Kindle News: Android market growing due to Kindle Fire, + Amzn to compete w/ Netflix? + good Intro to Kindle e-Ink devices w/ tests of e-Ink screen differences (slight) + Best free comics on KFire, Amazon digital pirate unmasked

A GOOD ASSORTMENT OF NEWS
And I'll mainly point you to most of it.

ANDROID MARKET SHARE'S SHARP RISE
Intomobile's Blake Stimac writes that Android’s tablet market share rises to 39 percent in Q4 2011, according to Strategy Analytics, "which has counted the Kindle Fire into the Android mix." 

  Stimac, who presents the global table of operating system shipments and market share on Infomobile's page, says, "it's probably safe to assume that the sharp rise is likely due to the Kindle Fire.  See their page for considerably more detail.


NETFLIX AGREES WITH RUMOR ABOUT AMAZON PLANS
Tech Buzz Examiner Michael Santo writes that Netflix agrees that Amazon, which is obviously constantly expanding its streaming video service, Amazon Instant Video (many announcements about it recently), may expand their video service  "into a standalone subscription service" as described by the New York Post.  See story and detail at Santos' TechBuzz page and at the NY Post.   A Netflix comment stressed by Santo:

' “We expect Amazon to continue to offer their video service as a free extra with Prime domestically but also to brand their video subscription offering as a standalone service at a price less than ours.” '

BEST 15 FREE COMICS ON KFIRE
Comics Alliance's John Parker gives us a list of 15 best free issues of comics that he's found, based on "device readability, likelihood of drawing in new readers, and how badly they make you want more."

   He was surprised to get a Kindle Fire for the holidays and not initially excited about it due to what he terms his "tactile orientation" making it hard for him to "get along with the idea of digital comics" but he is coming along.  Profusely illustrated, his list gives you his reasons for his choices.


TOM'S HARDWARE LOOKS AT THE KINDLE TOUCH AND THE KINDLE NON-TOUCH
Writer Andrew Ku has some really good illustrations for his article on the new e-Ink Kindles and does an update on the 4th Generation Kindle screen quality issue.

  Newcomers to the new Kindle Touch and Kindle BASIC e-readers can easily be confused by Amazon's non-numbering of the many current Kindles, as shown even by this article and definitely in all the forums.

  On the screen quality issue having to do with the Kindle 4th Gen (Basic Kindle NoTouch), he updates the analysis of what is or isn't happening there but he then says he's extending this to the Kindle Touch and then calls them both "Amazon's fourth-gen Kindles."

  Unfortunately that perpetuates a misunderstanding.  The Kindle Touch is Generation 5, as these things go (and I'll explain this in a minute) and the Kindle Basic is what has been called "Generation 4."  They were born together and may seem identical twins but are more along the lines of fraternal ones.

  Ku references the concern seen in a Mobileread Forum thread over the screen display of the Kindle 4 vs the Kindle 3 (now called the Kindle Keyboard).

  That Kindle Keyboard is sold in the UK also, but only in the 3G/WiFi configuration (K3-UK)rather than the WiFi-only one.

  As Mobileread Forum's Blossom and I both explained today in the forum thread to any who were lumping the two e-Ink Kindles as "Gen 4" Kindles:

The numbers 3, 4, and 5 have been used for the "generation ID" of  any Kindle.

  Amazon has used "Kindle 3" (actually, "Third Generation Kindle" has been said in some marketing) and this matches its operating system software version 3.x.x

  The NoTouch $79 (confusingly named by Amazon as only "Kindle") is the Kindle 4 in the lineup, using operating system software version 4.x.x.

  The Kindle Touch would be Kindle 5, as its operating system uses what Amazon calls software version 5.x.x.

  Note that the Kindle Fire's operating system is software version 6.x.x .

  Since they're all quite different, I think it's important to separate
Kindle 4 NoTouch/No Keyboard (v4.01 currently) and Kindle 5 Touch (which has the v5.0.3 update)

  The Kindle 4 (Kindle Basic Non-Touch) has been the subject of the screen quality concern by some Kindle owners.

  As mentioned in the thread, we haven't heard much about the K5 Touch having the problems that some  K4 owners have seen.

  At any rate Andrew Ku does a great job on describing the new eInk Kindles' features and, as mentioned, he illustrates and describes the functioning of these models very well -- and it's important to be aware of the Kindle Touch's "Easy Reach" feature on the touch screen.   So be sure to go see the article   I am fairly familiar with how these Kindles work but the article was interesting to me.

 On the screen-quality issue, Ku's team did a terrific analysis of what might be happening there and why some see it and some don't -- they test many models of each.  Sometimes there's something to be seen, and other times not so much, and this may have involved a problem with batches.


UNMASKING A DIGITAL PIRATE ON AMAZON
Many Kindle owners having to browse huge lists of promo-free or low-cost books will be interested in this article.  I'm not going to get into it in this blog entry but those interested should definitely go read this article by Fast Company's Adam Penenberg

  It explains how this kind of thing is done (to too great an extent) and includes a "Who, me? I didn't know" story about someone caught (who didn't even make decent money on this) and saying he had NO IDEA what he was doing was not exactly ligit.  It also highlights the extent of "copyright infringement come-ons at Warrior Forum.



That's it for now! Kindle-Edition subscribers, who get the last 25 blog entries on their Kindles, can read these linked stories on their Kindles if they are uncommonly patient but will have an easier time reading that news by visiting this blog on your computer if wanting the details (Link: kindleworld.blogspot.com ).



Kindle Touch 3G   Kindle Touch WiFi   Kindle Basic   (UK: KBasic)   Kindle Fire
Kindle Keybd 3G   (UK: Kindle Keybd 3G)   K3 Special Offers   K3-3G Special Offers   DX

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Check often: Temporarily-free recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published free books, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

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