Kindle Basic - 4th Generation, the User's Guide is online

KINDLE 4 BASIC USER'S GUIDE IS NOW AVAILABLE

The PDF and Kindle versions are both available at the top of the Kindle Documentation page.

This is for the Basic Kindle, 4th generation, without Touchscreen or Keyboard, $79 with Special Offers, and $109 without Special Offers.

---

Here are a few notes I took:

The Basic Kindle with no touchscreen or keyboard does have Previous and Next page buttons on both sides of the Kindle (as in past models), which makes it possible to hold it with one hand.

My favorite button the 'Back' button, and there's one here, on the left (bottom) and now a "Keyboard' button next to it, which will bring up a keyboard not unlike the diagram that is displayed when you press the "Sym key" on earlier Kindle 3's.

  You can select alpha or numerical characters, one by one, for input. Very slowly, of course, but this is a model for those who don't do much typing while reading and who want the smallest, lightest e-reader.
   Home and Menu buttons are there as well.  The familiar 5-way controller is in the center of the row.

The Kindle "can be charged via connection to a computer."
The Kindle power adapter is sold separately.  This is a first.  One way to keep the price lower, I guess.  But, what was that about Amazon Kindle customers not requiring a computer ?

Dictionary selection will be done with a click of the center of the 5-way controller and selecting "full definition" and ending with another center-click.

To view page numbers when they exist in a book, press the Menu button -- That means they have not made this optional for showing/hiding... a menu press is still needed to see page (and location) numbers.


I like that you can set the current local time, which was new with Kindle 3.

Despite the painful mode of inputting words or even phrases, the social network features such as Twitter and Facebook are available for sharing notes and highlights.

The Basic Kindle CAN highlight and annotate (slowly) PDF files (a newer feature they haven't given the DX Graphite (which costs $379 and was born 2 months before the Kindle 3, which uses the same Pearl screen).

Under Battery Safety the Guide reiterates:
" Your Kindle is not shipped with an AC adaptor. Your Kindle should only be charged using the USB
cable included with the device, or another USB cable approved for use with your Kindle, with
a compatible USB charger or USB port that meets the following requirements: USB-IF Battery
Charging Spec, Rev 1.2."

That's it.  It's a very short User's Guide, which points you to Amazon online Help pages  for more details.


Product Specifcations
Model Number — D01100
Display — 6" diagonal display, 600 x 800 pixel resolution, 16-level gray scale.
Size — 6.5 inches by 4.5 inches by 0.34 inches (165.75 mm by 114.5 mm by 8.7 mm).
Weight — 6 ounces (170 g)
Storage — 2GB internal storage, with approximately 1GB available to the user.
Power — AC power adapter (sold separately) and rechargeable lithium polymer battery.
Connectivity — USB 2.0 (micro-B connector). 802.11b/g/n wireless modem in Kindle with
international wireless.
Operating temperature — 32°F to 95°F (0°C to 35°C).
Storage temperature — 14°F to 113°F (-10°C to 45°C).
Wi-Fi — 802.11b/g/n

---

For daily free ebooks, check the following links:

Temporarily-free books - Non-classics USA: by:    Publication Date   Late-listed    Bestselling   High-ratings UK: PubDate   Popular 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 (U.S. only, currently):   99c Notepad 1.1,   99c Calculator,   99c Calendar,   99c Converter

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. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

What? CNet's Carnoy says small touchscreen Kindle likely in Fall. ? NEW Nook & Kindle 3G.. UPDATE2

At the Barnes and Noble "Simple Touch Nook" announcement today, reporters were not allowed to touch anything but the frame, if that, and definitely not the touchscreen yet, though it will be shipping in 10 days.  The Nook has no 'buttons' (except the power button) that would comprise a physical keyboard (they count the ~30 Kindle keys as buttons) but will have touchscreen access, and it'll be nice if reporters CAN touch and review it before the shipping date.

  The new Nook is promising -- smaller and lighter than the Kindle 3, WiFi-Only, but with no 3G cellphone model alternative anymore, and promises a longer battery life at 1/2-hr day reading plus a shorter black-flash time (though PC Magazine's Dan Costa could not tell and thinks it was because this may have been a pre-production model).

That's the new Nook in the picture at the top-left, by CNet.  I liked the look of the earlier form factor better, but this new model is said to be easier to hold.  But does it really look particularly pocketable as has been described?

Update
  Also, as a NookColor owner, I'll mention that interested parties might want to google 'customer service nook barnes' (without the quote marks) if interested in that aspect or click this link for the general Google search results on Nook customer service.
  And, here's the same search for 'customer service kindle.'
  I was reminded of this when reading a Comment to the CNet live-blogging page.

Update2
  Amazon's response to this, apparently, was the release of the Kindle 3G/WiFi "Kindle with Special Offers" for $25 more than the Nook price.

  The Kindle's 3G "with Special Offers" model can be used internationally, and the ads are on screensleepers that come up when you're not reading and when the Kindle has gone into sleep mode, which doesn't use battery power because it's a static image.  There's also a line at the bottom of the Home screen for a small ad.

  In return the Kindle Owner of ad-supported Kindles gets a slightly lower price and special offers similar to GroupOn and LivingSocial deals on Amazon products.

  The 3G Kindle also has slow but reliable free 3G web browsing and look-ups at no additional cost in over 60 countries and the ability to download books from almost wherever you may be, in over 100 countries.
  The the slow but reliable free web browser is useful when you need to look up something, and there are no data charges for checking the web and your email.

  If you have data plans on your smartphone, you won't need the web-data feature except that internationally, the smartphone data costs can be very high but the slower access is free with the Kindle.

 I use my 3G Kindle to get step-by-step directions almost anywhere I am, as I'm somewhat direction-challenged.  Since I don't need a monthly smart-phone data plan, I save money with the Kindle's 3G cellphone network access.

  The latest e-Ink Nook will no longer be offered with a 3G cellphone-network access feature.  They're discontinuing that older $199 Nook without replacing it.

  Also, no Nook books are buyable even by U.S. residents when they're not in the U.S. The B&N books are purchasable only if you're currently in the U.S. or Canada.

  The new Nook lists NO web browser anymore either, not even to use with the WiFi connection [updated: there is a hidden one that is not correctly functioning even with google.com searches].
  The old Nook did have a decent one, but B&N removed the web browser feature.  They also removed the music player.
 That's one way of simplifying the new e-Ink Nook.

  There is No Landscape Mode for Nook books, except for children's books.  This can be sort of huge if you need to read PDF guides, manuals, or documents with illustrations in PDF format on a 6" screen.  PDFs with anything but single-column layout are often unreadable on small screens.

  Though the new Nook has a touch screen, you can't increase or decrease the size of text or an image using the finger squeeze or expand movement.

  With the Kindle, any photograph in a book can be zoomed (via a click in the center of the image) to fill the screen, to quite good effect if the image is a high-resolution one as it is with this Beatles Kindle-book.

  With the new Nook, you can't zoom a photograph in a regular book at all.  The lack of image zoom and of landscape mode for Non-children's books is true for NookColor too, much to my disappointment, since I enjoy my NookColor otherwise.

  The new Nook has no WORD support.  Amazon supports WORD documents in that you can send them to your Kindle (via WiFi) via its servers and the document will be converted to Kindle format for you.  This is a very useful feature.  I often highlight passages from webpages and combine them into a Word doc and then send them to my Kindle via Amazon servers.

  In other words, the use of a touch screen was apparently quite costly, since so many features in the first Nook are not made available with the newer Nook.  For reading books, I actually don't like always having to clean fingerprints off the screen to be able to use the touchscreen reliably.

  That much-discussed battery advantage: The Nook Simple Touch is said to have the same amount of battery life as the Kindle when wireless is 'On' but B&N claims "up to two months" if you use the e-reader 1/2 hour a day.

  As of Tuesday, Amazon revised their Kindle battery specs to say "up to two months" probably because it never occurred to them earlier to claim battery use based on so little use of the reader in a week.  Apparently Amazon feels comfortable doing that now, as that basis is used for the new Nook.

  Re that touchscreen:  I use the Nookcolor for reading color magazines and picking it up to do portable color web at home.  With no 3G on it, I don't take it outside.  I have tried for half a year to type email replies on it, but the touchscreen is so oversensitive (no matter how often I clean it with microfibre cloth) that I make typos half the time and then when I press on something to Send a message, the calibration is such that it erases the email.

  So I'm not as keen as others on the Nook virtual keyboard, and I'm not alone, as many have reported at the NookColor TechSupport forums that the keyboard has a mind of its own.


SMALLER-KINDLE Possibility
  CNet live-blogged the announcement, and the following certainly caught my eye.

' From a live blog of the B&N announcement of the simplified Nook with touch screen and no keyboard

7:48 a.m. PT (David Carnoy): I just asked about whether B&N would do a Nook with Special Offers. Lynch said, "No ads on Nooks."
  [Blogging in his own voice]

7:50 a.m. PT (David Carnoy): Everyone should be aware that Amazon will [likely] do this same device within the next few months. Just an FYI. There will be a smaller Kindle this fall IMHO (with a touch screen).

7:51 a.m. PT (David Carnoy): OK, that's it folks. Going to try to shoot a video now. Thanks for participating.

7:52 a.m. PT (John Falcone): David's hands-on impressions (and video!) of the new Nook will be live on CNET soon... stay tuned. '

Well, that is the first time I've heard THAT rumor.

And we'll definitely stay tuned :-)


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

---

Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
    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. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!