New Kindle Paperwhite Commercial

Kindle Paperwhite $119 and Kindle Fire HD $199

It's official, the new name is the Kindle Paperwhite (the link is showing the Kindle store right now, but the name is live and should go to the new Kindle once it is accessible on the website) and the price will be $119 for the WiFi only edition and $179 for the Kindle Paperwhite 3G! As expected, it's a side-light, higher resolution eInk touch screen. With the wireless turned off, you still get 8 weeks of battery life, with the light ON! You'll be able to read outside, since it is still eInk and not backlit (the side light bounces off a special layer and down onto the eInk, evenly across the screen). At least one view of your library shows cover images (I hope this works for those of us with very large archives). It will be very thin and only weights 7.5 oz.

You can order today (at least, according to Bezos - so far, the links are not live at Amazon; I'll update the post when they are) and it will ship October 1. The ad-supported non-Touch Kindle will be dropping in price to $69 - that price is now live and the no-ads Kindle has dropped to $89 (out of stock until Sept 8).

There are already Accessories and Warranties available and a helpful reader has pointed out what looks like a pricing error on the new CaseCrown Kindle Paperwhite Flip Covers, as they are currently only $3.23 on pre-order! I've ordered a couple (but these dropped to "shipping soon" almost immediately, even with a Sept 30 ship date, so don't expect to be able to cancel the order).

The new, faster Kindle Fire will be lower in price, as well: $159 and both a 7" Kindle Fire HD and 8.9" Kindle Fire HD, with 1920 x 1200 display — 254 ppi and only 20 oz in weight. The 7" model will have double the memory of the original Fire and a faster processor. They've also added a polarizing filter layer on both models, so that there should be less glare on the screen. On the larger, HD Fire, you'll get dual, stereo speakers and Dolby Digital Plus. The WiFi has been upgraded to 5GHZ and there are two antennas, which should improve WiFi connectivity if you are farther from the hotspot. As for storage, the HD will start with a 16GB version and will have BlueTooth support and HDMI out! Pricing for the Fire HD: 7", 16 GB $199 / 32GB $249, 8.9" 16GB $299; shipping Nov 20th on the larger tablet and Sept 14 for the lower priced model. That's only a $40 difference vs. the non-HD Fire, so I'm going to recommend that you only consider the HD edition.

For those who want 4G coverage, there is a $499 Kindle Fire HD with 4G LTE wireless, that has an Amazon designed modem, 32GB storage and the 8.9" screen (and a second model with 64GB for $599). It looks like it will connect with AT&T. The data plan is $49.99 per year, with 250MB a month, 200GB of cloud storage and a $10 Amazon credit. That's not much bandwidth, but is enough to play in the Kindle store and check your email regularly, when you don't have WiFi access. There are probably upgraded options on plans, for those willing to pay for it, but nothing announced at the conference.

They've also added Whispersync for Voice, so you can sync your Audible listening to reading the ebook on another device. So, listen in your car, then sync at home and read the ebook later. They also have added Immersion Reading that lets you read the book at the same time you listen to the audiobook.

Also, WhisperSync for Game (ooh!), X-Ray for Movies, new Email support (including Exchange support for business users), a custom Facebook App, Skype (so, yes a camera and microphone are now included), Time Limits for Kids (I've been seeing people ask for this lately, in the Kindle forums), multiple profiles (yay!) for family members (or letting someone look at your tablet) and a different color on the background (light blue) so you can tell if your kids are using their FreeTime profile. For reading, X-Ray for books will show you both Wiki entries and YouTube videos. There should be some new magazines offerings, also.

I am seeing a few Kindle Fire HD covers, also, although only for the 7" model, so far (they are also discounted as pre-orders, for those that want to get a jump on things).

If you put in an order now, you'll be in line for delivery - I expect there to be a backlog before Christmas and there may or may not be enough that those who opt for SuperSaver shipping will get theirs in the first batch. In the past, Amazon has bumped all the people who pay for overnight shipping (usually a $3.99 charge for Prime members) to the front of the list, followed by those who order with 2nd day shipping and those with SuperSave shipping end up nearer the end of the pack. Also, if past years are any indication, these are going to be some of the hottest gifts under the tree at Christmas (especially by parents who are tired of trying to get their kids to quit using the iPads for hours each day).

OK, doesn't look like Amazon is going to get the pre-order links up early, so I'm posting this now. I'll come back and fix the links for the exact models, once ordering is allowed. Update: Links are now live.

Kobo Announces Three New Readers

The Amazon announcement is still an hour off, so I've been surfing the web, looking for leaks (such as the new Kindle commercial). I found rumors that Barnes & Noble will be bringing out a new tablet this fall, although it may just join their current offerings, rather than replacing the original Color and current Tablet, both of which are still available, and across the big news from Kobo. They scooped Amazon by announcing three new reader devices, two of which are eInk based: Kobo Glo ($129.99), a side-lit 6" eInk reader similar to the nook Glow, and Kobo Mini ($79.99), a 5" touchscreen reader for those who want the most portability - just don't try to walk around with it in your pocket as shown on their web page or you'll probably break the screen. The Kobo Arc ($199.99), looks a lot more like a nook Tablet than the old Kobo Vox, which I thought was a very disappointing tablet; the specs on this new tablet look like they may have a winner, this time. One great feature of the Kobo Arc will be full access to the Google Play store, which B&N and Amazon both lock you out of.

There are also some accessories announced, but nothing can be pre-ordered yet; after my very bad experience pre-ordering a Vox (because they are in Canada, many US credit card companies can stop transactions; despite many confirmations from Kobo, my Vox never shipped and I had to get someone in the company to assist personally to get one here), I'll hold off ordering one until they are actually shipping. I know I used to be able to buy Kobo's readers at Books-A-Million, locally, but they seem to have discontinued them and have adopted B&N's nook as their ereader of choices (which seems to be a very bad business choice, since that would then give you much faster access to B&N's ebookstore and not BAM's), so mail-order will probably be the best way to get a reader in the US. Kobo is starting to partner with independent bookstores, but I don't know if any local stores will be signed up. Those of you in Canada and Japan will probably be able to find the devices in local retail stores.

Back to those Amazon rumors: some people think they saw an iPad size Kindle tablet in the commercial that was leaked, but it really looks more like an ultraBook (there are shots with a keyboard and a mouse). Others are talking about an Amazon phone, which would probably be a great mid-range Android based phone, that (like the Kindle Fire), doesn't try to scoop up the high end/business market, but will be an irresistible choice for those who have a lot of content in the Amazon Cloud.

Free Audiobook - The Mountain [UK]

The audiobook edition of The Mountain, a short story by J. J. Bell, narrated by Cathy Dobson, is free in the UK Audible store.

Book Description
'The Mountain' is a humorous story in the vein of Compton McKenzie's Whisky Galore. When a tourist visits a remote Highland Glen and lets it be known that he has left a full bottle of the region's finest whisky on top of the nearest mountain, the crofters need all their collective cunning to devise a plan to retrieve it. The story takes an unexpected twist at the end.

J.J.Bell (1871-1934) was a journalist and author who lived and worked in Glasgow. He was probably best known as the creator of the humorous "Wee McGreegor" stories for the Glasgow Evening Times, which were so popular they were turned into a series of books and later a film. Many of Bell's tales were written in the vernacular, which is partly what made them so popular.

Get the free audiobook from Audible UK (some geographic restrictions may apply)

Free Audiobook - The Link [UK]

The audiobook edition of The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor (Kindle Main/UK), by Colin Tudge, narrated by Robert Petkoff, is free in the UK Audible store.

Book Description
For more than a century, scientists have raced to unravel the human family tree and have grappled with its complications. Now, with an astonishing new discovery, everything we thought we knew about primate origins could change.

Lying inside a high-security vault, deep within the heart of one of the world's leading natural history museums, is the scientific find of a lifetime - a perfectly fossilized early primate, older than the previously most famous primate fossil, Lucy, by 44 million years. A secret until now, the fossil - "Ida" to the researchers who have painstakingly verified her provenance - is the most complete primate fossil ever found.

Forty-seven million years old, Ida rewrites what we've assumed about the earliest primate origins. Her completeness is unparalleled - so much of what we understand about evolution comes from partial fossils and even single bones, but Ida's fossilization offers much more than that, from a haunting "skin shadow" to her stomach contents. And, remarkably, knowledge of her discovery and existence almost never saw the light of day.

With exclusive access to the first scientists to study her, the award-winning science writer Colin Tudge tells the history of Ida and her place in the world. A magnificent, cutting-edge scientific detective story followed her discovery, and The Link offers a wide-ranging investigation into Ida and our earliest origins. At the same time, it opens a stunningly evocative window into our past and changes what we know about primate evolution and, ultimately, our own

Get the free audiobook from Audible UK (some geographic restrictions may apply)