Kindle Fire Tips: "Silk" Web Browser gets an Extreme Makeover for Kindle Fire 2nd Generation tablets.(adding info Mon. night)

Kindle Fire Web Browser ('Silk') user interface redesigned with unique readability and more speed

  The Kindle Forum announcement is titled, "Silk Update for Kindle Fire 2nd Generation, Kindle Fire HD 7", Kindle Fire HD 8.9"" so apparently this update doesn't pertain to the original Kindle Fire tablet first sold in 2011.

  (Sad added note: I spent about 4 hours updating this blog entry to add information, explanations, and special tips to help with confusion I saw in forums from some who felt they had lost a lot of features which have been moved to different areas.  The updated draft was automatically saved, but then I did a manual Save again on the WRONG browser tab for this blog and lost all that work.
  Was not home Sunday, must be out for the day Monday and will redo the additions late Monday.

  I first read about the web browser changes in the news Friday morning but there was no evidence of changes on my Kindle Fire HD 8.9" tablet, and early reports on the main forum were that Amazon's 'Silk' web browser blog had just announced the changes and was doubling as a tutorial on the new look and more intuitive navigation (although some users miss the 'Starter' page).

  For me, the browser changes seemed to come in increments on my Kindle Fire, and owners reported, early Friday, different experiences with the layout.  For instance, I had most of the changes described below in the Kindle Forum announcement (bold-faced emphases in it are mine) but did not have the top-left web-menu, which came in as a part of the changes later that night.

  Apparently, the groundwork was laid with software version [x].4.6 just received in the last week or so.

  Here is the forum announcement, which is essentially an introduction to the blog-tutorial page which gives much more detail, with screen captures.

' What's New?

*Brand new look for Silk - The Silk browser is now better, faster, and easier to navigate.

*Removal of the Starter page - When you open the Silk browser for the first time, you'll see the Most Visited page. From here, you can tap a website you view the most to visit it, or tap the Address Bar to find a website.

*User interface enhancements - Create up to ten tabs for easy tabbed browsing within the Silk browser.  With enhanced Reading View, you can read the web page in a single-screen format that is optimized for reading by removing most graphics, advertisement, or links from the web page.

*New left panel navigation - Use the Left Navigation Panel to access your saved websites, browser history, and downloads from Silk.

*Other performance enhancements.

If you need assistance with this update, head over to the Kindle Help Community. '

That "enhanced Reading View" is terrific.  First, the Reading View alert or icon is now impossible to miss, being highlighted in green alongside the URL or Location Field at the top of the page.
  NOTE: The green Reading View icon doesn't show up until the page is completely loaded, as the software apparently analyzes, where possible, which space with text constitutes a key article you might want to read in larger font and without all the ads and what the developers may decide are distracting links that are inserted (to other articles) and not essential to the article text.

CAVEAT: While the new browser is very smart, it doesn't work well with some pages.  The new Reading View isn't able to analyze correctly some Google-based blog pages (some Blogger and Blogspot.com sites) such as the one you're reading, in either Desktop or Mobile mode when there are dual columns -- one of which is a persistent site-oriented webpage column that is not part of an article.

  With most of the blog articles in A Kindle World, the text-focused Reading View can't differentiate between the article body and the blog title header, and it misses 80-90% of the actual text of the article while grabbing info from a side-column.

  Even if choosing the Kindle Fire's "Mobile" web-browsing View (see the general tablet-Menu's new "Request another view" option which is great to have while viewing a webpage), the Mobile view doesn't work on this Blogspot site yet.**

  What's odd is that the earlier version of Reading View WAS able to read individual Kindleworld articles correctly, identifying and showing just an article's content.

  ** Workaround for this blog:
      For tablet/phone reading of A Kindle World, use the following link:
      kindleworld.blogspot.com/?m=1
so that Google-Blogspot gives you the Mobile version.  You tap on an article's Title to get the individual article's text, and it's VERY readable.
  Ignore the Reading View icon in this case, where you're already in a customized mobile-device-optimized version of the blog.

 I'll write Silk Team feedback on this.  It does well with most websites.

That caveat aside, I now enjoy this browser more than the various ones I've tried on any of my tablets, with the exception that the Dolphin browser used with an old Adobe Flash Player works best for sites with Flash video for now.

  ANOTHER key improvement in Reading View is the ability to change the font size used.  The earlier browser version was a fixed-sized font that generally was still too small for me to read comfortably so I chose to use another browser that would allow me to change the font size while getting good word wrap on that.  Now I'll likely choose Silk browser more often to read articles (and will chooseFF the Dolphin browser when I want to see a web Flash video that might not be compatible with Silk's new, experimental streaming viewer yet).

  To get options while in Reading View
  To get the font options (as well as full/not-full screen and tablet-menu options), press the "||" icon visible at the right edge when in Landscape mode or at the bottom of screen when in Portrait mode.

  Not only can you change the font size to your liking when in Reading View, you now have additional background color options.  As with Kindle books or magazine article-text views, the Reading View mode allows you to view the website article text in Sepia (easier for some readers' eyes) or in white text against black AND even to choose Left alignment (with nicely raggedy right-edges and no big gaps in text spacing or instead choose Right-justified text.  There are also margin adjustments.

  REMINDER: If you'd rather read an article in original layout mode while viewing the surrounding material, you can double tap on the text to get a fixed larger font size, which sometimes will be enough.

The Silk Team ends their blog tutorial with, "Our goal is continuous improvement.  With that in mind, we’d love to hear from you.  Please get in touch and let us know what you think of Silk.  You can reach us at amazon-silk-feedback@amazon.com."


ID-numbers on my tablets for this Silk update.
Because my Silk changes seemed incremental, with some of it not matching the tutorial at first, I took a look at the Settings to check for any ID numbers.  Below is what I found after my updates were complete and the browser layout finally fully matched the tutorial.
  Another Note: I'm also assuming that our tablets should have the latest Kindle Fire 2nd Gen software update [x].4.6 released recently.

App settings
. Lightly tap on "Applications"
. Tap "Apps" to get "App Settings"
. On "Version and Release Notes"
.   I tapped on "App version release-6.1000.512.47A_622704710" to see:
    "Version
     release-6.1000.512.47A
     Last Updated: [Recent date] (1.0.988.1)

SILK settings (mine)
. Lightly tap on "Applications"
. Tap "Installed Applications"
. Choose Filter by "All Applications"
. Go down to "Silk" and click on it
. You then see "Application Details" and, under that,
.     "version 1.0.68.293-Gen5_34034610" (in my case, for both 7" and 8.9")

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Current Kindle Models for reference, plus free-ebook search links.

US: Updated Kindle Fire 2 Basic  7" tablet - $159 Kindle Fire HD 7" 16/32GB - $199/$229 Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 16/32GB - $269/$299 Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 4G 32/64GB - $399/$499 Kindle NoTouch ("Kindle") - $69/$89 Kindle Touch WiFi - $99 Kindle Paperwhite 1, WiFi - $119/$139 Kindle Paperwhite 2, WiFi - $119/$139 Kindle Paperwhite 1, WiFi+3G - $179/$199 Kindle Paperwhite 2, WiFi+3G - $189 Kindle Keybd 3G - $139/$159, Free slow web Kindle DX - $379 $299 (Yes)

UK: Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £69 Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - ~£89 Refurb'd Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149   Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB Kindle Paperwhite 2, WiFi - £109 Kindle Paperwhite 3G, UK - £169 Kindle Fire 2, UK -  £129 Kindle Fire HD 7" 16/32GB, UK - £159/199 Canada - Kindlestore, CDN-$ Kindle Basic, NoTouch - $79 Kindle Paperwhite 2 - $169 Kindle Paperwhite 2, 3G - $209 KFire HD 7" $214,  8.9" $284

*OTHER Int'l pages* Kindle NoTouch Basic - $89 Kindle Keybd 3G - $189   Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB Paperwhite WiFi $139, 3G/Wifi $209 KFire HD 7" $214,  8.9" $284 France Boutique Kindle Deutschland - Kindle Store Italia - Kindle Store Spain - Tienda Kindle Brazil - Amazon Brazil China - Amazon China [?] Japan - Amazon Japan

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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.

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

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Is the Kindle only an E-Reader? Why $360259? Why $489379 for the DX?

[Updated for pricing change on July 8, 2009 - 11:48 PM] - Original posting was March 19, 2009 and this has been updated a few times.
New belated update for decreased prices, on November 12

It's a good time to take another look at what the Kindle 2 does for the price.

Many blog reviews and commenters have said that the Kindle is too pricey for "just an E-Reader."  But is that all it is?  Jeff Bezos has mentioned the high expense of the advanced 'radio modem' as well as the newest E-Ink screen, with its 16 shades of gray and a faster processor.

The 24/7 "always On" wireless access to the global net with no time charges for Kindle users would be one reason it's $360 $299 [price reduced July 8, 2009] $259 [price reduced October 6, 2009].

[Prices changed later but am not modifying the part below, written May 2009]
  UPDATED: May 2009 to cover the coming 9.7" screen Kindle DX which has a screen surface area 2.5" times the size of the Kindle 2, priced at $130 more ($489) and with native Adobe support for PDFs.  The other information below remains true for the larger DX.  Amazon is taking pre-orders now, for earlier shipping dates.  Note that the closest big-screen e-reader (Irex Iliad) is $860~ with wireless of some type.

UPDATED: 4/25/09 from original posting of March 19: I've been asked about any additional factors that might justify the cost of the Kindle.  Originally posted March 19, 2009 at 8:07 am upon starting 'A Kindle World' blog, this article now also includes notes on non-Internet-access (non-wireless) features that are missing on other e-readers or which aren't as well implemented on them.  The additional information is integrated with what was written earlier.

Sony's advanced model, PRS-700, has 8 shades but also a touch screen and side-lighting.  Unfortunately, the two hot features on this Sony have caused reviews (see NYT's David Pogue's) citing a loss of clarity as well as even lighting and glare.  While the Sony doesn't have the Kindle's cell-phone style wireless Net access, much less 24/7 access at no monthly (or hourly) cost, the Sony costs more.  It does handle more formats in native format (ePubs and PDFs -- although reviews can be scathing about the readability of its small PDF fonts at highest font setting vs the Kindle's conversion results, but Calibre allows us to convert pdfs, ePub and Lit files to Kindle format now, while MobiPocket Creator converts PDF (and other files) into Kindle format and PDFReader may do a better job with image-based ones.  Stanza is the one to use for those with Macs.  Savory is an experimental utility that converts PDFs ON your Kindle, offering both text- and image-based conversions.
UPDATE - 4/27/09: Amazon bought Stanza today.

Unlike searches for wi-fi hot spots (often with fees), Amazon's partnership with Sprint for use of its EV-DO cellphone network means that the Net is accessible almost anywhere a cell phone can be used, and with the Kindle there are no monthly data-charges as there must be for phones -- usually at least $30/mo for a limited plan, which at 12 months = $360.  An interesting figure, I thought!



From xkcd
The web access is somewhat klunky although less so with the Kindle 2.  There are 3 modes: Basic, Advanced, and Advanced with javascript - and we can turn images off or on depending on how eager we are for data vs images.  The mobile versions of many websites make access quicker and with better formatting.

I use the 24/7 Net access when outside my home, often at stores where I can decide whether to buy something by Googling the product's model number and adding the word "review" -- this has saved me from some bad buys and also confirmed some possible buys would be good ones.

See my Tips for using the Kindle's web browser more effectively.

I was wishing, one day, that I could go check an internet machine somewhere to get information on something I wasn't sure about buying and suddenly remembered I had one in my purse :-)  At cafes, I often check something on the web.  Though I obviously love using the wireless, I am not out that often, so I don't think it's a super drain on Jeff.   (Click for a larger photo of my earlier Kindle, webbing at a cafe.)
  And here's a photo of my Kindle 2, posting to a forum and Googling a product at Target.

New Amazon fees affect some Kindlefeeder options below.
I also use kindlefeeder.com to get feeds onto to my Kindle each day (a manual click must be done now, for the free service (as automated daily sends will now cost $20/yr), and this includes up to a dozen feeds in your downloaded set (one file with table of contents for each periodical).  but good labor goes into this great service, so Daniel Choi posted that donations are welcome and his users have been responsive.  My subscription at kindlefeeder includes Engadget, Gizmodo, full-feed HuffingtonPost, NY Times Most Emailed, etc.   The set of several daily publications comes as one item each day, with a table of contents listing of and links to each downloaded periodical.  No need, in this case, to use the wireless when reading -- outside of the quick download of the daily set -- unless a feed is mainly summaries with links to the full article online.

But I also subscribe to Amazon's Kindle subscriptions that I find timely and well-written -- those include The New Yorker (w/the cartoons) at $3/mo and the NY Times Latest News, at $2/mo. -- this latter comes 2 or 3 times a day, anytime there's a big headline, which means a meaty story and there are usually about a dozen articles each download.
  While I can and did get The New Yorker feed for free, I prefer the special Amazon formatting for periodicals, allowing fast navigations to sections or to articles within sections and the usual Previous and Next article movement with the 5-way button.  I also love getting the cartoons with it.

MANUALS AND GUIDES FOR PRODUCTS BOUGHT:
I just about always lose my guides or manuals for various electronics and have now gone online to get the pdf versions, which I send to my Amazon Kindle address for auto-conversion and then they're auto-sent to my Kindle, where I can always find them (and am able to search for specific words).  This won't work well with PDFs that are primarily image-scans, as they'd load slowly and be too small for clarity and readability.  (Updated: There's a 15c charge on those conversions and deliveries direct to the Kindle for files up to 1 megabyte in size and 15c per megabyte after, rounded up -- but you can instead choose Amazon's free conversion and delivery to your regular email instead and and you can then transfer the file to the Kindle via the USB cable that comes with it.)

WEB INFO to your Kindle:
If interested in website info you've found, you can highlight the info, copy it the usual way (Windows: Ctrl-c or Mac: Cmd-c) and paste it into Winword or to a basic text file, then e-mail it to your Kindle, at which point it becomes a file of its own readable on your Kindle.  As mentioned in other entries, there are several ways to convert any web info into a PDF file as well, which then can be sent to your Kindle for Kindle-izing, but normally these should not be complex multi-columned pages although the Savory utility can work around that also.  More detailed info on the special image-type conversion here.

SEARCHING A BOOK OR ENTIRE LIBRARY on your Kindle:
The Kindle 2 now searches, as a default, only the book you happen to have open and you have the choice of it searching your entire Kindle library, which will then pretty quickly bring up all the books and periodicals with the word or phrase in question, showing summaries of each, and links to the appropriate pages.
  It also offers a search of google, if you prefer, or the Wikipedia, but you'll be asked to turn on your wireless in those cases.

  A SEARCH TIP from MobileRead forum's "Hemipod":
    "If you use the 5-way control to highlight a phrase, but don't finish the highlight, but instead press a key as if you were starting a search, the highlighted text is copied and pasted into the search box. Very, very easy way to search, say, wiki, for a phrase that's in your book."

INLINE DICTIONARY
Unlike the fatiguing and convoluted inline dictionary process for the Kindle 1, the Kindle 2 has direct cursor access to any word on a book or periodical's page, and if placed on a word, a 2-line definition of the word shows at the bottom of the screen (if the Oxford American dictionary includes the word).  If interested in the full dictionary definition plus pronunciation, you can press the Enter key on the keyboard to get that.  I used to guess the meaning of words via my understanding of the context, and it's been instructive for me :-) to actually use this feature at times.

HIGHLIGHTING, ANNOTATIONS KEPT WITH EACH BOOK (with Amazon library-backups for books bought from Amazon)
  You can easily highlight passages now, including highlighting that goes over several pages if wanted.  You can also make notes with the keyboard.  These are all searchable also, as described above for searching words or phrases.

  If the book was purchased from Amazon, then the store keeps a backed-up copy of your notes and highlighting of any book (kept in your library area at Amazon) so that if you delete the book either for space or to exclude it from your display of current titles on the Kindle, you can later re-download the book at no charge, and your highlighting and notes will be with the book. Your annotations are also kept, for viewing by book, on a password-protected private webpage when you have not disabled backup of annotations to the Amazon servers.  Here's a sample.

CLIPPINGS
The Kindle 2 now allows you to clip an entire article from a subscription newspaper or magazine with the press of a menu option.  These will go to your "My Clippings" file which is pure text.  As with any other e-reader, you can transfer the file to your computer via a USB cable and then edit it, since it collects all the clippings you've been making, which includes an extra copy of all highlighting you've done on various books so that you can use them in your text documents.  That way you can share with friends, if you have a computer, any information that's interested you enough to note it on your Kindle.  If you decide to delete the current "My Clippings" file from your Kindle the unit will create a new one for you the next time you highlight or make notes about something or when you request a clipping of an article you're reading in a periodical.  Otherwise, the Kindle just appends new notes to the file.

FONT SIZING AND LINE SPACING OPTIONS
I often find when reading normal books or magazines now that I almost instinctively start to make a movement to enlarge or decrease the font size or the spacing between lines. While almost any e-reader will give you a choice of font-sizes, the Kindle offers 6 font sizes and furthermore offers 9 settings for the amount of spacing between lines. Less spacing distance will get more lines to read on your screen while more distance may make a paragraph easier to read.  Key combo for line-spacing changes: press shift-alt together and then press a number between 1 and 9 to decrease or increase the line spacing from whatever your current choice is.  Default is '3' which is also the default for font size.

COST OF THE KINDLE PARTS
I've been amused by the reaction to recent articles about the cost of Kindle components, the general reaction equating the cost of components for the Kindle to the cost of building a Kindle and deciding that the amount over $185, from the [original] $360 price, makes it a 'cash cow' for Amazon.

 Those writers don't factor in what happens after the builders buy the components -- the manufacturing expense and the expertise to make the many features (beyond the usual e-book) work together well.  After selecting the components and readying the hardware and software conditions for the desired functions (involving a lot of paid people), then there's the mass assembling, transportation, warehousing, marketing, distribution, and management of inventory, plus (in Amazon's case) extensive customer support that's almost instantly reachable and normally more responsive than the usual (the one exception being Amazon's non-response about the lighter font issue of the Kindle 2 vs the Kindle 1).

Then there's the prepaid Sprint wireless, always 'On,' global net access which normally costs $30/mo. to have (minimum limited services) when added to basic cell phone service. That alone can cost $360, though I'm sure Amazon has a very good deal on it as long as we don't overdo the accessing (I might).  As pointed out in several entries here, netbooks given 24/7 cellular network wireless capabilities cost $60/mo. for the unlimited acccess.  Yes, it's faster access, with color, but it's aosl $720/year more on top of a netbook's unit cost

TEXT-TO-SPEECH FEATURE:
While newspapers have duly noted publisher reluctance to allow their books to be read "out loud" by the Kindle 2's automated mechanical-reader voice (they consider this as 'competition' for the professional actors reading novels with human inflections!), most publishers are allowing it. (Some Amazon users and disability rights proponents are boycotting Random House for their clueless policies against this feature)  And of course the feature can be used for reading aloud personal docs or periodicals you've downloaded if you're busy doing something else such as cooking or driving at the moment.   (I want to do a separate section on "Tom," the male voice for the Kindle because that's an intereting story.)  At any rate, this is not a feature most of us would use for any length of time!  But it's useful for the times you want to keep "reading" but must get on to other things for a bit.
  You can speed up or slow down the voice, and it turns pages for you :-).
  See a fun videoclip using the Kindle voice to read a part for a screenplay.

MP3's AND AUDIBLE BOOKS
There is a feature that allows you to play mp3s placed on your Kindle by you but they play only in the order in which they've been put on the reader.  The focus has not been on the Kindle being a music-playing machine.  This allows you to hear some of your favorite music while reading a Kindle book but it's a battery drainer. You can also put mp3s under the 'Audible' folder (since the Kindle plays Audible books also) and play those on demand but cannot read on the Kindle at the same time with this choice.  You can play mp3-audiobooks also.

NON-AMAZON BOOKS:
By the way, Kindle users are not tied to the Amazon store, although it now holds 7,400  20,000+ free books -- mainly public domain classics.  The few free books at Amazon that are not public domain ones (and usually available briefly) are found here.

  Tip:  Here's a long Amazon-forum discussion thread with tips on a million Kindle books (mostly free) for your Kindle from other sites.

OTHER UNUSUAL FORUM DISCUSSIONS
  Tip:  Amazon forum users talk about the unusually creative ways in which they use their Kindles.  Definitely an interesting read.

  Tip:  4/28/09 - Another interesting thread about how watching History Channel (or The Daily Show) and other tv shows about events have caused some to look up Kindle books on the subject that kindled interest :-)

  Tip:  4/20/09 - I was amazed at how many Huffington Post readers apparently have Kindles. In the thread for an article by Danielle Crittenden, some explain to her how much the Kindle can do despite a posting that deems the Kindle good only for reading books and not an Internet-aware device. 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!

My No-Hands-On Photos of Kindle DX at Work

There are about 20 photos at my KindlePlus page.  The link goes to a gallery of thumbnails, and you can click on any one of them for the larger version.

  It's easier, after clicking on a thumbnail photo, to continue by just pressing "Next" (or "Previous") at the top-right of each image. Going back to the thumbnails takes more time.
  Sometimes the photo-hosting site is slow; if so, it's better to try another time.

  If you have a question about any image, you can leave a note in the lower left-hand area of the image page.  Email addresses are not needed, but there's a delay on the postings of questions to minimize spam.

  If you are using Windows, you can toggle the F11 function key to get full screen by temporarily hiding the toolbars.  When you're finished, press the F11 key again to get the toolbars back.

I took pictures of the Kindle DX screen displays when browsing the web, as I wanted to see how much of a help the Landscape mode is. As with some PDFs, quite a help!

  But it re-loads the page from scratch!, so I won't be doing it that much.

I neglected to take a shot of one key PDF page (one that's in tiny print) in Landscape mode to show how much larger the text can be under the right cirumstances. Will add that later.

We've seen enough photos of the DX by now, but I've also added a couple of pictures showing it displaying the same book or web page as either the Kindle 1 or the Kindle 2 though I can't begin to do justice to the very solid dark, clear font of the DX.

UPDATE: 7/7/09 - 3:25 PM - I finally realized that since I had the DX in a smaller font when presenting it next to the K2 and K1, that was not an especially good way to show it.  The DX's default #3 font is larger than the Kindle 2's (which does make the DX look even bolder too) so I had gone down to #2.

  I will take a couple of more images later so that it'll be a fairer representation of spacing, instead of the very crowded page I showed.  In person, the #2 font is so sharp it didn't occur to me that it was too small for photographing.
  Also, will add a couple of night-time pictures with the Mighty Bright light attached to the Kindle. Should be up in a couple of days.

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Earlier related postings:
. Kindle 1 vs Kindle 2 comparison photos on same material.
. The Kindle 2, out and about.

Sidenote:  PBase also has my travel images, from near and far, at http://www.pbase.com/andrys, for any that might enjoy that kind of thing. 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!

Accessing Facebook with the Kindle 2

It does take patience.
 I was asked by mathmom, at the Web-browsing guide/tips article here, if I was able to access Facebook with the Kindle 2 to do anything interactive rather than just passive reading.

That's a very complex site and I'd never thought to go there, so I tried it out.
  Often, large sites today will offer a mobile-unit version of their pages, so I tried using m.facebook.com and that link got me to a somewhat trimmed-down version of the Facebook site.  And, even if you put in just 'facebook.com' (the Kindle provides the "http://" part for us), it knows when you're on a mobile unit web browser and then takes you to the mobile version anyway.

    Update 1/4/11 - Try touch.facebook.com if encountering problems.  That works best with Kindle 3's, according to reports.

Since the site tends to run a lot of scripts and Basic Mode did not seem to allow me to log in, I went to the Kindle browser's Menu option for "Settings" and chose "Advanced" and enabled Javascript.  That allowed me to log in with the user email and password I usually use for Facebook though I don't go there often.  BUT sometimes the site is busy and you have to try again.

(This all works far better with the Kindle 2 than with the Kindle 1, as the latter requires the silver scrollbar's pop-up menus and many more menu choices just for input, and even I don't have the patience for it with a place like Facebook.)

The 5-way button did allow me to navigate Facebook's stream of personal news from everyone and to read what I wanted pretty quickly, but the goal was to post a note.

  I went to the profile of a friend and followed the instructions to post a message to his space.  When I finished typing a short note (you don't want to type long ones on small devices), I clicked on 'Post' and got a notice that I had to sign in first.  I was already signed in or would not have had access to see my private areas!  Nevertheless, I dutifully logged in again, and after I did, I was taken back to that page and saw that the note was posted, as you can see here.  (I did remove the user ID from the photo.)

I later went back to try again.  This time, after I wrote a note, I was again told I had to log in.  So I obeyed, but it then told me that the site could not be accessed and to try again later.  This is the type of false alert that I described in the Kindle webbrowser guide.  The failure alert pops up when sending email or posting to a forum.  I went to my computer and found that the note HAD been posted. This false failure-message for posting/sending from the Kindle seems to happen consistently.  I'll report this to kindle2-feedback@amazon.com.

  The upside is that the message does go through and is posted.

Not the best experience in the world, but useful if really needed and you're away from computers.  As many know, you can Twitter away at m.twitter.com

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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 3G 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

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.

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

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Video of Case Western's Q&A with Amazon rep

The first part of this youtube video is of the Case Western Reserve University's announcement of the Kindle study and explanations of how they'll use the Kindle in their programs.  They'll be comparing relative effectiveness of learning via the traditional methods vs using e-books on the Kindle, will study useability and will videotape students to watch how they navigate... etc.

  There's a Q&A session on how this will work.   The Amazon rep talks about how the Kindle has a web browser that they call "experimental ... we're constantly working on it," that "it's an important thing to remember that it's free... no wireless charges...we cover all ...that..." Says you can use online resources without having to get up and go to a computer.

He also answers a question about the absence of color for textbooks which have charts and labels based on color.  He explains that while they've seen color displays in the lab they're "not happy with it" and it's not up to their "standard of readability" ... they've not seen a "color screen that you can read for a long time on."  Most color displays are backlit and it's like someone shining a light in your eyes, he says.  They'll "obviously keep investigating that," he added but it has to meet their standard. He thinks "there are creative solutions around some of the charts and labeling" in the short term until you have color."

The segment is 18 minutes.  The rest of the 32 minutes are about other programs. 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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Working with the Kindle 2 and DX Web Browser

The experimental Basic Web browser on the Kindle 2 can be used from almost anywhere a cell phone works and at any time.

Expectations for it should be in line with what you'd expect from any mobile phone except for how much of a web page you can see on the screen (considerably more with the Kindle 2) and no color.  Mobile unit web browsing is best done on sites which make versions for mobile units' small screens.

 With a Kindle, you don't have to hunt for a WiFi hotspot and hope that it's free, because Wireless access is almost always available where there's Sprint cellphone coverage, but it's slower than WiFi, which is slower than your normal cabled Internet experience.

  Most of the steps below (but not the 5-way button portion) work on a Kindle 1 also, though the Kindle 1 is slower in response time and doesn't always finish rendering a page with larger photos.

The key is knowing how to choose between several settings offered by the Home page's Menu option for "Experimental" which gets you to "Basic Web" (which you just click on, as the other options are not available there, only described).
  The Kindle will ask you if you want Wireless 'On' if it's not on already and then you can OK that.

  You are then taken to the Kindle's Bookmarks page with a choice of websites for mobile unit access.  Press the Menu key there and choose Settings.
  These are all toggled options.

  The most used Settings to choose from when browsing would be:
    1. "Switch to Advanced Mode" (if you're in "Basic Mode)
          ("Desktop" mode on DX's)
          or "Switch to "Basic Mode" (if you're in Advanced Mode).
    2. "Enable Javascript"
    3. "Disable Images"

Choosing Modes:
. Basic mode, Disable Images - Fastest.  Use when you just want data quickly and don't want to wait for images to load.
. Basic mode, Enable Images - 2nd fastest.  Best with simpler websites and small photos.

  With Basic mode, article bodies will be in B&W rather than the harder to read gray shades that emulate color gradations.
  You'll need to remember that on pages with columns of links or ads, all of the first column's text will show up first, going down and you have to "Next Page" (or down-arrow) through them before getting to the center column for the article.

. Advanced Mode - Use this when you want to see the full width of a web page and all columns showing.
   The browser will then make the fonts TINY to fit it all in and will emulate colors, giving harder-to-read multi-gray shaded text and sometimes the background may be too dark.
  With some sites, it can be surprisingly readable though some will want a magnifying glass.
  With this mode you won't have to page through several Kindle 'pages' of a website's left column.
  The Kindle often chooses advanced mode, and when I want to read an article in the normal sized font, I'll switch to Basic and do the NextPage thing.

. Advanced Mode, Enable Javascript - the Kindle browser often switches to this when it knows javascript is needed to load the page at all.  This will be the slowest mode.
  Sometimes the javascript is needed just for an ad and you can do without it, and at those points I have sometimes tried "disabling" javascript to speed things up.  But most won't bother as it doesn't make that big a difference.  If javascript is needed but isn't enabled, the page never loads, so I tend to leave it alone.

Other web browser options:
. The browser Menu lets you "Enter URL" to go to a specific page you want.
. You can "Bookmark This Page" if you're on a webpage you want to return to without having to type the URL again.
. There's a (current-session) "History" page so you can jump to a webpage you want to revisit.
. You can "Go to Top" of the webpage.

Moving around the webpage
You can move around the page with the 5-way button, which will take you to areas for input, or links to click on for another web page or web-page area, and allow you to scroll down (instead of having to use 'NextPage' if you're on a long page.
  To get back to the previous "jump" (from a link) press the "Back" key.

. You can generally change the text size but not the line spacing on a web page.
. You can download some files offered, usually "TXT" files and unprotected MOBI, PRC ones.  The Kindle format is AZW, and you can download that and AZW1 files, though I've never seen these offered outside the Amazon store.

See an example of links on a Kindle webpage.   For other webpage examples for both the Kindle 1 and 2, see the screen comparison page that I made for these.

For more information and screen samples, see Section 6.1 "Using Basic Web" in the "Kindle 2 User's Guide, 2nd Edition" -- this is at Location 834,

Caution: Using wireless for browsing will drain the battery faster during a session than reading a Kindle document will.  It'll be a shorter time before you need to recharge.  Here are customer service advisories for how to keep the battery in good shape.

TIP: When sending an email from gmail.com or yahoo.com, you'll get an alert that a connection could not be established with the website's servers.  98% of the time, it's a false error alert.  The email goes through (but typing on this unit is arduous, at best, so I e-mail rarely), and the same thing occurs with posting a reply to a forum.  The reply does go through and is posted despite the alert.  Do log in before posting, though.

The Basic Web browser on the smaller Kindles is extremely handy for quick lookups when away from your home/office computers.  It isn't something you want to do at length, though I was surprised that Wired can come through so well, with good resolution on the photos on the Kindle 2.

FILE DOWNLOAD - BOOKMARKS
You can download a file of bookmarks I collected for mobile-optimized sites, which will load faster.

( If you find blog entries like this one helpful, please check the "Interesting" box so I can get an idea of the level of interest for how-to's for features not often used -- judging from what I read on the forums.  Thanks for taking the tme. )
  7/5/09 - I've eliminated the 'Interesting/Cool' Google widget because it caused the page to take too long to load, but on the Tips/Guides, it did give me good (easy to rate) indication of interest in those. Thanks to those who took the time let me know.

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Check often:  Latest temporarily free non-classics or late-listed ones.
  Guide to finding Free or Low-Cost Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers. 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. )
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!