I am a big fan of kindles.  I vastly prefer digital books (either audio or kindle) to paper.  Part of it is connivence, part of it is clutter.  The only real place that I read paper books instead of ebook is on a plane.  But soon I should be able to read a kindle throughout the plane ride (instead of just over 10,000 feet as the rules now state.)

After a long campaign by Nick Bilton (and others) to force the FAA to actually give a reason for the kindle ban, and then to force them to actually test their theories instead of making untested assertions, the FAA has agreed.

According to reports, the FAA has been testing and plans to allow Kindles and other ereaders to be read at any time on the flight.  The rule change is expected to happen before the end fo the year.

If you are concerned about this, this post by Nick Bilton is good background on why kindles can’t interfere with plane navigation or electronics.  Also FAA has allowed (and encouraged) pilots to use iPads in the cockpit throughout the flight since Dec 1, 2011 and there have been no incidents.

The Kindle Touch, a now discontinued, Kindle has a major software upgrade today.  The Touch now has an entirely new menu and interface to make it almost exactly like the Kindle Paperwhite. The new Kindle Touch Software upgrades the firmware to 5.3.2.1.

Whispersync for Voice (ability to sync in between Audible.com Audiobooks and Kindle books) is now working on the Touch.  I believe from reading the documentation that unlike the Paperwhite you can both listen to the audiobook and read the kindle book on the Touch directly.  The Paperwhite does not have speakers or headphone jack so this is one area where you might be better off with the older Touch than the newer Paperwhite.

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Amazon announced an update (5.3.4) to the Paperwhite software.  If you have a Paperwhite you can make sure it is connected to wifi and it will likely update itself eventually.  If you want to force it to update, you can manually download and update the Kindle.

From what I can tell, no one has figured out what this update is for.  It is listed as a ‘general improvements’ update, but all of the coverage I have seen says that no one can tell what it does.  Likely it is fixing some small bugs and/or improving the background code.

English: Logo of Marvel Comics (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A few years ago before I started regularly blogging when I had first picked up my iPad, I started reading comic books on the iPad.  I had never read a lot of comic books. But I love the story lines that I new from cartoons and movies.

What kept me from really getting into comic books at the time was the fact that I could get Marvel Unlimited on my computer for $60 a year, but I had to purchase individual comics on the iPad.  It has taken nearly 3 years, but it appears that Marvel believes that the iPad is here to stay.  Marvel Unlimited for iPad is now available.

The subscription is $9.99 a month, or $119.88 a year (twice as much as the computer only Marvel Unlimited), but right now it is 50% off, or $59.88.  CNet says it is a very 1.0 experience.  You cannot try the unlimited for free.  But there are several free comics that you can read to get a sense of the experience.  Zooming and page turns are a bit clunky, but the visuals are very good.

Right now there are about 13000 comic books available, but they are all at least 6 months old.  There is a limit to only 6 comics that can be downloaded for offline reading at a time.

h/t goodereader

Goodereader.com posted today that iTunesU has passed the 1 billion textbooks download since opening in.  iTunes was launched in 2005 as a partnership with Stanford.  The partnership expanded to more schools in 2007 and then this last 2005 year a dedicated app was released.  Now there are more than 1200 colleges and universities and more than 1200 K-12 schools using iTunes U.

That seems to be a pretty big deal.  More info at goodereader.com

Related articles

• iTunes U Hits One Billion Downloads of Free Educational Content
• Apple says iTunes U downloads top 1 billion

Update: The new update to 3.6.2 is out and is safe.  If you updated to 3.6.2 and did not open the app, updating to 3.6.2 and then opening the app is safe.  (At least it was safe for me.)

Lilliputing and a few other sites are reporting that Amazon has said to not upgrade the current 3.6.1 Kindle app on iOS.

The update will wipe all books and settings from your device and force you to re-download your books and re-register your device.

Bookish.com, a new book recommendation website, has entered the fray.

Bookish uses recommendation algorithms like Amazon or Goodreads, but also real editors to make suggestions.

I have only played with it briefly, but I have not been incredibly impressed.  You enter a book and it gives you recommendations.  More books entered, the better the recommendations supposed to be.

The basic problem with Bookish is that it does not seem to fit a need.

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Seal of the United States Department of Justice (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have posted about ebook price fixing settlements in the past.  The short version is that the US Department of Justice sued 5 of the 6 major publishing houses as well as Apple for colluding to fix the prices of their books.  That is because they all signed an agreement for what they call Agency Pricing.  Agency pricing said that no one could sell the books at any price other than the price set by the publisher.

By definition this is price fixing.  The publisher said that with ebook, the ebook stores such as Amazon are not actually the retailer, but but an agent for the sales, so it was not price fixing because it is the publishers themselves that are the retailers.

Macmillan was the last of the publishers to reach a settlement with the DOJ according to CNet and other new sources.  Unless there is a settlement prior, Apple is schedule to go trial in June for orchestrating the price fixing agreement.

Amazon announced in October that under the terms of prior settlements, consumers that purchased ebooks under Agency pricing model from April 2010 to May 2012 will be entitled to $0.30 to $1.32 per book purchased depending on a formula that a judge is expected to approve today.

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If there is something that is lacking for the kindle, it is book management.  Many people are like me and have increasingly large ebook libraries and no good way to manage them.  Calibre has been the main option.  I use Calibre primarily to convert books between format or to correct book metadata.  But I have always thought Calibre was missing the boat on device syncing and working with Amazon on document management.

Scida is a new app for Mac design to just manage Kindles, Kindle books and Kindle Collections.

Scida is trying something different from Calibre.  So when I first tried it out I was not sure what it did. It does not convert between formats, it does not download metadata for books (although you can correct book metadata).

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Crossway Impact is a reward program from Crossway Books.  There is a one time registration fee (but you choose what that fee is) and then you get 25% off of everything you buy from Crossway.org, flat rate $5 shipping on everything except case quantities) and exclusive monthly offers.

Yesterday Crossway added a new ebook benefit.  If you purchase a paperback or hardcover of a book from Crossway, then you can also purchase the ebook version for 75% off.

One of the unique things about the Crossway Impact program is that 5% of all revenue from Impact members will be donated to fund the distribution of the Global Study Bible to ministries around the world.

The only problem with the program is that it only can be used at the time of purchase.  So you cannot later decide to get an ebook or get ebooks for books you have already purchased.