• Once you are in the browser, press the Menu button and select "Bookmarks".
• When your list of web bookmarks appears on the Kindle display, note the bookmarks you will probably never use and delete them. For me, for instance, that meant deleting the bookmarks for Google and Wikipedia because it is far easier to open Google and Wikipedia from within the Kindle’s onboard search (as described in the example two paragraphs above), and deleting some other bookmarks such as those for E! Online and a recipe website because, well, barring unforeseen changes in my personal DNA, I just know that I will never use them.
• Deleting a bookmark with the Kindle is an easy process. Just move the 5-way to that bookmark’s line in the bookmark list, but instead of pressing down to select and open the bookmark, move the 5-way to the left to begin the deletion process and follow the on-screen dialog box -- it's the same process used for deleting items or samples from your Home screen.
• By deleting bookmarks that you will not use, you create space on the first page of your Kindle web bookmarks display to add, judiciously, the bookmarks you are most likely to frequent. Take some care with this process, because (to the best of my knowledge) you will not be able to change the order of appearance for whatever bookmarks populate your list: the list will always display with the bookmarks that you have kept from the original list in their original order, followed by the bookmarks that you add in the order that you add them.
• In order to add a bookmark, you must first go to the web page you want to bookmark, either by typing in the URL, finding it through a Google or other search, or using your 5-way or scrollwheel to click on a link in something you are reading on your Kindle.
• Once you are viewing a web page on your Kindle, you can easily add a bookmark for the page just by pressing the Menu button and selecting "Bookmark this page". (Note: If you seek to bookmark more than one page from a particular domain – as I have occasionally done with Google Mobile features -- you may occasionally run into a conflict when multiple bookmarks are read by your Kindle as having the same metadata title. I know of no solution for this problem other than to select my one best choice from these pages as the one which I will bookmark).
Setting Up a Google Reader RSS Feed for Your Kindle
What is Google Reader?
Google Reader is yet another nifty web-based service from Google. It aggregates content through RSS feeds from the web, based on each individual's tastes and selections and serves the content in real time to an individual's personal Google Reader page for reading on- or off-line. It is compatible through web browser platforms with a wide variety of devices, including the Kindle. For a delightfully simple, elegant, and useful 3-minute video about Google Reader in plain English, see this CommonCraft video.
Using Google Reader To Read Your Favorite Blogs on the Kindle
For many Kindle owners, the Kindle is all about convenience, and there is nothing at all wrong with that. When it comes to reading blogs on the Kindle, you may be perfectly content to pay a monthly fee for the convenience of having blog posts organized and pushed directly to your Kindle for a great reading experience without a lot of accompanying clutter. You may even be satisfied with Amazon's selection of (at this writing) 10,876 blogs from which you may choose. If you're satisfied, you need not read further.
But there is another way.
By following the few, very easy steps outlined in this chapter, you can adapt Google Reader to your Kindle so that it fetches the blog content you are most interested in reading and pushes that content right to your Kindle's web browser where you may read it anywhere, anytime, and at absolutely no cost.
Set Up Your Google Accounts
The first step, if you haven't already taken care of this, is to establish a Google account. As you follow various suggestions from our Kindle Nation Daily blog for making the most of your Kindle, it is very likely that you will be using several features of your Google account including Google Reader, Gmail, Google Blog Search, Google Search, Google Notebook, Google Calendar, Blogger, and Google News. Although we are still early in the Age of the Kindle, it is becoming increasingly clear that, whether or not Google and Amazon ever enter into any explicit joint agreements regarding services that optimize the Kindle, Google will be a steady source for useful enhancements for Kindle owners.
All of Google's services can be accessed through a single Google user account. For most people, the most convenient approach will be to use the same Google account with your Kindle that you use on your desktop or notebook computer. However, there may be some circumstances in which it is useful to employ separate accounts for different devices. For instance, if you use Google Reader to follow multimedia-intensive blogs on your computer, you may want to use a separate account for subscriptions to the more text-intensive blogs that are suitable for Kindle reading.
Bookmark Your Google Mobile And Google Reader Pages
Creating bookmarks for Google Reader and other mobile Google services in your Kindle's web browser will save you and your thumbs a lot of extra work in the future, and it is an easy process.
1. Make sure your Kindle's Whispernet wireless feature is turned on.
2. From your Kindle's "Home" screen, press the "Menu" button on the right edge of the Kindle.
3. Use the 5-way or scrollwheel to select "Experimental" from the menu selections, and then choose "Basic Web" from the "Experimental" page.
4. Once you are in the web browser, press the "Menu" button again and use the 5-way or scrollwheel to click on "Settings" from the menu selection. On the web browser's Settings page, enable (or verify that you have already enabled) Javascript and "Advanced" Mode (rather than "Default" Mode). Note: the web browser's Settings page is different from the Settings page accessible directly from your Kindle's "Home" screen.
5. Click on "Enter URL" at the top of the next screen and type the following into the input field to the right of the "http://" prefix:
m.google.com
6. When the Google Mobile products page loads onto your Kindle screen, move the 5-way or scrollwheel up or down to enter cursor mode and push down twice quickly on the 5-way or scrollwheel to bookmark the Google Mobile products page.
7. From the Google Mobile products page, use the 5-way or scrollwheel to select "Reader" from the Google Mobile products choices.
8. When the Google Reader page loads onto your Kindle screen, move the 5-way or scrollwheel up or down to enter cursor mode and push down twice quickly on the 5-way or scrollwheel to bookmark the Google Reader page.
You will then have bookmarks for the top-level Google Mobile products page and for the Google Reader page. You may, of course, follow similar steps to bookmark other Google pages that you expect to use.
How to Subscribe to Your Favorite Blogs With Google Reader
Generally speaking, you will find it much easier to use your computer, rather than your Kindle, to search out your favorite blogs and add them to your Google Reader subscriptions so you can then have easier access to them on your Kindle. It is an easy process:
1. Find a blog that you want to add to your Google Reader subscriptions. Find the RSS Feed button on the blog and copy the link for it. In many cases, you can simply type the blog's URL into the input field rather than looking for an RSS Feed button.
2. Open the main Google Reader page. The shortest URL I have found for this is reader.google.com. If you haven't already signed in with your Google account, do so.
3. From the "sidebar" column to the left of your Google Reader screen, select the Add Subscriptions link.
4. Copy the RSS feed link of the blog to which you want to subscribe into the input field that opens when you select the Add Subscriptions link. The blog will now be included in your Google Reader subscriptions. (As noted above, in many cases, you can simply type the blog's URL into the input field rather than looking for an RSS Feed button).
How to Read Blogs on the Kindle With Google Reader
Once you have attended to the steps a
bove, reading blogs on the Kindle is remarkably simple and user-friendly.
1. Make sure that your Kindle's Whispernet wireless feature is turned on.
2. From your Kindle's "Home" screen, press the "Menu" button on the right edge of the Kindle.
3. Use the 5-way or scrollwheel to select "Experimental" from the menu selections, and then choose "Basic Web" from the "Experimental" page.
4. Choose "Google Reader" from your Kindle web browser's bookmarks (the bookmark is there because you followed the steps in an earlier section to create it). The Bookmarks page is the "default" page that usually appears first when you enter the web browser, but if another page comes up instead, just push the "Menu" button (within the web browser) and use the 5-way or scrollwheel to select "Bookmarks."
5. When the "Google Reader" page loads to your Kindle screen, you may be required to provide the log-in name and password of your Google account, but generally you will only be required to do this when your browser's cache has been cleared either manually or by a system re-set. Once you log in, you are ready to start reading.
6. In order to "sort" your blogs and read only the posts on a particular blog, just click on "Subscriptions" from the "Google Reader" page and select the blog you wish to read. Generally, this will create a more pleasurable reading experience than jumping from one subject matter to another. It will also come in handy as a way of protecting you from losing track of the content on a two-posts-per-day blog that might otherwise be overwhelmed by posts from other blogs if you have subscribed to news site blogs or other prolific posters.
Surf and Send Interesting Web Content with Instapaper
Here's a cool web-based service that is primarily designed for Kindle owners. It makes it stunningly easy and convenient to grab interesting content on the fly from any website and read it later on your Kindle.
Just go to Instapaper.com, sign up for a free account, and link your account to your Kindle via your [Kindle username]@kindle.com or [Kindle username]@free.kindle.com email address. Grab the "Read Here" button, drag it and stick it on your browser's toolbar and you are ready to go. Wherever you surf on the web all day long, you can click that "Read Here" link and content that you select will be sent to your Kindle, in a reader-friendly digest file that will be easy to identify on your Home screen, whenever you want: on demand, once a day, or once a week.
Please note: Amazon will charge you 15 cents per Instapaper transmission and conversion to your Kindle via your [Kindle username]@kindle.com email address, as well as an additional 15 cents for each megabyte of the file's size beyond the first megabyte of any file. But if you have a latest-generation Kindle with wi-fi, just use your free [Kindle username]@free.kindle.com email address and there will be no charges.
Fetch the News, Newspapers and Magazines, And Other Content with Calibre
In Chapter 6 you learned how to use Calibre to manage your ebook library. Now we'll focus on how you can send Calibre out onto the internet to fetch entire periodicals on a regular basis online and, then, to deliver them in elegantly formatted files directly to your Kindle.
Once you have Calibre open on your computer, it's a snap to fetch free content from a growing list of great online sources. To get started, just click on the "Fetch news" icon near the top of the Calibre display and select "Schedule news download" from its pulldown menu:
The next display to appear on your screen will allow you to select the language in which you wish to find online content. If you click on "English," you will see a list of content choices such as the one above. Just click on the periodical of your choice and Calibre will display dialog boxes to prompt you through the process of setting your preferences for scheduling regular downloading its content, with choices allowing you to complete your downloads at a time of your choice daily or on a certain day or days each week. The choice of the download time can be important for several reasons:
• You may want to make sure that a daily newspaper downloads at an optimal time to catch its most recent edition, such as 5 a.m.
• Calibre will complete your scheduled "Fetch news" downloads only if it is open on your computer.
• Calibre will push your scheduled "Fetch news" downloads automatically to your Kindle only if the Kindle is connected to your computer via USB cable.
Try it. I think you will like it, and you may be amazed at how nicely and fully Calibre renders your "Fetch News" content on your Kindle. For instance, the weekly fetch of the New Yorker comes complete with the new issue's cartoons, Goings on About Town listings, and helpful article summaries.
Between the Chapters, and Just Between Us: Use eReadUps to Collect Research on Your Kindle or Build Your Own eBooks from Web Sources
Working on a research or other information-gathering project and want to collect it in easy-to-read customized Kindle books of your own?
There's a great free tool waiting for Kindle owners at eReadUps:
• Just choose the topic you want to read, type it into the box on the eReadUps website and click "Find Articles."
• eReadUps will search for related articles on the web and give you a list to select from.
• Choose the articles you want to include and build your own eReadUp "ebook" that you can read on your Kindle or another device.
Should research really be this easy?
Ch 8: Why Your Kindle's Free Wireless Web Browser is a Revolutionary Feature, and May Be the Key to What's Next from Amazon
When Amazon launched the Kindle in November 2007, and for the first 33 months of its existence, the service that Amazon calls Whispernet was a 3G EV-DO wireless broadband service that enables the Kindle to connect to Sprint's or AT&T's United States wireless data network. With the launch of the Kindle 3G+Wi-Fi and Kindle Wi-Fi models in August 2010, Amazon added the capacity for Kindle owners to use existing faster (and cheaper, to Amazon, at least) wi-fi networks in their homes, offices, coffee shops, libraries, or other locations.
But the 3G service remains one of the most distinctive things about the Kindle over three years after the initial launch, and cinches the four-pronged Kindle advantage of catalog, customer base, convenience, and connectivity over all other competitors in the ebook space. Other ebook reader manufacturers have taken tentative steps in the direction of wireless connectivity for their devices but in every case have closed off their systems in some fundamental way, either by blocking true web connectivity or by arranging for high prices for the data connection which is free for the Kindle.
The service is available in most densely populated areas in the United States, and throughout much of the rest of the world as well, but not everywhere. If your Kindle is within the carrier's United States wireless data network, you won't need a wi-fi connection, a computer connection, or any synchronization steps. The process of ordering a book from the Kindle store and then seeing it on your Kindle display is only slightly slower than the speed of thought. And now, with the addition of wi-fi connectivity, an even faster experience is available both within and outside the 3G coverage area.
When the original Kindle was launched in November 2007, the device's Whispernet-enabled "Basic Web" feature was designated as "experimental," which meant that it could be discontinued by Amazon at any time. There was considerable speculation on Kindle owners' message boards and elsewhere that the web connectivity would eventually be considered too expensive by Amazon and discontinued. However, the service is a popular feature with many Kindle owners, whether one considers it ancillary or essential to the device's connectivity with the Kindle Store, which is the key commercial portal, of course, through which the Kindle connects our wallets and credit cards to Amazon's corporate bank accounts. And from our point of view as readers and book buyers, it is the portal through which Amazon is able to dazzle us with nearly instantaneous delivery of the books and other content that we want to read on our Kindles.
Although the Kindle has been marketed initially as an "e-book reader", its array of features actually sets the bar considerably highe
r than any of its predecessor e-book devices. Electronic reading devices have been around for decades, but until the launch of the Kindle they failed to gain any serious traction.
These ancillary Kindle features include audio, graphic, and even game-playing capacities, but foremost among them is the Kindle's free broadband wireless connectivity, which has significant benefits for the device's functionality both with e-books and with other content. Such a data connection ordinarily costs over $50 to $75 per month, but Amazon pays the entire bill (whatever it is), handles any problems with carriers, and uses the connection to run a "Whispernet" service that allows Kindle owners to download content -- books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs -- within seconds of purchasing it from the Kindle store.
One of the more intriguing aspects of the Kindle's initial rollout in November 2007 was the degree to which Jeff Bezos and Amazon played this most revolutionary feature so close to the vest. By marketing the Kindle as an e-book reader, Amazon kept the public focus away from the Kindle's stunning EV-DO wireless connectivity.
Why stunning?
Five main reasons:
• It allows seamless, simple, same-minute delivery of any content purchased in the Kindle Store.
• It transforms the Kindle into a web-browsing computer -- albeit a relatively slow one -- that can access nearly any website.
• It is fast -- essentially broadband over a cellular network -- although the speed of the connection itself is unfortunately brought low by the Kindle's slow processing speed.
• It is free, as compared with the $40 to $90 per month that you would pay to connect an iPhone, Blackberry, iPad or any other device to EV-DO or other wireless data services.
• The service is ubiquitous in well-populated areas, so that you never have to search for a wi-fi hot spot.
Kindle Free For All: How to Get Millions of Free Kindle Books and Other Free Content With or Without an Amazon Kindle Page 4