singles

Amazon officially launches Kindle Singles

You'd think Kindle Singles was the name for a new online dating service for Kindle owners. But as we wrote a few months ago, it's really a new category in the Kindle Store that features written works longer than a typical magazine article or "as much as a few chapters of a typical book." Today, those works officially became available.

Amazon says the first set of Kindle Singles includes original reporting, essays, memoirs, fiction, and some works from famous writers. The company says it plans to "frequently launch" more Kindle Singles over time.

Singles are available to both Kindle device and app users with prices ranging between $0.99 and $4.99. We're actually a little surprised that prices are this high (we thought some items might be available for 49 cents). Many full-length e-books are available for $2.99 or less in the Kindle Store. True, many of those are from indie publishers, but some are from traditional publishers running specials on particular titles.

It's worth noting that Amazon is mixing Kindle Singles right into the Kindle Store along with everything else. They are also factored into top-products lists just like any other e-book. … Read more

Machines eyeball trash for single-stream recycling

BOSTON--Who knew a warehouse full of garbage and conveyor belts could be so high-tech?

Last Thursday, I had the chance to tour a single-stream recycling center here, where a suite of specialized machines has vastly sped up the traditional manual sorting method now commonly used in recycling.

Well over 100 full-time employees still work at the plant, but the bulk of the separation work is done by a combination of belts, magnets, and optical readers clever enough to tell the difference between a plastic milk jug and a laundry detergent container.

The tour opened my eyes to how single stream … Read more

Facebook introduces single sign-on for mobile apps, services

PALO ALTO, CA--Let's get it over with. There is no Facebook phone. Mark Zuckerberg made that abundantly clear with a firm denial at a Facebook mobile event today at company headquarters in Palo Alto. But Facebook did announce a single sign-on.

Single sign-on is roughly an extension of (and replacement for) services like Facebook Connect, connecting you to third-party social apps and services. If you're already logged on to Facebook on your mobile phone, you'll be able to sign in to other apps using your Facebook credentials.

Groupon's Mihir Shah, vice president and general manager of … Read more

Amazon launching mini e-book section: Kindle Singles

In an interesting move, Amazon today announced that it will launch a category in the Kindle Store called Kindle Singles that features works longer than a typical magazine article or "as much as a few chapters of a typical book."

The company says this shorter art form will be offered at lower prices than full-length books.

"In many cases, 10,000 to 30,000 words (roughly 30 to 90 pages) might be the perfect, natural length to lay out a single killer idea, well researched, well argued and well illustrated--whether it's a business lesson, a political … Read more

Simple project planning

Many people learn about project management in business school, but plenty of others have to pick up project management skills on the fly. RationalPlan Single Project is a great program for both experienced and novice project managers. This full-featured project management tool walks users through the entire management process, making it a perfect solution for novices who need some guidance, but its capabilities are befitting an experienced project manager.

The program's interface is plain and not particularly attractive, but it's extremely easy to navigate. Each step of the project management process is listed in a tree hierarchy on … Read more

Black Gold, Brooklyn's newest record store

Times are tough, and even tougher for the music business, but that didn't stop Jeff Ogiba and Sommer Foster-Santoro from opening a new record store, Black Gold.

It's in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, and I dropped by on Thursday to see how they were doing. Black Gold also sells freshly brewed coffee from Rook Coffee Roasters and baked goods from Scratchbread, so the shop has great ambiance. The vinyl selection covers rock, punk, hard-core, blues, jazz, hip-hop, and everything in between. Prices seem very fair, and I spotted one of my favorite Rolling Stones LPs, "Love You Live,&… Read more

No-frills image transfers

In our household we have three point-and-shoot cameras, two DSLRs, and two camera phones. That's a lot of different sources for digital images, and we don't always want these different photos commingling; we prefer, for example, to keep images we take with our cell phone separate from the other stuff. Photo Download Tool is a basic utility that helps users get images from their cameras to their computers while keeping everything in the proper place.

Photo Download Tool's interface is as no-nonsense as its name; it consists of a small gray box with a few radio buttons … Read more

Key combinations to troubleshoot your Intel-based Mac at start-up

Many articles you read about Mac troubleshooting mention troubleshooting methods such as resetting the NVRAM, starting in FireWire Target Disk Mode, starting in Safe Mode, or starting in Single-User Mode, but fail to explain exactly how to do that. This article breaks it down for you.… Read more

Single-core CPUs and Windows 7 thin-and-lights shouldn't mix: Toshiba T135-S1300

We have a bit of a beef with a trend that's currently happening in full-size (by that we mean 13-inch and above) thin-and-light laptops, the machines that as of late have shaved thickness at the expense of optical drives and often processor power. While the battery life on thin-and-lights generally exceeds expectations, the compromise that's often been used is incorporating a single-core ultra-low-voltage processor, which provides marginally better performance than the Atom processor on any Netbook.

Unfortunately, thin-and-lights are more expensive than Netbooks--often by several hundred dollars at the least--and other than increased screen size, they run the … Read more