The Kindle Chronicles

News - Rand McNally introduces a Road Atlas specifically designed for the Kindle. Featuring a brief telephone interview with Joel Minster, Rand McNally's senior vice president and chief cartographer. Tech Tip - Will DeLamater of EduKindle creates a sort of Kindle App - Notepad.Interview - Joshua Tallent of Kindle Formatting talks about how to format books for the Kindle, Digital Rights Management, and other e-topics. Josh will be teaching a session in February at the O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing conference.  An example of his formatting work is Lost Sonnets of Cyrano de Bergerac.  The Medialoper's encounter with Jeff Bezos is described here.Quote - from Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson.Comments - Dan Meyer, John B, and Linda Hopkins.   If you'd like to be on the Kindle Chronicles Email Alert List, please drop me an email at PodChronicles@gmail.com . You'll be the first to know when new episodes of the podcast are posted. Next week's interview, via Skype: Starbuck, the online name of an Army Captain o

News - Publisher's Weekly puts Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos on its cover as "Person of the Year."Tech Tip - No worries, yet, about ever being charged 10 cents when you convert a .pdf or other document to Kindle format for your Kindle via email.Interview - Steve Shaw, creator of the Kindlelicious blog . What's on his Kindle: Blonde Faith by Walter Mosley, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengetsu, Spin Control by Chris Moriarty, The Red and the Black by Stendhal, The Prince by Machiavelli.Quote - words of love from The Cossacks by Leo Tolstoy. From the MobileReference Classic Books Collection. Comments - Donna Smith via Linda Hopkins, Tali from Israel, Dan Meyers, Greg Keck, a Twitterer named Jason Packham, and a blogger named Munsey.Music by "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective" CD by Public Transit Recording, courtesy of IODA Promonet.

News - Via Mike Elgan and HotelChatter.com , we learn that the famed Algonquin Hotel in New York City is loaning Kindles to guests.  Jan Zlendich of The Kindle Reader blog notes that 46 of the 50 titles on Bookmarks Magazine's list of the 50 best books of 2008 are available for the Kindle.Tech Tip - Amazon Mobile on the iPhone/iPod Touch is pretty neat, but you can't use it yet to order a Kindle book.  For the adventurous - how to update your customized photo screensavers on the Kindle. (Thanks to MobileRead forum member Phuocle for the steps.)Interview - Will DeLamater, creater of the EduKindle blog, has evidence that the Kindle is making inroads in schools.  Plus interesting educational developments for the Kindle in Utah and at the Harvard Medical School.Quote - The beginning of The Dip by Seth Godin.  How to be a successful quitter.Comments - Karen, Linda Hopkins, and Dan.Upcoming interviews: Steve Shaw, creator of the Kindlelicious blog; Joshua Tallent of Kindle Formatting, and Capt. Crispin J. Burke, wh

News: The Kindle is sold out just in time for Christmas.  Will the one I ordered today turn out to be a Kindle 2.0? Should Amazon say so? Also, a secret New York Times memo reports more than 10,000 Kindle NYT subscriptions (thanks to Abhi for the tip), and Kindle NowNow is GoneGone.  Tech Tip: Try pdfdownload.org for a one-click way to move web content to your Kindle.  The results won't always look as good as this, though.Interview: Linda Hopkins, an engaged and engaging listener of the podcast from southern California. Her first Kindle read was Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. She subscribes to the following blogs: Amazon Daily (free), Reuters Health (99 cents a month) and Reuters Top Stories ($1.99). Quote: Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe.Comments: Karen Hagglund and Dan.

News - In a TechFlash Q&A, Ian Freed says no to video on the Kindle. Tech Tip -Igor Skochinsky's motherload of Kindle tech stuff.Interview - Sriram K. Peruvemba, Vice President of Marketing at E Ink Corporation, interviewed at the company's headquarters in Cambridge, Mass.  The audio podcast contains excerpts of our conversation, and this video has the full interview. Quote - "Senior Moment" by Dana Milbank of The Washington Post.Comments - Audio from Peggy, text from Julie Booth.

News: Thanks to listener Linda Hopkins, we learn from Amazon that Kindle samples are NOT designed to timeout.Tech Tip: How to put [20,000] 2,000 classics on your Kindle using MobileReference (thanks to Nick for suggesting this one) - 1.    Connect your Kindle to your computer with USB cable.2.    In your computer’s web browser, go to MobileReference3.    In the main area of the web site, not the column on the left, scroll down to the section titled “Fiction Books.” 4.    In the last subcategory of that section, titled “Collection:”, click on “Classic Books Collection. Over 2,000 complete works. Only $19.99.”5.    For use on the Kindle, it doesn’t seem to matter which platform you choose; I’ve just tested the “Desktop/Notebook/Tablet PC” platform, and that worked fine.  So in the row for “Desktop/Notebook/Tablet PC” platform, go over one column to the “Trial Version” column and click “Download Now.”6.    You will be asked to enter your email address, so do that and then click on the green “Download Application

News: Case of the disappearing Kindle Store sample, from Joe Wikert's Kindleville blog. Tech Tip: From David Emberson's Kindle Cookbook, a clever keyboard shortcut that zooms you through books 1/20th at a time.Interview: My wife's opinion of her Kindle improves during her first month of use, despite her biggest fear coming true.  NOTE: If you know some great sources for contemporary mystery writers for the Kindle, please let me know, so I can pass them along to Darlene.Quote: from a book about Afghanistan being read this week by the President-Elect, Ghost Wars by Steve Coll.Comments: Do you read YOUR Kindle during takeoff and landing?  And, good news on book sales from David Emberson.Please feel free to leave me a voice comment by calling 206-666-2713 or a text comment at PodChronicles@gmail.com or as a comment here on the show notes page.

News: The Motley Fool asserts that Oprah has saved Amazon.Tech Tip: What are those white boxes to the right of some items on the home screen?Interview: Dave Emberson, author of The Kindle Cookbook: How to Do Everything the Manual Doesn't Tell You.Quote: Technology Review's editor Jason Pontin has some advice for the next president.Comments: Stephen Windwalker, Kesler Woodward, and Linda Hopkins.You can leave a voice comment by calling 206-666-2713 or by emailing me an .mp3 audio file at PodChronicles@gmail.com .  You can leave text comments at that email address or here on the show notes page. I'd love to hear from you!Music for my podcast is “Ra-Monk” by Eval Manigat on the “Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective” CD by Public Transit Recording, courtesy of IODA Promonet.

Kindle News: Oprah gets behind the Kindle in a big way, including a $50-off coupon good till November 1st. Also, Amazon reports that 10 percent of its total book titles sold are in Kindle format. Tech Tip: From The Kindle Cookbook by David Emberson, how to put the MobileRead guide on your Kindle for free book downloads.  (Other good Kindle guides mentioned: Decoding the Kindle by Jim Cheshire and Complete User's Guide to the Amazing Amazon Kindle by Stephen Windwalker.Interview: Evan Schnittman, vice president of business development at Oxford University Press, speculates on why November 19, 2008 may be another big day in the history of the Kindle.Kindle Quote: Don Juan by Lord Byron, in French.Comment: Linda Hopkins finds the most expensive book available at the Kindle Store.  Be careful before you click on "purchase".....I'd love to hear your comments. You can leave a voice message at 206-666-2713 or email me at PodChronicles@gmail.com .

Interview: Abhi, creator of the Amazon Kindle, Books and Amazon News Blog and the Kindle Social Network for Book Lovers, talks to me from London and details how you can win a free Kindle if you join and participate in his social network before the end of October. Kindle Quote: The Nigger of Narcissus by Joseph Conrad.Kindle Comment: A promising overture from someone at Amazon...

Kindle News: Faked Photos or a real look at the Kindle 2?Tech Tip: A recent newbie (me) walks you around the Kindle Korner Yahoo group.Interview: Laurel Hicks, a moderator of Kindle Korner. On her Kindle: War and Peace by Tolstoy, Works of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov from MobileReference and the blogs Opinionated and An Unamplified Voice, an opera blog. Kindle Quote: Mmm-good: Campbell Soup fares pretty well in the financial debacle.  An article in Investor's Business Daily.Comments: Linda Hopkins, Jimmy Buffet video, and a good correction from Greg. 

Kindle News: Forbes gets it wrong on the iPhone v. the Kindle.Tech Tip: How to find out there's no Whispernet in Missoula, Montana. Click here for Sprint coverage map.Interview: My wife, Darlene, opens her Kindle and starts using it.Quote: The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield.Comments: Bob Boyken, Sang-Won Kim, Heather Hollick, and Linda.

Kindle News: Amazon passes a milestone with 180,000 titles available in the Kindle Store.Tech Tip: A light for reading your Kindle in bed when your spouse is trying to sleep.Interview: Jim Cheshire, author of Decoding the Kindle.Kindle Quote: from Spirit House, a Vincent Calvino Novel by Christopher G. Moore.Kindle Comments: audio from Bryan Person, comments on the show notes page from Greg Pyles and Paul. 

Kindle News: Forbes reports on two more would-be Kindle Killers from Plastic Logic and iRex Technologies.Tech Tip: My 79-year-old mother's clever idea for printing a Kindle page didn't pan out, but I did learn about the expanded location tool from Jim Cheshire's new book, Decoding the Kindle.  Interview: Andy Ihnatko, technology columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. Kindle Quote: from McCain's Promise: Aboard the Straight Talk Express with John McCain and a Whole Bunch of Actual Reporters, Thinking about Hope by the late David Foster Wallace and Jacob Weisberg.Kindle Comments: Rusty from the show notes page and an audio comment from Paul Higginbotham.  Music for my podcast is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective" CD by Public Transit Recording, courtesy of IODA Promonet.To leave an audio comment, please call 206-666-2713.  Email: PodChronicles@gmail.com . Photo of Andy Ihnatko at MacWorld 2008 by Nonie from Melburne, Australia.  Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.  via Wikiped

Kindle News: Kindle snags exclusive for new biographies of Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain.  Jim Cheshire's Decoding the Kindle is released.Tech Tip: How to highlight a section of text which begins on one screen and ends on the next. Also, Jan Zlendich's tip for helping your Kindle make it home if you leave it somewhere.The "What's on Your Kindle Interview?": Heather Hollick of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with a clever way to move lots of reading material from the web to the Kindle as .pdf files.  UPDATE: Here are some items on Heather's Kindle:   Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond   Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin   The Huffington Post blog.Kindle Quote: Human Smoke by Nicholson Baker.Kindle Comments: Al, and Bryce Craig of Santa Barbara, California.Music for my podcast is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective" CD by Public Transit Recording, courtesy of IODA Promonet.To leave an audio comment, please call 206-666-2713.  Ema

Kindle News: Andy Ihnatko's possibly prophetic piece in Macworld titled, "How Apple Could Make e-books work and why Steve Jobs could do what Jeff Bezos hasn't."Tech Tip: How to put your Kindle on cruise control.  (Hat tip to chelsea etitameh on the Kindle  Korner Yahoo Group. )The "What's On Your Kindle?" Interview: Jan Zlendich of Tucson, Arizona, created The Kindle Reader blog while she waited for her Kindle to arrive last year.  In our phone interview on September 3, 2008, she gives a librarian's literate view of the Kindle.  Among the items on her 55 pages of Home screen are the following:  Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar...: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes by Daniel Klein, "Shade" a short story by Stephen Gould available for free download in Kindle format (Mobipocket) from Tor, Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 2,730 Pages by Ammon Shea, and subscriptions to Time, Asimov's Science Fiction, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and the blog TVNewser . Kindle Quote: from The Nigger of Narcissus by

Kindle News: We have fresh rumors of new student-oriented Kindle models coming as soon as September from Andrea James of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Peter Burrows of Business Week's The Tech Beat.  This led John C. Dvorak to increase the warmth of his Kindle assessment compared with his initial scoffing on This Week in Tech just after the Kindle was introduced.  (Note to social-network savvy Amazon exec if you're listening to this podcast: feel free to call me at 303-919-7187 if you'd like to arrange for The Kindle Chronicles to evaluate a review unit of the any new Kindle...)LATE-BREAKING REPORT WHICH DIDN'T MAKE THE PODCAST: Via Jim Cheshire, I see the New York Times today is quoting Craig Berman, Amazon’s chief spokesman, as saying, "One thing I can tell you for sure is that there will be NO new version of the Kindle this year. A new version is possible sometime next year at the earliest.” I hope that's just smoke.Tech Tip: Adrienne Cousins on the Yahoo Kindle Korner group has posted several bookmar

The "What's on Your Kindle?" interview this week is with Joe Wikert, creator of the Kindleville blog and vice president & executive publisher within the Professional Trade Division of John Wiley & Sons.  Here is some of what's on Joe's Kindle:Subscriptions to The New York Times and Time MagazineSamples of Predictably Irrational, Obsessive Branding Disorder, and Nice Guys Can Get the Corner OfficeKindle News - The Financial Times arrives! The EFF asks tough questions of the publishing industry.  Seth Godin gets skeptical.Kindle Tech Tip - QuickFics points us to EchoDitto's fix for partial RSS feeds.  And the difference between Previous Page and Back.Kindle Quote - I can't believe I'm quoting this book...Kindle Comments - dorianN tells how her Kindle saved her from what could have been a very sad fate.  Heather Hollick wins a prize for saving a podcaster from laziness.Music for my podcast is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective" CD by Public Transit Recording, courtes

This is the .mp3 version of episode 5 featuring an interview with Joe Wikert.

This is the .mp3 version of Episode 4, which features a "What's on Your Kindle?" interview with Bill Bulger, 74, in active retirement after serving for 17 years as president of the Massachusetts State Senate and seven years as president of the University of Massachusetts.