Month: August 2010
Things to Do Before Your Kindle 3 or Kindle Wi-Fi Arrives: Purchase an Extended Warranty to Protect Your Kindle
Your Kindle 3 comes with a one-year standard warranty on materials and workmanship, but if you want to extend and expand that coverage to a two- or three-year warranty that also covers accidental drops and spills, you will need to act within 30 days of your purchase. So why not take care of this important detail before your Kindle arrives so you can clear the decks for reading when you have it in hand!
First, here are the basics on your standard warranty, with more small print on Amazon’s Kindle 3 Standard Warranty page:
Amazon’s subsidiary Service Net Warranty Solutions LLC offers a 2-year extended warranty currently priced at $49.99 for the Kindle 3 with 3G+Wi-Fi
- Provides replacement of your Kindle for any device failures under ordinary use. Adds accidental coverage so your Kindle is covered for mishaps like drops or spills.
- The plan provides coverage against accidental damage under ordinary consumer use for two years from the date of original retail purchase.
- Includes free shipping both ways, for your damaged and replacement Kindle (shippin
g within the U.S. only). - Customer service and claim support available 6 am to 10 pm PT, 365 days a year — call (877) 441-3836 for warranty claims.
- The 2-Year Extended Warranty is available for any Kindle (6″ Display, Free 3G + Wi-Fi, Latest Generation) shipped within the past 30 days. Only available to U.S. customers.
But the warranties listed above and offered by Amazon’s subsidiary may not be the best value proposition available. SquareTrade, a well-regarded provider of electronics warranties, offers 3-year extended warranties for both the $189 Kindle
The SquareTrade warranties also required that you purchase them within 30 days of your initial Kindle purchase date.
SquareTrade was founded in 1999 and has been providing electronics warranties since 2004, initially in partnership with eBay.
Things to Do Before Your Kindle 3 or Kindle Wi-Fi Arrives: Start Building Your Kindle Library Now
For that matter, you can begin building your Kindle library even if you haven’t ordered a Kindle at all, by downloading the free Kindle software and registering a compatible device with the Kindle Store. (Of course this only applies to people who have access to a PC, Mac, BlackBerry, Android-compatible device, iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch. If you don’t have any of these devices, you should probably stop reading right now and go out to check the barn to see if your horses need water!)
Why would you want to spend any time building your Kindle library before you have your new Kindle?
Well, for starters, it could save you a ton of money on great reading. Each month there are dozens of new free ebook listings in the Kindle Store, and many of the best ones last only a few days. If you wait until your Kindle arrives you may miss out on many of these offerings. (To see the latest listings of free promotional titles that are temporarily available to purchase whether you have a Kindle or not, check out the latest Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alerts here.)
But that’s not all. When your Kindle arrives, you’re going to want to be able to start reading right away. By acting now, you can make sure that your Kindle arrives packed with ebooks that you’ve been waiting to read and free samples that will give you a good sense of what’s inside any book’s digital covers before you make a purchase.
Within hours of placing your Kindle order, you will receive an email from “Amazon Kindle Support” welcoming you to Amazon Kindle. Once you receive this email, your Kindle has already been automatically registered to the same Amazon.com account you used to make your purchase. This enables you to shop, purchase, and download books, newspapers and magazines — not only “wirelessly from your Kindle right out of the box,” but before you even get the box. Even if you haven’t ordered a Kindle yet, you can activate your Amazon account for Kindle content purchases, by downloading the free Kindle software and registering one of the compatible devices listed above with the Kindle Store.
A Choice of Devices. Whenever you purchase any Kindle book, blog, periodical, or news feed, you will see a pull-down menu right next to the Buy button that allows you to choose where you would like to send your download. For many Kindle owners, the only choice listed is a single Kindle. But if you have multiple Kindles or have downloaded and registered a free Kindle App for a PC, Mac, BlackBerry, Android-compatible device, iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch, those choices will be shown.
No Kindle Required. One misleading statement that you will see often in news and blog stories about the Kindle is that the free Kindle apps for other devices “allow readers to read Kindle books that they’ve previously downloaded to their Kindles.” It isn’t that the statement isn’t true. It’s just that it is only half the story. All of those apps also allow you to purchase, download, and read a Kindle book even if you’ve never owned or ordered a Kindle.
Your Kindle Archive. Once you purchase and download a Kindle ebook, you own a license to read that book on any Kindle-compatible device that is registered to your account (although that license is subject to some limitations regarding the number of devices). Even if you download the ebook originally to your Kindle, the ebook remains in your Archived Kindle Items and you can later download it and read it on any other device. The same applies if you download it originally to another device and later want to read it on your Kindle. So, the good news here is that, if you begin building a Kindle library in advance of your Kindle’s shipment, you don’t have to wait for the Kindle to arrive to begin reading.
Free Samples. Once you have a Kindle account at Amazon.com, with any qualifying device including a computer or smartphone, you will also be able to download free samples of any Kindle books that you’re considering for later. If a Kindle book is free, you won’t want to bother with the sample. But downloading and checking out samples of market-priced ebooks can be a good way of managing what can sometimes be an overwhelming list of ebooks in which you are interested.
Blogs and Periodicals. You’ll want to wait until you have a Kindle in hand before you subscribe to periodicals or blogs like Kindle Nation Daily, since — as of right now — you can’t access these downloads via Kindle apps on devices other than the Kindle itself, and waiting until your Kindle arrives will allow you to make the most of the 14-day free trial at the outset of any Kindle blog or periodical subscription.
Getting Familiar with Shopping in the Kindle Store. Kindle owners quickly become accustomed to two pretty different presentations of the Kindle Store:
- One, the Kindle Store presentation on Amazon’s main website, looks almost exactly like the Amazon bookstore from which you may have been buying books for years, with the same familiar layout of search, sort, browse, categories, reviews and Buy buttons to which you have grown accustomed, as well as immediate access to help screens, account information, and management of your Kindle.
- Another, the Kindle Store that is built in on the Kindle, is far more basic, with tiny fonts and far less first-screen information. This is the store that comes up when you select “Shop in Kindle Store” from the Kindle menu.
While the inbuilt Kindle Store can be delightfully convenient and almost magical when you hear about a book and decide to order it on the spot, many Kindle owners prefer to do most of their Kindle content buying from the Kindle Store on the main website because of the features mentioned above as well as the greater control and visibility that the website offers with respect to price, payment method, device destination, and related issues.
However, if you are comfortable using the Webkit browser on the Kindle 3, you also have the benefit now of being able to access the website’s Kindle Store, zoom in on descriptions and other information directly on your Kindle, and order Kindle or other Amazon items over the web directly from your Kindle. Just click on this link while reading on your Kindle and press the menu button to select “Bookmark this page” when the Kindle Store page appears in your Kindle browser.
Kindle 3 Arrives in the UK!
Kindle 3 units are already out for delivery to many thousands of Amazon customers in the US, but it’s already Thursday afternoon across the pond and the first Kindle 3 shipments have arrived to happy new Kindle owners in the UK! As Sarah A. of Leeds posted several hours ago on the Amazon Kindle Facebook page, “It’s here!”
Sarah: IT’S HERE! My Kindle is currently charging up in front of me. Thank you Amazon UK! x
Avid readers in the UK can place their orders here for the £149.00 Kindle 3G+Wifi
or here for the £109.00 Kindle Wi-Fi
.
Welcome to Kindle Nation
!
Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert for Thursday, August 26, 2010: A new preview from Cornelia Funke, plus Steven Hawk's "Peace Warrior" (Today's Sponsor)
A preview from bestselling novelist Cornelia Funke leads today’s additions to our Free Book Alert listings, and even if you haven’t received your Kindle yet you can begin building your Kindle library from our array of temporarily available free promotional titles….
Six hundred years later, his body is retrieved from the frozen, arctic lake where he perished. Re-animated by a team of scientists, Grant awakens to a civilization that has abolished war. A civilization that has outlawed violence and cherishes Peace above all else. A civilization that has been enslaved by an alien race called the Minith.
Grant is humankind’s final hope against the alien menace. He must be… the Peace Warrior.
About the Author
Steve spent six years as a Military Intelligence Specialist with the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division before joining the ranks of corporate America. He has a B.S. in Business Management from Western Governor’s University and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). He has traveled extensively across the United States and, at various times, has lived in Georgia, North Carolina, West Virginia, Massachusetts, California and Idaho. Steve Hawk currently resides in Boise, Idaho with his wife, Juanita, and their two chihuahuas. Together, they have a blended family of five sons: Paul, Neto, Aaron, Taylor and Steven Jr.
Click here to download Peace Warrior (or a free sample) from the UK Kindle Store
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Each day’s list is sponsored by one paid title. We encourage you to support our sponsors!
* Authors, Publishers, Kindle Accessory Manufacturers:
Interested in learning more about sponsorship? Just click on this link for more information: Click here to sponsor a Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert!* * *
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(Sponsorship can take a number of different forms and implies no endorsement either of or by Kindle Nation or a sponsoring company or individual.)
Protect Your Kindle – Check Out Today’s Kindle Nation Accessory Advisor
Free Listings in the US Kindle Store!
(For our UK Kindle Free Book Alerts click here.)
Pre-Order Now and the Preview will be delivered free to your Kindle on September 14.
The full book, Reckless
, is priced at $11.99 and can be pre-ordered here for download on Sept. 14. 
Valley Forge Free
Preview: George Washington and the Crucible of Victory
by William R. Forstchen, Newt Gingrich, and Albert S. Hanser
The full book, Valley Forge: George Washington and the Crucible of Victory
, is ridiculously priced at $14.99.
The 1-2-3 Money Plan: The Three Most Important Steps to Saving and Spending Smart – Gregory Karp
Fire Your Stock Analyst!: Analyzing Stocks On Your Own – Harry Domash
How to Design a Great Customer Experience – Fred Wiersema
Pre-Order Now and the Preview will be delivered free to your Kindle on September 7.
Set against the backdrop of Winter Carnival in Quebec City….
The full book, Bury Your Dead, is priced at $11.99 and can be pre-ordered here for download on September 28.
Pre-Order Now and the Preview will be delivered free to your Kindle on September 7.
The full book, ME, MYSELF AND WHY?, is priced at $11.99 and can be pre-ordered here
for download on September 28. 
Here’s the author’s description: “Finding the perfect hero and heroine for a romance novel can turn a writer’s hair gray–that’s why I advertise for them. Interviewing characters can be exhausting, and getting them to stick to the plot? Well, it doesn’t always work that way. And then you find out they’re talking about you behind your back–Meet Randy and Sarah, the hero and heroine of Finding Sarah and Hidden Fire, in a funny and illuminating look at what goes on behind the scenes of the romance writing process.” Sounds a little meta, but lots of fun.
I Thought It Was You: Grimm’s Circle, Book 2.5 – Romance Short Story – Shiloh Walker
- Hour of the Hunter: With Bonus Material – by J. A. Jance Pre-Order, August 24, 2010
- The Girl on the Beach: A Bess Crawford Mystery – Charles Todd (Pre-Order, August 31, 2010)
- The Static of the Spheres – Eric Kraft
- The Wild’s Call – Jeri Smith-Ready
- The Hunters – Jason Pinter
- Autobiography of a Yogi (Reprint of Original 1946 Edition)
– Paramhansa Yogananda
- More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea
– Tom Reynolds
- Seducing Jane Porter
– Dominique Adair
- All in Time
– Ciana Stone
-
- Shaken (Teaser Chapters) (Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels Mysteries)
– J.A. Konrath
- The Lost Hero Chapter Sneak Peek
– Rick Riordan
- The Reincarnationist Series
– M.J. Rose
- The Last Song: Exclusive Free Kindle Content
– Nicholas Sparks and Touchstone Pictures
$139 Kindle Wi-Fi is Outselling Its $189 Kindle 3G+Wi-Fi Counterpart
Less than 24 hours after Amazon announced that it has commenced shipments of its new Kindle 3 models, the company’s website makes it clear that its brand new Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, 6″ Display, Graphite – Latest Generation
It’s still possible, of course, that the aggregate total of sales for the two different color models of the $189 Kindle 3G Wireless Reading Device, Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 6″ Display, Graphite, 3G Works Globally – Latest Generation
Although the $189 models proved more popular with Kindle Nation citizens in the recently closed Summer 2010 Kindle Nation Citizen Survey, respondents did make it clear that they would be buying boatloads of $139 Kindles as holiday gifts for household members.
For more information on the new Kindle 3 units, see Ten Reasons the New Kindle 3 or Kindle Wi-Fi is a Must if You Love to Read … And a Few Minor Drawbacks (Excerpts from Kindle Nation Dailys Complete Users Guide to Your New Kindle 3 or Kindle Wi-Fi)
Now Available in the Kindle Store! "Ten Reasons the New Kindle 3 or Kindle Wi-Fi is a Must if You Love to Read … And a Few Minor Drawbacks"
Over 10,000 Kindle Nation citizens have already read it free on our blog or had it pushed to their Kindles with a subscription
The review constitutes the first chapter of the forthcoming Kindle Nation Daily’s Complete User’s Guide for Your Kindle 3 or Kindle Wi-Fi, to be published in September.
The book linked here, however, is the 5,000-word first chapter only and, as I say, it is available free on our blog.
