Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Kindle Fire Tip: The ScreenDim Kindle Fire and Android app, an eye saver when reading

ScreenDim Full While reading a Kindle forum question by someone hoping for a larger e-Ink Kindle like the old 9.7" DX, to be used only for reading, I saw another informative post by Amazon Kindle Forum Pro Josh1120, who feels Amazon is unlikely to do that but replied that the larger Kindle Fire is worth considering as an alternative, explaining that:
  "You'll miss the e-ink display but the improvements in the KFHD display combined with an app like ScreenDim that enables you to control brightness and contrast independently comes close to an e-ink reading experience in most cases."
  Since I've always wanted to be able to control the contrast of a display when reading, I downloaded the app.  The trial version is free but lasts only 3 days, and the "full" version is 99 cents.


 Ironically, the paid 'full' version has a higher customer rating than the trial version, with 73 customer reviews and an average rating of 4.8 stars.  The free 3-day trial version is here.

  Amazon's "Test Drive Now" instantly on either your computer or your tablet is a great feature, giving you an idea of what the app is like, although the actual app worked better than it does in the test drive mode.

  The higher increase/decrease line is for brightness and the lower one's for contrast.
  For me, the lower levels of dimness of any of the Kindle Fire models are good enough, but there are books in which I've wanted higher contrast when seeing light blue links.

In customer reviews, others find the built-in dimmest light-setting still too bright, one person writing that at night, in "my darkest closet, was able to reduce the brightness setting below Kindle Fire's lowest, and read comfortably without backlighting."

  When you have a setting you like, you can long-press one of the pre-sets and save it to that or to a name you designate.

  As with the Speaker Boost app, you access it for further adjustments while listening or reading -- tapping the screen near the middle (not on the edges since that will turn a page), which brings up the Amazon top and side menus, and then swiping down from the top left as you do when viewing Notifications.  That gives you access to the opened-app and its further adjustment features.

  One customer finds it works especially well for the original Kindle Fire which lacks contrast when dimmed in the normal way but retains much of its contrast when dimmed while ScreenDim is active.

  Contrary to one review, this works fine on the Kindle Fire HD 7" and Amazon notes it as working on all the Kindle Fire models.

  I always have the Paperwhite with me, but I do find myself reading books more often on a Kindle Fire tablet than with the eReader mainly because I use it for other features and I've been surprised to find that it is unexpectedly comfortable (for my eyes) for reading when the brightness is dimmed fairly low, especially since I use the 'Aa' options to use a Sepia background (and others can use the white text against black background).



For links to the various current Kindle models that apply to countries outside the U.S., am adding the reference listing rather than try to include alternate links in the body of the text.


  NOTES on newer Kindles.
US:
Updated Kindle Fire 2 Basic  7" tablet - $159
Kindle Fire HD 7" 16/32GB - $199/$249
Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 16/32GB - $299/$369
Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 4G 32/64GB - $499/$599
Kindle NoTouch ("Kindle") - $69/$89
Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - $119/$139
Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi+3G - $179/$199
Kindle Keybd 3G - $139/$159, Free slow web
Kindle DX - $379 $299 Discontinued
UK:
Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £69
Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - ~£89 Refurb'd
Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149
  Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB
Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi
£109
Kindle Paperwhite 3G, UK
£169
Kindle Fire 2, UK
 £129
Kindle Fire HD 7" 16/32GB, UK
£159/199
Canada - Kindlestore, CDN-$
Kindle Basic, NoTouch - $89
Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - $139
Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi+3G - $199
*OTHER International*
Kindle NoTouch Basic - $89
Kindle Touch WiFi - $139
Kindle Keybd 3G - $189
  Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB
Paperwhite WiFi $139, 3G/Wifi $199

France Boutique Kindle
Deutschland - Kindle Store
Italia - Kindle Store
Spain - Tienda Kindle
Brazil - Amazon Brazil
China - Amazon China
Japan - Amazon Japan


Check often: Temporarily-free recently published Kindle books
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published free books, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

  *Click* to Return to the HOME PAGE.  Or click on the web browser's BACK button


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-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

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(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
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