Tuesday, November 2, 2010

NT Times Extends Kindle Subscription To 2 Months, Matching Its Offer in The Apple Store; More Changes Indicated

When the Apple Store started selling the New York Times in a new and expanded app on Oct. 15, and handing out free two-month trial subscriptions, the truncated NY Times sold in Amazon's Kindle Store didn't look like such a great deal.

That's changing.


As of the morning of Election Day, the NY Times' “face” in the Amazon Kindle Store is in dishabille (above), rather undone from its usually pulled-together look. The Time's monthly subscription header lacks a photo. Overhead in the Amazon listing of Times' products, an empty spot streams an offer to “subscribe today and receive an extended two-month trial. Offer Expires Feb. 15, 2011.”
Click on the link to start the two-month trial, and off you go to the order page bereft of a picture of the paper.  But when you subscribe by clicking, the thank you message tells you the worrisome news that your billing will start in two weeks!

For now, the NY Times for the Kindle can only be read on the Kindle. But the Amazon Kindle Team let slip last week, in a forum titled “Coming for Kindle,” that newspapers and magazines will “soon” be distributed to from the Kindle Store to iPads and other devices.  Up-coming apps similar to “Kindle for iPad,” which currently deliver only ebooks to iPad readers, are on their way "soon."

Meantime, Apple is happily selling an app with a much more robust version of the NY Times for the iPad.

Of course the NY Times and Amazon will get competitive with the iPad app faster than you can say, "Extra! Extra!"  And that will undoubtedly happen within 3 seconds of your Planet iPad editor posting this report and leaving to cover another story.


Posted by at No comments:

CFO Magazine Admits It Didn't See iPad Coming As Business Tool; But Neither Did Steve Jobs

CFO Magazine Admits It Didn't See iPad Coming As Business Tool;  But Neither Did Steve Jobs

CFO, the magazine read by over 450,000 chief financial officers, demonstrates that iPads are becoming a big hit for business use by running two articles on the subject today.

"Tablets Get Down To Business," by reporter David McCann note about a survey showing 26% of mobile enterprise workers plan to buy an iPad in the next six months. “That they [iPads] will be used for work is beyond question,” he said. Six months earlier, CFO allowed that somebody might possibly—maybe--dream up an on-the-job use for iPad, but it was seen more as a consumer toy.

In his second story, "Attack of the Apps," McCann makes the point that people getting used to the mantra “there's an app for that” on the home and leisure front and chafing for the same thing on the job.

In any case, companies have issues with plugging iPads and their apps into the corporate IT infrastructure.  That's the primary reason besides budgets that the advanced computer programs the average person uses at home take years to make it through the company's front door. The typical employee or exec goes back a year or two in time, at least, in tech sophistication terms, when they commute to work.

CFO's online page complements the printed magazine, read by some 450,000 chief financial officers around the world. Only the print version is available at this time from Amazon. 

With changes announced at Amazon last week that Kindle Store magazines and newspapers will soon be readable on iPad and other connected devices, CFO with its detailed charts, graphs and scrumptious photography of men and women in power suits is a likely candidate for change.


Posted by at No comments:

Monday, November 1, 2010

The iPad's First Major Election: Race for 'Best App' Too Close to Call

The iPad will be out in force for Election Day tomorrow, the mid-term test of the Obama Administration.

The night before polls open, one clear candidate seems to emerge from a scan of the web and is poised to win the most votes for “best election coverage app.”

ABC News has upgraded its app and will show an interactive map displaying the familiar Red Team vs. the Blue Team. With a half dozen key races, control of the House of Representatives at risk of slipping to the Republicans, and messages of dissatisfaction with the Administration anticipated tomorrow, the map should get a workout throughout the day as Americans vote.

But as with the races for senate and house seats and control of state and local government, this race will be “too close to call” until long after the polling places lock up on Tuesday night or, if needed, Wednesday morning.

Also in the running:

Brian Williams and NBC will be on hand—literally in the hand holding your iPad—for the election with a new app.

CBS is in the running for iPad viewers, too, with its app all ready for election day—and night.  On the CBS News web page when we checked in, a pop-up slides from the bottom of the page announcing the new app.  We could have sworn there was no link to get the app transferring you to the Apple Store when we checked an hour ago, but now there is.  Wait...now there isn't.  Now...it's back.  Well, maybe that is a local connection issue.  Or it might be a news footnote that the app was being refined like mad Monday night.

Fox News says its app is ready for the iPad and election day, but its app page in the Apple Store seemed out of date in the early evening on Monday. The graphic there says there are 76 days until the election. Sounds like one of those things that will “come down to the wire” if it gets fixed.

CNN was an early front runner with a posted video on how Carl Rove's America's Crossroads deployed iPads in Nevada to target voters and collect information in door to door canvassing. If the test in Nevada panned out, CNN says, the group planned to expand it broadly for election day.

But to this Planet iPad observe digging through web sites through the day before the vote, it appears as if there is no consensus on what an election day app should look like.  The major players from the media weigh in, only 24 hours before polls close on the East Coast, with apps ranging in quality from "looks good" to "uh-oh."

But by the next presidential election in two years, all the apps issues should be resolved.  And one can dream that perhaps the political issues will be, as well.

Posted by at No comments:

patterson




Marketing Tricks Are Treats For Readers

James Patterson, the hugely successful bestselling author, celebrated Halloween by offering a free look at the first 21 chapters of Witch & Wizard: The Gift,  from the team of Patterson and Ned Rust.  The complete book, available now for pre-order at $9.99, is set to deliver on December 23.
The Gift continues the saga, begun in Witch & Wizard ($9.99), of the adventures of Wisty and Whit Allgood.  They discovered their magical powers in the first book, when arrested by guards of the New Order.  Reviews were very mixed by Library Journal and Booklist, and 194 "citizen reviewers" on Amazon awarded the book only a shade over 2 stars out of 5.  The blurb for the book says it's aimed at young adults in grades 5 to 9.

Wisty, 15 in the first book and Whit, then 18, are now leaders of the Resistance trying to save kids from the Order in Witch & Wizard:  The Gift, advancing the series for young adult readers.

Patterson seems to be advancing on all fronts and genres--young adult, younger adult, and adult--these days.

Patterson's Maximum Ride Series, for a slightly older young adult audience,  features genetically altered kids who are part bird and have wings.  The series includes 6 books so far.  The most recent is Fang, which the book blurb says is for ages 7 and up, but which Library Journal pegs for youth in grades 7 to 10.  Your Planet iPad reporter is many years beyond grade 10 but still in the age "7 and up" group, and enjoys Maximum Ride.

There's something amiss with the information on a next item in the series, Angel: A Maximim Ride Novel.  Angel published as an ebook and a hardcover in 2005 according to its Amazon page.  With reviews that read as if the upcoming release is an audio book, but text indicating it is a new ebook, the situation is not clear. What  seems to be an ebook re-release will be ready for download on Feb . 14, 2011.  Oddly, the upcoming release seems to be the same book as the first in the series, also called The Angel Experiment,  published in 2005 for the Kindle.  Perhaps there is bonus material, or another reason for the new release that hasn't been spelled out yet.

Kids and adults flock to Patterson.  He received the Children's Choice Book Award for 2010 as author of the year.  The award is given by the Children's Book Council, a non-profit organization of children's book publishers.

From the adult point of view, Patterson was honored by Amazon last week as the second author to sell over 1 million books in the Kindle Store.  Stieg Larsson was first.

Also last week, Patterson began "giving away" the first 30 chapters of his latest novel about popular character Alex Cross.  Cross Fire releases in full, at $15.11, on November 15. It can be pre-ordered now.

Patterson is a force of nature in book authoring, with over 205 million copies sold during his career.  He's blazing new trails in ebook marketing with "freemium" chunks of books handed out soon before the release of the full--and often quite pricey--versions.   His stats on Amazon are not impressive, they're overwhelming:
     *72 ebooks in the Kindle Store
     *95 hardcover editions
   *105 paperbacks
     *70 audio books
     *64 editions in “school and library” bindings
     *64 editions in large print. (Of course, on the iPad and Kindle, all 72 ebooks come in “large print" editions because text size is selected by the reader.)

Posted by at No comments:

NEW TOOL 2

It's the first of November, and we ring in the new month with NINE brand new free titles in the Kindle Store:
  • The Personal Credibility Factor
  • One Hit Wonder
  • The Rules of Work
  • Feed My Sheep: A Passionate Plea for Preaching
  • Powering the Future: A Scientist's Guide to Energy Independence
  • The Matchmakers
  • Market Upside Down: How to Invest Profitably in a Shrinking Economy
  • Guard Your Mission, Stay in Control
  • More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea 
With our incredibly cool, totally interactive, automatically updated new Kindle Nation Free Book Alert tool below, you can start reading a free sample of any title right here on your browser and then download the full book from the same screen....

But first, a word from ... Today's Sponsor
Fresh Frozen 
by Darden North M.D.

4.9 out of 5 stars - 8 Reviews
Kindle Price:     $6.39
 Text-to-Speech: Enabled

( Ed. Note: I have always been impressed by doctors and lawyers who find a way to begin careers as novelists while carrying on their professional practices.Against the backdrop of their existing and presumably well-compensated careers, they are clearly driven by a tremendous passion to write, to tell stories, and to face the possibility of failure. I'm sure that many of them get nowhere as novelists and return to the practice of medicine or law. As Robin Cook likes to joke, if his books ever stop selling, he can always fall back on brain surgery. But every now and then we get a Cook or a Crichton or a Turow or a Grisham, and I for one have experienced a great deal of reading pleasure from those who have emerged as talented novelists. We might have enjoyed a lot less in the way of suspenseful legal thrillers if a Mississippi lawyer hadn't had the resolve to travel around the South handselling self-published copies of A Time to Kill to indie booksellers out of the trunk of his jalopy back in the early 80s. And now we have another Mississipian, an ob/gyn doctor named Darden North, who is similarly resolved to make his mark as the author, so far, of three taut and well-constructed medical thrillers, including the title we feature today, Fresh Frozen. --S.W.)
Here's the set-up: 

After movie star Allyn Saxton survives a string of broken relationships, she enters a reproduction center to have a baby. Her plans of seclusion are misguided when an Internet spy breaks through the center’s security to steal her frozen embryos. But there is competition. A nearly-bankrupt policeman and his tormented wife are also patients, the wife so desperate for pregnancy that she plans to kill. Human reproductive tissue becomes a fatal commodity in Fresh Frozen.
 
And be sure to check out Darden North's debut thriller, House Call, from which he has generously offered the substantial 16,000-word excerpt we provided in this weekend's Free Kindle Nation Short.

Click here to download Fresh Frozen or a free sample to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android-compatible, PC or Mac and start reading within 60 seconds!

*  


Each day's list is sponsored by one paid title. We encourage you to support our sponsors and thank you for considering them. 

Authors, Publishers, Kindle Accessory Manufacturers:
Interested in learning more about sponsorship? Just click on this link for more information.
 
Free Contemporary Titles in the Kindle Store 

Click here for a separate listing of free and bargain erotica titles for your Kindle.

HOW TO USE OUR NEW FREE BOOK TOOL: 

Use the slider at right of your screen below to scroll through a complete, updated list of free contemporary Kindle titles, and click on an icon like this one (at right) to read a free sample right here in your browser! Titles are sorted in reverse chronological order so you can easily see new freebies!




Posted by at No comments:

NEW TOOL 1

It's the first of November, and we ring in the new month with NINE brand new free titles in the Kindle Store:
  • The Personal Credibility Factor
  • One Hit Wonder
  • The Rules of Work
  • Feed My Sheep: A Passionate Plea for Preaching
  • Powering the Future: A Scientist's Guide to Energy Independence
  • The Matchmakers
  • Market Upside Down: How to Invest Profitably in a Shrinking Economy
  • Guard Your Mission, Stay in Control
  • More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea 
With our incredibly cool, totally interactive, automatically updated new Kindle Nation Free Book Alert tool below, you can start reading a free sample of any title right here on your browser and then download the full book from the same screen....

But first, a word from ... Today's Sponsor
Fresh Frozen 
by Darden North M.D.

4.9 out of 5 stars - 8 Reviews
Kindle Price:     $6.39
 Text-to-Speech: Enabled

( Ed. Note: I have always been impressed by doctors and lawyers who find a way to begin careers as novelists while carrying on their professional practices.Against the backdrop of their existing and presumably well-compensated careers, they are clearly driven by a tremendous passion to write, to tell stories, and to face the possibility of failure. I'm sure that many of them get nowhere as novelists and return to the practice of medicine or law. As Robin Cook likes to joke, if his books ever stop selling, he can always fall back on brain surgery. But every now and then we get a Cook or a Crichton or a Turow or a Grisham, and I for one have experienced a great deal of reading pleasure from those who have emerged as talented novelists. We might have enjoyed a lot less in the way of suspenseful legal thrillers if a Mississippi lawyer hadn't had the resolve to travel around the South handselling self-published copies of A Time to Kill to indie booksellers out of the trunk of his jalopy back in the early 80s. And now we have another Mississipian, an ob/gyn doctor named Darden North, who is similarly resolved to make his mark as the author, so far, of three taut and well-constructed medical thrillers, including the title we feature today, Fresh Frozen. --S.W.)
Here's the set-up: 

After movie star Allyn Saxton survives a string of broken relationships, she enters a reproduction center to have a baby. Her plans of seclusion are misguided when an Internet spy breaks through the center’s security to steal her frozen embryos. But there is competition. A nearly-bankrupt policeman and his tormented wife are also patients, the wife so desperate for pregnancy that she plans to kill. Human reproductive tissue becomes a fatal commodity in Fresh Frozen.
 
And be sure to check out Darden North's debut thriller, House Call, from which he has generously offered the substantial 16,000-word excerpt we provided in this weekend's Free Kindle Nation Short.

Click here to download Fresh Frozen or a free sample to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android-compatible, PC or Mac and start reading within 60 seconds!

*  


Each day's list is sponsored by one paid title. We encourage you to support our sponsors and thank you for considering them. 

Authors, Publishers, Kindle Accessory Manufacturers:
Interested in learning more about sponsorship? Just click on this link for more information.
 
Free Contemporary Titles in the Kindle Store 

Click here for a separate listing of free and bargain erotica titles for your Kindle.

HOW TO USE OUR NEW FREE BOOK TOOL: 

Use the slider at right of your screen below to scroll through a complete, updated list of free contemporary Kindle titles, and click on an icon like this one (at right) to read a free sample right here in your browser! Titles are sorted in reverse chronological order so you can easily see new freebies!




Posted by at No comments:

Start reading the books you love right on your browser with Kindle for the Web: David Niall Wilson's ANCIENT EYES

Start reading the books you love right on your browser with Kindle for the Web: David Niall Wilson's ANCIENT EYES


Hallowe'en night may be in the rear view mirror, but you can make the terror last with this free sample of today's Planet iPad Free Book Alert sponsor: David Niall Wilson's Ancient Eyes. Start reading here without leaving your browser...
 







by David Niall Wilson 
Text-to-Speech: Enabled 
B0044KM186
Here's the set-up:


There is an Ancient Evil on a mountain outside San Valencez, California.  It is creeping through the minds and souls of the inhabitants, trying to take control.


Abraham Carlson is called back to the mountain to stand against this rising darkness.  Years before, his father began a cleansing that should have wiped the evil from the mountain.


The Cleansing was left incomplete.  Now it's up to Abraham to stand against the dark power and champion the light.


Visit Amazon's David Niall Wilson Page 

Click here to download Ancient Eyes or a free sample to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android-compatible, PC or Mac and start reading within 60 seconds!




*  




Each day's list is sponsored by one paid title. We encourage you to support our sponsors and thank you for considering them. 

Authors, Publishers, Accessory Manufacturers:
Interested in learning more about sponsorship? Just click on this link for more information.
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)