The new Kindle 4—the one without touchscreen capability—doesn’t run the Kindle 3 screensaver hack, so even if you pay Amazon the extra $30 to disable the ads you’re stuck with some generic default images. If this is driving you crazy, take heart. A Kindle 4 owner named kubbur has graciously begun documenting how he’s managed [...]
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Set public domain content free from locked PDF files
Lately I’ve been digging around online to find old genre short stories written in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In many cases it’s clear that the works have passed into the public domain, at least here in the U.S., but in other cases there’s a questionable copyright claim, as when a modern publisher slaps [...]
New Kindle weather website launches, competes with other browser utilities
I got an email from Kindle Weather Station this morning, a new service in beta that offers a full screen weather report (via the experimental browser) for your neighborhood. The good news is the weather is presented in a huge, easy-to-read layout that I find quite useful. The other news—maybe not “bad” but not necessarily [...]
Learn write more better from book teachings without money
Oh man, I really should have read these free writing guides before I tried to craft my own headline. Now I just feel stupid. Actually, I feel like an SEO rebel, because from what I hear, writing a nonsensical headline is tantamount to Google search result suicide. Oh well! Someday I’ll learn write more better! [...]
Alternatives to Stanza on iOS
Update: Forget all of this! Stanza delivered a surprise update to the Apple app store on November 10th, 2011, that restored functionality on iOS 5. But only update if you need to: this latest version breaks the app if you’re running an older iOS like 4.3 (thanks to Paula for pointing that out in the [...]
Checking out Kindle ebooks from the public library: a quick demo
While I was wrapping up a conference on a totally unrelated matter yesterday, Amazon unveiled its long awaited public library lending feature for Kindle ebooks. You can find out the official details at www.amazon.com/kindle/publiclibraries. This morning I gave it a shot with my local library. I’ve never particularly liked the whole OverDrive experience with EPUB [...]
How to make a Kindle case from an old book
I hadn’t intended to cut up the used book I bought online. But it turned out to be exactly the right size to house my Kindle, and it wasn’t in great shape to begin with, and my whole philosophy about digital publishing is that the physical container is not eternal and shouldn’t be treated with [...]
Apple’s OS X Lion can create EPUB files!
If you’re using or plan to upgrade to the latest Apple operating system, Lion, you’ll discover a nifty ebook trick baked into the Automator program: it can create EPUB files! The website Mac OS X Automation reported it first, so far as I know. From that site: Mac OS X Lion includes an Automator action, [...]
How to transfer your Borders ebook account to Kobo
As you may have heard by now, Borders in the U.S. is officially kaput—it will begin closing its remaining 399 stores as early as this Friday, and be wiped from the face of the retail landscape by September. But that doesn’t mean you’re going to lose any access to the ebooks you bought through Borders [...]
Change the font on your Kindle without hacking it
I finally updated my installation of Calibre the other day and started playing around with the plugin manager under Preferences, and I found out that the Kindle Collections Manager plugin has a secret power: it can let you add a new font to your Kindle without requiring any sort of hack or jailbreak. If you [...]
Readability adds “send to Kindle” support
Readability, the free service that makes web pages easier on the eyes with a simple click, has introduced a new “send to Kindle” feature. This is essentially what Kindlebility has been offering for a few months, but now it’s baked right into the original service. You’ll have to install a free add-on to Firefox, and [...]
Build your own multi-article EPUB with GrabMyBooks Firefox add-on
Do you forage the web for articles that you’d rather read on your ereader device? Here’s a cool tool that lets you collect them into a single downloadable EPUB file.