Questions from the Comments area, some with answers - UPDATE2

The below is from recent comment-area questions to the blog.

Q: hi. i am travelling round the world with a 3g enabled kindle. all the lonely planet books on it fantastic. email on the move with no roaming charges. fantastic.
  however. i would like to be able to book hotels on the move. whats the best site to use for really good searches and quick booking. i have only managed to get something booked on the iphone so far but that needs wifi so its not practical.
  any ideas."

A: I enjoy the Lonely Planet books on the Kindle too.
 I've used tripadvisor.com for great user input in connection with decisions on most things and yet find I get a better deal calling the hotels direct, but the search-sites need people to of course book with them if that works out.  I couldn't find a mobile site for Trip Advisor though.

  Recently, I used hotels.com and got a very good deal but they are run by travelnow.com and I'm seeing customer complaints about them.  I lucked out in actually getting the best deal in the area for that night, as it turns out, but they told me they had reserved a specific room when they didn't.
  The Kindle 2 gets a mobile version of the site that is easy enough to use.
  The Kindle 3 gets the regular site and it's very hard to read the small fonts, but I could not type into the input boxes of the mobile version.  The Kindle 3 seems weak on mobile sites, which is unfortunate since they're more readable on a small e-reader.

 Question from me: Do any readers know of any good sites for booking hotels direct on the Kindle?

UPDATE (Original posting 10:42 Am) - Neil has already replied, to recommend booking.com as "by far the best (and cheapest) way to book hotels globally"...
  In trying them out, I found it's best to use m.booking.com on the Kindle, as the full site is not a pleasant experience on a little e-Ink e-reader and the mobile version is quite good.  Thanks to Neil for that.

Q: by Woodyjavascript:void(0)
I don't think the Amazon Android Apps store is going to be a KINDLE apps store. It's a competitor to Google's (and Verizon's) app store for android.
  I wish it weren't so - would love a calendar app for the kindle - but there it is.

A: Woody,
They put out a call for developers to do apps specifically for the Kindle and put out some pretty strict rules about the price of the apps based on how much 3G bandwidth might be needed since Amazon says they provide that upfront.
  Some can be free, but if the app requires 3G use, then for certain amounts used (spelled out), they have to set fees.
  I do think that they will also do what you describe...

  I'd be shocked not to get a calendar or notepad app for the Kindle.

Right now I'm using bit.ly/g_tasks in the web browser to just view the tasks list made in my regular gmail on the computer and the gmail calendar has all the tasks in it, in date order.

  GMail Tasks are Not editable in Kindle, just readable -- it goes to an 'android' link and the Kindle isn't exactly an android device, but it does allow me to be able to read the Tasks when I'm out.
  It appears to allow adding new tasks but does not accept new input in either the Kindle 2 or Kindle 3 and definitely no editing of older tasks.

I sometimes just add 'notes' into an existing Kindle file that I made for making notes while out (I made a Notes file on a computer and moved it to the Kindle.  And I can search the file.   It's mainly a ToDo list.
 As a shortcut, I have sometimes added ToDo notes to the My Clippings file and then later I can search the file for "todo"...

The Calendar in gmail is nearly impossible to read on any Kindle, though the URL http://bit.ly/g_mail works well enough on the Kindle for gmail itself (as a quick-look type of thing), up to a point. (I've described in an earlier blog entry the tedium of replying to a gmail note with the Kindle3 right now -- it's easier w/ the Kindle 2, ironically -- the problem is having to go to the bottom of a reply you're making and down-arrowing out of the reply box before you can Send the reply.

Q: My Kindle DX does not turn on. I have have been using it for about six weeks now. It has a full charge. I slid the power button over to turn it on but without success. Any ideas? Thank you.

A: Oldtimers will know this, but those new to Kindle won't.  This works for Kindle 2, Kindle 3, and Kindle DX's.

Slide the power button to the right and hold it for about 21 seconds.
Then let it go.
Go away.
Come back in about 5 minutes and it should be starting up again but let it take its time correcting everything.

If that doesn't work
then plug it in
Wait 10 minutes (go away)
and do the same steps as above.

That works most of the time and is called a "Restart" or "Reset" and is similar to doing a soft reboot of your computer when it's not responding due to memory conflicts, etc.

  ALSO - (Updated information) - It was discovered later that the non-lighted Amazon Kindle Cover can cause starting-problems and Kindle-freezes and reboots.   If you have one, try removing it to see if that helps.  See the article on this Kindle-Cover problem and Amazon's answer for that.  If you're in the UK, however, see the UK Amazon-cover article.

UPDATE2 - If the Kindle still doesn't respond (rare), call Kindle Support at 866-321-8851 or contact them at the Kindle Support web page by clicking on the gold-colored "Contact us" button on the right at that page and choosing the Tab for 'phone' if you can, otherwise, choose form mail.
  Here's a quick web-link for contacting Kindle Support though.

  Also corrected TripAdvisor spelling and made small modifications for more clarity.

Q: by Essjam
My first Kindle just arrived today. A Graphite Kindle 3G. So far I love it, especially the ability to enlarge the font for these old eyes of mine. I have downloaded a few books to start my library. I have been amazed by how quickly they appear.

  The one thing that I find odd is not being able to remove a single "My Clipping" entry by using the device. I found a Google entry about editing the file while the Kindle is connected to a PC as a USB device. Sort of strange, but not a big deal.
  While it was attached as a USB, I was able to upload several PDF files. The built in reader is not too bad.

Thanks for the information on this blog! It has proven very helpful already.

A: Scott / Essjam
Glad it's helped already, and thanks for letting me know.

Re the "My Clippings" file - it's essentially a log file in chron order of COPIES of any and all annotations you've made and is an added file that allows you to have all notes in a text format file so that you can copy the text-file to your computer in order to print portions of it or to edit it.

The actual notes are put into the book's secondary file, which is in binary format and therefore isn't in editable text format.

Then you can move the My Clippings file back to the Kindle or copy it to the Kindle after backing it up on the computer OR delete the one on the Kindle and start fresh on the Kindle.  (When the Kindle is attached to the computer via the USB port, you can edit the Kindle My Clippings file directly but I'd rather leave it alone until I know my edits are okay.)

Then there's the password-protected personal webpage Amazon makes for each customer who doesn't disable backup of annotations. You can read about that at http://bit.ly/knotesweb.

That lets you see all your highlighting and notes for any Amazon-received book, and to see them all on one scrolling page if you want.  That can be highlighted and copied to your computer for editing/printing etc.

That's all part of a larger piece on the My Clippings file readable at http://bit.ly/kclippings.

That also includes information on a free macro file available that takes your My Clippings file and outputs the info sorted by book into table format.

That should get you started.

I agree that the PDF reader is pretty good and the main problem is that PDFs were meant for a physical page that is more than twice the size of the 6" Kindle. But it can be very useful.  I tend to read PDFs in Landscape mode when on the Kindle.

You can also ask Amazon (by sending an email to [you]@free.kindle.com with 'Convert' in the subject field]) to convert a copy of the PDF into Kindle format for easier reading (if it's not a complex PDF) and to be able to use all the Kindle features, while keeping the original PDF (layout) on the Kindle for reference.

You can use the search box at top right to search for topics...

Kindle Forum questions I just happened to respond to a minute ago.  Thought I may as well add them here also:

Q: (A wish was expressed for a shortcut avoiding Experimental Web page.)

A: Richard,
You can go to the Kindle's Home screen.

There, just start typing without ado (no menu pushes) something like

cnn.com

and then use the 5-way button to go right until you see "go to" and click on that. It'll take you right to the url.

(That assumes you've turned Wireless ON, but if you haven't, it'll offer you the choice.)

Q: (Frank, wondering whether or not to get a Kindle said he was told the dictionary was "a little basic.")

A: Frank,
The dictionary definitely seems basic to those who don't know that it is just a summary-definition on the status line for the word your cursor is on and that you need to press the Enter key if you want the full definition, pronunciation, and etymology.

When finished reading the full dictionary entry for a word, press the Back button to return to the book page you were on before looking up a word.


If this is useful, I may do more of these, since I spend a lot of time answering questions, which aren't seen when people visit the site or read the Kindle Edition blog.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   DX Graphite

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Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

Working with the Kindle 2 and DX Web Browser

The experimental Basic Web browser on the Kindle 2 can be used from almost anywhere a cell phone works and at any time.

Expectations for it should be in line with what you'd expect from any mobile phone except for how much of a web page you can see on the screen (considerably more with the Kindle 2) and no color.  Mobile unit web browsing is best done on sites which make versions for mobile units' small screens.

 With a Kindle, you don't have to hunt for a WiFi hotspot and hope that it's free, because Wireless access is almost always available where there's Sprint cellphone coverage, but it's slower than WiFi, which is slower than your normal cabled Internet experience.

  Most of the steps below (but not the 5-way button portion) work on a Kindle 1 also, though the Kindle 1 is slower in response time and doesn't always finish rendering a page with larger photos.

The key is knowing how to choose between several settings offered by the Home page's Menu option for "Experimental" which gets you to "Basic Web" (which you just click on, as the other options are not available there, only described).
  The Kindle will ask you if you want Wireless 'On' if it's not on already and then you can OK that.

  You are then taken to the Kindle's Bookmarks page with a choice of websites for mobile unit access.  Press the Menu key there and choose Settings.
  These are all toggled options.

  The most used Settings to choose from when browsing would be:
    1. "Switch to Advanced Mode" (if you're in "Basic Mode)
          ("Desktop" mode on DX's)
          or "Switch to "Basic Mode" (if you're in Advanced Mode).
    2. "Enable Javascript"
    3. "Disable Images"

Choosing Modes:
. Basic mode, Disable Images - Fastest.  Use when you just want data quickly and don't want to wait for images to load.
. Basic mode, Enable Images - 2nd fastest.  Best with simpler websites and small photos.

  With Basic mode, article bodies will be in B&W rather than the harder to read gray shades that emulate color gradations.
  You'll need to remember that on pages with columns of links or ads, all of the first column's text will show up first, going down and you have to "Next Page" (or down-arrow) through them before getting to the center column for the article.

. Advanced Mode - Use this when you want to see the full width of a web page and all columns showing.
   The browser will then make the fonts TINY to fit it all in and will emulate colors, giving harder-to-read multi-gray shaded text and sometimes the background may be too dark.
  With some sites, it can be surprisingly readable though some will want a magnifying glass.
  With this mode you won't have to page through several Kindle 'pages' of a website's left column.
  The Kindle often chooses advanced mode, and when I want to read an article in the normal sized font, I'll switch to Basic and do the NextPage thing.

. Advanced Mode, Enable Javascript - the Kindle browser often switches to this when it knows javascript is needed to load the page at all.  This will be the slowest mode.
  Sometimes the javascript is needed just for an ad and you can do without it, and at those points I have sometimes tried "disabling" javascript to speed things up.  But most won't bother as it doesn't make that big a difference.  If javascript is needed but isn't enabled, the page never loads, so I tend to leave it alone.

Other web browser options:
. The browser Menu lets you "Enter URL" to go to a specific page you want.
. You can "Bookmark This Page" if you're on a webpage you want to return to without having to type the URL again.
. There's a (current-session) "History" page so you can jump to a webpage you want to revisit.
. You can "Go to Top" of the webpage.

Moving around the webpage
You can move around the page with the 5-way button, which will take you to areas for input, or links to click on for another web page or web-page area, and allow you to scroll down (instead of having to use 'NextPage' if you're on a long page.
  To get back to the previous "jump" (from a link) press the "Back" key.

. You can generally change the text size but not the line spacing on a web page.
. You can download some files offered, usually "TXT" files and unprotected MOBI, PRC ones.  The Kindle format is AZW, and you can download that and AZW1 files, though I've never seen these offered outside the Amazon store.

See an example of links on a Kindle webpage.   For other webpage examples for both the Kindle 1 and 2, see the screen comparison page that I made for these.

For more information and screen samples, see Section 6.1 "Using Basic Web" in the "Kindle 2 User's Guide, 2nd Edition" -- this is at Location 834,

Caution: Using wireless for browsing will drain the battery faster during a session than reading a Kindle document will.  It'll be a shorter time before you need to recharge.  Here are customer service advisories for how to keep the battery in good shape.

TIP: When sending an email from gmail.com or yahoo.com, you'll get an alert that a connection could not be established with the website's servers.  98% of the time, it's a false error alert.  The email goes through (but typing on this unit is arduous, at best, so I e-mail rarely), and the same thing occurs with posting a reply to a forum.  The reply does go through and is posted despite the alert.  Do log in before posting, though.

The Basic Web browser on the smaller Kindles is extremely handy for quick lookups when away from your home/office computers.  It isn't something you want to do at length, though I was surprised that Wired can come through so well, with good resolution on the photos on the Kindle 2.

FILE DOWNLOAD - BOOKMARKS
You can download a file of bookmarks I collected for mobile-optimized sites, which will load faster.

( If you find blog entries like this one helpful, please check the "Interesting" box so I can get an idea of the level of interest for how-to's for features not often used -- judging from what I read on the forums.  Thanks for taking the tme. )
  7/5/09 - I've eliminated the 'Interesting/Cool' Google widget because it caused the page to take too long to load, but on the Tips/Guides, it did give me good (easy to rate) indication of interest in those. Thanks to those who took the time let me know.

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Check often:  Latest temporarily free non-classics or late-listed ones.
  Guide to finding Free or Low-Cost Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.