I thought it time for another random blog post where I just bang away on the keyboard with whatever comes to mind, share some information, answer a few questions….who knows?  If you would like to write to me, you can send an email to michael at fkbooksandtips dot com (I type it that way in a small effort to avoid the spammers).

 

The Blog’s Website and Social Media Pages

It has certainly been a month or two related to technology…

First, Amazon made me change the name of the blog’s Facebook page last month because it had the word “Kindle” in the title (although they still allow many others to do it, which makes me wonder if I made someone mad), which made me start from scratch and lose over 20,000 folks.  The Facebook population is slowly getting back up to speed and will hopefully cross the 14,000 mark soon – you can check it out if you click here or type in http://www.facebook.com/fkbooks into your web browser.  If you do stop by, why not give it a “Like” as, for example, a lot of independent authors stop by and post about their free book offerings on the right-hand side of that page under the “Recent Posts By Others” section.

Last weekend saw the blog having to move from a shared server to a dedicated server.  That process, and the associated fun, slowdowns, and overall pain-in-the-neck process probably made my web expert Lacy pull out her hair and may have drove her to drink!  If you haven’t had a chance to check that out, you can either click here or type in http://www.fkbooksandtips.com into your web browser.  Click on the individual titles if you would like to comment on each post (down at the bottom of the post), and you can click the “Send” button at the top of each post – just underneath the post’s title – to email it to your Kindle-owning family, friends, and even enemies!

When I asked you to check it out last week, so many of you hit the server at one time – and a few things weren’t optimized 100% – things got a little slow over last weekend.  Traffic is back up to normal – actually, it’s averaging higher than when it was on the shared server – so you should be good to go and start clicking away.

If you scroll down to the bottom of each page, you can click the “Previous” or “Next” icons to check out the other pages.  While you’re there, click on the links on the left-hand side to see if there is something you have missed!

I’m asked a couple of times per week where the blog’s Twitter and Pinterest sites are, so here they are:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/FKBT

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/fkbooks

 

The New Kindle Fires

One of the posts I had over last weekend contained my reviews and thoughts on the two new Kindle Fires, but due to the web server migration issues a lot of you didn’t see it and have asked me what my thoughts are.

Overall, I think they are very good – the $159 Fire that replaces the first-generation Fire (which used to be $199) is pretty good and an outstanding value.  You can read the review I wrote for it, complete with the pluses and two nitpicky minuses – if you click here or type in http://amzn.to/Nu5vD1 into your web browser.

For the $199 HD Kindle Fire, I like this one more – if you can afford the extra $40 (as compared to the Fire mentioned above), I would recommend this one due to the faster Wi-Fi connection, much better screen display, and Bluetooth capability.  You can read the review I wrote for it, complete with the pluses and two nitpicky minuses – if you click here or type in http://amzn.to/PJXiJ2 into your web browser.

 

Blog Subscriptions via Email

Many of you receive the blog via an email subscription – even more of you have tried to signup for an email subscription but are not receiving it.  Why?  Well, once you put your email address in the signup bar, and assuming you typed in your email address correctly, you need to go check your email box and reply to the confirmation email message – if you don’t reply to the email confirmation message, you won’t receive the blog posts via email!

To signup for an email subscription –a gain, it’s free – you can click here or point your web browser to http://www.fkbooksandtips.com/subscribe

Type in your email address and press the button, then go check your email account for the confirmation message and make sure you reply back to me.  If you stil don’t receive it, you may want to check the spam or junk folders on your email software, or if you are a third-party email server such as Google’s Gmail, go online and log into your email account and check the Junk folder.

 

Kindle Fire Question

Cynthia K. emailed me a question that almost stumped me – I had to think about it for a minute as it was one of those moments I knew I knew the answer, but it just wouldn’t reveal itself until I pulled out my Kindle Fire and turned it on.  Here was her question:

What is the number inside the circle at the top left corner by my name on my Kindle Fire?  I have tried to find out what that number means and cannot find the information anywhere.  Could you help solve the mystery please? 

Here’s the answer: that number with the circle in the middle is the number of “notifications” you have.  Just swipe down near that area, and the screen will then show you a notification of app updates, what is running on your Fire, etc.

 

Next Week’s Schedule

I’m flying out of town tomorrow afternoon for work and I will be out of town for a couple of days, so I will answer emails upon my return.  Don’t worry – I’ve already prepared several posts to hit the wire while I am gone!

 

Anyway, it looks like I’ve typed a lot (my word counter says I’m over 1,000 words) so if you’ve read this far – congratulations (and thanks)!

Have a great rest of your weekend-

Michael

All – I am still working through the issues with the blog’s web server today. Basically, and this is a good problem to have if I sit back and look at the big picture, there was too much traffic on the existing server. Hopefully, things will be transitioned over to a new, dedicated, server vs. a shared hosting arrangement later today. In order to not crash the shared server again before things are straightened out, I am going to have this be the last post of the day – but put a few things in one post.

 

The New Kindle Fire ($159 Version)

I received my new Kindle Fire – the $159 version that replaces the “old” Kindle Fire yesterday, and I spent a lot of time playing / messing around with it. Overall, I think it is pretty good and an outstanding value at $159. You can read the review I wrote for it, complete with the pluses and two nitpicky minuses – if you click here or type in http://amzn.to/Nu5vD1 into your web browser.

 

The New Kindle HD Fire ($199 Version)

I also received the new Kindle Fire HD version – $the new $199 version – and played with it yesterday; my kids thought I was ignoring them last night, and I guess I was. Each one has laid a claim to one of the new Fires, but I am being firm!
Compared to the $159 version above, while both of them are very good I prefer this one because of the screen display, faster Wi-Fi, and this one (finally!) has Bluetooth capability. You can read the review I wrote for it, complete with the pluses and two nitpicky minuses – if you click here or type in http://amzn.to/PJXiJ2 into your web browser.

 

The Kindle Daily Deal

The Kindle Daily Deal is a one-day only offer where a specific Kindle book for adults and one for kids (children or young adults) has been hand-selected by the editors at Amazon and significantly discounted for today only.

This weekend, Amazon appears to be continuing the trend they had last weekend by offering more than one book as the Daily Deal – in this case there are four books for adults and one for kids.

Today’s Kindle Daily Deal for adults is two books from two separate romantic suspense series from Barbar Freethy, including the Sanders Brothers and Deception series, and these books were $4.99 each yesterday in the Amazon Kindle Store but have been discounted 60% to just $1.99 for today only.

Today’s Kindle Daily Deal for kids (strangely, they renamed it today to the Kindle Young Readers Daily Deal) is The Captain’s Dog by Roland Smith, and this book was $6.99 yesterday in the Amazon Kindle Store but has been discounted 72% to just $1.99 for today only. This book has received an average user rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars based on 17 customer reviews.

You can check both of them out if you click here or type in http://amzn.to/kddeal into your web browser.

Rather than overwhelm the server this morning with a description of each of the Barbara Freethy books, you can check them out if you click on the link above.

 

Here is The Captain’s Dog book description from the Amazon website:

 

 

Born the runt of his litter and gambled away to a rusty old riverman, the Newfoundland pup Seaman doesn’t imagine his life will be marked by any kind of glory–beyond chasing down rats. But when he meets Captain Meriwether Lewis, Seaman finds himself on a path that will make history. Lewis is just setting off on his landmark search for the Northwest Passage, and he takes Seaman along. Sharing the curiosity and strength of spirit of his new master, Seaman proves himself a valuable companion at every turn. Part history, part science–and adventure through and through–The Captain’s Dog is the carefully researched, thrilling tale of America’s greatest journey of discovery, as seen through the keen, compassionate eyes of a remarkable dog.

You can pick up your copy of The Captain’s Dog by clicking here or typing in http://amzn.to/kddeal into your computer’s web browser.

 

Anyway, that’s all I have for now. Hopefully, the new server will be 100% ready to go soon!

Have a great weekend-

Michael Gallagher

Want to have this blog sent wirelessly to your Kindle vs. reading it on your computer? Try out the free two-week subscription! Click here for the Amazon page for Free Kindle Books Plus a Few Other Tips or type in http://www.tinyurl.com/fkblog into your computer’s web browser.

Check out the blog’s Facebook page and give us a “like” by clicking here or typing in http://www.facebook.com/fkbooks into your web browser!

As usual with one of my “rambling” posts, I really have no set agenda…it’s time to impart a few things I have on my mind and talk about baseball (just kidding on the baseball, but I still have faith in the Rangers).  If you would like to write to me, my email address is Michael at fkbooksandtips dot com

 

Quote of the Day 2013 Book
The post I put out yesterday about the book my children wrote has been great – thank you!  (click here or type in http://bit.ly/NEzWll into your web browser in case you missed it or want to see it again).  I also appreciate the comments you have put in on the blog, and my children have loved reading the comments in the reviews of the book.  I will say I laughed out loud at my daughter’s comment to the two-star review, but I told her you have to take the bad with the good!

I’m very proud of them for showing the entrepreneurial spirit and setting a goal, mapping out a plan to achieve the goal, and seeing the smiles on their faces as they realize they completed the job at hand – they learned a lot about technology along the way – and now they are very interested in sales ranking, how they compare to similar offerings, and have taken the comments each of you have put down on the blog’s page or the reviews of the book to heart: they are discussing various options for additional books…I think collectively we have unleashed two budding entrepreneurs!

I’m sure I’ll ask (i.e., plead) again concerning the book, and I will be sure to let you know how their little venture progresses as they get closer to being able to go on the trip or not.

 

Kindle Fire Sold Out

Amazon did something a little strange yesterday – they had a press release announcing the Kindle Fire was sold out.  They’ve done that in the past, as I remember a similar press release when the original Kindle and Kindle 2 were sold out just prior to Christmas. 

The announcement of the Kindle Fire being out of stock was not the strange part, as this press release had a different twist: there was no announcement of when they would be back in stock, nor was there a prognostication or announcement of a new version.

Amazon has a mystery press conference on September 6^th scheduled in a large venue – but they haven’t announced a topic for the event.  My guess is a new generation of Kindles will be announced, but since Jeff Bezos or the VP’s over at Amazon haven’t consulted with me I’m just one of the many bloggers engaging in open speculation.  My guess is Amazon, in addition to announcing a new Kindle Fire, will make the Kindle Fire available in Europe and possibly the rest of the world (more on that in the next section of this post).

Here’s what I do know:

• The Kindle Fire is out of stock – I see used Kindle Fires for sale at a minimum of $205 from third-parties on the Amazon site
• The refurbished Kindle Fire that also comes with a one-year warranty (same warranty as a new one) was out of stock yesterday, back in stock this morning for just $159, and are out of stock again this afternoon.  To grab one of these, you can click here or type in http://bit.ly/firedeal into your web browser to keep checking to see if they become available again.
• The Kindle Touch – both the wireless and 3G versions  – are out of stock.

Hmmm…what do you think?  If you’re on the blog’s web page (www.fkbooksandtips.com), I’d love to hear your comments: just post away at the bottom of this post using the comment area!

I could have sworn I predicted something like this earlier this month….(I did – click here to see it).

Europe Now Has Access to the Amazon App Store
Amazon had yet another press release Wednesday night – the Amazon App Store for Android-enabled devices is now available in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain; previously, the app store had been open only to residents of the USA.

That announcement, combined with the announcement the Kindle Fire is sold out, leads me to believe the Kindle Fire will be shipped to customers in Europe – if the customers in Europe are now going to be able to legally have a Fire (and I know there are literally thousands of them already being used in Europe that arrived there by various means), Amazon’s getting ready to make some more money by selling these new Fire customers apps from their branded app store.

Makes sense to the accountant in me!

You can check out Amazon’s App Store if you click here or type in http://bit.ly/gettheapps into your web browser.

In a nutshell, there are a lot of changes…as for me, I’m hoping to have a fairly relaxing long weekend for the Labor Day holiday here in the USA and I hope you do, too!

 

Michael

It’s time for another “rambling” post, where I don’t have a set agenda but have just sat down and started banging away at the keyboard and tried to answer a few questions that came my way…if you would like to write to me, my email address is Michael at fkbooksandtips dot com (I write it that way in a small effort to thwart the spammer’s robots).

 

Election Heat Map 2012

No matter what side of the political fence you may (or may not) be on during this 2012 election season here in the USA, I think all sides will agree this has become one of the nastiest presidential elections in decades: I’ll be glad when it is over and my dinner not interrupted by the latest robocall. While I have my opinions and I am sure you do, also, that’s not the purpose of this section…

Amazon has released what they are calling the “Amazon Election Heat Map 2012” which has colored each state “red” or “blue” in terms of the top-selling political books by state. They are computing percentages, updated daily, for each state and the USA by comparing the 250 best-selling “blue” books during the time period against the 250 best-selling “red” books during the same time period. You can click your mouse over each state and see what people are reading which, in my un-educated opinion, gives you a fairly good idea of what the other side is thinking.

Clicking on the individual states is interesting in a voyeuristic type of way as you see where the book-buying public of the various states are leaning and what books they are purchasing. Some states are really red, some are a kind of pinkish color, and, as I type this, only nine states and the District of Columbia are blue; Pennsylvania is grey as exactly 50% of the books purchased are blue and 50% are red. Is your state red, pink, or blue?

If you would like to take a look at this “Election Heat Map 2012” you can click here or type in http://bit.ly/heatmap2012 into your web browser.

By the way – a “blue” state represents favoring the Democratic Party and a “red state” represents favoring the Republican Party.

The #1 blue book is The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander which has received an average user rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars based on 148 customer reviews. The #1 red book is The Amateur by Edward Klein which has received an average user rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars based on 862 customer reviews.

 

 

 

The Blog’s App for the Kindle Fire

As most of you know, if you have a Kindle Fire or an Android-enabled smartphone or tablet computer, you can get a free app to read the blog on those devices. I have received several emails over the last two weeks, which tells me more of you have the same question / problem, about the book covers that are listed in the blog’s posts. The people who have emailed me are saying they don’t see the book’s cover image, for example, in the blog’s posts.

We were able to determine these folks didn’t have the most recent version of the blog’s app. If you are reading this via the blog’s free app, look at the section above – if you see the images for the cover of The New Jim Crow and The Amateur, you should be okay. If you do not, and are connected to an active Wi-Fi connection and just see a small blue square, you need to upgrade to the latest version of the free app (or, if you don’t have the app and want it for your Kindle Fire or Android-enabled smartphone or tablet computer you can get it for free). While you should have received a notice from either the Amazon App Store or the Google Play Store to update the app, here is how you can update it in about 30 seconds.

• If you have a Kindle Fire, click here or type http://amzn.to/freefireapp in into your web browser to go to the App’s page in the Amazon App Store.
• If you have a Google-enabled smartphone or tablet computer, click here or type in http://bit.ly/fkbtgoogle into your web browser to go to the app’s page in the Google Play Store.

 Once you get to either the Amazon or Google page, just download and install it again: you will be asked if you want to remove the previous version (which you should) before it will install.

When I had the app redesigned for the latest version, the idea was for it update faster than the previous version and to display graphics. Hope that helps!

 

Reading the Blog on an e-Ink Kindle

Now, if you don’t have a Kindle Fire and have an e-Ink Kindle, don’t feel left out – you can still read the blog on your Kindle Keyboard, Kindle Touch, etc. To cover the cellular and wireless transmission fees, Amazon will charge your account just 99 cents per month; of that 99 cents per month, Amazon gets 69 cents and I get 30 cents. As you can probably guess, I am not getting rich off of this but it has allowed me to purchase a few woodworking tools (one of my hobbies is making custom pens using a lathe).

Amazon will allow you to try out the blog’s delivery on your e-Ink Kindle for free for a two-week period and, if you don’t cancel within that two-week period, your account will be charged. If you would like to check out the free two-week trial period of this blog, you can click here or type in www.tinyurl.com/fkblog into your web browser which will open up the blog’s page on the Amazon storefront. From this page on Amazon, just click on the “Subscribe now with 1-click” button on the right-hand side of the page.

 

Donating Kindle Books

Jessica from New Jersey had this question:

I’m a big fan and really look forward to your posts. I’ve gotten A LOT of great books….thanks to you. I have a question…how can I donate a book to a library or give away a book to someone else? I have quite a few books that are not for me but that other people could really enjoy. I look forward to your reply and to your future posts.

 I could read this question one of two ways – do you want to make a one-time donation, or, similar to a paperback or hardback book you own can you give that book away (permanently) to someone else?

I’ll answer the last one first – if you purchased a Kindle book from Amazon, you cannot give it away to anyone. You can let someone else who shares your Amazon account read it at the same time you are, you can loan it to someone (assuming you purchased it), and if you are an Amazon Prime member you can borrow one book per month but you can’t give it away. I won’t get into the rationale or the reasons of why or why not, but that’s Amazon’s rule – primarily in an effort to stop illegal copying.

If you want to make a one-time donation to a library or other organization, you probably should check with your local library on their policies and procedures of being able to donate electronic books to the library: if they don’t have a policy – and that may be the case for most libraries – why not work with the library and help them develop one?

If you want to give a book as a gift to someone, and so I won’t be accused of favoring one political party over the other I’ll use both The New Jim Crow and The Amateur book I mentioned above as an example, here is how you can do it (this procedure will work with any book in the Amazon Kindle store):

• Go to the book’s page in the Amazon Kindle Store. For The New Jim Crow click here or type in http://amzn.to/Pbs0t4 into your web browser. For The Amateur click here or type in http://amzn.to/RdFYON into your web browser.
• If you clicked on either of those links, you should have the book’s page in the Amazon Kindle Store open.
• On the right-hand side of the book’s page in the Amazon Kindle store, just below the “Buy now with 1-click” icon you are familiar with, you will see an icon titled “Give as a Gift;” click the “Give as a Gift” icon.
• You will be asked to sign in to your Amazon account.
• Once you have signed in, a new screen will open up to complete the gift purchase. Fill in the requested information, including the recipient’s email address. You can schedule it for delivery on a certain date, such as to be sent on someone’s birthday, anniversary, etc. or have the coupon delivered to you in case you wanted to personally deliver the coupon / gift certificate.
• There is also a space to enter a personalized message (up to 300 characters) to wish the recipient happy birthday, wish you were voting Democrat / Republican, you name it!

 

Well, looking at my trusty word counter in Microsoft Word I see I’m past 1,500 words. If you read this far, whew!  Thanks!

I hope you have a great rest of the week-

Michael

 

Want to have this blog sent wirelessly to your e-Ink Kindle vs. reading it on your computer? Try out the free two-week trial subscription! Click here for the Amazon page of the Free Kindle Books and Tips blog or type in http://www.tinyurl.com/fkblog into your web browser.

Check out our Facebook page and give us a “like” by clicking here or typing in http://www.facebook.com/fkbooks into your web browser!

It’s time for another rambling post…

 

Kindle Fire Winner

 

With the most recent giveaway of the Kindle Fire, the first name drawn from the entrants didn’t contact me (still haven’t heard from her) so I was forced to draw another name; Jennifer A. of San Diego contacted me promptly and has received her brand new Kindle Fire on Friday.  She said she already had a Kindle Fire, but she was going to give this one to her husband who kept “borrowing” hers to play with and read books.  I hope both of you enjoy your Fires!

You may recall I launched this giveaway in an effort to re-populate the blog’s Facebook page after being forced to take the original one down.  Our little community has managed to re-connect with about half of the previous participants: if you would like to stop by and take a look at it, you can click here or type in http://www.facebook.com/fkbooks into your web browser.  While you’re there, why not give the page a “Like?”

If you do stop by the blog’s Facebook page, make sure you check out the “Recent Posts by Others” section on the right-hand side: independent authors are free to post about their free book offers, and they are posting in this section.

 

Refurbished Kindle Fires

 

Yesterday, I told you Amazon was running a deal on refurbished Kindle Fires: for just $159, or $40 less than a new Kindle Fire, you can get a refurbished Fire that looks brand new and comes with free shipping and the same one-year warranty as a new one.  There are still some left, so if you want one you can click here                         or type in http://bit.ly/firedeal into your web browser.

 

Default Dictionary on an e-Ink Kindle

 

This seems to be the week people are asking me about the dictionary pre-loaded on your Kindle.

Your Kindle comes pre-loaded with a dictionary, which is handy at times to look up various words and other things you may not know the definition or context the author is using.  For example, the standard dictionary on my Kindle is called The New Oxford American Dictionary, and is the 2008 version published by the Oxford University Press; I find it ironic an American dictionary is published by a company with a UK-sounding name, as we don’t use the Queen’s version of English over here but then again, I have a strange sense of humor.

Sense of humor aside, that brings up the point I want to make: what if you want to use some other dictionary, say in another language or one that uses the Queen’s English, or Spanish, a specialized topic, etc.?  Amazon has a special category with well over 100 dictionaries that can be changed to be your default dictionary.  You can click here or type in http://bit.ly/kindledictionary into your computer’s web browser and shop away.

 

Want a medical dictionary?  They have it: click here for an example.

 

Spanish to English?  It’s the #1 dictionary in this section: click here for an example.

 

English to French?  Click here for an example.

 

Looking for a Bible dictionary?  Click here for an example.

 

A review of the Top 20 best-selling dictionaries you can make as your default Kindle dictionary has most of the “major” languages (defined in terms of the world’s population), each of which you can put on your Kindle.

 

The next question you will have is, “how do I make one of these my default dictionary” vs. staying with the default New Oxford dictionary.  Of course I am going to tell you it is pretty easy (because it is), and here is how you do it:

 

1. I’ll start off with you need to buy or acquire from one of the free sites a new dictionary; I would stick with one from the Amazon Kindle store as they have been formatted and tested to work with your Kindle – I know, that’s not a free book, but the point I want to make is you want to make sure it works (and not giving you a bogus definition to boot).  Additionally, if you don’t have another dictionary on your Kindle the following instructions will not work at all.
2. Once you have acquired this new dictionary and have it on your Kindle, go to your Kindle’s Home screen (press the “Home” button).
3. Press the “Menu” button.
4. Scroll down and select the “Settings” option.
5. Press the “Menu” button again.
6. Move the controller to underline the dictionary you want to use and select it.

 

Hope that helps!

 

Traveling with a Kindle

 

Sharon E. sent me this note:

Michael, first thank you for all the free offers of books.  I have accumulated quite a few and enjoy them very much.  We are getting ready to leave (in 3 weeks) on an Alaskan cruise and I am wondering about reading my Kindle while on the ship.  Do I need to download the books I want to read before leaving so that I will not have to use the wi-fi onboard ship?  The cost for internet service on the ship is expensive.  Can I read in the Kindle without the internet being turned on?
I know I do here at home, but I haven’t downloaded the full books yet as some are in the Cloud.  This may not make a bit of sense.  By the way, I just knew I was going to win that Kindle Fire this time, but I didn’t.  Congrats to the one that did.  Thank you for your help.

If you have a Kindle with 3G, accessing the Internet should not be a problem as long as you are onshore or in port.  If you are relying upon the ship’s wireless, it can be a challenge and is quite expensive: my family went on a cruise last year and, while I was able to connect via 3G when we were in port (Mexico, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica), the Wi-Fi service on the ship while at sea was expensive, spotty at best, and extremely unreliable – even in the areas where they said it was a Wi-Fi hotspot (we were on Royal Caribbean).

I had a lot of books loaded on my Kindle as a just in case – I actually have way too many books on my main Kindle as it is.  If I were you, I would download at least half a dozen books or more to your Kindle before you leave.  Nothing could be worse than just having a few books on your Kindle and, while at sear with no capability to connect to the Internet, realize (a) the book you’re reading now is bad and you’re ready to move on, followed by (b) not having the capability to move on to another book because your Kindle was empty.

Your Kindle will store hundreds of books electronically: it costs nothing ot kep the books on your Kindle, so why not leave them there until you are done with them?

 

Anyway, that’s enough rambling for now…I hope each of you are having a great weekend!

Michael