Kindle Apps for Tablet Computer (including iPad)

Ah, the Amazon development team is really efficient, just after a week from the release of Kindle for Mac they have another new product ready to roll out. Somehow the news is broken not from their official press release, but from a report in New York Times. This is the Kindle Apps for Tablet Computer, and it works on table computers including the iPad as well (obviously, they want people to know about this application, before the official launch date of iPad in early April).

Kindle Apps for Tablet Computers

Unlike other Kindle applications (iPhone, PC, BlackBerry, Mac), there are some new fancy features like:

  • Tailored to the size, look, and feel of your tablet computer
  • Adjust screen brightness from within the app to make reading easier
  • Page turn animation replicates the look of turning a page in a book. Or choose Basic Reading Mode for a simpler and unadorned reading experience

In the case of iPad version (assuming Apple will approve it …), the New York Times reports that:

“… large images of book covers are set against a backdrop of a silhouetted figure reading under a tree. The sun’s position in that image varies with the time of day.”

I know you want it, don’t you ? Check out the pictures and have a feel of this new application.

Kindle for Mac, now available

Yap, just one month after the beta version of Kindle for BlackBerry, today Amazon rolls out the Kindle for Mac. The features are similar to other free downloads like Kindle for PC and Kindle for iPhone. However, according to the press release

Several features will be added to the Kindle for Mac app in the near future, including full text search and the ability to create and edit notes and highlights. Kindle for Mac is available to customers around the world as a free download.

So I guess, we need to keep an eye on the future upgrade as well. You can download the free application from www.amazon.com/kindleformac. Will install it tonight to try it out …

Kindle for Mac

Getting freebies with Twitter

You probably know with good use of Twitter, you can fix your hotel reservation issue and even get a free dessert / appetizer. What about getting some freebies by just tweeting? You can certainly do that by:

  1. Writing a tweet about how good a company is;
  2. Writing one to complaint a company instead;
  3. Telling the world that you’re fixing a software problem, specify the company’s name in your tweet;
  4. Letting people know that you’re evaluating a website’s products / services, don’t forget the company’s name.

You know what, the companies mention in your tweets will not send you free stuff, but their competitors will as they are constantly monitoring any tweets about their rivals. For example, two hours after I tweeted about evaluating an image website …

Free credits

Kindle for BlackBerry (beta) is now available

After the Kindle devices, the applications Kindle for iPhone and Kindle for PC … now we have the Kindle for BlackBerry. The Kindle family is getting bigger and bigger. I can imagine soon we will have Kindle for Android, Kindle for OSX, Windows Phone Series 7 etc. etc. However, something new to me from their press release

  • Search and browse more than 420,000 books, including 102 of 112 New York Times Bestsellers, directly from their BlackBerry
  • Read books in full color, including children’s books, cookbooks, travel books, textbooks and graphic novels

Wow, 420,000 books !! And books in full color !! May be because I didn’t downloaded any cookbooks or travel books before, so I don’t really know whether my Kindle for iPhone and Kindle for PC have this function or not. Anyway, good news for all BlackBerry users.

Don’t forget to check out other Kindle posts !!

Customer service in 21st century, in Twitter style

So we all know Twitter can do many things – other than telling your followers what you’re eating, you can also use Twitter to express your views, to collect other people’s views, and to spread your friends’ views (by re-tweeting). And of course, we’ve heard many stories about using Twitter to find missing teens or getting better customer services.

I for one is a believer that Twitter can help improving customer services but then believing is one thing, can experience one is another. That was an incident last week related to a trip to Mumbai, India in February and I needed to get a room and airport transportation services from Hyatt Mumbai.

Looked like a simple task, I know. But somehow somewhere the reservation record was not right, I had email exchanged with the “e-concierge”, the “Catering Sales manager” (yes, strange I know) and “General Manager” (yes, right), but still could not sort the things out. So I decided … to air my frustration through Twitter.

And then within two hours, Hyatt customer services / Twitter team found my tweet and replied with another tweet.

I then direct-messaged the reservation confirmation number to them. In an hours or two, I was told the reservation was done exactly the same as my request, and then a follow-up email from Hyatt Germany service team (!!) wrapped up the case.

Wow, I love Hyatt’s service and obviously the capability of Twitter. The big question to me is how can one corporation compete without providing the same level of services in today’s world ?

What’s your Twitter customer service stories ?