunlight,” Jennifer Colegrove, DisplaySearch director of display technologies, said in a statement.

Colegrove said the popularity of "green" products is expected to give digital paper a sales boost. Consumers who cringe at throwing away newspapers and magazines can read articles guilt free on devices with e-paper, which sip less power than back-lighted LCD displays.

As a result, annual sales of digital book readers are projected to zoom from 1 million units in 2008 to 77 million in 2018.

Because of their thin profile, electronic paper has been embedded in items other than readers too, including magazines, credit cards, store-shelf tags and even clothing. Sound odd? Talk to the jacket.

The Kindle Goes To College

Instead of lugging around textbooks, students at seven universities will store course materials on Amazon's electronic reader.

Instead of lugging around textbooks to class, this fall selected students at seven universities around the country will store their course materials on a wireless electronic reader--Amazon's Kindle DX.

"We're extremely excited and committed to really trying to help figure out what the whole thing with the e-reader is," says Robert Carraway, associate dean of the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia.

Carraway's excitement is shared by administrators at Arizona State University, Case Western Reserve University, Princeton University, Reed College, Pace University and University of Washington--all institutions that have been selected by Amazon to participate in their Kindle DX pilot project. At each school, 40 to 60 students will be given the device to use instead of textbooks in their courses.

By participating in the trial program, school administrators hope to determine whether electronic books are suitable for use in higher education. They also hope to find a way to reduce the costs of textbooks for students--the average annual cost for textbooks was $898 in 2003-2004 for students at four-year public colleges, according to the Federal Government Accountability Office.

Lev Gonick, vice president for Information Technology Services and CIO at Case Western Reserve University, says the school hopes to discover how the electronic book reader affects the learning and teaching process.

"We may be on the cusp of something very important in terms of transformation," says Gonick. "That transformation takes place as textbooks evolve from being the central learning resource to being an important part but no longer the singular way the learning takes place."

In order to understand whether an electronic reader can replace textbooks, Case Western will compare the learning experiences of a cohort of 40 students with the Kindle against 40 students who will use traditional textbooks. Each group will be followed through three courses taught by the same professors, and will be given the same assignments.

At Princeton, they will also assess impact the Kindle has on learning, but administrators say the pilot program's core mission will be exploration of environmental sustainability.

For several years, Princeton has offered its students free "E-readings," portions of books for which the school has cleared copyrights, turned into digital files and offered to students as downloads through their course management system. The hope was that students would read the material on their computers, saving paper. But students ended up printing multiple copies of the files and reading them on paper.

Last year, according to the university, 10.5 million sheets of paper were used in campus computing clusters. That's equivalent to 100,000 reams of paper, or about 5,000 trees. By participating in the Kindle program, Princeton hopes to see whether an e-reader can change students' printing habits.

Accordingly, Princeton has selected three upper-level seminars that use the most e-materials. That has also enabled them not to give Amazon too much work with the most tedious element of the Kindle DX pilot project--making available all the textbooks necessary for the courses that will be taught within the pilot. Princeton is preparing to load the Kindles with the e-readings from their library, but some other universities provided Amazon with hefty lists. One freshmen course at Arizona State University which will be a part of pilot requires 15 books in the fall semester, and 15 to 20 in the spring semester, according to its professor, Ted Humphrey.

Both Amazon and the participating universities declined to comment on how the costs of the device and the textbooks would be shared between them. But representatives of several schools did state that the students who partake in the program won't pay for the Kindle or the material loaded onto it.

Amazon unveiled the Kindle DX in May of this year, targeting the device specifically at educational markets. The gadget features a 9.7-inch screen, three gigabytes of storage and built-in wireless connectivity; it retails for $489. Consumer reviews of the product have generally been positive--but if this pilot program goes well, it will be the class of '09 that really determines whether it makes the grade.

Sony And Google Try To Take On The Kindle With Open Books

on August 26, 2009

When you are coming from behind, embracing openness is always a good strategy. That is exactly what Sony is doing with its electronic book reader, which is up against the Amazon Kindle. The key to the Kindle’s success is that it is paired with the largest book store in the world, where most people likely to buy an electronic book already have accounts.

Sony is trying to fight this advantage by being more open and thereby attracting other large players into its sphere of influence. It’s biggest ally in this fight is Google, whose M.O. is to attack closed industries with open technologies. Today, Google is making available more than one million public domain books in the open ePub format, which also happens to be the linchpin of Sony’s open strategy.

Yesterday, at the unveiling of Sony’s latest electronic book reader at the New York Public Library, the head of its ebook division, Steve Haber, emphasized: “”You want a ubiquitous experience: open, open open.” He repeated the mantra in the way that Steve Ballmer says, “Developers, developers, developers,” except he said it a little softer since he was in a library.

As I’ve mentioned, the key to its open strategy is Sony’s commitment to adopt the ePub format, which is an open format for electronic books. As a result of embracing that format, Sony announced yesterday that libraries, starting with the New York Public Library, would be able to “loan” out digital editions of books in their collection for 21 days to people with Sony Readers. Furthermore, book chains could start selling their own digital books without going through Sony’s digital bookstore as long as the books are in the ePub format.

With an open digital book format like ePub, anyone can sell or distribute electronic books. It doesn’t have to be Sony, which after all is more interested in selling Readers than in selling the books. Amazon’s strategy is the opposite. It wants to sell as many electronic books as possible in case people transition away from paper books. The Amazon Kindle does not support ePub. The Kindle is tied to Amazon’s book store. Its sole purpose is to drive sales of ebooks on Amazon. If you could buy an ebook at Barnes and Noble and read it on the Kindle, that would not make Jeff Bezos happy.

As long as Amazon remains the market leader in electronic books, it can stick to its closed format much like Apple did with the iPod and its DRM-wrapped AAC music format for many years. Eventually, though, open won and Apple removed the DRM from songs in iTunes as well. The same will happen with the Kindle and Amazon, but not until Amazon feels that it has a safe enough lead so that Sony, Google, and all the booksellers in the world combined won’t ever be able to catch up.

Meanwhile, Amazon has joined another open crusade—this one against Google. It is a member of the Openbookalliance, which is a group of publishers, Microsoft, and others who oppose Google’s book settlement. It’s funny how companies choose to be open only when it suits them.

Kindle Price: $0.99

Shameless Shorts

A terrific set of stories, created by a wonderfully talented group of individuals, working together exclusively on-line to publish this book.

Started by Dennis Batchelder, held together by Ellen George, managed through the difficult implementation stages by David Blankinship, and finally released by Don Fowler, this collaborative effort is unlike any I've witnessed. The resulting product is a remarkable anthology from a writing team, most of whom to this day, have never personally met!!

It's been a sincere privilege watching this artful creation come to life.

The Afternoon Book Spotlight 8-23-09

To the Ends of the Earth: The Last Journey of Lewis & Clark by Frances Hunter (Kindle Edition - Sep 23, 2006) - Kindle Book

Buy: $0.99

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Review
A seamless blend of history and fiction ... Hunter tells a thrilling tale. -- North Dakota Horizons, Fall 2006

Adventure, interesting settings, a little romance, blood and gore, and characters who live life largely ... a page-turner. -- Historical Novels Review Online, November 2006

Authentic ... shows the flaws and virtues of these legends of American history. Highly recommended for all historical fiction collections. -- Library Journal, September 15, 2006

Characters like York and Julia come to life, as do the famed explorers, who are rendered all too human. -- Lewiston (Idaho) Tribune, October 6, 2006

Gripping...Full of gritty historical detail and raw imagery that rings true across the years...Historical fiction at its best. -- Midwest Book Review, September 2006

Superb, truly astonishing ... Fiction that is the mark of a great imagination ... remarkable. -- Roundup Magazine (Western Writers of America), December 2006

Product Description
St. Louis, 1809. Three years after the triumphal return of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, Meriwether Lewis never felt less like a hero. Trapped in a thankless political job, he's drinking too much and spending money like there's no tomorrow. When he's called to a mysterious meeting, Lewis hopes for a new adventure that will turn his life around. Instead, he finds himself drawn into a conspiracy to put him and William Clark at the head of a new American empire. Lewis has his faults, but he's no traitor ... and suddenly Lewis the explorer becomes the hunted. As for Clark, he's willing to risk everything to save his best friend from dishonor and disgrace. In the end, neither man can imagine the price to pay for their loyalty to each other and to their country. History and fiction merge seamlessly in this thrilling historical novel based on one of America's greatest unsolved mysteries. Lewis and Clark's last journey is a classic story of honor, vengeance, and redemption.

SPACE VIKING

Product Description
Vengeance is a strange human motivation—
it can drive a man to do things
which he neither would nor could achieve without it ...
and because of that it lies behind some of the
greatest sagas of human literature!

Think and Grow Rich

Product Description
Think and Grow Rich is the number-one inspirational and motivational classic for individuals who are interested in furthering their lives and reaching their goals by learning from important figures in history. The text read in this audiobook is the original 1937 edition written by Napoleon Hill and inspired by Andrew Carnegie, and while it has often been reproduced, no updated version has ever been able to compete with the original. It has been used as a roadmap to achievement by countless individuals.

Kindle Price: $0.99

The Island of Doctor Moreau

Amazon.com Review
A shipwreck in the South Seas, a palm-tree paradise where a mad doctor conducts vile experiments, animals that become human and then "beastly" in ways they never were before--it's the stuff of high adventure. It's also a parable about Darwinian theory, a social satire in the vein of Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels), and a bloody tale of horror. Or, as H. G. Wells himself wrote about this story, "The Island of Dr. Moreau is an exercise in youthful blasphemy. Now and then, though I rarely admit it, the universe projects itself towards me in a hideous grimace. It grimaced that time, and I did my best to express my vision of the aimless torture in creation." This colorful tale by the author of The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds lit a firestorm of controversy at the time of its publication in 1896.

From Library Journal
Like the Hugo and the James above, this is being published to tie in with a recent film adaptation. It nonetheless offers a high-quality hardcover at a reasonable price.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

M-Edge unveils new and updated line of accessories for Amazon Kindle

By Shane McGlaun on Wednesday, Aug 19th 2009 No Comments

I haven’t bit the bullet and bought myself an Amazon Kindle yet, but I have a serious jones for the gadget. Amazon is certainly selling a lot of the Kindle DX devices and more than one user has found that to keep the reader pristine requires some sort of protection for the device.

M-Edge has announced that it is now offering a full line of accessories for the Kindle and the Kindle DX. The line includes a second generation Sleeve Jacket for the Kindle selling at $39.99 and a Sleeve Jacket for the Kindle DX selling for $49.99. The exterior of the sleeve is made from neoprene and it is lined with grey polar fleece.

Other offerings include the Latitude Jacket for the Kindle and the DX selling for $39.99 and $49.99 depending on which reader you use. The Latitude is light at 5.2 ounces, but offers lots of space for accessories and protection for the reader. M-Edge also offers the Leisure Jacket for the Kindle at $39.99 and a Journey Bag selling for $44.99. The entire line of products is available now.

How green is my Kindle

Will the popularity of the Kindle, Amazon’s e-reader, be good for the planet? You bet, says the Cleantech Group in a report called “The Environmental Impact of Amazon’s Kindle.” According to the report, each e-book reader has the potential to replace the purchase of 22.5 physical books a year, which would mean an estimated savings of 168 kg of CO2 per year.

As reported by earth2tech, the report’s author, Emma Ritch, writes, “Multiplied by millions of units and increased sales of e-books, e-readers will have a staggering impact on improving the sustainability and environmental impact on one of the world’s most polluting industries: the publishing of books, newspapers and magazines.” E-books, the report says, are about “dematerialization and eliminating the need for transportation.”

Here’s a scary question, however. If each e-reader eliminates the purchase of 22.5 physical books a year, what happens to our beloved neighborhood bookstores? However hard they may work to position themselves as community centers and places to connect with other readers, it’s hard to imagine how they will sustain the loss of so many sales.

What’s good for the planet may not be good for that other endangered species: the bookshop around the corner.

Kindle device can be used for musical scores: Culture

Sunday August 23, 2009, 12:01 AM

Allison Carey / The Plain Dealer

Books, newspapers and magazines made the leap a long time ago. Now it's music's turn.

Having already revolutionized reading, Amazon.com is shaking up the way people interact with music by making scores available on its popular Kindle reading device.

Through an arrangement with a company experienced in digitizing music, the online retailer is offering its Kindle customers instant access to thousands of musical works. Everything from jazz and solo piano pieces to full-scale symphonies and operas is available for immediate download.

"I think there's a real opportunity to employ digital tools with sheet music," said Kim Lorz, chief executive officer of FreeHand Systems, Amazon's California-based partner. "This really expands people's access to music."

FreeHand has been making overtures to musical techies for years. In 2003, the company released its groundbreaking MusicPad Pro, a digital music reader that displays music on a large, bright screen and allows performers to turn pages with the tap of a finger and even make handwritten notes.

It's been quite a hit. More than 10,000 artists have plunked down $900 or more for the device, Lorz said, and many have begun using it in performance.

Now FreeHand is taking aim at a broader market by releasing its Novato Music Press catalog on a device that's already on the nightstands of musicians and nonmusicians everywhere.

"Since you already bought the tool, having music alongside your books just gives it more value," Lorz said. "For us, it just gets millions of extra eyeballs on the music."

Whether and how the service will be used remains to be seen. On the Kindle 2, which Amazon.com released this spring, piano music is almost too tiny to be legible. On its 6-inch screen, details in scores for chamber, symphonic and operatic music are microscopic.

There's also no zooming function as there is for books and magazines. Reading music from the device while actually playing an instrument is difficult.

On the plus side, FreeHand's digital scores cost far less than their print counterparts, and unlike a lot of sheet music, it's possible to purchase just the piece you want -- one Bach Prelude and Fugue, say, rather than the entire "Well-Tempered Clavier."

Lorz said the musical experience is better on Amazon's Kindle DX, an even newer model designed for reading textbooks that features a 9.7-inch screen and the ability to view documents in landscape mode.

Still, Lorz said, FreeHand's target audience with either Kindle is not performing artists so much as students and amateurs looking for easy access to a broad range of repertoire.

"It's just not easy to get and tote around a lot of music," he said. "The ideal customer is somebody who wants to view scores and to do so in that kind of environment."

Oddly enough, a device with a smaller screen may end up serving that purpose even better.

By means of a special cell-phone application, Kindle customers who also own iPhones can view musical purchases on their phones, which include the zoom function that Kindles lack. Suddenly, whole symphonies and sonatas can be kept in your pocket.

Access to printed music also is getting easier. Music-lovers who prefer paper but still enjoy the convenience of shopping online have the intermediate option of purchasing, downloading and printing scores from FreeHand, Amazon.com and a slew of other Web sites.

"We're still not completely away from cutting down trees," Lorz said. "But we're trying to chip away at it."

Free Poem

Ahoy There Me Hearties!!

Ahoy there me hearties
There’s one right ahead
Sharpen your weapons
Again we bring dread

The ship she is quick
But blistering are we
We’ll catch her by nightfall
And ours she will be

Lets rape, pillage, plunder
And steal all their gold
From beggars to kings
The young to the old

All belongings be ours
Leave no stone unturned
Any penny to sovereign
Tis this day we’ve yearned

We’ll torture them all
And chop off their heads
We’ll kill them on deck
And asleep in their beds

That will not be all
Not in the least
For we’ll find all their food
And cook up a feast

Steal all their cutlery
And melt it to sands
Away with the fuss
We’ll eat with our hands

Then party all night
And drink all their soul
Decapitate the living
And watch their heads roll

A splendorous pillage
This night will bring
So ready your weapons
And start to sing

This night be ours
Do not delay
Come to us quick
For this we pray

May resistance be small
But joy touch the moon
Tonight shall be wild
May we see it soon

And when it is done
Away shall we be
Living our lives
As kings of the sea

Read A Free Story now: Fortune's Child

The story of a wandering dog by Alice Chen

I'm just a mere dog. I have no parents, I have no family who wants to adopt me as their puppy.
I eat from garbages and sometimes I wait until the restaurants closed and sneak out their leftover meal.
Yes, i often get kicked and some children throw stones to me. I don't know why they do that, I never hate them or even bark at them. I just come closer to them and I want them to touch my head. They are afraid of me.

Am I that ugly? Yes, I know, I don't have beautiful coat like groomed dogs, sometimes i envy the dogs that are cared by a family.

They eat dog food, sausage and meat loaf. I even can smell it from here!

I often watch the kids often take their dogs for a walk. I watch them play. They throw a frisbee and those happy dogs run and catch it. Once a dog failed to catch it, I ran and jumped as high as I can. Yes! I got it! And I ran happily to the young boy to give the frisbee.

But the dog barked at me and his eyes said 'stay away! u r not welcome here!'
I just...I just want to play!

I am strong, yeah you wouldn't believe how strong I am! Once I wandered into town at night.
I saw some men load some packets from a workshop into a big truck. And I found the one packet was left there while the truck started to run. But the truck just went without noticing the leftover packet. I barked and barked, but they couldn't hear me. So i tried to move the packet with my teeth! Damn! it's so heavy! I didn't know what's inside, it's not food for sure.

I have a good smell of food. I know a lot of nice restaurant in town and I can know the food in a garbage came from what restaurant. See?

Then I tried to move the packet, inch by inch, i moved it to the side of the street. If this packet was in the middle of the highway, I believed there would be an accident.

I watched the packet all night long and waited if the truck would return to get the packet.

I was asleep and I dream.

In my dream, I saw a young boy biking his bicyle and suddenly he hit something and fell down. His bike was thrown to the other side. He cried and his leg was injured, i saw blood! no one was there. I watched him as he tried to get up, but he couldn't get up.

Then I run to the boy and sat there, I hope the boy could use my body to help him standing. But he just watched me and stop crying. I tried to smile, a big one! and you know what? the young boy touch my head and my back. I couldn't be happier than this. I licked his leg and cleaned his wounds. The boy smiled and started to laugh!

Then the sound of a car's horn made me jump! I jumped and woke up! It's morning already!

In front me, the same packet was still there. It's safe! no one steal it while I was asleep. I think I can become a guardian dog! Yey! I am strong and big! and I've got a good smell!

Then something hit me!that sucks! I lifted up my eyes and saw a man standing in front me and yell at me, 'go!you! ugly dog!'

I stood out and showed him my strong teeth, and i made a voice like this..'gggrrrhh....'..i just realized that i could make a scary voice like that! the man's face became white and backed off, he left his stick on the ground! Gosh! I won!
oh no! He called his friends, they were three! They had that long stick at their hand. Opss...I better run from them. "What on earth they thought they are doing??why did they want to hit me? I never understand human! I didn't take their food! Food? wait a minute! maybe they wanted the packet! and they thought I'm the thief!

Gosh! I was just a keeper! I wanted to return it to the owner! I'm just trying to be a nice dog...

Great Book

The Graveyard Position

From Publishers Weekly
Spiritualist Clarissa Cantelo's death reunites her surviving family members, an eccentric clan guarding some dark secrets, in this blackly comic whodunit from prolific British author Barnard (A Cry from the Dark). When Clarissa's nephew and heir, lawyer Merlyn Docherty, who's been living in Brussels, resurfaces after two decades, his relatives challenge his claim; everyone thought he was long dead. Motivated by self-preservation to probe the Cantelo family's twisted dynamics and complex alliances, Merlyn slowly pieces together a pattern that hints at conspiracies and sexual deviancy. An attempt on his life that claims another's suggests he's getting too close to the truth for someone's comfort. Fans of classic murder puzzles will be delighted by the careful hiding of clues in plain sight. Few writers of contemporary mysteries can equal Barnard's ability to meld a clever fair-play plot with satire.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Aunt Clarissa has just died, leaving everything (she was heir to a shirt-manufacturing fortune) to her nephew Merlyn, who has been living abroad for years in Brussels. When Merlyn returns to Leeds to claim his rightful inheritance, he confronts his dysfunctional extended family once again, all of whom are surprised to see that he is still alive, since Aunt Clarissa had suggested otherwise. But there is more in the air than simply the usual family discord--in fact, the atmosphere hints of a family conspiracy to keep information away from him. The body "in question" here--Barnard writes, after all, traditional British whodunits--is not Aunt Clarissa's but, as it turns out, that of the old family patriarch who died years ago. Barnard's novels may be traditional, but they are certainly not tired. His latest Police Sergeant Charlie Peace tale is a fresh take on family inheritance, at the same time exhibiting all the author's greatly appreciated traits, including charm, wit, and excellent pacing. Brad Hooper

Kindle Price: $0.99

Dragon Ring by Lettie Prell


Product Description
Dragon Ring by Lettie Prell is a science fiction novel set i in the near future.

Nadine is a special young woman. She is the daughter of the man who transformed the small nation of Guatemala into the world’s largest and most powerful corporation. Nadine is an expert at virtual-reality applications, and when she goes undercover to find her father’s killers, she discovers a power within the Earth that can transform civilization — or destroy entire cities. She must face the juggernaut of corporate greed and secrecy to stop an experiment that could have cataclysmic consequences.

Although she is a skeptic, Nadine is finding that the magic claimed by mystics for centuries has real roots, and combining this mystical energy with virtual-reality control gives her the only tool that can stop the impending catastrophe … but at a great cost. She has awakened a beast within her own spirit that threatens to consume her.

Kindle Price: $0.99

Buck Rogers In The 25th Century

Product Description
PROLOGUE
Elsewhere I have set down, for whatever interest they have in this, the 25th Century, my personal recollections of the 20th Century.

Now it occurs to me that my memoirs of the 25th Century may have an equal interest 500 years from now — particularly in view of that unique perspective from which I have seen the 25th Century, entering it as I did, in one leap across a gap of 492 years.

This statement requires elucidation. There are still many in the world who are not familiar with my unique experience. I should state therefore, that I, Anthony Rogers, am, so far as I know the only man alive whose normal span of life has been spread over a period of 573 years. To be precise, I lived the first twenty-nine years of my life between 1898 and 1927; the rest since 2419. The gap between these two, a period of nearly five hundred years, I spent in a state of suspended animation, free from the ravages of catabolic processes, and without any apparent effect on my physical or mental faculties.

When I began my long sleep, man had just begun his real conquest of the air in a sudden series of transoceanic flights in airplanes driven by internal combustion motors. He had barely begun to speculate on the possibilities of harnessing sub-atomic forces, and had made no further practical penetration into the field of ethereal pulsations than the primitive radio and television of that day. The United States of America was the most powerful nation in the world, its political, financial, industrial and scientific influence being supreme.

I awoke to find the America I knew a total wreck — to find Americans a hunted race in their own land, hiding in the dense forests that covered the shattered and leveled ruins of their once magnificent cities, desperately preserving, and struggling to develop in their secret retreats, the remnants of their culture and science — and their independence.

World domination was in the hands of Mongolians, and the center of world power lay in inland China, with Americans one of the few races of mankind unsubdued — and it must be admitted in fairness to the truth, not worth the trouble of subduing in the eyes of the Han Airlords who ruled North America as titular tributaries of the Most Magnificent.

For they needed not the forests in which the Americans lived, nor the resources of the vast territories these forests covered. With the perfection to which they had reduced the synthetic production of necessities and luxuries, their development of scientific processes and mechanical accomplishments of work, they had no economic need for the forests, and no economic desire for the enslaved labor of an unruly race.

They had all they needed for their magnificently luxurious scheme of civilization within the walls of the fifteen cities of sparkling glass they had flung skyward on the sites of ancient American centers, into the bowels of the earth underneath them, and with relatively small surrounding areas of agriculture.

Complete domination of the air rendered communication between these centers a matter of ease and safety. Occasional destructive raids on the wastelands were considered all that was necessary to keep the "wild" Americans on the run within the shelter of their forests, and prevent their becoming a menace to the Han civilization.

But nearly three hundred years of easily maintained security, the last century of which had been nearly sterile in scientific, social and economic progress, had softened them.

E-readers With China's 3G Standard on the Way

A Chinese company is developing an e-reader it hopes will emulate the success of the Amazon Kindle and may market the device outside China.

Hanwang Technology is aiming for an October launch of the e-reader, which will have a 6-inch screen and support China's homegrown 3G mobile standard, said Lu Jianying, a product manager in Hanwang's international business section.

The company is cooperating on the device with China Mobile, a state-run carrier charged with promoting the Chinese standard, TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access). Hanwang could switch the device to support other 3G standards for sale outside China, Lu said.

Hanwang, best known for its handwriting recognition systems, so far only offers e-readers that plug into a PC to load books and other content. Its 3G reader and another upcoming model that supports Wi-Fi will be its first that allow wireless downloads.

But the company's e-readers include entertainment and other functions uncommon in rival devices. Hanwang's latest e-reader, targeted at students, plays songs and displays comic-style cartoons in addition to e-books. It also has language study features such as multiple Chinese-English dictionaries and an option to display translations beside the original text for some books.

Hanwang e-readers also let users scribble notes in their e-books with a stylus and store or erase them later. They allow voice recording and playback and can read e-books out loud to users. Hanwang also aims to launch an e-reader with a 9-inch screen in October.

Hanwang e-readers use digital paper display technology from E Ink, the same technology used by the Amazon Kindle.

The devices are expensive. Hanwang's e-reader for students costs 2,880 yuan (US$422), compared to $299 for the newest Kindle.

Hanwang's e-readers are already well-known in China, and it aims to sell 500,000 units this year.

But one obstacle for Hanwang is the large volume of free reading material Chinese consumers can find online, including pirated books, said Frances Guan, an analyst at In-Stat China. Competition from free content makes it more difficult to earn revenue by selling e-books in China, Guan said.

Books, like computer software and DVDs, are widely pirated and sold at subway entrances and indoor bazaars in China. Pirated copies of everything from the Harry Potter series to self-help books like The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People are peddled on street corners in major cities, sometimes for little more than $1.

Many Chinese consumers already download reading material to their mobile phones, but that content is sometimes pirated as well and usually free. Beijing commuters often stand lined in subway cars with their heads lowered toward text-filled screens on a mobile phone or Sony PSP.

When asked how Hanwang would combat competition from pirated e-books, Lu, the company product manager, said it could not block users from downloading certain online content but that its future e-readers will bar copying directly between devices.

Still, Chinese consumers may grow more accustomed to buying content for mobile devices as 3G services expand in the country, Guan said.

Kindle's Success Encourages E-Paper

Amazon's Kindle e-book reader has caught on with early adopters the way Apple's iPod did, says a new report on the future development and commercialization of low-power "electronic ink.

According to a new NextGen Research study, "e-Book Readers and Electronic Paper: Digital Content and Display Technologies Kindle New Markets," the global market for e-paper displays will grow at a healthy compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 124 percent from 2008 through 2013, and will exceed $2.5 billion by the end of that period.

The U.S. will constitute fully 80 percent of this market at the outset, but increasing use of e-paper in other parts of the world will reduce the U.S. share of the market to about 55 percent by the end of the forecast period.

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"E-Reader makers will have to appeal to more than just early adopters and business travelers," says study author James Belcher.

"Consumers have read books printed on paper for hundreds of years, without having to endure the multiple format changes seen in recorded music. Getting the bulk of consumers to change that behaviour will require an experience superior to that of the printed page."

Belcher suggests there also are cultural and behavioral changes to consider:

Do readers want a device dedicated solely to reading, or would they prefer one with multiple functions?

How will netbooks and mobile phones capable of displaying digital texts affect the market for dedicated readers?

Is reading on printed paper a preference or a habit?

Will e-reader makers have to contend with a generation gap, with full market penetration dependent upon younger readers with no affinity for traditional paper?

"These are all open questions," he said, "but they will need answers to grow the market beyond its initial successes."

"There will come a day when electronic paper is cheap enough to use on billboards and outdoor signage, which represents square miles of potential sales," said Belcher.

"Until then, digital book readers will be the main drivers of e-paper market growth."