First Free Ebook for Kindle 2

The Cook's Illustrated How-to-Cook Library: An illustrated step-by-step guide to Foolproof Cooking (Kindle Edition) You can, of course, still read it on the Kindle 1, but this one won't be available until the Kindle ships on February 24th (just like Stephen King's UR, exclusive for the Kindle).

Product Description:

This very special Kindle collection covers all the culinary ground, from barbecue, grilling, garden vegetables, holiday roasts, potatoes, soups, stews, stir-fries, pasta sauces, pizza, appetizers, salads, shrimp and shellfish, to pies, layer cakes, cookies and brownies, holiday desserts, ice cream, simple fruit desserts, and lots more. It's all you really need in the kitchen and it all sits nice and handy on a Kindle as well. Now your own definitive recipe collection is portable and easy to access, the perfect helper in the kitchen.

Kindle 2 Is Here!

Kindle 2: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device (Latest Generation) has been released! Any Kindle 1 owner will be given first priority in the purchase queue, if their order is in before midnight Feb 10! Anyone waiting on a Kindle 1 will automatically get a Kindle 2, no need to change your order (and no choice about it, either).

The Leather Cover is now sold separately ($29.99), so the new Kindle is effectively $30 more than the Kindle 1. A 2-Year Extended Warranty for Kindle 2 is also available and is a bargain compared to the replacement cost if the Kindle breaks due to your own actions (such as by dropping it, drowning it or running over it with your car).

Lots of new accessories are available, including Cole Haan and Patagonia covers and GelaSkins Protective Skins.

Text to speech capability - the new Kindle can read to you (an experimental feature, which means that it may be buggy and could be taken away), letting you switch back and forth between reading and an audiobook (of sorts), depending on your environment.

Longer battery life this time (25% longer: up to 4 days with wireless on or 2 weeks with it off), seven times the internal storage (approximately 1.4GB available, holds over 1,500 books), but no sign of a replaceable battery or SD card support (so far), with 20% faster page turning than the previous generation, sixteen shades of grey (for better image display) and the new Kindle 2 is thinner than the Apple iPhone (0.36" vs. 0.48")! Page turning "buttons" now are inward flexing, rather than large mechanical buttons and the silver menu bar has been replaced by a "five-way" controller (allowing you to select/highlight by word and look up only one word in the dictionary, rather than an entire line). On/off and Whispernet buttons are now located on the top edge, while speakers remain on the lower back of the unit.

Same Sprint Whispernet (now WhisperSync), no wireless hotspots needed or supported, although this is only an issue for those outside the Sprint network (see new map), coverage for WhisperSync now extends to ALL FIFTY STATES!!!

Book selection, of course, continues to increase. Currently with over 230,000 books, including 103 of 110 books currently found on the New York Times® Best Seller list. New York Times Best Sellers and most new releases are still $9.99 (although there are many for less and quite a few, especially non-fiction and technical books, for more). Exclusive to the Kindle is UR by Stephen King, which will release in tandem with the Kindle 2 (now available to pre-order and can be read on your Kindle 1). Also now available is The New Yorker magazine.

Free Ebook on Kindle: Harlequin 16

The links are now starting to be live for the sixteen freebies from Harlequin. As far as I've been able to tell, these are the only Mobi formatted editions (so far), although you can get the PDF's from Harlequin and convert those to any format. Enjoy!

The entire list is now available:

Once A Cowboy
Slow Hands
Homespun Bride
Baby Bonanza
Speed Dating
Stranded With A Spy
The Bride's Baby
Crime Scene at Cardwell Ranch
Hide in Plain Sight
Kiss Me Deadly
His Lady Mistress
Price of Passion
Irresistible Forces
Dancing In The Moonlight
A Very Special Delivery
Snowbound

Remember, you can purchase these (for zero dollars), even if you are still waiting for your shiny new Kindle 2 (as long as you purchased it on your Amazon account and didn't mark it as a gift). They'll download to your Kindle automatically once you turn it on the first time.

Three Free Game Downloads

Amazon has launched their new Game Downloads store and to celebrate they are offering three free games between February 3, 2009 and February 10, 2009.

Build-a-lot
	Send the housing market through the roof as you build, buy, and sell houses in the new strategy game, Build-a-lot. You can flip houses for quick cash or sit back and watch the rental income pile up. Become a real estate mogul as you visit scenic towns, earn huge profits and perform special favors for the colorful local mayors. Can you build a new cinema for the local movie star? Install a bowling alley in the Mayor's Mansion?
Jewel Quest II
	In Jewel Quest II, join Professor Pack on the ultimate jewel matching quest across the world's richest continent. Rearrange precious relics to turn tiles into gold as you advance through relentlessly challenging puzzles. The wilds of the safari, the history of the Zimbabwe ruins and the majesty of Victoria Falls await your discovery as you play through 180 impressive levels.
The Scruffs
	The Scruffs need your help to save their beloved family home from being sold. Grandpa Scruff has a solution - a scavenger hunt to recover his valuable artifacts. But in a surprising twist, Grandpa Scruff reveals that he's been hiding something else - a shocking family secret! Help the Scruffs uncover the secret that will change their lives forever by finding lost items and putting together the clues they need. The Scruffs - laugh at their witty family banter and fall in love with their charm.

16 Free ebooks from Harlequin

The sixteen books Harlequin promised are now available to download, but no Mobipocket (Kindle) version. When the web page first came up, the Mobi/PRC files were there for download, but it turned out that they were DRM-enabled versions and since this was a special web site set up just for the free books, Mobipocket Reader was unable to authenticate them. They also would not work on the Kindle, since the Kindle doesn't support DRM'd mobi files.

All is not lost, however. You can download the PDF version and just email them to your Kindle or use the free MobiPocket Creator Publisher program to convert them yourself, which gives you much greater control over how the books look in the Kindle homepage. Emailed PDF's, for example, always show your email address as author and have the PDF file name as the name of the book. With MobiPocket Creator, you can specify the book title, the author (last name first, so sorting works correctly) and even set up a cover page. Once you've created the book (a two click process), you can then copy the PRC file to your Kindle using the USB cable or email it to the Kindle - since it's already in the PRC format, all Amazon does is rename the file and add an AZW extension; the book title and author name will use what you specified in Creator.

And by the way - if you find the tedious FLASH based order page they set up to be so much trouble it isn't worth it, even for free books, try this link instead. All sixteen books in one place, all with links for every format available. I'd download them soon, although the rumor is that these books will remain free for the rest of the year. One final rumor - these same books will appear soon in the Sony store as free downloads (this is confirmed if you buy the Valentines's Day special edition of the Sony Reader, which also comes with several 20% off coupons for more Harlequin titles in their store) and will also appear soon in the Kindle store.