Tag: kindle

All new Kindle – smaller, lighter, and faster

Oh, 16 months after my Kindle 2, the new generation of Kindle is announced today (Kindle 3). Available from 27th August (in over 140 countries), the new Kindle is 21 percent smaller, 17 percent lighter, more memory (4GB), better battery life (up to a month without wireless) and equiped with a better contrast, 20 percent faster refresh rate on its screen. Same as the DX, now it comes in two colors (graphite, and white). Unlike the Kindle 2, there will be two connection / pricing configurations: a $139 WiFi only version, and a $189 3G version (I guess it’s the same for International version). The screen however will remain the same 6-inch size.

From the look of this new device, the most notable change is the relocation of the direction pad to next to the keyboard. I bet the keyboard is still very difficult to use, however. Software-wise, the big thing to me is the enhanced PDF Reader – with dictionary lookup, notes, and highlights. Lastly, a new WebKit-Based browser, that I really want to try out.

So, how the new one compares to the Kindle 2, side by side ?

Kindle differencesSome more pictures of the new Kindle:

Kindle platform now includes Android and adds audio, video

Competition is good, I guess. The success of Apple iPad makes Amazon works harder and harder to roll out new and exciting stuff. One of the key advantages of Kindle “platform” is you can access your Kindle library anywhere and have your reading synchronized across Kindle devices and multiple smartphones. And this platform compose of Kindle 2, Kindle 3,  Kindle DX, BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Mac, PC, and now Android-powered phones.

As far as I can tell, the features in this Kindle for Andriod is more or less the same as other devices’ applications. However, the screen that shows your book library looks a little bit different.

Android kindle 1Android kindle 2

Another exciting news is the embedded video and audio clips in Kindle books on iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. Not as crazy as the Alice for the iPad I bet, but still it is the right direction to introduce multimedia to ebooks. Since it is the new new stuff, I just checked and there are only 13 ebooks with audio / video in US store and only 7 available in Asia store.

Kindle audio-video

From Kindle to C25K

I am not an athletic person, especially after the heart surgery 3 years ago. So the most I can do are some casual weight lifting, power walks or slow jogging. I go to gym once a week (I know, it’s not enough), and now I can jog nonstop for about 2K and I always wanted to improve this. I thought, maybe one day I could join the yearly 10K run in town, with many of my friends.

So, I started to look for some good training plans, even not in a very active mode, to see how I can achieve this. And finally I found one very good training plan last weekend, all because of the Kindle and the social network … so, here is the story … Couple of days ago I blogged about the way to upgrade the Kindle 2 International to firmware version 2.5.2.:

  • I first upgraded my Kindle (get your Kindle 3 here), and then I blogged about it;
  • A tweet about this story was then sent thru Tweetdeck, with a shortened URL via bit.ly;
  • I monitored the tweet thru the search function in Tweetdeck and also the information provided by bit.ly, and found some retweets;
  • I then surfed the re-tweeters’ profile, found their blogs and tried to see anything I could learn from these new friends;
  • One of the tweeters from Hangzhou, China posted in his blog on how he enjoyed the training programme of C25K.com;
  • My next stop of course was the site C25K.com, studied the training programme in detail. And in the next hour, I found the podcasts of the programme from one of the fans, and downloaded to my iPhone.
  • Yesterday morning, I completed the first lesson of the week 1 C25K training program and really really enjoyed it !!

Can you see how the two unrelated things linked together by the social network ?! Amazing … and you know what, don’t stop by just posting things in your blog, Twitter or Facebook. But try to follow the “life” of your blog post, your tweets or your status updates to see where it will lead to, many times it will surprise you !!

c25k

Manually upgrade Kindle 2 International to 2.5 (2.5.2)

Anticipated the firmware 2.5 upgrade for weeks but still it’s not available thru the Whispernet, so I told myself it’s time to find another way … by browsing the sites like mobileread.com and kindleboards.com, I found there is a way to do it manually – even though the firmware 2.5 (or 2.5.2) is not available from Amazon website.

In previous firmware upgrades, Amazon placed a link in the help page such that you could download the binary file and upgrade your Kindle manually if you didn’t want to wait for or could not access to the Whispernet. However, somehow Amazon does not do that for firmware 2.5. On the other hand, they placed the firwware binary file in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) and some smart people found it  (and it’s now named 2.5.2) … So, here are the steps and some screen shots of the version 2.5 new features.

(Note: these binary files work for Kindle 2 International version only and the files are available from the download links as of 2010-June-12)

  • First of all check your firmware version in your Kindle 2. In my case, it’s version 2.3.2.
  • So I downloaded the firmware 2.3.3 and upgraded my Kindle 2 International;

http://rapidshare.com/files/382788816/Update_kindle2_gw_2.3.3.bin

  • Then I downloaded the firmware 2.3.4 and upgraded again;

http://rapidshare.com/files/382794043/Update_kindle2_gw_2.3.4.bin

  • Lastly, downloaded the firmware 2.5.2 file and upgraded … simple and it worked !!

http://www.mediafire.com/?nqy2qmnmyjm

(To upgrade, transfer the binary file to the root directory of your Kindle, then go to Home / Setting / Update Your Kindle, then click yes)

Update 1 : (2010-06-16) The download is now available from Amazon website for your Kindle US and International version !!

Manage social network in Kindle

Kindle Software Update Version 2.5

The 2.5 software update for Kindle, Kindle 3 and Kindle DX is coming soon. Amazon is rolling out the new software update to first a limited group of Kindle users and plan a broad release in late May 2010. I shall update you all the goodies of this update once I got my Kindle upgraded.

Here’s a list of the coming enhancements:

  1. Collections: Organize your books and documents into one or more collections.
  2. PDF Pan and Zoom: Zoom into PDFs and pan around to easily view small print and detailed tables or graphics.
  3. Password Protection: Password protect your Kindle when you’re not using it.
  4. More Fonts & Improved Clarity: Enjoy two new larger font sizes and sharper fonts for an even more comfortable reading experience.
  5. Facebook & Twitter Posts: Share book passages with friends on Facebook and Twitter directly from your Kindle.
  6. Popular Highlights: See what the Kindle community thinks are the most interesting passages in the books you’re reading.

I can imagine I will use the second enhancement a lot …

Update 1: (2010-06-12) You can now upgrade the Kindle firmware to 2.5.2 manually, don’t miss it.