Charlotte Ann Hu Posted January 18, 2012 at 02:32 AM Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 at 02:32 AM The Gnomes of Knot-Hole Manor English only is available for free download until Jan. 17th. The Gnomes of Knot-Hole Manor Bilingual in English and Chinese will be available for free download Jan. 19 through 23. The Dance of the Caterpillars in English and Korean will be available later this month. Other books in other languages will be available for free download in the future, each for 5 days at a time, per Amazon’s requirements. Join a Facebook page to get notices about future free downloads: http://www.facebook.com/PictureBookChildrens Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roddy Posted January 18, 2012 at 09:58 AM Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 at 09:58 AM This wouldn't normally get through, but I don't think we've seen any English / Chinese Kindle books before, and it's free for a while, so I thought someone might like to take a look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
马盖云 Posted January 21, 2012 at 05:44 AM Report Share Posted January 21, 2012 at 05:44 AM Thanks for making this available. I downloaded the Chinese/English version and will give it a read. I have a few questions for the OP, who I presume is (while not the same name as the author) at least related to the production... How were the Chinese translations generated? Since it seems to be designed to showcase the tricky aspects of silent letters and homonyms in English, I presume that English was the source language. The first few paragraphs seem somewhat legit, but I want to make sure it is an ideomatic translation, and not machine generated or word-for-word literal, since I would be reading it mostly for Chinese learning, and not wanting to pick up bad habits! :-) Also, it seems the text is just encoded in images, and not really using "e text" as such. I tried it on a traditional Kindle3 (e-ink) model, and the text font size and font type/spacing menus have no effect on the text. The text is in a small rectangular area with huge margins, and the text is unusably small, and not strechable to fill the margins. I also tried it on a touchscreen device (iphone, etc.) and while using this you can pinch to zoom the page to better fill the screen, you can not then flip the page without exiting out of the zoom function. So this is sort of uncomfortable as well. Since I do not see any illustrations in either way of viewing the e-book, I dont see the point of encoding the text this way, and forgoing the cool part of an e-book... the ability to adjust the text size for reading comfort! I hope the publisher would consider this and reissue the book in a truly "kindle friendly" format! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matty Posted January 21, 2012 at 10:46 AM Report Share Posted January 21, 2012 at 10:46 AM This title is not available for customers from your location in: Asia & Pacific Well... That's not fun at all... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roddy Posted January 22, 2012 at 12:00 PM Report Share Posted January 22, 2012 at 12:00 PM Deleted a bunch of off-topic posts. As it says in the title, it's a Kindle book. You need a Kindle or Kindle software to read it. That's the way it works. Anyone actually read the thing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Posted January 22, 2012 at 12:20 PM Report Share Posted January 22, 2012 at 12:20 PM Roddy, I have software to read kindle books, Amazon just doesn't allow me to use that software and forces their own hardware. On my question to them why I can't download it they state: "I have researched your account and found that there is no kindle device registered to your account. To make purchases and to download ebooks you must register your device to your account." Consequently it's not a free kindle book, as per reply of Amazon the book is only free if you use a physical kindle. (read for existing customers) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gato Posted January 22, 2012 at 12:29 PM Report Share Posted January 22, 2012 at 12:29 PM https://read.amazon.com/about Kindle Cloud Reader lets you read ebooks, instantly—no Kindle device required. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Posted January 22, 2012 at 01:52 PM Report Share Posted January 22, 2012 at 01:52 PM Doesn't work....... First it wants me to use another browser. (browser is not supported) Then in another browser it tells me to shop at amazon.de instead. Then it wants me to install other software again..... I changed the adress to some nonsense adress in Africa and it seems to work The book downloads, but when opening it takes ages and then says there is a problem opening the book. Big surprise illegal torrent downloads are so much more popular then official legal solutions.......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icebear Posted January 22, 2012 at 03:30 PM Report Share Posted January 22, 2012 at 03:30 PM I'm pretty certain the book's price (free) under this promotion is restricted to only Kindle device owners (similar to restrictions Amazon has via its Prime service). This is entirely legitimate, in my view. Keep in mind that "publishers" have no obligation to make their specials available to everyone. Personally I find shopping for Kindle titles to be extremely convenient and pain-free; your complaints regarding their service is probably better aimed at Amazon themselves, rather than a unrelated board... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Posted January 22, 2012 at 04:14 PM Report Share Posted January 22, 2012 at 04:14 PM I'm pretty certain the book's price (free) under this promotion is restricted to only Kindle device owners (similar to restrictions Amazon has via its Prime service). This is entirely legitimate, in my view. Keep in mind that "publishers" have no obligation to make their specials available to everyone. I don't really care what kind of restrictions they apply as long as they're clear about it. If I go to the amazon.com site it's offered for free without any clear limitations. Their seems to be no way to download it however without a kindle. Then I sign up at amazon.com through read.amazon.com and I'm told to use a site in another language! Why? There may very well be a reason I use a site in English and not in German! They even send me a mail to confirm the order and to tell me that it's loaded to my kindle or other device. A mail I can't reply to and I've to make a long route through their website to contact them. (I decided not to). This all has very little, if anything, to do with the book being free. I've tried the initial steps for a paid book too and it was the same. Personally I find shopping for Kindle titles to be extremely convenient and pain-free; your complaints regarding their service is probably better aimed at Amazon themselves, rather than a unrelated board... Without any doubt it's convenient and pain free when you fit in one of their predefined boxes and don't care about providing an excess of (personal) data not needed for the service you want. I just want to download a file, they don't need serials etc for that. If they've got the billing info that's plenty. There are plenty of download sites that provide just that. Convenient and pain free downloads without demanding irrelevant (personal) data that is abused for spam and other sleazy intransparant commercial exploitation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icebear Posted January 22, 2012 at 11:45 PM Report Share Posted January 22, 2012 at 11:45 PM There are plenty of download sites that provide just that. Convenient and pain free downloads without demanding irrelevant (personal) data that is abused for spam and other sleazy intransparant commercial exploitation. Then there is nothing to complain about! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hackinger Posted January 22, 2012 at 11:50 PM Report Share Posted January 22, 2012 at 11:50 PM Hi, I downloaded it to my kindle without problems. Looks ok, but the pages seem to be images rather than text, probably to avoid font problems. I could therefore not scale up the text size as usual. (I will have to look at that again.) (It is a kindle book is a kindle book is a kindle book! ;-) ) Cheers hackinger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Posted January 23, 2012 at 07:01 AM Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 at 07:01 AM Then there is nothing to complain about! Not for me, but for the authors there is as they don't get paid......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
character Posted January 23, 2012 at 11:04 AM Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 at 11:04 AM In the US I was able to get Gnomes of Knot-Hole Manor Bilingual in English and Chinese for free from Amazon and I don't have a physical Kindle, only the Kindle reader software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PBolchover Posted January 24, 2012 at 10:58 AM Report Share Posted January 24, 2012 at 10:58 AM I downloaded the Kindle PC App and downloaded the book for free with no problem. One possibility is that it is only free if you have your Kindle "Country" set to the US. (I think that you need a US billing address for this...) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Posted January 24, 2012 at 06:27 PM Report Share Posted January 24, 2012 at 06:27 PM No, country isn't the issue. Set to Germany it didn't work, set to Gabon I was able to download but the book still didn't work. It timed out when opening. Yesterday night it was still very slow, but it worked without changing anything..... Amazon says it's country settings and that if I don't proof that I'm located in Gabon I'm unable to download....... IMHO it's just a load of crap. Specially as now I'm still only able to read in the browsers that amazon approves. I think it's extremely customer unfriendly to tell people to use a site in another language then the choosen site without any indication I know the language, force certain software (by default you can't read it in the app you prefer) and demand proof of location. Sure, they are allowed decide on the conditions. But at least do it in advance instead of after people spend time and energy to become a customer. It's more customer friendly and makes a huge difference on customer support too! This way just inspires to use illegal downloads instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icebear Posted January 24, 2012 at 06:43 PM Report Share Posted January 24, 2012 at 06:43 PM No, country isn't the issue. Set to Germany it didn't work, set to Gabon I was able to download but the book still didn't work. It timed out when opening. Yesterday night it was still very slow, but it worked without changing anything..... Amazon says it's country settings and that if I don't proof that I'm located in Gabon I'm unable to download....... But are you located in Germany? In which case country could be the issue... the book was offered via the Amazon US site, which means its intended for sale to only US customers. I feel you regarding the hassles of geographic restrictions, but those generally come from some entity beyond Amazon - publisher or rights holder. Separation of national websites/content is to comply with their copyright needs, as well as to comply with national tax/business laws. It may be the case that European rules are what prevents the cross border sale (in addition to conditions above), in which case there isn't anyone to blame but local/national government and the lobbyists that impose those rules. (An unrelated example is why are my skateboards so expensive in Spain... importing processed wood products have a high tariff, on top of higher VAT... I don't blame the locally owned skateboard shops). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Posted January 24, 2012 at 07:50 PM Report Share Posted January 24, 2012 at 07:50 PM But are you located in Germany? In which case country could be the issue... No, I'm not located in germany. There is no amazon site targeting my location. Also on the German site it was offered for free too. As mentioned in the end I could download. While Amazon customer service says I can only download if I proof that I'm in Gabon. I don't and can't as I'm not in Gabon. the book was offered via the Amazon US site, which means its intended for sale to only US customers. IMHO it's offered on an international site (.com) not a local US site (.us). Also there is no indication of the location on the website. On the other websites of Amazon the target location is clearly indicated by the name (.de, .fr, .co.uk, .es .cn, .ca etc). Also they mention shipping rates for (virtually) the entire world if they only target the us I don't see the rationale of that. If there is a location issue, why not just mention it instead of letting me proceed and run into issue's? I think this all is not too relevant anyway. The point I want to make is that many companies (Amazon is just one of many) are becoming more and more customer unfriendly. Lately there was a discussion here about sopa/pipa. If I remember wel someone there mentioned that pirate ware is the result from poor service. Here I see exactly that displayed. I try to do it the legal way and it takes a lot of effort and I bump in all kind of silly limitations and obstacles. Why should I bother if I can get it from a download site too? It's, at least in my opinion, not (just) the money as many people pay for download sites and their services too. And some things they buy despite that they could download a hacked, free version from their paid for downloadsite. It's primarily the ease of use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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