ThePemberton.com

The Kindle 2 is pretty damn amazing, but there are some misconceptions about it’s features and a few things you should know before ordering.

 In no particular order:

• If you’re giving the Kindle 2 as a gift to someone, or if it’s lost or stolen, log into your Amazon account and deregister your Kindle 2 right away. When Amazon ships the Kindle 2 to you, they automatically register it under your Amazon account. If you leave it registered in your name and someone else decides to purchase a book, it’ll come from your account!

• Not backlit - you’ll want a cover and a clip-on light if you plan on reading at night. I don’t suggest clipping a light to the Kindle 2 itself. Too many bad things can happen (snags, scratches). Want to make your own cover to give your Kindle it’s own unique character and save some money? Keep reading.

• Reading on the Kindle 2 is comfortable. Very comfortable. It’s like reading a lightweight paperback, but without the grainy texture, occasional coffee stains, or dogears. It uses a new technology call E-ink to electronically manipulate ink on the screen. It’s very real, and not pixelated (unless the font of your eBook uses a pixelated font). The 16 shades of gray in the Kindle 2 allow for smoothly antialiased text. I have horrible vision without my glasses, and can easily read the Kindle 2 at a decent distance without my goggles when I use a large font size. This would be a great gift for all the grandmas and bedtime readers out there

• Check the wireless coverage map at http://client0.cellmaps.com/tabs.html#cellmaps_na_tab. How much would it suck to start up your Kindle and find that you can’t access the sum of all human knowledge (wikipedia) from your village?

• Subscriptions to the RSS feed delivery service costs $$$. Workaround: set up an account with Feedbooks and create your own combined feed from other feeds. Then just add a bookmark to the browser and check it whenever you want:

or

• The Kindle 2 doesn’t come with the latest firmware version 2.3. As soon as you get it, plug it into your USB cable, go to http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200324680 and install the 2.3 update. If you don’t, the Kindle 2 will update automatically, but Amazon does them in batches of accounts – so it could take *weeks* for the update cycle to come around to your account. 2.3 includes PDF support, landscape mode, and greatly extends the battery life when reading and using wireless.

• It can hold about 1500 books. Considering that the average 350 page paperback novel weighs 12 ounces, this saves you roughly 1,125lbs of dead weight. Turning pages is also less physically demanding than the average book

• Yes, books are cheaper, and always in-stock. An example: I bought Johannes Cabal the Necromancer (hardcover) for about $25 at a local bookstore (BooksAMillion), after waiting weeks for their shipment to arrive. All the while at the Kindle store I could’ve gotten it in less than a minute for about $9. I checked it today from my Kindle, and it’s only $5! You can bet I won’t be making this same mistake when Johannes Cabal the Detective comes out!

• You don’t have to buy all of your books. Amazon doesn’t limit you to only reading books purchased from the Kindle store. Project Gutenberg has over 30,000 English books free for download instantly, already in the .MOBI format for reading on the Kindle. All you have to do is download the ones you want and copy them over to the Documents folder on your Kindle. Note: you can also search Google for free eBooks.

• You can search Amazon for free Kindle books too! In Amazon, set the search type to "Kindle Books" and search for "-domain" (without the quotes). You’ll get a list of free Kindle books that can be wirelessly delivered to your Kindle!

• The Kindle 2 can act as a portable USB flash drive. It’s got about 2gb of space, 1.4gb is usable for storage of any files, music, or eBooks.

• Go for the better shipping. Amazon is usually running a Free Shipping offer on the Kindle 2, take it. I used the UPS ground 3-5 day delivery and it spent a week in Jacksonville, Florida before being sent for delivery. Even if Amazon isn’t doing free shipping at the time you order, what’s a few extra bucks on the $260 you’re dropping for the Kindle in the first place?

• While waiting for my Kindle 2 to arrive, I made my own cover. It takes about 1-2 hours without a sewing machine, with a sewing machine probably much less. Costs from $4-$8 depending on the quality of the fabric you buy and if you don’t have all the supplies (needles, thread, and hard cardboard or stiff plastic). It’s even cheaper if you cut a vintage shirt or use something you already have. That’s a bundle of savings from the usual $29.99 to $50 you could spend buying a cover. There’s a nice tutorial here: http://www.chicaandjo.com/2009/09/03/make-a-custom-kindle-cover-case/

• The audio is OK. It supports .AA and .AAX audio book formats, and MP3 playback for music. I like to listen to baroque classics while reading. The Kindle has it’s own speakers built-in, but also features a headphone jack and volume control for when you want to limit the tunes or narrative to yourself.

• The screen can temporarily fade in the sun. When reading your Kindle in natural light, after some period of time you may notice the text start to fade. It’s not a big deal, hardly noticeable in my experience, but Amazon included a handy function to resolve this: press ALT+G on the keyboard and the screen will refresh. Chances are you’ll change pages before it has a chance to fade anyway!

• Yes, the 3g internet access is 100% free. You don’t have to buy any books or subscribe to anything to get it. And you’re not limited to just Wikipedia, which many people believe you are. I was able to visit and view thepemberton.com on my Kindle 2, as well as every other site I tried. The Kindle’s browser is extremely simple, so images and flash may not show up. Whenever possible, try to use the MOBILE version of your favorite sites. Here’s a list of some of my favorite Kindle 2 browser compatible web apps, usable from anywhere in the world with 3g access:
  • gasbuddytogo.com - get info on the cheapest gas prices in your area.
  • m.yelp.com – restaurant reviews and suggestions out the wazoo.
  • mobile.flightstats.com – flight stats globally. Find delays, etc.
  • wml.froogle.com – comparison shopping at it’s best. If you’re out shopping and find a product you like but think you could wait for shipping, you can probably get a better price on Google’s Froogle website.
  • m.ebay.com – same as above, but for eBay. Handy for you yardsale and antique enthusiasts.
  • slashdot.org/palm/ – lots of reviews and rants from the tech world.
  • iphone.kbb.com – Sure the URL says iPhone, but it works OK on the Kindle. It’s the Kelly Blue Book in your hand! Get a better deal on autos, or find out just how much that Porche you saw in the ditch a mile back is worth with a busted bumper.
  • m.cnn.com – Just overhear some awful news from some passersby? Find out more on CNN’s mobile site.
  • weather.mobi – The weather channel on your Kindle!
  • m.espn.go.com – If you’re a reader, chances are you don’t care about sports either. But if you really want to pretend, you can access ESPN’s site from your Kindle comfortably.
  • www.fatwallet.mobi – a gift forum with the hottest deals.
  • www.google.com/mobile/gmm/index.html – Google Maps for your Kindle.
  • wap.mapquest.com – but sometimes Mapquest has better driving directions.
  • squeezenet.com/HandyFact – A database of handy facts (zip codes, area codes, etiquette, etc)

• Don’t think for a moment that this PDF support will let you comfortably read sheet music on the Kindle 2. It’s still quite small. The Kindle DX apparently has better support for PDFs: it crops out the white space on the margins, making the PDF larger and easier to read. Why this functionality it’s available on the Kindle 2, I have no idea. Also, if you are planning on reading sheet music with the Kindle DX, not that you only have about 5 and a half minutes of inaction before the screensaver kicks in. This may not be a bad thing, but the least they could do is give us a setting for the screensaver timer for serious study sessions.

• The Kindle DX has a larger screen and better PDF support, but it costs about twice as much as the Kindle 2, and 3g is useless outside of the US. With the Kindle 2, 3g can be used on your travels abroad.

• The screen will still be on when the device is off. This goes back to the new technology, E-ink. The Kindle only uses power when changing pages, searching, or using the web. 3g can be left on and the battery will last a week of regular use. With 3g off, 2 weeks of regular use.

• PDF support on the Kindle 2 sucks. You can’t increase or decrease the size of text or use text-to-speech. Instead, the Kindle 2 crams the entire PDF page onto the screen. If the text is small (like most books), tough luck, get a magnifying glass. I was able to convert all of my PDFs to the .MOBI format (Kindle supported format) to allow increasing/decreasing text size, and text-to-speech. I put together a quick tutorial at: http://thepemberton.com/posts/archives/26

• GPS location and Google Maps was available in Kindle 1, not Kindle 2 or DX. The Kindle 2 has GPS, but the shortcut to allow GPS via Google Maps is disabled, and there doesn’t seem to be any way that you can get your GPS info Amazon may enable this with a future update.

• Make a note of the keyboard shortcuts. There aren’t many, but you’ll use some quite frequently. Here they all are:
  • Power, Reset, Sleep and Wake:
        * Sleep/Wake – Slide and release the power button (on top of the K2)
        * Power Off – Slide and hold the power button for 4 seconds
        * Reset – Slide and hold the power button for 15 seconds

  • General Shortcuts:

        * Screen-shot – Alt+shift+G creates a screen-shot (.gif format) that goes to the Documents Folder of the Kindle 2 which you can view when connected to computer.
        * Refresh Display – ALT+G (if you notice any ghosting, try this shortcut) Also useful for refreshing web browsing page
        * Jump to page 1 – 5 on Home Screen – Press the number on keypad and then press 5-way Controller
        * Display the Time – Press MENU button
        * Display Free Memory - Press MENU button
        * Display Wireless Network (3G or 1X, if wireless is on) - Press MENU button
        * Play Minesweeper – Shift+ALT+M (from home page) (M or enter to mark; R to restart game; 5-way controller to move cursor)
        * Go to Amazon Kindle Store – alt-home
        * Jump to Web - Type in your search terms and move the 5-way controller to the right and then select “google”.
        * Search Wikipedia – Select "wikipedia" in search category
        * Search Content by Specific Author - Enter @author [author’s name] in the Kindle Store search bar
        * Alpha Search - To search for an author or title by first letter, click one letter on the keyboard and press the 5-way controller.  Then go immediately to the place on the list with the first author or title under that letter alphabetically, *but only if that match exists*. So if you have no Q’s, you can’t get to the R’s that way.  This doesn’t work for "Most Recent First" listings but seems to work for title or author sort and could be useful if you have a lot of books on your Kindle 2.
        * List Supported Search commands - Type @help in the search string to display other supported search commands like @dict, @url etc.
        * Search Kindle Store by Author – When in Kindle Store, type @author in searchbar to limit your search to author names
        * Show Diagnostic Data – From Settings Menu, enter 411
        * Show Current Radio Diagnostics -  From Settings Menu, enter 411 (constantly refreshes the data)
        * Search Amazon Kindle Store for Free Books - From Kindle Store search, type in -domain into the search field.
     

  • Entering Text – Symbol Shortcuts

      * Double Quotes " – Alt-9
      * Colon : - Alt-8
      * Comma , – Alt-7
      * Question Mark ? – Alt-6
      * Apostrophe ‘ – Alt-0

  • Book or Periodical Viewing:

        * Add or remove a bookmark – ALT+B.  Alternate Method: Press 5-way up/down to go to cursor mode, and then press 5-way controller twice.
        * Alt+shift+1-9 – changes the spacing and number of lines per page (default is 3)
        * List Sections of Periodical - Press the 5-way Enter Button
        * Newspaper View Summaries – To view summaries of the articles in a newspaper or magazine, while viewing the newspaper section list, press the 5-way controller to the right to highlight the number showing the number of articles in a section, then press the 5-way select button – This will bring up the list of articles in that section and you can navigate directly to any one you wish.  This little trick makes Newspaper reading much, much better!
        * Jump Quickly through Periodical - Move 5-way controller to right to go to next article or to the left to go to the previous article

  • Text-To-Speech Shortcuts:

        * Start or stop text-to-speech – Shift+SYM (shift key is the "up arrow")
        * Pause text-to-speech - Spacebar
        * Switch Between Male and Female Voices & Change Voice Speed – Alt + Aa keys & then toggle between settings with the 5 way controller
        * Start text-to-speech at specific point on a page – To begin the text-to-speech at a particular point on a page, move the cursor with your 5-way controller to the point just before you want the reading to begin.

  • Audio Controls:

        * Play or stop MP3 Audio – ALT+spacebar
        * Skip to the next audio track – ALT+F
        * Pause Audible Audiobook – Spacebar

  • Photo Viewer Controls:

    The picture viewer can be activated by connecting your Kindle2 via USB cable to your PC and create “pictures” folder in Kindle USB disk. Create subfolders inside of that and copy the pictures. The subfolders will then become “book” names and the pictures will be pages. *.gif, *.jpg and *.png files all seem to work. Now you disconnect the USB cable and press Alt-Z in the home screen.  Your picture folders should now appear among the books now.

    While you are viewing pictures in the Picture Viewer:

        * Toggle Actual Size – C
        * Toggle Full Screen - F (currently not working properly)
        * Zoom In  – Q
        * Zoom Out - W
        * Rotate – R
        * Reset Zoom Level – E
        * Pan Photo Larger Than Screen – Use 5-way controller to pan photo

  • Turn multiple pages at once – Hold down the next/prev page button or click them multiple times causes the Kindle 2 to turn several pages at once.  It’s slow and not ideal, but does work.
  • Delete Book from Kindle – Highlight the item you want to delete (navigate with 5-way button), then press left with the 5-way controller to bring up the Delete selection option.  Press select with 5-way controller to confirm deletion.