Sunday, October 31, 2010

Planet iPad Daily Free Book Alert, Sunday, October 31: Planet iPad Celebrates Hallowe'en with the Launch of Our Incredibly Cool, Totally Interactive New Free Book Alert Tool, plus ... a special dose of HALLOWE'EN TERROR with ANCIENT EYES by David Niall Wilson (Today's Sponsor)


What better day than Hallowe'en to launch our incredibly cool, totally interactive new Planet iPad Free Book Alert tool with automatic updating and clickable icons to start reading a free sample of any title right here on your browser....

But first, a word from ... Today's Sponsor

On your way to all those great free listings, it's only fair that on Hallowe'en night we should take our best shot at scaring the pants off you, and we think our best shot is with David Niall Wilson's Ancient Eyes....

by David Niall Wilson 
Text-to-Speech: Enabled 
B0044KM186
Here's the set-up:

There is an Ancient Evil on a mountain outside San Valencez, California.  It is creeping through the minds and souls of the inhabitants, trying to take control.

Abraham Carlson is called back to the mountain to stand against this rising darkness.  Years before, his father began a cleansing that should have wiped the evil from the mountain.

The Cleansing was left incomplete.  Now it's up to Abraham to stand against the dark power and champion the light.

Visit Amazon's David Niall Wilson Page 

Click here to download Ancient Eyes or a free sample to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android-compatible, PC or Mac and start reading within 60 seconds!

*  


Each day's list is sponsored by one paid title. We encourage you to support our sponsors and thank you for considering them. 

Authors, Publishers, Accessory Manufacturers:
Interested in learning more about sponsorship? Just click on this link for more information.


Free Contemporary Titles in the Kindle Store
For Your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch

Click here for a separate listing of free and bargain erotica titles for your Kindle.

HOW TO USE OUR NEW FREE BOOK TOOL: 

Use the slider at right of your screen below to scroll through a complete, updated list of free contemporary Kindle titles, and click on an icon like this one (at right) to read a free sample right here in your browser! Titles are sorted in reverse chronological order so you can easily see new freebies!




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'Dear Santa--'No Letter or TXT This Year, See My App at Toy Store'


'Dear Santa: Not TXTING You This Year; Get This App Please'

Computerworld reported that 65% of the Fortune 500 companies are at one stage or another of deploying iPad apps,

While Mygadgetnews.com quotes Apple's Steve Jobs as saying “We haven't pushed [the iPad] real hard in business yet, and it is being grabbed out of our hands.” 

Apps are popping up everywhere in business, whether they show up on the Mercedes Benz showroom floor in the hands of a salesperson or at the kitchen table with Mom, Dad and the kids crowded around the iPad screen to slap “virtual stickers” on items the kids want from Toys R Us.

Back- office applications are sprouting like mushrooms as well.  For example,  an app coming Nov. 3 in the fashion industry will aid buyers who can use the iPad to select items that will become tomorrow's clothing musts.

Three days ago, Toys R Us launched its Great Big Christmas Book app for the iPad.  It is one of a growing number of apps designed to get the iPad right in between the shopper and the seller to boost sales and help people find the toys they want more easily.

Only 10 buyers had rated the app to date, giving it a collective four stars out of fun. One reviewer loves the app for simplifying shopping, another handed the iPad and app to her kid for efficient “wish list” trimming.

The app enables parents to essentially “register” their kid's desires, effectively copying relatives and friends on each child's hearts desires to coordinate things. Kids can slap “virtual stickers” on their choices on the iPad for, they hope, happy “surprises” on Christmas morn.

Here's how Toys R Us promotes the app in the Apple Store:

Discover, share, have fun! This iPad app is going to make holiday shopping a lot easier on Santa—and it’s fun for your kids, too. Browse easily through hundreds of the hottest holiday toys including Toy Story 3, Hot Wheels, Nerf, Nintendo, Beyblade, Xbox, LEGO, Fisher Price in a new, immersive shopping experience.

Using virtual stickers, kids add the items they’d be most excited to see under the tree to a special list. It even features a separate view for parents of organized lists they can share with family and friends via email, SMS or the Toys”R”Us Wish List. In addition, there is a dedicated section for savings and a store locator making it easy to find the best deals. Start your Christmas shopping today.

The categories within the Toys"R"Us App experience include: Trains, Preschool, Action Figures, Arts & Crafts, Baby Toys, Bikes, Scooters, Books, Music & DVDs, Build Sets, Dolls, Electronics, Board Games, Puzzles, Preschool, Pretend Play, Vehicles & Remote control, Video Games
 
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Newsweek App for iPad Shows The Complexity of Selling Magazines & Newspapers To E-Reading Customers



Newsweek Magazine and Apple sorted out subscription issues (at least some of them) and the magazine is available via an app for the iPad, replete with color photos, fancy charts and words crafted by first class journalists.

You can also get Newsweek directly in the Amazon Kindle store, or you can use the Windowshop iPad app (which Planet iPad detailed here last week) inside the Apple Store to buy the subscription from inside the Kindle Store.  It's easy to get lost in all of this.

The Apple app lets people subscribe to the digital magazine, access Newsweek’s current web content at no cost, customize a “landing page” to present personal topics and stories up front when when you open the app, “browse stunning full-screen photo galleries,” and share articles and galleries on Facebook and Twitter.

If you subscribe in the Kindle Store, however, you can only read the magazine in black and white on your Amazon Kindle. And that's the way it is--for the moment. 

Those simply presented bullet points in the Apple apps store belie the tangled convolutions being pounded out between various publishers, Apple and also Amazon and its Kindle Store. Every item is a complex battleground among giant corporations.

Apple's approach seems to be to want to control subscriptions via its apps, including controlling the cash flow and—more importantly, customer demographics—of readers. This is a major problem for magazine publishers.  The real money in magazines comes from advertising, but subscription payments are an important cash stream.

However, magazines live or die on their demographics. They need hard numbers to show to advertisers to make the case for buying an ad. Detailed publishers' statements break down the gender and age grouping of readers, income levels, geographic locations, and every scrap of marketing data that can be collected.

Time Magazine sales reps compare and contrast themselves to Newsweek.  Newsweek's ad sales people plead in advertiser's offices that their numbers are better.  The bottom line of who makes the sale in tighter economic times is who has the best numbers for the particular advertiser. Proctor and Gamble's target audience for Downy fabric softener is different from its target for Pampers diapers, and certainly quite different from the target market for, say, Mercedes Benz or Lexus.  "Show me the data and maybe I'll show you the money" is what advertisers have in mind.

So far, Apple doesn't seem to want to dole out that data on in-app subscriptions.

Meantime, over at Amazon, similar knotty issues are on the table, not the least of which is: color photos, graphics and charts.

To date, people who subscribe to Newsweek via the Kindle Store can only read it on their Kindles.  Popular “Kindle for...” apps have expanded the ebook market beyond Kindle owners to those who may not have a Kindle, but do have an iPad, or iPhone, or Android-based device.  Or some of those devices.  Or all of them.  That portability has not been extended to newspapers, magazines and blogs sold in the Kindle Store.

That's changing, according to a recent announcement by the Amazon Kindle Team in the quiet corner of an Amazon forum called “Coming Soon For Kindle.” Planet iPad reported on that announcement last week.

So iPad users who thought the Apple vs. Amazon vs. publishers wrangle was complicated might as well avert their eyes on this one.  It will get sorted out, of course.  Just how it sorts, when and by whom, and who gets the money and controls the demographic data remains to be seen.


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Saturday, October 30, 2010

iPad and RaceMate App Pinpoint Runners At Tomorrow's Marine Corps Marathon, Set To Start In Spite of Recent Shootings


 By Tom Dulaney, Editor in Chief

The iPad joins a field of some 30,00 runners in its first Marine Corp Marathon tomorrow, thanks to an app from RaceMate.

The app tracks runners by following their GPS enabled smartphones and feeding locations into the developer's system and then back down to friends and supporters to follow along with their iPad or iPhone.  Race organizers expect nearly half of the runners will have smartphones on board during the race.

3G iPads or users close to a Wi-Fi hot spot will be able to see exactly where their runner is on the race route at any time.  Runners' locations will be updated every time they advance about 10 meters, says Barg Upender, CEO of Mobomo, developer of RaceMate.

RaceMate is available for $1.99.  An upgrade to let an observer track multiple runners costs $2.99, according to a report in USA Today.


Runners are literally “under the gun,” or threat of it, and organizers have beefed up security. In recent weeks, an unknown shooter used a high velocity rifle to fire some 7 shots at the Pentagon on October 19. Two days earlier, shots were reportedly fired by the same rifle at the Marine Corps Museum in Triangle, VA, some 32 miles southwest of Washington. Again, in the early morning ours this Tuesday, the museum of shot at once more.

The race coincides with the 2,500th anniversary of the first marathon, when Phidippides ran 36 miles from Athens to Sparta, helping the outnumbered Athenians beat the Persians at the Battle of Marathon.

RaceMate is slated to be on hand for other major races, including the New York marathon.  “We are in early beta of a 'Command and Control' version of the app specifically designed for the massive screen real estate and form factor of the iPad,” the FAQ page for RaceMate says.

The RaceMate app is $1.99 in the iStore. RaceMate v2.1 is a “massive upgrade” from version 1.0, the company says. Instructions on the web site tell runners how to enter their race registration information into the system The instructions explains how friends and supporters can use their iPads or iPhones to track their runner. Both the runner and the supporters have to download the app to enable tracking.

The app features maps to pinpoint a runner's location. The Marine Corp Marathon is an excellent event for runners' supporters to watch the action. There are a number of places where the race route loops around, giving observers a chance to hotfoot it from point to point to see—and photograph or video—their runner several times.

USA Today reported on RaceMate and the marathon earlier last month.
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Planet iPad Daily Free Book Alert, Saturday, October 30: Three Free Hallowe'en Treats, plus ... Enter to Win a Free Kindle When You Purchase and Download Zack Hamric's Blank Slate (Today's Sponsor), and over 100 other fully updated free, iPad-compatible Kindle Store listings

By Steve Windwalker

It's trick or treat time in my neighborhood, and publishers are playing along by offering lengthy free previews of forthcoming novels as an enticing temporary fix for fans (in the case of two new James Patterson offerings) or as a way of introducing undiscovered gems (in the case of a free preview of an intriguing new Oliver Pötzsch thriller that AmazonCrossing has brought out just in time for Hallowe'en). We're sometimes a bit suspicious of the implicit bait-and-switch nature of such deals, but we reap what we sow. During the past couple of weeks we've offered our readers substantial free excerpts from two Joe Konrath books that have moved with lightning speed up the ranks of Kindle bestsellers, so who are we to complain? So we'll place three of these free previews at the top of today's free listings, and if you don't feel you've been treated, perhaps you'll trick us by soaping our windows or wrapping our house in tissue....

But first, a word from ... Today's Sponsor

Speaking of Hallowe'en treats, what could be treatier than a chance to win a free Kindle wi-fi just for purchasing and downloading a copy of great new release page-turner of a suspense novel, Blank Slate, from one of our favorite authors, Zack Hamric? (Yes, many Planet iPad fans consider the $139 Kindle reader a perfect complement to their iPads).

We think a combination of the giveaway, Zach's status as first bona fide sponsor of Planet iPad, and release of Blank Slate is ample reason to devote a little extra space here before we get to today's Free Book Alert listings, so here's the scoop, straight from Zack:
I'm pleased to announce the release of my 2nd novel "BLANK SLATE" on Amazon and other eBook formats on October 21. To celebrate and help promote the release, I am giving away a new Kindle Wi-Fi on November 28.

How can you enter? And how many times can you enter?
The first day of the contest, a reader bought both books, tweeted, and Facebooked- for a total of 6 entries for the day!

You have several choices- Every time you do one of these- you get an additional entry...
Be sure to send an email to zacharyhamric@hotmail.com - it's the only way I know you've entered!
  • SHARE THE LINK on your Facebook account. This choice is a great one- Everytime you share, it counts as one entry. So, please Share Often! All you need to do is click the "Share" button at the upper left...Be sure to leave a comment on the blog to let me know you shared. Here's the link: http://bit.ly/b2vbLk
  • PURCHASE EITHER Blank Slate or Crescent Rising- both currently available on Amazon. Send a copy of the receipt to ZacharyHamric@hotmail.com. Hint- This gets you two entries. If you are one of the first 50 to purchase BLANK SLATE, you have an invitation to come sailing with us on Dolce Vita if you happen to be in Sarasota.
  • TWEET ABOUT THE CONTEST- Tweet the following to your thousands of followers-"
    I entered the BLANK SLATE Kindle Giveaway Contest.
    To Enter: http://bit.ly/b2vbLk Each Tweet is 1 entry!
    "
  • Tweet often- every Tweet counts as an entry!- Leave a comment so I know you tweeted...
I'll hold the drawing at 8:00 on November 28, 2010. I'll post a video of the drawing that evening.Are you eligible? If you are able to buy a Kindle online from Amazon in the country you live in- you're eligible!

Ahh, but let's not forget about the book itself. Here's the set-up:

Blank Slate 
Just released by Zack Hamric, author of Crescent Rising - 8 five star reviews out of 9
 Kindle Price: $2.99  Text-to-Speech: Enabled

What happens when the Russian mob decides to go in business with the Columbian cartels in Miami? Nothing good, as Kyle Jackle quickly finds out in this tropical thriller.  His mission to topple an organization involved in human trafficking and drug running takes him from the dangerous backstreets of Naples, Italy to the gritty underbelly of Miami.   After almost being beaten to death in an alley one evening, he awakens to find himself hunted by the mob, unable to trust anyone he meets, and with no memory of his past life.

Kindle WiFi Giveaway Nov. 28 - http://zackhamric.blogspot.com/
Click here to download Blank Slate (A Kyle Jackle Thriller) or a free sample) to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android-compatible, PC or Mac and start reading within 60 seconds!

*  
UK Kindle customers: Click here to download Blank Slate (A Kyle Jackle Thriller) 



Each day's list is sponsored by one paid title. We encourage you to support our sponsors and thank you for considering them. 

Authors, Publishers, Accessory Manufacturers:
Interested in learning more about sponsorship? Just click on this link for more information.


October's iPad-Compatible Free Titles @ Kindle

Click here for a separate listing of free and bargain erotica titles for your iPad.

Witch & Wizard: The Gift - The First 21 Chapters
By: James Patterson
Added: 10/30/2010 4:00:48am
Spinning Forward
By: Terri DuLong
Added: 10/29/2010 4:00:54am
Cool Beans: A Maya Davis Novel
By: Erynn Mangum
Added: 10/29/2010 4:00:54am
Half Past Dead
By: Zoe Archer
Added: 10/29/2010 4:00:54am
Dancing In The Lowcountry
By: James Villas
Added: 10/29/2010 4:00:54am
Unti James Novella
By:
Added: 10/27/2010 4:00:50am
Your Secret Name: Discovering Who God Created You to Be
By: Kary Oberbrunner
Added: 10/25/2010 2:01:09pm
Spiritual Rhythm: Being with Jesus Every Season of Your Soul
By: Zondervan
Added: 10/25/2010 2:01:09pm
The Truth About Starting a Business
By: Bruce Barringer
Added: 10/25/2010 4:01:09am
How Netflix Produces Happy Endings
By: New Word City
Added: 10/25/2010 4:01:09am
The Truth About Public Speaking: The Essential Truths in 20 Minutes
By: James O'Rourke
Added: 10/25/2010 4:01:09am
The Holy Bible English Standard Version (ESV)
By: Crossway Bibles
Added: 10/21/2010 2:01:19pm
Spy Killer
By: L. Ron Hubbard
Added: 10/19/2010 4:01:12am
Preacher Creature Strikes on Sunday
By: Mike Thaler
Added: 10/18/2010 2:01:05pm
Never Blame the Umpire
By: Gene Fehler
Added: 10/18/2010 2:01:05pm
The Choice (Lancaster County Secrets, Book 1)
By: Suzanne Woods Fisher
Added: 10/18/2010 4:01:07am
Mozart's Sister
By: Nancy Moser
Added: 10/18/2010 4:01:07am
Chinatown Beat
By: Henry Chang
Added: 10/16/2010 2:01:04pm
Every Word (A Free Game for Kindle)
By: Amazon Digital Services
Added: 10/15/2010 2:01:09pm
Shuffled Row (A Free Game for Kindle)
By: Amazon Digital Services
Added: 10/15/2010 2:01:09pm
Emotions: Freedom from Anger, Jealousy & Fear
By: Osho
Added: 10/15/2010 4:01:12am
An Unwanted Hunger
By: Ciana Stone
Added: 10/15/2010 4:01:12am
Quiet As They Come (Free Story for Kindle)
By: Angie Chau
Added: 10/13/2010 4:01:25am
Relentless (Dominion Trilogy #1)
By: Robin Parrish
Added: 10/11/2010 8:17:57am
Tahn: A Novel
By: L. A. Kelly
Added: 10/11/2010 8:17:57am
Sin's Daughter
By: Eve Silver
Added: 10/09/2010 4:01:20am
Billy Boyle: A World War II Mystery
By: James R. Benn
Added: 10/08/2010 4:01:14am
The Holy Bible: HCSB Digital Text Edition
By: B&H Publishing Group
Added: 10/07/2010 4:01:07am
Publish on Amazon Kindle with the Digital Text Platform
By: Amazon.com
Added: 10/05/2010 4:01:23am
Thoughts on The Promise and Darkness On The Edge Of Town
By: Bruce Springsteen
Added: 10/03/2010 2:01:31pm
The DNA of Relationships
By: Gary Smalley
Added: 10/03/2010 4:01:24am
The Unsuspecting Mage (The Morcyth Saga Book One)
By: Brian S. Pratt
Added: 10/01/2010 2:01:18pm
Shatter (The Children of Man)
By: Elizabeth C. Mock
Added: 10/01/2010 2:01:18pm
Arousing Love
By: M. H. Strom
Added: 10/01/2010 2:01:18pm
Woman of Sin
By: Debra Diaz
Added: 10/01/2010 2:01:18pm
Outlander: with Bonus Content
By: Diana Gabaldon
Added: 10/01/2010 4:01:02am
By: New Word City
Added: 10/25/2010 4:01:09am
The Hangman's Daughter - chapters 1-3
By: Oliver Pötzsch
Added: 10/28/2010 4:00:56am
Cross Fire-Free Preview: The First 30 Chapters
By: James Patterson
Added: 10/27/2010 4:00:50am
Your Secret Name: Discovering Who God Created You to Be
By: Kary Oberbrunner
Added: 10/25/2010 2:01:09pm
Spiritual Rhythm: Being with Jesus Every Season of Your Soul
By: Zondervan
Added: 10/25/2010 2:01:09pm
The Truth About Starting a Business
By: Bruce Barringer
Added: 10/25/2010 4:01:09am
The Truth About Public Speaking: The Essential Truths in 20 Minutes
By: James O'Rourke
Added: 10/25/2010 4:01:09am
The Holy Bible English Standard Version (ESV)
By: Crossway Bibles
Added: 10/21/2010 2:01:19pm
Spy Killer
By: L. Ron Hubbard
Added: 10/19/2010 4:01:12am
Preacher Creature Strikes on Sunday
By: Mike Thaler
Added: 10/18/2010 2:01:05pm
Never Blame the Umpire
By: Gene Fehler
Added: 10/18/2010 2:01:05pm
The Choice (Lancaster County Secrets, Book 1)
By: Suzanne Woods Fisher
Added: 10/18/2010 4:01:07am
Mozart's Sister
By: Nancy Moser
Added: 10/18/2010 4:01:07am
Chinatown Beat
By: Henry Chang
Added: 10/16/2010 2:01:04pm
Every Word (A Free Game for Kindle)
By: Amazon Digital Services
Added: 10/15/2010 2:01:09pm
Shuffled Row (A Free Game for Kindle)
By: Amazon Digital Services
Added: 10/15/2010 2:01:09pm
Emotions: Freedom from Anger, Jealousy & Fear
By: Osho
Added: 10/15/2010 4:01:12am
An Unwanted Hunger
By: Ciana Stone
Added: 10/15/2010 4:01:12am
Quiet As They Come (Free Story for Kindle)
By: Angie Chau
Added: 10/13/2010 4:01:25am
Relentless (Dominion Trilogy #1)
By: Robin Parrish
Added: 10/11/2010 8:17:57am
Tahn: A Novel
By: L. A. Kelly
Added: 10/11/2010 8:17:57am
Sin's Daughter
By: Eve Silver
Added: 10/09/2010 4:01:20am
Billy Boyle: A World War II Mystery
By: James R. Benn
Added: 10/08/2010 4:01:14am
The Holy Bible: HCSB Digital Text Edition
By: B&H Publishing Group
Added: 10/07/2010 4:01:07am
Publish on Amazon Kindle with the Digital Text Platform
By: Amazon.com
Added: 10/05/2010 4:01:23am
Thoughts on The Promise and Darkness On The Edge Of Town
By: Bruce Springsteen
Added: 10/03/2010 2:01:31pm
The DNA of Relationships
By: Gary Smalley
Added: 10/03/2010 4:01:24am
The Unsuspecting Mage (The Morcyth Saga Book One)
By: Brian S. Pratt
Added: 10/01/2010 2:01:18pm
Shatter (The Children of Man)
By: Elizabeth C. Mock
Added: 10/01/2010 2:01:18pm
Arousing Love
By: M. H. Strom
Added: 10/01/2010 2:01:18pm
Woman of Sin
By: Debra Diaz
Added: 10/01/2010 2:01:18pm
Outlander: with Bonus Content
By: Diana Gabaldon
Added: 10/01/2010 4:01:02am
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