The Kindle Chronicles

Latest Episodes:

TKC 513 Nick Wingfield Jun 02, 2018

Show notes

Senior Editor, The Information

Interview starts at 11:36 and ends at 43:50

"[Amazon's HQ2 decision] will be before the end of the year, unless something radical changes. I don't think it's imminent. It's probably--I'm guessing here--but it's probably months away. I would guess like towards the end of the summer, early fall. That's really not based on hard facts but kind of reading between the lines."

News

Data Guy's presentation to the 2018 Science Fiction Writers of America conference

"Amazon Publishing Has Signed with Patricia Cornwell for an Exclusive New Series" by Adam Rowe at Forbes - May 29, 2018

"Where Will Amazon HQ2 Go? Ranking Puts Raleigh on Top, Boston at Bottom" by Alexandre Tanzi at Bloomberg - May 30, 2018

Tech Tip

My current stylus for Kindle and tablet reading

Interview with Nick Wingfield

"'The Information' hires NY Times' Wingfield" by Chris Rouh at Taking Biz News - May 15, 2018

The Information

Next Week's Guest

Jade Chang, a contributor to the first Amazon Original Stories collection, titled The Real Thing: A Bundle of Love Stories.

Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD.

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TKC 512 Andrew Updegrove May 26, 2018

Show notes

Author of the Frank Adversego Thriller Series

Interview starts at 11:14 and ends at 35:51

"Alexa's pretty primitive. I think it's very concerning from a cybersecurity point of view, because people have already learned how to spoof Alexa. Just a few days ago they came up with the equivalent of a dog whistle-type command that you couldn't hear, but Alexa could. Someone could turn it on and off."

News

"An Amazon Echo recorded a family's conversation, then sent it to a random person in their contacts, report says" by Hamza Shaban at The Washington Post - May 24, 2018

"Don't Freak Out About That Amazon Alexa Eavesdropping Situation" by Lily Hay Newman at Wired - May 24, 2018

"HBG, Amazon Partner on Narrative Content for Echo Device" by Calvin Reid at Publishers Weekly - May 22, 2018

"Are ebooks dying or thriving? The answer is yes" by Thu-Huong Ha at Quartz - May 13, 2018

Tech Tip

Use Household Profiles to Share Your Fire Tablet - Amazon.com

Interview with Andrew Updegrove

The Frank Adversego Thrillers by Andrew Updegrove at Amazon.com

The Blockchain Affair (chapter by chapter, beginning with Prologue and Chapter 1)

Andrew-Updegrove.com

Content

Books on Artificial Intelligence recommended by Andy Updegrove:

Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies 1st Edition by Nick Bostrom

Thinking Machines: The Quest for Artificial Intelligence--and Where It's Taking Us Next by Luke Dormehi

The Quest for Artificial Intelligence by Nils J. Nilsson

Podcast interviews with James and Deborah Fallows, authors of Our Towns: A 100,000 Mile Journey into the Heart of America: Max Linsky of the Longform Podcast, Ezra Klein of The Ezra Klein Show, John Dickerson of the CBS This Morning Podcast, Sam Wang of the WooCast Politics & Polls podcast, and Chuck Todd of Meet the Press podcast.

Next Week's Guest

Nick Wingfield, former tech reporter at The New York Times, currently senior editor at The Information

Outro

Thanks to Stephen Campbell of The Author Biz podcast for generously helping me meet the deadline for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that went into effect in Europe today. I modeled my new Privacy Policy and Cookies Policy on Stephen's website.

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TKC 511 Michael Kozlowski May 19, 2018

Show notes

Editor-in-Chief of Good E-Reader

Interview starts at 3:45 and ends at 33:51

News

"Amazon Go cashier-free store could be headed to SF's Union Square" by Matier & Ross at The San Francisco Chronicle - May 13, 2018

"The Information hires NY Times's Wingfield" by Chris Roush at Talking Biz News - May 15, 2018

The Information

"Trump personally pushed postmaster general to double rates on Amazon, other firms" by Damian Paletta and Josh Dawsey at The Washington Post - May 18, 2018

"You'll soon hear 8 new voices in Amazon Alexa skills" by Michelle Fitzsimmons at Techradar - May 16, 2018

Tech Tip

"How to Tag Your Highlights While You Read" by Daniel Doyon at Readwise - May 16, 2018

Readwise.io

Interview with Michael Kozlowski

Good e-Reader

Good e-Reader app store and YouTube channel

Good e-Reader store

"Storytel e-Reader will launch this summer" by Michael Kozlowski at Good E-Reader - May 16, 2018

Storytel

Kobo

"How CLEARink technology is going to change e-readers for the better" by Markus Reily at Good E-Reader - August 1, 2017

CLEARink

Interview with Dr. Jeanne Tifts, English teacher at Belmont Hill School

(Interview begins at 33:52 and ends at 43:50)

Loom

Next Week's Guest

Andrew Updegrove, author of The Turing Test: A Tale of Artificial Intelligence and Malevolence (Frank Adversego Thrillers Book 4)

Outro music by the Belmont Hill School B-flats

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TKC 510 James and Deborah Fallows May 10, 2018

Show notes

Authors of Our Towns: A 100,000-mile Journey Into the Heart of America

Interview starts at 9:43 and ends at 39:14

"James Fallows: 'Through my reportorial lifetime I've seen a number crises for the American system, which the U.S. has so far managed to muddle its way through. That does not guarantee continued muddling, but I personally am more heartened than I thought I would be by all this resilience around the country. So Deb, will we make it?' Deborah Fallows: 'I'm going to say we'll make it. It's the generations that are coming up--it's their turn to help make this right now."

News

"Bezos: A CEO Who Can Write" by Jean-Louis Gassée at Monday Note (Medium) - April 29, 2018

Jeff Bezos's Letters to Shareholders

"Warren Buffett Says He Was Wrong About Google and Amazon" by David Z. Morris at Fortune - May 6, 2018

"Amazon is starting to scan customers' bodies in the name of online shopping" by Lulu Chang at Fox News - May 7, 2018

Interview with James Fallows and Deborah Fallows

Our Towns: A 100,000-mile Journey Into the Heart of America

"Where History is Being Made" by David Brooks at The New York Times - February 7, 2018

Books by James Fallows

Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons in Life, Love, and Language by Deborah Fallows

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

TKC 509 Séamus Bellamy May 03, 2018

Show notes

Traveler, teller of tales, reviewer of eReaders

Interview starts at 15:25 and ends at 41:53

"To be honest, I haven't met one person outside tech nerds like myself that use it [Kindle's X-Ray feature.] I very rarely use it. I kind of go 'Let's see what this is about." I think it takes away from the immersion of reading. If I'm interested in something I'll take a look at it later on, but during the reading process I don't really want to leave."

News

Jeff Bezos interviewed in Berlin by Mathias Dopfner at Business Insider - April 28, 2018

The Post (2017) at Prime Video

Personal History by Katharine Graham

Tech Tip

"Google's 'Talk to Books' Might Have Just Changed Everything" by Bradley Metrock at Digital Book World - April 15, 2018

Talk to Books

Content

Amazon's new Prime Book Box program for young readers

Interview with Séamus Bellamy

Basic Kindle, Paperwhite, and Oasis

Kobo

Pocket

Overdrive for Kobo

ReMarkable tablet

Seamus Bellamy articles at USA Today's Reviewed site, BoingBoing, Macworld and PCWorld

Comments

Click here for information about visiting Amazon's headquarters and the spheres in Seattle

Next Week's Guest

James Fallows and Deborah Fallows, authors of Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America, to be released on May 8, 2018 by Pantheon. (Note: this episode will be released on Wednesday to coincide with the book's release, instead of the usual episode upload on Friday.)

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

TKC 508 Brett McNeill Apr 28, 2018

Show notes

Longtime Kindle Chronicles listener

Interview starts at 18:14 and ends at 43:00

"It was very clear what was missing [in Seattle's Amazon Go store]. There was no Kindle, no Fires, no place to scan and order one. Maybe that's because you can just walk out, and they figure if they're going to lose inventory they want it to be five dollars or under. What was distinctly absent was any Amazon products that you identify with the Amazon brand."

News

"Inside Jeff Bezos's DC Life" by Ben Wofford at The Washingtonian - April 22, 2018

"Amazon will raise the price of Prime from $99 to $119 in the U.S." by Jason Del Rey at Recode - April 26, 2018

"Total Recall? Amazon's giving Alexa a better memory" by Ry Crist at CNET - April 26, 2018

"Amazon's Next Secret Project Could be Robots That Follow You Around" by Brad Stone and Mark Gurman at Bloomberg - April 23, 2018

Amazon Key deliveries to your car!

"Amazon's new Echo Dot Kids Edition comes with a colorful case and parental controls" by Dan Seifert at The Verge - April 25, 2018

Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition - $80 available for pre-order with delivery May

"New Kindle Paperwhite 4 will have all new comfortlight system" by Michael Kozlowski at Good e-Reader - April 27, 2018

Tech Tip

Share Your Amazon Prime Benefits including Prime Music

Interview with Brett McNeill

Reformation Presbyterian Church

Brett's video of a Fire Phone demonstration on June 18, 2014, in Seattle

"The Circle" starring Tom Hanks and Emma Watson (Included with Prime Video)

Next Week's Guest

Blogger and journalist Séamus Bellamy

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

TKC 507 Hannah Howard Apr 21, 2018

Show notes

Author of Feast: True Love in and out of the Kitchen

Interview starts at 15:50 and ends at 41:48

"It's not that I sought out to be published by Amazon. It was that Amazon happened to be the people who believed in me and my book, and they've been so wonderful to work with. I do feel also that Little A is a tiny imprint within a huge company, so I kind of get the best of both worlds--that personal TLC and the brawn of the marketing and other kinds of reach of Amazon."

News

Jeff Bezos's 2018 Letter to Shareowners

"Jeff Bezos reveals Amazon has 100 million Prime members in letter to shareholders" by Eugene Kim at CNBC - April 18, 2018

David Axelrod interviews Jay Carney, Amazon's senior vice president for public affairs, on The Axe Files podcast - March 7, 2018

Tech Tip

"How to build your own Alexa skills with the new Alexa Blueprints" by Chaim Gartenberg at The Verge - April 19, 2018

Amazon Alexa Skills Blueprints

Interview with Hannah Howard

Feast: True Love in and out of the Kitchen

The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath by Leslie Jamison

Bennington College MFA in Writing program

Literary agent Andrea Somberg

Morgan Parker

Laura Van der Veer

Too Good to Be True by Ben Anastas

The Suicide Index: Putting My Father's Death in Order by Joan Wickersham

Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy

Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett

Fairway Market

Dean & DeLuca

FreshDirect

Content

AmazonCrossing's celebration of World Book Day - nine books are available free through April 24, 2018

Next Week's Guest

Rev. Brett McNeill, pastor of Reformation Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Olympia, WA, with a first-person tour of the Amazon Go store in Seattle

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

TKC 506 Mark Isero Apr 13, 2018

Show notes

Creator of the Kindle Classroom Project

Interview starts at 15:29 and ends at 43:19

"I don't think that the Kindle makes reading any more fun, but a lot of students--especially 9th Grade boys who have been turned off of reading, they get a Kindle, and the Number One thing that they do is they bump up that text size, because they don't like it to be so small, so they can really feel like they're achieving as a reader. Even though the book takes the same amount of time to read, they feel they are making more progress through the pages."

News

Amazon Device Sale for Prime Members

Amazon Key Home Kit on sale for up to $140 off

Cities eligible for Amazon Key delivery

The Essential W. S. Merwin (Paperback)

"Apple poaches ex-Amazon, HP executive for growing software team" by Mike Wuerthele at AppleInsider - April 6, 2018

Jon McCormack Linkedin profile

"Shhh...Alexa might be listening" by Alex Hern at The Guardian - April 11, 2018

U.S. Patent Application 20170323645 filed June 12, 2017 by Kiran K. Edara of Amazon Technologies Inc

"Alexa, Amazon's virtual assistant, coming aboard ambulances" by Alana Levene at The Boston Globe - April 5, 2018

Tech Tip

"13 Amazon Echo Hacks to Get the Most Out of Alexa" by Jacob Kleinman at Mental Floss - April 6, 2018

Interview with Mark Isero

Click here to donate a Kindle to the Kindle Classroom Project

Amazon Allowance

The Highlighter Podcast and newsletter

Envision Schools

Content

My notes and highlights at Goodreads for Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande

Books in my Night Reading collection (mentioned in Tech Tip about Book Spinning):

The Joy of Love: Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia on Love in the Family by Pope Francis

Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha by Tara Brach

Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer by Richard Rohr

Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence by Esther Perel

Sherlock Holmes: The Ultimate Collection by Arthur Conan Doyle

My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer by Christian Wiman

Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life by Karen Armstrong

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande

Next Week's Guest

Hannah Howard, author of Feast: True Love in and out of the Kitchen, published on April 1, 2018 by the Little A imprint of Amazon Publishing

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

TKC 505 Elizabeth George Apr 07, 2018

Show notes

Author of The Punishment She Deserves: A Lynley Novel

Interview starts at 12:25 and ends at 36:50

"The late Sue Grafton said something to me that was really helpful on time. I was talking about difficulty I was having in the book with a character. She said to me, 'If you know the question, you do know the answer.' That was really helpful, because what that told me is that if I could articulate what difficulty I was having with a book then buried somewhere in my head was going to be the solution to that problem. That turned out to be absolutely true."

News

"Penguin Random house exec gets a promotion" by Keith J. Kelly at The New York Post - April 5, 2018

Tech Tips

"Alexa Announcements Lets You Broadcast Messages to All Devices" at Love My Echo

"Tell the family 'dinner's ready' with Alexa Announcements" by Ry Crist at CNET - April 6, 2018

"How to Donate to Charity Using Alexa" by Emily Price at LifeHacker - April 2, 2018

List of Alexa-supported charities

Roav VIVA by Anker - Alexa-enabled 2-port USB car charger - $49.99 at Amazon.com

"No More Android Apps on Fire OS" by Dallas Thomas at Android Gadget Hacks - March 26, 2018

"Install Apps from the Play Store Without Gapps or Google Services" by Dallas Thomas at Android Gadget Hacks - February 20, 2018

Interview with Elizabeth George

The Punishment She Deserves: A Lynley Novel by Elizabeth George

Elizabeth George books at Amazon.com

Write Away: One Writer's Approach to the Novel by Elizabeth George

WOCA The Source Radio interview with Elizabeth George - March 29, 2018

Doug Miles interview with Elizabeth George - March 27, 2018

Content

Rave review in AudioFile Magazine of The Punishment She Deserves audiobook, read by Simon Vance

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos

Comments

David Peach, host of the LearnSigns video podcast

Scribd and Readly

Digital Book World, October 2-4 in Nashville

Next Week's Guest

Mark Isero, founder of the Kindle Classroom Project and author of The Highlighter newsletter and podcast on race, education, and culture.

Outro

Returning soon? The Edge of the Road podcast...

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

TKC 504 Otis Chandler Mar 30, 2018

Show notes

Co-founder and CEO of Goodreads

Interview starts at 14:30 and ends at 36:54

"People read along, and then--for as long as there've been books--after you're done reading, you you go talk about the ideas, the stories, the concepts that you read about. That's actually a good metaphor for Goodreads and Kindle. Kindle is where you read alone. Goodreads is where you go talk about what you read."

News

"Trump hates Amazon, not Facebook" by Jonathan Swan at Axios - March 28, 2018

"The World's Richest Man Just Lost $10.7 billion as Trump Tweets About Amazon" by Lucinda Shen at Fortune - March 29, 2018

"Here's the controversial tax practice by Amazon that's got Trump so upset" by Tae Kim at CNBC - March 29, 2018

"'Their eyes are on D.C.': Capital area said to have good shot at Amazon HQ2" by Robert McCartney at The Washington Post - January 20, 2018

"If Trump wants to take a shot at Amazon, there's a potential billion-dollar deal staring him right in the face" by Allan Smith at Business Insider - March 29, 2018

Tech Tip

Fire HD 8 32 GB with Special Offers- $100

Interview with Otis Chandler

Goodreads

Otis Chandler's Kindle notes at highlights at Goodreads on Principles: On Life and Work by Ray Dalio

My Kindle notes and highlights at Goodreads on Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow