Monday, April 13th, 2009

I wrote last week about book prices an Kindle going beyond the Amazon suggested $9.99 retail price.  Here's an update.

There's a movement among Amazon's Kindle-owning population to address the problem by tagging any and all Kindle editions that cost more than $9.99.  They're attempting to do 2 things. 1) Alert a wider public to the issue by adding the protest to the records of the offending editions.  2) Shame the publishers into dropping their prices.

Read about it here: Kindle Community's $9.99 Boycott.

Another issue that Kindle-folk are having with Kindle 2 is the display.  The Kindle 2 display is supposed to be superior to the original Kindle display.  Both displays are essentially black on white screens called "electronic paper."  Kindle 2 has a greater capacity to handle subtle shading differences, so image files are better represented than they used to be.  Unfortunately for some, the greater capacity for subtlety creates less contrast between background and text.  The background on the Kindle 2 is slightly darker than on the original model and the text is slightly lighter than the original model.

This reduction in contrast makes reading a bit more difficult for lots of folks, especially among the elderly.  I haven't noticed a problem myself, but then I never saw a Kindle 1, and I just this year got my first set of bifocals.

Read about it here: Kindle Community's "Are You Used to the Gray Screen"

I still dig my Kindle and I'm loading up on free books.  So as long as there are folks converting files form books in the public domain, I'll be a happy reader.

One more thing:
Roger McGuinn, seminal folk-rocker and member of The Byrds, has published in book form the lyrics to a bunch of American folk songs.  These are available free in Kindle formating, and would be great for a Social Studies unit in any on the elementary grades.  You can the list here


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