Amazon Officially Says: No New Kindles This Year

Amazon’s chief spokesman Craig Berman told the New York Times: "I can tell you for sure is that there will be no new version of the Kindle this year. A new version is possible sometime next year at the earliest."

Michael Arrington Calls for Kindle Clones

Michael Arrington urges Amazon to open the Kindle to cloning. He writes: "Very quickly we’d see a wide variety of Kindle devices, all competing on price, features (large and small screens would just be the start) and form factor. Hardware manufacturers, who are all constantly trying to squeeze a tiny bit of margin out of their products, would suddenly have another revenue stream to tap."

Two New Kindles, Bigger: Cheaper, Cooler - Rumor

BusinessWeek is reporting that Amazon will unveil two new Kindles in September and/or October that have larger screens than the original model. One is for students. The other, an upgrade to the current model, will be thinner, cheaper and more stylish and usable. Their source claims that "They’ve jumped from Generation One to Generation Four or Five. It just looks better, and feels better."

UK's Times and Financial Times Now On Kindle

Two of the UK's best newspapers -- The Times and The Financial Times -- are now published on Kindle for $14.99 and $9.99 per month, respectively.

Amazon Kindle: 240,000 Units Sold -- Source

TechCrunch says a well-connected source told them Amazon has sold 240,000 Kindles since launch.

New Kindles Coming In Three Months -- Report

CrunchGear says two new Kindles -- one smaller than the current model but with the same size screen and another bigger in both form factor and screen -- will ship as early as October. The bigger version will be the same dimensions as a standard office-size piece of printer paper -- 8 1/2 by 11.

Best Collection of Kindle Tips Yet!

Some kind blogger at the College Degrees blog posted an amazing roundup of tips, ideas and resources for Kindle. The post is called "Hack Your Kindle: 100+ Tips, Resources, and Tutorials to Get More Out of the Amazon Kindle," and you can find it HERE.

Book Publishers Worried About Rise of Kindle

I read on my Kindle this morning in The New York Times that publishing-industry attendees of the BookExpo America show are "both ENERGIZED AND UNNERVED" at the growing power the Kindle eBook reader gives Amazon.com. One fear is that the rise of the Kindle will let Amazon dictate prices publishers can charge for books.

Kindle Gets 5,000 More Books In Publisher Deal

Amazon announced today that Kindle will get about 5,000 MORE BOOKS from Simon & Shuster. The deal adds titles like Stephen R. Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," according to ZDNet's "Between the Lines" blog. All titles will be online and available by the end of the year.

Amazon Cuts Kindle Price by $40

Amazon has CUT THE PRICE of a Kindle e-Book reader from $399 to $359 and added free, two-day shipping. The company says the lower price relects reduced manufacturing costs because of high volume. Another possibility is that a new version will come out this year and the company wants to reduce inventory.

Kindle Now In Stock For First Time Since Launch

For the first time since it sold out hours after becoming available, the Amazon Kindle is now officially "In Stock" -- you can buy one and get it WITHOUT DELAY.

Baker Makes Kindle You Can Eat!

Someone on the TeamSugar Web site baked a KINDLE CAKE!

Rupert Murdoch Wants to Charge More For WSJ

Media Mogul Rupert Murdoch, who took control of the Wall Street Journal newspaper as part of his company's acquisition of Dow Jones, told Martha Stewart (a huge Kindle fan, apparently) during Murdoch's appearance at Bear Stearns that he believes the subscription price for the Wall Street Journal on Kindle, which is $9.99 per month, is FAR TOO LOW. "We certainly need to charge you more," he told Stewart.

Kindle Has Secret GPS, Minesweeper, and More

Igor Skochinsky published A POST AT THE REVERSE EVERYTHING BLOG that shows how using key combinations, you can bring up secret capabilities, including a location finder, Minesweeper game, picture viewer, reboot command, screenshot grabber, clock, diagnostic modes and much more. Here's a list of the key combinations from Skochinskiy's blog post:

Keyboard shortcuts

Various undocumented/underdocumented keyboard shortcuts. I italicized most interesting ones.

Global keys

Alt-Shift-R reboot Kindle
Alt-Shift-. restart GUI
Alt-Shift-G make screenshot
due to an implementation bug, screenshots can only be stored on SD card, not the main storage. A gif file is saved in the card root.
Shift-Sym start demo
Enabled only if allow_demo=true is passed on the Java commandline. Needs a special demo script present on the SD card.

Home

Alt-Shift-M Minesweeper
Alt-Z rescan picture directories
Alt-T show time

Reader

Alt-B toggle bookmark
Alt-T spell out time
Alt-0 enable/disable slideshow
Alt-1 start slideshow (if enabled)
Alt-2 stop slidehow
Alt-PageForward/PageBackward go to next/prev annotation or one "chunk" (1/20th of a book) forward or backward

Settings

411 show diagnostics data
511 run loopback call test
611 diagnostic data service call
c/e/s
126 Lab126 team members

Font List

J show/hide justification options

Picture viewer

Alt-Shift-0 set current picture as screensaver
F toggle fullscreen mode

Minesweeper

I,J,K,L up,left,down,right
M mark mine
R restart
Space open cell
Scroll move cursor up/down
Alt-Scroll move cursor left/right
H return to Home screen

Text input

Alt-Backspace clear all
Alt-H/Alt-J move cursor
(the following don't work in search field for some reason)
Alt-6 ?
Alt-7 ,
Alt-8 :
Alt-9 "
Alt-0 '

Browser

It seems there is a location capability (GPS?) in the CDMA module. I cannot check it as I'm not in USA but the following shortcuts are programmed inside the browser.
Alt-1 show current location in google maps
Alt-2 find gas station nearby
Alt-3 find restaurants nearby
Alt-4
Alt-5 find custom keyword nearby
Alt-D dump debug info to the log and toggle highlight default item
Alt-Z toggle zone drawing and show log

Audio Player

Alt-F next
Alt-P play/stop

Search commands

These command work in the search field. You can enter only beginning of the command if that's enough for it to be unique.

Public commands (always available)


@help
@web
@wiki/@wikipedia
@store
@time


Semiprivate (available but not mentioned in @help)


;dumpMessages dump current debug log into the "documents" directory
;debugOn set log level=2 and enable private commands
;debugOff set log level=1 and disable private commands


Private commands
Note: following commands are clearly not intended for end users. Some of them may damage your Kindle and void your warranty. Enter at your own risk.


`help list private commands
`7777 set version to TOPmk-xyz-77770 (to disable OTA updates?)
`voltLog <1|0> enable/disable voltage table debug
`batteryLoggingDelay set battery logging delay (in seconds)
`pppStop close WAN PPP connection
`disableIndexing
`logOpenFiles
`startIndexing
`dumpBattery
`indexStatus
`compliance
`einkAdjustments
`allocate [MB]
`log611
`reloadContentRoster
`indexForever
`downloadIndex
`consumeMemory
`terminal
`checkForUpdate
`applyUpdate
`stopIndexing
`processNowNow
`processTodo
`countUnmergedDownloadedIndexes
`dumpIndexStats
`memInfo

Library to Loan Kindles

The Sparta Public Library in Sparta, New Jersey, has purchased two Amazon Kindles for LOANING TO PATRONS. Trouble is, they immediately got 22 people who want to reserve them. The lending period will be one week. Here's the cool part: Each patron who borrows it gets to buy one book from Amazon, and the library will pay for it. So the number of books available on the library Kindles will increase by one each time someone borrows it. (props to blog kindle)

Kindle Rises to #2 On Amazon Bestsellers List

Amazon's own Kindle has actually been rising in the past week on Amazon's "Bestsellers in Electronics" list, and is now #2 ON THE LIST -- just after Apple's silver 4GB iPod nano. The reason this is surprising is that Kindle cannot be received in time for Christmas -- a fact Amazon is very clear about -- while all other products on the list can. Its position does not mean Kindle is actually beating out other gadgets in overall sales. Because most or all other devices on the top-25 list are available from many other online and retail stores -- and Kindle is available only at the Amazon site -- it's not an apples-to-apples comparison, so to speak. Kindle's actual sales remains a tightly held secret.

Kindle: A PR Revolution?

Marketing blogger Rohit Bhargava gives FOUR REASONS why the Kindle may be "bringing a PR revolution." The Kindle 1) makes RSS a necessity; 2) finally integrates the reading experience; 3) puts a premium on real time information; and 4) takes advantage of Amazon's Library.

Kindle Available On eBay for Over $1,000

Scarcity jacks prices, and with the Kindle sold out from its one and only legitimate retail source -- Amazon.com -- entrepreneurs are offering Kindles for MORE THAN $1,000.

Got a Kindle? Here's an Alternative Start Page

I created an alternative "Start" page, with links both to Kindle-friendly online resources and to columns I've written on the device. This START PAGE is designed to be used from a Kindle.

Emerging Truth About Kindle: It's Great In Real Life

Two devices this year (Apple iPhone and Amazon Kindle) share a rare quality: No matter what you read, the experience of using one MAKES YOU WANT ONE. Chicago Tribune Tech Buzz writer Eric Benderoff explores the phenomenon.

Check Network Coverage Before Buying a Kindle

Gizmodo warns that would-be Kindle owners should first CHECK NETWORK COVERAGE before ordering that Kindle. There are many areas of the country where service just isn't available. (Kindle kudos to Gizmodo)

The 'Kindle' Stacks Up Very Nicely, Thank You

In the six months reporter Etan Horowitz been writing a personal-technology column, only two devices he's brought into the office have "caused his colleagues to crowd around in excitement": THE iPHONE AND THE KINDLE.

Amazon Kindle Does E-Mail, RSS, Calendaring

Don't tell Amazon, but its new Kindle e-book reader does e-mail, RSS feeds and calendaring. I've discovered that the applications Google designed for cell phones -- the mobile versions of Gmail, Reader and Calendar -- actually work on the Kindle. They're clunky, funky and slow. But if your laptop dies during a business trip -- or if the Kindle is the only device you happen to be carrying, it's great to be able to do this stuff. HERE'S HOW TO E-MAIL, RSS FEEDS AND CALENDARING ON A KINDLE.

Why Amazon Kindle is Better Than a Newspaper

I've been using a Kindle now for a few days, and reading my subscription to The New York Times. Reading a Kindle-based newspaper is superior -- far superior, actually -- to reading a paper newspaper. So even if you don't care about saving the newspaper industry -- even if you hate the environment -- buy a Kindle anyway for purely selfish reasons. HERE'S WHY THE KINDLE IS BETTER THAN A NEWSPAPER.

Your Favorite Blog Looks Great On Amazon Kindle

My Kindle arrived yesterday. Check out The Raw Feed on the Kindle's built-in "Basic Web" browser. It WORKS GREAT, as do all blogs I've tried! Another great option for blogs on Kindle is to use the Mobile version of Google Reader, which is Google's online RSS feed reader. I've tried this on the Kindle as well. It's clunky but functional.

No Longer Possible to Buy Kindle Before Christmas

Amazon is still pushing Kindle hard on its home page, but warns: "Your Kindle WILL NOT ARRIVE BY DECEMBER 25TH." (Mine shipped yesterday and is current in Memphis scheduled to arrive Wednesday.)

First-Ever Amazon Kindle Tear-Down Posted

The Amazon Kindle e-book reader is the hottest gift this holiday season. RapidRepair has done a teardown to show WHAT'S INSIDE.

Why Kindle Is Great for 'Extreme Telecommuters'

Amazon.com's Kindle is a Godsend for "extreme telecommuters" (people who telecommute from somewhere other than their own home -- like from a beach in Florida). Why? Well, besides being able to carry a thousand books and a three-foot high stack of newspapers in a device that weighs under 11 ounces, it also lets you SURF THE WEB AND DO GMAIL and other common tasks in places where a laptop is too much computer, and a cell phone isn't enough. (It's also nice to have your morning paper delivered to you, rather than your house.)

Surprising Facts About Amazon's Kindle E-book

Last April, I wrote a column titled, "Why e-books are bound to fail." Amazon's new Kindle e-book has proved me wrong. The Kindle is a game-changing revolution in buying, reading, managing and using electronic books and other content. It's also the hottest holiday gift you can buy this year for anyone who loves to read. In this column, I tell why it's such a great product, and also list some very SURPRISING FACTS ABOUT AMAZON'S KINDLE.