How to download free e-books to your Kindle

One of great strengths of the Amazon Kindle is its superb integration with the Amazon Kindle Store. With this feature, you can simply select your desired e-book on the Amazon website and it will more or less automagically appear on your Kindle device within a minute or so.

That’s great, but suppose you want to get hold of a free e-books, or a paid-for e-book from an online bookstore site other than Amazon?  Well firstly, good news for those of us in the USA; Amazon has a section containing ‘free’ e-books. For the rest of the world Amazon charge a small amount to cover electronic delivery cost (Typically $0.99c).

Kindles have three methods of obtaining digital content:-

• Wireless networking (IEEE 802.11G)
• (Kindle option) 3G Cellular (Amazon may charge for ‘Whispernet’ 3G delivery).
• USB link.

Of course, not all Kindle models have 3G delivery built in, and rely upon your Wireless Internet (eg. in your home) for communication with the store. In this case your Internet bill covers its usage too. Some sources have suggested that if you change your location in the “Manage your Kindle” section of the website, by switching to ‘USA’, it may be possible to access the free e-books without the delivery charge from overseas. Of course this suggestion probably conflicts with your terms of use of Amazon’s services at least, and is definitely not recommended.

There is another way to get free e-books and other ‘vendors’ e-books on your Kindle, so please read on. Firstly, however we need to address the situation about e-book formats. The Kindle works well with Amazon’s own proprietary format “.azw”, however this is similar to the Mobipocket ebook standard, and the Kindle can read these “.prc” or “.mobi” e-books directly.

E-book Formats

Unfortunately many e-books available from other suppliers use the “.epub” Open Publication format. Converters are available (eg. KindleGen), or the Stanza program. With these you download the .epub file to your PC and then convert it to .mobi format using the program. Make sure you download the Stanza for Windows or Mac, not the iPhone version!

To use Stanza, load your .epub document into Stanza and then use the menu to export the document as a ‘.mobi’ file. Then, plug your Kindle into the USB port of your computer, navigate your computers’ File Explorer to the ‘documents’ folder in the Kindle drive and simply drag the converted file into that folder. Finally safely remove the ‘Kindle’ drive from your computer and your new book should appear on the Kindle book menu.

The Kindle only supports the following file formats directly:-

• Adobe Portable Document format (.pdf)
• Amazon proprietary format (.azw, .azw1, .azw2)
• Plain Text (.txt)
• Unprotected Mobipocket (.mob, .mobi, .prc)
• Audible (.aa, .aax) (Audiobook format)
• MP3 (.mp3) (Audiobook or background music format)

Some other file formats can be converted by Amazon (for free) by sending, for example, your Microsoft Word document to your Amazon Kindle’s email address. Amazon then delivers the content in a usable format to your Kindle. Files can be delivered to your device by the Wireless method of your choice.

Getting free e-books

Project Gutenberg, Google Books and FeedBooks are just a few sources of thousands of free (and paid in the latter site) e-books. Assuming you access the sites using your Internet Browser, the first thing you want to do is check the format of the desired e-book to make sure it is “.epub” format. If the book is free, a simple way to do this is to download it to your computer and then check the file properties for the correct file extension name.

All you then do is convert the file to .mobi format, using for example the free Stanza program, copy it to your Kindle over USB and there is your new book!

We will shortly publish another article on e-book sites for free and paid-for downloads.

Pocket Book 902 9.7” EBook Reader Review

Our Pocketbook Pro 902 arrived with eager anticipation. Surprisingly, after reviewing the larger display readers on the market,  the shortlist started off short and came down to two very quickly. It was between this one and the Amazon Kindle DX. Both were similarly priced, and it appeared that they both used the same E-Ink display. The 9.7” monochrome display resolution of 1200×825 pixels with the ability to use grey. We were not disappointed by the clarity of text and diagrams!

The box.

As a surprise to many that are not familiar with E-Ink technology, out of the box, the display shows a “PocketBook No1 Reader” advertisement. One is inclined to wonder how to peel off this protective membrane showing the advert so the real display is uncovered! Of course, this is the real display and the technology allows the display to remain showing the last page of text, even when the device is powered off.

Talking of the packaging the unit is supplied in a smart green box and unlike some competing products, comes with a slip-case that appears to be made of furry-cardboard with a green inner liner. The slip case does the job very well.

To get you started, the Pocketbook came with over 1000 e-books containing  the old classics which are out of copyright. There were many languages of books, but thankfully they were categorized by language. We didn’t need the non-English versions so we removed them using the USB-PC connection where the Pocketbook appears as a regular Flash thumb drive.

The on-off button has to be held down to activate the device, another useful thoughtful to prevent accidental turn-on when carrying it around in its case. When powered-up, by default changes briefly to an advertisement for “Bookland” (the main online bookshop that is associated with Pocketbooks), and then drops into the main screen. The main screen can be customised to an extent, but normally shows a clock, a list of function icons such as ‘Library’, ‘Notes’ ‘Applications’ ‘Music’, and probably most importantly of all a short list of recently opened e-books. The latter means that it’s only a few button presses to jump right to the last page you were reading (as the device automatically remembers the page for you).

There are probably two main reasons why you might be choosing a large format display. The first is if your vision is poor; you may need to enlarge the text significantly. On a smaller screen you may end up with only (literally)

The Case

a handful of words on each screen. With the Pocketbook Pro 901 a pair of buttons on the right hand edge allow the user to increase or decrease the font size while viewing a text. For most E-book digital formats, text will re-flow appropriately, so you don’t need to keep scrolling across the screen to read parts that have gone off to the right.

In fact PocketBook surprised us by re-flowing Adobe .pdf books too when the font size is increased. Even so, .pdf documents are designed for a specific page size, and the original layout becomes a bit lost. That brings us to the second reason why a large format screen might be desirable. The ‘902 is very capable of displaying a full size ‘letter’ or ‘A4’ page on one of its own pages. For anything with a few diagrams, tables or technical book layout, the larger screen proved to be invaluable.

Easy to change font size.

Ergonomically the Pocketbook is more suited to right-handed people as the page-turn buttons are on the right. Of course the device orientation is controllable by a in-built sensor, so as you  rotate the reader the orientation usually shifts. The pocketbook does a good job of rendering the screen between portrait and landscape formats for reading. We were quite happy reading by  holding the device in one hand only (the right hand!). It is light enough to not cause strain, and the page turn buttons can be easily operated by the thumb.

For entering text to the device, for example for use in the web-browser or in the search function, one invokes a ‘soft keyboard; on the screen. Unfortunately, without a touch screen, entering  text is very slow using the joystick style of cursor movement button. Other readers have miniature qwerty keyboards which although are still fiddly, are probably a little faster. Its a good job  that the main device function of simply reading books is not affected by this shortcoming.

As the use of the e-reader with a larger LCD for technical documents is an important one, we decided to throw a few technical books at it to see how long it took to load and the responsiveness.  We used an 800 page A5 format book “Head First Statistics” from O’Reiley, which contained many diagrams and changes of text. The book was copied onto a regular removable 32GByte micro  SD card, and inserted into the Pocketbook. The ‘paper size’ for the original .pdf file was 9.25” x 8”. The E-Ink display size of the pocketbook Pro 902 was 8” by 5.5” (approximately), however  paper books need margins, and the Pocketbook nicely clipped the unused space on the left and right side of each page, thus saving maybe an inch or more. The resulting page was quite readable.

Performance is the nemesis of E-readers, which of course are primarily designed for long battery use. Large .pdf files containing complex layouts demand high CPU and memory resources. The  PocketBook coped with all the documents we gave it, although once while paging through a large complex .pdf document it appeared to ‘drop’ the text and returned to the main menu. It  resumed the book without issue. This is far better than some competing E-readers that we have tested which would hang on large documents (if they loaded at all). Compared to PCs and Tablets,  particularly on .pdf files the Pocketbook is slow; page turns taking maybe 1-2 seconds. It’s fine for sequential reading, but can get a bit frustrating trying to zip a few pages backwards and forwards. There is a ‘go-to’ page, and a ‘search’ facility for non linear reading, but again without a touch screen and a fast CPU, the functions are only adequate if you can wait a few seconds.

Some of the other facilities offered by the Pocketbook were ‘Text to Speech’ , where a synthesised voice attempts to read the text. This facility was adequate, and similar in comparison to other E-readers. The speaker volume and clarity was excellent.

The dictionary was not as good as some of the better known E-readers as it didn’t offer synonyms, and we felt it’s operation was not as well integrated into the reading task. It did offer foreign translations of words which might be handy if your book is not in your own tongue and you need a little help now and then.

Easy to use buttons.

The Pocketbook can play background music of course, although this shortens the use of the battery. Its WIFI connection was undramatic and caused no problems without 802.11n setup. Bluetooth for wireless headphones and keyboard are supported, but we did not test these. USB connectivity comes in two modes, ‘Charge’ or ‘PC’. In PC mode thee device presents two new drives to the computer (one being the micro-sd card, the other being on-board storage). Transfer rates over 2MBytes/sec were adequate. It must be said that organisation of files on the device is possibly more orientated toward those with an aptitude for navigating around. We preferred this approach as the user is in control, but it could confuse the non-technical.

The last big question when reviewing an E-book Reader has to be about the ease of acquiring and using digital E-book content. Whilst other popular E-Readers seem to strongly integrate the preferred supplier into the delivery system possibly making it difficult to load content from other suppliers, the Pocketbook is much more open in its approach. Not only that, but it seems to support the widest range of E-book types we have seen (including Adobe DRM protected content). Again, for this reason, it might be a little less slick at the buying E-books to delivery system as competing vendors, but with a little more procedural knowledge on the part of the user, virtually any digital bookstore can be your supplier! PocketBooks have teamed up with Bookland.

This store is accessible from the ‘library’ section of the E-reader, but it seems to really only invoke the inbuilt web-browser to go to their site. The E-reader can be is registered through them but the integration seems to be fairly loose, still requiring manual login.  However, the reader will appreciate that this E-book reader was not purchased so that all the digital material is channeled from one source!

Pocketbook Pro 902 Technical Specification Summary

Library Screen.

Core platform CPU: 533 MHz
RAM Internal memory: 256 MB
Internal Flash Storage: 1 Gb
Screen size: 9.7″
Resolution (pixels): 1200 x 825
I/O port USB-port: Micro-USB x1
Earphone jack (Audio out): 3.5 mm stereo x1
Micro SD External Micro SD card: x1 (32GB Max)
Communication WiFi: (802.11 b/g) + BlueTooth
G-sensor: Standard
Battery capacity: 5.5 W, 3.7 V / 1530 mAH (removable). Up to 7000 page flips on one charge
Speaker: 0.5 W x2 speakers
Special function: Text to speech
Operating system: Linux (Kernel Linux 2.6.28)

PocketBook Pro 902 White 9.7 E-Ink eBook Reader Average Rating: 3 total customer reviews...

Should I buy an E-reader or a Tablet?

After all, a Tablet (or Pad, or Slate) can do everything an E-reader can, and more, right? If I buy a Tablet then I can’t go wrong, can I?

The answer depends upon a deeper understanding of how important reading is and the ‘comfortableness’ of the reading experience, including where you want to read, what you want to read and a few ergonomic factors.

Personally, when we want to relax and read a novel, probably the last thing we want is to be presented with another glaring light emitting LCD display! After a day in the office in front of a PC screen, or an evening watching TV, do we have to presented with yet another glaring light-emitting device barraging our eyeballs? This, therefore is one major reason why an E-Reader might be an important preference over a Slate. Of course, if you read outside in daylight, the reflective display technology of an most E-readers also means that you can easily read the screen in daylight. The lack of illuminated screen also helps to add to an e-readers typical battery life of weeks between recharges, as opposed to hours for a Slate.

That said, the display is (at present) only monochrome (grey scale), but colour is to appear before too long. The low power facility also means that the device is not as responsive as a Slate, and may not be powerful enough for display and happily scroll through a 20MByte technical book or magazine. Here, the Slate is clearly the winner, particularly as most slate also have touch screens, which are great for zipping around a technical document, particularly if it is heavily illustated

So, which one do you buy? the answer is easy – both of course! The E-reader is perfect for novels, bedtime and relaxation. The Slate is perfect for technical documents, email, internet and a zillion other applications. But come to think of it, my smart-phone does most of those things, its just that the screen can be a bit small for e-reading.

What is a Kindle?

Which type of Kindle are people buying?

The biggest demand for e-readers is presently the smaller units as they are relatively low-cost, are perfectly suited to reading of chapter-books (novels) and are very portable. Most e-readers can last several weeks on a single battery charge, and the reflective display technology can be read outside and is easy on the eyes, appearing much like paper.

E-Ink and LCD close up

Where is the Kindle Technology going?

The new Kindle – Kindle Fire!

You may already know that on the 28th September, Amazon announced a new Kindle, the Kindle Fire. Less well known is the announcement of two other Kindle models. In fact, the Kindle Fire is not an e-reader, it’s a slate or pad, and so represents a new branch in the Kindle lineage.

It follows that the significant part of the announcement is the Kindle Fire. Amazon appears to be going after the ‘Slate Tablet’ market started by Apple with the iPad™, and closely followed by the likes of Acer and Samsung with their own similar ‘me-too’ offerings.

Of course, the Slate market is still evolving, as users find out what slates are good-for, and where they are less useful. The key factor here is that with the Kindle Fire, Amazon are anticipating an evolvement of the Slate concept, and at the same time bringing users even closer into the Amazon supply chain. The concept of making it easy to purchase content from the original device supplier was pioneered by the Apple iStore, and utilised by Amazon for Kindle ebooks, but here Amazon have gone one step further by tying the devices’ everyday operation into their own Internet based cloud computing infrastructure. Effectively they are now taking a page out Google’s strategy by giving them an opportunity to maintain a close customer involvement on a minute-by-minute basis. This combined with Amazon subscription streaming content delivery means Amazon are firmly placing the Kindle Fire as their portal to consume a wide range of media they provide.

On a more technical aspect, the Kindle Fire is different to many other slates, the trend has been to boost memory capacity and CPU speed, however with the Fire, Amazon have leveraged their own ‘cloud’ infrastructure to offload some of the storage and processing requirements usually associated with slates. It would be wrong to say the Fire is limited, it’s using reasonable CPU, graphics and memory capacity for today (maybe a bit stingy on secondary storage), but with a good, fast Internet connection it should make up for it using Amazon’s cloud storage. This factor combined with the close post-sale customer tie-in for additional content sales, probably means that Amazon has been able to crunch the price. At 6” the screen size is still small compared with many other slates, and it’s pitched a media delivery and apps, so it will be interesting to see where it fits into the user gamut between those using smartphones and full size slates.

The other two models (released in late November) are conventional e-readers with ‘e-ink ‘ displays, long battery life, smaller and lighter, and now with the benefit of the same size 6” multi-touch screens. Historically e-ink LCD displays couldn’t support capacitive touch screen overlays, but they are now appearing from several suppliers as technology improves. Pricing is held low, but at the moment there is no announcement of a large screen version. Reportedly, volume sales of e-book readers are definitely at the low price point end of the market, that is, small size units, highly portable and the lower cost the better. If implemented well, a touch screen interface should make the reading and searching experience much more enjoyable and intuitive to use.

Advantages of E-books over regular books

We are in the midst of a revloution in the world of books. Normal books, printed on paper, are being threatened by the amazing technology of eBooks. Some would argue that the invention of the eBook and eReaders is the end of both traditional books, AND bookstores.

So just what is so good about eBooks and eReaders that keeps people buying them over and over, instead of choosing traditional paper books? What are the main differences? Well, the traditional paper book is easy to use, simply because of the ergonomics of paper; plus you can transport it from one place to another without problem. It can be used for study, and some might argue that curling up on the couch with a good paper-book far surpasses doing the same with an eReader device. eReaders do have their limits, they sometimes lag with page turns, there are no color pictures with eInk devices, and regular paper books don’t run out of batteries!

The advantages of eBooks over regular books are that we do not waste huge quantities of paper, you simply download the books right onto your eReader device. You don’t have to carry tens of heavy books with you on vacation – eReaders can store thousands of books, all in the palm of your hand. Plus eReaders can recommend you books that you might like based on books you already have, even previewing the first few pages of recommended books – with traditional books at a store, you only have the cover and the blurb at the back to go off. Even eBooks themselves look like regular pages of a traditional book due to eInk technology. eReaders have built in dictionaries, so if there’s a word in a book that you don’t understand, you can simply look it up. Yes, you can study with traditional books, but most eReaders can go online to a whole world of information.

The new technology is changing the way we read books, and it’s understandable that some people are still reluctant to it – and who can blame them? Humans have been using traditional books for thousands of years now, and it’s sad that technology is making them redundant, but the advantages far surpass the disadvantages.

Kindle 3G Review

In a day and age of non-stop go-go-go, I find myself without patience at the end of the day to actually sit still and read a book. Would the Kindle change my approach to reading? Would I actually use it to get through a book? I was lucky enough to get a Kindle on loan, so I thought ‘why not see’? Before I start my review, I would like to note that the last time I actually sat down and read -anything- that wasn’t an article/story online, was the second book in a series about a very well known wizard, and even that was because I was bedridden with a severe case of food poisoning so had nothing else to do, as I wasn’t allowed out of bed! Would my attitude toward books change? I was about to find out.

I was surprised at how small the Kindle was when I first opened the box, the Kindle itself was thin enough that, given enough force, I felt could snap quite easily, amazing that such a tiny thing could hold so many (3,500 or so) books! It was by no means flimsy though. (Not that I tried snapping it!). The most important thing was it was light and comfortable enough to hold easily, even with one hand. There are buttons on each side so no matter if you’re a lefty or a righty, you can still read with ease while pressing the buttons with your thumb without being uncomfortable. The size meant that the Kindle would fit in my bag with relative ease. The only downside is that the case doesn’t come with it, so it would be unprotected in my bag unless I went out and bought one.

I don’t bother reading manuals for most things, and this was no exception. It was really simple to work out, slide and release the button at the bottom of the Kindle and voila, the Kindle has been switched on! Normally if you buy a Kindle, you have to register it. Unless you have an Amazon account then it’s already done for you. This was the only time I’d probably need to read the manual, but since the Kindle was on loan, I had no need to do this. The Kindle I was using had internet connectivity which needed setting up, but I managed to do this without the need of the manual. It really is that simple!

I started on the Home screen which showed the catergories of books on this particular Kindle. The writing was easy to read, no need for extra lighting, e-ink is pretty amazing, it looks just like a page from a book, only not! I selected a Shakespeare novel to begin with, and started reading. The text was clear and easy to read. The page turns were quick. I decided to try the text to speech, which was a clear voice – although it seemed to have a few issues with Shakespeare, and I had to play close attention to what the voice was saying. In the end I had to turn it off as more complicated books seemed to confuse it!

I then tried another book, I forgot the name, but it had poems and pictures. The pictures looked really great, and the text to speech worked wonderfully. Sometimes the page auto-turned a little too slow compared to the voice, but other than that, I couldn’t find a fault.

The store is easy to use, it downloads e-books straight to the Kindle itself, which saves a lot of effort! We have an article on our site how to get other books onto the Kindle. It has 4GB of internal memory, although only three of those are usuable for storing books. You can store around upto 3,500 books, which is more than enough! If you do happen to go over the limit, there’s currently no memory expansion available. There’s an ‘experimental’ menu which has a browser for web browsing, and an MP3 player – this is also where you’ll find the text-to-speech function. The experimental menu is mostly a testing phase, and they should be implemented fully in future generations of the Kindle. You can also upgrade the free internet on this menu. (It’d already been done on the Kindle I had on loan, so I didn’t get a chance to test it out.)

Pros of the Kindle: Small and comfortable to hold, even with one hand. Good quality pictures. Good battery life. Easy to use. High contrast E-Ink, it’s just like looking at a piece of paper. Easy to use QWERTY keyboard, Text to speech works well with most books. Enough memory to hold 3,500 books. Free internet with supported Kindles. An up to date dictionary is also very useful.

Cons of the Kindle: Accessories must be bought seperately. Voice gets a bit confused on complicated books and lags on page turns sometimes. Keyboard input lags a little if you’re a fast typer (While using the dictionary search), no memory expansion, reports of sporadic connection issues with the free wireless network.

Conclusion: The Kindle is amazingly easy to use, packed with features that readers love. It has an amazing variety of books available to download, plus the battery, which can last upto a month without charging, means you don’t have to worry about it for a while! It’s small enough to carry around, and light enough that you could barely even notice it was there. The 4GB of storage means you can carry thousands of books all on the one device. Would I, the non-reader use it again in the future? Probably yes! It ranks higher than many of its contenders, I feel it’s well worth the price, and would definitely recommend!

Kindle Wi-Fi, 6″ Ink Pearl Display Technical Specification Summary

Internal Flash Storage: 4GB (3GB for user content)
Screen size: 6″
Weight: 8.5 ounces (241 Grams)
Resolution (pixels): 600×800
I/O port USB-port: USB 2.0
Earphone jack (Audio out): 3.5 mm audio jack.
Communication WiFi: 802.11b, 802.11g, or 802.11n (in b or g compatibility mode) standard with support for WEP, WPA and WPA2 security using password authentication; does not connect to WPA and WPA2 secured networks using 802.1X authentication methods; does not support connecting to ad-hoc (or peer-to-peer) Wi-Fi networks.
Battery capacity: Lasts two months with wireless turned off, based off half-hour of daily reading. Wireless always on and the battery lasts for three weeks average.
Charge Time: Fully charges in approximately 4.5 hours.
Speakers: Rear mounted stereo speakers.
Content Formats Supported: Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX)), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion.

Kindle Keyboard 3G, Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 6" E Ink Display Average Rating: 36,520 total customer reviews...

Where have all the Bookstores gone?

Everyone knows that the era of the general bookstore seems to be slipping away. Despite an attempt to transform into meeting places for coffee, and to broaden supply to magazines and DVDs, recent closures and liquidations sales show that this remedy has at best delayed the inevitable; but why?

Our own analysis concludes that yes, books are generally too expensive to retail in high-street shops, and this assertion is borne-out because many discount ‘surplus’ bookstores and on-line discount stores are still around. Our ‘Gen Y’ team member suggested it was because paper book sales are being replaced by Kindles. That must be a whole lot of Kindles (“Millions of people now own Kindles,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com).

Of course, the truth is probably a bit of both, and we think a large sprinkle of something else called ‘modern living’.  How many people have as much time for reading as they used to? We love to read, but to take a book around with us is often difficult and clumsy. Can we snatch ten minutes here or there – of course we can; but we wouldn’t take our book around with us in our ten minutes. We might ‘read’ content on our smartphone – the news, or play Solitaire, but a paper book, no.

So the trouble is that paper books are being squeezed out of our modern life. Some of us think that this is not a good thing. Is a portable e-book reader the remedy? It might be, as it allows us to carry our ‘book’ around (in fact our entire library). Reportedly thousands of buyers of Kindles think so. Like us we stopped reading paper books for fun a while back, but maybe, just maybe, the transformation of the media will revive the old habit of reading for recreation once again.

It has for us!