Web articles to your Kindle w/ images. 'SendToReader' & 'Readability'

EASIlY SEND WEB PAGE ARTICLES TO YOUR KINDLE

Am doing follow-up info on SendtoReader (for Kindle), which offers a BookMarklet for that, and I'm introducing Readability's newer offering of a SendToKindle button.   Both of these tools strip unnecessary side-info, links, ads, polls, etc., and send only the body of an article to your Kindle upon the click of a button.

The Readability tool also displays only the body of the article in your web browser when you click on "Read Now."

Both offer free basic send-to-Kindle service, but Readability has a Premium $5/mo. program if you also want special features, such as "Read Later" (on the Readability webpage) or a History of what you've done.   70% of the income goes to the publishers/websites providing the articles for your Kindle-sends, though I don't know how they do that.

SENDtoREADER, a FOLLOW UP
Basic info on this was given in the March 29 blog entry but I'll include that info here to make it easier:   It promises the following:

' SENDtoREADER  is a simple web application that allows you to send any webpage to your Amazon Kindle Reader instantly.

This gives your Kindle the flexibility to be your work or leisure time companion with a simple click of the mouse.  SENDtoREADER is a simple web application that allows you to send any webpage to your Amazon Kindle Reader instantly.
 ...
Our web app is extremely easy to use. It's just a bookmarklet (or favlet) which works well in all modern browsers including: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari and Opera.  Version for Internet Explorer is coming soon.  Once it's added to your favorites, you can start sending web pages to your Kindle with a single click.  By default, Kindle is a book reader, but with SENDtoREADER you can also make it your personal Magazine.

In order to protect your privacy, our system requires you to register first. '

The comments section for the earlier article has mainly raves about how this SendToReader works.

Norti was the first to report in the Comments area:

' Accented international characters in titles ('őűóúíáé') - and in text, of course - and pictures are well preserved with this, so it's already better than any other other page-sending service out there ... those are likely to fail on accented titles). '

  Early mentions were of images coming through well, good general layout, and "a great feature: history of your sent articles (linked) in your account at sendtoreader.com with an option to resend." Thanks to phelcq and Elmo.

Corneliu Dascalu said,

' This tool deserves all the attention it can get. It's absolutely wonderful. '

Leigh wrote,

' This tool is perfect. Thank you for making me aware of it!  When I could not get for the life of me RekindleIT or Send to Kindle to work, this came along and works flawlessly.  It's nearly instantaneous and the formatting is really nice and it titles the document correctly.  I love that it gives you a history of the articles you've sent, and the little note that shows that your article has been sent when you've pressed the button is nice too.  There is no confusion or wondering for 15 minutes if your article is going to arrive. '

My2¢worth wrote, re a solution to an initial problem he reported to SendtoReader developer Sergey Pozhilov:

' Yesterday the developer asked me to try the new and improved SendToReader with "Atlantic" magazine.
  If the user selects "Print" mode from the web page before clicking on the SendToReader applet it transmits multi-page articles with all photos intact perfectly.
  I think I will be using it frequently. '

I ran a comparison of the same article with both SendToReader and Instapaper and found two significant differences:

1) Pictures on Instapaper were smaller and converted to black and white. (Only an issue for non-Kindle readers, of course).

2) Instapaper articles in the Kindle iPad app did not permit highlighting of text or note-taking, while the SendToReader articles operated just like regular books. I haven't had any periodicals sent to my iPad yet, but I suspect that this may be a an inherent limitation of that sub-format. I may have to fire up my ol Kindle DXG and find out.

So, while it appears that both web converters may work well for Kindle readers, SendToReader would be the preferred choice for the Kindle iPad app.

UPDATED to include this earlier feedback from Elmo Glick
Elmo Glick added a comparison between Instapaper and SendToReader when used in the Kindle iPad app:

' I ran a comparison of the same article with both SendToReader and Instapaper and found two significant differences:

1) Pictures on Instapaper were smaller and converted to black and white. (Only an issue for non-Kindle readers, of course).

2) Instapaper articles in the Kindle iPad app did not permit highlighting of text or note-taking, while the SendToReader articles operated just like regular books.  I haven't had any periodicals sent to my iPad yet, but I suspect that this may be a an inherent limitation of that sub-format. I may have to fire up my ol Kindle DXG and find out.

So, while it appears that both web converters may work well for Kindle readers, SendToReader would be the preferred choice for the Kindle iPad app. '

Pozhilov has updated the page quite a bit since I last saw it. Benefits of using the tool listed on the page include:
  . "Retains all images"
  . "You can send blog posts from Google Reader to Kindle instantly.  And when you send a post, our system visits the source page and sends the whole thing, so you get everything, not just the bit that you see in G. Reader."
  . "You can keep track of every single item you have sent to your Kindle from any other source and can always resend items if necessary"  [which means you can delete them from your Kindle and still get them again later -- and it's part of the free package].

I have no affiliation with the site but have been impressed with the feedback in the blog's comments area.  I asked Sergey P. if his History feature was included free, and he said it was.  He considers this project a "work in progress."


BY THE WAY: There are small discussions in the blog's Comments section, as I reply to feedback and questions.  Am often busy there but that doesn't show up in the normal RSS feeds nor in the Kindle edition of the blog.  If you want to keep up with what's being discussed, I think this link will work.  It may ask you if you'd like to 'Add the [comments] feed' to the web-based reader (in this case, Google's).  You can always delete the feed easily.


READABILITY'S NEW SEND-TO-KINDLE BUTTON FEATURE
The button is easier than setting up a "BookMarklet" for some reason (but Internet Explorer can be done only with a bookmarklet for now) while the button's usable for other popular browsers.

I tried this yesterday and once you set it up it works very smoothly.
  Readability offers "Read Now" and "Send To Kindle" buttons, and their instructions say that if you set up the "Read Now" button, both buttons will show up -- but in my case I had to set up the "Send to Kindle" button separately (which meant just repeating the steps for the 2nd button).  Again, any History or Read later features are part of the premium $5/mo. package.  The Read Now and Send-to-Kindle features are free.


GENERAL KINDLE-SEND CAVEAT: With older Kindles than the Kindle 3, there is no WiFi, only the cell phone network "3G" access, which Amazon pays for although that's an option that on a smartphone costs the user about $15-$35/mo on top of basic charges.  Since Amazon pays for that network access, Amazon has a fee for sending personal documents via its servers to your Kindle if you use the 3G instead of WiFi access, and you'll see that detailed below.


HOW TO ALLOW A SITE TO SEND YOUR KINDLE ARTICLES YOU'VE CHOSEN
  You can specify that the content of a webpage you're on be sent to your Kindle at [you]@free.kindle.com.
  That Kindle address avoids the 15 cents per megabyte charge for sending a personal document over 3G Whispernet instead.  The [you]@free.kindle.com Kindle-address is designed for free delivery to the Kindle over WiFi, as WiFi access doesn't cost Amazon anything.

  (If you don't have the WiFi capability (older models) but you don't want to get the article by computer and move it to the Kindle via the USB cable, the 3G cellular network capability of earlier Kindles can be chosen instead by using the [you]@kindle.com address but the delivery would cost 15 cents per megabyte [99 cents per megabyte for non-U.S. Kindle owners]).

  See my article today about Amazon's changes to its Manage Your Kindle pages today, as it explains how to use the no-cost [you]@free.kindle.com address for free delivery to your Kindle (UK: K3) and earlier Kindles.

It's an important read, if you want to avoid fees for delivery of personal documents.

  Essentially, to use the Send to Kindle feature, Kindle users need to give permission to the sender to put something on their Kindle, so you enter the sender's official sending email address to the "Approved Personal Document E-mail List" at the new Personal Document Settings page.


OTHER article-sending tools like these, reported earlier
1. Granddaddy of them all: Instapaper
  But there was a problem with sending to [you]@free.kindle.com for awhile

2. SendToKindle - a Google CHROME add-on.

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