Digital book readers - Kindle, BeBook, etc - Opinions please

[Phil Fiord]

Be careful of EU created handheld electronics. Find out how supportive the customer service is as I am aware that there is a French company named Archos, which makes a very cool handheld device, but they barely support it and they nickel and dime one for more than basic functions of software, if the online portal works. Just beware.

[American Patriot]

I've been trying to find some folks in the US that have them. We'll see.

I'm more open to open software and hardware than I am something like Kindle or Sony. Both are severely restricted DRM machines which means, I can't purchase something from Sony if I have a Kindle and I can't buy things for Sony if I have a Kindle... that sort of thing.

[Ryan Ruck]

Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others

This morning, hundreds of Amazon Kindle owners awoke to discover that books by a certain famous author had mysteriously disappeared from their e-book readers. These were books that they had bought and paid for—thought they owned.

But no, apparently the publisher changed its mind about offering an electronic edition, and apparently Amazon, whose business lives and dies by publisher happiness, caved. It electronically deleted all books by this author from people's Kindles and credited their accounts for the price.

This is ugly for all kinds of reasons. Amazon says that this sort of thing is "rare," but that it can happen at all is unsettling; we've been taught to believe that e-books are, you know, just like books, only better. Already, we've learned that they're not really like books, in that once we're finished reading them, we can't resell or even donate them. But now we learn that all sales may not even be final.

As one of my readers noted, it's like Barnes & Noble sneaking into our homes in the middle of the night, taking some books that we've been reading off our nightstands, and leaving us a check on the coffee table.

You want to know the best part? The juicy, plump, dripping irony?

The author who was the victim of this Big Brotherish plot was none other than George Orwell. And the books were "1984" and "Animal Farm."

[Backstop]

Disregard...I can't read.

----------------------

Wait a minute.

How could they delete the book after you downloaded it?

Wireless deletion??

Or still connected?

[Ryan Ruck]

It would seem likely that when they connected up to the internet and/or connected to Amazon's service it removed the files by some command Amazon remotely issued. I can't say for sure though as I'm not entirely sure how the Kindle works with downloading/syncing files.

[American Patriot]

The kindle uses a G3 network connection. Your kindle has an "address" (the serial number I think) and it accessable BY them. Even though you buy it, they can access it. This is GREAT NEWS to me...

It proved EXACTLY what I was thinking, that "what if they wanted to ban a certain book".

Apparently THEY CAN.

So, I WILL be going with the BeBook. (At least for now, unless I find 900 bucks then I am getting an Iliad).

[American Patriot]

Well, I bought a Kindle 2 a few days ago. Gave it to my wife for our 32nd Anniversary (today) and she's not had a lot of time to play with it, but she said it was great and she loved it so far.

Guess we will see how she likes it.

At this point I'm still looking at:

Kindle DX
Iliad 1000
BeBook 2 (if it ever comes out)



What I like about the Kindle: Tied to Amazon (buy all the books, and freebies) you want. Pretty much the biggest book store out there. I bought it for my wife because it is EASY to get books on the go, without connecting to a computer, using the Whispernet setup. You can set up "1 - click purchasing" (Amazon has the credit card number, I don't have to enter a bunch of data, etc... she's a voracious reader, thus, if she wants a new book, we don't have to go book shopping......)

What I don't like about Kindle: Tied to Amazon completely (also an advantage in some ways), doesn't allow a memory upgrade or external SD type card. Does NOT have wifi. GPS, they track you know what you buy, download and do. They can "cut you off" any time they like, they have deleted books already (granted it was legit, but it wasn't legit they didnt tell people they WOULD or COULD do it ahead of time, or that they DIDN'T BOTHER to check the rights before selling the books before hand!) - No touch screen.


What I like about Iliad: Biggest screen, hackable, open source OS (Linux), nearly every format is readable (except a couple, but even the Amazon bought books are 'hackable'). Has WIFI. Has ability for me to WRITE on the screen. SHOULD be able to browse internet via my personal network using this device. (not sure). Main thing, it can use my network for downloading things.Touch screen.

What I don't like about the Iliad: Freakin' Expensive As Hell (like 900 bucks for the version I want) - That's about the only thing.

What I like about the BeBook 2: Wifi, 3G network (rumored), is "different" from the BeBook 1 (looks more like the Kindle), has a built in memory card slot. Has a touch screen. Has a lot of memory to begin with. I can browse using it instead of a computer (I think).

What I don't like about the BeBook 2: it isn't out, we don't know the price, it's rumored to be out in quarter 3 (sometime this month or next month, but no firm date). I hate waiting for things that turn out to be Vaporware and I don't appreciate being dragged around by my nose and refuse to buy things from people who do that sort of thing.

[American Patriot]

Well....

I broke down yesterday and ended up purchasing a Kindle DX for myself.

In August I bought a Kindle 2 for Mrs. D.

I bought it for several reasons, even though I was vacillating on any of several readers. Here's my reasoning.

Knowing the lady now for well over 30-something years and having been married to her for over 32 years of those 30-something I can tell you that the words "Voracious Reader" are not even close to the mark. She has consistently bought 1-2 new books per week for our entire marriage. I've done something similar. Between us, we have purchased roughly 9984 new books.

Trips to the library in leaner times to check out 10-20 books at a time (returning them of course!) and the fact that both of us have attended college over the many years we've been married has netted us somewhere on the order of over 10,000 books in our home. We've given away a few hundred of them over the years, sharing them with friends, family and giving away whole sets of things at times.

Thus, knowing my wife is going to continue to purchase books as we start gearing down our life-style and reducing the "need for things" I figured that she should have a device she can read like a book, and yet had certain features.

These include:

1) Ease of use

2) Ability to display as if on paper the words of the manuscript - a NON- backlit page or computer screen.

3) The ability to download live, any book that is available in the formats the device uses without having to use a computer or other technical abilities to convert, change or make readable the material (as in converting a PDF file into some format that can be read on the device).

4) A large selection of books and knowing that more are becoming available to us.

5) Small enough for her to carry in her purse or pocket.

Thus, with this in mind, I purchased her a Kindle 2. The Kindle met and exceeded ALL of these requirements. She has had nothing but good things to say about her pet Kindle. She told me she "Loves" her Kindle. I of course wondered about my own personal status with her at that point. Fortunately, while the Kindle and a Book can satisfy most of her needs, I certainly am no slouch in taking care of those remaining... but I digress.

In MY case... I had a dozen or more requirements. Here's some:

1) large internal memory

2) large screen

3) ability to have an external memory card (like an SD card) plug in so I can have MORE storage.

4) Ability to have even a simple browser built in

5) Wireless (3G was a bonus, but I wanted 802.11 protocol available)

6) Did I mention "Large Screen"? Oh yeah...

7) Ability to write on the device like a note pad, with a stylus.

8) Ability to store my notes and recover them.

9) Ability to convert those notes into type written text

10) A way to purchase and read books

11) A way to scan existing books and put them into a format I could read on the device.

12) Touch screen

There's more.

Ok. OF all of these only one comes closest to meeting or exceeding these requirements, and that is the Irex Iliad Digital Reader.

The cost on this device is close to $1000 USD and while I'm semi-willing to purchase it for the above specifications, it had one more thing I liked, no loved, about it. You can read charts on it.

Specifically, they partnered with another company and built software to be able to read air charts to allow course plotting and so forth for Airline Pilots. Haven't been able to put my hands physically on one as of yet. Probably won't.

I see the use for nautical charts coming - though, at this point it hasn't been implemented. But the cost is still too high for me to buy one.

The Sony Touch PRS700 is next on my list. It had a touch screen, allowed for external memory cards and has a "store" with probably as many if not more books than Amazon has. They have a 7" display model coming out at Christmas time, with wireless and 3G... So, this device is still on my list as well. Up to 16 gigs external memory, allegedly. I got to mess with one in Borders. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to purchase one, they have been OUT OF STOCK for months now. I did a shot on eBay the other night at one, but the price was driven up to well over the original cost of a new one the last day. NEVER MIND...

Next on the list, and most interesting was the BeBook, a Halin V3 or V9 that is produced and built in China. I liked it a lot. Had a screen the size of the Kindle 2, ability to plug in an SD memory card up to 4 Gigs, and had a pretty open ability to view many types of files. Unfortunately, it's made in China. I try very hard not to buy things from China. The site offering the BeBook had promised to come out with a new one Q3 of 2009. That's this month. Well, the quarter is come and gone, except for about 16 more days of the month.

It was promising a new version, in white, with nice keys (similar to a Kindle layout), a 3G network compatibility. In posting on their support web site and asking questions in email, they have NOT been forthcoming with information. Lots of complaints about reboots, resetting, shutting down, screwy menus and several other things still didn't keep me from looking, but ULTIMATELY the so-called customer support I was observing pushed me away finally and back to the Sony.

Sony... you simply can't get the 700 (though I noted an hour after I bought the Kindle DX last night, Sony has the SILVER version available again on their site). Tough on Sony. Lost out, didn't ya?

Ok... Why the Kindle DX?

Several things.

1) LARGE SCREEN (Have I mentioned my freakin' bad eyesight lately? Wow... )

2) 3G network connection.

3) push a button and download a book NOW... anywhere from free to whatever cost you can imagine.

4) Amazon has lotsa books. I'll probably buy them all eventually. Ok, many of them.

5) I played with Mrs. D's Kindle and figured out I can download mobipocket (.prc) files and put them right on the Kindle and read them, right now. Don't have to mail anything.

6) Kindle DX has builtin-native PDF readability and support. I have a lot of already-made PDF manuals I can put on it. (Gosh, I feel like Geordie LeForge already!)

7) I'm leaving on Friday for a few days and will be traveling across country on airplanes. I hate flying, I hate airports, I hate sitting next to people I don't know and being polite to them. So I take an iPod and shove the earphones in my ears and read a book. I don't want to BUY a new book to add to the library! I'm trying to figure out how to reduce the library, not grow it.

After playing with, and reading Mrs. D's Kindle 2 I realized that most of the others I'd been looking at were likely a bit "smallish" on the screen size (all are about the same as the Kindle 2 screen with the exception of the Irex Digial Reader, which has a 10" screen, like the Kindle DX).

And, being under a time constraint, not wanting to just buy a couple of new books for the flight (more weight) I decided last night that I was going to buy the Kindle DX.

It OUGHT to be here Thursday, in time to load a few books on it and take with me for a test drive. If I don't like it I have 30 days to return the device, get my money refunded and keep on looking (at the Irex Iliad Digital Reader 1000S I think is the model).

Truth is, I might still get one of those next year or check out some of the other devices and perhaps pass mine on to my wife or one of the kids. (Mrs. D has already CLAIMED the DX if I don't like it and will pass her Kindle 2 off to my daughter, who shares Mrs. D's Reader-Extreme Title.)

Give me a few days and I'll do a real review on the Kindle DX once I have it in my hands, and run it through some paces.

Rick

[American Patriot]

I've been using my Kindle DX for quite awhile now - Since last September. I've bought about a dozen books, maybe two dozen. Everything from technical books to fiction. I've also downloaded many public domain books (mostly fiction).

I have also found that giving up books is kind of silly in this day and age.

For one thing, even though the Kindle is certainly (especially my DX) a very cool device and reads just like a real book, there are some issues I've found that are difficult to work with.

For instance, technical books are nice to have in your hands when you're looking for something specific, it's pretty easy to find, write in, annotate, highlight or otherwise mark up for future reference.

You can do the same thing with the Kindle (and several other readers as well), but the problem is the book must be "indexed" to hunt for things. Some times indexing isn't working right for some reason (and I haven't figured that out yet).

The other issue is you make notes, and it creates a separate file on your device. Highlighting does the same thing.

Then there's page numbers. Books have pages. Kindle-formated material has "locations". There's no correlation from location numbers to page numbers. You can GUESS and go to a location close to where you think the material might be, then you have to hunt for it.

The formatting also isn't always right. If there are blocks or side bars, sometimes they get scattered around several pages of the Kindle. Not easy to read then, and you have to jump back and forth.

PDF files are another issue. My Kindle reads them fine, for the most part. However, sometimes the pages are very small making it difficult to read. I haven't the greatest eyesight on the planet and in fact, I need to remove my glasses these days to read a book. You can't change the text size in PDF files (most of them anyway) whereas you can do so in a mobi file or some other text format.

So, I've bought about a half dozen technical books I did not want to trust to an electronic device where I could lose the data easily. The books I purchased are all things I want to have on my boat as reference material, things about diesel engine repair, rigging (ropes and lines, how-to-type stuff) and other information about how to outfit a boat, do a survey etc.

While the Kindle is a very, very cool device it's not "quite ready" for schools in my opinion, not college material. It's very hard to reference something because literally there are no page numbers.

Over all, I give the Kindle a 4 out of 5 for being a really fantastic way of reading a book because the batteries last a very long time between charges (unless you're doing a lot of online scanning with the wireless turned on, turn it off when not in use!), you can store hundreds of items, read PDFs, browse web sites (to some degree), download RSS feeds for your daily news and read, read, read, read... all you want.

The lack of being able to jump to a chapter in most books, or certain page is a big minus for me. So, my Kindle won't completely replace books, but it certainly is supplementing them.

[Ryan Ruck]

More book removal by Amazon from Kindle. I know the subject matter is but still, as the article points out, this is against their own terms of deletion and the reported behavior of the Amazon rep is odd. Not that big of a leap to think they might start to delete other content they don't like.

Amazon's Latest Kindle Deletion: Erotic, Incest-Themed Fiction

Amazon may be in the process of stirring up some more trouble for itself thanks to reports that the company is deleting certain kinds of erotica from both the online store and users' devices. The erotica in question is controversial: it talks about certain acts of incest. Judging from Amazon's most recent bouts with book "censorship," users who have already paid for the deleted content are likely to get fired up.

Self-published author Selena Kitt was first notified that the print version of one of her fiction books violated Amazon's content guidelines last week, followed by the unceremonious removal of two more offerings from the Kindle store. After noticing that the three books that Amazon singled out were all "erotic incest fantasy fiction," she found at least three other authors whose incest-themed erotica had been removed from Amazon, followed by a Kindle support thread full of even more names.

"I want to be clear that while the subject of incest may not appeal to some, there is no underage contact in any of my work, and I make that either explicitly clear in all my stories or I state it up front in the book's disclaimer," Kitt wrote in a blog post. "I don't condone or support actual incest, just as someone who writes mysteries about serial killers wouldn't condone killing."

On top of the book removal from Amazon's store, Kitt's readers reportedly found that her books had disappeared from their Kindles as well. "When one reader called to get a refund for the book she no longer had access to, she was chastised by the Amazon customer service representative about the 'severity' of the book she’d chosen to purchase," Kitt wrote.

If true, then Amazon has some explaining to do. When the company "went Big Brother" and deleted unauthorized copies of 1984 from readers' Kindles, the company was slapped with a lawsuit for removing content that people not only paid for, but also made notes and highlights in. Amazon eventually settled the lawsuit late last year, and in the settlement, Amazon's attorneys agreed to legally binding terms that described its content deletion policy. When it came to books, Amazon said that deletions would only occur under a limited number of circumstances: failed credit card transactions, judicial orders, malware, or the permission of the user.

Fictional incest activities between two fictional adults doesn't appear to fall into any of those categories, but that may be neither here nor there, since Amazon's author guidelines restrict unspecified kinds of "offensive" content. This came to a head last month, when a furor rose among Internet users over Amazon's sale of The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure. Amazon eventually caved to public pressure and removed the book, despite the company's insistence that it tries to resist censorship whenever possible.

"Amazon believes it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable," the company said in a statement at the time. "Amazon does not support or promote hatred or criminal acts, however, we do support the right of every individual to make their own purchasing decisions."

Sex educator and author Violet Blue pointed out in an e-mail to Ars that Amazon's decisions here only continue to highlight the downsides to e-book DRM compared to physical books. "[Physical books] can't be taken back by the seller once you buy them, because the seller does not approve of the content," Blue said.

"I think what bothers me the most [with this situation] is the privacy issue for readers—this is actually HUGE. Especially with the egregious irresponsibility in their customer service representative department. Amazon is monitoring, watching and deciding for you what is sexually appropriate for you—their customers," she added.

Kitt has one more bone to pick with Amazon over its latest decision: Amazon's own TV ad shows a woman reading a Kindle book that details a sexual relationship between a 19-year-old and his stepmother, "which, in some states, is legally incest." Whether Amazon thinks the book in the ad is equally inappropriate will remain unclear for now, though, as Amazon did not respond to our requests for comment on this story.

Update: An Amazon spokesperson has responded to our query by saying that the books violated Amazon's content guidelines. As for the books being deleted from users' Kindles: "Due to a technical issue, for a short window of time three books were temporarily unavailable for re-download by customers who had previously purchased them. When this was brought to our attention, we fixed the problem and those books were once again made available for re-download. We apologize for the inconvenience."

[American Patriot]

Well.... I dont read that sort of thing... but wtf?

[Malsua]

Bumping this old thread because I bought a Nook Color last week.


E-Ink on the kindle is far superior for readability.
Battery life on the kindle is astounding.

In spite of all that, I bought the nook color.

The reason I wanted the nook was because I wanted touch screen and web browsing with full flash support and all the bells and whistles.

I want a tablet that's primarily a reader and the Nook fits that nook.

I will probably buy a second reader, but that one will probably be a Kindle.

I'm amazed that an entire book fits in under a megabyte. The entire output of some of my favorite authors are under 10 megabytes. Sheesh.

If you're looking for a decent tablet that's focused on books, the Nook wins hands down.

I'm quite happy with it.

[American Patriot]

Bumping this old thread because I bought a Nook Color last week.


E-Ink on the kindle is far superior for readability.
Battery life on the kindle is astounding.

In spite of all that, I bought the nook color.

The reason I wanted the nook was because I wanted touch screen and web browsing with full flash support and all the bells and whistles.

I want a tablet that's primarily a reader and the Nook fits that nook.

I will probably buy a second reader, but that one will probably be a Kindle.

I'm amazed that an entire book fits in under a megabyte. The entire output of some of my favorite authors are under 10 megabytes. Sheesh.

If you're looking for a decent tablet that's focused on books, the Nook wins hands down.

I'm quite happy with it.

I like the nook, but love my Kindle. I've got the DX. I've probably got 500 books on it right now, lol.

Read a good portion of them, and have others stored and another 1500 or something on my computer at home. I download and transfer PDFs and other formats via a program called "Calibre".

I'm actually considering getting a second kindle, one of the smaller ones soon. My wife's has a busted case and she needs her's replaced due to the damage, but she's still using it daily and carries her's everywhere. I can't bring mine into work now, they put that too on the verboten list. assholes. But I digress again.

She has an ipad too but hasn't really used it for reading.

I think it would be better for pdf myself.

[Malsua]

I tried converting some PDFs to epubs using Cailbre but it didn't actually make the file; It just spit out some OTFs. shrug. Was only a first try.

I was looking at getting a better laptop but really all I was after was a web browser. The Nook fit the bill.

I think the next reader will be a kindle, I've just not decided on which one.

[American Patriot]

Kindle has an extremely rudimentary browser. It's very hard to use and it formats everything like crap.

BUT it's an AWESOME book. I can read all sorts of formats on it.

Normally I convert a non-readable-by-kindle format to one it can read like .AZW or whatever it is.

[American Patriot]

May 2, 2011
College students’ use of Kindle DX points to e-reader’s role in academia

By Hannah Hickey
News and Information
The larger Amazon Kindle DX is optimized to view PDFs and academic texts.





A study of how University of Washington graduate students integrated an Amazon Kindle DX into their course reading provides the first long-term investigation of e-readers in higher education. While some of the study’s findings were expected – students want improved support for taking notes, checking references and viewing figures – the authors also found that allowing people to switch between reading styles, and providing the reader with physical cues, are two challenges that e-readers will need to address in cracking the college market.



The UW last year was one of seven U.S. universities that participated in a pilot study of the Kindle DX, a larger version of the popular e-reader. UW researchers who study technology looked at how students involved in the pilot project did their academic reading.


“There is no e-reader that supports what we found these students doing,” said first author Alex Thayer, a UW doctoral student in Human Centered Design and Engineering. “It remains to be seen how to design one. It’s a great space to get into, there’s a lot of opportunity.”


Thayer will present the findings next week in Vancouver, B.C. at the Association for Computing Machinery’s Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, where the study received an honorable mention for best paper.


“Most e-readers were designed for leisure reading – think romance novels on the beach,” said co-author Charlotte Lee, a UW assistant professor of Human Centered Design and Engineering. “We found that reading is just a small part of what students are doing. And when we realize how dynamic and complicated a process this is, it kind of redefines what it means to design an e-reader.”


Some of the other schools participating in the pilot project conducted shorter studies, generally looking at the e-reader’s potential benefits and drawbacks for course use. The UW study looked more broadly at how students did their academic reading, following both those who incorporated the e-reader into their routines and those who did not.


“We were not trying to evaluate the device, per se, but wanted to think long term, really looking to the future of e-readers, what are students trying to do, how can we support that,” Lee said.


The researchers interviewed 39 first-year graduate students in the UW’s Department of Computer Science & Engineering, 7 women and 32 men, ranging from 21 to 53 years old.


By spring quarter of 2010, seven months into the study, less than 40 percent of the students were regularly doing their academic reading on the Kindle DX. Reasons included the device’s lack of support for taking notes and difficulty in looking up references. (Amazon Corp., which makes the Kindle DX, has since improved some of these features.)


UW researchers continued to interview all the students over the nine-month period to find out more about their reading habits, with or without the e-reader. They found:

• Students did most of the reading in fixed locations: 47 percent of reading was at home, 25 percent at school, 17 percent on a bus and 11 percent in a coffee shop or office.
• The Kindle DX was more likely to replace students’ paper-based reading than their computer-based reading.
• Of the students who continued to use the device, some read near a computer so they could look up references or do other tasks that were easier to do on a computer. Others tucked a sheet of paper into the case so they could write notes.
• With paper, three quarters of students marked up texts as they read. This included highlighting key passages, underlining, drawing pictures and writing notes in margins.
• A drawback of the Kindle DX was the difficulty of switching between reading techniques, such as skimming an article’s illustrations or references just before reading the complete text. Students frequently made such switches as they read course material.
• The digital text also disrupted a technique called cognitive mapping, in which readers used physical cues such as the location on the page and the position in the book to go back and find a section of text or even to help retain and recall the information they had read.

Lee predicts that over time software will help address some of these issues. She even envisions niche software that could support reading styles specific to certain disciplines.


“You can imagine that a historian going through illuminated texts is going to have very different navigation needs than someone who is comparing algorithms,” Lee said.


It’s likely that desktop computers, laptops, tablet computers and yes, even paper, will play a role in academic reading’s future. But the authors say e-readers will also find their place. Thayer imagines the situation will be similar to today’s music industry, where mp3s, CDs and LPs all coexist in music-lovers’ listening habits.


“E-readers are not where they need to be in order to support academic reading,” Lee concludes. But asked when e-readers will reach that point, she predicts: “It’s going to be sooner than we think.”


Other co-authors are Linda Hwang, Heidi Sales, Pausali Sen and Ninad Dalal of the UW.

###

For more information, contact Thayer at 206-499-9255 or huevos@uw.edu and Lee at 206-543-0902 or cplee@uw.edu.

[American Patriot]

Here's my BIGGEST problem with not ONLY the Kindle, but COMPUTERS as well:

A drawback of the Kindle DX was the difficulty of switching between reading techniques, such as skimming an article’s illustrations or references just before reading the complete text. Students frequently made such switches as they read course material.

The digital text also disrupted a technique called cognitive mapping, in which readers used physical cues such as the location on the page and the position in the book to go back and find a section of text or even to help retain and recall the information they had read.

[American Patriot]

New Sony e-reader to rival Kindle

By Bloomberg News July 15, 2011

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SAN FRANCISCO - Sony Corp., Japan’s largest exporter of consumer electronics, plans to introduce a line of upgraded digital book readers in the United States as early as next month to challenge Kindle maker Amazon.com Inc.

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The current Sony Reader, now priced from $180 to $300, will probably be offered with improvements in August, Phil Lubell, a Sony vice president, said Wednesday in an interview in San Francisco.

The new products will be introduced to US consumers before Sony’s first tablet computer models, which are scheduled to go on sale later this year. The Tokyo company, whose readers trail the Kindle and Barnes & Noble Inc.’s Nook, plans to continue its push to sell dedicated digital readers because they are cheaper than tablets, Lubell said.

[American Patriot]

Bookwhirl.com Gives Away Kindle 3 Wi-Fi
BookWhirl.com launches the Kindle 3 Wi-Fi Promo to celebrate the 4th of July.

GREEN BAY, WI, July 06, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- BookWhirl.com, one of the country's leading frontiers of the book marketing industry celebrates Independence Day with a big bang. Starting this month, BookWhirl.com will commence the Kindle 3 Wi-Fi Promo where self-published authors who have availed the e-Conversion Service or the e-Bookshelf will have the chance of winning a Kindle 3 WI-FI .

The e-Book Conversion Service gives self-published authors the opportunity to turn their published books or even unpublished manuscripts into digital files. The e-Book Conversion Service has three types of levels, namely: Basic, Standard, and Large. The service requires no minimum number of pages.

The e-Bookshelf is BookWhirl.com's recently launched online e-bookstore that features the simplest yet staple system for an online bookstore. The e-Bookshelf also has an easy sales system tracker that enables authors to keep track with their book sales.

BookWhirl.com's Kindle 3 Wi-Fi Promo will run from July 4, 2011 to September 4, 2011.

For more details about BookWhirl.com and the Kindle 3 Wi-Fi Promo, visit the company's official website http://www.BookWhirl.com. You may also channel your inquiries through email at Info@BookWhirl.com.

About BookWhirl.com
BookWhirl.com is an online book marketing service company, specializing in providing low-cost, high-quality marketing services for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry books. Through its unique, inexpensive book marketing services, BookWhirl.com authors to promote their published works more effectively and connect to readers in a more effective, more efficient system.

BookWhirl.com employs an experienced team of online marketing strategists, ad copywriters, graphic artists, and web designers, whose combined talents ensure an effective online marketing campaign at easily affordable rates.

Press Release Contact Information:

Don Harold
BookWhirl
Marketing Officer
867 Howard St. 1
Green Bay, Wisconsin
United States 54303
Voice: 1 (877) 207 1679
Fax: 1 (800) 852 4249
Website: Visit Our Website

[American Patriot]

Simple Tip Turns Kindle into Ultimate News Reader

• By Charlie Sorrel
• 
• September 7, 2010 |
• 6:34 am |
• Categories: Tablets and E-Readers
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One of the best things about the Gadget Lab is our awesome readership, and this tip comes from Gadget Lab fan Ron Winters. Ron has actually managed to make the Kindle’s “experimental” web-browser functional. Better still, it is an always-connected client for reading your own personal news.
Up until the latest version, the Kindle’s browser fully deserved its “experimental” tag. In fact, “excremental” would have been more apt. It was clunky, slow and almost impossible to use. Anecdotal reports say that the Kindle 3 has a much better browser, and now Ron has proven it with a great hack for using Google Reader. The trick lies in keyboard shortcuts and the oft-forgotten full-screen mode. It works like this:
First, log into your Google Reader account and use the awkward cursor control to navigate your feed list. Then hit the “right” cursor to enter the news articles themselves. Then comes the trick: just press “f” to enter full-screen mode, instantly turning your Kindle into a custom newspaper. You can scroll through the article with the Kindle’s page-turn buttons, and – using Google Reader’s keyboard commands – press “j” and “k” to page through articles.
Ron says that “this works best with images turned off in the kindle browser” and with a bigger font size for easier reading: “I happen to like 200%,” he says. One of the first things I tried to do with my second-gen Kindle was browse to Google Reader – it’s a natural fit – but it was too slow and awkward to actually use. Ironically, given that the Google Reader site is not yet optimized for the iPad, the humble Kindle could turn out to be the best mobile newsreader yet.
Photo: Ron Winters. Thanks, Ron!