Kindle apps: 1) Doodle for Kindle and 2) Contacts (contact management)

16 Hands released Doodle for Kindle.

This came out in August, and I totally missed seeing it.  For kids of all ages.  I hadn't thought it was possible to do what I see in the examples using the Kindle's 5-way or keyboard.  They explain it this way:

"...can use drawing features that include a press-and-hold to draw mode, a continuous mode in which they can press once to start drawing, and press again to stop, or use a step mode which lets them draw short, precise segments with each press.  It's easy...to change segment lengths, save...drawings, change drawing speeds and choose between black on white drawings or white on black drawings."

The drawing samples seen on the product page are included in the package.
6 customer reviews, 4.8 stars. $0.99


Also, A Gamz released last week Contacts (A Contact Management Tool for Kindle).

"Contacts tracks names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, notes, and other information about people and companies" and is searchable.
  "You can even combine several words like "Mike Chicago" to find all the Mikes you know in Chicago.  You can also search for words in your free-form notes."

  Contacts stores up to 1000 records and allows for many types of phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses, as well as organizations and titles.  "It'll also import many vCard records from existing contact software and address books that use ANSI character vCards in either 2.1 or 3.0 vCard file format."

On the latter, customer Ed Pegg "Math puzzler" explains how useful this can be:

' This program uses a universal format, though.....

Both Yahoo and Gmail allow simple export of your Contacts list in a vCard format. Click Contacts, the Tools, then Export.  Move it to your Kindle.  Done.  Before purchasing, definitely check to make sure that your contact list is in an exportable format.

Very, very nice. I love it when a program does all the work for me. '

Customer C.L. Devetski "astrocomfy" uses it as an adjunct to Google Voice, looking up the phone number while on the phone and having imported all his contacts from Google Voioe too.  He adds that it took only "a few seconds to import more than 400 contacts."

9 customer reviews, 4.3 stars. $0.99


Both of these apps are available for Kindle 2, Kindle DX, and Kindle 3, although Amazon does not make these available yet outside the U.S., though they'd planned to eventually, they've said on the forums.  I've seen no follow up on that.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($139)   DX Graphite

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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.

More on Kindle Apps and a Bit on the Internatonal Situation

MORE  ON   KINDLE  APPS

This set is another alert for Kindle apps but, they're still not available globally.

  The GOOD news is that apps developers say that the plan IS to make apps global, and it's just a matter of time.  It has also been pointed out that Amazon only recently released apps from the first batch of international developers of Kindle Apps.  These include developers from the UK and Montreal, Canada, so far.  There'd be legalities, of course, and data charges to be worked out (on apps using 3G wireless).  Anyway, international readers, hang in there!

Amazon's Kindle Daily Post, seen at the top right of the Kindle Store's front webpage, featured this week the popular Notepad by the 7 Dragons group and included the new photo at the left.

The Kindle version of the Kindlestore, which is always linked on the front-page of a Kindle visit to the Kindle Store (via the Menu or by doing an alt-Home shortcut on your Kindle) does NOT include (at least today) the games or apps that are on the website version.  Thanks to AthenaAtDelphi from The Netherlands for the correction in the Comments area.

Those new to Notepad might want to see the original blog entry for Notepad  There are some Kindle forum threads that discuss how people use it, what questions they have, suggestions for the future, etc., and the 7 Dragons Team gives specific links on their website pages that give more information and video examples for the questions being asked.  They also tend to answer questions rather quickly, while they do this on their own website.

Three Notepad forum threads I've seen: (1),  (2),  (3).

More New Apps to Try for Kindle: At the right, new apps getting good ratings. Clicking on the items take you to their Amazon pages and descriptions. There are other new ones, and you'l see those highlighted on most of the Kindle pages also. Among them, with fewer and mixed reviews, or none yet at this point, are Number Slide, Strimko, and The Citadel of Chaos. Diamond Crosswords   - Crossword puzzles more easily completed	Checkers Price: $0.99 Spelling Star Price: $2.99 Peg Solitaire Price: $0.99

 I just saw that Monopoly is on sale for $0.99 to celebrate global Monopoly Day on April 7, and the offer ends April 10.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   DX Graphite

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

Newer tutorial and other apps + unusual e-books

FOREIGN LANGUAGE VOCABULARY TUTORIALS AND OTHER NEWER KINDLE APPS
  Apologies to those outside the U.S. who can't access these yet.

  Italian, French, Spanish

Brain Bump is the middle game seen at the left - a "Literature Trivia Game" 'for book lovers.'



I'll also note Jumble 200 because though I mentioned this earlier in a Kindle-games article, this one has 200 puzzles rather than 10 or 50, and I was struck that, with 13 customers reviewing it, Jumble 200 has 4-1/2 stars out of 5.

  On that page you should see, in case you'd missed them earlier, a few free popular Kindle games just before the reviews.

WHILE browsing these, I ran across an interesting edition of a the ESV Study Bible, which has 287 customer reviews and an average customer rating of 4-1/2 stars out of 5.

  "[It] combines the best and most recent evangelical Christian scholarship with the highly regarded ESV Bible text.  The result is the most comprehensive study Bible ever published--with 2,752 pages of extensive, accessible Bible resources."
  As one with an interest in historical sites, I noticed the unusually detailed illustrations such as the one on the right.  Here's the enlargement with readable text.

App Savvy.  This one caught my eye because it is a marketing-programming guide to creating apps and has 5 full stars, with 13 reviews.  The one review not rated with 5 stars has 3 stars and says, "Interesting book that is written for the non-programmer and the programmer, who has the technical abilities but lacks the marketing skill to peddle his wares..." and headlines his review with "A good book for a new Mobile Noob."

Earlier articles on Kindle Games
Chess, Word Search, Panda Poet
Every Word, Shuffled Row (both free)
Flip it! and Tic Tac Toe (ratings increased)


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   DX Graphite

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Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or highest-rated ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

Newer tutorial and other apps + unusual e-books

FOREIGN LANGUAGE VOCABULARY TUTORIALS AND OTHER NEWER KINDLE APPS
  Apologies to those outside the U.S. who can't access these yet.

  Italian, French, Spanish

Brain Bump is the middle game seen at the left - a "Literature Trivia Game" 'for book lovers.'



I'll also note Jumble 200 because though I mentioned this earlier in a Kindle-games article, this one has 200 puzzles rather than 10 or 50, and I was struck that, with 13 customers reviewing it, Jumble 200 has 4-1/2 stars out of 5.

  On that page you should see, in case you'd missed them earlier, a few free popular Kindle games just before the reviews.

WHILE browsing these, I ran across an interesting edition of a the ESV Study Bible, which has 287 customer reviews and an average customer rating of 4-1/2 stars out of 5.

  "[It] combines the best and most recent evangelical Christian scholarship with the highly regarded ESV Bible text.  The result is the most comprehensive study Bible ever published--with 2,752 pages of extensive, accessible Bible resources."
  As one with an interest in historical sites, I noticed the unusually detailed illustrations such as the one on the right.  Here's the enlargement with readable text.

App Savvy.  This one caught my eye because it is a marketing-programming guide to creating apps and has 5 full stars, with 13 reviews.  The one review not rated with 5 stars has 3 stars and says, "Interesting book that is written for the non-programmer and the programmer, who has the technical abilities but lacks the marketing skill to peddle his wares..." and headlines his review with "A good book for a new Mobile Noob."

Earlier articles on Kindle Games
Chess, Word Search, Panda Poet
Every Word, Shuffled Row (both free)
Flip it! and Tic Tac Toe (ratings increased)


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   DX Graphite

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Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or highest-rated ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

Panda Poet 50% off thru' today, 2/13. Newer: Chess, Word Search

CATCHING UP ON RECENTLY RELEASED GAMES
Apologies to non-US readers that Amazon is not offering these outside the US yet.  They say they plan to.  Could be we're the guinea pigs and you'll get the ones that were updated after much feedback.

I've added, on the web blog, some extra links for eBooks if that might help.

Oak Systems Leisure Software released Chess for Kindle this week after some anguished waiting by a few members of the Amazon "kindle active content" forum.

Forum message-thread loading problems (repeated, because it's still very needed).
  NOTE: If your web browser (Firefox, IE, or Chrome) drops you onto the Amazon forum list of topics instead of bringing you to the forum thread, click on Refresh or Reload to get the message thread itself -- or click on the link again.  I don't know why a 'retry' is often needed, but it is, including Comments to Customer Reviews.  Forum threads seem to be prevented from loading at first try by some boxes that are drawn for info or ads.  This continuing problem has been discussed by members of the forum.

Back to Chess:  The authors write: "Choose between 10 levels of difficulty and choose whether you want to play with an optional time limit to increase the challenge. You can also take back a move if you have made a mistake, as well as save your game at any time."

The Customer Reviews are mixed, with some more knowledgeable chess players missing important options normally used while others are very pleased with it.

WORD SEARCH
Word Search, released 9 days ago, has quickly become the most popular puzzle in the Kindle store.  In fact, it is #1 in Kindle eBook paid "Non-Fiction" currently and is #2 Bestseller in the Top 100 Paid "eBooks" as I write this (the rankings change quickly). :-).

  Has anyone else noticed the changed spelling recently, from "e-books" to eBooks, used by many?  It seems more permanent and less apologetic.   No longer non-real books, in a way.

  Oak Systems Leisure Software (Creator of the first Kindle Chess) is the company behind Word Search also.

  In their product description, they write: "Locate and mark off words in the grid using the 5 way controller.  Each word appears in a straight line, horizontally, vertically or diagonally in the grid - but be careful, sometimes the words are backwards!  Play at your own pace or against the clock and see who can get the fastest time for each puzzle.  Pause partway through a puzzle and return to where you left it.  You can reset each puzzle and try it again as many times as you like.  If you get stuck on a more challenging puzzle then you can give up and see the correct solution.

Fun for all ages, with categories from Animals to Best Movie Oscar, there are 50 themed 13x13 puzzles included in Volume 1 covering a wide variety of subjects..."

PANDA POET - 50% OFF THROUGH SUNDAY FEB 13 (Sorry I didn't notice the sale)
Spry Fox, creator of "Triple Town released Panda Poet in November.  It has 24 customer reviews and 4-1/2 out of 5 stars.

Product description: "Discounted 50% off for a limited time (offer ends February 13th)...

With Panda Poet you use the letters on the game board to form words.  Words formed from letters in open spaces create pandas.  Words formed from letters near pandas make existing pandas grow.

The goal is grow the biggest panda possible.  You get the highest scores from either creating the biggest possible panda or from forming the longest possible words.

To add to the challenge, each letter is only available for a fixed number of turns. Each time you enter a word, all the letters on the screen come one step closer to expiring.  When a letter expires, it is replaced by a skull, which prevents you from growing your pandas in that direction.  This makes playing Panda Poet a delicate balancing act: you must consider where a letter is located on the grid and how soon it will expire, not simply spell the longest word you can."


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   DX Graphite

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Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or highest-rated ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

What Wired knows about Kindle Apps Store plus Staples gets Kindles today

Staples starts selling Kindles today

Staples gets the Kindle 3's today, per CNET's reminder, and will sell some accessories for it as well.  The DX is due in their stores mid-November.

Everything that Wired knows so far about Amazon's Android App Store
Wired/GadgetLab's Priya Ganapati has an interesting article on all they know so far about Amazon’s long-awaited Android App Store.

She reports that "The company has reportedly sent welcome kits to some developers to entice them to start signing on to the store, according to reports in The Wall Street Journal and Engadget."

"Spam, poor quality of apps, and the inability to easily find apps are major problems in the Android Market...For consumers, it will be exciting if Amazon can bring features such as recommendations, wish lists and deals to its app store."

As with Apple's app store, developers will have to pay $100 to sign up for Amazon's, and Amazon will decide what gets into its store, per a TechCrunch report.  At launch it will be U.S. only but it shouldn't be long, most agree, before Amazon goes global with them -- they had said on the Kindle forums (when Every Word and Shuffled Rows came out) that the apps would eventually be available internationally.

From Commenters at the Wired story:
" RichardL
[ Re Apple's App Store and Google's Android Market being difficult for developers to market in]
  Amazon may be able to provide an alternative market for apps that works better for consumers and is a healthier option for developers to use to monetize their products."

" Aardfark
  I for one find the Apple App Store unnecessarily hard to use. I want to be able to search within a category, for instance, or search only free apps.  Or both.  Or see a count of the number of apps that match a given search.  Simple things like that.  It would be nice to be able to save searches, create and share recommendation lists... there's lots of ways the App Store could be improved.

  Apple has certainly filtered out some amount of garbage, and their popularity lists and rating/reviewing systems are good to have, but they haven't created anything near as good a store as they're capable of. "


You can see more at the Wired story that I didn't include here.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   DX Graphite

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Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.