To see the latest version of the below tips, jump on this Wave.

First impressions

• It’s thin and light
• The screen is crispier than I hoped
• Page turns are quicker than on my Sony Reader
• The cursor’s ghost-like effect compensates for the display’s low responsiveness

Non-US issues

• Kindle store checks for country before completing purchase. Users who change their address to a US one, will not be able to purchase without contacting the Kindle customer service.
• There are more items in the US store.
• (the browser now works with a Danish account!)

Kindle-friendly websites

• Most mobile-optimized sites are Kindle-friendly.
• For a start page linking to longer, Kindle-friendly articles, try www.mortenjust.com/kindle
• To detect a kindle, look for “Kindle” in the user_agent (full string is Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; Linux 2.6.22) NetFront/3.4 Kinde/2.1 (screen 600×800)

Feeds

• KRead accepts a feed URL and displays that feed, Kindle optimised
• Feedbooks creates an actual Kindle book with the contents of the feed(s), and even allows updating from within the book
• Instapaper offers sending directly by email to your Kindle when you add to Instapaper. Downside is that Amazon charges 1 USD for non-US transfers.

Desktop software

• Calibre converts almost everything to Kindle (and Sony, etc) format. It also transfers and enrich with meta data.
• Mobipocket Desktop 6.0 (and not older) also recognises the Kindle, however, Calibre is generally recommended
• Books can be transferred simply by dragging into the Documents folder when the Kindle is mounted.
• Rumors today (Oct 23) have it that Amazon is readying a desktop reader for the Mac

Free books

• Some books in the Kindle store are free. However, there’s a transfer fee outside of the US.
• Feedbooks offer a Kindle book with links to actually download and install free ebooks over the air.
• More free books to be found at Munseys
• Munseys also have a kindle-friendly mobile site with direct downloads

Paid books

• The amount of titles in Kindle store varies from country to country
• Users can download from other Mobipocket-compatible sites and read those books on Kindle. How and why.

Digitising paper books

• FineReader is quite impressive.
• An easy way to do this is with a digital camera, one spread at a time.
• Approximately 1 page per second.
• Some cameras can shoot in intervals.
• Combine that fact with a tripod and you’ll have a home digitising studio.

Amazon Web resources

• Media library. This is for all Amazon downloadable media, including Kindle
• kindle.amazon.com. Supposedly a place to manage bookmaks and notes (mine don’t show up)
• Manage my kindle. Lets users send media to other (owned) Kindles and iPhones.

iPhone app

• Not available yet in some countries, including Denmark
• Personal documents, magazines, newspapers and manually transferred books can not be sent to the iPhone app

Screensavers

• So far I haven’t seen two of the same. Are they stored online?
• Now I have. Don’t think they are.
• I’ve seen a custom screensaver extension

Emailing documents directly to the Kindle

• 1 USD. Emailing documents to (your.name)@kindle.com will send the converted document directly to the Kindle through Whispernet
• Free. Emailing them to (your.name)@free.kindle.com will reply to your email with the document. Use USB to transfer to Kindle.

Third party extensions

• Savory lets users convert from PDF to Kindle format on the device. It’s using the conversion engine from Calibre
• I read about one that allows changes tothe screensaver. URL?

Other web sites

• Kindle forums on Mobile Read
• Hacks and easter eggs
• Beginner’s guide to Kindle content

Speech

• I find the female voice sounds more natural

Troubleshooting

• If you get no connectivity bars, try resetting (switch and hold power slider until screen blanks, then turn on again)

I’ve had November’s US Wired for almost a week now. Here it is. I haven’t been able to find time to unwrap it.

However, I have been reading a lot on my Kindle. Obviously, it’s not about finding time more than finding convenience.

So maybe moving Wired into the Kindle would help? Strangely, Wired is not in the Kindle Store yet, so let’s take a look at their feed.

As expected, the magazine only provides excerpts in the feed. You’ll have to go to the site to see the full text. And the ads that pay for it.

But wait. I pay, too. There must be some way of getting the full articles into the feed, and then read that on the Kindle?

Yes. This is what the Pipe looks like.

Or, in short,

1. Take the feed

2. Change all links to point to the full article (instead of the paged ones)

3. Scrape the article

4. Add the full article to a new node in the feed

Voila:

With a feed holding all full articles, the only thing left is finding a convenient way to read it on the Kindle. I quickly hacked together a PHP script that parses the JSON from Pipes.

Not bad. But as with any digital body of text, I find myself thinking: “What am I looking at here? Two minutes? Twenty?”

This is where the magazine wins (again). By glancing, I get an impression of how long this article is. I can tell this one is long if they spend a full page on a portrait.

What would a size indicator look like on the Kindle?

The bar just below the headline gives a glance-friendly impression of how long this article is. The book overview on the Kindle’s home screen has something similar to this.

• Yahoo Pipes
• Wired Magazine, US
• Amazon Kindle, international edition (contains affiliate ID, so please buy!)

I just threw out several piles of letters, printouts, statements and bills. They’re now safe and searchable in the part of the cloud that is managed by Evernote

This means I can search, print and send them, from anywhere, from my Mac, my iPhone, or any computer with an internet connection.

It also means I got rid of the piles.

The printer

The “HP OfficeJet J4680 All-in-One Wireless Printer” is just 800 Danish Kroner (107 EUR or 160 USD, probably less in the US). It has fax (you know you want it), a brilliant inkjet printer and a scanner.

Scan to Evernote

When an organisation is old skool enough to send me something on paper, I remove the envelope, insert it into the printer depicted above, choose “Scan”, “Morten’s Mac Mini” (which is also serving as a media center, but that’s another story), then choose “Evernote”. It then eats the paper and adds it to my Evernote account. I didn’t touch a keyboard (unless I want to add tags or other meta data later on).

You can of course use your Macbook

The good

It’s easy and simple once set up. The device uses my wi-fi network, so I can hide it in a 220V equipped closet. It’s also a color printer. The feeder lets me scan multiple sheets in one go.

The bad

It can’t scan both sides at once. The feeder sometimes messes up. Evernote leaves the note open once added.

When adding a PDF, Evernote creates a new note for every page. I’m expecting Evernote to fix this bug anytime soon, and until then, I’m fine with just deleting the extra notes.

What you’ll need

a) An “HP OfficeJet J4680 All-in-One Wireless Printer”, but I guess most OfficeJets with scanners will come with the same software.

b) An Evernote account. You can make do with the free account, but if you want to search PDFs and get almost unlimited uploads, consider going premium .

c) A wireless network

d) A Mac, maybe your media server, but your laptop works, too. I read somewhere that this doesn’t work on Windows. If it does let me know.

How to set it up

1. Install the software and get the device up and running 2. launch the “HP Scan destinations” app3. untick any items you know you don’t want to skip through on your device4. Click the ‘+’ icon. Choose “Picture editing application”

6. The first entry we’ll create is for when you have a stack of individual sheets you want to add to Evernote in one go. Use the name “Evernote – Single sheets”, pick Evernote app from the Applications folder, and choose JPEG as your file type. Click Finish to save the item.

7. Add another for when you have a multi-page document you want to add to a single Evernote note. Name: Evernote – multiple sheets, Evernote.app, and choose PDF as the file type. Click Finish to save.
8. Drag your evernote items to the top of the list so they’ll appear as the first choices in your printer’s menu.

9. Click the Settings tab and choose the “Front panel”. This will change the settings for when you initiate scans from the printer. Choose Black and White, and a resolution of 200 for a setting that is sufficient for Evernote’s OCR to kick in, and still maintain a file size well below the 25 Mb maximum per note.

10. Close the dialog window.

That’s it. You’re ready to scan directly to Evernote.