News:
1. Amazon announces tablet Kindle apps - "Last year, Amazon tailored a Kindle app specifically for the size, look and feel of the iPad and it has become a top ten free app for iPad. Today, Amazon announced that Kindle apps will also be tailored specifically for Android and Windows based tablets to enable customers to access the Kindle Store, and with it the largest selection of the books people want to read. Like all Kindle apps, the new Kindle apps built for Android and Windows tablet computers will let customers “Buy Once, Read Everywhere”—on Kindle, Kindle 3G, Kindle DX, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry, and Android-based devices. For more information about the free Kindle apps, go to www.amazon.com/kindleapps."
2. Kindle comes to Windows Phone 7 - Those of you wish a shiny, new Windows Phone 7 device are in luck as Amazon has now released a Windows Phone 7 Kindle App. For the moment it seems that you are only able to read books and not magazines or newspapers, but it does show that Amazon is working hard at its "Buy once. Read everywhere" philosophy.
3. Kindle prices raise due to VAT - VAT in the UK has risen meaning that the Kindle is now slightly more expensive than it was before. The TV ads have been updated to reflect this and so has the website, the Kindle Wifi now costs £111 and the Wifi+3G Kindle costs £152. In my opinion, the price at £109 seemed so much more attractive, in the same way that a 99p item psychologically seems cheap. Let's hope that Amazon doesn't lose any sales through this slight increase in price.
4. Kindle 2, DX and DX Global get update - Those of you with the previous generation Kindle, and I know there are some, will be interested to know that there's an update, which supposedly improves the 3G connection. - Here's the Kindle Update page. It is also the same upgrade for the DX and the DX Global Kindles.
Commentary:
This week I thought I'd add something a bit different to the newsletter allowing me to get my opinion on the Kindle and other book-related news across to you and allowing you to contribute and share any tips or comments you have. If you have any comments or tips you'd like to be published email me at greatkindledeals@gmail.com. This week's topics are the Kindle's battery life and the Kindle DX:
Over the past month I've been so busy that I've found it almost impossible to find time to read, resulting in me reading half of "Wuthering Heights" on the Kindle and not much more. With wifi off this has been a real test of battery life and seeing how well the Kindle 3 can conserve battery life when not in use. The result has been that despite reading about 1500 locations' worth of content and leaving the Kindle alone for three weeks, only about 20-25% of the battery has been used. This shows the amazing potential for the Kindle, potentially meaning that the battery could last for up to six months if not being used. Amazon has clearly done a great job at conserving battery life. When reading with Wifi off regularly, I find that I can usually get over 4 weeks' worth of reading when reading every night for around half an hour. How do you find the battery life on your Kindle?
On the subject of the Kindle DX, I find it really disappointing that it is still not available in the UK and internationally at a reasonable price - it costs $379 at the moment - thats £260 + 20% VAT = £312 + Shipping = £350. That's over 3 times the price of a standard wifi Kindle for a screen that is around 2 times bigger in area. Personally, I can't see the use of it for me unless it were colour allowing me to carry around encyclopedias, and for students textbooks, but at least making it available in the UK would probably boost sales - provided it were at a reasonable price.
Cheap books of the week:
1. Dancing in the Moonlight (Silhouette Special Edition) - £0.01 (1p)
Rated 4 stars average from 1 review
Synopsis: "Lieutenant Magdalena Cruz had come home…And though all she wanted was to be alone, infuriatingly handsome Dr. Jake Dalton—of the enemy Daltons—wouldn't cooperate. And she needed him to, because the walls around her heart were dangerously close to crumbling every time he came near.…
Jake had spent most of his life trying to get closer to Maggie, with little to show for it. But she was the woman he'd always wanted, and no injury in the world could change that. Now if only he could convince her that the woman who stood before him was beautiful, desirable, whole…and meant to be his.…"
Rated 4.5 stars average from 31 reviews
Synopsis: "Hard Landing is the first book in the best-selling Dan ‘Spider’ Shepherd series. Former SAS trooper Shepherd is used to putting his life on the line. Working for an elite undercover squad he has lied, cheated and conned in order to bring Britain’s most wanted criminals to justice.But when a powerful drug baron starts to kill off witnesses to his crimes, Shepherd is given his most dangerous assignment yet. He has to go undercover in a top security prison, a world where one wrong move will mean certain death.As Shepherd gambles everything to move in on his quarry, he soon realises that the man he is hunting is even more dangerous than the police realise. And that he is capable of striking outside the prison walls and hitting Shepherd where it hurts most – his family."
Rated 5 stars average from 13 reviews
Synopsis: "Glasgow, 1946: The last time Douglas Brodie came home it was 1942 and he was a dashing young warrior in a kilt. Now, the war is over but victory’s wine has soured and Brodie’s back in Scotland to try and save childhood friend Hugh Donovan from the gallows. Everyone thought Donovan was dead, shot down in the war. Perhaps it would have been kinder if he had been killed. The man who returned was unrecognizable: mutilated, horribly burned. Donovan keeps his own company, only venturing out for heroin to deaden the pain of his wounds. When a local boy is found raped and murdered, there is only one suspect...
Donovan claims he’s innocent but a mountain of evidence says otherwise. Despite the hideousness of the crime, ex-policeman Brodie feels compelled to try and help his one-time friend. Working with Donovan’s advocate Samantha Campbell, Brodie trawls both the mean streets of the Gorbals and the green hills of western Scotland in their search for the truth. What they find is an unholy alliance of church, police and Glasgow’s deadliest razor gang, happy to slaughter to protect their dark secrets. As time runs out for the condemned man, and the tally of murdered innocents rises, Brodie reverts to his wartime role as a trained killer. It’s them or him…"
Free books:
Rated 3 stars average from 4 reviews
"When the Kings move from L.A. to a secluded small town, fifteen-year-old Xander is beyond disappointed. He and his friends loved to create amateur films . . . but the tiny town of Pinedale is the last place a movie buff and future filmmaker wants to land.
But he, David, and Toria are captivated by the many rooms in the old Victorian fixer-upper they moved into--as well as the heavy woods surrounding the house.
They soon discover there's something odd about the house. Sounds come from the wrong directions. Prints of giant, bare feet appear in the dust. And when David tries to hide in the linen closet, he winds up in locker 119 at his new school.
Then the really weird stuff kicks in: they find a hidden hallway with portals leading off to far-off places--in long-ago times. Xander is starting to wonder if this kind of travel is a teen's dream come true . . . or his worst nightmare."
Rated 5 stars average from 6 reviews
Synopsis: "Two is trapped: hooked on heroin, held as property, forced to sell her body to feed the addiction. Time brings her ever closer to what seems an inevitable death and Two waits, uncaring, longing only for the next fix.
That’s when Theroen arrives, beckoning to his Ferrari and grinning his inscrutable grin. He is handsome. Confident. Eager to help lift her out of the life that’s grinding her down.
The only problem? Theroen is a vampire.
His blood can cure her addiction, grant her powers she has never had, change her forever into something greater than she was. But when he sinks his teeth into her neck, Theroen also thrusts Two into a world of danger, violence, madness and despair. The powerful, twisted elder Abraham will use her arrival to shatter the uneasy peace that exists in his mansion, bringing an end to the dark game he has been playing for centuries."
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Thanks for reading this week's newsletter, see you next week!
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