TNW on "10 different ways to use your Kindle"

COUNT THE WAYS

TNW's Quinton O'Reilly points out that the Kindle can do quite a bit more than read ebooks and articles.

Games
  He mentions the old built-in games of Minesweeper and GoMoku, and that for those in the U.S. especially, there are now plenty of game apps in the Kindle Store.

Reading [b&w] Comics and Manga
There are good illustrations there, so you should just go on over to his article to see them in connection with such things as Reading comics and Manga, with his find of a free app called Mangle by FooSoft.

Personal Note Taker
He also recommends the "Personal Note Taker" Notepad by 7 Dragons (the group makes excellent tools), but go there to read why.   Kindle-Edition subscribers: you can click on the link (on the Kindle) for his article (then zoom it or use Menu/Article Mode)... OR instead use your computer to type "bit.ly/kindle10ways" ("http://" doesn't have to be typed on any web browser these days nor even on the Kindle.)
 And you can type the URL (link) "bit.ly/notepad4kindle" to get the 99c Notepad.

Image Viewer
He describes how to add and view images on the Kindle, reminding people that the images used shouldn't be bigger than 600x800 pixels, to save loading time.

Presentations and Flash Cards
O'Reilly mentions converting PDFs and Word files.  Word documents can be sent to your private Kindle-device address, and Amazon servers convert these to Kindle format.

  See my blog article on How to send WORD doc files to your Kindle. ( bit.ly/kwdoc2kindle ) .   However, PDFs can be read as-is on the Kindle, although sending them for conversion gets you a 2nd often more readable copy while it ignores original layout.

  He points out you can keep your notes together this way and then mentions saving flash cards onto the Kindle and viewing them sideways and tells us about  FlashCardExchange ( flashcardexchange.com ).

Navigation (Step-by-step directions from here to there)
In connection with the Kindle's Navigation help (a favorite of mine),  in getting step-to-step driving/biking/bus/walking directions.   The link he shows for typing on the Kindle (and then bookmarking) is good --
( maps.google.com/m/directions ) -- but the article's link for that doesn't work.

  Here's my tutorial/guide on how this is done though.  (Link:  bit.ly/kdriving )  My guide uses that directions-link.  That was actually probably found on my blog.

MP3 player & Text to Speech
He also mentions the mp3 player and Text to Speech Reader and shows you how to start those.

Language Translator
AND, I'd forgotten about Kindlefish, which is a form of Google Translation that's optimized for the Kindle.  O'Reilly recommends the Kindlefish, and if you'd like to read more about it, see my blog article on Kindlefish ( Link: bit.ly/kwkfish ) as well as the follow-up fix for it Kindlefish-fix ( bit.ly/kfishfix ).

Dictaphone
ALSO, he's found a way to use the Kindle as a Dictaphone and gives a link to the instructions given at mobileread forums ( bit.ly/kmicrophone )


I see 9 different headings to use the Kindle, but I imagine READING was counted first :-).  Nice selection of tips in one article.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($139)   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.  Liked-books under $1
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.

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(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
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Kindle News: With corrections of some inaccuracies. Kindle for PC updated with Collections. Less-known Kindle features.

KINDLE NEWS, AUGUST 2

FoxNews: Features Amazon should emphasize
FoxNews's Clayton Morris writes, "Things Amazon Should Tell Us About the Kindle," a well-intentioned article with some good points but which has a couple of errors that need correcting.

While pointing out that most people don't know about the 'Collections' feature (folder equivalents that are implemented with 'tags' or labels) or the text-to-speech ('TTS') function by which the Kindle voices (male or female) can read aloud to you from books, subscriptions, or personal documents if you're too busy doing something else, he laments that "Amazon doesn't do a very good job marketing the Kindle as a service as well as a consumer device" and he's found that people are more inclined toward the device once they're made aware of what it can do besides presenting e-books for reading.

  It's true that the computerized voice (taken from the recordings of words by humans -- see the Tom voice for more info on the 'Tom' voice -- cannot replace actor renditions.  The TTS is serviceable though, for short sessions, and not as robotic as most computer voices.

  However, he complains that when he creates Collections on his Kindle, these won't be available to a replacement- or new Kindle.  Actually, they are -- as long as you don't delete the contents of the first Kindle before you replicate the Collection.  The User Guides explain how this is done.

  I wrote the following in Comments to Morris' article, as I couldn't find an email address for him. (Bracketed words are added for the blog.]

' Clayton,
1. Update your Kindle for PC, as it now has Collections.
      [This is included in the latest update, though it is somewhat buggy for a few people but fine for most, per what I see on the forums.]

2. Also, when you get a new Kindle, go to Archived Items folder, which will hold titles of Kindle books you've bought AND you'll see "Add other device collections" - and it'll download your Collection choices.  But first get the books [by clicking on the titles] and then add the Collection from another device and the books will automatically go into the Collections. '

As he points out, the text-to-speech feature is, for him, "a wonderful feature I use regularly during car rides or sleepy train jaunts."  I know people who use it while cooking or exercising.  No competing dedicated e-reader has this.  In fact, no new competing e-Ink reader has a correctly-working web browser and the other e-Ink reader vendors are dropping free 3G even for bookstore downloads, not to mention never offering free 3G access to the rest of the net, albeit slow-access.  To keep things simple, web browsers have not been customized for touchscreen e-Ink eReaders from the basic, optionally embedded Android web browser and they don't work correctly, so they are hidden.

  He focuses on the two features he has found very valuable and doesn't mention that the Kindle can play mp3s (whether audio books or music) as background and that is now a unique feature too because other ebook vendors are simplifying, removing speakers and headphone access.  For more on this see the "Features Comparison" here between the new Nook e-Ink and the current Kindle 3.

  Re Collections: See more on this in the Kindleworld Guide to Making Collections.  It's also good to read Collections: Cautions.

  Re Kindle for PC update v1.6 -- as with the Kindle device version, you have to add or import a Collection from another Kindle device to see the Collections you've made.


Daily Mail (UK)
Daily Mail headlines "New rules for Apple's App store mean Amazon must hand over 30% of profits made through its Kindle app."

  As most readers of this blog know, what Apple would have wanted with 30% of the sale of an e-book was *100%* of Amazon's profits, since Amazon (thanks to the Apple Agency model set up with large publishers) gets 30% of a sale from the Big6 publishers).

  That Apple would actually stake a claim to 100% of the profit is seldom reported.  Now, we don't know if Apple quietly offered Amazon and Barnes & Noble a lower percentage.  At any rate, 30% is all that's ever reported and is the figure from their guidelines for app developers, but that is usually based on subscriptions, for which the publishers would get to keep 70% of a sale rather than the situation with bookstore vendors, who must give 70% to the Big6 publishers, leaving the rival bookstore vendors $0.00.

  There are now many news stories about anger from iPad Kindle-book app users, focused mostly on Apple at this point.  I don't understand why Apple would think this is a good thing for them, the company that began its life with a now-famous Super Bowl ad showing the non-robotic among us hurling a hammer into the screen image of an authoritarian figure-head, "smashing it to bits and releasing a strong breeze and a bright light, while the citizens gape in awe.  A voice-over announces, 'On January 24, Apple Computer will introduce the Macintosh.  And you'll see why 1984 won't be like "1984"'." You can see this at the uriah.com site.


Photo credit: eHow's "How to Edit Kindle Collections with Calibre"


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($139)   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.  Liked-books under $1
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. )
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Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

Kindle for PC App Updated with Excellent Features but missing a few

The Kindle for PC page has been updated (see features of original, basic Kindle for PC) to show the following features added:

* Create new highlights, notes [identified with mouse movements], and bookmarks
*   and manage those created on your Kindle
* Full screen reading view [love it]
* Color modes [allows the change of background & text colors and offers sepia as well -- this feature is found under the Aa icon as well as through the View sub-menu option for "Text Color" although this should say "text-background color" rather than "text color" since I thought at first they meant text-fonts color.   I'd especially wanted this set of features after reading about them in the Kindle for iPad app].
* Brightness controls [sliding control under Aa icon also "

These are excellent features, but I wish they had the Kindle-style Search capability ready.  I use that in Kindle books more than any other feature except the in-line Dictionary and really miss the search capability when using this otherwise pleasing alternate method of reading a Kindle book.

 And it seems the Dictionary might not be available for the PC and Mac "Kindle for..." apps (?), as I've seen no mention of it at for those -- BUT in the Kindle for iPad ad, Amazon promises "Coming soon: Search and instant dictionary lookup .

  Might Amazon actually decide to make the iPad more useful for Kindle books (offering the instant dictionary) than our Kindle-owner pc's and Macs would be ?  Had to ask that question, and I'll send it to the feedback crew.  I'll hope that was just an oversight.

Being a keyboard-shortcuts type (speedier for me and avoids repetitive mouse/arm movements), I especially like the keyboard shortcuts they've made available.

The general Kindle for PC Help webpage is easily reachable through the app's Help option, and the most helpful sections for day-to-day functions, can be found under the Using Kindle for PC page.

  The Navigation icons are explained under Using the Reading Tool Bar section which also details the three methods for turning pages.

  The highlighting and notes guide is at the Using Highlights and Notes section.

At the Future Improvements page for this app (easily reachable from the app's Help menu's Future Improvements choice), Amazon tells us what they are thinking of bringing to the app in the "near future."

* Search
    You will be able to search within your book or across your Kindle library
    [That had been one of the features listed last time.]
* Two page reading mode
* Zoom and rotate images
    Click on an image to see an expanded view and rotate it if desired
* Collections
    [to organize the books downloaded to Kindle for PC, a feature now being slowly rolled out, to a few, on current Kindle models' software update v2.5, and to be distributed to all current Kindle models by late May.]

The Kindle team says they'd like to hear from Kindle for PC users.
  " You can send them to the Kindle team at kindleforpc-feedback@amazon.com or via the feedback form available in the application - we'd love to hear what you think! "

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 See the ongoing Guide to finding Free or Low-Cost Kindle books and Sources
  Check often: Latest free non-classics, shortcut http://bit.ly/latestfreenonclassics.) 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!

Kindle International - Free 2-day shipping for Xmas - Update2

Amazon announced today "FREE Two-Day expedited shipping offer for Kindle ... in time for delivery by Christmas Eve."

  This is only for shipment within the continental U.S. though and is for orders between now and December 22, in order for delivery by December 24.

The larger Kindle DX does not ship, however, for 4 to 6 weeks at this point.  It's been popular with those who need to read PDFs for business or who are in college and for better (larger) display of web pages. See differences at my Kindle photo pages and a list of questions you should ask yourself if not sure whether to get a Kindle Int'l or the Kindle DX.  In the meantime I suspect the DX Int'l might be released in a few weeks, but I don't know.  They always have the 30-day refund policy with no re-stocking charge (which is rare).

Amazon also announced that more people bought Kindles in the first half of December than in any full previous month.  So many different e-readers were announced for release this year, which indicated other companies recognized the demand for e-readers, that I think those increased e-reader interest even more while the vendors were unable to release their own new readers in sufficient quantities (or condition) in time for Christmas.

  PaidContent's Staci D. Kramer confirms that the iRex 8" DR800SG won't be ready after all due to iRex having "experienced unexpected delays” and there is no new delivery-date yet.

  I do think a lot of thought went into the features the Kindle has and which the other e-readers don't and won't have:

. a free 24/7 web browser for mobile-unit optimized websites
(most areas outside the U.S., except for Japan, Hong Kong, and Mexico, get only Wikipedia but plans are to include them later, Amazon has said)

. Read-to-me (text-to-speech) feature for most books and all personal + business documents and subscriptions for times anyone wants that (small stereo speakers or headphones can be used)

. an inline-dictionary that shows a bottom-line summary definition of the word your cursor is on

. Search of a book with several results present in 6 rows with context shown ...

. Searches of a word/phrase with clickable options to Google the word/phrase in countries with webbrowser generally enabled -- or, if not, to be presented the current Wikipedia page for that information, live, and for free in countries with Kindle and its wireless delivery access for books.

. a private webpage for Kindle owners, showing, on one page, annotations for any of their books if they have authorized Amazon to back up their annotations

There are more differences, but these are the outstanding ones, in addition to an interface that minimizes the number of steps you have to thumb through, with more direct access to your reading.
  I think that other companies did find it's not that easy to do well.

An available pocketable alternative for less but with no wireless and no study features
  The Sony Pocket Reader, at $189 At Amazon, is a good pocketable reader that has no wireless, and none of the study features mentioned (dictionary, search, annotations), but if one wants a basic pocket reader and limited storage, and doesn't care about the rest, it's a good alternative. 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!

Why choose a Kindle over a physical book? Update5

A student journalist from a university in Bristol, writing an article for his newspaper, asked me that last night in an email, as he is doing a paper on how the Kindle might affect the sale of hardcover books and the publishing industry in general.  He wondered:

  "What do you think the Kindle offers to buyers that will make them choose it over normal books?"

As a biased Kindle DX owner, I thought about it a bit and here's the response I gave him (reasons for my bias, you could say), although I often choose physical books over the Kindle versions if they're books with beautiful illustrations, as the Kindle is best for text-focused books.

1. Some people just like gadgets.

2. The K2 allows you to carry about 1,500 mainly-text books
    The DX allows you to carry about 3,500 and displays PDFs as
originally laid out.

It's the portable-library effect. You know you will always have reading available that suits the mood rather than wishing you'd brought another book or another newspaper/magazine. And to top it off, it's very light to carry around.

3. The in-line dictionary gives a summary definition of any word your cursor is on (and which it has a definition for) on the bottom-two lines and allows you to get the full definition by pressing the Enter key

4. There are 6 size-levels of fonts so you can read at the size most comfortable for your eyes.

5. The visual effect is similar to paper-on-print without glare from LCD or other backlit screens.  Easier on the eyes.  After my vision has become blurry from too much time at my computer(s), I can go to the Kindle and relax with it as it doesn't shine light into my eyes -- but at night I need a clip-on light (with foam padding where it touches the Kindle) or a good lamp.

6. You now have the option to read purchased Kindle books on your netbook or desktop and to choose the number of words on a line so you can control the left/right margins.  It's easier on the brain to read text in slim-column format, although some people like wide across-the-page reading, and we get the option.

7. You can search a book (or the entire Kindle) for a word or phrase and, if you're in the US, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Mexico, or other places being given free 24/7 web browsing where wireless providers give Amazon less-expensive web access, you can search those words/phrases via Google or at Wikipedia if you turn your Wireless 'On'... Amazon places Google and Wikipedia on the search-feature's option-line.

  For international Kindle owners in countries with more-expensive web access, the 24/7 Wikipedia access is nevertheless still available (at no added cost) even if normal web-browsing is not.

  It's sometimes (humorously) seen as a disguised Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy - See xkcd's take on that.

The search most used by me, probably, is of any book I'm reading, for instances of a name, since I forget extraneous characters easily -- and I use this when wanting to search for an incident described earlier.  It's my more efficient substitute (to my mind) for flipping pages to try to find something.

8. That 24/7 web browser available to the US and a few other countries allows me to surf mainly-text-oriented websites when outside the home/office and I've a downloadable free 'book' file of mobile-optimized site links to make these easier to find, at http://bit.ly/mobiweb.
  It's the only e-reader that offers this normally expensive feature.

  That should be used with the speedup-tips (at the cost of fully-emulated wide-web-screens but with better text size than the tiny ones of emulated web-pages).  If chosen, disabling of unnecessary images speeds up the experience as does the choice of "Basic Web" rather than 'Advanced" (Kindle 2) or "Desktop" (DX) - The tips are at http://bit.ly/kindleweb.

9. The ability to see all highlighting and notes I've made in the order I made them, on one page, at http://kindle.amazon.com (a private page for customers who have enabled or authorized backup of their book notes).
  Here is an actual web page showing some highlighting for a specific book.

The ability to see, on the Kindle itself, lists of highlighting and notes, with links to the pages, identified by location numbers (the equivalent of page numbers, but always assigned to specific paragraphs no matter the size of the font).

10. NY Times bestsellers are cheaper in e-format but especially Kindle format.  And older books cost about $5 to $7 while there are about 19,000 free books available from Amazon (which means notes you make to these are backed up by Amazon if you like and are shown to you on the private web page I mentioned).

  (Update 2 & 3) International customers in some areas will find the books cost from $2 to $4 more than they do in the U.S. and that there is a smaller selection than for the U.S.  Some have changed 'country setting' to get books they want, but found that there was a limit to being able to do that.
  This also means the otherwise free Amazon books cost those customers $2.30 or so, and they should concentrate on the free book sources detailed in #11 (unless wanting Amazon server page backup of their highlighting and notes).

11. With the Kindle you can download direct to it (or to your computer for transfer to your Kindle) free "mobi" or "prc" format books from feedbooks.com, manybooks.net (mnybks.net) for direct download to the Kindle), fictionwise.com, and as I've often mentioned, any of 30,000 well-formatted books from the Project Gutenberg set.
 Don't forget the usual lists of free-books at Amazon as well as elsewhere.

12. With a 3-minute conversion that I detail at http://bit.ly/milkbooks, you can read any of half-a-million free Google ePub books.

13. If I need to keep reading something (a personal doc, a newspaper article, or a book for which the publisher allows the Kindle's text-to-speech feature), then I can have one of two Kindle voices read the text to me while I am doing something else (cooking, washing dishes, driving the car).  See http://bit.ly/ktom for details on that voice.

14. If I need music in the background I can use the feature to listen to music, but it's limited.  With the K2 and DX, you hear music in the order it was placed on your Kindle  (With the K1, it's entirely random).  There is not enough room on the 4-Gig storage device to put much music.  But it can be done, though only with mp3's -- you put them into the "music" folder of the Kindle.

15. The Kindle plays back Audible books and also audio-books that are in mp3 format.  These will take a lot of room though.  Normal text-based printed novels take up only an average 800K of space.

16. I can keep all my camera and other electronics guides on it and never have to (anymore) look all through the house to (maybe) find one.

17. I can save a clipping of the plain-text of an article I'm reading in a newspaper or magazine, in order to transfer it to my computer and edit or send it to someone or just keep it for my records.

18. With the newly released free Kindle for PC app, the entire household can read any Kindle book I bought, on a shared computer in the area.

19. Update 4 - So, how did I miss that we can request no-cost samples of a book before buying? - usually the first chapter, and I use this feature a lot!  There is also the feature to Save for Later if unsure about buying but wanting to reconsider.

20. Update 5 - I keep missing the more obvious reasons.  Instant download of a book you want (if Amazon has it).  All countries with wireless access at all can take advantage of this probably biggest reason that a Kindle book purchase is favored by so many over going out to get a book.
  However, the other e-readers have now caught on and are adding this feature, though Amazon's is currently the online e-book store with the overall best pricing and largest collection of books not in the public domain.
  So, Amazon has added free Wikipedia access to all with wireless access, globally (unique feature for sure) and has the text-to-speech feature for the brief times you might find that useful.

In connection with all this, Amazon has a policy of allowing the return of a book (for refund/credit) for things like Table of Contents with no links, needed illustrations not included, with no advance warning of that.
  You request this within 7 days of downloading a book, via phoning Kindle Customer Service at 866-321-8851.

That's all I can think of currently, but there are other reasons.  You can see current customers' more creative uses for the Kindle, which is a more flexible device than described by some gadget sites, at http://bit.ly/kcreative.   And [Added later] here's a later thread with answers by Kindle owners to a question by a Kindle-interested husband, "Is it really worth $260?".

No other vendor, so far, has matched Amazon's policy of a 30-day return policy with no re-stocking fee on their e-reader.  If the Kindle doesn't suit you, they take it back and refund your money (as long as it's not damaged).


> 2) Do you think that if books become more electronically
> available, will they also be downloaded illegally like
> MP3's?

Sure.  Even Dan Brown's new book was wildly distributed for free as a PDF file.  Publishers and authors worry about that happening much more if files are sold without some kind of rights-protection.
  What is fair to the buyer also is the question.

At any rate, these were the basic thoughts I had for the student.

If you have any others to add for your own choice of the Kindle (or any other e-reader), it'd be great to see them if you want to add them to the Comments area.  Let me know if it's ok to add them to the original post in an update later.

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OTHER REASONS given in Comments area (not seen in Kindle edition of the blog) with permission for posting in the main section. (Update 1)

"Batman Jr" - who is an Associate Professor at U of Nebraska - writes:

' Taking in combination the ability to adjust the font size, use Text-To-Speech, and the slim profile of the Kindle 2, I find it’s much easier to be able to read while using my treadmill.  Increasing the font one level helps my eyes track the text even as I’m bouncing around a bit, having the text read to me as I read seems to help with concentration, and the Kindle is very stable on the treadmill ledge, and much less likely to fall off compared with a “regular” book or magazine. '

A couple of my friends use it for this too.  But they have Kindle 1's and don't have the text-to-speech, which would definitely help with concentration. 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.

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(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!