News – A brief interview with Ian Freed, Amazon’s Kindle VP, on G-Day, October 7, when news broke of the Kindle’s global availability–in more than 100 countries, and an immediate $40 price cut on the Kindle 2, to $259. I heard about it first from Andrys Basten. The new Kindle International edition ($279) will begin shipping on October 19, and you can preorder now. Also, a Forbes.com article proclaims “The Coming e-Book Boom.”
Tech Tip – Opportunities and frustrations with your My Clippings file.
Interview – Becca Smith of Oberon Design in Santa Rosa, California, tells the how the Kindle has helped an artful leather- and pewter-working studio continue to thrive with the creation of classic Kindle covers. She also offers intriguing insights into Kindle owners and how they differ from users of other eReaders. Also, a contest in which you can win an Oberon cover.
Content – Stephen Windwalker dons his wizard’s hat to look deeply into recent search info at Amazon.com. What he finds is a virtual ton of new, free public-domain books added to the Kindle Store.
Comments – Robi Drell, Esmeralda de Trafford, Pastor Mark Pierce, Rick Askenase, Jesslyn Hendrix with a “regular user’s” take on the Kindle International and Amazon’s cool “Kindle Love” sweepstakes contest, Dorian Nisinson, Werner Aguilar, Daniel Meyers with a link to Robin Young’s “Here and Now” interview with Dr. James Tracy, Peggy Poellot with first-hand evidence that Amazon is now doing it right when it discovers a book with copyright problems, Candy Yates, Len Charnoff, Marcy McKenzie, and an audio comment from Tom Lichty of Portland, Oregon.
Next Week’s Interview: Stefaan Van Gerven, product manager-embedded speech at Nuance Communications, which makes the Text to Speech system for the Kindle.
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Comments 4
Thanks Len for asking Ian Freed about the release of the Kindle in Canada. That was great – direct to the VP of Amazon. I wonder how many inquiries they have gotten from Canada?
It is indeed with much anticipation we await the Kindle! I suspect that the Kindle is facing the same barriers as Apple did with the iPhone – wireless service providers and their costs for data are high!
Posted 10 Oct 2009 at 3:33 am ¶Great episode. Thanks so much!
Posted 11 Oct 2009 at 6:11 pm ¶I’ve been aware of the Oberon Kindle covers since February, and have looked at them online many times. Something about them really looked ‘familiar’ to me, and I couldn’t put my finger on it. Then I got out the black business card folder that I bought at a shop in Taos, NM back in about 1996. Stamped on the inside: ‘Oberon’. I use that little thing for my credit card and drivers’ license, and it is wearing brilliantly. I’d buy a *plain* Oberon Kindle cover in a minute; also like the Ginkgo design, but am hesitant about the colors. When the right design/color combination for me becomes available, I will be quite doomed. The Oberon objects are substantial leather, extremely well-built, and only get better the more they are held.
Posted 12 Oct 2009 at 10:07 am ¶Does anyone have a link to cruelty-free (non-leather) Kindle covers? I saw one a few months ago but didn’t order it at the time, and now I cannot find it anymore.
Posted 16 Oct 2009 at 10:01 am ¶Trackbacks & Pingbacks 1
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