Here is yet another site that will keep you informed about free or very cheap ebooks from Amazon and Smashwords.  DailyFreeBooks is a site that lists all the ebooks that are being offered on both of those ebook sellers sites.

This one has a really easy to use system to organise what sort of ebooks you are offered, you can specify if it should show you only ebooks from Amazon, or Smashwords, or from both, show you all ebooks on offer with erotic ones or without erotic ones (Nice touch that), show you ebooks within one or more particular genres and so on.

In the cheap ebook section you can define the price range you are prepared to pay as well, so you can set it for ebooks at $2 or less for example.

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We live in a truly strange world.  Amazon have just managed to patent the idea of selling second hand digital files when we no longer wish to keep them.  Fair enough to be able to sell our unwanted digital files, sure, but to be able to patent that idea?  Come on now, who are they kidding?

I always thought that the idea of patents was to protect new and original ways of doing things, which this assuredly is not.  The only new thing in this patent as far as I can see (I have actually read the entire document) is to establish a system to ensure that the digital file in question is removed from the original owner’s computer and that such files may only be sold on a certain number of times (to protect copyright owners I assume).  But it doesn’t actually specify how these two aims will be achieved, but merely discusses the concept.

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Amazon have just announced the launch of their Kindle Freetime Unlimited, a sort of subscription system for owners of their Fire Tablet, which will enable their kids to read from a huge range of ebooks, watch endless videos and play all manner of video games, all for a relatively small monthly payment.

Amazon describe it as follows in their press release:-

For the first time ever, bringing together all the types of content kids and parents love—books, games, educational apps, movies and TV shows—into one simple, easy-to-use service for kids ages 3-8

Unlimited access to thousands of titles including exclusive-to-Amazon Android apps and games—all curated for age-appropriateness—a special price for Prime members of just $2.99 per month per child, or $6.99 per month per family

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What are the main ereaders available just now?   Well perhaps this table produced by the good folk at Publishing Trends might help you a wee bit.

They have concentrated on the few better known makers of ereaders and tablets here, ignoring all the European and Asian makers for some reason, so no mention of BeBook,  Bookeen, Hanvon and all of them, so it is obviously aimed at readers in the USA rather than the entire world, but nevertheless it does give a quick view of the main ereaders fromm the main players in this field.

To see the table in all its full sized glory, click on this link, and the PDF file will load on a separate window for you.  Enjoy it, and I hope it is something of a help to you.

Ereader comparison table.

Source:  With thanks to Publishing Tends.

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Was this any help to you, or is it too simplistic to really help?  Do let me know, so I can improve matters when I get myself together enough to produce one myself.

Worldreader have just launched their Kindle for kids project in Tanzania. Yest more ereaders and ebooks for poor African kids.

So far Worldreader have been operating in Ghana, Kenya and Uganda, where the various projects they have been running in a number of poor rural schools – sometimes in conjunction with other NGOs already active in the area – have proven to be highly successful on all levels.   In the course of these operations they have distributed hundreds of Kindles and tens of thousands of ebooks, many of which have been written and published by Africans, and thus highly relevant to the kids who read them.

Well, they have just added a new country to their efforts, specifically Tanzania on the eastern side of Africa.   They have set up the Upendo school in Arusha in the Usa River Valley with 60 WiFi Kindles and thousands of free ebooks (textbooks, story books and reference books) to be used by the kids in the Primary grades 4 and 5.

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Amazon continues to support the work of Worldreader by posting an article on their home page.   Worldreader, a group of people who have made it their life’s work to bring books to rural African schools via Kindle ereaders have just had yet another bit of support from Amazon, in  the form of a long article all about their work on Amazon’s home page.

Who are Worldreader?

You can read a bit about Worldreader and its work at the end of this post.

This home page which is more usually used to publicize one or other of Amazon’s products is actually a powerful gesture of support from Amazon.

One thing that we mustn’t forget is that this is not the first time that Amazon have given Worldreader support – In fact it was a superb gesture by Amazon that made this project possible in the first place, they donated some 400 Kindles to Worldreader to start them off, a gesture that receives remarkably little recognition by and large, sadly.

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