Kindle firmware, for Kindle 2 and DX, is being updated to version 2.3 today.
The update brings native PDF capabilities to Kindle 2, along with a landscape orientation mode.
I’m on a plane, so unable to download it right now. But you can see the new features, and member reactions, in this thread: http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,15964.0.html
We’re collecting one-paragraph book recommendations from our readers, in our latest KindleBoards contest. (The recommendations are one-paragraph, not the books, wise-guy.)
So far five lucky readers have won Amazon gift certificates. Congratulations to Tip10, mlewis78, bjazman, loonlover, and Dankinia – well done! Your $50 gift certificates are on the way.
Next week we’ll draw the grand prize of a brand new Kindle.
If you haven’t entered yet, just post in this thread with one paragraph about a book – any book. On November 26th, we’ll randomly draw our grand prize winner.
Good luck!
In a welcome bit of news, Amazon announced today
that it’s working on a solution for improving the ways that eBooks can be organized on Kindle.
Right now, all of your downloaded eBooks are presented on your Kindle’s home page. They can be sorted in three ways: by most recently accessed, by title, or by author. This works fine if your home page only sports a few pages of books, but many Kindle owners have dozens or even hundreds of books downloaded to their Kindle.
(The current 6″ Kindle reader can hold 1,500 books; the larger Kindle DX can hold 3,500 books.)
Judging from our Kindle user forums, the most requested Kindle feature by far is for “folders” – i.e. some type of filing system to help organize those ever-growing libraries of downloaded eBooks. Kindle owners are taking encouragement about this from today’s post on the Kindle facebook page:
“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“.
Note that Amazon’s facebook author (man, I want that job!) avoids using the word “folders”. I think it’s more likely Amazon will introduce a system where eBooks can be tagged, and thus sifted and sorted into different views based on user-assigned tags.
What do you think? Are folders the answer? Tagging? Some other feature? Discuss it with other Kindle owners.
As a long-time reader of the romance genre I’ve watched it go through many fads. I have 1500+ paperback books crammed into 5 bookshelves that line one whole wall from floor to ceiling. To me they are a symbol of accomplishment. All the pretty colors of the spines make a decorative mosaic that makes me happy and looks pretty. (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!) To my husband they are dust-gathering detritus that he calls “dead bodies” lying around. At least once a month he begs me to get rid of them and every month I balk at the idea. Even though my all time favorites, dog-eared and the worse for wear, are a little (okay, a lot) outdated I still hang on to them. They are old friends. How can I choose which to get rid of? Who would love them as much as I do?
How do you solve a problem that continues to grow and grow (and grow and grow) for voracious readers like me? I had read some e-books on my computer at times but it really wasn’t the same. I couldn’t bring my computer with me in the car to read. I couldn’t throw it in my purse just in case I found a free minute or two during the day. It was a nuisance to drag my laptop to bed with me, and my favorite reading chair just wasn’t cut out for both a computer and a person.
While e-books seemed like the natural answer, to read them conveniently I’d have to get an e-reader. In early 2008 I was seduced by the idea of the Amazon Kindle. I had been looking for an e-reader for a long time but didn’t understand the formatting and it always seemed very scary. Download and move files? Pdf, prc, or mobi files? Connecting e-readers to the computer? File formatting? They were all very foreign ideas that seemed ripe for ways to get a virus or other horrible thing on my computer. It seemed like much too much work to read a book.
Amazon Kindle changed all that for me. All the problems I had with computer reading and formatting were eliminated. An e-book reader is just like a paperback in size. I can take it everywhere I took paperbacks and have even more books in my hand at one time then ever before. Being able to purchase books and have them sent magically to my Kindle via Whispernet seemed very easy and I was hooked.
Some obscure but equally great advantages for using an e-reader occurred to me once I’d been using it for a while. First of all, my paperback collection stopped growing (making my husband very happy and reducing the number of “dead bodies” piling up). Next, I realized that on the Kindle, it doesn’t matter what smutty thing I’m reading, it’s private and the cover isn’t hanging out there for everyone to judge. Also, my husband has a much harder time discovering just how many books I am buying and reading (and don’t any of you tell him!). Finally, e-books are essentially a greener alternative to the paperback so I am doing the environment a favor. There’s no telling how many trees that would otherwise have died live on because I’m reading e-books. Win, win, WIN and win again.
Soon after I purchased my Kindle, I branched out and found that I could purchase multi-formatted e-books from other sources like Allromanceebooks.com for my e-reader too. Thanks to wonderful responsive customer service and updates in technology I found it was easy to get my new choices onto my Kindle. I’m not confined to just Amazon selections. Wow! Once that door opened I found new authors, a huge new selection of books to choose from and brand new genres I had never read before. Some of these new books just don’t make it into paperback format like mainstream authors. This is not because they aren’t wonderful, well written stories but because their audience and potential market value doesn’t justify printing costs and expense. E-books solve that problem and allow for authors to take chances and create exciting, thrilling stories and create new niche markets and fads that I found I love to read.
The satisfaction I get from seeing my paperback books all crammed into those bookshelves is now fulfilled by holding my 4G flash drive with all my e-books on it. True it isn’t as pretty or colorful but it also doesn’t collect any dust. I keep 1000+ books in my purse and 50+ on my Kindle directly now. My days of worry that I won’t have something to read if my plane is delayed or I am suddenly stuck waiting for a long period of time are gone.
So let’s talk about fads. These days, in one hand I have tales of pirates, war heroes, English nobility, Australian outback adventurers, highlanders, cowboys, plantation owners, time travelers, vampires, werewolves, wizards, witches, shape shifters and more, plus chick lit, contemporary and historical settings and every type of plot you can imagine. I have the driest non-fiction to the most explicit erotica. You will find gay and straight, human and non-human, silly and serious main characters, not to mention combinations of the above. There are famous mainstream authors and prolific e-book authors but my favorite is the obscure one-time wonders that touch my heart and fire my imagination. These are all stored on my Kindle along with biographies, cookbooks, self-help, how-to’s, city guides, dictionaries and reference sources. The types of books available is as diverse as there are people to read them and to write them.
On the subject of fads, one thing I believe strongly is that e-books and e-readers are not a fad. While characters, plots and settings may change with the moods of the reading public, the e-book and e-reader are here to stay.
Regardless of which e-book reader or format used, at the end of the day, a selection of choices infinitely larger (and more economical!) than mere print books await my decisions. “Pick me next!” Pick me!” they cry out just waiting for that right mood to strike so that I choose them to curl up with in my favorite chair for a nice long visit.
This article was reprinted, with permission, from Wildfire, the twice weekly newsletter of All Romance eBooks. The author, JenMcJ, has always been a reading addict and her current fascination is all things e-book. Since she hasn’t found a single person in her regular life that likes to read the same type of stories she does, she was surprised to step out into the internet and find a huge circle of friends from all over the world that do. Still, family, friends and even neighbors know that if she can put it off to sit down and read, she will. Thus, the canceled appointments, late arrivals, dusty house and pile of laundry waiting to be done are no surprise anymore, least of all to her husband and children.
Last week, I presented at a conference on “Innovations in Content Delivery,” which gave me the opportunity to talk quite a bit about the Kindle! During my presentation, I happened to mention a book I had recently read, The Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. In one of those fun coincidences that are a nice part of life, I received this email from a colleague who had been at the conference and heard my presentation. She wrote, “When I got to the airport and sat down in a vacant seat at the departure lounge, there right next to me was a copy of the book [GLAPPPS] with a note from the former reader saying she had left the book so someone else could enjoy it as much as she had…and then to pass it on after I finished it! What a coincidence. I ‘m enjoying it tremendously, and it’s all thanks to your comments that I even picked it up!” So very cool! This was in the United Express departure lounge at O’Hare International Airport.
As much as I love my Kindle, this is one thing I can’t do: leave a book behind for an unsuspecting stranger to discover and love as much as I did. Although, to be honest, I enjoyed The Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society so much, I’m not sure I would leave it behind…I might want to read it again one of these days.
The lead author, Mary Ann Shaffer, had worked on this book for years, doing extensive research and making many trips to Guernsey. In December, 2007, she became unexpectedly ill. Her niece, Annie Barrows (who is an author in her own right) stepped into collaborate with her aunt and help her finish the book. Shaffer died in February 2008 and sadly, after all those years of work, never had the chance to see the book in print (the hardcover version was published in July 2008).
You can buy the Kindle version of the book at Amazon.com
Last week, I attended a 5 day Guitar and Ensemble Institute sponsored by the National Association of Pastoral Musicians (www.npm.org). The week is designed to be a time of learning , retreat, and renewal, with a specific focus on lessons and techniques on various instruments including Guitar, Piano, Voice, and Percussion. I am generally the technical support person for the week so, of course, I had to take my new Kindle DX and put it through its paces.
Before leaving, I had received by e-mail various documents from the Program Coordinator and some of the presenters. I was able to format them for reproduction and distribution and convert them to PDF format and load onto my Kindle.
Accordingly, I already had many of the ‘handouts’ as well as having the schedule for the week readily accessible. In addition, I had downloaded a trip planner and had that available for our trip from Arlington, Virginia to Erlanger, Kentucky. And I had copies of our auto insurance cards on the Kindle as well; fortunately, that wasn’t needed!
I also had some music that I was able to put into PDF format. I already knew it would display just fine, but I wanted to find out if it was practical to use in a ‘real world’ situation. What I found is that, for me at least, it’s not great if you are learning a piece, because you usually need to go back and forth to work on specific passages. But once you have learned the piece and just need the music there to remind you of what’s coming up it works okay.
I also tried a piece in guitar tablature. That was also very readable though the landscape mode did not work as well just because of the layout of the piece. I did get asked if there was a remote system for page turns using a foot pedal or something; guitarists tend to have both hands on their instruments and page turns can be problematic.
In addition to actual music, I also downloaded a number of free chord charts for guitar as well as some fingering charts for flute. They were very readable and it was nice to have them readily available. I even found some ukulele chord charts on line, which I went ahead and included although I wasn’t bringing my ukulele with me.
While there, my daily Washington Post downloaded automatically so I could keep up with what was going on in the world. I generally had several interested observers when I was reading it. I found out that I’d been the catalyst for one of the folks to have purchased a Kindle for his wife after he saw my K1 last year – I think I’ve convinced him he needs to get her an Oberon cover this year! And one of the presenters was very interested in the DX for his 92 year old mother who finds it hard to read regular books. Of course I told him also about the font enhancements available, if needed.
In short, I put it to good use for the week. I found it worked better than paper for working through the handouts for the various sessions. Next year I’ll absolutely encourage the presenters to send me e-copies ahead of time: maybe I won’t have to carry around any paper at all!
A wise and loving mother recently joined KindleBoards to plan a very special care package for her son in Iraq.
“I joined the KindleBoards community several weeks ago to get advice about the feasibility of sending a Kindle to my son in Iraq,” writes KindleBoards member Guernsey. “I’ve whiled away the early weeks of his deployment by spending hours at this site. With all the good advice I’ve read here, I’m ready to send this ‘armored’ up Kindle to him.”
Check out the thoughtful package that Guernsey prepared:
She even fabricated a a custom modification for the Pategonia case, to make it more durable.
A few hours ago, Guernsey received an email that her son has received the Kindle. With it, she had packed the many well-wishes that have been posted on our forum boards. What a great mom! I lift a prayer for your son’s safe deployment.
For more details, pictures, and reactions from our members, don’t miss this thread.
Continuing with yesterday’s road warrior theme, here’s another reason I like my Kindle DX for traveling.
For a frequent traveler, I have the world’s worst sense of direction. I rely heavily on maps and my GPS. And over the years I’ve collected a folder of PDF files, with maps and directions to get to the various places I frequent around the country.
Some of these are text files, converted to PDF, that have building directions (such as “use the white parking garage in the back, and take rear elevators to go to the security desk on the 3rd floor”).
I’ve dragged-and-dropped that entire folder onto my Kindle DX.
Now, I’ve got electronic versions of all of those directions and maps with me on the road.
And the DX’s landscape orientation is ideal for displaying the maps in large, easy-to-read type while I’m driving.
By the way, please add my name to the list of people wishing for folders on the Kindle. It’s great to have these files, but they do clutter up my Kindle’s home page. At least I have them named consistently, so I can find them with a title sort or through search.
The Kindle DX is available from Amazon ($489) with current shipping times 2 to 3 weeks.
I have both a Kindle 2 and a Kindle DX. Initially, I intended to use my DX at home, and to take my K2 with me when I travel. I make about thirty business trips per year.
For my past few trips, I’ve opted to bring along the DX with me. The DX has an appeal for business users (with its large format and native PDF-reading capabilities), and I figured I should put it through its paces on the road. So, here’s a ‘road warrior report’ on my experiences traveling with my Kindle DX.
First, in terms of portability, the DX slides easily into my backpack – right where my Kindle 2 typically rides. (Top view of bag shown below.)
Going through airport security, the DX evidently qualifies as a “large electronic device”. About half the time, I’m asked by the TSA security scanner to remove it from the backpack and to run it separately through the scanner. From now on, I’ll probably just pull it out and separate it. I’ve rarely had to do that with the Kindle 2 – only on one occasion was I asked to run it through separately from my backpack.
For use on the plane, I found the Kindle DX worked great. It’s not so big that it’s unwieldy, and I do enjoy the larger screen. The shots below are on a small twin-prop (Horizon Air, which is a feeder airline for Alaska).
Using the DX in landscape mode pretty much fills up the tray table area, at least on this small plane. I don’t see myself using landscape mode often, and rarely on an airplane.
Right now, my plan for using the DX and the K2 has reversed. I would be happy with either device – but my preference for travel is the DX. And, ironically, I prefer the Kindle 2 for at-home reading; most of my reading at home is in bed and I find the smaller size and weight of the K2 to be preferable for that.
I know we have other frequent-flying Kindle owners out there – - let us know your road warrior reports on Kindle, Kindle 2, and/or Kindle DX.
Author Boyd Morrison – writer of three novels self-published through the Kindle Store – has just struck a book deal with Simon and Schuster. Boyd’s novel The Ark will be published in hardcover in summer 2010, and will be followed by a 2nd book featuring adventurous engineer Tyler Locke. Foreign rights to the books have also been acquired for over 75 countries.
As far as we know – and we track Kindle e-books pretty closely – this is the first time that an indie author has ‘made it’ with a bona fide New York book deal, after self-publishing his work on the Kindle Store.
We’re proud to call Boyd one of our KindleBoards members and resident authors. Our Reading With the Author series recently featured a book club for The Ark and drew over 2,000 pageviews.
Boyd is characteristically gracious about the support he’s had in our forums: “Thanks so much for everyone who has been so enthusiastic about my novels. I can honestly say that the readers on Kindleboards were a big factor in spreading the word and getting me noticed by my publisher.”
His novels are no longer available through the Kindle Store, but we hope that they will be again when the Simon & Schuster versions are released. Big congratulations, Boyd!
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