Round up #152: the future of copyright, Intel and Amazon…and Microsoft

Round up #152: the future of copyright, Intel and Amazon…and Microsoft

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

Still on sale!

As  former retail manager (I managed a brick-and-mortar bookstore, and a game store, and worked in a “nature” store…oh, and one of my first jobs was working at the now-defunct House of Humor, which sold novelties…I helped customers at Halloween with theatrical make-up), it’s really interesting to me that there are still sales on popular items. Traditionally, you would expect that in the last week, prices might actually go up, but there certainly wouldn’t be discounts. Clearance would happen after Christmas…or perhaps in January.

I was thinking at one point that part of that was the increased competition, but Amazon is having sales on popular gifts…which are exclusive to them. Of course, they are still in competition for dollars for gifts, even if it would be different gifts from other places.

Kindle Unlimited (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

exclusive to Amazon, is $88.99 for 12 months…which is 25% off. This is a great gift for someone who likes to read…books, magazines, and even listening to audiobooks.

Also still on sale from Amazon: some Amazon devices.

Kindle Paperwhite (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

is $99.99, about $20 off.

That is the model I would recommend to most people…the Voyage has some advantages, and I haven’t tested the Oasis, because you can only buy it with an animal leather cover…and having the light makes this better than the base model.

Now, all of the new Fire tablets are on sale, including the

Fire, 7″ Display, Wi-Fi, 8 GB – Includes Special Offers, Black (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

going for $39.99 at time of writing.

Other Fire models on sale:

• Fire HD8 for $99.99 instead of $119.88
• Fire HD8 variety pack (2 32GB, one blue and one magenta…this isn’t the only variety pack deal they’ve done this season) for $199.88 instead of $239.98
• Fire HD10 for $199.99 versus $239.98
• Fire Kids Edition for $89.99 instead of $99.99

All three of the Echo devices are discounted:

• Echo Dot (at AmazonSmile*) $39.99 ($10 off $49.99)
• Amazon Echo (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*).  $139.99 ($40 off $179.99)
• Amazon Tap (at AmazonSmile*) $89.99 (also $40 off, in this case $129.99)

The only Fire TV item on sale is a bundle:

Fire TV and HD Antenna (at AmazonSmile*)

for $99.99, valued at $116.97. You would use the HD Antenna to pick up local channels over the air.

A lot of other things are on sale, including e-books…but that’s also a daily occurrence. For example, there are

50 Kindle books for $2 each (at AmazonSmile*)

Whither copyright?

Copyright evolves fairly often, and there has been a serious review of it for the past few years. Change during the next Presidential administration was inevitable…regardless of who was elected. The nature of that change would likely have been quite different depending on who was elected, but the question of change was not an issue.

This matters. It matters to readers, and it matters to authors. Big movers are trying to influence the outcome, and pundits are punditing. 😉

This was a well-written and informative

THE ILLUSION OF MORE post by David Newhoff

It addresses this

Judiciary Committee report

which has some really game-changing proposals.

That report, while not binding at this point, may deserve its own post. Some language seems vague to me, and could have unintended consequences. This is just one part, which is something I’ve wanted for a long time: “The Copyright Office should maintain a searchable, digital database of historical and current copyright ownership information and encourage the inclusion of additional information such as licensing agents that would be available to the public. This database should allow copyright owners to include additional metadata, such as standardized identifiers, for a fee. The Copyright Office should also be allowed to charge a fee for high speed, high volume access to this database.”

Meanwhile, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) wrote this

Open Letter to the President-Elect and the transition team

It talks about their agenda. It, correctly, points out that the President-Elect and other members of that family have benefitted from the traditional-publishing industry that the AAP represents. I’m not sure what the new administration will do with copyright, but I will watch it closely and report to you as appropriate.

Intel to work with Amazon on Echo devices…and with Microsoft on a competitor

Intel has always supplied competitors, and that’s going to happen as AI Assistants (Artificially Intelligent Assistants) become commonplace.

Here’s a

Venture Beat article by Khari Johnson

on the Amazon partnership, and here is a

Business Insider article

on the Microsoft/Intel partnership.

It’s not a direct competition, necessarily, if you are thinking of the Echo hardware. However, the competition is with Alexa, the assistant. That’s the future, and it’s going to expand rapidly…both in where we access assistants and how we use them.

I have access to what I would consider to be the big four assistants right now:

• Siri (from Apple)
• Alexa (from Amazon)
• Cortana (from Microsoft)
• Google (or, I think of it is as “OK Google”) from Alphabet (sort of formerly Google)

I’m considering doing a post (or maybe a series of them) in my The Measured Circle blog where I compare their responses (and capabilities)head to head.

I did do a recent comparison when Len Edgerly of The Kindle Chronicles tweeted about Alexa’s surprising ability to sing.

I tested the four of them with “Sing a song”.

• Alexa did actually sing…impressively, even with vibrato! Alexa has sung me different songs to this query
• Cortana also sang, again, with vibrato
• Siri spoke a song…and then made a joke about it
• OK Google didn’t sing a song…but found a related YouTube video (Google also owns YouTube)

Alexa and Cortana impressed me. I think they must actually have programmed that vibrato.

Siri seemed to have more of Siri’s agenda…and wasn’t as technically skilled. That’s more personality, but wasn’t as satisfying.

OK Google definitely didn’t make me feel that what I wanted was that important and it wasn’t as technically impressive.

“The Big Book Publishing Stories of 2016”

This is a nice look back at the year:

Publishers Weekly article by Jim Milliot

I’m looking forward to writing my look back and look forward! I’m taking a writing day towards the end of the year…and I might actually end up taking two of them. 🙂

What do you think? What changes would you like to see happen in copyright…and what do you think will happen? How do you see artificial intelligence assistants fitting in to our lives…and again, what would you like to see them do and not do? What do you think were the big publishing stories of the year? Feel free to tell me and my readers what you think by commenting on this post.

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard our new The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.

Today’s KDD: another great set (including some from HarperCollins) for December!

Today’s KDD: another great set (including some from HarperCollins) for December!

Today’s

Kindle Daily Deal (at AmazonSmile…benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

impressed me yet again this month. As has been the case more than once, the KDD has a lot more than a handful of titles (which is often the case most of the time). Today there are 38, including several well-known titles (some with thousands of customer reviews). I’m seeing some from HarperCollins, which is intriguing…under the modified Agency Model, Amazon can do some discounting, but Harper would set the customer price…perhaps HC just has them on sale.

Needless to say, I’m happy to see this! These books, often quite inexpensive and considerably discounted from their highest prices, make great gifts. You can buy them now on sale, and then either delay delivery for the appropriate gift-giving occasion, or print them out so they can be wrapped.

Check prices before you click or tap that Buy button: this sale may not be happening in your country…

Titles include:

• Settle for More by Megyn Kelly, a current frontlist title | $4.99 | 565 customer reviews (HarperCollins)
• Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No by Henry Cloud and John Townsend | 3,317 customer reviews (HarperCollins)
• Sully: My Search for What Really Matters by Chesley B. Sullenberger
• One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp
• The Inn at Eagle Point by Sherryl Woods | $0.99 | book 1 of 12
• Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern (which became a William Shatner TV series) | $1.99 | 3,332 customer reviews (HarperCollins)
• We’re All Damaged by Matthew Norman | 3,213 customer reviews | (also available as part of Kindle Unlimited)
• The Wanderer by Robyn Carr | book 1 of 8
• Vader’s Little Princess by Jeffrey Brown | KU
• 52 Small Changes for the Mind by Brett Blumenthal
• Bad Girls Throughout History: 100 Remarkable Women Who Changed the World by Ann Shen
• Blog Inc.: Blogging for Passion, Profit, and to Create Community by Joy Deangdeelert Cho
• Lists of Note by Shaun Usher
• Me Without You by Ralph Lazar
• Ultimate Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook by David Borgenicht (very popular series)

There are more, but those in particular caught my eye.

Enjoy!

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard our new The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.

Is $14.99 the new $9.99?

Is $14.99 the new $9.99?

“More than 90,000 books are now available in the Kindle Store, including 101 of 112 current New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases, which are $9.99, unless marked otherwise.”
–Amazon press release introducing the Kindle, November 19, 2007
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1079388&highlight=kindle

Things have obviously changed a lot in the past nine years. There are now close to five million titles in the USA Kindle store, and we’ve been through the whole Agency Model thing, where the Department of Justice ended up bringing action against publishers and Apple.

As you can see from above, Amazon didn’t promise that every Kindle e-book would be $9.99 or lower, as some people sometimes assert.

Still, for quite some time, the New York Times bestseller hardback equivalents were almost always under $10.

I track these pricing trends every month in my Snapshots , and I’ve noted there a rise in those prices (while prices in the store overall haven’t been going up appreciably…that’s due in part to so many more very low price books being published to the Kindle store).

This was my most report on New York Times bestseller hardback fiction equivalents:

December 1, 2016:

14.99 14.99 14.99 14.99 14.99 13.99 14.99 10.99 14.99 14.99
12.99 14.99 14.99 13.99 13.99 14.99 14.99 13.99 14.99 12.99

Average: $14.39 (+$0.50) 0 titles under $10

Yep…up fifty cents in one month.

Two years ago, that same category of books cost almost $5 less…and the price had dropped more than fifty cents from the preceding month.

December 1, 2014

10.99 12.74 3.25 9.78 4.99 10.99 12.99 6.99 11.84 10.99
10.99 5.00 9.99 9.78 9.09 10.99 10.99 10.99 6.99 10.99

Average: $9.57 (-$0.65) 9 titles under $10

When I looked at

the USA Kindle store e-books (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

page this morning, I was struck by how the first books I saw were all $14.99.

It’s important to note that the default sort is not bestselling, and that bestselling isn’t even a sort choice any more. The default is “featured”, which I would guess has some human curation.

As a former brick-and-mortar bookstore manager, I would equate “featured” with what is in the window. Certainly, at this time of year, you’d have some of the brand name authors that would get somebody to walk into the store who maybe wasn’t even planning to buy a book as a gift. “Oh, there’s that John Grisham…so-and-so reads those (or likes the movies).” You would also though, for sure, feature some books on sale, for people who don’t just buy books as gifts once a year.

Here are the first (I don’t want to say “top”) ten featured titles:

• Night School: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child
• The Whistler by John Grisham
• No Man’s Land (John Puller Series Book 4) by David Baldacci
• The Wrong Side of Goodbye (A Harry Bosch Novel) by Michael Connelly
• Turbo Twenty-Three: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich
• Cross the Line by James Patterson
• Small Great Things: by Jodi Picoult
• Sisters One, Two, Three by Nancy Star
• Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J. D. Vance
• The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds by Michael Lewis

All of those are $14.99 each, except for Sisters One, Two, Three…which is $4.99.

That’s an interesting “anomaly” in this group…published by Amazon, and actually not even published until January 1st. It’s one of the Kindle First picks.

Amazon Prime (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

can have one e-book (out of a group of six this month) to own for free.

“Featured” also clearly doesn’t match “bestselling”. Amazon does have a listing of bestselling items in many categories…they just don’t give you that as a sort within the Kindle store.

Here are the

bestselling paid Kindle e-books in the USA Kindle store (at AmazonSmile*)

You have to get down to the tenth title there to find a book listed at over $10, and to the 12th before one of the $14.99 featured titles is there (that Grisham book).

The Sisters book in the first ten featured titles is the number one seller…which may be why it is the one of the Kindle First books to be featured.

Also interesting: the bestselling book at #10, and listed at over $10, is What If? by Randall Munroe. That has been a New York Times bestseller…but you can read it no additional cost as part of either

Prime Reading (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

or

Kindle Unlimited (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

That strongly suggests to me that those borrows do count in bestseller calculations. The paperback is hardly top ten at this point…it’s ranked 5,879 at time of writing.

Giving the gift of Prime or Kindle Unlimited can be a good way to go (the latter is still 25% off at time of writing for the one-year subscription).

This does seem to relate to me to the different markets of book customers I’ve mentioned before. People who only buy a few books a year, often as gifts (“piece buyers”), may be willing to pay $14.99. I think people who buy (or download, to include freebies) a lot of books find that to be a high price to pay, and they are predominantly affecting the Kindle bestseller rankings.

What do you think? Will you pay a lot more for a book as a gift for someone else than for yourself? Do you prefer to give physical books as gifts? How high will bestseller e-book prices go, and how quickly? How do indie (independent) publishers fit into this picture? Feel free to tell me and my readers what you think by commenting on this post.

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard our new The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.

Still need a gift? Consider Amazon devices (some are on sale today)

Still need a gift? Consider Amazon devices (some are on sale today)

The odds are that gift-giving occasions are around the corner for you now.

The situation is certainly different than it used to be, when getting something through the mail routinely took weeks, and prices tended to go up in the few weeks right before.

If you have

Amazon Prime (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

you can get many items with two-day shipping at no additional cost, and of course, digital delivery can be almost instantaneous.

There will be discounts and sales right up to the last minute…and beyond. The internet means that there is always competition…it’s not like it’s the night before and you are at the only store that’s open in town so they can jack up the prices. 🙂

Still, for physical items, lead time may be running out.

Those two-days with Prime? That’s the shipping time. Some items may not start to ship until some time after you order them…Prime can’t compress that. I’ve had it be a couple of weeks before the shipping started. That’s also business days…Saturday and Sunday don’t count (although you may get Amazon deliveries on those days).

Another issue is that items certainly can sell out…and have this year (have you tried buying a Hatchimal?). It does look like all of the Kindle EBRs (E-book Readers) are currently in stock…that hasn’t always been the case at this point in December.

Let’s say that you do want to get a physical gift…I have a few suggestions.

Echo devices

Alexa is Amazon’s digital assistant, and that’s a hot area right now, so it’s a cool gift. 😉 This isn’t a case where if you have one, you couldn’t use another one. One will cover a room well, and may certainly hear you from another room, but you could have one in every room…including the garage.

You are also getting in at an early stage. They will be able to do remarkably more over the next year, and it seems very unlikely to me that the current generation of devices will be made obsolete by later generations. Certainly, later generations may able to do more, but it’s a relatively simple input/output devices with much of the processing down in the cloud. There isn’t really something hardwired that would cease to work with a newer “operating system”, in my best guess.

There is also a range of devices, and most people won’t have all of them.

In terms of the Echo, the

Echo Dot (at AmazonSmile*)

is the least expensive member of the Echo family. It’s on sale at time of writing for $39.99, and comes in two colors (the white one is in stock, the black one is expected December 16th). There was a deal where if you bought five, you got the sixth free, but I’m not seeing that right now. We have one, and use it every day…but we would have no problem finding places for more.

On a big sale right now at $89.99 ($40 off) is the

Amazon Tap (at AmazonSmile*)

This one may be the best gift. It can be used in the house, but you can also take it on the road (it’s the only one which operates when it isn’t plugged into an external power source, like a wall outlet). I take mine to work and love having it there. It does need to connect to Wi-Fi, so taking it to the beach or a park would be problematic, unless you can “tether” it to your phone or perhaps your car. You do have to push a button to talk to it, so that takes away one of the major charms of the Dot or the original Amazon Echo (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*). I would guess most people who have an Echo don’t have a Tap…and would enjoy one.

The other category to consider is

Accessories

There are covers and stands. For example, check out this

Fintie brand leopard print Tap cover (at AmazonSmile*)

Fintie is generally inexpensive, and is our preferred brand for Kindle EBRs. You’d probably get a good laugh from an Empire (TV series) fan with this one!

For something a little more organic looking, here is a wooden stand for the original Echo:

COSMOS Wooden Protection Stand Holder for Amazon Echo Speaker, Original Wooden Color (Light Brown) (at AmazonSmile*)

Either of those are under $20.

Kindle EBRs

These are the book-focused devices, and there is a good lineup this year. My suggestion at time of writing would be the

Kindle Paperwhite

which is $20 off right, making it under $100 at $99.99.

The light(which makes it the most comfortable reading experience I’ve ever had, including paper) makes it easily worth the $20 more than the entry level

All-New Kindle E-reader – Black, 6″ Glare-Free Touchscreen Display, Wi-Fi – Includes Special Offers (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

The

Kindle Voyage (any configuration) (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

is, in my opinion, incrementally better…but for most people, I wouldn’t call it $100 better (which is the current difference).

The top of the line model, and of Oprah’s “favorite things”, is the Oasis…which is $289.99, so nearly three times as much as the current price for the Paperwhite. Also, it is currently only available with an animal-leather cover, which is an issue for some commenters at Amazon (and for me).

There are also over 1,500

Kindle EBR accessories (at AmazonSmile*)

Be careful about covers, though…they aren’t universal, you have to know which model of Kindle your recipient has (and they might have more than one).

Fire TV family

I’m watching one as I write this! These are great devices…they work well (and there is currently a new interface rolling out), they have Alexa, and are an excellent way to watch Prime Video and (if you subscribe already, as we do), Hulu and Netflix. You can also do mobile-style gaming on them.

The two basic ones are

Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote (at AmazonSmile*)

Amazon Fire TV (at AmazonSmile*)

neither of which are on sale at time of writing…but the Stick is currently just under $40.

A nice bundle is

Fire TV and HD Antenna (at AmazonSmile*)

Having the HD antenna gets you local channels…something notably missing from most streaming devices.

Fire Tablets

The Fire tablets are almost all on sale, with the

Fire, 7″ Display, Wi-Fi, 8 GB – Includes Special Offers, Black (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

going for $39.99 at time of writing.

They have a three pack bundle available (one in blue, one in magenta, one in black) of the $69.99 16 GB version for $179.97…a thirty dollar savings over buying them individually. Great for families!

Fire Tablet Variety Pack, 16GB – Includes Special Offers (Black/Blue/Magenta) (at AmazonSmile*)

These sales may end any time.

Of course, non-device gifts can be great, too. You can do Amazon Gift Cards (at AmazonSmile*), Kindle book gifts, you can give Prime, and

Kindle Unlimited (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

is still on sale today for 25% for a 1-year subscription.

As you can see, there are many ways to make someone smile at the holidays…and beyond. 🙂

Do you have other recommendations? Feel free to let me and my readers know by commenting on this post.

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard our new The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.

 

1-year subscriptons to Kindle Unlimited 25% off (today only?)

1-year subscriptons  to Kindle Unlimited 25% off (today only?)

Kindle Unlimited (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

is on sale in the USA for the 1-year membership. It’s $88.99 instead of $119.88…about a $30 savings.

I’ve been a happy member since it started, and have given it as a gift.

Amazon says:

“A maximum of one prepaid subscription purchased through this offer may be redeemed to a single Kindle Unlimited membership account. Customers may purchase additional subscriptions as gifts.”

If this lets me extend our subscription at a discount, as it appears to do, I’m on it! 🙂

Enjoy!

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard our new The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.

If the alphabet was an operating system…

If the alphabet was an operating system…

December 9, 2016 (AFD News)

LitTech blog OPtimaLetter News has published a screenshot of what it claims to be details about the next release of Alphabeta (formerly known as “The Alphabet”) which appeared briefly on an investors’ website before it was deleted.

If accurate, the sixth iteration since the incorporation in 2007 will streamline the alphabet while introducing some new features reflecting globalization.

Here are some key points:

• The letter “c” will be eliminated. This has been anticipated, since it is redundant with the letters “s” and “k”. Books still being published and using the operating system will be updated with the new spellings. The change will be introduced in an online video of singer Tito Jackson performing “ABD”
• The letter “z” will return to its original position, sixth from the beginning. That was the seventh position, but it will move up one slot with the elimination of the letter “c”. The screenshot cites the success of other retro consumer products, including the Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition (an AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*) as an influencing factor. OPtimaLetter speculates that this would create yet another battle with Amazon, since it would affect the e-tailer’s current “A to Z” smile logo
• To further globalize Alphabeta (which is actually only one of several alphabets in use worldwide), the company will include the letters ñ (from Spanish, and pronounced like “ny” as in “canyon” and “щ ” (from the Cyrillic alphabet, pronounced “shch” as in “fresh cheese”) as part of the core set
• A pricing sheet, partially visible, suggests that emojis will still be sold separately as part of expansion packs

Alphabeta has not responded to requests for comments on the story. New versions have typically been announced in February, to allow lead time prior to the summer reading season and the autumn school year start.

Note: this post is humor. AFD News is short for “April Fool’s Day News” which I normally use on April 1st, although I have used it before outside of that day. “Z” really was in the seventh position, as I understand it. Tito Jackson is part of the Jackson Five, who had a hit with “ABC”. I first heard that pronunciation of щ as “fresh cheese” when I took Russian in high school

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard our new The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.

Amazon’s “2016 Top-Selling New Releases”

Amazon’s “2016 Top-Selling New Releases”

I recently asked a question in a meeting at work about “aggregate curation”, and I could tell the speaker didn’t quite get it. 🙂

We were talking about interaction with the public online. It’s fascinating to me that many people seem to think that the “Wisdom of the Crowd” is going to be superior to the experts. When I’ve helped people on the Amazon forums, they may ask something like, “Does anyone know how…?” The answer is quite often, “Yes. Contact Amazon.”

I think Amazon makes it quite obvious about how to contact them. There is, for example, a Help link at the top of every page in the Kindle store.

Still, some people think the crowd, people like them, are a better bet to answer questions than the company itself.

I would guess that a lot of that is the general suspicion of authority. After all, Amazon clearly has a motivation to have people make purchases, so mightn’t they be more likely to recommend replacing a device than someone who has no financial stake in your decision? Sure…although I would argue that Amazon has a bigger interest in keeping you as a happy customer (their most important “product”) than making an individual sale.

I see this in a lot of things…some people would rather go with “People with your medical condition opted for this treatment most often” than what their doctors suggest.

That’s not to say that I’m not interested in what the aggregate of Amazon customers think! I do look at customer reviews at Amazon, and I have considered items more strongly when Amazon told me either that people who bought one product also bought another, or that people who had visited this page most often bought this other product.

This time of year, there are a lot of “Best of” books listed being released. Quite often, that’s a single reviewer making recommendations.

Amazon has things like that…but they also have released their

Best-Selling New Releases list (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

In terms of the list itself, they haven’t separated out Kindle sales this year…and those might be quite different. Amazon says:

“List counts only first editions published in 2016 and includes paid units in print and Kindle”

“Paid units” presumably means that borrows don’t count…meaning that

Kindle Unlimited (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

might not affect it. Not sure on that, though.

The top overall are “frontlist” books, generally from brand name authors. The top five are:

1. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling and Jack Thorne
2. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
3. The Whistler by John Grisham
4. The Last Mile by David Baldacci
5. Killing the Rising Sun by Bill O’Reilly, Martin Dugard

Interestingly, that puts two non-fiction books in the top five (#2 and #5).

They also have top twenty lists for Kids & Young Adults, Most Wished For, and Most Gifted.

I also find it intriguing that Most Wished For and Most Gifted aren’t a one for one correspondence. 😉 Obviously, book gifters don’t always give people what they want. That could be because they don’t know (Amazon does have a pretty easy Wish List program you can share with specific people), or they want to get them something different (some givers love to surprise people, or want to illuminate new pathways). It may also be because people use the Wish Lists as a way to manage their own shopping (or just for general reference), and those books aren’t really what they want for gifts.

Something that stands out to me on that page: open obscenities (sh*tty, bullsh*t). Since these are hypothetically facts about what is most wished for or gifted, they have to list them…but I’m surprised there isn’t a family/work friendly version of the page. Ordinarily, I don’t think you’d expect to be looking at a list of very popular books to purchase online at work and run afoul of HR. 😉

Amazon does have a regular place where you can see best-selling Kindle e-books (for the USA) for the year so far…and, for that matter, for previous years:

Amazon Best Sellers of 2016 (So Far) (at AmazonSmile*)

That list is quite different, and part of that is that they use different parameters. The “so far” list includes books released in previous years…sometimes decades earlier.

I would guess that all of the top 20 for the year Amazon listed appear on the top 100 “so far” list. One thing that does stand out, though, is that there are cheaper and independently published books on the “so far” list. The number 2 is a ninety-nine cent title from “Bookouture”, The Girl in the Ice: A gripping serial killer thriller (Detective Erika Foster Book 1) by Robert Bryndza. There are also almost 7,000 customer reviews for The Girl in the Ice at time of writing.

“Best-selling” is one example of aggregate curation. It’s not something that experts think, or something that even an individual reader would put together as a “best” list. People certainly buy books that they don’t think were the best books of the year…or that they even liked all that much. 😉

I’m planning to do some writing before the end of the year, as I usually do, looking back at the year (and looking ahead). I don’t want to promise too much, but I am taking an extra PTO (Paid Time Off) day for writing after our adult kid visits for almost a week (during the visit, I may write less than usual…we’ll see). I’m considering a couple of ways to surface the “wisdom of the crowd” for ILMK readers…

Thanks to Amazon for the press release on this list! One thing they noted there: more than half of the top 20 books are part of a series…people like series in movies and books (and TV, of course). 🙂

Any thoughts on the bestsellers list? Feel free to tell me and my readers by commenting on this post.

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard our new The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

This post was improved through a comment from Edward Boyhan.

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.

Round up #151: 5 reviews a week, don’t pay as you exit

Round up #151: 5 reviews a week, don’t pay as you exit

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

Check this out…or rather, don’t and just walk out

I’m a former brick-and-mortar bookstore manager, and I managed a couple of other types of stores, too.

This is truly revolutionary! Sure, Amazon does revolutionary things, but this is not online…it’s in a physical store.

What is it?

It’s called “Amazon Go”. It’s a new store concept…and the first one is opening in Seattle in 2017, so it’s not just a concept.

You have an app on your SmartPhone. As you walk into the store, you scan your phone while passing through a turnstile (sort of like some mass transit systems). Then, you just take what you want off the shelves, and you walk out.

That’s right…you don’t check out, you don’t pay, you don’t even scan your phone again on the way out.

Your Amazon account is charged.

That’s all a quantum leap change…we haven’t been gradually moving towards this, it’s a revolution, not an evolution

Watch this video:

YouTube

Note that is uses computer vision, among other things…it’s not just RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) or UPC (Universal Product Code) tags.

We do see an Amazon employee restocking the shelf, although that could largely be done by robots. You want some employees, though, at this point…for one thing, to answer questions (the app could probably help with that, perhaps in the future as an Alexa-enabled app, or by having Alexa-enabled devices in the store). The other major thing would be to discourage shoplifting…no doubt, people will try to run into the store (hopping the turnstile, perhaps) and grab and go.

This is brilliant for Amazon for several reasons.

Everybody who goes in there pays through Amazon.

I think customers will like it…a lot.

Customers will also have a lowered awareness of how much they are spending. I’ve seen people in front of me in line at a grocery store look at the total and put something back…not going to happen here.

This first store will have grocery type items, including prepared meals…not, I would presume, fresh produce, although I suppose that could be done.

Amazon could eventually expand this, especially at the holiday season. I see clothing being particularly appropriate here, so people could try on the clothes.

Amazon…always innovating, and increasingly, offline.

Specialty Best Books lists

Here are some links to specialty Best Books lists from The Guardian:

• Kate Kellaway’s Best Poetry Books of 2016 from The Guardian
• Peter Conrad’s Best Art Books of 2016 from The Guardian
• Stephen Moss’ Best Nature Books of 2016 from The Guardian

Note that this is a British news source, but that has affected availability less in recent years, I believe.

こんにちは, Dash buttons!

Do you know why Microsoft Word won out over WordPerfect?

I was active at the time in computing, and I remember it pretty well.

WordPerfect was, I think most serious word processors agreed, better.

However, we did everything with keyboard shortcuts…we didn’t have mice and menus, for the most part (it worked with them quite a bit later). Some of you will remember plastic trays you put around your keyboard that listed the shortcuts…you might have had several of them.

Microsoft brought in this “menu” thing. People laughed: the only people who used a word processing program were superior typists, and they weren’t going to want to take their fingers off the home row to pick up a mouse and go to a menu.

Well, of course, what happened was that lots of people who weren’t good typists started using word-processing…and if you were a bad typist, that was better.

Microsoft won because they provided multiple ways to do the same thing. They didn’t eliminate keyboard shortcuts…they added another modality.

I bring that up because some people may wonder why Amazon does

Dash buttons (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

when they have the beauty of voice shopping with the Alexa-enabled devices, including the original

Amazon Echo (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

With a Dash button, it does one thing. It orders a specific product, whenever you push a button.

Those are two very different approaches…and Amazon is making them both work, and apparently they are both selling well.

The USA Kindle store now has 226 Dash buttons…and when you buy one for $4.99, you get a $4.99 credit on your first purchase (so it is effectively free).

Well, Amazon just introduced the Dash button to Amazon.jp (the Japanese store):

Dash buttons in Amazon.jp

They are starting with 16, but I think it will be a success there, too. 🙂

“Winner Wonderland”: win an Echo Dot and a whole lot more from C/NET

You could win an

All-New Echo Dot (2nd Generation) – White (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

and a whole lot of other home automation hardware in the

Winner Wonderland giveaway at C/NET

You do have to agree to get the e-mail newsletter (you can drop out), but this is a good giveaway. There’s a giveaway each day through December 15th, 2016.

“BANNED BOOKS AND BLOCKBUSTERS”

This

New Yorker article by Louis Menand

is one of the best articles on publishing I’ve read in quite some time…although, I will warn you that there is an “obscenity” early on in it (what some people call the “c word”…it can be used as an insulting term for women, and refers to part of the female anatomy, which is how it is used in the quotation appearing in the article). As regular readers know, I don’t use obscenities in my “real life”, and when I write in this blog, I typically censor them (even something like “H*ll”). However, I do not object to their use by others, and have used them when quoting something.

It’s important for this story, which gives real insight into the history of obscenity laws and the first amendment, and how they have affected publishing.

I found it insightful and edifying, and it’s relatively long.

If you can get past that word in this context, and some other discussions of what obscenity means (and potentially objectionable language), I recommend the article.

For a previous post of mine about judging books from older times by current standards, see

The Chronological Cultural Context Conundrum

That may not be exactly the issue here…both of these books use the “n word”, but in the latter especially, it’s used for a purpose, and the purpose is certainly arguably intended to be instructive.

Microsoft may challenge the Echo…through computers

The Echo really realized the home assistant market, but there are now multiple competitors…which is a good thing. Competition drives innovation, after all.

This

Engadget post by Jon Fingas

discusses rumors that Microsoft may turn Windows PCs into Cortana-powered home automation centers. Cortana is Microsoft’s digital assistant, like Alexa or Siri.

It’s an interesting idea and makes a lot of sense to me.

We don’t know if this is real, or what it would eventually be able to do…but I don’t see any great barrier to this. It might particularly apply in businesses…I use our

Amazon Tap (at AmazonSmile*)

at work, but that’s not very subtle. 😉 I’m not doing anything wrong listening to music on it and such, but I think it can distract people that it is there in a different way than a feature of Windows 10 would do. When I say that, I’m picturing the office having smart home technology which would tie to it, by the way.

Huck Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird pulled from school district due to parent complaint

This kind of thing happens…a parent complains about a book, and it gets pulled from a school or school district, sometimes to be restored later:

Huffington Post article by Claire Fallon

The complaint was over the use of the “n word”. I’ve seen the parent (I think it was the complaining parent) comment, and the thought was that the word being in a book give it an imprimatur and children will feel okay using it.

As I’ve seen this story in multiple places, there is a tendency to tie it into current political events…I wouldn’t say I’m seeing something here that rules that in or out. After all, there is a Banned Books Week every year…

Amazon continues to go after “fake reviews”

A reader sent me a heads up to this

Washington Post article by Gene Marks

that asserts that there is a new Amazon review policy. I’ve written about Amazon’s customer reviews quite a bit…a powerful tool, but one that has been…vulnerable to at least attempts at manipulation.

According to this, the new policy is that an individual can only write up to five non-verified purchase reviews per week.

That will stop people who are “review factories”. They get paid (in cash and products) for writing those reviews…and they may use software or a team of people to do it.

They can still try to make a number of accounts, I suppose, but this does put a hurdle on the track.

Does it affect people who are legitimately reviewing?

Potentially, although I think not a huge number.

If I was retired, I could see deciding to sit down and write a review for every one of the Doc Savage paperbacks, for example, and that might be writing more than ten a week. They wouldn’t show as “verified purchases” at Amazon, since I bought them before Amazon existed. 🙂

However, older books don’t tend to have very many reviews, so I don’t think that sort of Before Amazon bulk reviewing happens much.

Thanks for the heads up, reader!

What do you think? How should schools handle parent challenges to books…and how should they handle “objectionable words”? What do you think of the Amazon Go store? How about a computer that did home automation? Do you like Cortana? Feel free to tell me and my readers what you think by commenting on this post.

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard our new The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

This post was improved through a comment from Edward Boyhan.

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.

Today’s KDD: great young adult/children’s e-book gifts

Today’s KDD: great young adult/children’s e-book gifts

Today’s

Kindle Daily Deal (at AmazonSmile…benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

is a really top-line group of young adult novels. These would make excellent gifts, either a single book as perhaps a small gift, or several books in a popular series.

There are books here with thousands of customer reviews, and high ratings (all of them are at least four stars on a scale of 1 to 5). I would guess that a tween would be likely to have heard of some of them.

You can buy the books at this price and delay the delivery for the appropriate gift-giving occasion, and even print the gift information out so you can wrap them and give them whenever you want. It might also make sense to have some in your “guest library” for visitors.

As you can tell, I’m impressed with today’s sale! 🙂

Your recipients don’t need a Kindle to read them, and if they already have your gift, they can get store credit for them.

Check the price before you click or tap that Buy button: the prices may not apply in your country, the sale might be over (should last through December 4th Pacific), and it’s possible books may go in or come out of the sale.

Books in this sale include:

• Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan (made into a movie): The Lightning Thief, the first in the series (3,918 customer reviews | 4.7 stars | $2.99…listed as for ages 10-14) is here…as well as the four other books in that series. They are each $2.99…so for under $15, you could give someone the series as a gift
• There are other Rick Riordan books here, including the first Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard book, the Kane Chronicles, and the Heroes of Olympus
• The 100 by Kass Morgan is $1.99…I haven’t read it, but I’ve watched more than a season of the CW show and found the ideas in it interesting
• The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery is $1.99
• Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl’s Beautiful Creatures has over 4,000 reviews is $2.99
• Want an older book? Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan is only $1.99
• Some other authors in the sale: Annie Barrows and Sophie Blackall (Ivy and Bean); Wendy Spinale; Melanie Dickerson (Fairy Tale Romance Series); Chris Colfer (The Land of Stories…the first book is here for $2.99)

Again, great sale, great opportunity for gifts!

Enjoy!

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard our new The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.

Monthly Kindle Deals for $3.99 or less each: December 2016

Monthly Kindle Deals for $3.99 or less each: December 2016

Amazon does the Kindle Daily Deal (at AmazonSmile…benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*), which used to discount four books a day (often general fiction, a romance, a science fiction/fantasy book, and a kids’ book). Now, it seems like it is generally more books than that, and not categorized.

They also do Monthly Kindle Book Deals for $3.99 or less each (at AmazonSmile). There used to be about 100 of them, but there are many times that now: 700 at the time of writing…327 fewer than last month. That’s a significant reduction…there will be a lot of other sales on e-books this month. The highest priced one actually is $3.99, which isn’t always the case.

Those prices only apply to the USA, and one weird thing is that sometimes some of the books seem to sell out at that price (or become unavailable for some other reason).

Another thing is that 363 of them (29 more than last month) are available through

Kindle Unlimited (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

Amazon lists that information prominently…and it’s now commonly a filter in search results. If they are, then you need to consider whether it is worth buying them…even at these low prices. While they are in KU, you can, if you are a subscriber (and there’s a free month available right now), read them at no additional cost. There are, of course, advantages to owning books, especially if you want to re-read them. A book could move out of KU at any time. Even if you think you want to own it, if you are a KU member, you could always read it first to make sure. 😉 I will mark them with KU.

By the way, in the new version of the

eReaderIQ advanced search

you can make KU a filter. So, you can search for books by an author, a keyword, an average customer review which you can read as part of your KU membership…nice! I’m not associated with eReaderIQ except as a user (we have had some correspondence), but I do think it is the most valuable website for Kindleers.

This is the second month for my measurement of  which ones are

Prime Reading (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

eligible, which is Amazon’s new benefit for Prime members, a rotating list of books you can borrow each month.

This month there are 43, nine more than last month.

I’m going to list some of the books in this sale that caught my eye…I’m not necessarily recommending them, but I do think they are interesting.

The ones I link (if I actually link to specific books) also don’t block text-to-speech access**…but I think blocking it is becoming rarer.

Okay, books!

• When I Found You by Catherine Ryan Hyde | 4.4 stars out of 5 | 8,312 customer reviews | KU
• The Things We Wish Were True by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen | 4.2 stars | 3,698 reviews | KU
• The Night Before Christmas by Gennady Spirin and Clement Clark Moore | KU
• Terms of Enlistment (Frontlines Book 1) by Marko Kloos (I’ve read this one and enjoyed it enough to read others in the series) | KU
• The Second Ship (The Rho Agenda Book 1) by Richard Phillips | KU
• Childhood’s End (Arthur C. Clarke Collection) by Arthur C. Clarke |KU
• The Queen’s Poisoner (The Kingfountain Series Book 1) by Jeff Wheeler | KU
• Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy
• Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield | KU
• Not My Father’s Son: A Memoir  by Alan Cumming
• Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely
• Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies, and Three Battles by Bernard Cornwell
• The Black Lyon (The Montgomery/Taggert Family Book 1) by Jude Deveraux

Remember that you can buy them now as gifts and delay the delivery for the appropriate gift-giving occasion, or print them out and wra thatl

If there were others you’d like to mention for me and my readers, please comment on this post.

Prime members, don’t forget to pick up your

Kindle First books (at AmazonSmile*)

You can get one of the six (same as last month) books to own (not borrow) for free…these are books which will be actually released next month. The choices this month are:

• Sisters One, Two, Three by Nancy Star (Contemporary Fiction)
• Hope’s Peak (Harper and Lane) by Tony Healey  (Thriller)
• The Missing by Caroline Eriksson, Tiina Nunnally (Psychological Suspense)
• Fate of Perfection (Finding Paradise Book 1) by K.F. Breene (Science Fiction)
• Into the Thickening Fog by Andrei Gelasimov, Marian Schwartz (Literary Fiction)
• The Original Dreamby Nukila Amal, Linda Owens (Magical Realism

People like to know which one I pick…I’m going with Fate of Perfection. It has 93 reviews (at time of writing) with an average of 4.7, which is quite impressive!

Enjoy!

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard our new The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  By the way, it’s been interesting lately to see Amazon remind me to “start at AmazonSmile” if I check a link on the original Amazon site. I do buy from AmazonSmile, but I have a lot of stored links I use to check for things.

** A Kindle with text-to-speech can read any text downloaded to it…unless that access is blocked by the publisher inserting code into the file to prevent it. That’s why you can have the device read personal documents to you (I’ve done that). I believe that this sort of access blocking disproportionately disadvantages the disabled, although I also believe it is legal (provided that there is at least one accessible version of each e-book available, however, that one can require a certification of disability). For that reason, I don’t deliberately link to books which block TTS access here (although it may happen accidentally, particularly if the access is blocked after I’ve linked it). I do believe this is a personal decision, and there  are legitimate arguments for purchasing those books. 

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.