Game Deal of the Day - Kona's Crate

Kona's Crate ($2.49), by indiePub, is today's Video Game Deal of the Day at Amazon. Looks like a simple enough concept - all you have to do is deliver a wooden crate to the Chief! Without breaking it, of course, which is the hard part. The crate sits on a little jet-powered platform and you maneuver through the obstacles, all while not smashing the crate into a wall or dropping it (unless you quickly catch it again). Even if you don't get the game, go over to Amazon's website and watch the second video attached to it, Kona's Crate Video, as it's just hilarious; I want one of those iPad like tablets that he uses to play this game, as it is PC only, at least in this version (but I searched the Android App Store and found a lite -- and free -- version for my phone).

I'm downloading the trial for game now, but have one concern - it says there is a "One-Time Delivery Charge" in the description, but other than the cost of buying it from Amazon, I don't see any type of pricing info (perhaps they just want you to know there is not any month fee to play it? or maybe it just refers to how the game plays on each level?). There also seems to be some discrepancy between the number of campaigns and levels, in the two sections that describe the game at Amazon.

I've played thru several levels, using the free trial (and on novice, at any rate, you can let the crate fall a long ways and bounce to the chief and still get credit) and there is no mention of a "delivery charge". The best part - laughing at how badly I am driving the little platform and still managing to deliver the crate. I still have more than 20 minutes on the trial, so will play it again a bit later today, before deciding to buy (but, decide today, as the price goes back up at Midnight in Seattle).

Game Description

• 4 Campaigns, 80 Levels
• Engaging Physics-Based Gameplay
• Beat The Best - See how you stack up on OpenFeint driven leaderboards
• Challenge your friends - post your best times to Facebook and Twitter

One-Time Delivery Charge
The task is easy: transfer a crate of unknown contents to Chief Kona before he becomes angry. Using a jet-powered platform as your vehicle, deliver the crate before it's destroyed. Much harder to control than your average box, use your stellar maneuvering skills to thrust the crate through a maze of destructive elements. Adjust the gas of the platform with a sensitive touch as this crate is much more antsy than you think. But beware, the Chief can become mighty spiteful and will withhold the contents of the crate from you if you do not complete his task in a timely manner.

Blocked, Blasted and Banned
It begins as a simple mission but progresses into a challenging assignment. Maneuvering through 85 plus levels in a variety of graphically rich locations might seem easy, but floating blocks, steam geysers and TNT will block your path. Squeeze through the chief's twisting hallways and turn sharp corners at blinding speeds using your reflexes to earn time and skill-based awards along the way without upsetting the Chief – the most destructive force of all.

• 5 campaigns featuring 85+ levels with additional campaigns, levels and other goodies coming soon
• Continues support with free content updates
• HD-Quality graphics
• Engaging physic-based gameplay
• Easy to pickup controls
• Unlockable levels and achievements

Reporting a Lower Price to Amazon

This post is specific to Amazon, as there doesn't seem to be any method to perform this function at other ebookstores (nor do most of them seem to care if other stores are beating their prices, while, presumably, Amazon does). If you find a lower price on an item that Amazon sells, whether it is a Kindle book or not, you can report it to Amazon and often you'll see a price adjustment within a day or two (or even a few hours). Whether or not the price changes seems to be a function of whether the comparison site is also online, is it the exact same item, how many people report a price difference and some heavy duty calculations on the back end at Amazon that no doubt decides how much of a loss they are willing to take, to keep a certain amount of sales.

We are going to look at an example of a book that is, right now, free for nook readers in the Barnes & Noble store, but is still full price at Amazon. This book isn't an Agency title, but I'll include at note at the end, in case you find one of those, for an added reporting mechanism you can use.

This is the book listing at Barnes & Noble for Pompeii: City of Fire. I have navigated to the nookbook page, specifically, not the general listing page that shows all the different formats available for sale, with the paper editions shown first and the nookbook version at the end. The easiest way to find this page is usually to just click the links in this blog. If you are already at Barnes & Noble and looking at the general book page, the look for the section titled All Available Formats underneath the paper editions, click the "+" next to the NOOK book label, then on the link that starts with "eBook" and shows the publication date and publisher (and FREE out to the right, in the pricing column).

Next, open a new tab or window and navigate to the Kindle book page at Amazon, as shown here. As you can see, Amazon is charging a higher price. You can also tell that this is not an Agency publisher, as there is not a line underneath the price that starts with "Sold by:" and has another line underneath, This price was set by the publisher to let you know that Amazon didn't set the price of the book.

If you look below the Product Description section, you'll see a section labeled Product Details. This is where you will find the link tell us about a lower price?, on the very last line of that section. Click on that link and you will then see a box that can be used both to tell Amazon about a lower price and to find a shortcut link for the book.

When you click on the option for Website (online), you'll see the area you need to fill in. First, copy and paste in the website address (in Firefox, make sure you have the Navigation Bar displayed under View Toolbars, so you can click to copy the address). At this point, you may have to do a minor bit of editing; many websites have a question mark (?) at some point in the address and Amazon doesn't really want the information after that question mark included. So, I paste in the address, then find the question mark if it exists and then just delete it and everything after it in the address. If you look closely at the Barnes & Noble listing above, you'll see that it does have a question mark and values after that, but that I've removed that portion of the address in the reporting box. Enter the price at the competing website (and I always put 0.00 for shipping, since there is no shipping on ebooks) and click the Submit Feedback button. You'll then see a Thank you for your feedback. message and the button will change to a Close Window; click that and you are done. All total, I calculate that reporting a lower price takes me well under 5 seconds, once I have both tabs open.

If you do run into a pricing difference on an Agency priced book (one that says This price was set by the publisher), I also go a step further and report them using the feedback links at the bottom. I use the very last choice, Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?, and in my note, I politely let Amazon know that I think the publisher is in violation of their Agency agreement, as they are selling the book at a lower cost thru another site (I also copy in the web address again) for customers in the region that I am in (and I tell them what region that is). This is important, as the value seen on a page may differ for those in different countries, both at amazon and at sites like Kobo, and some books are under Agency agreements in one region and not others. It's important to let Amazon know that you are looking at prices for the same region, in the two stores.

How to find the product page for iBooks
In order to report a lower price, you need a link to the book in a web page. For iBooks, this can be a bit tricky, especially as there is no way to search the iBookstore from the web (although you can now "browse" the store, it's every clunky and you are forced to browse by genre). From the iPad, of course, it's quite easy to browse and there are lists to show you the current top free books in various categories (although the search tools are nowhere near as comprehensive as the Kindle store). Recently, though, Apple updated the iTunes software for the PC and you can now browse iBooks from your desktop using iTunes, including doing a blanket search for a title and then displaying the book's product information (and even purchase it from iTunes, although you still cannot read it without a compatible, physical apple device). You can take advantage of a feature of the product page to find the web site page for any book -- there is a pull-down arrow right at the end of the price (or the "free" label). Click on the pull-down, then click on "Copy Link". Open up your browser and paste the address into the Navigation Bar (or use File Open on the menu). You should shortly be looking at the product page for that book and can use that address (even the info after the question mark on this one) to report a lower price to Amazon.

Free Book (nook) - Insights from Remarkable Businesspeople

Insights from Remarkable Businesspeople, from FT Press, is a repeat freebie (Mar '11) from Barnes and Noble. This book has previously been free on Kindle (three times), but is no longer available in the Kindle store.

Book Description
Get it straight from the top: secrets only the world’s best leaders can tell you!

What it takes to lead your team to greatness! Outstanding leaders tell you how to identify and fix even the biggest problems...get buy-in that’s real...balance external customers and internal processes...infuse creativity throughout your organization, and reinvent its future...get results, not salutes!

From world-renowned leaders and experts, including Captain D. Michael Abrashoff, Jim Champy, Fred Wiersema, Dean LeBaron, Michael F. Golden, Gary Hirshberg, and many more.

Click HERE to get the free book from B&N.

[Updated] Save 20% on Select Laptops (KSO)

Updated - see comments at end.

This offer is only for those with a Kindle with Special Offers:

Save 20% on Select Laptops at Amazon.com

Click on offer, then click on the link on the offer page to receive an email with the promotion code. Sign-up for this offer expires on August 8.

You'll get an email (right away), a link to the Special Offer page and a promotion code to enter at checkout. Once you have the promotional code, you have until September 8 to complete your purchase. Like previous offers, this one requires you to use the full checkout process in order to enter your promotional code. Also, like all Amazon sales that use promotional codes, if you have a gift card balance, you must use it for the payment (if there is not a sufficient balance, then you can pick which credit card or other payment to use).

This offer can be used more than once per account, so long as you have more than one KSO registered. Just click on the ad on each device to receive the individual promotion codes via email.

This offer was on the second page of special offers on my KSO, so be sure to click the Next Page button, if you don't see it right away. There are many, many laptops to choose from on this offer and, thankfully, there are links both on the offer page and on the menu bar on the left that can be used to trim down the list to the ones with features you are looking for, starting with the type (PC or Max) and operating system version you want. Once I picked Windows 7, for example, there were more selections for the level (Home Premium, Professional, Starter, Ultimate), along with lots of choices on screen size, processor type/speed, memory installed, etc.

If you were already looking for a laptop/notebook pc, and you find one on the list, this offer can save you quite a bit of money (I saw a little toughbook for over $3200, for example); in fact, it might be worth grabbing a Kindle with Special Offers just to get this offer, as you can easily save more than the cost of the Kindle itself - which means, you could get a savings on the laptop and a new Kindle to send off to college this fall with a student leaving for college. If you were looking at some of the less expensive laptops, you should still see a savings of $80 or more on most (from what I can tell), which is either a nice bonus on a KSO you already own or a good discount on a new one (just send your old one off with the student, if you want to keep the KSO at home, so you can sign up for any future offers!).

Combine this with the offer of $100 off a combined purchase of a Toshiba laptop and a Canon printer and the free XBOX with a Windows 7 PC offer for even greater savings.

Update: I've been getting emails, including personal messages on Kindle forums where I had not even posted about this offer, but had commented once in a KSO thread, asking me for my codes. I won't give my codes away, even if I do not use them and I caution you not to do so, either.

From the rules and restrictions:

• Promotional code must be requested on Kindle with Special Offers device
• You must have a Kindle with Special Offers device registered to the same account as the qualifying purchase.
• Offer is non-transferable and may not be resold.
• If you violate any of the Terms & Conditions, the promotion will be invalid.

So, you must have a KSO to ask for the code, you must have it registered to your account when you use the code, you cannot give the code away or sell it to someone else and if you get caught, at the very least the purchaser of the laptop would be liable for the promotional discount and you both risk losing your Amazon account.

Not worth it (if you are going to save $600 using this code, then buy a KSO today, get it tomorrow, use the code, get your laptop ordered and then decide if you want to send back the KSO in the next few weeks .. or just consider it a free kindle and the discount to be a bit less).

These codes are being sold on ebay - so, that destitute student who asks you for a code, may be a large ebay seller, in reality, who can sell the code with zero risk to his/her own Amazon account, but both you and the person using the code do risk having it suspended. For a person making a one-time laptop purchase, they may not care, but I would not like to lose access to my Kindle archives for such a reason.

For codes that cover Kindle books, you can use your code to gift a book (or, at least, it has worked for some in the past), but I would not give your code to anyone else. If it is mistakenly used for a family member, I'm sure Amazon will forgive it, but giving it to a stranger (or worse, getting caught selling it) may not have as happy a result.

Save $10 on select toys & games (KSO)

This offer is only for those with a Kindle with Special Offers:

Save $10 when you spend $25 on select toys & games at Amazon.com

Click on offer, then click on the link on the offer page to receive an email with the promotion code. Sign-up for this offer expires on August 8.

You'll get an email (right away), a link to the Special Offer page and a promotion code to enter at checkout. Once you have the promotional code, you have until September 9 to complete your purchase. Like previous offers, this one requires you to use the full checkout process in order to enter your promotional code. Also, like all Amazon sales that use promotional codes, if you have a gift card balance, you must use it for the payment (if there is not a sufficient balance, then you can pick which credit card or other payment to use).

This offer can be used more than once per account, so long as you have more than one KSO registered. Just click on the ad on each device to receive the individual promotion codes via email.

First, you probably have this offer on your device twice - don't bother trying to sign up twice, as you'll simply get the same code twice. Second, the choices on this offer are a bit limited, and it's mostly toys for small to pre-teen children. My favorite one, though, is Angry Birds: Knock On Wood Game, which means that no age group is now safe from being addicted to Angry Birds! Not only do I have this on my phone and my PC (and could put it on my nookColor), but you can now get this on your Roku (on Mom's Roku2, the remote is movement sensitive, which works quite well with the game), but now we can play it in the physical world! It's possible, though, that the Card Game and the Silly Bandz are going just a bit too far. Even if you don't have a use for this one at your house, keep in mind that it's not too much longer before the Christmas shopping season starts. Of course, for many kids, what they want for Christmas will have changed a dozen times between now and then.