Round up #196: Kindle newsletters, big new update to Silk

Round up #196: Kindle newsletters, big new update to Silk

Big new update to Silk

When I went to open Silk today (which I don’t usually do…thanks to regular reader Tuxgirl for a heads-up on this), I saw this:

Amazon calls that a “Just in Time Tutorial”, although I don’t know if I’d quite call it a tutorial. I went to

The Official Silk page

and, yes, they had much more of an explanation.

I’ve been using it for a few minutes to test it out for you, and I will say it is smoother…and performance overall seems to be improved.

For one thing, I went to a few sites with online video (Nickelodeon, for one…ABC for another), and the video ran with no problem.

I like the little quick access “Left Panel” menu. It gives you:

Web Content

• Most Visited
• Bookmarks
• Downloads
• History
• Trending Now

About

• Settings
• Help

Reading View (which existed before, but is in an easier to spot place) worked nicely, where available.

You can now “long press” (hold your finger or stylus on it for about a second) the URL (Uniform or Universal Resource Locator…the web address), and you get a choice to copy the URL…or “Share page”.  Choosing the latter lets you do a lot of things, including e-mail and Twitter.  Juice for Roku did come up as an option (I use that to show pictures I get in e-mails to my Significant Other on our TV), but I couldn’t find something that would work that way.

When you long press a link on a page, you also get some choices:

• Open
• Open in new tab
• Open in background tab
• Bookmark link
• Share link
• Copy link URL

The menu button at the bottom has

• Share page
• Add bookmark
• Find in page
• Request another view (to switch from Mobile to Desktop and vice versa)

The Settings don’t seem all that different, unfortunately. They haven’t given us a privacy mode, which is one reason I prefer Maxthon for casual browsing…it’s not so much that I want to hide things, but I’d rather not have to clean up a cache and that sort of thing. Privacy tends to mean that less gets stored on your Kindle.

Also, there is not desktop or phone version of Silk yet: another plus for Maxthon.

Still, this version (1.0.58.293-Gen5… on my Kindle) does seem to be a considerable improvement.

If you have been a regular Silk user, experiment a bit…if you notice any big improvements or regressions, you can let me and my readers know by commenting on this post.

Kindle Fire sale ends tomorrow

Just a reminder: the $40 off on the Kindle Fire HD 7″, Dolby Audio, Dual-Band Wi-Fi deal ends tomorrow, Thursday, August 15…that brings it down to $159. Might mean an announcement of new hardware isn’t too far off in the future…maybe, maybe. 😉

Kindle Delivers

I know, I know…it’s not like the biggest problem in your life is that you don’t get enough e-mail. 😉

However, you might not be getting enough good e-mail, and Amazon can help you with that.

They have a bunch of free newsletters to which you can subscribe at

Amazon Delivers

There are a lot of categories…here are the ones in the Kindle category:

Amazon Kindle Delivers
Sign up to be in the know on editors’ picks, new releases, Kindle book deals, and more. (Please note: US customers only.) Monthly

Comics
Our editors love discussing comic books and graphic novels with fellow comics fans. This email features incredible comics and graphic novels each week with exclusive content from the most-talked-about authors and illustrators, book lists, and more. (U.S. customers only) Weekly

Grand Harbor
Grand Harbor Publishing offers an optimistic outlook, practical solutions, and a safe haven to help readers reclaim their lives and discover a bright future. Offering hardcover, trade paperback, and ebook originals in the inspirational and self-help categories, Grand Harbor Publishing presents uplifting and thought-provoking works embracing a range of philosophies and spiritual thought. Occasionally

Kids Ages 3-5
Stay up to date on the latest in children’s books while discovering ways to advance kids’ reading skills. These monthly newsletters highlight new releases, learning resources, exclusive author content, deals, and more. Please note: US customers only. Monthly

Kids Ages 6-8
Stay up to date on the latest in children’s books while discovering ways to advance kids’ reading skills. These monthly newsletters highlight new releases, learning resources, exclusive author content, deals, and more. Please note: US customers only. Monthly

Kids Ages 9-12
Stay up to the date on the latest for readers ages 9-12. These monthly mails highlight new releases, curated booklists, exclusive author content, deals, and more. Please note: U.S. customers only. Monthly

Kindle Books: Editors’ Picks
There’s nothing the Kindle editors enjoy more than recommending new books to readers. From our weekly Kindle Select 25 to our Best Books of the Month to our year-end round-up of favorites in fiction, nonfiction, and more, these are the titles we truly love. (Please note: U.S. customers only) Monthly

Kindle Daily Deals
Each day we unveil new Kindle book deals for adults and young readers, including daily romance and science-fiction/fantasy deals. Subscribe now to find out about each day’s deals. You’ll receive your first email within 48 hours. (Please note: US customers only.) Daily

Kindle eBooks: Mystery & Thrillers
From comfortable cozies to the harrowingly hardboiled, get up-to-date info on the most highly anticipated mystery ebooks. Monthly

Kindle Newsstand Delivers
Coming Soon: Monthly e-mail focusing on Kindle newspapers, magazines, and blogs. Monthly

Kindle Oferta Fin de Semana
Coming Soon: Cada fin de semana, ofrecemos un eBook a un precio increíble en categorías como romance, ficción, no ficción, fantasía y misterio. ¡Subscríbete para no perder estas ofertas! Weekly

Kindle Select 25
Each week we’ll send an email featuring our list of 25 exciting books we think you should know about. (Please note: US customers only.) Weekly

Romance
There’s nothing our editors swoon over more than talking books with fellow romance fans. From our weekly booklists to exclusive content from the most talked-about authors, this email features the best of romance each week. Please note: US customers only. Weekly

Science Fiction & Fantasy
There’s nothing our Klingon and Conan-savvy editors enjoy more than talking books with fellow science fiction and fantasy fans. From our weekly booklists to exclusive content from the most-talked-about authors, this email features the best of Sci-Fi and Fantasy each week. (U.S. customers only) Weekly

Singled Out: The Best of Kindle Singles
Each month we’ll send you an email featuring a themed selection of Kindle Singles. (Please note: US customers only.) Monthly

Teen & Young Adult
Our editors love sharing what’s new and trending in Teen and Young Adult literature. From curated booklists to exclusive content from the most-talked-about authors, this email features the best of Teen and Young Adult every other week. (U.S. customers only) Bi-Monthly

Here’s the whole list of categories, but interestingly, it appearsyou can only display the contents of one category at a time:

• Amazon Appstore for Android
• Amazon Instant Video
• Amazon Mobile App Distribution Program
• Automotive
• Beauty
• Blogs
• Books
• Clothing & Accessories
• Deals
• Health & Personal Care
• Kindle
• Music
• Outlet
• Shoes & Handbags
• Sports & Outdoors
• Video Games
• Watches
• Wine
• Your Shopping List

Hmm…the shopping list says it will send you reminders about items you use frequently…that does sound intriguing. We use Subscribe & Save for a lot of things already, though, and then we don’t have to think about it at all. 🙂 It’s also nice to save that 15%…

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

Is your Kindle up to date?

Is your Kindle up to date?

Amazon pretty frequently updates Kindles…sometimes even ones which are no longer available new from them.

Generally, most Kindles will update themselves automatically, if you have a connection to the Amazon servers (although it may require wi-fi on dual access devices, I believe).

However, I know that, sometimes, people miss an update. I think it could happen if you are downloading an update and the download gets interrupted. That might leave a partial file on the device: not enough to do the update, but enough to convince your device that it doesn’t need to download the new one. That’s just a hypothesis, though.

So, I thought I’d take a look at

http://www.amazon.com/kindlesoftwareupdates

and let you know what the current versions are (and how to check to see what you already have).

Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ = 8.4.6

How to check: Home – Swipe down from the top – More – Device – About

Kindle Fire HD 7″ = 7.4.6

How to check: Home – Swipe down from the top – More – Device – About

Kindle Fire 2nd Generation = 10.4.6

How to check: Home – Swipe down from the top – More – Device – About

Kindle Fire 1st Generation = 6.3.2

How to check: Settings Gear – More – Device

Kindle Paperwhite = 5.3.6

How to check: Home – Menu – Settings – Menu – Device Info

Kindle (“Mindle”) = 4.1.1

How to check: Home – Menu – Settings – look at the bottom of your screen

Kindle Touch = 5.3.7

How to check: Home – Menu – Settings – Menu – Device Info

Kindle Keyboard (AKA Kindle 3) = 3.4

How to check: Home – Menu – Settings – look at the bottom of your screen

Kindle DX and Kindle 2 = 2.5

How to check: Home – Menu – Settings – look at the bottom of your screen

Kindle 1st Generation = 1.2

How to check: Home – Settings – look at the bottom of your screen

—

Well, I have to say…Amazon doesn’t make the version numbers very obvious on the free Kindle reading apps! These are what I could find:

Kindle for PC = 1.10.5

How to check: Help – About  Kindle

Update on Kindle for PC: A reader, Barbara Berry, reports having 1.10.6 with an update date of 6/15/13.  My last update was January 11, 2013. Thanks, Barbara!

Kindle for Mac = 1.10.5

Kindle for Android = 4.2

How to check: Home – Menu – Info -About

Kindle for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch = 3.9.1

Kindle for Windows Phone 7 = unknown

Kindle for Windows 8 = 2.0.1

Kindle for Blackberry = 1.0

===

In doing this, I noticed a few interesting things.

First, based on the standard Amazon versioning system (the first number is the model, the second number is a major update most likely with new features, the third number is a “bug fix”), the Kindle Paperwhite really is the new version of the Kindle Touch (both start with 5s).

Second, the Kindle hardware that got major updates the most were the Kindle DXs and Kindle 2s (those are really two variations of the same thing, based on the software) with five major revisions.  The least was not the very first Kindle, but the Mindle.

Third, Amazon lists the iPad version and the iPhone/iPod touch version as two different things…but at the Apple Appstore, it’s the same download.

I think we may see some major new features before the end of the year (perhaps more impressive than hardware changes), but I hope this helps a bit.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

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Diminishing DRM use in the Kindle store?

Diminishing DRM use in the Kindle store?

DRM (Digital Rights Management) is basically code inserted into a digital file (such as an e-book) to control its use by consumers.

Ostensibly, it’s there to limit copyright infringement. It can be used for other purposes, though, such as blocking text-to-speech access (which is not an infringement, although it could be in violation of the terms of a license).

Some consumers simply detest the idea.

They equate it to someone controlling the use of a copy of a p-book (paperbook) after you buy it, although that’s really an imperfect analogy (see my post, How an e-book is like a treadmill at the gym).

Regardless of whether or not that distaste for DRM is justified, that it exists in some segment of the buying public can not be denied.

You also frequently hear about how Amazon is so restrictive, and has a “walled garden”.

I also find that to be…less than a comprehensive assessment of the situation. After all, Amazon has approved the Netflix app for the Amazon Appstore: a direct competitor to its own Amazon Instant Video service. I could give you several other examples.

What about e-books? You can’t (legally) read a Kindle store book without a hardware Kindle or a free Kindle reading app, right?

Usually, that’s right…but Amazon allows publishers to have their books in the Kindle store without DRM, if they want.

Even independent publishers (which might be just an author), using Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, can simply make that choice when publishing the book.

If the book is published without DRM, it can be converted into other formats…and some publishers even give you instructions on how to do that.

I’ve done that my itself, on one of my titles: The Disabled Deserve to Read: The Controversy Over the Amazon Kindle’s Voice. I allow that one to be freely distributed, and if I could make it free in the Kindle store, I would. Instead, I’ve taken the royalties and purchased a Kindle to donate to charity.

There are arguments for and against publishing with DRM. Eliminating it gives sophisticated users more flexibility, but increases the chance of accidental infringement (sending a copy to relative, who might otherwise have bought it, without realizing there was a problem with that, as one example). It doesn’t do much to limit serious pirates, most likely (for one thing, they can just scan the p-book).

So, I was curious: how many publishers are making the choice to go without DRM?

Let’s look at the top 100 selling e-books in the Kindle store. I’m only going to go with paid books, not ones which you can currently download for free.

• #2: Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia
• #11: Loving the CEO (bundle of five romance novels)
• #25 Marriage of Convenience Boxed Set (Favorite Romance Themes) (The Summit Authors Present Favorite Romance Themes)
• #27: Bring Me Home (Shattered Hearts)
• #29: The Billionaire’s Obsession: The Complete Collection Boxed Set (Mine For Tonight, Mine For Now, Mine Forever, Mine Completely)
• #36: 3 Bodies and a Biscotti (A Lexy Baker Bakery Cozy Mystery)
• #40: A Rite of Swords (Book #7 in the Sorcerer’s Ring)
• #41: Off Course
• #45: The Arrangement 9 (Ferro Family)
• #50: Wicked Firsts
• #51: Saltwater Kisses: A Billionaire Love Story
• #52: Breathless (Jesse)
• #56: Bodyguards Boxed Set (Favorite Romance Themes) (The Summit Authors Present: Favorite Romance ThemesTM)
• #59: Wounded
• #67: The Atlantis Gene: A Thriller (The Origin Mystery, Book 1)
• #72: Josh and Hannah (Redwood Falls #1)
• #78: Fearless (The Story of Samantha Smith #1)
• #81: Rainwater Kisses: A Billionaire Love Story
• #84: Freefall

That’s an extraordinarily high amount! Nineteen of the most popular books in the Kindle store have been released without DRM.

Just based on my quick survey in putting this together, it tended to be independents (of course…only Tor, among the big publishers, is publishing without DRM), and they tended to be “progressive” in other ways (allowing lending, not blocking text-to-speech access).

It appears that the overall percentage in the Kindle store might be much higher. I did this Google search:

“site:www.amazon.com “simultaneous device usage:unlimited” asin -domain”

and got 2,220,000 results. Clearly, there are some false positives there…there are only 2,085,461 altogether. 🙂 Still, I’m guessing the percentage is pretty high.

Indies may be using this to give themselves a competitive advantage over tradpubs (traditional publishers)…and they may simply be trying to extend their reach by selling in the Kindle store to people who don’t use Kindles (but do need to be somewhat sophisticated in terms of technology).

Just as MP3s became the most popular format for distributing music commercially, it may become true in the future that the default is to sell books without DRM.

What do you think? Do you check to see if a book has DRM before buying it? Have you ever decided not to buy a book, because of DRM? Feel free to let me and my readers know what you think by commenting on this post.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

Round up #195: The Howler, kndl.info

Round up #195: The Howler, kndl.info

The ILMK Round ups are short pieces which may or may not be expanded later.

Problems at Amazon today

There are two big problems being reported at Amazon today.

One is with the

Manage Your Kindle

page.

It’s not loading all of people’s items. I tested it, in addition to seeing the comments in the Amazon Kindle forum, and yes, that’s the result I get as well. One thing that isn’t showing is my recent purchases…even searching for them doesn’t find them.

This could be a problem, if you are looking to return a Kindle store book within seven days of purchase (which is an option with Amazon…last I checked, you can not return e-books at any time for any reason to Barnes & Noble, Sony, or Kobo).

If you need to return one, contact Kindle Support at

http://www.amazon.com/kindlesupport

Go ahead and call them, or have them call you (my favorite option).

Another problem was happening with the Amazon Appstore for me. It wasn’t letting me buy anything…instead, it was giving me this message:

“We’re sorry

We’ve run into a technical error. Please try again later.”

That was shopping from my computer. That seems to have resolved…it’s working again. Whoops! Now it’s not…it seems to be intermittent.

Regular readers know I tend to be optimistic, and my thought here is that these problems might have happened because they are making improvements to the functionality.

I keep hoping for an ability to separate user profiles at Manage Your Kindle…maybe that’s coming.

On the other hand, maybe somebody spilled coffee on a server. 😉

Kndl.info: Information and Guides for International Kindle Users

I just ran across this site:

http://www.kndl.info/

Assuming the information is accurate (and so far, it seems to be), I really like this.

I have readers from around the world (according to my WordPress 2012 annual report, I had readers from 189 countries last year).

Not everybody is served equally with Kindles and Kindle content. That may be due to local laws, necessary infrastructure, making the deals, and so on.

Well, with Kindle.info, you can put in your country, and it will show you one of four levels of service, from No Support to Full Support.

I went there specifically to check Albania (I was checking something to do with the new keyboard language support we can download). It is listed as “Medium Support:”

“Amazon currently ships the Kindle to your country, and you can use the free 3G Whispernet service on the device.

There is a $2 fee on most books over the original cost of the title.”

The site looks pretty good, and the interface works well so far. We might disagree on grammar a bit (“Amazon do not currently” versus “Amazon does not currently”), but outside of that, I found it quite valuable.

Something different for the FAOTD (Free App of the Day)

This is the free app of the day, and it seems truly innovative, while the graphic design is also good.

The Howler

It’s a sort of steampunk puzzle game, where you manipulate a hot air balloon to pass over obstacles, deliver devices, and so on.

Here’s the really cool thing, though: you can control it with your voice!

Not by giving voice commands, like “go up”. You do it with volume…as you get louder, the balloon goes higher.

I’ve been playing today (I waited until my Significant Other left the house) ;), and I find myself doing long sustained notes…sort of like Gregorian chants. 🙂 I haven’t gotten the hang of dropping a package yet, but I can fly the balloon (it gets into wind currents) and land it on something.

The drawing style is also cool. It was all literally drawn on hand, on paper. They say it took a year to create.

Also unusual: the setting is Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.

While I do expect some people will find the voice control too difficult (I have pretty good control), you can use touches as well.

In my opinion, you shouldn’t miss this one!  Even at the normal $1.99, I’d say it is worth it, but if you can get it for free (check before you click that Buy button…if it’s there for you today), even better.

1st English language bookstore in Cuba since the revolution

I thought this was a fascinating

AP story by Peter Orsi

The first paragraph really sets it up:

“Cuba’s first English-language bookstore offers a selection that would just about stock the lobby of an average Vermont bed and breakfast. Next to what’s available in English elsewhere in Havana, it might as well be the Library of Congress.”

This is going to be a very tricky enterprise. There are a lot of things you just can’t openly say or sell in Cuba, and I’m sure it will be watched carefully.

It’s kind of hard for many of us to imagine in the USA that your reading options can be that limited by your government, so I’m sure it will be a welcome store…if people aren’t afraid to shop there.

In case you’re wondering, Cuba is currently “No Support” at kndl.info (see above).

An illegal option (and for that reason, I’m not linking to it) might be the new Pirate Bay browser, which is specifically designed to get around government blocking of the site (which I would describe as unashamedly streaming infringing materials). They don’t agree with current copyright laws. The reason I’m mentioning it is to show that individuals could get around government “blockades” of e-books. This comes up from time to time, when people are worried about having books only as digital files…that they would be easier to control than paper copies. I’m just not convinced that is the case. If you had to secretly print and distribute one hundred paper copies of The Art of War, or you had to secretly copy and distribute one hundred digital copies, which would be harder to detect? They both have their advantages, but I can certainly see law enforcement finding a house with a copier churning out that many copies (if that was illegal).

EBOOK FRIENDLY cartoons

I’ve mentioned before that I like the blog, EBOOK FRIENDLY, and they have collected some nice cartoons in this post:

http://ebookfriendly.com/funniest-cartoons-about-ebooks-ereaders-and-digital-reading/

I think some of you will appreciate the one on public transit…

What do you think? Having any trouble with Amazon today? Have you tried The Howler? Do you think I shouldn’t even mention Pirate Bay…or that I should have provided a link? Have questions about international availability of Kindles and/or content? Feel free to let me and my readers know by commenting on this post.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

KDD: 16 Ray Bradbury books for $1.99 each

KDD: 16 Ray Bradbury books for $1.99 each

One of today’s Kindle Daily Deals is sixteen Ray Bradbury books for $1.99 each.

There was a time when the “ABCs of Science Fiction” were Asimov, Bradbury, and Clarke.

Bradbury, though, never quite seemed to fit that for me. The stories are often not really science based, and for a putative science fiction writer, Bradbury was pretty anti-tech.

That doesn’t mean the stories aren’t good, of course…they are. They can be lyrical little slices of life. You can certainly read and enjoy Ray Bradbury, and think that you hate science fiction at the same time. 😉

That’s one reason why Bradbury was recognized outside the science fiction field (and well as within it), which is somewhat rare. Bradbury received the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation, and a National Medal of Arts.

The deal includes some real classics (although some of the best known are not in this group)

• Dandelion Wine (a good place for non-genre fans to start)
• Something Wicked This Way Comes
• The Illustrated Man
• A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
• The October Country

I’m glad that they’ve included one of the mysteries: Let’s All Kill Constance (Crumley Mystery).

I want to especially thank one of my readers who gifted me We’ll Always Have Paris: Stories this morning (while saying some very nice things). It was a thoughtful gift, and one I haven’t read yet…although I have started it now. 🙂

As always, check the price before you hit that Buy button. The sale may not be available in your country.

Enjoy!

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

Round up #194: Detroit libraries, Kindle Fire updates now available from Amazon

Round up #194: Detroit libraries, Kindle Fire updates now available from Amazon

The ILMK Round ups are short pieces which may or may not be expanded later.

Barbara Mertz (aka Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels) has died

The mystery novels under the name Elizabeth Peters (including the Amelia Peabody books) have been very popular…as have been the books of Barbara Michaels, including the Georgetown series.  Those were both pennames for Barbara Mertz, who also wrote non-fiction about Egypt under her real name,

Barbara Mertz has reportedly died at the age of 85.

CBS News article

Update for Kindle Fires now available at Amazon

I wrote recently about being worried about my Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ 4G LTE Wireless 32GB updating to the 8.4.5 version, which was breaking Flash video in non-Amazon browsers.

I updated that post when I had heard that 8.4.6 was out there, and that it didn’t have the same problem.

Well, my Kindle Fire did update last night…and I’m happy to report that Flash video is working fine in Maxthon (my preferred browser). In fact, it seems like it is working better, but it’s too soon to really tell that.

If your Kindle Fire hasn’t updated, it likely will soon now. You can also get the update from

Kindle Software Updates

and install it manually (they have instructions there on it).

Since it’s on that page, we also know what they tell us it does. 🙂

• You can now choose Brazilian Portuguese for your device language (Home – swipe down – More – Language & Keyboard – Language…that brings us to eleven languages and variants)
• You can download new keyboard languages (Home – swipe down – More – Language & Keyboard – Keyboard – Download Keyboard Languages). That’s a fascinating change! There are thirty-seven languages there, and even with a linguist in the family, I can’t tell you what they all are (since they are listed in their languages. They do include Russian and Tagalog, Hinglish and Magyar…quite a few choices. While this will greatly expand the usability of the Kindle Fire, this ability to download the languages is what’s intriguing me. That suggest to me that we could possibly get the same thing with accents and languages for text-to-speech…not that we don’t likeSeptember Day‘s Salli, of course, but more choices there could again expand the language accessibility. Could this also suggest a launch of a Fire in even more countries? Well, last I heard, it was already available for 170 countries, so maybe not
• Multicolor highlights (highlight something in a book with your finger or stylus, and you’ll now be given four different highlighting colors from which to choose)
• Share notes & highlights from a Print Replica textbook. The particularly interesting piece here is that you’ll be able to share them via e-mail…that could be the start of something big for Amazon. Not just e-mailing, of course, but texting (in the future). I frequently e-mail stories to family members from my morning Flipboard read. I know e-mail isn’t the choice method of communication for many New Millenials (which is why I’m also thinking texting, in the future), but tweeting and Facebook updates don’t work for everybody either

All in all, I’m happy Amazon fixed the problem with Flash before posting the updates.

Update: here are screenshots of the keyboard languages available for download, and some best guesses (not all mine…my adult kid who is a linguist helped, as did someone else) as to what they are. If you can correct any of them, I’d appreciate it:

 

 

Bahasa Indonesia
Bahasa Malaysia
Catala – Catalan
Cestina – Czech
Dansk – Danish
Eesti – Estonian
Euskara – Basque
Galego – Galician (spoken in Spain and some other countries)
Hinglish – Hindi/English hybrid (although I believe some other languages are involved)
Islanski – Icelandic
Latviesu – Latvian
Lietuviskai – Lithuanian
Magyar – Hungarian
Nederlands – Dutch
Norsk – Norwegian
Polski = Polish
Portugues europeu – European Portuguese
Pу́сски;й – Russian
Romana – Romanian
Shqipe – Albanian
Slovencina – Slovak
Slovenscina – Slovak
Suomi – Finnish
Svenska – Swedish
Tagalog – Phillipino
Tiếng Việt – Vietnamese
Türkçe – Turkish
ελληνικ;ά – Greek
Казаk – Kazak
Україн;ська – Ukranian
Белару;скі – Belorussina or White Russian

Georgian

Armenian

Thai

Korean

Two varieties of Chinese (I’m assuming Cantonese and Mandarin)

—

I know there can be cultural sensitivities in some of these identifications…if there is something you think should be corrected there, please let me know. No offense is intended, and I freely admit I might be ignorant of some of the issues.

Summer Reading Snapshot: libraries and kids across the nation

This is a great

Publishers Weekly article by Karen Springen

which talks with children’s librarians in

• Cleveland
• Orlando
• Cincinnati
• Chicago
• Denver
• New York
• Boston
• St. Louis
• Kansas City, Mo
• Detroit

about their planned Summer events, and what the “Big Reads” are for the kids this Summer.

As we all know, Detroit has had a lot of issues lately. I liked this quotation from Lurine Carter, coordinator of children’s and teen service at the Detroit Public Library:

“Life is very serious, not only in Detroit but all over. We try to relieve their minds. We want the library and the reading to be a pleasant getaway.”

I recommend the article, particularly if you are looking for books for your own kids to read.

Google play making a big…er, play for textbooks

There are so many clear advantages to e-textbooks that it seems inevitable to be that they become the standard format.

• The weight of paper textbooks, especially when students can’t get to a locker between classes, is genuinely a health issue
• The increased ability to be accessible (text-to-speech, increasable text size) is important
• The ability of them to be updated easily over the years
• The fact that they don’t wear out…which makes renting a really viable option
• The relatively lower cost
• Annotation without degradation
• Search
• Sharing supplemental material
• X-ray

That doesn’t mean that getting them to be adopted is easy, but Google is likely to make it a bit more attractive:

Google Play Textbooks

I don’t see that they are bringing any stand-out features that aren’t available in

Kindle eTextbooks

but just the fact that it is Google may influence some schools.

Hearing in the Apple “penalty phase” today

Judge Cote has been ruling incredibly quickly in the Apple e-book price fixing case. That doesn’t mean we will hear something today…but Judge Cote will.

There is a hearing today for the DoJ’s (Department of Justice’s) proposed penalties for Apple, according to this

The Verge article by Greg Sandoval

and other sources. I’ve written before about how far-reaching the DoJ proposal seems to be. The five Agency Model publishers think it’s too much…but they aren’t exactly uninvolved parties (they settled with the DoJ in the same case). Others think it’s appropriate.

It will be very interesting to see what Judge Cote does. I think it’s possible that part of it is approved and part of it isn’t, but we’ll see. I’m not sure if Judge Cote would then send them back to rethink it or what can happen.

Librarians in the Movies

This site was right up my alley!

Librarians in the Movies: an Annotated Filmography by Martin Raish, Brigham YOung University

It’s a pretty extensive list…given my love of books and movies, I did find it fascinating (and I had seen a number of them). It’s not being maintained anymore, but is still interesting. Let’s see…any movies this Summer with librarians in them? Hm…

Have any thoughts about these stories? Feel free to let me and my readers know by commenting on this post.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

Endangered sayings

Endangered sayings

Some things stick around in English long after the things they originally have referenced have disappeared from the real world. One of my regular readers and commenters, Tuxgirl, mentioned something that got me thinking about sayings that might eventually vanish from our language…or, they may still be around, but most people won’t have any idea what they originally meant. Here, then, are some phrases they may make sense to you now (although I suspect some will be strange to some of you), but could be endangered in the future…

“Do you have a dictionary?”

“I  mis-dialed.”

“What’s on TV tonight?”

“I lost my place.”

“Catch you on the flip side.”

“May I borrow your pen?”

“Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

“I’m in the groove!”

“Did you know…?”

“I don’t have enough to read.”

“See you in the funny papers.”

“Flash card”

“That’s yesterday’s news.”

“You’re showing your age.”

“Tune in tomorrow”

“We’ll be right back after these commercials.”

“Bookstore Betty coat”

“Remainders”

“You sound like a broken record.”

“Movie theatre”

“Film”

“Disc jockey”

“Bookmark”

“I want to make sure we’re on the same page.”

“Turn over a new leaf.”

“Spine” (for a book)

“Dog ear” (for a page)

“Page”

“Paperback”

“Tape a show”

“Books on tape”

“They are like two bookends.”

“Page turner”

Here’s one that will never be obsolete…”Story”. 😉

Those are just a few that occurred to me. Do you have any favorites? Is there an expression that you’ve used, and realize that you don’t know what it means? For example, I hear people use “one fell swoop” when good things happen at once. That’s really not what it meant originally. A bird of prey snatching an animal off the ground is “swooping”. “Fell” meant evil. A “fell swoop” is when the bird gets two animals at a time, like grabbing two mice at once…technically, it means bad things happening together. However, my adult kid who is a linguist has made me aware that if people use it to mean something, it means it…even if it didn’t used to mean that. So, if you have any questions, comments, or want to add a few of your own for me and my readers, feel free to comment on this post.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

An ILMK interview with September Day, the voice of the Kindle Fire HD

An ILMK interview with September Day, the voice of the Kindle Fire HD

I was honored recently when September Day, the voice artist behind the text-to-speech software used on second generation Kindle Fires, left a comment on this blog.

I’ve always liked voice artists (Paul Frees is a personal favorite), but I do feel like I have a different connection to September Day. I typically listen to text-to-speech on my Kindle Fire HD for hours every week…I’ve spent a lot of time listening to September!

September was kind enough to answer some questions for me and my readers:

ILMK: While many of us have spent so many hours listening to you that we feel like we know you, we realize that we actually don’t. Tell us a little bit about the life path that brought you to doing the voice we hear on our Kindle Fires.

September Day: I was a veterinary technician for 13 years right out of college. I absolutely loved it, but it was tough on all fronts; physically, emotionally, mentally. One day, I started to consider a career change and remembered that back in my youth I had loved a particular local radio station. I would call in and chat with the DJs and one of them, the commercial production guy, would constantly ask me to come in and record but my shyness held me back. In 2007, I finally got the guts to give it a try and 6 months into my career, I was voicing at the MTV VMAs. By the way, that same DJ from my teenage years happened across my voiceover website years later. We reconnected and have been married 3 years this October with 2 little girls and a baby boy.

ILMK: You’ve done a variety of voice work, including announcing the MTV VMAs (Video Music Awards) and voicing MJ* in a Spider-Man motion comic. You’ve also appeared on screen in a movie. Your delivery has been quite different in different situations. When you recorded the voice that we have with Ivona, do you consider it acting, or something else? Are you thinking of a character, perhaps picturing the person speaking?

SD: Working with Ivona was unique in many ways. One has to keep a consistent tone for many days, many hours a day. They were asking for a youthful voice and I am 36 so I have to work to keep that youthful pitch. The acting part was keeping the mental fortitude to keep the pace and tone level throughout every single sentence. It was perhaps, the absence of acting. I was permitted no inflection of my voice except for the last words of some sentences. I had to read all of “Alice in Wonderland” and many, many news stories from the AP wire. As Ivona is based in Poland, it was the European AP wire, which is *much* more difficult and unfamiliar

ILMK: Have you done any audiobooks? How is that different? Do you listen to text-to-speech or audiobooks for your own entertainment?

SD: I have done a few short audiobooks. It’s not my favorite aspect of the industry simply because of the long recording time. Also, there are times when I am requested to edit my own audio, which is the bane of my existence as a voice talent. I don’t listen to many audiobooks as speaking and listening to speech is my job. I much prefer music of the classical, house, electronic, world and ambient varieties.

ILMK: Presumably, once you’ve recorded a voice for software like this, you don’t know how or where it will be specifically used. Have you ever been surprised by encountering your own voice in your daily life?

SD: Oh yes! I had no idea of the plans for the software. I had assumed it would mostly be used for GPS navigations or IVR. There have been times I have been in line at the bank or grocery store and have heard my voice coming from a tablet. The first time it happened, it was incredibly surreal. I was holding my daughter, just kind of snuggling and whispering in her ear that she was going to get a lollipop from the bank teller when my voice spoke up reading out loud. We both turned and my daughter shouted, “Mama”!. I had to explain everything to about 15 bank customers and 4 tellers. It was hilarious!

ILMK: Many of my readers are also authors. It can be hard to balance your creative life and your personal one. Is there anything about being a voice artist that makes that easier?

SD: Definitely! Having a home studio means that I can work in pajamas!… or less. I’m able to squeeze in auditions and jobs during naptime and after the kids go to bed. I also take my recording setup on the road when we travel, so I’m able to work and finance our travel as we go. That is really convenient. Because I have been doing it so long, auditioning and editing can be done very quickly and gives me plenty of time to have other outside interests and be a mom.

ILMK: What’s it like when you record a voice like this? Do you do it out of your home studio, or do you go to a studio? Does anyone direct you in your performance?

SD: For this particular job, I went to GM Voices, a large studio in north Atlanta. The Ivona representative would call in on what’s called a phone patch using Skype and listen as I spoke. It was his job to make sure I didn’t lose pace or tone and to help with the pronunciation of the names of prime ministers from European and African countries.

ILMK: Are you given specific material to read? Are you reading actual books, or are they words and sentences designed for use with the software?

SD: Yes. I read over 196,000 prompts from “Alice in Wonderland”, the AP wire, and many just random sentences. Apparently, the software knew beforehand the sounds it needed from me and so it crawled the web to find sentences that would make me deliver those sounds. I do remember one particular sentence I’ll never forget: “Here one of the guinea-pigs cheered, and was immediately suppressed by the officers of the court.” It was the line we played at the start of each session for me to get the tone perfect again.

ILMK: Do you do any research into the “proper” way to pronounce things? Some words are pronounced differently in different regions of the country, for example, and you may also be encountering scientific terms or (in the case of science fiction, fantasy, and proper names), made up ones. How do you decide how to say it?

SD: Honestly, we say it every way it can be said. That is true in all aspects of VO. When a script contains a word or number that can be said different ways, it’s easiest to just give every variation because inevitably, the one you choose will be wrong.

ILMK: Do you ever re-record, because you want to change your performance?

SD: All the time! Sometimes, a 60 second commercial session can take a half hour to do depending on the director, how many people from an ad agency attend the recording, how creative the team is feeling. Sometimes, they re-write the whole thing on the spot. Most times, it’s done quickly, but I have had sessions last for 8 hours for a 30 minute infomercial.

ILMK: About how much time did you spend recording for Salli, the voice we hear on the current Kindle Fires?

SD: Salli was recorded over 8, 8 hour days with short bathroom breaks. I couldn’t eat between takes because that changes how your mouth sounds so I would always leave the studio starving! I had also just given birth to my first baby girl 4 days prior to the project so sitting that long for that many days wasn’t easy. It was at that point that I got the reputation in the industry as “hardcore”!

ILMK: Is there is anything else you’d like to say to my readers? Many of us are very grateful to have the opportunity to enjoy books when we otherwise wouldn’t be able to do so.

SD: I’m very honored and pleased to be the voice of the Kindle Fire. I have always enjoyed volunteering in the community and throughout my voiceover career, I have donated my services to many nonprofits including reading for the blind and print handicapped. Knowing that my voice is able to help these people on a global level now is so rewarding.

===

Thanks again to September Day for taking the time to answer these questions is such an entertaining way!

* MJ is Mary Jane Watson, an important love interest for Peter Parker

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

Could Amazon replace cable TV?

Could Amazon replace cable TV?

Edward Boyhan, one of my most insightful commenters, really got me thinking.

Edward said (in part):

“For me the most interesting item was in the 3Q guidance where they are forecasting substantial operating losses. Given Amazon’ ability to tune numbers such as these, I wondered why they are electing to take such a large 3Q loss? They explicitly ruled out any acquisitions, restructurings, or legal settlements in this forecast.

I wonder whether this might be a harbinger of new products, and especially aggressive pricing of same. The rumor mill has pretty much laid out what to expect on the KF front. Unknown is what they are going to do on the RSK front. I think they will be announcing some kind of set-top box — which I’m hoping will be something like Google Chromcast on steroids.”

I think Edward may have sussed out something very important.

Picture this…

Amazon introduces a TV gadget. I think the term “set-top box” may have been obsoleted by Google’s Chromecast. Let’s say it plugs into your HDMI port (as Chromecast does), and it’s self or vampire powered (it doesn’t need to be plugged into to the wall, it sucks juice from the TV). Even if it has to be plugged in, that’s okay.

Further, Amazon has paid the major networks to run their broadcasting…so you get the current seasons. That would cost Amazon a lot of money.

Maybe you only can get the current programming if you are a Prime member. You could watch a lot of other things without that, but they could make Prime very attractive. So attractive that people become cable cutters.

Once you are a Prime member, you spend a lot more at Amazon, from what we’ve heard…and on profitable things, like “diapers and windshield wipers”, as I like to say.

Wait, I’m not done speculating. 😉

When it turns on, you see an ad for Amazon…like the lock screen we get on the Kindle Fire, or on our non-Fire Kindles. You can click something (you can use a device, like your Fire or a SmartPhone as a remote) to buy what’s in the ad.

Also, there  is an added Amazon shopping channel. You can go there and order things (both digital and physical) directly from Amazon.

From your TV…on your couch.

It can bring you X-Ray for Video…and you can buy things you see on TV (you want that t-shirt on The Big Bang Theory? Done).

There might be a Prime and a Super Prime membership, but that might not be necessary  if people’s buying increases enough.

I think that could be the push that a lot of people need to finally cut the cable and dump the dish.

Would it be expensive for Amazon? As all get out. 😉 Might it be worth it? In the long run (and that’s the only way Amazon thinks), yes, it could be.  Many people don’t like their cable providers much…if this could be done well, I think people would drop them in a hurry.

What do you think? I’m just speculating in pixels…but this strikes me as a possibility that would surprise a lot of folks, and fit into a Amazon’s strategic plans. Feel free to let me and my readers know what you think by commenting on this post.

Thanks, Edward!

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

Jeff Bezos to buy the Washington Post

Jeff Bezos to buy the Washington Post

Thanks to a couple of readers who alerted me to this in private e-mails.

Jeff Bezos is buying the Washington Post (and some affiliated papers, including the important El Tiempo Latino Spanish-language newspaper) for $250 million.

Now, it’s important to note that Amazon isn’t buying this: it’s coming out of the CEO’s own pocket.

Needless to say, this is a surprise to a lot of people.

Jeff Bezos hasn’t owned a newspaper, to my knowledge…and I’m not sure that I would think now is the time to buy one. However, the CEO’s willingness to lose money at Amazon may be a useful skill at a newspaper in the 21st Century. 😉

I went to a reliable news source (The Washington Post) 😉 and they have a lengthy article with a lot of details and personal reaction:

Washington Post article

I have to admit some concern on hearing this news…not so much fear for the paper. Amazon has often had a light hand after making acquisitions, and I wouldn’t expect Jeff Bezos to tromp in there and start changing a lot of things.

No, I was more concerned about the time and energy it would mean that the guiding light of Amazon would have to take away from that company.

Bezos addresses that in the article:

“Bezos said he would maintain his home in Seattle and would delegate the paper’s daily operations to its existing management. “I have a fantastic day job that I love,” he said.”

Alright, Jeff…but remember, if you buy it, you are going to have to feed it and clean up after it. 😉

No top-level personnel changes at the paper are expected right now, and the family seems happy with the decision (although giving up family control after close to a century isn’t easy, of course).

How big a deal is this for Bezos? Well, at an estimated personal wealth of $23.2 billion, you could say it’s very roughly like somebody with a personal wealth of $1,000,000 (let’s say they have a $750,000 house and $250,000 in other assets, like retirement accounts and such) spending $10,775…it’s not a small amount, but you could make a mistake at that level and be okay.

This news comes shortly after the news that The Boston Globe, another venerable newspaper, was being sold to the owner the Boston Red Sox, John W. Henry.

Do I think Bezos will take the newspaper all digital right away? Nope…but certainly, increasing digital involvement may be important. Do I think Jeff Bezos will make The Washington Post unavailable at other digital retailers? Nope…Bezos will, in my opinion, want to keep the integrity of the paper’s reputation. Remember, too, that Amazon doesn’t own the paper…so it doesn’t even mean that we’ll get a deal in the Kindle store on it.

All in all, this is another sign of the transitional phase taking place in written word media.

What do you think? Feel free to let me and my readers know by commenting on this post.

Update: thanks to reader Harold for a comment that improved this post.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.