Tag: amazon

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My New Kindle

Kindle

So when the new WiFi only Kindle was announced for $140, I knew I had to get one. I’ve been wanting to get back into reading for some time. The last 2 fiction books I read were by Ursula Le Guin (Earthsea) and I had a lot of fun. I found out that I really missed my imagination.

Kindle vs Nook

The WiFi only edition was sold out really quickly when it was first introduced, but I was allowed to place a back-order. After announcing on Facebook that I was going to get a Kindle, several people had recommended I get the Nook instead because it supported the ePub format which apparently many libraries uses. Wikipedia has a good chart on what formats are supported by different e-Readers.

After looking at the nook and researching on possible workarounds for getting the Kindle to work with other formats, I opted for the Kindle. The Kindle has 3x the battery life and weighs 28% less while maintaining the same sized screen. Maybe the next generation Nook would be better, but at $140, I decided not to wait.

Amazon’s Conversion Service

Amazon has this conversion service where you can email documents to a special email address specifically assigned to your Kindle and it’ll convert to a format that your Kindle can consume. When I was first reading about it, it looked like they charged a small fee for this service. Later I found out that it only costs money if you get the document over 3G. It’s free via WiFi and I have a WiFi only model.

Free Books

The Kindle store has its own Free Books Collections, starting with conversions of popular classics to limited time promotional offers. It also points you to other popular sites to get free books such as Internet Archive, Open Library, Project Gutenberg, and ManyBooks.net.

Initially I was adding free books like crazy to my Kindle, but then I just ended up removing most of them as they just added a lot of clutter.

Asking for Book Recommendations

So I’ve been asking around for book recommendations. Matt recently asked a very similar question on Twitter and I piggy-backed on some of the replies he got. I also got some recommendations from Jeremy. So far I have:

  • The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett
  • The Ender’s/Shadow series by Orson Scott Card
  • The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson
  • A couple books by Neal Stephenson

I also added The Way of Kings and Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson to my list. While looking up on Warbreaker, I found out that he was actually giving away the digital copy of the book on his website: WARBREAKER Rights and Downloads. I was reading up on his experiment with this book and it was rather interesting what he did.

Samples

One thing neat about the Kindle store is that you can sample books before deciding on purchasing. Pretty much withing seconds after clicking on the sample button, it’s already on my Kindle. It’s that simple. I was surprised the sample actually contains ~20% of the book. I guess if you’ve invested your time reading ~20% of the book, you’re pretty much going to get the book.

Getting Mobipocket eBooks to Work on the Kindle

I had gotten my library card for the King County Library System not too long ago and decided to check out how their eBook system worked. The Overdrive system allows you to download books in 2 formats: PDF or Mobipocket. Unfortunately the Kindle doesn’t support PDFs with DRM, but as I was reading up on Mobipocket, apparently Amazon’s proprietary azw format is a derivative of prc (Mobipocket). In fact, you can generate a Mobipocket PID base off your Kindle’s serial number.

Searching online, I had found this blog post: Mobipocket books on Kindle, which provided scripts on how to find out your Mobipocket PID as well as convert the prc to azw format. Reading the comments, someone decided to build a GUI around this: MobiKindle, which works rather well. My only complaint is that it requires me to enter my Kindle serial number every time I restart the application.

Now I can check-out eBooks from the library and read them on my Kindle.

Do note, this software will NOT remove the DRM. It’s just taking advantage of the fact that Amazon’s azw format is essential Mobipocket’s prc format with a bit flipped somewhere.

Calibre

Most places that talk about the Kindle also refer to this Calibre software, which is sort of like a eBook library management application. It contains several built-in converters, connects directly to your e-Reader device, and even talks to Amazon’s email conversion service. It makes it easy for me to back up eBooks and copy them around if needed.

I’ve tried converting several PDFs through Calibre and it does a decent job, but the formatting is usually messed up. I haven’t really tried converting other document types. Calibre also doesn’t handle DRM protected eBooks.

Mobi2Mobi

One of the books I checked out from the library didn’t list the author and I’m somewhat OCD about things like this. So I decided to figure out how to fix that. I thought Calibre would be able to do it since I can actually modify metadata in its library. For some reason I couldn’t get it to work on the azw file I generated. Maybe because it’s DRM protected?

Searching online, I found this application called Mobi2Mobi, which seemed to do what I wanted:

Mobi2mobi is particularly useful in fixing the missing or incorrect Metadata. It may be used on DRM’d ebooks converted using Kindlefix which sometimes causes the metadata to get mangled or on books you’ve downloaded directly from Amazon. It can also be used manipulate the metadata to display in a different way (author “lastname, firstname” or for book organization).

Getting News Articles onto Kindle

There have been several very long New York Times pieces I’ve been meaning to read and I thought it might be worth it to see if I could get them onto the Kindle. The process would be to print the document to PDF and send it to Amazon’s conversion service.

I use PrimoPDF as my PDF printer and it allows me to print to a custom paper size. I’ve found that 90mm x 110mm works really well with the Kindle display. I also disabled headers/footers as it added unnecessary junk to every page.

New York Times on Kindle

There’s probably a better way to do this, but for now this works for me.

Conclusion

So far I’ve only spent a couple hours reading on the Kindle and I really like it. It’s light and easy on the eye.

I did find the page forward/back buttons a bit unintuitive initially. I kept hitting the big left button to go back, but it was really just another forward button. The back button is the little button above the big forward button. However I’m guessing this would become more natural as I use it more.

All in all, I’m having a lot of fun using it and at the end of the day, that’s really what counts.

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AmazonTote

AmazonTote

So during the past few days while I was browsing Amazon.com, I noticed a new logo of a cute bag on many of the item pages I was viewing:

AmazonTote Block

At first I didn’t pay much attention to it as I was just browsing and not really shopping.

However today as I saw the logo a few more times, I decided to take a look at what it really was: What Is AmazonTote?. Apparently it’s sort of an expansion of their AmazonFresh program, but with no minimum purchase required for free shipping. It’s only available at certain zip codes, just like their AmazonFresh program, and they make 1 delivery per week (on the same day of the week), so you can keep adding items into your “tote” and if it’s added before the deadline, it’ll be delivered on your specified date.

Most items I’ve looked at so far seemed eligible for AmazonTote, though I’ve only been looking at books, video games, board games, and blu-rays. But according to their FAQ, items under 50lbs which are in stock and sold directly via Amazon are usually eligible.

1 delivery per week would most likely beat the delivery times I get from Free Super Saver Shipping.

Returning items is even simpler (though I don’t recall the last time I actually returned anything to Amazon). All you have to do is just put the item(s) back in the tote bag and they’ll come pick it up.

You can read up more about the program here: AmazonTote FAQs.

My guess is that AmazonTote is really AmazonFresh v2.0. They already have the AmazonFresh delivery service. If they can make more deliveries to the same area per trip, it’ll lower the shipping cost per order. The zip codes they’re starting with are most likely areas where there’s already a ton of customers using AmazonFresh and that’s why they can offer free shipping for their AmazonTote service. As AmazonFresh becomes more popular in the other areas, I believe you’ll see AmazonTote pop up in more areas.

Another strategy would be if there’s a high enough demand for AmazonTote in a particular area, that’ll allow them to also bring AmazonFresh to that area.

Currently, AmazonTote is available for the following ZIP codes: 98004, 98005, 98006, 98007, 98008, 98033, 98039, 98040, 98052, 98102, 98103, 98105, 98107, 98109, 98112, 98115, 98117, 98119, 98125, 98133, 98199.

If you would like AmazonTote offered in your neighborhood, please contact us.

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Christmas Came A Day Early

My Amazon package wasn’t suppose to come till tomorrow, but I guess the delivery guy decided to bring Christmas a day early!

First I got the 2 books I ordered:

Sh*t My Dad SaysLeast I Could Do Beginnings - Look At Me!

Sh*t My Dad Says is by someone I follow on Twitter (@shitmydadsays) and his dad says the most hilarious stuff. I expect no less than cracking myself up when I read this book. Least I Could Do is a daily web comic which I follow and I love their Sunday strips as that’s when they do the “Beginnings”, a strip about when Rayne was a kid. I’ve been looking forward to pick up The Beginnings comic books for awhile, but they’re quite expensive if you purchase them directly + there’s a hefty shipping fee. So when Amazon decided to sell Look At Me!, I knew I had to pick it up. Now I’m waiting for Amazon to carry the 2nd volume of Least I Could Do Beginnings: Adorableness. I asked the artists during Dragon*Con on when they’ll be making a Rayne kid plush doll and they tell me it’s in the works.

Next we have a box of Creme Roulee Dark Chocolate European Style Rolled Wafers which was on sale for $9 for a box of 6. Who knows how long these are going to last me. Don’t think my scale would be happy with me if I finish these too quickly.

Creme Roulee Dark Chocolate European Style Rolled Wafers

Finally I got myself a nice looking wall clock. I’ve been meaning to get one for my living room for awhile, since I often forget when I should go eat or go to bed when I’m watching TV/movies or playing video games. Whenever friends come over to play Rock Band, 2am just suddenly hits us because no one’s been paying attention to the time. The one I got was the La Crosse Technology WT-3102S 10-Inch Atomic Analog Wall Clock and one neat feature is that it automatically synchronizes the time with radio waves.

wall clockwall clock

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Motorola SURFboard SB5101 Cable Modem

So I finally picked up a Motorola Surfboard SB5101 Cable Modem. Amazon.com finally had a deal for $43.99 – $20 rebate, making it only $23.99 shipped. Well, I had to pay sales tax too, but that’s because I’m in Washington.

There has been discussion on threads if the rebate is valid for Amazon.com given that the rebate form is hosted on Frys.com and that Amazon.com doesn’t actually list the rebate. However on the rebate form, it does state that Amazon.com is a valid retailer to purchase from. Then there was doubt about the UPC matching given that apparently there are 3 UPCs for this particular modem and something about the color of the box.

I got the modem today and the UPC do indeed match (6-12572-14827-3) and mine came in a blue/black box if that matters.

Previously, I had posted my results from Speedtest.net using my D-Link DCM-202 flashed with a special Comcast firmware yielding these results:

speed test with d-link dcm-202

A couple days later, TekMan showed me his results:

TekMan's Motorola SB5101 speed test

I was shocked how much of a jump there is just based on the cable modem alone! At this point I was determined to find a deal and get my own Motorola cable modem.

A week or 2 ago, there was a Circuit City deal for $20 after rebate, but required price matching to Office Depot and the fact that I had to actually visit a store discouraged me from attempting. When I saw this Amazon.com deal on SlickDeals, I knew I had to get it.

I ordered it last week for $44.99 + tax shipped and then it dropped a dollar further to $43.99. I did get my dollar back through Amazon.com’s 30 day price guarantee. Anyway, the modem arrived today and I called Comcast to update the MAC address so I can associate the new cable modem to my account. After giving him the information, he tells me the registration server was down and told me to try back at 3am. I had called around 11pm and the thought of me going internet-less for 4 hours was a scary thought.

So I sat around filing my rebate and did a couple other things while the clock ticked away. When the clock hit 1am, I knew I had to check to see if I can register my modem yet. I called and indeed the server was back up. Registration only took a few minutes and my internet was up and running in no time. Whoopee!

Of course, the first thing I do is another speed test:

My Motorola SB5101 speed test

This purchase was definitely worth it. I did 3 tests with my D-Link DCM-202 and they average to around 18000Kbps down and 1500Kbps up. I did 2 tests with my Motorola SB5101 and they average to 23000Kbps down and 3100Kbps up. Quite a performance increase for just $25! Of course, this could just be the initial burst speed, but I’m still excited about the speed increase.

Now I have a spare cable modem or if I sell it, it’ll probably pay for my Motorola cable modem completely!

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As an Amazon.com Seller

Not sure if you’ve noticed, but I’ve added an Amazon.com Store link on my side bar, which currently lists the items I’m selling on Amazon.com. I began to buy and sell stuff on Amazon.com a long time back, but only recently (a few months ago) began to push a lot more volume (instead of 4 or 5 items a month, I am now pushing 30+ items a month). And it’s bringing in quite a shiny penny. Actually, I’m not too sure how shiny the penny is as in I haven’t really done any bookkeeping besides knowing that I’m selling items for more than what I purchased it for, which can range from a few dollars to over a hundred dollars per item.

I’m not going to go too deep into how this all works and what my “secrets” are, but if you’re interested in anything I’m selling and I personally know you, I can probably sell it to you at cost. Also ignore anything that’s listed as $2,000 as that just means I’m currently not selling it, probably due to insufficient stock or the pricing isn’t at what I want to sell it for.

I’ve also been maximizing my earnings by using my Amazon.com credit card and directing people to purchase under my affiliates account. The credit card gives me 3% back on all Amazon.com purchases, which has netted me $75 worth of Amazon.com gift certificate rewards for each of the last 2 months. The affiliates account started with only $90 earnings a few months ago, but just last month, I’ve broken $200.

Concurrently, I also list the items in my Half.com Shop, which gets me purchases once in awhile, but they don’t really have that high of an audience as Amazon.com. I’m currently also thinking of becoming a merchant on Buy.com Marketplace, but they have a bit more requirements to join.

All in all, I’m happy with the results.

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Changing Amazon Affiliates ID

So now that I have multiple places where I link to Amazon.com items using my affiliates ID, I’ve decided to create multiple Amazon affiliates ID to track where things were coming from.

I knew there was a way to mass edit strings in my blog posts and a quick search resulted in: How to Find & Replace Data in MySQL

To find a string in a certain field and replace it with another string:

update [table_name] set [field_name] = replace( [field_name], '[string_to_find]', '[string_to_replace]' );

So a quick update wp_posts set `post_content` = replace( `post_content`, 'krudoethekrue-20', 'krunk4everblog-20' ); did the trick.

Now I’ll be able to track if people are coming through my HD-Trailers site, my HD-Trailers blog, or my Krunk4ever! blog.