Amazon is coming for literally everything in your home. Your books, home security, entertainment systems, car — even how you sleep — can all be connected, and Amazon wants to be that connection. The slew of new Amazon hardware and software features they announced this week shows they’re impressively close, and we are slightly overwhelmed just thinking about it all!
Do you remember the Kindle DX that came out in 2009? I had one of those, and while I loved the larger, 9.7″ display, having the physical keyboard at the bottom made for a very oversized reading device. I bring up the Kindle DX because after it was discontinued, there were no large-screen Kindle options available. Anyone who wanted a Kindle with a larger display had to buy an iPad or Android tablet just to run the Kindle app. But now, we have the 10.2″ Amazon Kindle Scribe, the first Kindle for reading and writing.
A good eReader is hard to find, and if you’re in the market for one that isn’t an Amazon Kindle, one that will give you more flexibility in the books you decide to read, you should check out the Kobo Forma.
Kindle Unlimited is an amazing service. But the dark underbelly is that for every fantastic book, there’s some that make you wonder…how did this get written? I’m a sucker for time travel stories, and I have a high tolerance for bad science fiction, so I’ve read terrible books; as a service to the world, I’m going to start reviewing them.
This is a public service announcement for anyone considering buying a Kindle: be sure to get the extended warranty. Why? Because Amazon doesn’t repair them (at all) when they break; the best option you will get (after a bit of haggling) is $20 off a new one. You’ve been warned.
Today only, Amazon’s Gold Box deal of the day has the download version of 27 popular language courses by Rosetta Stone for $198.99.
When I reviewed Inbetween Land for iPad more than two years ago, I echoed sentiments from the Mac review-it was a game I liked but did not love, a fun experience that didn’t match the quality of other G5 releases. But it is still a solid and fun game, and this week it is FREE on all platforms!
Amazon really wants to capture the family media market. They’ve already pushed the Kindle Fire as a great kid-friendly tablet, and now they’re selling a similar bundle using the entry-level Kindle. When you look at the whole package though, it’s great for more than just kids-anyone interested in a Kindle should look at the Kindle for Kids bundle!
A few weeks ago I was reminiscing about my favorite science fiction book from my childhood. It was an anthology of short stories, and some intense Googling determined it was out of print. My search led me to the local library, and after poking around for just a few minutes, I cancelled my Kindle Unlimited subscription.
Amazon announced a big Kindle update today, but the biggest new feature is probably Family Library! Basically, you can now link your household Amazon accounts (and Kindle libraries) together for sharing. This is great news for my house, where Sarah and I have each had Kindle libraries and have physically swapped devices to share books! Check out all the details on Amazon.
When the Amazon Kindle Fire HD Kids Edition Tablet was announced, I was intrigued by the “Everything Kids love. Everything Parents Want.” tagline, and I immediately preordered. These 6″ and 7″ HD Fire tablets come with a 2-Year Guarantee, a kid-proof protective case, and the setup seemed perfect for a child’s first tablet. After fiddling with one, I’m not convinced.
Last year I reviewed the iOS and Mac versions of Red Crow Mysteries: Legion and found it managed to wrap together solid adventure game elements and a story worth following. More than a few hours of gameplay, plenty of content, varied locations, a great story, and a fun adventure. And now it is FREE … grab it now!
Somewhere between Apple’s and Samsung’s last quarterly earnings reports, Dan’s review of the Galaxy S5, Dan & Judie’s Sony Xperia X2s, the Ultra, discussions with friends about a variety of tablets we’ve all used, along with the statement by the Best Buy CEO that ‘tablet sales are crashing’ something occurred to me – we’ve been here before — with Windows CE.
“Kindle Unlimited” has a nice ring to it. That’s probably why Amazon uses that name, and not, say, “Kindle 10-at-a-time”, which is the more accurate assessment of the service. If you plan to load up before a vacation, bear in mind you’re capped at 10 books before you have to “return” one!
Amazon is reportedly testing a new offering named Kindle Unlimited according to a series of images posted on their site which have since been removed. For $9.99 per month, Kindle users could have access to over 600,000 Kindle eBook titles and thousands of audiobooks. It’s not yet known exactly which publishers would be included or which audio titles will appear.
A coworker came to me recently for advice about buying a tablet for his family, one that he and his wife could use and share with his toddler. Specifically, he wanted a way to create timed parental controls, and he wanted to make sure he was right in believing the Kindle Fire was a better fit than the iPad.
It’s no secret that “Amazon” is a dirty word among independent booksellers. They’ve fought against carrying Amazon-published books, railed against Kindles, and fought Amazon’s no-internet-sales-tax stance. But Amazon really wants to win over the indie booksellers, so they’ve rolled out Amazon Source, an affiliate Kindle program for indie booksellers. Because when someone hates you, they’ll totally sell your competing product…
I usually read books on a dedicated eBook reader, typically my Kindle Paperwhite. But lately I’ve done a fair amount of eBook reading via the Kindle app on my Lumia 928, and I’ve discovered an unusual bug. At random intervals the formatting will become wonky, cutting off sentences during page turns, and requiring an orientation swap to fix it.
It feels like after the initial excitement of eBook readers and eBooks taking off, the market had leveled off. There’s still book growth, but as tablets overtook dedicated readers, and Amazon settled happily into the number one spot, the improvements slowed precipitously. But now that Barnes and Noble is showing a new willingness to enter the market, it looks like the signs of innovation are back!
Nate over at The Digital Reader had a post about installing Google apps on the new Kindle Fire HDX. Since I use GMail and other Google stuff and have the new Kindle Fire HDX, I figured ‘why not’. Turns out there is a basic reason – not all services work correctly and there are no notifications. As a result, my only recommendation is ‘just say no’. The method to installing everything comes in four steps: • Google Account Manager • Google Play Services • Google Service Framework • Gmail You add one, reboot the Fire the install the next, and…
To celebrate Halloween, G5 is having a sale on three scary Kindle Fire games from now through November 2nd. The games are Magician’s Handbook: Cursed Valley, Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart, and Lost Souls: Enchanted Paintings. All three are fun and engaging hidden-object games, and you can get each of them for only $0.99 right now!