Clues to new Kindle capabilities at end of year

StrategyEye has been looking at Amazon's Lab126 job ads and reports that Amazon may be planning to improve the Kindle web browser, as they posted an ad for an engineer to design new features on an "innovative embedded web browser."

The article reports fears that Kindle customers who are newspaper subscribers could just go to a newspaper website for free (specifically mentioning the NY Times) and then cancel their newspaper subscriptions.  It's not clear to me that StrategyEye knows that Amazon Users can already web to the NY Times online.

We can already read the NY Times online in its full-text format, which I have a link to in the downloadable file of mobile-device-optimized websites described and available at http://bit.ly/mobiweb.

We can also go to the regular website but that would be masochistic as that is very slow.  The text-optimized NY Times though is fully available.

Wireless use drains e-readers quite a bit, but a full-throttle web-browser would drain it very quickly.

StrategyEye reports that some believe the planned improvements are "part of a damage control exercise in prepararation for next month's release of the iPad."

  But in no way would a new version be ready by that time anyway, unless one is thinking about e-readers that are rushed to market and unreliable.
  There ARE obviously plans for a touchscreen to be ready by the end of the year and almost surely some kind of color screen with it, from all that I read (rumors are heavy about both Touchco which Amazon now owns and Mirasol, the latter dropping hints but also trying to entice all e-reader makers with their impressive technology although the colors are somewhat muted and there may be less contrast).
  EInk/PVI has stated that they could also have color ready by the end of the year also.
  So, I think any web browser improvements would be slated for a new Kindle near the end of the year.

  In the meantime it would be very good if they could improve the current model's web browsing so that it's faster and handles 'https' links. But, as StrategyEye worries, a faster browser will eat up more bandwidth, especially when people use a much faster browser much more and then 24/7 web browsing would likely be put on tiered pricing.

  StrategyEye writes that "A better browser would open up the internet to Kindle users and could put serious strain on the AT&T network."  The Kindle is already open to the Internet and is the only e-reader that gives (free) cellular wireless for this -- the other e-readers confine customers' web access to their own stores.

  And there they note the possibility that "Kindle customers could potentially cancel their subscriptions to publications such as the New York Times and access the paper's website for free."
  Certainly, with the iPad, the publishers should worry about that even more, as they could access the regular web pages of the NY Times as opposed to accessing, more practically and slowly, the mobile-unit optimized text pages of the NYT.

I've always been patient with the slow Kindle browser because it's free and I need that kind of access outside only for quick lookups.  I imagine that any decent speed capabilities will bring tiered-browsing plans, so I'm not over-excited about this. 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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Nook hack, and free, approved Kindle web-browser

There's been no little excitement the past week over the rooting of the Nook, allowing unofficial apps to be put on it, with the most wanted feature being a web browser (murky photo of success at left).

  Aside from AT&T's ability to restrict usage on it if there is a noticeable amount of activity (or B&N would have to pay through the nose for it), hacking the Nook is no piece of cake and would also void the warranty and call down the wrath of AT&T   :-).

  The irony is that all this work makes possible, on an e-reader, a capability that's been part of the Kindle package since the beginning (2007) and which is included in the $259 device -- the Amazon-approved web browser, slow but improved  over the last few months for 24/7 use anywhere you are (for free) if there is cellphone-type reception (Sprint and AT&T).

  Most reviewers don't mention this feature in comparison reviews or they dismiss it while many of us use it when on the streets and needing to look up text information quickly (restaurants, movie theater times, product reviews).
  It can be especially useful for those who haven't chosen to pay $30 to $50 monthly for web browsing on their smartphones.

  While most countries outside the U.S. don't have the web browser enabled, all Kindle countries allow 24/7 free access to Wikipedia from books, newspapers, etc., being read on the Kindle.
  No other e-reader offers anything like it.  See my tips for getting more out of the web browser, including a downloadable Kindle "book" file of mobile-unit optimized web sites, with links you can click on and go to with the Kindle.

[Apologies to Kindle Edition subscribers: the photos-section is not displayed
correctly by the Kindle Edition reader.]

Here are, for those who haven't explored this, some samples from all three models, starting with the only-4-gray-levels Kindle 1, as well as for the 16-gray levels Kindle 2 and Kindle DX models.

This is the now almost 2-yr old Kindle 1, shown doing a google search at a cafe last year.	Here's my Kindle 2 posting to the mobile version of Facebook last May.	On the Kindle DX, this is a page from one of the regular, not mobile-version, Engadget pages shown.	A page from mobile-ESPN, on the DX.   Also, photos of the Kindle 1 & 2 web browsers at ESPN and at an Oscar event
Here's one maybe familiar sample in Landscape mode, as the DX does auto- or manual rotation for books, periodicals and PDFs.  The Kindle Int'l has a manual rotation mode, which allows for wider displays and somewhat larger font sizes.

The energetic mind behind the rooting of the nook is California high school student Robbie Trencheny.  Hear a The Kindle Chronicles Podcast audio interview by Len Edgerly with Trencheny, whose main website and Twitter pages are regular stopping places now for the Nookers.  That includes his guide to rooting the nook.

There's one other favorite Android feature enabled this week: Pandora.  Listening to a music station in the background would be great, but the wireless drain on the battery and the eventual recognition by AT&T of the constant-On use can work against it for long-term free use.
  With an SD card, you can insert a card with your favorite music in it and play that in the background.  From my Kindle music player experience, it does tend to run down the battery some though but it's worth it sometimes. 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!

Amazon plans Kindle organizer, all-countries web-browsing

Leigh Anne Williams of Publishers Weekly reports that Amazon has said that it intends to enable its experimental browser in every country.

  This was from an article detailing how Canadian publishing houses like Harper Collins and Random House of Canada are working to make titles available on the Kindle in Canada.
  In a paragraph that followed several quotes from Jay Marine, director of product management for Kindle, Williams wrote:

' One key difference for Canadian customers, however, is that they won’t be able to use their Kindles to browse the Web yet, although they will be able to access Wikipedia.  But Amazon says it does intend to enable its experimental browser in every country.  In the meanwhile, Canadians will be able to download more than 90 newspapers and magazines with single purchases or with a subscription. '

Marine also talks about wireless coverage in Canada, which is somewhat spotty and explains that if customers in some areas are unable to get a strong enough connection, they can use their computers to download a book and move the book to the Kindle.

The Kindle finally gets library organization or folders?
  For newcomers to the Kindle: here's a guide to the basic Kindle organization structure and functions.

A Facebook announcement by the Amazon Kindle account at 1:07 PM Thursday said:

' Kindle Customers, We have heard from many of you that you would like to have a better way to organize your growing Kindle libraries.  We are currently working on a solution that will allow you to organize your Kindle libraries.  We will be releasing this functionality as an over-the-air software update as soon as it is ready, in the first half of next year. - The Kindle Team '

This Facebook post was greeted with no small disbelief in the Amazon forums where customers had been pleading for this feature for about 2 years with no response from Amazon in that time, and some who wrote that they had called Kindle Customer Service to ask about this yesterday were told it wasn't true.  In response to this thread, Amazon Kindle Customer Service posted the same announcement as the one seen on Facebook and added:

' The Kindle team maintains a Facebook and Twitter feed for customers to follow us. Here they are:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Amazon-Kindle/14408401557

Twitter: http://twitter.com/KindleReads '

At the time the International Kindle was first announced (Oct. 6, 2009), Amazon made a stand-alone Kindle Customer Service Q&A Community forum which they point to only at the right-hand side of the regular Kindle customer forum.

  As of Thursday, they added the topic announcement 11/19 Q&A: Organizing Content on Kindle.  The topic or thread was added at 6:32 PM PST.  The announcement is the same.  It's official, folks! 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!