Dune 1-3 Kindle Edition for $2

 Get the first three Dune books for $2. I couldn't pass that up.

Goodreads Deal Monitor

Goodreads will monitor your "Want to Read" bookshelf and if it finds a deal on one of your books, it will send you an e-mail to let you know. (Login and look for "Deals" under Account Settings.) You can select which ebook retailers to monitor, so if you only want Kindle books, you can turn off all the others. You can also get deals by author or genre.

Via LifeHacker

Amazon Kindle Book Deals

Highly recommend...



Recommend - especially if want to see or saw the movie...



Tempted...

Morning Star: Book III of The Red Rising Trilogy

I'm killing two birds with one stone with this post.

First, you know I get rich (rich I tell you!) off the millions of dollars you spend using my Amazon links. Amazon announced a new feature where they provide an embed link for Kindle books, so I wanted to try it out. We'll see what it looks like below.

Secondly, I finished Morning Star: Book III of The Red Rising Trilogy. I'd give it four out of five stars. It was mostly satisfying as a conclusion to the series. I really, really enjoyed the first book - it was a (virtual) page turner. I think I may have gotten it for $0.99 at the time. (The first hit is free!) My hang-up is more of a general nature than specifically anything about this last book. I think I enjoy the stories where there are high stakes, but the scope is on a more personal level - not giant space battles or planets being destroyed. If you read the series, you'll know my favorite parts are while Darrow is at the Institute.

Kindle Book Cyber Monday Sale

I'm going to pick up a couple of cheap Kindle books from the Cyber Monday sale at Amazon.

I've never read any of the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series by Fritz Leiber, so I'm going to get the first one: Swords and Deviltry. I'm also gonna try Bruce Sterling's Schismatrix Plus. Both are just $1.99.

Outlander Books

The wildly popular Outlander series has a sweet Kindle deal right now... a bundle of the first seven books for only $2.

Amazon Family Sharing

Amazon is following in the footsteps of Apple and introducing a feature that allows family members to share Kindle books. It makes the Kindle Paperwhite even more attractive - although I see the refurb has gone back up to $99.

Free Microsoft eBooks - a ton of them!

Hot off the e-presses...

"Largest collection of FREE Microsoft eBooks ever, including: Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Office 2013, Office 365, Office 2010, SharePoint 2013, Dynamics CRM, PowerShell, Exchange Server, Lync 2013, System Center, Azure, Cloud, SQL Server, and much more!"

I may have downloaded a few.

Via Lifehacker

"The DaVinci Code" Free Download Right Now

Pogue Better yet: “The DaVinci Code” is a free download right now for Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Google, AND iBooks! j.mp/YpORbC Wed, Mar 20 22:14:31 from Tweetbot for Mac

Free Zombie Book

Mad Ogre is giving away a free e-version of his Zombie thriller Uprising USA.

I have not read the whole thing, but I am about 10% in and I can tell you it is a radical departure from your common zombie book where the survivors panic and try to make it easy to be bitten.

Here is the condensed versions of what I read so far - minus the actual zombie shooting:

"Ho, hum, the zombie apocalypse is here. Grab the guns and let's head over to the gun shop to pick up more ammo. We should probably round up the rest of our family, too. We can grab a sandwich and a Mountain Dew while we are out."

It makes for a fun read when people aren't just running around advertising themselves as zombie bait. Maybe these characters are a little too calm and collected, but it has been a cool read so far.

Free Book

Tam reads a lot. Tam seems really smart. When Tam posts about a free Kindle version of a book, I download it.

Atlas Shrugged iPad App

In case you didn't get a sense of Ayn Rand's philosophy from the book itself, you can view supplement material as part of the iPad app:

Includes:
-Handwritten, original manuscript pages and notes from the author’s journals regarding key scenes 
-Video and audio excerpts from Rand’s talks on hot button topics from the book and her philosophy, courtesy of The Ayn Rand Archives 
-Full length audio lectures, including a Q&A on Objectivism, an outline of its basic principles, and commentary on the state of business and government (covered in the ever-timely lecture “Is Atlas Shrugging?”)

A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Author’s Life and Groundbreaking Philosophy:
-Illustrated, revealing timeline of the author’s life and major works, including personal documents, letters, and correspondence 
-Photo gallery of images of the author at work
-Informative articles on the author’s life, influences, and her philosophy of Objectivism

Additional reader enrichment materials:
-Collection of sharable quotes and passages from the novel (via Facebook, Twitter, and email) embedded within the reading experience
-A fun “Who Said That?” quiz to challenge readers to recall some of the most memorable lines from the novel
-Endorsements and testimonials from celebrities and business leaders on the enduring power and influence of Atlas Shrugged
-A Discussion Guide to aid in book group or classroom conversations, and a catalog of the author’s available titles
-The trailer for the upcoming documentary Ayn Rand and the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged., from Mad Universe LLC

Additional Functionality 
-Easy in-book navigation features, including text search, bookmarks, custom reader settings, and the ability to flip pages with a tap or swipe
-Sidebar annotations alongside the novel hide away for an uninterrupted reading experience
-Complete app functionality in both portrait and landscape orientation
-Reproduced archival documents and images that can be enlarged to full screen with a double tap

. . . and much more!

Cheap eBooks

George R. R. Martin announced a sale of his Wild Cards eBooks. Four of the books are available for $2.99. Basically, they want to sell a few and get you hooked on the series. It may work with me. I bought one last night and have already been burning through the electronic pages.

A $250-$300 'iPad Mini'?

Apple Is Reportedly Working On A $250-$300 'iPad Mini':

"Apple is developing a low-cost iPad, which could appear in early 2012, says Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White.

White calls it an "iPad mini," because he thinks it will be priced in the "mid-to-high $200 range." The size of the iPad mini could be exactly the same, White doesn't necessarily think it's smaller"

True or not, it is a smart rumor to leak as it might dampen sales for Kindles, Nooks, and other lower cost tablets. My whole argument that these things aren't competitors goes out the window once they are all priced the same.

Tablets R Us

Why buy something besides an iPad? (I'm listing this link first - if you read only one, make it this one.)

"The Kindle Fire is interesting because it’s the first one with a good answer: it’s much cheaper, Amazon offers a digital content ecosystem that rivals Apple’s (fewer apps, more books), and millions of people already use and enjoy Kindle hardware. The e-ink Kindles are to the Kindle Fire what the music-playing iPods were to the iPhone, and what the iPhone was to the iPad — traction in the mass market based on trust and loyalty.

Amazon built an alternative to the iPad, rather than a direct competitor. It’s a different market segment. As Steve Jobs explained back in 2010 at the introduction of the original iPad, there’s unexplored territory between smartphones and laptops."

And:

"The iPad and Kindle Fire are emblematic of their makers. Apple’s primary business is selling devices for a healthy profit, and they back that up with a side business of selling digital content for those devices. Amazon’s primary business is as a retailer, including as a retailer of digital content. They back that up with a side business of low-cost digital devices that are optimized for on-the-fly purchasing of anything and everything Amazon sells. The Kindles are to Amazon what the printed catalog was to Sears a century ago."

The X-Ray feature might tip the scale and give me a reason to pay a premium of an e-book.

"All the new e-ink Kindles have an innovative feature called X-Ray. When you download a book on an e-ink Kindle you automatically receive a second file with information about the characters and settings of the book. The sources include Wikipedia and an Amazon-owned company book-related social service called Shelfari. It’s a welcome means to quickly figure out whether an unfamiliar character had appeared a few chapters earlier."

If I buy a Kindle, I will get the version that is ad supported, because you can change your mind later and pay to opt out of the adds with no penalty.

Amazon to buy Palm? Speaking of old school, maybe somebody should snap up BeOS, too.

Some iPad alternatives

I've finally decided what my next tablet will be: The Sabre Pyramid

iPhone 4S... point and shoot camera killer?

What is the difference between a smartphone and tablet? Very similar to my thoughts on which tablets are competitors? It depends on the use case.

edbott Whatever Happened to the iPad Rivals of 2010? A long, sad list http://t.co/7NCEBnqD via @technologizerMon, Oct 03 08:26:01 from Tweet Button retweeted by asymco

WIREDInsider The top 10 new features of iOS5: http://t.co/xGVTuecV (via @gizmodo)Wed, Oct 05 10:33:38 from SocialOomph

WIREDInsider Today's infographic: Every iPhone 5 rumor to date: http://t.co/8dGRL2aUTue, Oct 04 16:36:46 from SocialOomph

WIREDInsider Delving deeper into the iPhone 4s camera: http://t.co/Qebhe89g (via @wired)Wed, Oct 05 12:33:45 from SocialOomph

IT'S A KINDLE FIRE KILLER!

harrymccracken iPod Touch now starts at $199, matching the Kindle Fire. IT'S A KINDLE FIRE KILLER!Tue, Oct 04 13:55:11 from Mobile Web

Funny, but I disagree. The iPod Touch has a 3.5" screen. The Kindle Fire has a 7" screen. As certain demographics will tell you, size matters and that is a significant difference. It's like double or something! I just don't see them as direct competitors.

A Prediction

SammyWalrusIV Collins Stewart: Believe Amazon will launch 10" tablet priced below $399 in early 2012 and buys Netflix.Wed, Sep 28 18:34:33 from Twitter for iPhone

I like it. Makes sense to me.

Funny

SammyWalrusIV When's my kindle phone coming?Wed, Sep 28 16:07:52 from Twitter for iPhone

Amazon - New Kindles Touch and Fire

So I'm all about the tablets right now... I was like a kid at Christmas watching two live blogs (here and here) yesterday as they covered the announcements from Amazon. I'd been reading all the predictions about how great this new tablet was going to be and then in the 48 hours leading up to the announcement, opinions seemed to become much more negative. The tablet was going to be a hack job and would be replaced with something different in Q1 2012. And what did we get... not only the color tablet we expected, but several new models of the Kindle - including a $79 low-end ebook reader and new touch screen models.

My take... I'm not sure I need anything beyond my Android Nook Color, but I think the future is very exciting! I don't think Amazon is trying to attack Apple directly. Others have said that the Kindle is not a book, but a bookstore. The Fire is a bookstore, movie studio, and a TV network - and maybe a data mine (one view - Amazon attacks Apple... and Google!)


Via Technologizer

Kindle - Nook - iPad Comparison (image from This is My Next)


The Kindle Fire competes with...
Hands on with the Kindle Fire
Amazon makes $199 challenge to iPad
Apple is no longer the only tablet maker that matters.
Playing With Fire: Amazon Launches $200 Tablet, Slashes Kindle Prices
Broken Models - Syncing and Backups
The new browser - SILK
What is old is new - SILK and Opera Mini
Slashdot's Rob worries about Privacy and Security



And again... why SILK and the new browser model means Amazon attacks Apple... and Google!

And when will the Kindle be free?

Bonus Link - you aren't getting a TouchPad.

Tablets, Tablets, Tablets

A review of the iPad challengers...

And a new one coming next week... Amazon Tablet announcement on Wednesday

Amazon Kindle Tablet Could Shake Up Tablet Wars: Here's How | PCWorld (Via Slashdot.org) - thoughts about Amazon's possible tablet and strategy - pros and cons.

Looks like I am one of the cool kids with my 7" Nook Color Android tablet...

The Motorola 7" Android Tablet

The 7" HP TouchPad that will never be.

And the power of the iPad and other consumer devices in the enterprise - they have been leaking into our company for years and it is only getting worse, err better, err worse.