The Kindle Chronicles

News – Eric Engleman of TechFlash reports that Amazon’s no-numbers announcements of record Kindle sales are getting on Wall Street’s nerves. One of his sources is this item from Reuters.

Tech Tip – It’s New Year’s Eve. Do you know the IP Address of your Kindle? Thanks to Kevin Warner, I learn how to find it.

Tom

Interview – Darlene and her sister Deborah talk about how they share Kindle books using the same Amazon account. Separately, I talk with Tom, the third Kindle buddy sharing Darlene’s account. He lets us know that a Mighty Bright XtraFlex2 may not necessarily meet with your bed partner’s approval.

Content – On listener Allen MacDiarmid’s recommendation, I spent $4 to purchase Why Is This Hill So Steep?, a very promising analysis of the history (so far) of eBooks, by Steve Jordan.

Comments – Greg Montague on a new game for the Kindle via the 2.3 update, Kevin Warner’s Whispernet troubles in western Australia, Patrick Scott’s link to “And the word was KINDLE,” an excellent profile of the Kindle in FLYP featuring a video interview with Jeff Bezos, Jonathan Bloom on DTP, Jim Jones on the difference between the story and the book, Kathy on why she bought nooks instead of Kindles for her sons, and David DeMorest on why he sent his nook back unopened and kept the Kindle.

Next week – Darlene and I will be in Las Vegas to cover the International Consumer Electronics Show, checking out all the would-be Kindle Killers. Stay tuned!

News – The Kindle iPhone and iPod Touch app 1.3 now works in 60 countries. Via the New York Times, Stephen Covey — not Stephen King — makes the e-deal heard round the publishing world. Anne Rice wonders if it’s a good idea. The nook is rooted, the nook is rooted! Audio interview with Robbie Trencheny, the California high school student who started NookDevs. Click here to follow him on Twitter. Mr. and Mrs. GeekTonic post their must-read reviews of the nook.

Tech Tip – Len’s 2Doo list 2.o, with help from Larry Goss. Also, your host proves to be a dim bulb in the mysterious matter of a Mighty Bright clip-on light that wasn’t getting the nightime job done.

Interview – Eric Engleman, senior tech writer at TechFlash, pretty much covers just one company – Amazon. That gives him a lot of time for hard work the development of good sources, which gives him unusual insight into what’s ahead for the Kindle and its competitors. We spoke by Skype/landline on December 15, 2009.

Content – Via Bufo Calvin’s blog, I learn that Barnes & Noble’s Fictionwise has a Kindle store!

Comments – Esmerald deTrafford’s downloading woes down under, Bruce Bouchard on Babylon Dictionary software, Vern Elmore on eBeam, Ted Inoue on Kindle version 2.3 fonts (click here for the one I use for darker, larger font on my Kindle-US), Craig Findlay’s net additional cost to upgrade from a Sony PRS505 to a Kindle International is 20 pounds thanks to eBay, Alex Bowman looks forward to the next meetup, Craig Scarberry on Cory Doctorow, Al MacDiarmid’s very bad time updating to 2.3, Peggy Poellot speaking up on behalf of the original Kindle, Blair Savin’s sunlight 2.3 problem, and Richard Fischer on the Magic Catalog of Project Gutenberg.

Next Week: Will TKC staff succeed in their (her, actually) reasonable request for one week off a year? Stay tuned….

News – 1) Inkmesh analyzes 11,604 eBook titles and finds that Amazon is the clear winner in lowest prices, with Barnes & Noble a distant second and Sony “doesn’t even seem to be trying.” 2) no nook yet – my nice email from William Lynch, president of Barnes&Noble.com . 3) Amazon reports that November was the best ever for Kindle sales. Sandeep Aggarwal of Collins Stewart comes up with a weirdly low estimate for total Kindle 2009 – 500,000. Sarah Rotman Epps is a lot closer to reality, I’d wager, at 1.8 million Kindle sales in ’09. 4) A fun David Pogue video on eBooks and a more substantive comparison of leading eReaders by his paper.

Tech Tip – Bruce Bouchard helps me find an old French dictionary and a Spanish-English dictionary as well as a 1913 Webster’s Unabridged and a very big Collaborative International Dictionary of English, courtesy of the MobileRead forum. These can all be made your primary Kindle dictionary. Another one I liked enough to pay money for: the Merriam-Webster French to English Translation Dictionary. My dream English dictionary is not yet available for Kindle, but one day…

Interview (Begins at 17:00) – In a telephone interview on November 29, 2009, Forrester Research’s eBook/eReader sage, Sarah Rotman Epps, talks about what’s ahead for the Kindle, the Nook, the looming Apple tablet, and much else. Additional coverage of Sarah’s forecasts here.

Content – Opening this court file on my Kindle and DX in PDF and converted-to-Kindle formats.

Comments – Ann Miner’s link to Seattle Channel interview by Nancy Pearl with Paul Collins that wandered into a Kindle discussion at about 22 minutes (iTunes podcast link); Craig Scarberry’s recommendation of the excellent Books on the Nightstand podcast; Jean Remple on OCTO covers (more on covers here and here); Ann Miner with a good idea for Amazon; Marcy MacKenzie on a meetup with Bob Cope; an Amazon PR spokesman confirms the Facebook post stating that “a better way to organize your Kindle libraries” is coming; Jim Jones links to the Cushing Academy of Canada-Sony Reader style; Tom Lichty links to a charming coming-of-Kindle-age column by Margie Boulé in The Oregonian; Kevin Warner, a new Kindle owner from Down Under; Len Charnoff’s tutorial video on Inkmesh; audio comments from Pastor Mark Pierce of Church Requel and Bob Lee.

Next Week – Let’s try this again: Brent Evans of GeekTonic is scheduled to join me for first impressions of our yet-to-be shipped nooks (here’s hoping!).