The basic e-Ink Kindle is now #2 in Amazon's top seller rankings
Daily News Corner's Mark Schnitzler notes that Amazon has just had "another incredibly successful week," with the entry-level $79 Kindle Basic now in the #2 spot in top seller ratings, just behind the recently announced Kindle Fire tablet, which doesn't ship until November 15.
The "Basic" model, shipping since the announcements, with no physical keyboard (saving space and weight on the unit) but also without a touchscreen, is the smallest and lightest Kindle.
Although Kindle Basic has half the storage capability of the older Kindles, customers report that the faster processor makes a difference in speed. Those who don't do word searches and who don't type notes while reading won't miss the keyboard or mind as much the pick-a-letter type of keyboard-diagram used to enter a word. But others should, in my mind, pay $20 and choose the Kindle Touch, which has a virtual QWERTY keyboard and also has audio and twice the capacity of the Basic model. The $79 and $99 prices are for the more economical models that come with "Special Offers" and ads on screensavers that appear when the Kindle isn't being read.
Kindle for iPad and for iPhone/iPod-Touch apps support new languages
GoodEReader's Michael Kozlowsky reports that the Kindle app for iPad and for iPhone/iPod-Touch now support French, Spanish, Italian, and Brazilian Portuguese.
Amazon just opened a KindleStore in France and, about two months ago, opened one in Germany.
The app update includes "new page turn animations on both the iPad and iPhone" -- the feature can be turned on at the Settings page on tghe app. There are also some brightness-setting adjustments.
Release Date for the Authorized biography of Steve Jobs
A Reuters story in The Vancouver sun notes that, no surprise, Simon & Schuster has pushed up the release date for the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson, from Nov. 21 to Oct. 24.
It's being called "the authorized biography" in that he authorized his friends and family to speak to the author and didn't require a look at the draft nor his own authorization of what would be written. There were no conditions set, and Jobs gave Isaacson a very personal interview very recently, in hopes, he said that his children might come to know him better, as he'd not spent as much time with them as he'd like. Walter Isaacson was the managing editor of Time magazine and current chief executive of the Aspen Institute. The coming book is already the No. 1 bestseller on Amazon's customer purchase list.
Comic books and Steve Jobs
Reuters adds that there's also a 32-page comic titled Steve Jobs: Founder of Apple, which became available for purchase on Kindle and Nook reading devices October 6. The company releasing the special edition e-book of the 32-page comic is Bluewater Productions, which "has pledged a portion of the profits from both issues... [the expanded print edition comic book is due for release at the end of October] to the American Cancer Society."
PC World had an "exclusive look" at the print version of the comic book biography, in June, with images photographed which were not filled in with color at the time. "...Both sides of this complex personality are examined," claims the blurb on Bluewater's website. An earlier bio in comic form profiling Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg "sold-out almost right away." Amazon's pages show that an expanded print version of the Jobs book is due later.
Caveat: A commenter at the site says Bluewater's bio-comics are generally rewrites of information from Wikipedia articles and says he doesn't expect any insight from them.
Amazon's Exclusive Arrangement with DC Comics irritates Barnes and Noble
A volunteer contributor to ComicBookMovie.com reports that DC Comics' plan for 100 titles exclusively on the Amazon Kindle Fire has outraged Barnes & Noble. BN says that B&N shoppers can order the print titles through the BN website. At the stores you can order a copy to be delivered to your home, the writer adds, but if you bring in a copy of one of those titles, you'll be asked to leave. (That's hard to believe.)
The story there is a bit disorganized. The writer has added, in yellow highlight, that after it was announced that the Kindle Fire will come with 100 DC Comics backlist titles of comic books and graphic novels pre-installed, B&N "pulled all of the print editions of every title off its store shelves."
How long they'll be gone is not known.
' “We will not stock physical books in our stores if we are not offered the available digital format,” chief merchant for B&N Jaime Carey said in a statement. “To sell and promote the physical book in our store showrooms and not have the ebook available for sale would undermine our promise to Barnes & Noble customers to make available any book, anywhere, anytime.”
While there has been talk that the digital deal with Amazon is set only for a four-month time period beginning with the Kindle Fire’s launch, and while Barnes&Noble has only pulled the book from physical locations as opposed to removing it from its website and special orders catalogs, the end result is that digital DC Comics' fans will have to get these [e-titles] through Amazon, remembering that an iOS device with the free Kindle app will also pick up those titles from the Kindle Store. '
You can see DC Comics' response to that statement at the linked story..
Engadget's commenters take up much more space than Engadget's take on this story.
Tom's Guide's Ross A. Lincoln writes: "...a signal [B&N] are willing to shoot themselves in the foot to spite a competitor is kind of disturbing. It might be a signal that, in the wake of the collapse of Borders, Barnes & Nobles is looking to flex their virtual monopoly muscles. Consumers, and Batman fans beware."
Kindle Touch 3G Kindle Touch WiFi Kindle Basic (UK: KBasic) Kindle Fire
Kindle Keybd 3G (UK: Kindle Keybd 3G) K3 Special Offers K3-3G Special Offers DX
Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources. Top 100 free bestsellers. Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.
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