Amazon to Charge by Megabyte for Personal Docs

You knew it was too good to last and the abundance of tools that let you get all your RSS feeds downloaded to your Kindle via Whispernet, essentially at no charge, has apparently forced a change. Although Amazon has always said they would charge a dime a download (essentially $3/month for a daily newspaper feed, for those using this type of service), they have yet to have charged anyone at all. Today, however, they have announced that not only will they start charging these fees (on May 4), but that they have increased the charge to 15 cents per megabyte, rounded up to the nearest megabyte (so a fifty percent increase in the lowest charge). Looks like those two newspapers a day I was reading thru Calibre (plus a weekly and monthly) would cost me about $14.25 a month (at the current average file sizes). Time to turn off the automatic downloads and start using the USB cable instead. Now more than ever, I wish the Kindle had wireless or bluetooth support, so transferring files at home were easier to accomplish (the USB connection on my computer is on the rear, back and in the floor).

On the positive side, free document conversion is still an option (I wish I could set up multiple email addresses for this, since we have four Kindles on one account, but it is manageable) and RTF and DOCX support is being added.

B1G1F Game Downloads

It's the last week of Amazon's Buy One, Get One Free Sale on Game Downloads and the focus is on shooter games.

Just as in last week's sale, there seem to be some recurring themes. Interestingly enough, shooting chickens seems to be very popular (perhaps a reaction to the glut of farming titles previously), with Chicken Rush Deluxe and Chicken Invaders 3 Christmas Edition in the top two slots (zombies didn't even make the top five), as well as a couple of bargain priced titles (Chicken Invaders 3 (Revenge of the Yolk) and Chicken Invaders 2).

Several of the titles look like repackaged Asteroid games (which you can play free online at many sites, including here), but with better graphics and more options/weapons. Then again, there is a reason this title was a classic and is still played today. One cute looking title for kids, that doesn't fit into the same themes as the others is Feelers, where you are attempting to rescue your (ant?) colony's captured queen.

Don't forget to go back and get your free title. You should have received an email with the link, but if not, check these links for the eligible titles:
Puzzle games (4/5/09 to 4/11/09)
Action games (4/12/09 to 4/18/09)
Simulation games (4/19/09 to 4/25/09)

BTW, I found a way that those you with the WII game system can save even more. Amazon has a promotion running where if you buy any WII product (such as Samba De Amigo ($9.97) or today's game deal of We Ski ($14.98) and including the WII game console itself or a Wii Points Card to use for online WII games), you get a $5 credit towards a game download. Mine took about two days to show up, so there should be time to get in an order and have the credit by the weekend. Spend those two days trying out the samples and you should know which ones you want to order when the credit shows up. That means you get two game downloads for a maximum of $4.99 ($1.99 if both are $6.99).

Book Review: The Noticer by Andy Andrews

Are you a puppy dog, a cat, a canary or a goldfish? This is just one of the introspective questions you may find yourself asking as you read Andy Andrews' The Noticer: Sometimes, all a person needs is a little perspective (Hardcover $12.23; Kindle $9.99; Audio CD $15.63).

In The Noticer, Andrews, bestselling author of The Traveler's Gift (Paperback $10.19; Kindle $9.99), tells the (purported) true story of how he discovered the seven principals revealed in his earlier books. Broke, lonely and homeless, depressed and feeling hopeless, he is approached by an itinerant philosopher named Jones ("not Mr. Jones ... just Jones"), who describes himself as "a noticer" and who advises him that all his problems are simply a matter of perspective. Starting with a request to "move into the light," advice that he ask himself each day what things about himself other would want him to change and a crash course in biographies of individuals who had risen above their humble beginnings and gone on to do great things, he gradually sees his life change, developing his seven principals, getting married, having children and building his career as an author and inspirational speaker.

Twenty five years later, Jones is back in town and changing the lives of many others. All have different problems and yet have the same problem, according to Jones: a lack of perspective. Jones turns up at a critical moment in each person's life, knows their name and most secret problems and deals out advice that saves the day. A marriage on the rocks is saved by a realization that the two have different ideas on how love is expressed (puppies and goldfish can co-exist, but they need to learn new dialects of love in order to speak to each other). Teens just exploring dating get advice on how to find someone they might want to spend the rest of their life with (and why they should be thinking about that and not just dating those they are attracted to with no thoughts of the futures).

Whether the person he speaks to is suicidal, settling in to mark time until death, doing just enough to get buy and cheating those around them, Jones (or Garcia or Chen, depending on who he talks to) is able to show them how to change their perspective in order to find a purpose or direction for the rest of their lives.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and it's a quick, light read (embracing it's lessons and changing your life would be the difficult and lengthy part). However, having the main protaganist shift racial features as you concentrate on different ethnic names, keeping the same physical appearance not just for the 25 year span of the book, but also for the lifetimes of several older characters, as well as being both omniscent and able to disappear into thin air simply doesn't jive with the claim of a true story at the end of the first chapter. Unless perhaps the author has a slightly warped perception of reality, one not shared with most others on the planet (at least the more sober and sane ones). It also doesn't add to the story, as a nice parable and story of a messenger of god is colored by the claim. I'd recommend the book, but also that you skip pages 19 and 20 when you do (it's easy enough to forget that the author's name is the same as that of the main narrator, as it is both seldom used and he isn't present for a large part of the story,which truly is about Jones and the lessons he imparts to those whose lives he touches).

B1G1F Game Downloads

This week Amazon's Buy One, Get One Free Sale on Game Downloads is all about simulation games. Both Build-a-lot and Airport Mania: First Flight are included in the sale this time, for those that missed previous offers on them. I've played Airport Mania quite a bit and will keep at it until I get all the gold stars on all the levels.

Several themes are repeated amongst the games, so you might want to try them a day or two before deciding which to get (remember, all game downloads can be tried for free for 14 days, but the sale ends at the end of the week). There are two coffee bar games (Coffee Rush & Coffee Tycoon) and one where you run a beer bar (Betty's Beer Bar), several reality show games (The Apprentice: Los Angeles, My Tribe, Top Chef and Hell's Kitchen), cooking games (Cake Mania 2, Cake Mania 3, Cooking Academy 2: World Cuisine, Hot Dish 2 and Vanilla and Chocolate, amongst others) and more. Surprisingly, at least to me, one of the biggest categories is farm and garden simulators. On the first page alone, I found Farm Mania (includes virtual beekeeping, not only easier on the back and with less stings, but a good lesson in how our food chain is all connected), Farm Frenzy: Pizza Party (raise all the crops needed in order to make a pizza), Youda Farmer (try to run a financially successful farm), Farm Craft (run a small farm and fight off corporate agriculture), Orchard (grow the fruit, make juice and bake pies) and Sunshine Acres (take those seeds from planting to harvest to market).

There are a few traditional puzzle/quest type games as well as life skills simulators (raise a puppy, kitten or baby, for example). In other words, there should be something in there for everyone. And at $5 or less for each game on the sale (the most expensive games are $9.99, others are $6.99), it's one of the best dollar per hour values in entertainment around and provides a break from reading now and then.

Free Short Story: Cherry Cottage

Download a free copy (PDF) of Cherry Cottage by Leah Braemel courtesy of Samhellion.