February 2012
25 posts
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“The eBook isn’t about winning or losing. It’s about an ‘exploration,’ and...”
– Gaming developer turned children’s book illustrator Jon Skuse on the future of the picturebook as a storytelling medium. (via curiositycounts)
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Books on the Bedside Table: Amazon Fighting With... →
booksonthebedsidetable:
This Guardian article describes how thousands of e-books have been pulled from the kindle store over a pricing disagreement with the Independent Publishers Group. It sounds like Amazon wants a bigger slice of pie than it should be taking—no surprise there—and publishers are finally putting their…
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“And before he can tell her to tell Widget goodbye for him if need be, she leans...”
– The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
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J. K. Rowling is writing a new book! →
For adults! And it will be available as an ebook.
Now if only we could say the same for Harry Potter….
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E-books Can't Burn →
A really thought provoking article about the power of the written (not printed) word, and how e-books may change the way we read.
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Food for thought: A Call for a Unified E-book... →
Why why why do publishers insist on DRM? Ultimately, it hurts them more than it hurts readers. Paper books don’t have such restrictions, why should ebooks?
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Buying from places other than Amazon: Baen
Did you know that even if you own a Kindle, you don’t have to buy Kindle ebooks? Since the Kindle supports .mobi files, you can purchase ebooks and transfer them manually to your device.
This tutorial is going to be about Baen’s online store. Baen is a science fiction and fantasy publisher that’s been around for more than 20 years, and they have a vast library of great...
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Buying from places other than Amazon: Smashwords
Did you know that even if you own a Kindle, you don’t have to buy Kindle ebooks? Since the Kindle supports .mobi files, you can purchase ebooks and transfer them manually to your device.
I’m going to start with a tutorial on buying from Smashwords, an independent bookseller that supports a whole host of formats. A couple great things about them: they allow for self publishing; they...
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Your Clippings
Ever wondered where your clippings go, or where you could view a full list of the highlights you’ve made in your Amazon ebooks?
Wonder no more!
For books you’ve purchased on Amazon, you can visit kindle.amazon.com, and go to “Your Highlights”. It’ll tell you the book, the date, and the location of the quote. For books you’ve loaded onto your Kindle, but...
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Picture viewer
If you saw my last post, then you know that Kindle has the capability to view pictures. Everyone who has seen the covers of books on their Kindle or browsed the web may say, “Well, duh,” but this means that you can create a folder to store pictures in on your Kindle, and view them at your leisure.
Once again, Mobile Read Wiki has a straightforward explanation, or read on for my...
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Librarians respond to Pengiun decision →
A librarian in San Rafael shared a sign she created in GoogleDocs to inform library patrons about the publishers who refuses to allow their digital books to be lent.
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E-readers Penguin pulls new e-books from library... →
Penguin decided to pull all their ebooks from the Overdrive site (the company that makes it possible for libraries lend ebooks). Just a hint, publishers, this is not the way to win over your readers.
Technology Forever!: How do I eread? Let me count... →
alidas460portfolio:
I’ve had a Kindle for almost two years and have used it once or twice for a total of one hour. Does that mean I’m not “ereading?”
No.
I don’t use my Kindle often. But I do use GoogleReader, GoogleBooks, iBooks, Zite, Flipboard and various free content rich apps like the British Library 19th…
Obviously I’m a little biased toward my dedicated e-reader, but...
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Mangle
Mangle is a software designed to make reading comics (specifically manga) on Kindle a more enjoyable experience. This software converts digital comics into a file type that Kindle can read, allows you to convert color comics to greyscale, as well as allowing you to preview and rotate comics before you load them on your Kindle. It also allows you to name or rename books on your computer so you can...
Ebooks: Also Available At Independent Bookstores!... →
minds are scary: “Here’s the thing: you don’t have... →
lizmcbride:
“Here’s the thing: you don’t have to be a print book person or an e-book person. It’s not an either/or proposition. You can choose to have your text delivered on paper with a pretty cover, or you can choose to have it delivered over the air to your sleek little device. You can even play it way…
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Jailbreaking part 3
Here are some helpful links for jailbreaking your Kindle.
Disclaimer: Since this is not an official update from Amazon, there is a chance that something could go wrong. Make sure you back up your library first, just in case.
For Kindle 2, Kindle 3, and Kindle DX Mobile Reads Wiki has the most comprehensive and concise tutorial I’ve seen for jailbreaking. It has links to download all the...
“Anyone who disregards the countless benefits of the Kindle because the thrill of...”
– Michael Meloni, talking about this article. I love my Kindle, I love paper books, I love zines, I love magazines, I love the Comixology app on my phone. I just plain love reading. I also love that having a Kindle means I can slip the book I’m currently reading into my handbag, or read it on my...
vansoffthefl00r asked: heyyyy:) thanks for the follow! I've been checkin' out some of the stuff you have on your blog, and it's all really helpful! I won a free basic Kindle (the $79 model), and it's not as fancy as an iPad, but it's nice to have this guide to see how much I can get out of it.
“Whether I’ve bought a book made of dead trees or encrypted bits doesn’t really...”
– Do you have the paperback or the hardcover? – Marco.org
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Jailbreaking, part 2
When new technology gets released, it seems that the first thing the general public does is figure out how to hack it. iPhones, iPads, Wiis, PS3, you name it, you can jailbreak it.
Usually, manufacturers aren’t so hot on this idea. Jailbreaking allows for the use of third party applications and products, which means that Apple, Nintendo, Sony, and Amazon aren’t selling those...
January 2012
24 posts
Jonathan Franzen Is Wrong: Ebooks Are Good for... →
paulocesilveira:
I love books, especially old ones. Recently I learned a simple dinner table trick from a 110-year-old magic book. It involves picking up a napkin with both hands and, without releasing either corner, tying the napkin into a knot. Good fun and likely unavailable anywhere but in this very old tome. That fact, though, does not make me love ebooks any less or think that they somehow...
Tasha's Tumblr of Random: Amazon is not the only... →
berenwrites:
I think that some of us who have been in the world of eBooks for a while forget how confusing it can be to newcomers. After some of the response I received to yesterday’s post about buying and reading books from Amazon: The Ease and Pitfalls of Buying eBooks from Amazon (which I have just…
“Books are no more threatened by Kindle than stairs by elevators.”
– Stephen Fry (via readregardlessoftheformat)
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Jailbreaking your Kindle, part 1
So I’m going to spend next week (ish) talking about jailbreaking your Kindle.
Mostly I’m going to be linking you to other tutorials that will show you the actual steps involved because 1) that’s how I found this stuff, and I’m not going to claim to have come up with these methods on my own and 2) they’ll be able to explain it waaaay better than I can.
I’m also...
lekogirl asked: The cheapest version! ;-) No keyboard, no touch screen, but it's still absolutely and completely wonderful!
lekogirl asked: I love your blog! Thank you so much for all of the kreative kindle kwick tips! :)
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Screenshots on your Kindle
Did you know that you can do a screen capture on your Kindle? Its easy!
Shift (The up arrow key)+Alt+G (G for Grab?)
Look! Its the Kindle store!
Opening lines to God’s War by Kameron Hurley.
The screen will flash once, then your Kindle stores a .gif of your screen shot in your documents folder. You can look at it the next time you plug your Kindle into your computer.
I’ve...
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Anonymous asked: Do you know how to take a screenshot on a keyboardless kindle?
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rekindlemekindly asked: Oh hey look, how convenient (You followed my personal blog, moderndayjonah lol!) What kind of case do you have for your kindle? It'd be wonderful to know. I literally bought only the kindle fire because it's all I could afford but I'm not sure what kind of important accessories to save up for it. I already have a USB cord, found out my LG phone cord fits perfectly to connect it. Yay...
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Using your Kindle email address
When you registered your Kindle, you were assigned a “Kindle email”, which was basically your_Amazon_user_name@kindle.com. You can use this email to send documents to your Kindle, either wirelessly or via 3G, for a small fee (really, its not that much). This is pretty handy (especially for 3G users), and you can even set a dollar limit, so that you don’t accidentally spend $500...
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SOPA Strike January 18th
I know this isn’t Kindle related, but as a person who spends way too much time on the Internet and lives in America, I think this issue is far too important to ignore. I promise I’ll have something Kindle related for you on Thursday.
Tomorrow, to protest the US Congress bills SOPA and PIPA, hundreds of websites are “going dark”, essentially warning users of the internet...
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Amazon Prime and Kindle Books
Since you got your Kindle, Amazon has undoubtedly been spamming your inbox with advertisements telling you that you must get Amazon Prime, because its like THE BEST THING EVER. You get UNLIMITED FREE MOVIES, FREE KINDLE BOOKS, and FREE SHIPPING ON JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING.
Well, free with $80/year subscription anyway.
Since this is a blog about Kindles, I’m only going to focus on the...
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On reading your Kindle in public, or how to deal...
I’ve had my Kindle for a year, and I carry big enough purses that I take it with me wherever I go. I pull it out on buses, before class starts, sitting in waiting rooms, wherever I have 5 minutes to spare. E-readers are still new enough that not everyone has seen one in person before, and you inevitably have to answer a bunch of question. Yes, this is a Kindle, I’ve had it for about a...
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Kindle and Page Numbers
One major problem with the Kindle is that it isn’t as compatible with the academic world as one might hope. Not all texts books are available as e-books, and the ones that are available don’t always have page numbers, making them useless for paper writing since you can’t site the material.
See, since Kindle books have fonts that change sizes, a “page” becomes a...
December 2011
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Reddit and Kindle
Another great resource for Kindle is /r/Kindle, the subreddit for Kindle. There are always great discussions about Kindle use and problems and with more than 7,000 readers, someone is bound to be able to answer your question. On their front page, they have a great list of apps and hacks for Kindle fans. Even if you aren’t on reddit, you should look the list of links over to see if any of...