Kindle Tip: The Free 24/7 3G Access to Wikipedia on all 3G e-Ink Kindles (not generally known), plus Article Mode for that

After reading a couple of Internet news articles this weekend that stated that the 3G E-Ink Kindles of the last two years are restricted, in their 3G cellular network access, to the Amazon store (and having talked to many who don't know that the 3G e-Ink Kindles ALL have free 3G encyclopedia access 24/7 through Wikipedia globally), I thought it was a good time for a reminder.
  In fact, it's probably the first most will have heard of it.

 This includes the first two e-Ink Kindles, Kindle 1 and 2, which had and have only 3G access, and which both have ultra slow access to web look-ups in general (these are both still being used by Kindle stalwarts, since they can read their Kindle books on it, and many see no reason to buy later models) and the Kindle Keyboard ("Kindle 3"), Kindle Touch and Kindle Paperwhite (UK model here) models that have 3G.
  Clicking on the images take you to their respective U.S. Amazon pages.

  In fact, the very first article posted by this blog on March 19, 2009, was a photo comparison of the Kindle 1 vs Kindle 2 accessing the web in their black & white fashion and showing the differences in texture of output in graphics.  At this point, it's a bit of history on models still being used.

  The differences seen between those early models, 2 years apart (2007 and 2009) reflect the number of "shades of gray" used in each.  And that led to the article March 30 that year "Are the Kindle 2's 16 shades of gray a big deal?," which is an interesting look at the differences, and the source was an excellent linked tutorial on what happens when 4, 8, or 16 shades of gray are used.
  Well, a bit of nostalgia.  A lot has happened in 4 years.

  But, MAIN POINT - ALL of the 3G models pictured and still used, including the new 3G Paperwhite, allow FREE 3G access to Wikipedia, 24/7, meaning that if you happen to be on a bus, at the beach, or at the dentist's office and reading, and are curious about an event or fact, you can just look it up on those e-Ink 3G Kindles.  They allow you to SEARCH (while reading a book), or access directly, that Internet encyclopedia at no added cost.  (I'm pretty sure it's only the English version that's accessed even in the rest of the world).   This is in over 100+ countries/areas of the world.

  If you're not reading a book and just want to go look something up at Wikipedia using what's still called the e-Ink Kindle's "experimental web browser" you can just select Menu/Bookmarks -- which takes you to the mobile version of Encyclopedia, which delivers the content at a very decent speed on the 3G models of Kindle Touch and Paperwhite and is not that slow on the 3G Kindle 3 Keyboard.

I consider this a terrific feature, for those who don't have data plans on smartphones, and of course the battery lasts longer if you use the e-Ink eReaders for that, with their larger screens.


ARTICLE MODE - Don't forget that you can use this menu feature on single web page articles.  If you're reading a specific Wikipedia article and you find the fonts too small (usually the case with web articles on a 6" screen), tap at the TOP row of the display to get the Menu.  Press Menu and choose "Article Mode" and the article will be a lot easier to read.
  Hope people find this helpful.

---

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.

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Kindle Tip: Small text on web page when using Kindle Fire or Kindle e-Ink readers - How to read it

Browsing web pages on a Kindle Fire or Kindle Touch or Kindle Keyboard e-reader

Recently, a family member recently told me he was frustrated by trying to read webpages with tiny fonts, and I saw a Kindle news blog saying not much had been done to improve the Kindle Fire.

I replied that the new Kindle Fire feature, Reading View for web-article reading that isolates the article, is done VERY well, and it’s brought me back to Amazon's Silk browser from Dolphin HD (Android) web browers which I had far preferred until Amazon’s Reading View feature was added to its Silk browser.

  The new feature makes a huge difference for most who use the web browser on a 7" tablet if they know about it (and that’s the key, or at least one of them).  For those who don’t know about the "Reading View" feature, look for the reading glasses icon in the bottom status bar when at a web page article.

  Lightly press the eyeglasses icon and you'll get a specially formatted page for the web article you're on, far more readable with no ads or surrounding link and info boxes.

  I really enjoy this new feature despite the fact that in normal web-browsing on the Kindle Fire, a double tap on an article will usually raise the font size considerably and wrap the web article text within the width of the Kindle Fire, depending on your web settings and it's usually at a good size.

  But the instant Reading View is much easier and very effective.  No other eReader-based Android tablet web-browser or non-Kindle e-Ink eReader [I edited to correct the subject device type here] has this for browsing the web in full desktop mode (not limited mobile mode).  It’s like Instapaper or Readability, getting rid of ads and side boxes while displaying just the article in normal-sized text and supporting any article links.  But you also have access to the normal full webpage.

  And ANOTHER way to do this (on the Kindle Fire):
  Resize the column you want to read and then pinch zoom the display to enlarge the words until you have only what you want in the window (no side boxes or ads).
  Then double-tap, and that will keep the font size you are seeing while wrapping the rest of the article to the width of the window.
  My web browser settings are something like "auto-overview" and zoom in='Close'...

Remember that if you rotate the Kindle Fire 90 degrees, web browsing will be like reading on a 10" screen but only a half page at a time and the text on the page is easiest to read this way, with more room for it.  I do most of my web-browsing in landscape mode.

  The Kindle Touch ALSO has the pinch-zoom feature to enlarge the displayed text to the font size you want but it's hard to control the width of that as it doesn't wrap at the width so I don't consider it worthwhile except to raise the font size in an area you want to read, knowing it won't wrap.

  The Kindle Touch and Kindle Keyboard e-Ink readers offer ARTICLE Mode, which converts the layout of the web article you're reading to a simple isolated article-view with very readable text.  When finished with the article, press Menu--Web Mode to return to normal web browsing.

  The Kindle Touch otherwise allows, in normal web-browsing, only two auto-sizes -- the normal tiny, unreadable font when you're on a full webpage and a MEDIUM sized font if you double-tap the screen in the article box.  This isn't large enough for most though.  If you double tap it again, it reverts to smallest font and the double-tap acts as a toggle between the two sizes.

 (An oddness: If you double-click on an info box on the right, the Kindle Touch will sometimes raise the article font to a large size and then show you the article that way, but it's not worth doing because the KTouch gets confused and can crash the browser.)

Hope that helps.  I find that although I've written about this a couple of times, most people don't seem to know about the enhanced web-text reading features.

---

US: Kindle Fire  7" tablet - $199 Kindle NoTouch ("Kindle") - $79/$109 Kindle Touch, WiFi - $99/$139 Kindle Touch, 3G/WiFi - $149/$189 Kindle Keybd 3G - $189, Free, slow web Kindle DX - $379, Free, slow web

UK: Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £89 Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - £109 Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi, UK - £169 Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149   Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

OTHER International Kindle NoTouch Basic - $109 Kindle Touch WiFi - $139 Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi - $189 Kindle Keybd 3G - $189   Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

  For daily free ebooks, check the following links:

Temporarily-free books - Non-classics USA: by:    Publication Date      Bestselling   High-ratings UK: PubDate   Popular The Kindle Daily Deal What is 3G? and "WiFi"?       Battery Care Highly-rated under $1,  Newest: $1-$2, $2-$3

Most Popular Free K-Books U.S. & Int'l (NOT UK):    Top 100 free UK-Only:    Top 100 free USEFUL for your Kindle Keyboard(U.S. only, currently):   99c Notepad 1.1,   99c Calculator,   99c Calendar,   99c Converter

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

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Kindle Tips: To Kindle-Edition Subscribers: How to handle free-book link results

Webpage result with tiny fonts

After Choosing Menu and Article Mode

After Pinch-zooming larger

KINDLE EDITION OF THE BLOG: HOW TO DEAL WITH LINKS LEADING TO IMPOSSIBLY TINY FONTS I've received some understandable grumbles from subscribers that links to free books don't go to the Kindle-device version of the Kindlestore, which is easier to read, and that, instead, the links go to unreadable webpages with tiny fonts.   That's true, and in the Free-book-alert blog entries, I mention that Kindle Edition Subscribers, who get the last 25 blog articles on an edition, should do those links from a computer.   Having said that though, it's Amazon who decides where the links go, and they take subscribers lately to a fast-loading modified or simplified web-site version for mobile devices although not to the simplest version, the Kindle-device version of the store.  I can't do anything about it, unfortunately.

SOLUTION
What I do want to point out is that once you're on one of those result pages of TINY print for an item, there is a solution.

  You can press Menu and then "Article Mode" to read the book description there.
  It's extremely clear that way.  And it loads quickly also.

  I've made some screenshots above to show you the difference if you choose this reading mode that Amazon has provided but doesn't say much about.

  In Article Mode, however, you can't choose to buy or interact -- but once out of Article mode and back to Web Mode (you can use Menu or Back-arrow to get back to Web Mode), you can opt to press a button to get a free sample (from which you can later get the book if you like the sample) or to "purchase" it for $0.00 if the current pricing is still free.  If intrigued, the latter is wise, as the free-books last for only hours or a couple of days.

With a Kindle Touch, all of this is fairly easy.  While you can pinch-zoom the entire page of text and see it larger, you'd still need to scroll around.  So it's best to start with selecting 'Article Mode.'  Once you're back on the tiny-font webpage, use pinch-zoom to enlarge the text to find the box to request a sample if wanted, or to get the book.

With the Kindle Keyboard's results page, you get a ZOOM box that you can click on to enlarge that boxed section.  This can be good for getting a sample but it's awkward. You still do have, however, that 'Article Mode' for reading the book description.

I hope this helps.  Amazon's recent change to a faster-loading books-webpage makes clicking on links of interest with your Kindle device more worthwhile than in the past.



Kindle Touch 3G, US-only   Kindle Touch WiFi (US)   Kindle Touch WiFi-Only, outside US    Kindle Basic   (UK: KBasic)   Kindle Fire
Kindle Keybd 3G   (UK: Kindle Keybd 3G)   K3 Special Offers   K3-3G Special Offers   DX

---

Check often: Temporarily-free recently published ones
  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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Kindle Tips: An easier way to make web reading more readable on Kindle Fire

REVISED:  READING FULL WEB PAGES WITH UNREADABLE TINY FONT ON A 7" SCREEN

This is revised from the earlier blog articles on making tiny fonts more readable when doing the web on Kindle Fire and Kindle Touch.

KINDLE TOUCH
The Kindle Touch no longer responds the same way to the Android feature or trick.
 With the KTouch, you now simply Double click a page to get the current text to fill the width of the screen but only at a certain font level which is not large enough for my normal needs, though I can read it.
  You CAN, though, then use two fingers to Pinch-Zoom the text-size to a desired size, but tnen you'll need to scroll around a bit.

 At least, with the Kindle Touch, though, if you are reading a web article (as with a lead individual feature on a product page or news story) you can choose Menu and select Article Mode and get a very readable screen as a result.  (You then select Web Mode to get back into regular web reading mode.)

  But, as an example, for the Customer Reviews that follow an Amazon product page description:  Since the Menu-->Article Mode feature pertains only to a lead article and not to the reviews that follow (and never to a full page), there is no 'Article Mode' for secondary text that gives you the nicely-programmed larger-sized text.   Again, you CAN pinch-zoom any text to a desired size (which is considerably better than what we had before).

  I can no longer, though, get a desired text size that would be adjusted to the screen width, with the Kindle Touch, via pinch-zooming to a largish font-size and then clicking.  Now, it's mainly a toggle that we can get  between tiny and medium-small -- or, we can then use the gradual pinch-zooming to a larger size:

    Again -- Double-click to see the full page with tiny text and Double-click again to see a specific column fit to the width of the screen -- but only in a smaller font size, after which you can pinch-zoom to a larger size and scroll around as needed.   It just no longer lets you fit a column to the width at a larger font-size you've chosen, which is inconvenient, but at least we can make adjustments. (Sorry for the redundancy, but I just want to be as clear as possible.)


KINDLE FIRE -- A really smooth way to get a larger text-size of our choice adjusted to width of the screen when doing the web

  I'd written earlier, in detail, on dealing with web pages or with PDFs in which you can see the full pages, which are usually unreadable in that format with screen widths that are considerably smaller than our computer screens.

  I'd found that many news-site reviewers don't know about a valuable Android feature that is crucial to enjoyment of web pages on small devices (this applies very well to Android smartphones too of course), and those just using a device like the Kindle Fire won't tend to know about them either.

While joining in discussions on Amazon Kindle Forums community where so many Kindle owners hang out to help other owners and get tips in return, I saw the following question and replied to it more briefly than I have in blog articles -- it's likely that a shorter answer can be more helpful, at least at first.

Important
  Kindle Fire Web SETTINGS - Here are the best settings for having this feature work well.
  When you're on the web-browser for the first time (this does not have to be done each time), lightly press the bottom MENU, which looks like a grid or an air-conditioner, with horizontal lines.  Then press Settings.

  At the second option, set Text size to "Normal"
  On the third option, set Default zoom to "Close'
  On the fourth option, set Auto-fit pages to "Format web pages to fit the screen"

' Posted on Jan 1, 2012 10:00:01 AM PST
RE says:

[Q]: I like my Kindle, but can't figure out how to surf the web and be
able to read things.  Yahoo com is so small a magnifying glass is
needed to see it.  I know this is off subject, but can someone tell
me how they do it?

[A} [I've edited my reply to to match how the Kindle Fire works in this situation today.]

Arts&HistoryFan/Kindleworld says:
RE,
You can use an Android feature to pinch-zoom the text to a larger size -- the paragraph of a column you're reading may or may not extend beyond the screen borders.

  Then, SINGLE-tap the screen (do that around the center of the screen), and it will keep this larger text size while adjusting the text to the width of the screen and wrapping it appropriately.

  That Single-tap actually acts to identify that column of text and to center and fit it to the width of the screen and at the same time SET the font at that size.

  If you Double-tap it at this point, it will adjust a bit more  if needed to set the width and margins even better while keeping that larger font size.

  You may, at first, have two columns up on the screen, but the Single-tap will indicate that this is the column of interest. The Double-tap afterward solidifies it and makes a further fine adjustment if needed.

  This works well for forum reading, when you have two or three columns and you want to read just the body of text posted by members of the forum, at a size comfortable for you on the Kindle Fire.

My favorite mode of casual portable web-reading as a result
  This also works well with things like Amazon Customer Reviews and news columns.  It's now my favorite portable way to read web text, because it's smaller than a 10" screen (I have a Samsung Galaxy 10.1 Tab tablet) and is easier to hold, with a screen width that is more like the width of a book I'd be reading, whether hard- or softcover.

  This means I can read web text in whatever size text is best for my eyes at the moment, in a smaller form factor that still presents largish text as needed.   This is called "re-flowing" the text and when it's done for a nicely large font-size, it is very nifty.


Give it a try and let me know if it makes a difference or if you have trouble with it, and in the latter case, let me know what kind of web page is being read, with the link, and I'll take a look.
  One area in which it doesn't work is Amazon product pages' Product Descriptions -- they seem to format those NOT to wrap for some reason.


SOMEtimes, if you Double-tap instead of Single-tap the first time after upsizing the text, the double-tap leads to the tiny version again, but if you double-tap once more, then it goes back up to a medium-sized text that adjusts to the screen-wrap. The initial Single-tap works better.

Reminder: With both these units, but especially the Kindle Fire, a barely perceptible, very light press or tap will be more likely to activate touchscreen responses.



Kindle Touch 3G, US-only   Kindle Touch WiFi (US)   Kindle Touch WiFi-Only, outside US    Kindle Basic   (UK: KBasic)   Kindle Fire
Kindle Keybd 3G   (UK: Kindle Keybd 3G)   K3 Special Offers   K3-3G Special Offers   DX

---

Check often: Temporarily-free recently published ones
  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 Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
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(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
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Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

Kindle Tips: Web 'Article Mode' / Nook Touch's "hidden" web browser.

  Click on 1st image to get Nook Touch web browser story with video.  Click on 2nd image to get the larger version of the Kindle 3 web pic.

Nathan of The EbookReader found that the Nook has a "hidden" web browser.

  As he points out, it's hidden for a reason.

' Scrolling, zooming, and activating hyperlinks are hit-or-miss, and pages don’t load half the time. I tried downloading an EPUB from Feedbooks, the download worked, but the ebook would not open...
...Overall, though, it needs a lot of work—probably why Barnes and Noble never mentioned it. '

  In fact, in their current Nook comparison chart, Barnes & Noble actually marked that the Nook Touch doesn't have a web browser.  By that, I guess they mean it doesn't have a correctly functioning one.
  Some see that as a challenge to "root" the device though it's a tad risky or frustrating with B&N doing unannounced firmware upgrades as they have.

  Nathan says the menu system, otherwise, "seems to work well" and it shows "promise."

The Nook Touch uses the Android operating system, as does the much faster LCD NookColor.  Both of them will find websites if you start a device Search while specifying a website or URL like "google.com" for that search.

  Many of us suspect that's a basic Android OS feature which can be built on when developers want.  At Mobileread forums, there's an interesting discussion on this, and Antioch says:

' It could just be an artifact of using Android. The Android search functionality will take you to the web to find things so maybe this is just that. Unless it's not the native Android browser... '

  Definitely boosting that theory is what's explained at the android developers webpage on their Guide to the Basics, "What is Android?"

' Developers have full access to the same framework APIs used by the core applications. The application architecture is designed to simplify the reuse of components...
  Underlying all applications is a set of services and systems, including:

  . A rich and extensible set of Views that can be used to build an application, including lists, grids, text boxes, buttons, and even an embeddable web browser... '

As for its incomplete functioning, Mobileread Forum's tom e reports being at B&N trying it out, and he wrote:

' ...You seem to have to know the web address you want.  You can get to google.com easily, but when you try to 'google' something you get knocked out of the browser. '

trescenzi agrees that

' There is a really good chance this is an artifact from it being android based.  The browser has the usual android browser features and if you swipe down it brings up the address bar and options.  Also when you go to search the button labeled "search" switches to "go" making me think it recognizes addresses as such.

Update:
Looks like even though you can use the address bar it wont actually connect to addresses entered there.  Just got onto my gmail account and everything works great.-Scratch that looks like any attempt to send mail crashes the browser. '

tom e adds to his earlier report:

' ...I did view my own blog on it though, by typing the URL, and I did see the main page for the google online apps.  I think I even saw a hint of multitouch capability (did the opposite of the 'pinch' on the screen)  It did appear to zoom in, but only barely and then got stuck.  Maybe the refresh rate was too slow?  Maybe I imagined it. (?) '

  He mentions Nathan's video (on Nathan's page, linked above) and seeing Landscape mode at one point. The (Android-based) NookColor, which I have and which definitely has a smooth browser, does have Landscape mode active for Web, although B&N programmers don't enable Landscape for non-children's books for some reason, nor for PDFs.
  The video shows the web browser to be, otherwise, pretty smooth and responsive.  It could be that the e-Ink screen can't keep up with what the enbedded Android browser needs.

trescenzi adds a positive note:

' With respect to RSS if you use google reader to read RSS the mobile app is awesome and worked great when I tried to use it on the nook touch's browser. '

forkyfork writes:

' It's neat from a "look, it's something we didn't expect" perspective, but DO NOT BUY THIS MODEL IF WEB BROWSING IS AT ALL IMPORTANT TO YOU. '

And tom e adds,

' Yep I totally agree that it's not a browser that is sufficient on its own, as is.  I wouldn't buy it just now (at least not with the belief that it's going to be more than they advertise) nor would I recommend anyone else do so.

  On the other hand I think it shows us that it's plenty able to do some simple things that I want...
  I do not think it's very capable for real web browsing though, no matter what people root and put on. Basically, it flashes so much just trying to load most pages (or scrolling down them YUCK!) that it would make me crazy... '

  At the pace of Barnes and Noble's updates for my NookColor (and even REMOVING highlight, copy, paste from the web browser, I don't know how much energy they'd put into working on the Nook Touch e-Ink web browser while on the verge of being bought by Liberty with the stipulation that the current BN head, Leonard Riccio, would join the buyout.  There are concerns about voting by other stockholders and the fact that Ron Burkle and Aletheia Research and Management own almost 31% of the stock between them and may have a say in things.

  As the NYTimes put it, B&N "faces some difficult choices about the company’s second-largest shareholder while simultaneously managing a conflicted sale to Liberty Media and the bookseller’s largest shareholder."

  As B&N has been stressing and analysts explain, in this technewsworld article,

' The market may now be ready for that type of simpler device for a crowd that isn't willing to invest in a complex personal device.

  "There is a group of people who are using traditional computing technologies today, and then those who say, 'This is too complex for me, I need a simple solution.' That audience is looking for a device that does one thing and does an excellent job at that, and the e-reader does that by being a replication of the book-reading experience and removing the complexity of that," said Orr. '

But I think B&N would be smarter to enable fully and develop the functioning of the e-Ink web browser and eventually unhide it, as the current gadget world just expects at least a simple web browser if only for emergencies, and their biggest competitor, Amazon, has a working one.

  Not only that, the Kindles (UK: K3's) have, as I've stressed, a truly unique and valuable feature, free 3G web-browsing almost anywhere you happen to be and this is possible in 60 of 100+ countries, while the 3G itself is enabled for Amazon book downloading plus free Wikipedia 3G web access in over 100 countries.

  If B&N Nooks had those capabilities, the press would probably be whooping it up, but the many features that Amazon has given the Kindle are given short shrift, as there's "nothing new" in any of that :-).  All Kindles have had that since 2007. Slow, but faster than zero, and other ereaders enable any 3G web browser for bookstore-sites only.

KINDLE WEB BROWSER TIP
I've found that almost no one I know personally is aware of the web-browser feature added in August that makes the Kindle 3's web browsing more pleasurable and they're using instead only the Zoom feature, which I find awkward.  I'll illustrate the steps in another blog entry later, but here's, basically, what you do.

  1. Go to a website, which will default to 'fit width' of the screen, which means the fonts will be tiny and nearly unreadable.

  2. Use the Aa type/font key to choose 150% or more to zoom into a specific box-framed area of the display that you want to explore -- a given article, usually.

  3. Click to get the article.

  4. When the article's settled in (e-Ink is not speedy),
      Press Menu button and select "Article Mode"

  5. This will make it very readable by getting rid of extraneous ads, polls, side-columns, etc., while increasing the font size considerably.  The effect is similar to what you get when using "Readability," "Instapaper" or "SendToReader" web tools that show you just the article's text.

  6. If the font still is not large enough for comfort, you can press the Aa font/text key to choose to increase the size of the text.

  7. If you want to see more on a line than you can in Portrait mode, the Kindle 3 lets you use Aa font/text key to rotate the Kindle to Landscape, which gives you even more readable text across the screen, but working the next-page button or the scroll down cursor is a bit more awkward that way.

At any rate, it ends up VERY readable and the text reflows very nicely to fit the screen margins, etc.

  When I use (often) the step-by-step directions from/to a place on a Kindle (see Driving directions), using Google Map's text directions, the instructions are easy to read on the Kindle 2 or DX (or even Kindle 1), but they're tiny on a Kindle 3. Why, I don't know.

But you can treat the results for driving directions the way you do any article. Press Menu and select "Article Mode" and that'll make them easily readable.

MOBILE-DEVICE OPTIMIZED SITES IN "KINDLE BOOK" FORM
Remember that you can download this mobiweb.azw file at any time, to your Kindle, from the Kindle.

  The file is explained (if you can stand any more verbiage) here.

  ONE Correction - With the GMAIL URL I recommend, SENDING an email reply required, I thought, exiting by moving the cursor down to the bottom of the reply box, and going to the SEND field.  It's actually EASIER to move UP to the Subject field and over to the SEND field at the top of the reply.

  It's times like that when we would prefer a touch screen.

---

For daily free ebooks, check the following links:  (Also, Low-priced Sunshine Deals thru' 6/15)

Temporarily-free books - Non-classics - USA: by: NEW:  Apr  May  June 2011    Publication Date   Late-listed    Bestselling   High-ratings UK: PubDate   Popular What is 3G? and "WiFi"? Highly-rated e-books under $1

Most Popular Free K-Books U.S. & Int'l (NOT UK):    Top 100 free UK-Only:    Top 100 free USEFUL for your Kindle (U.S. only, currently):   99c Notepad,   99c Calculator,   99c CalendarPro,   99c Converter

Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($164)   DX Graphite

---

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(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
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My white Kindle-3 photos of screen contrast + web browser's Article Mode

LARGER versions of the pics below are at my PBase photos site.
    Essentially, the first 3 below are photo comparisons of my new Kindle 3, a white, not graphite one -- am I the first?  :-)

  The others show, at the New York Times:
  . the Home page in vertical and horizontal modes with the new Webkit-based web browser and then a sequence of:
  . zooming-in for options and choosing an article, and
  . getting that article in Article Mode.

 I took many more, so I'll be updating that photo site.

Reminder: You can (1) click here to see the page of larger versions of the shots below, or
  (2) click on a photo to get the larger one.

SCREEN CONTRAST: Kindle 3 vs Kindle 2

Kindle 3 and Kindle 2 with same screen-sleeper

Kindle 3's Birds screen-sleeper

Kindle 2's Birds screen-sleeper

BROWSING WITH KINDLE 3 at The New York Times

New York Times Home Page in Landscape mode

Portrait, w/ zoom-in box showing	Zoomed-in area
Chosen article. selecting Article Mode.	Article Mode version

Hope some of that helped!


ADDENDUM - an older photo of the Kindle 2 screen image

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Here, for commenter Anonymous who felt the K2 solo or close-up image was "just too poor" to be believed, is a smaller-sized version of the picture I took of the Kindle-2 birds screen-sleeper 1-1/2 years ago when I just enjoyed the image as it was.

  Note how close that is to the picture a week ago.  The Kindle 3 contrast is so much better, it makes the Kindle 2 image look "just too poor" for the commenter.  That older image is at the old Kindle-1 and Kindle-2 comparison page and was taken back in Feb. '09, which seems eons ago in this digital world.


Kindle 3   (UK: Kindle 3),   DX Graphite

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Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
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Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!