Links Every Kindle Owner Should Have

[poohbear_nc]

[This sticky thread was originally created by MR member daffy4u - who originated the idea of having a central location for Kindle users to quickly find links to useful information that could improve their Kindling experience. She encourages all MR members to contribute links that they think would be useful to other MR members, and to comment on the usefulness of these links. daffy4u and all the MR members who have contributed links to this thread have created a community of knowledge that will continue to grow as the Kindle community adds new members, and new sources of information.

The links from the original thread have been organized by subject, to help you quickly locate information and answers to your questions.]


This week I was working with 2 other people with Kindle 2s. One of them expressed that she knew she was missing out on a lot of information that would allow her to use her Kindle to its fullest. I quickly cobbled together an email with several links to get her started.

I realized it would be much easier to point someone to a wiki page (and/or sticky thread) with all of the links that would be the most helpful to new and current Kindle owners.

I would like your input on sites that have been helpful to you or that you would like to share with Kindle owners. Please add your link and and a blurb on why or how you think it is helpful. You could give links to blog sites, or software sites or other discussion sites... whatever!


Here is the list I started with (with one or two additions since then and I know I left a lot out)


Click on one of these links to jump to the post.

MobileRead Links
Where To Get Kindle Books
Boards & Blogs
Software & Utilities
Hardware

[poohbear_nc]

MobileRead - for all things ebook and ebook readers

MobileRead's Kindle Forum - for all things Kindle

Visual Kindle Guide - a tips and tricks wiki

Kindle Myths and Partial Truths - the title speaks for itself

Kindle Serial Numbers - how to figure out which Kindle model you have

MobileRead Wiki - tons of information about ereaders and ebooks.

MobileRead Wiki Kindle FAQ - Most of your questions answered."

[poohbear_nc]

MobileRead's Download Guide for free Public Domain books. You can download this guide to your computer and transfer it to your Kindle documents folder, or surf to the MobileRead site on your Kindle web browser and download it directly into your Kindle. Over 11,000 books available here, all lovingly hand formatted by our own members.

Feedbooks Download Guide for free Public Domain books.

Manybooks.net for free Public Domain books (no download guide) and also free audiobooks.

1001Books - created by a MR member and Kindle owner (Daithi) to provide links to Public Domain books available at MobileRead or Feedbooks that are in formats usable on the Kindle - very easy to use.

Books on the Knob -- the site says "Bargain reads, book reviews, the Amazon Kindle and some games, technology and computers tossed in now and then."

Project Gutenberg The biggest creator of Public Domain ebooks on the net. You can download books wirelessly onto your Kindle from the site.

Puzux for interactive sudoku and crossword puzzles on your Kindle.

Internet Archive for free books and texts.

[poohbear_nc]

KindleBoards.com - Another very active Kindle board.

Reversing Everything - MobileRead member igorsk dissects the software and hardware of Kindle 1 and Kindle 2.

Massively Parallel Procrastination - Jesse Vincent's blog on the creation of Savory for Kindle 2 and various other projects

iReaderReview - switch11's very prolific blog (a personal favorite).


Kindle Forum, Kindle Social Network - a Kindle Social Networking site.

Kindle Formatting - Joshua Tallent's site on how to best format your ebook for the Kindle. He also offers formatting services.

The Kindle Chronicles - Len Edgerly's weekly podcast. Interviews, tips and tricks. Can be subscribed to via iTunes or downloaded directly from the website (and you can listen to it on your Kindle!)

The three blogs that I check daily are:

Amazon's Kindle Blog -- this is the same as the "Kindle Daily Post" item in the Kindle Storefront page in the Kindle itself. Using my browser means I don't have to turn on the Kindle's antenna just to see what Amazon might be promoting.

The Kindle Reader -- an almost daily posting with links to books for the Kindle. Most links are to Amazon, but sometimes to MobileRead or other sources for books.

Books on the Knob -- the site says "Bargain reads, book reviews, the Amazon Kindle and some games, technology and computers tossed in now and then."

[poohbear_nc]

Calibre Software and the Calibre Forum on MobileRead (ebook management software created by a MR member, it also allows you to create your own newspapers for free from RSS feeds).

Kindlepedia

Create your own Kindle-formatted articles from Wikipedia by inserting the URL from the page you want to format from Wikipedia and press the button. A link to the formatted article will appear; just click on it to download to your computer. Then drag the file into the documents folder on your Kindle using the USB cord.

In short, you enter the URL of any Wikipedia article (only the English version at present). After a few seconds, you get a link for downloading the article as a nicely formatted Mobi file, ready for you to transfer to your Kindle or open in any other Mobi-compatible reader.
I've found this especially useful for reading long articles at my leisure. I'm outside Whispernet range, so can't otherwise access Wikipedia on my Kindle. In the articles I've received so far, the formatting has been excellent.



Replying to another post made me realize I should be adding more Kindle related software links as I come across them. I've been saving them as bookmarks and have not tried most of them. Here it what I have currently. Not all are specific to the Kindle (BTW, this thread may be going to the wiki in the near future):

Adobe pdf2txt and pdf2htm online converter

Adobe PDF Conversion by Email Attachment
If the Adobe PDF file is on local media, such as a hard drive, CD-ROM, or internal server, it can be submitted as a MIME attachment to an e-mail message. All converted Adobe PDF documents will be sent back to the sender as MIME attachments. For plain text, mail the attached PDF to pdf2txt@adobe.com. For HTML, mail the attached PDF to pdf2html@adobe.com.

Feedburner - You can use this online tool to create RSS feeds where none exist or more specialized feeds. You can then plug those feeds into Calibre for custom newspaper and blog "books".

eCub - a simple to use EPUB and MobiPocket ebook creator

To summarize, this is what eCub does:

* Creates unencrypted EPUB files from text or XHTML files;
* Creates MobiPocket files if you have the mobigen application;
* allows editing of the text or XHTML files with a simple internal editor or designated external editors;
* helps you create a simple cover design image;
* optionally creates title, content and cover pages;
* can be run from the command line as part of a build script;
* can be used in portable mode (data and settings are stored locally);
* can convert your book content to audio files (WAV or MP3).

eCub does not do WYSIWYG or syntax-highlighted editing, and it currently only produces unencrypted EPUB and MobiPocket output. It's likely to be useful for simple projects, such as novels, where using an expensive tool such as Adobe's InDesign is overkill.

We're providing eCub free of charge, on Windows, Linux, Mac, FreeBSD and Solaris, for personal and commercial use. However, eCub is not an open source application.

PDFRead - You can read my exploits creating mobi books with PDFRead here.

PDFMYURL - Online tool for creating PDFs. I've read it can be used from the Kindle browser but I haven't tried it or seen an actual sample of it being done.

fb2pdf - I ran across this one today in a Teleread post. It is used to convert FictionBook Writer ebook to several formats including the Kindle. The site is in Russian but it's very easy to see how to use it. I'm not familiar with FB books but someone else might be.

Auto Kindle eBook Converter

Lacking a fancy name and a fancy interface, and still in beta, Auto Kindle eBook Converter nevertheless quickly converts some of the most-used desktop formats to a Kindle-friendly MOBI for free.

Compatible with PDF, HTML, LIT, PDB, and CHM files, the program opens to a Windows file browser. Choose the file you want to convert, hit Open, and then choose your destination folder. The converter goes to work, generally converting files quickly--although this depends on the length of your document. When it's done, connect your Kindle to your computer and move the file into the Documents folder. Safely disconnect the Kindle, and the converted file will appear in your main list of documents, automatically converted on the Kindle to its default MPB format.

That's what I can find on my laptop for now. As I run across more I will post them and hope all of you reading will do the same.

[poohbear_nc]

MR member Strether (karma coming your way!), kindly shared a YouTube video he found on how to change the battery in the Kindle 2. It is crazy simple.

If you try this, you will void your warranty and there is no guarantee that Amazon (as generous as they usually are) will help you if you mess it up! Try this at your own risk. (save the old battery so you can put it back in if you need to )

That said, my Kindle 2 is out of warranty with Amazon but I purchased the extended warranty so I have another year to go. I would still give this a try. The company Newpower99 is selling the batteries for $24.95.

Enjoy the video and try to ignore the hokey "Bolero" music in the background.

[eisegesis]

Can anyone create a website (similar to Project Gutenberg, Feedbooks, etc.) from which you can directly download files to the Kindle (for free), while using the Kindle browser?

In other words, let's say I have all my documents, ebooks, etc. on my website and I'd like to be able to use the 3G connection on the Kindle to download any of them at anytime. Can I do what Project Gutenberg has done with there website or do they have special permission from Amazon?

[Latinandgreek]

Great job collecting all these links, Poohbear-nc.

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by eisegesis

Can anyone create a website (similar to Project Gutenberg, Feedbooks, etc.) from which you can directly download files to the Kindle (for free), while using the Kindle browser?

In other words, let's say I have all my documents, ebooks, etc. on my website and I'd like to be able to use the 3G connection on the Kindle to download any of them at anytime. Can I do what Project Gutenberg has done with there website or do they have special permission from Amazon?

I suggest you re-post your question in the general forum below the Sticky Threads - to get more people reading and answering you. I'm sure folk are currently experimenting with the capabilities offered by the new browser in the K3.

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

Great job collecting all these links, Poohbear-nc.

Actually, most of those links and posts came from me. The original thread I started was accidentally deleted during some maintenance.

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Actually, most of those links and posts came from me. The original thread I started was accidentally deleted during some maintenance.

Quite true - as stated in the OP of this thread - this is all daffy4u's work - I just re-organized it by subject.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Quite true - as stated in the OP of this thread - this is all daffy4u's work - I just re-organized it by subject.

Sorry, that had slipped my notice. Thanks to daffy4u as well!

[robb01]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Quite true - as stated in the OP of this thread - this is all daffy4u's work - I just re-organized it by subject.

Thanks! It's quite helpful

[S.Canton]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

Great job collecting all these links, Poohbear-nc.

Agreed, there's tons of useful information and I really appreciate it.

[sirmaru]

My preferred web sites for the Kindle:

http://mobile.nytimes.com/

http://news.google.com/

http://wapipedia.org/wikipedia/index.php

http://mobile.srh.noaa.gov/

http://blog.diannegorman.net/2010/09...ortcuts-et-al/