1. At the official Kindle forum a suggestion to add ‘Kindle Review’ to the review title when reviewing books you’ve read on the Kindle. It’s a good suggestion and it would be a good way to help other Kindle owners.  
2. Kindle Update 3.0.2 is available. Well, don’t understand all these dot-dot updates. Will we get 3.0.2.5 next?
3. Every Word is back from detention.
4. Someone built a reflector so that they could get around the fact that the Lighted Cover is on the top left of the screen and light the screen of the Kindle 3 evenly. It’s basically reflective photo paper on the left and bottom edges of the eInk screen held up by rubber bands.
5. A question on how people manage to press Shift+Alt+G at the same time (it’s the shortcut to take a screenshot). Well, the buttons are too small for my fingers and the only thing that works is laying my thumb on both Alt + Shift at the same time and then using another finger to press G. Here’s another good solution which is actually easier -
   

   1) Lay Kindle on a solid flat surface.
   2) Use index fingers of both hands (fingernails pointing to each other) to hold down Alt and Shift
   3) While holding those keys down, use the middle finger of the right hand to reach out and touch the g.

6. Cagey at the official kindle forum claims that Amazon is aware that page turns are slower when it’s hot (when Kindle is in direct sunlight) and that the developers are working on a fix. All of it sounds rather unbelievable – How could you fix what sounds like a temperature related issue? Have heard a few people mention this – Apparently in bright sunlight page turns get slower and take a second or so.
7. NY Times has an article with a photo of a prototype color eReader display from eInk. Check my 2009 post for a color eInk screen photo that PVI/eInk was showing off in 2005. It’s 5 years and PVI still only has prototypes to show.
8. Lots of drama in UK as Hachette pushes the Agency Model and Amazon pushes super low prices.
9. David Morrell, author of First Blood and The Brotherhood of the Rose, has decided to do a Kindle ebook exclusive and it’s causing much consternation amongst non-Kindle eReader owners. This exclusive stuff is rather strange.  
10. A claim that clicking the ‘Request a Kindle version of this Book’ button worked for a Kindle owner. Thought it was just there for show but apparently there’s an email or something sent to Publishers. Update: Actually the books clicked on are written by David Morrell – so it might just be a happy coincidence or it might be what caused David Morrell to do a Kindle exclusive.
11. PsychCentral is having a Kindle 3 Contest and giving away a Kindle a week to people who subscribe to their weekly newsletter.

Nothing is unconditional these days – even for free things you have to prostitute your email address.   

Lab 126 does some interesting hiring

Quick on the heels of Amazon hiring a Xbox executive we get news from Tech Flash that Amazon is hiring a Pixar and TiVo veteran.

The list of recent Lab 126 and Amazon hires now includes -

1. VP of consumer applications at Linden Labs (which runs Second Life). In the past he’s worked at Pixar and TiVo. 
2. 2 former Real Networks executives. 
3. Director of gaming etc. at Xbox.

That sounds more like hiring for the iPad than for the Kindle. Perhaps there really is a Kindle Phone or Kindle Tablet in the works.

There have been a few half-hearted attempts in the past and Governor Schwarzenegger and other people have suggested using Kindles in schools – However, we now have the first full-scale roll-out of Kindles in a school.

2,100 Clearwater High School students get the Kindle 3

As a pilot for the Pinellas County school system all 2,100 students at Clearwater High School in Clearwater, Florida got a Kindle 3. A lot of credit to the principal Keith Mastorides for making it happen. Here’s a snippet from the St. Petersburg Times -

When the idea was first proffered by principal Keith Mastorides last year, some students were skeptical it would actually happen.

“Especially not this school,” said senior Matt Jonson, 17.

“Maybe a nicer school,” added Adams.

Voices such as these are part of the reason Mastorides said he pushed to make the project a reality — to give students a more level playing field and prepare them for a more networked world.

There are a few reasons this is a great move and much better than the college trials -

1. The entire high school got them – not just 50 or 100 students. You get to see the impact on students in various grades and we can study the impact over a period of years.
2. It makes a lot more sense to get Kindles to students when they’re young and haven’t already given up on reading.
3. It makes sense to give everyone a chance early – students with dyslexia or reading problems will benefit much more in high school or middle school than in college. They probably might not even make it to college.
4. There are far fewer distractions in high school than in college and there’s a much higher chance students will read their textbooks and read in general. 
5. From the students’ responses it’s clear that these high school students are approaching the Kindle with a very refreshing attitude. 

Let’s start by looking at the benefits Kindle 3 provides to students.

Kindle 3 benefits for students

All of these Kindle 3 benefits are culled from the various articles written about the Kindle high school trial. The definite benefits -

1. No more heavy backpacks.
2. It gets students excited about reading and schoolwork – Multiple students mention this aspect. Here’s a comment from one of the students, Desmond King, -
   

   “It’s fun to have electronics to learn,”

   “I think it makes us want to study more without realizing it.”

3. Students get the books required for their coursework pre-loaded on their Kindle. At least some of them do.
4. There’s an in-built dictionary so students can get word meanings instantly.  
5. Students are loving the text to speech capability. That feature also really helps auditory learners (thanks to FLGRLinATL for that point).
6. There’s not really much of a learning curve.
7. The English Department managed to afford all the books on its wishlist -
   

   John Just, Pinellas County’s assistant superintendent for management information systems, said that because of savings on books, the school’s English department’s wish list was completely fulfilled.

   “The English department wish list is always that — a wish list,” Just said. “Now they’re all downloaded.”

8. A lot of the recommended reading titles are in the public domain and thus free.
9. Long Battery life and quick recharging.
10. eTextbooks are cheaper than physical textbooks. The claims are 10% less for textbooks and 40% less for novels. That 10% number is depressing – there ought to be far greater savings.
11. It’s light – The articles say 10 ounces but it’s just 8.7 ounces.
12. Free 3G Internet means students can check things on the Internet without going to the library or to their PC (if they have one at home). 20% of students don’t have Internet access at home so it really helps.

It reminds me of a study that pointed out that most of the separation between kids from high-income families and kids from low-income families happened during the holidays and when students were outside of school. With the Kindle 3 students get a better shot at continuing to read and study outside of school.

Here are some more potential benefits -

1. Students read more. Reading more leads to smarter students.
2. Textbook purchases become more cost-effective. Note that we mentioned one case (English) where this has already happened. The price difference between textbooks and etextbooks will increase over time as Textbook Publishers’ monopoly gradually disintegrates.  
3. It helps level the playing field. If your school is giving you a Kindle and you have access to millions of free public domain books that’s a lot better than not having money to buy books.

Sources used for compiling these lists include WTSP’s article about the Kindle 3 high school trial and the other two articles linked to in this post.

Fighting off Expensive Textbooks

Here’s a comment from Bucnright talking about textbook prices -

The average math text book in Pasco was $63. each high school student averages 6-7 text books which can also be damage or misplaced. Thats is $378 given to a student every year.

The kindle can stay with the student and update with subjects.

On the surface it seems like a $139 Kindle WiFi or a $189 Kindle 3 is expensive – However, textbooks really add up.

Here’s a comment from a college student (EquinsuOcha) -

Why can’t colleges like mine (Eckerd) embrace the same technology?

I pay $120 for a text book that is out of date by the time the next semester rolls around, and is completely useless within a year.

Textbook prices really are a big problem. Get enough students a Kindle and textbook publishers’ hold over distribution gets destroyed.

Note-taking isn’t a problem – It’s just like texting

Here’s an example of high school students having great attitude -

“It’s just like texting,” said senior Gabrielle Adams, 17, about inputting notes.

“And everybody knows how to text,” Niles said.

Whether the students end up liking the eReaders or not we at least know they are going in with an open mind.

Contrast that with college students in the Kindle trials who were complaining about not being able to scribble in the margins. The expectation level when you run a Kindle trial in Princeton is completely different and in some ways it defeats the purpose - With college students you get students who are already in college and usually quite privileged.

One of the strange things was multiple mentions of being able to add notes on the Kindle. Perhaps students are currently getting textbooks from the school that they aren’t allowed to make notes in. Here’s a snippet from MyFox Tamba Bay’s coverage of Kindles for students at Clearwater High School -

“It’s a lot lighter, it’s easier to read, and you can make notes, which you can’t do in a regular textbook,” Bennie Miles observed. “I think that’s pretty cool.”

It’s good to see a lot of enthusiasm. With the college trials you had students voicing a lot of concerns. At some level they were comparing eReaders against notebook computers even before starting.

These high school students are very positive and hopefully that translates into them benefitting a lot from their Kindles.

Student Insurance Policy

This was interesting – For a $20 or $25 fee students can insure their Kindle 3. If they lose it they pay a $50 deductible and get a Kindle 3. If they lose the new Kindle too then they have to buy a new one themselves or go back to textbooks.

That insurance policy sounds a lot better than anything available commercially – at least that’s my understanding.

Quick Note on Price

At $177.78 per Kindle 3 and with free 3G Internet included the only eReader that comes close is the Nook. Even Nook doesn’t have free Internet. Free Internet is a factor because students can refer to the Internet right from class and 20% of them don’t have Internet at home.

The Sony 650 at $225 is 26% more expensive and doesn’t have text to speech or good ebook prices.

The iPad at $499 is way too expensive. There will definitely be a few people claiming the iPad would be much better. Well, before we can have that argument we need to have an affordability argument and the iPad loses that badly.

Downsides of the Clearwater High School Kindle 3 trial

Well, there are obviously people who are coming up with a laundry list of negatives (it wouldn’t be very Kindle like if there weren’t super negative people attacking it) -

1. Kindles will break far more easily than books which are pretty much unbreakable.  
2. The insurance is a cost.  
3. You can’t read books from non-Amazon sources unless they are DRM free.
4. A lot of people claimed that the Kindle college trials failed – That’s not exactly correct. The overzealous National Federation for the Blind had them shut down because the Kindles weren’t accessible.  
5. You can’t scribble in the margins. Would be good to know whether students were allowed to do this in the textbooks they got from their schools.
6. The cost – supposedly $177.66 each.

The list isn’t very long because most of the negative people have never seen a Kindle. In contrast to the students who are very positive there are quite a few negative comments from people at the St. Petersburg Times site.

This comment from a Clearwater High School student (kread96) is super appropriate -

Ok now everyone needs to stop, saying stuff about the Kindle’s !

because you know nothing about them! yes i go to CHS, and I have one.

They are so much easier than text books. Cheaper too. Dont say anything about them, until you have actually used them….

It’s infinitely amusing that, yet again, we have people criticizing the Kindle 3 without ever having used one. Ever since the first Kindle came out the biggest detractors have always been people who’ve never used a Kindle.

This update seems to fix the Kindle 3 freezing issue for some/most people. People who were having the Kindle 3 freezing issue are mostly seeing the issue disappear after their Kindle 3 gets this update.

Warning: Very small sample size and anecdotal evidence.  

What is the new Kindle Upgrade? Should you get it?

An early preview release of the Kindle 3.0.1 software update is available at Amazon’s website. It’s an ‘early preview’ of a Kindle 3 update which Amazon is releasing to gather more customer information.

It’s an upgrade that is defined as -

This software update adds the ability to create a new Amazon.com account directly from your Kindle, as well as additional performance improvements.

It’s probably better defined as -

This is our best fix for the freezing issue and we’re hoping you’ll test it out and let us know. We can fix it for 80% of people who’re seeing it. We need more data to figure out how to fix it for everyone.

Note: This is just my opinion.

There’s no other explanation for why Amazon would release an ‘early preview’ and ask for feedback. It’s also puzzling that there are two sets of Kindle 3s marked out (Serial Numbers starting with B00A and Serial Numbers starting with B006) with separate fixes for each.

1. If you aren’t having the freezing issue – Please don’t download the new update. It’s much better to wait until it’s well understood and Amazon sends it out to everyone.
2. If you are having the freezing issue but can live with it or can’t take a chance on a ‘preview release’ – Again, please don’t download the update. It’s better to wait until the brave souls have tested it out for you.
3. If you are experiencing the freezing issue and you’re willing to try out the Kindle 3.0.1 update – Well, check out the next section.

 Once more time just to be sure -

Warning: If you don’t have the freezing issue or aren’t willing to risk an ‘early preview’ release then please DO NOT install the fix.

How do you install the new Kindle Upgrade?

The Help Page has good instructions. However, will quickly walk you through the steps -

Go to Help and Read Instructions

Go to the Amazon Help Page linked above (Kindle 3.0.1 software upgrade). Read the instructions.

Find out which Kindle you have

Figure out whether you have Kindle WiFi or a B006 Kindle 3 or a B00A Kindle 3. 

To do this press Menu on the Kindle Home Page and choose Settings. On the Settings Page scroll down to the bottom and look at the Device Info section.

1. Kindle WiFi – The network capability will say ‘Wi-Fi’ and serial number will start with B008.  
2. Kindle 3G Group B006 - The network capability will say ‘Wi-Fi and 3G’ and serial number will start with B006.
3. Kindle 3G Group B00A - The network capability will say ‘Wi-Fi and 3G’ and serial number will start with B00A.

After figuring this out go back to the help page and choose the appropriate download link.

Download Kindle 3 Update and move to Kindle 3

Choose the appropriate download link and click on it. Choose ‘Save’ in the File Download dialog and save to a Folder like Documents which will be easy to remember and easy to access.

The various file names are (these might change if Amazon changes the files) -

1. Kindle WiFi - Update_kindle_3.0.1_B008.bin .
2. Kindle 3G Serial Number B00A group – Update_kindle_3.0.1_B00A.bin .
3. Kindle 3G Serial Number B006 group – Update_kindle_3.0.1_B006.bin .

Now plug your Kindle 3 or Kindle WiFi into your computer and drag (or copy) the downloaded file into the main Folder of your Kindle. This is the folder that has ‘Documents’ and ‘Music’ and other folders in it.

Update your Kindle 3

Unplug your Kindle 3 from the computer. This is important. Don’t just eject it – unplug it. Go to the Settings Page again (On the Kindle Home Page press Menu and choose Settings).

On Settings Page press Menu and you should see the ‘Update Your Kindle’ link available in the Menu. You won’t see this if you didn’t move the file correctly or downloaded the wrong file. Press this link and the Kindle will start upgrading.

Please don’t turn off the Kindle 3 or try to restart it – just let it upgrade. It takes 5 to 10 minutes (sometimes a bit longer). It goes through two restarts so don’t interrupt it if you see the second restart.

After that your Kindle 3 will be up to date. To confirm you have the latest version go to the Settings Page and at the bottom right check the Version. It should say Kindle 3.0.1.

What are Kindle 3 owners seeing with the latest update?

Well, here’s what people are reporting -

1. Page turns seem to be faster. Not sure in my case as page turns were pretty fast and didn’t remember to time them before upgrading. 
2. If you have a Mac you might see an issue where you get a zip file instead of a .bin file. Call up customer support. The fix (untested) might be deleting ‘.bin’ from the end of the file name.
3. A few people were seeing Kindle 3 freezing when using the Browser and are no longer seeing that problem.
4. Don’t see the ‘ability to create a new Amazon account’ that’s listed on the update page. Not even sure of how to check for it.
5. Quite a few people are reporting that they are seeing no problems at all after the Kindle 3 update. There is also one person (on another forum thread) who reports that the fix didn’t work for her.

It’s pretty cool to see a potential fix done and available. It seems to be working for most people and if you’re having the Kindle 3 freezing issue – hopefully, it works for you.

Kindle 3 Freezing Issue solved for one user, fix might be arriving soon

Thanks a ton to John for a new update on the Kindle 3 Freezing Bug and news that the fix that’s being tried out worked on his Kindle 3 -

Amazon also contacted me yesterday regarding an earlier conversation on the freezing issue and asked if they could upload an update to the firmware which they did.

I think he mentioned that the update would soon be released to all kindle owners.

My Kindle version software is now 3.0.1 (525120101).

Since the update there have been no “freeze ups”.

This is really good news – It’s working and hopefully it’ll work for all Kindle 3′s.

Contrast Effect due to Graphite Kindle Casing

Courtesy Wikipedia we get a good explanation for why the Kindle 3 Graphite is better for contrast than the white one (thanks to Sawyer for the information) -

Simultaneous contrast identified by Michel Eugène Chevreul refers to the manner in which the colors of two different objects affect each other. The effect is more noticeable when shared between objects of complementary color.

In the image here, the two inner rectangles are exactly the same shade of grey, but the upper one appears to be a lighter grey than the lower one due to the background provided by the outer rectangles.

The image shows two rectangles with outer rectangles framing them. The inner rectangles are both the same color but the one that has a darker rectangle circling it seems lighter.

That’s exactly what’s happening with the Graphite Kindle 3. Its screen seems whiter than the screen of the white Kindle 3 because of the graphite casing.

You could argue it’s perception but it’s more than that – Since there is dark graphite casing around it our eyes can better appreciate the whiteness of the ‘white’ eInk screen and in turn the darkness of the ‘black’ eInk lettering.

So, with the graphite Kindle 3, we start with a dark eInk to white eInk contrast ratio that is 50% better (mostly due to the black being richer and darker) and add on the effect of the Graphite casing – It’s really very powerful.

Kindle 3 Book Deals

Here are 3 Kindle Book Deals -

1. The Invasion by William Meikle is rated 4.5 stars on 13 reviews and just $1.99.
   

   It started during a winter storm on the North Eastern Seaboard which brought with it a strange green rain. Where it fell, everything withered, died, and was consumed. The residents of remote outposts in Maritime Canada escaped the worst of the early damage, but that was a blessing in disguise, for they were left to watch as first North America, then the world, was subsumed in the creeping green carpet of terror.

   And that was just the beginning. New life forms began to arise from the ooze, simple organisms at first, but multiplying with ever-increasing complexity. The few human survivors are faced with a full-scale invasion… and only radical measures will guarantee the survival of the human race.

2. A Death at the North Pole by Joel M. Andre is rated 4 stars on 18 reviews and priced at 70 cents.
   

   Detective Lauren Bruni has dealt with death for her entire life. She has watched it ruin lives, and brought people closer together. Her job taught her to separate fact from fiction.

   But on a cold December day, all Lauren had believed in would be shattered and tossed aside. Thrust in a world unlike any she has seen before, she investigates a prominent figure’s grisly murder, and searches for answers along a strange new set of people.

   With a killer watching her every move in the background ready to strike again at a moments notice

3. Where You Belong (None) by Patrick Dilloway is rated 4 stars on 8 reviews and priced at $1. A book inspired by The World according to Garp.
   

   Frost Devereaux’s odyssey of self-discovery spans three decades and takes him to every corner of America. Guiding him along his journey are the twin loves of his life: Frankie & Frank Maguire. Through his tempestuous relationships with them, he learns who he is and where he belongs.

Getting 34 free books this week is making me wonder whether it’s sustainable – Could we really have an ebook/book world that provides 30-40 free book offers every week?

There was a time when we had a few free book offers a month and any Kindle owner you told she/he would be seeing 34 free book offers in a single week would have laughed at you.

Please note that these are workarounds that reduce the frequency, not remove the problem. The real solution is for Amazon to release an update that fixes the underlying issue - which Amazon seems to be in the process of doing.

Should you return your Kindle 3?

No, all signs point to a software issue that’s fixable and Amazon is already working on a fix and testing it. Two users left comments that they have the new firmware for testing, one left a photo showing the new firmware version, and another user was told by Amazon customer service that a fix would be out in 10 days.

Additionally, Amazon is offering a free replacement Kindle 3 if you’re running into freezing issues.

If you’re thinking about getting the Kindle 3 please note that this Kindle 3 freezing issue isn’t happening for everyone - From the responses on the Kindle forum it seems that there are more Kindle 3 owners not experiencing the Kindle 3 freezing issue than there are Kindle 3 owners experiencing it.

Keep in mind Mike deMaria’s advice -

To those of you who are second guessing your purchase/being sad/etc –> DON’T BE (smile) All that is most likely wrong is a bug that can be found and fixed without you doing much – other than connecting to Whispernet Via 3G or WiFi when the fix is released.

Should it have been caught before shipment? Maybe. But I do know from all my experience on the other side of things (being the programmer), sometimes bugs like these escape even the best testing. It happens.

A fix should be out soon and even in the rare case it’s an unfixable problem you can get a free replacement Kindle 3.

Possible firmware upgrade on the way to fix Kindle 3 Freezing Issues

Here’s a comment from BobLenx -

Hey gang, I got an email back from Amazon support today – good news I think. The email was as follows:

“I have heard back from the development team on our issue. It appears this problem will be addressed in an upcoming software update for the Kindle which will be sent wirelessly to you in approximately ten days or so.

In the meantime for a temporary fix you can slide the power button to the right for about 15 seconds to reset the Kindle.”

That would certainly be a good thing. Hopefully, that’s a reliable customer service representative.

K. Scarpelli even wrote to say the new firmware is being testing on his Kindle -

Good news people. I just received a call from tech support about a half hour ago and they pushed the new firmware to my Kindle. I’m running 3.0.1 (525120101).

That’s really good news. He’s even put up a picture and it clearly shows he has a different firmware version. Another user, CLS10, also got the new firmware.

In the meantime let’s figure out how to minimize Kindle 3 freezing.

What seems to work best to minimize Kindle 3 Freezing?

Here’s a rough list of things that seem to decrease the probability of restarts and freezing -

1. A hard reset (hold down power button for 15 to 20 seconds) seems to often fix the issue. The reset via the settings page isn’t effective – you have to use the power switch reset.
2. Let Kindle 3 charge for 3 to 6 hours before using it.  
3. Don’t download hundreds of books at the same time.  
4. If you’ve just downloaded books and they’re indexing (Kindle is preparing them for searches) don’t do lots of intensive things. If possible even hold off for a few hours and let Kindle index. Do a search for ‘xqwe’ and it’ll show a list of books (if any) that haven’t been indexed – Wait for that list to go to zero.
5. Don’t visit lots of complex websites one after the other. The web browser seems to be causing a lot of crashes so if you can avoid it that’d be best.
6. Don’t load up lots of PDFs from strange places. If you’re having problems with PDFs delete a few of them and then try reading the remaining PDFs.
7. Don’t add tons and tons of highlights quickly.
8. WiFi might play a part so if you have the option of either work with 3G. Using 3G solved the freezing issue for some Kindle 3 owners.
9. Importing Collections is causing a problem often enough that it might not be a bad idea to hold off on it for a bit.

Some users are taking up Amazon Customer Service’s offer of a replacement Kindle. Will update this post if they report back that the replacement fixes the issues – since lots of people aren’t seeing the freezing there’s a high chance the replacement Kindle 3 will be free of the freezing issue.

Kindle 3 Freezing – Possible Causes

Let’s look at the various situations which seem to cause freezing or reboots. We’ll also look at what people found worked. Most of these are from the official kindle forum.

Freezing right in the beginning -

• It’s recommended to let your Kindle 3 charge for 3 hours before using it. There are claims that if you don’t do this it’s likely to cause more crashing – No idea whether these claims are valid but it certainly doesn’t hurt to let Kindle 3 charge fully.

Freezing and Restarts when Indexing a large number of books -

• For some people the problems occur only when they are downloading/adding a lot of books at once. This suggests it might be an indexing issue.
• The solution here is to not load up lots and lots of books at once.

Freezing and restarts when doing things very quickly one after the other -

1. If you go into the photo viewer and do lots of changes at the same time sometimes the Kindle 3 freezes.
2. The solution for this would be to not change settings multiple times in rapid succession.

For some people Every Word is causing problems – Well, Kindle Apps do freeze up on Kindle 3 and didn’t on Kindle 2. Kindle Apps presumably take up a lot of memory and processing power so if the crashing is related to processor overload or Kindle running out of free memory it would make sense that games crash more often.

Freezing and restarting due to WiFi -

1. Quite a few people have had freezing when they were using WiFi. 
2. A few people have had freezing disappear when they stopped using WiFi. It probably means the WiFi feature’s code is doing whatever causes the freezing more often than other features’ code.  

It seems more and more likely that there’s a single bug underlying all these freezing problems.

A common thread of a Memory Leak or a Processor Overload

If you look at all the things that might be causing freezing and restarts it seems that whenever you do memory intensive or processor intensive tasks on the Kindle 3 it crashes or freezes. We get errors more frequently when -

1. Indexing lots of books.
2. Doing lots of changes one after the other.
3. Loading complex websites in a row.
4. Loading lots of PDFs.
5. Highlighting frequently.

It definitely suggests that either there is a memory leak or the processor is getting overloaded and is unable to cope.

Here’s a comment from Mike that suggests the same thing -

Being the good programmer that I am, to me it appears we are all having a memory leak issue.

The other day I could see things getting slower and slower until finally the K3 locked up and needed a hard reset. It would also explain the random reboots if something is eating program space.

A memory leak would make the most sense as it would be something that just gradually builds up and then suddenly when you do something that needs additional memory - it causes a crash. A problem related to a memory leak would also be be triggered more frequently when doing memory intensive tasks like web browsing or loading PDFs – which is exactly what we’re seeing.

the PDF restart issue 

There’s a particular, rare bug that causes a Kindle 3 restart every single time you open a PDF. There are two things found to work for this -

1. This is sometimes fixed by a hard reset of the Kindle. Slide and hold the power switch for 15 seconds.
2. Another solution is to delete a few of the PDFs you have. This suggests certain PDFs might be causing an issue or that PDFs aren’t cleared out from the memory properly until they are deleted. If PDFs aren’t properly removed from memory it would make sense that all PDFs cause a restart - PDFs and the PDF reader probably need a lot of memory and the PDFs left behind in memory would reduce available memory and the PDF reader wouldn’t have enough memory to load.

This will probably also be fixed by the new firmware. It’s good to know there’s a possible Kindle 3 freezing fix being tested and everyone will soon get back to enjoying the Kindle 3.

How much of a threat to the Kindle 3 are the new Sony Readers? What impact will the $99 Aluratek eReader have on the eReader wars?

Let’s dive into the specifics and see what impact these changes might have on the  eReader Wars.

Kindle 3, eReader Wars – Borders selling $99 eReader

Borders has reduced the prices of two eReaders – Aluratek Libre is now $99 and Kobo eReader is now $129. All the talk of us seeing $99 eReaders by end 2010 seemed presumptuous until a few months ago. Today, we already have $99 eReaders.

The Aluratek Libre at $99 puts some pricing pressure on Kindle WiFi but not much since Aluratek’s eReader isn’t very good. The Kobo at $129 isn’t really a factor since Kindle WiFi is much, much better than the Kobo eReader.

A few months ago the Kobo eReader at $149 was the first eReader from a big/well-funded company to break the $150 price barrier and there was talk of it stealing away market share from the Kindle. It’s a reflection of how quickly things are changing that today, even at $129, it’s an after-thought. The Nook WiFi at $149 and Kindle WiFi at $139 are much better options.

Not having a competitive eReader is the least of Borders’ problems.

A World without Borders?

Borders is really struggling. For Q2, 2010 it had a loss of $46.7 million and NY Times chronicles Borders’ dismal state -

1. In the last  3 years Borders has reduced its store count by almost half. This includes exiting the UK.
2. It raised capital in Q2, 2010 by selling $25 million worth of shares to a cigarette executive who became the largest shareholder. 
3. It sold its Paperchase chain for $31 million.
4. It still has debt of $262.1 million.
5. Sales at Borders stores open at least a year fell 6.8% in Q2, 2010.

Its share price also took a hit – falling 4.5%. Basically, Borders doesn’t look like it’s going to survive – It is hardly in a position to mount a serious threat on the eReader market. With the $149 Kobo Reader and the Aluratek Libre it was trying to corner up the lower end of the market but Kindle WiFi has destroyed that opportunity.

The lower prices of the Kobo and Aluratek eReaders don’t change the fact that they aren’t very good – they couldn’t even compete with Kindle 2. Put them up against the Kindle WiFi and the new Sony Readers and they are terribly inadequate.

Kindle 3, eReader Wars – Sony releases pricier eReaders

Sony seems to have given up on trying to beat the Kindle 3 and seems focused on creating the perfect product for a market that only exists in its imagination. It talks a lot about how it couldn’t afford to put WiFi into its $179 Sony 350 and its $229 Sony 650 without taking a moment to wonder how Amazon and B&N managed to produce WiFi capable eReaders at sub $150 prices.

It’s also got really strange priorities – It seems to be more interested in building a device, selling it, and running away than in earning money from ebook sales. In a sense it’s trying to build TVs and hoping cable companies supply the service and content. The only problem is the cable companies in this market have their own TVs.

The net result is a beautiful eReader (good-looking, good features, touch screen) that doesn’t really have good infrastructure or a good store to back it up. It’s an eReader made by a company that doesn’t really grasp that people are going to read books on the eReader. Sony is trying to provide one part of what the customer is asking for and is hoping the other parts just magically appear.

Is Sony using really smart strategy or deluding itself?

There are three entirely reasonable possibilities -

1. Sony has figured out that it can get a solid #2 or even a #1 spot by selling higher end eReaders with touch screens and selling them all over the world via their retail channels.  
2. Sony has decided it’s just too much work to compete with the Kindle 3 and has given up on the US market.
3. Sony is delusional and it’s convinced itself that the product it has to offer meets the needs of the eReader market perfectly. If you look at Sony 650 and contrast it with Sony 600 the only thing Sony has changed is that the touch screen now doesn’t hurt readability. In almost every other way it’s the same product.

We do have to give credit to Sony for differentiating and managing to release eReaders with touch screens. The lack of WiFi and the high prices are madness - However, the touch screen gives Sony an angle that it might be able to leverage to generate sales despite the high price.  

Kindle 3 to be sold at Staples

Amazon isn’t exactly sitting still and it’s begun to expand the Kindle’s retail presence. Kindle 3 will be sold at Staples stores starting this Fall. Reuters reports on Kindle 3 at Staples -

Staples will start selling the Kindle at its more than 1,500 U.S. stores starting in the autumn, the company said.

It plans to sell the $139 version of the Kindle, the 3G model and the more expensive Kindle DX.

Staples makes a lot of sense as the $139 Kindle WiFi and the $189 Kindle 3 are both good products that meet the needs of businesses looking to cut down on paper and printing costs. Additionally, the prices are low enough to entice some Staples customers into impulse purchases.

5 million Kindles sold?

The Reuters report goes on to talk about Kindle sales estimates -

Forrester Research estimates that Amazon has sold about 5 million Kindles since the product’s launch in 2007, and that Barnes & Noble has sold 1 million Nooks since their introduction last year.

Every day there’s a new Kindle sales estimate – 5 million is one of the higher ones. Keeping Kindle sales figures secret is the gift that keeps giving.

Nook 2 still missing in action

If Nook 2 really is slated to be launched in parallel with B&N’s big in-store push for the Nook (which starts around September 4th/5th) then we might soon find out what B&N has in store for us.

At the moment, Nook 2 is missing and every day readers are picking Kindle 3 and Kindle WiFi over Nook and further increasing Amazon’s lead. It’s hard to understand what’s stopping B&N from announcing Nook 2 and letting readers place preorders.

Google Editions still missing in action

The other mystery is around Google Editions which was supposed to launch in summer 2010. It would make so much sense for Google to team up with one or both of Sony and B&N and with every smaller eReader to take on the Kindle Store.

It already has Android in nearly every non-Kindle eReader and it’s already providing a million public domain books (via Google Books) to nearly every non-Kindle eReader. It might as well add the store. Most eReader makers are desperate and this would be the perfect time to push and promote Google Editions. 

Apple doesn’t announce iPad 2 at today’s Apple Event

There were rumors that an iPad 2 would be announced at today’s Apple iPod event. That didn’t happen and there wasn’t any mention of iPad sales figures either. Perhaps they are being saved for a later conference that would also see the announcement of the iPad 2.

It’s pretty likely that we’ll see the iPad 2 arrive by October/November of 2010. The main question is price - At $350 or higher there is little threat to the Kindle 3 but at $300 or below iPad 2 would start eating up pieces of the eReader market.

There’s still a lot left to be unveiled

Nook 2, iPad 2, and Google Editions are far more important than the over-priced Sony Readers and the irrelevant Aluratek and Kobo eReaders.

Kindle 3 has the eReader market all to itself but that might change any day as Nook 2 is probably going to be released/announced soon. Apple will probably wait till holiday season to make a splash and Google might just be waiting for a certain settlement. Sony has kicked things off and Borders is doing it’s part – However, the real fun has not yet begun.

There are just 168 Kindle 3 reviews at the moment but they are very revealing. Let’s dig in.

Update: This post discusses reviews and it’s not really helpful if you’re trying to decide whether to buy a Kindle 3. Please take a look at my Kindle 3 Review or read the reviews at the Kindle 3 product page.

Kindle 3 Reviews at Amazon – The First 168

Here are the things that really stand out -

1. There are 124 five-star reviews and 27 four star reviews – That means 89.9% of Kindle 3 owners love their Kindle 3. Update: Actually, it’s more like 80% since some of the 4-star reviews are not very positive.
2. Just 3 three star reviews and 2 two star reviews but 12 1 star reviews.
3. The most helpful 4 star reviews are - a comparison of Kindle 3 and Sony PRS-505, a comparison of Kindle 2 and Kindle 3. The most helpful 5-star review is a comparison of Nook and Kindle 3. That’s quite a trend.
4. The most helpful 4-star review claims Kindle 3 and Sony 505 screens are in a tie – Yes, our color-magical-revolutionary-spectrometer found 50% better screen contrast but your eagle eyes think an eInk screen from 2 years ago is just as good.
5. There are a noticeable group of people paying Kindle 3 back-handed compliments. In fact, a quarter of the 4 star reviews read more like 1 star reviews. Which makes the break-up more like – 80% love it, 10% think it’s only marginally better, and 10% hate it.
6. There are still people talking about how the Kindle 3 isn’t good as a do-it-all device. It’s marvellous that despite Amazon trying to hammer home the fact that it’s a dedicated ebook reader people still try to see Kindle 3 as a do-it-all device.
7. Just the way people are attached to their physical books people are attached to their Kindle 1s and Kindle 2s and Nooks and Sony Readers. It’s quite interesting to see some of the criticism the Kindle 3 receives.

If we go into more detail we find out some interesting things about the Kindle 3 such as the fact that the Korean font used is barely readable and ‘not pretty’.

12 One Star Kindle 3 Reviews, 2 Two Star Reviews, 3 Three Star Reviews

1 star reviews are always fascinating to me -

1. Review 1: Something rolling around inside the Kindle, buttons and casing felt delicate.
2. Review 2: This user is upset she can’t transfer books from Kindle 2 to Kindle 3. Well, they’re specific to the Kindle so they can’t just be transferred over. Felt buttons on the side were too delicate. Didn’t like buttons and not having number keys.
3. Review 3: Browser worked but Kindle Store didn’t.
4. Kindle 3 Review  4: Upset with Customer Service.
5. Review 5: Claims you lose all your Kindle books if you change your email address. Not going to test the validity of that claim – too much of a risk if it turns out to be true.
6. Review 6: Didn’t like default Korean Font.
7. Didn’t like default Korean Font.
8. Korean font.
9. Someone who bought a Kindle 2 for $259.
10. Someone who ordered August 1st and hasn’t received it yet.
11. A complaint about there being no magical 1 device that does everything. Steve Jobs, your magical powers have deserted you.
12. On cue, someone pushing the iPad.

Here are the two 2-star Kindle 3 reviews -

1. Korean Font is not readable.
2. Negative flash you get when you turn pages.

Finally, the three 3-star reviews -

1. WiFi problems for this user with browser not working. This user says he bought Kindle 3 for the browser - when he gets the browser working he’s going to come to the painful realization that it really is an experimental browser – Amazon didn’t just put in experimental because it goes well with browser.  
2. Complaint about Customer service. 
3. 10-20% of Asian language characters are not supported. Also says Kindle 3 crashed 4 times in 1 day.  

These are fine – People don’t like Kindle 3, they give it 1 stars and that’s alright. The ones that really threw me off were the 4 star ones that were so critical and demanding.

Two Categories of Positive Kindle 3 Reviews

There’s no way to avoid saying it. There are clearly two categories of positive reviews -

1. The people who love the Kindle 3.
2. Those who begrudgingly are saying Kindle 3 is the best eReader. It’s almost like they’re trying to find out any way they can to avoid saying – Great job, Kindle Team. You made a great eReader.

The latter group of reviews are troublesome. It’s rather depressing that it pains people to give a straight compliment after there are something like 15-20 solid improvements. Here are 16 reasons why people paying Kindle 3 back-handed compliments (it’s marginally better than my Sony 505) are being rather unfair -

improved battery life, better PDF support, better browser, article mode.

faster page turns, eInk Pearl screen, smaller size, lighter weight.

3 font types, sharper fonts, double the memory, $189 price.

more words per page, better button placement, lighted cover powered by Kindle 3, Voice Guide.

We’re used to seeing 4 to 8 improvements in an eReader release (Example: Nook brought LCD touchscreen, LendMe, PDF support, SD Card Slot, replaceable battery).

To see 16 solid improvements is very, very impressive. Kindle 3 is the first time we’re getting a massively better eReader since the Kindle 1 was released and perhaps we should appreciate it and acknowledge it.

Nook was a good solid release and it got crucified and Kindle 3 is a super solid release and people are trying to damn it with faint praise. It seems no matter how much you improve a product some people will still find flaws and ignore the good things.

Real Problems identified in Kindle 3 Reviews

Here are my predictions for things that are going to cause Amazon problems -

1. Ghosting. Basically, the much darker black also means more ghosting – that’s probably why Amazon does a screen re-flash after every single page. It’s also why there is a tiny bit of reflection/glare if you have a dark image (because the dark is so good at being dark).   
2. Freezing. There’s little doubt that Kindle 3 freezes more than Kindle 2. Have run into a dozen different threads on this and at some point people are going to realize that it’s not just a first few days thing. Perhaps it is just a ‘first few days’ thing and it goes away – However, it certainly seems that Kindle 3 crashes are here to stay.
3. Reading Light’s effect on Battery Life. This is pretty unfair because people should take into account that using a reading light will obviously drain the battery. However, customers are so mollycoddled that they want their reading light and their wireless and their 1 month of battery life.

The first two will have to be fixed – except the first might not be fixable. It just might be the price of having a super high contrast.

We’re getting more and more spoilt as Customers

There’s this belief growing, and it’s fed in large part by companies with ridiculously good customer service like Amazon, that amazing customer service is the norm and easy and doesn’t cost anything. In parallel, we have the expectation that products will keep getting better and better while also getting cheaper and cheaper. Again, companies like Apple and Amazon are feeding this.

It’s reached a stage where we manage to look at a very impressive product, block out all the good things, and complain about one 1 or 2 things that we would have liked -

1. The iPhone has changed what smartphones are and what they can do and people still fixate on the lack of Flash and it not being an open system. 
2. Kindle 3 has managed to raise the bar for eReaders sky-high and we still have people complaining because the magical reading light that is powered by the Kindle itself and frees you from ever having to worry about batteries drains the battery life. Sorry, we couldn’t put a mini-Sun in there that combined hydrogen with oxygen to power your reading light.
3. Nook came out and it forced Kindle to add PDF support. B&N also tried to get a working model in place for lending ebooks. However, Nook got crucified because it would freeze and was sluggish. They didn’t do enough bug-fixing – they’re human- to forgive is divine. You still got your amazing ebook reader that can download books wirelessly and has a LCD touchscreen so you can see book covers in color. Does that register? No. People are upset because they have to wait a few extra seconds to read their books - That is obviously far more important than the fact that their books magically appear out of the ether.

Apple and Amazon are training us to expect superhuman performance and it’s just not sustainable. Zappos too – the whole notion that you can order three pairs of shoes and send back the two that aren’t a perfect fit. No wonder they had to sell themselves - they were training customers to kill profits.

It’s encouraging that 80% of Kindle 3 owners love the Kindle. It’s also disheartening that even after releasing a super impressive Kindle 3 Amazon still can’t get some people to appreciate the work put in.

The Kindle 3 has had a lot of work and thought put into it – Criticizing the lack of support for library books or other real Kindle 3 flaws is valid. Criticizing the cord on the lighted cover or the fact that the reading light uses up the Kindle 3′s battery is absurd.

K and 4rc wanted to find out about Kindle 3′s Manga capabilities and also how well Mangle, the Manga Program for Kindle, works with Kindle 3. Well, this post has some photos to show you that Kindle 3 does fine – The Kindle 3 Manga photos are after the jump (second part of the post).

Do note that after taking a bunch of photos of Manga on Kindle 3 and trying out the various options the Kindle 3 crashed. So there’s only so much messing around with settings it can take. The second time it worked fine when it wasn’t being asked to change settings every few seconds – So you should be fine once you’ve finalized settings and are reading your manga. Zoom works well without causing any issues.

Kindle 3 Manga – Setting Things Up

Well, here are the basic steps -

1. Go to foosoft.net/mangle.
2. Download and install Mangle.
3. Follow the instructions – They are in a section called Usage Instructions and are pretty easy.
4. Do note that the instructions for creating picture folders are simplified. Here are detailed instructions -
   

   1. Connect Kindle 3 via USB to your PC.
   2. Go to the Kindle 3.
   3. Create “pictures” folder on your Kindle 3′s main folder. That’s the folder that has Documents folder in it.
   4. Now create sub-folders for your photo albums.
   5. Put in images into these sub-folders. Here, you want Mangle to let you help you and just specify a name and for folder choose the main ‘Pictures’ folder. Mangle creates the sub-directory automatically – with the name you chose for your Manga book.
   6. The images that you put into a sub-folder will become part of the photo album.
   7. Unplug your Kindle 3 and go to the Home Page.
   8. Press Alt-Z on home page to see photo albums among books. On Kindle 3 you don’t have to press Alt-Z.
   9. When you select one of these photo albums, the experimental Image Viewer starts.

5. Once you’re in the Photo Album (Manga Book) there are some shortcuts. Please note that pressing Aa brings up a menu and the size setting in that Menu tends to default to Actual Size = True. You have to change it to Actual Size = No to be able to zoom. The shortcuts -
   

   1. Zoom In on the Picture – Q key.
   2. Zoom Out – W key.
   3. Reset Zoom Level for the Image – E key.
   4. Toggle Picture to Actual Size – C key.
   5. Toggle Picture to Full Screen Mode – F key.
   6. Pan Photo if its larger than the Kindle 2′s screen – With 5-way controller.
   7. Rotate the Image – R key.

6. Here are the options you get by pressing Aa – Actual size or not, Scale Image to fit to screen or fit to width or fit to height, Screen rotation. The scale to fit to screen/width/height setting will sometimes cause problems (leaves behind image artifacts).
7. Your settings are preserved if you exit.
8. If you re-open a Manga you start with the image/page you were last looking at - so it’s just like reading a book.

It’s quite easy to figure it out and use it – The description is long because there are lots of settings and some nuances. The Mangle software is really good and easy to use – You MUST read the usage instructions though.

Kindle 3 Manga – Settings and Features

Here are the various features, shortcuts, and Menu settings -

1. Choose to see only the actual size of the image or enable zoom.  
2. Fit the manga page to fit the screen or fit by width or fit by height.
3. Press ‘F’ to go full screen. 
4. Press ‘Q’ to Zoom. This will not work if the Actual Size setting in the Aa key Menu is set to ‘true’.
5. Press ‘Q’ multiple times to zoom multiple times. Press W to unzoom and press E to go back to original size.
6. Toggle to Actual Size with C.  
7. Please see the shortcuts list in the previous section for more options.
8. You can choose the screen orientation. This didn’t work particularly well for the one manga tested.
9. Rotate the Image with R – this leaves the background behind and doesn’t work well either.
10. You can pan around when zoomed into a photo using the 5-way and it works well.  
11. In the menu you can disable dithering.
12. You can also enable full screen mode in the Menu (‘F’ key is the shortcut).
13. There’s an interesting ‘pan to next page’ feature – couldn’t get it to work.
14. Page turns in manga books are quick. That has to mean Kindle 3 loads images much quicker than Kindle 2.
15. The Zoom feature allows you to zoom in and read the text if it’s too small.

There are also a few errors – when you unzoom or change the screen fit setting or change the rotation the old image is left behind in the background. You can remove this ‘image artifact’ by exiting and re-entering the Manga Book. Kindle 3 remembers what page you were on and also your zoom settings.

Page turns are usually very quick which is impressive since it’s loading photos. Loading the manga pictures the first time can be slow. If you go into sleep mode then Kindle 3 might fail to re-load photos when you come out of sleep mode. Simply exit to the main menu and re-enter the Manga - it’ll work fine.

Kindle 3 Manga Photos next …

After the jump lots of photos of Manga on the Kindle 3.

Kindle 3 Manga Photos

Let’s start with the cover for the Manga -  

Do Judge this Manga by its Cover!

The cover looks quite nice – though my lack of experience with Manga leaves me unable to comment on the man’s fingers being nearly as thick as the girl’s upper arms.

Next, we have this photo showing a full page without zoom -

The original page - no zoom.

Notice that the page has a remnant image from the prior zoom (on the right, in the background).

Next, we look at the same page zoomed in (we zoomed in a lot by pressing ‘Q’ multiple times) -

A little too close for comfort

The zoom works remarkably well though it’s not instantaneous. You can pan around using the 5-way once you’re zoomed in.

Let’s look at a page with the Flash on -

Kindle 3 Manga with Flash

This next close-up photo is a macro mode photo of the lowest panel after a little zooming in -

When she blushes her nose disappears

Have to say – the story is getting rather interesting. The mysterious, tall, Fernando Torres doppelganger she ran into turns out to be her teacher. Who would have thought Manga are just like romance novels.  

Here’s a zoomed in full-page photo of the girl -

zooming into a Manga

As you can see from the languid pools of her eyes the zoom works rather well.  

Overall, things work really well. There are, of course, a few bugs and errors.

Kindle 3 Manga – Errors and Rough Edges

First, we see a bit of a struggle with Landscape Mode -

Sometimes Landscape Mode doesn't come out right

Sometimes Landscape Mode comes out looking much better -

Sometimes Landscape Mode works well

The errors usually occur when you switch orientations or zoom out – they usually take the form of artifacts in the background. Basically, there’s a partial image left behind framing the pages of the manga as you flip through them.

On the plus side there are lots and lots of options.

Kindle 3 Manga – Features and Settings

First, we see the options the Aa key brings up -

Aa Key = Just a few options. There are lots more.

Next, we see the options in the Menu -

Lots of Menu options for Manga in Kindle 3

Clicking on that blank line reset my Kindle 3. These two sets of settings combine with the shortcuts we discussed earlier to give us a lot of flexibility.

Overall, Mangle lets you view Manga as Manga books on your Kindle 3 easily and well. It’s just like reading a book since your place in the Manga and your settings are preserved. The ability to zoom in a lot means you can read the text even if it’s too small and you can also zoom into individual frames.

The Kindle 3 does a pretty good job with Manga. Hopefully, some Manga Aficionados can jump in and confirm that.

This Kindle 3 Answers post attempts to answer as many of the common questions related to the Kindle 3 as possible.

Kindle 3 Answers – Answers to Kindle 3 Questions from Prospective Owners

Q1: Should I buy a Kindle 3?

A1: Well, it depends on what you’re looking for. If you want a device to read books on then please read my detailed Kindle 3 review. If you don’t want a device focused on reading books then you shouldn’t buy a Kindle 3.

Q2: Can I sell or loan my Kindle books?

A2: No.

Q3: Can I read books from the library on the Kindle 3?

A3: No.

Q4: Should I get Kindle 3 white or graphite?

A4: Get whatever color you prefer. Each has its advantages so getting the color you like is the safer choice -

1. Kindle 3 graphite helps show off the screen contrast. It looks pretty good.  
2. Kindle 3 white supposedly disappears better in the background. It doesn’t get as hot if you read outside in hot weather.

There’s not much difference. Here’s a pointless post comparing Kindle graphite vs white.

It makes hardly any difference what color you get as long as you get a color you like. Don’t get graphite if you hate graphite and don’t get white if you hate white.

Q5: Should I get Kindle WiFi or 3G?

A5: If you don’t know what WiFi is you should probably get Kindle 3 3G+WiFi. If you know what WiFi is and have WiFi at home then get Kindle WiFi.

Here’s a Kindle 3G or WiFi comparison post explaining the difference. In the long term this choice isn’t going to matter much if you have WiFi at home. If you don’t have a wireless network at home it’s best to get Kindle 3G+WiFi.  

Q6: Can I read PDFs on the Kindle 3?

A6: Yes, PDFs work very well. Embedded fonts in PDFs work too so you can read PDFs in various languages. Check out the Kindle 3 PDF post for lots of photos and details on the Kindle 3′s PDF capabilities.

Q7: What is the Kindle 3′s Browser like?

A7: Well, check out the Kindle 3 Browser post. It’s quite good but it’s not a desktop browser replacement. Since there’s no touchscreen on the Kindle 3 scrolling around is a bit of a problem.

Q8: What languages work on the Kindle 3?

A8: The Kindle 3 supports books in all the Latin based languages and now also supports CJK fonts and Cyrillic Fonts. It doesn’t support Hebrew (it didn’t support a Hebrew book).

PDFs on the Kindle 3 and the Browser support nearly all languages. In the browser some sites don’t display correctly and some sites just don’t work so your favorite website in your preferred language might not work.

Q9: What does the Kindle 3 look like? How good is the screen resolution?

A9: Actually, the Kindle 3 photos page and the Kindle 3 videos page will give you a very good idea. The new eInk Pearl screen is supposed to have 50% better screen contrast than the Kindle 2′s eInk screen. The difference between it and Nook is a bit less and the difference between it and Sony 600 is a bit more.

Q10: What are the font sizes on the Kindle 3?

A10: The font sizes correspond roughly to -

Kindle Font Size 1 = 7pt
Kindle Font Size 2 = 9pt
Kindle Font Size 3 = 11 pt
Kindle Font Size 4 = 14 pt
Kindle Font Size 5 = 17 pt
Kindle Font Size 6 = 20 pt
Kindle Font Size 7 = 30 pt
Kindle Font Size 8 = 40 pt

The Kindle 3 videos page mentioned above includes a video showing the font sizes and the three types of fonts.

 Q11:  What fonts does the Kindle 3 have?

A11: The Kindle 3 has three fonts – a Serif Font (Caecilia), a condensed font, and a Sans Serif font. The Kindle 3 photos page mentioned above has photos of each.  

Q12: How good is the Kindle 3 for email?

A12: Quite good. The full versions of Hotmail and Yahoo Mail work (hotmail - all the time, yahoo mail – most of the time). The mobile version of GMail works all the time. Ideally, you want to be using WiFi since WiFi is much faster than 3G.

Q13: Where could I see a Kindle 3 in person?

A13: At Target. By going to the official Kindle forum and asking if anyone in your city could meet you to show you what it looks like. By ordering one since it does have a 30 day return period.

Q14: Are books on the Kindle 3 free?

A14: No. There are 1.8 million public domain books from the Internet Archive available for free. There are also 20-40 free book offers every month. However, you have to pay for all the new books

Q15: How much do new books cost?

A15: New Books usually cost $9.99 or $12.99. New books from independent authors usually cost $1 to $3.  

Q16: Is it easy/possible to get pirated books? Is it easy/possible to strip off DRM from Kindle books?

A16: Yes, however this blog doesn’t detail any of that.

Q17: What if I don’t like my Kindle 3?

A17: There’s a 30 day return period. Also, Kindle 3 will probably hold its value very well as every Kindle before it has had very high resale prices.  

Q18: Why doesn’t Kindle 3 have touch and color? When will it have touch and color?

A18: The eInk technology doesn’t really support these very well and they aren’t absolutely critical for reading books. If touch is very important to you wait for the Sony 650. If color is very important for you wait a year and a half.

Q19: Does the Kindle 3 display illustrations and maps and images well?

A19: Yes, exceptionally well if you don’t mind the lack of color. You can also zoom into images.

Q20: Is it true that you can share Kindle books across devices?

A20: Yes, a Kindle book can be shared across 5 to 6 devices. You can register as many Kindles and as many devices with Kindle Apps as you like to your Amazon account. After that you can read a book across 5 to 6 devices – Your position in the book, your notes, and your highlights are synchronized across books.

Q21: Which devices have Kindle Apps?

A21: There are Kindle Apps available for the following devices - PC, Mac, Blackberry, iPhone, Android, and iPad. You can read your Kindle book purchases on these apps.

Q22: Is Kindle accessible to blind readers?

A22: Yes. There is a Voice Guide feature that you can turn on to read out menus, book lists, and book descriptions. There is also a Text to Speech feature that reads out books to you and also all your personal documents and things like text files. Publishers sometimes disable Text to Speech (perhaps 40% to 50% of the time). Voice Guide and Text to Speech combine to make the Kindle 3 accessible.

You can read more at the Kindle 3 for Blind Readers post.

Q23: How good are the voices used on the Kindle 3?

A23: They are computer generated voices. It’s not people speaking out the words and it’s definitely not trained people reading out books. If you are fond of $50 audiobooks read by accomplished speakers you are not going to be excited by the voices. If you’re OK with slightly robotic voices then you’ll be fine.

Q24: Is the Kindle 3 good for low vision readers?

A24: Yes, since in addition to the Voice Guide feature and the Text to Speech feature there are features suitable for low vision readers – better screen contrast than any other eReader, 8 font sizes including 2 super size fonts (size 30 and size 40 font), option to change line spacing, option to change words per line, landscape mode.

Q25: How much does the Kindle 3 weigh? How much does the lighted cover weigh? Is Kindle 3 suitable for those with weak hands?

A25: Kindle 3 weighs 8.7 ounces. Kindle WiFi weighs 8.5 ounces. Kindle Lighted Cover weighs 7.8 ounces. Kindle 3 is very suitable for those with weak hands. It’s very light and the texturized back is easy to grip.

Q26: Do you need to be tech savvy to use the Kindle 3? Do you need to have a computer?

A26: Kindle 3 is very simple to use. You don’t need to be tech savvy at all. If you buy a Kindle 3 3G+WiFi (or get a Kindle WiFi and have a wireless network at home) then you don’t need a computer to use the Kindle.

Q27: I’m used to Kindle 1. I’m used to Kindle 2.I’m used to Kindle DX. I’m used to a physical book. Will I ever be able to use the Kindle 3? Will I ever be able to love reading on the Kindle 3?

A27: It’ll take a really long time (a few hours of use) to get used to the Kindle 3. It’ll take forever (a few days) to start loving reading on the Kindle 3.

Q28: What pockets does the Kindle 3 fit into?

A28: Kindle 3 fits into – Large coat pockets, large jacket pockets, some cargo pants pockets. Kindle 3 doesn’t fit into – jeans pockets, shirt pockets, hot pockets, most normal pant pockets. It also will fit into a clutch purse and most small purses (not tiny ones though).

Q29: Can Kindle 3 work under water? Can it resist water? Can I read in the tub? Can I read at the beach?

A29: Kindle 3 will not work under water. Any sort of exposure to water will kill it. You can read in the tub, at the beach, and near the pool if you simply use a zip-loc bag or use Trendy Digital’s water proof kindle case.

Q30: Why doesn’t Kindle 3 have page numbers? Is there a work-around?

A30: Kindle 3 uses locations instead of page numbers. Since the font size is changeable using page numbers would be rather difficult – it would be possible but not very elegant. Using locations isn’t elegant either but it’s probably more structured. There isn’t really a workaround for getting page numbers in Kindle books - you just have to use a unique line of text as a reference instead of using a page number.

Q31: Why is there a lag when turning pages on the Kindle 3? How long is this lag?

There’s a lag of 0.5 to 0.7 seconds when turning pages in a Kindle 3 book. This is because the eInk display of the Kindle 3 first flashes everything black and then displays the new page. eInk is a lot of tiny microcapsules that can each be black or white. To ensure good quality first all microcapsules are flashed black and then black text on white background corresponding to a particular page is shown. This ‘redrawing’ of the screen takes 0.5 to 0.7 seconds.

Q32: Which countries is Kindle 2 available for?

A32: Please go to the Kindle 3 product page and scroll down to the Kindle at a Glance section (it’s 2 pages down). Under ‘Massive Selection’ in the right column you’ll see a ‘Check Your Country’ link which will let you check if Kindle 3 ships to your country.

Q33: Which countries does Kindle 3 get free wireless Internet in? Which countries will I get free Kindle 3 wireless Internet in when I’m travelling?

A33: There are some countries which get wireless Internet – please check with Amazon customer support to be sure. The above link (the ‘Check your Country’ link) brings up an information box which also provides a good idea.  

If you’re in the US you’ll get free 3G Internet in all countries that have WhisperNet.

If you’re a Kindle owner you’ll get free store browsing in all countries that get WhisperNet. Not sure whether or not you’ll be charged extra for downloading one of your purchased books outside your home country. For US Kindle owners it’s free everywhere.

Q34: How do I turn off my Kindle 3?

A34: Kindle 3 only uses power when you change the screen image. So keeping it in sleep mode is fine – you don’t have to switch it off. If you still want to switch it off slide and hold the power switch for 5 seconds.

Q35: Why are book prices different for different countries? Why are some books not available for my country? Why are some free book offers not available for my country?

A35: Books rights are sold by territory and the Publisher that buys the rights for a book in a particular territory decides the price and Kindle Store availability of the book in that territory. The Publisher also decides whether or not there will be a free book offer. Firstly, there may be different Publishers that own rights for a book in different countries. Secondly, a publisher may decide to have different prices in different countries. That’s why you’ll see a book you really want available for purchase on the dark side of the moon but not in your country. That’s why all the Stephanie Meyer books are 5 cents each on Mars but cost $6 to $10 on Earth.

Q36: Does the Kindle 3 have a backlight? If not, why not?

A36: Kindle 3 does not have a backlight. It uses eInk which tries to re-create the experience of reading print on paper. Since a backlight is tough on the eyes, uses up a lot of battery life, and is very unlike print on paper the Kindle 3 does not use a backlight.

You will be forced to use a reading light to read on the Kindle 3 in the dark – like you would with a physical book.  

Q37: Are Kindle 3s allowed on airplanes? What about through security checks?

Yes, however you might have to turn them off when the plane is taking off and when it is landing. No, there is no airplane mode. You can switch off the wireless but the staff might still ask you to turn it off - getting upset and threatening them is not recommended.

Kindle 3s pass through security detectors just fine and you can leave them in your hand luggage. Remember not to leave them in the overhead cabin in your hand luggage unless they are in a very sturdy box.

Q38: Does the Kindle 3 really fit more lines of text on to the screen? How?

A38: Well, there are three things – on every page except the page you start reading on the bar at the top disappears, the progress bar is right at the very bottom of the screen, the separation between the text and the progress bar is smaller. These all add up and there are (at medium font settings) 3 to 4 more lines of text per page.

Q39: How does Kindle 3 compare to Nook and Sony Reader 600? How does it compare to Nook 2 and Sony Reader 650?

A39: Kindle 3 is much better than Nook and Sony Reader 600 unless you need library book support or ePub support. The newer Nook 2 and Sony 650 haven’t been announced yet so can’t say how it compares to them. Sony 650 will have touch and one or both of Nook 2 and Sony 650 might support Google Editions.

Q40: Will people think I’m cool if I carry around a Kindle 3?

A40: No, they’ll think you’re intelligent and in love with books. You should get an iPad if you want to be pretend-cool and a Leica camera if you want to be super-pretend-cool. Your other options include getting a platinum pendant, wearing Affliction T-Shirts, and wearing Trucker Hats. Out of these only the Leica camera is guaranteed to work more than 50% of the time plus if you learn how to use it you actually become cool.

Kindle 3 Answers for Kindle 3 Questions from New Kindle 3 Owners

Q1: My Kindle 3 has a problem. What do I do?

A1: First, re-start your Kindle 3. You can do this from the Kindle Home Page by choosing Menu -> Settings and then on the Settings Page choosing Menu -> Reset.

You can also do this by sliding and holding the power switch at the bottom of your Kindle 3 for 15 seconds. You will know it’s been restarted as you’ll see the Kindle 3′s screen go white, flash a couple of times, and then a start-up screen will appear that shows a boy reading under a tree and amazon kindle written above the tree.

This will solve 90% of problems. Yes, it’s hard to believe but this really will solve 90% of Kindle 3 issues.

Q2: How do I reach Customer Service?

A2: Do try to re-start your Kindle 3 and do read the rest of this post. However, if that doesn’t work try customer service -

Find the email address and contact methods at the Customer Service Page. This is recommended as you can get Amazon to call you back and they know who you are.

Customer Service phone numbers -

Inside the United States: 1-866-321-8851.

Outside the United States: 1-206-266-0927.

Q3: I don’t know whether I should return my Kindle 3 and get the other Kindle 3. What should I do?

Kindle 3 White – Supposedly disappears better into the background. It’s white - in case being white is important for your aesthetic happiness. It doesn’t get as hot if you’re reading outside in really hot weather.  

Kindle 3 Graphite – Shows off the contrast of the eInk Pearl screen better. You might like black better as a color.

Kindle WiFi – It’s great. Do you really need 3G?

Kindle 3G – It offers more flexibility.

There’s not really much of a difference between the various Kindle 3 versions. If you’ve bought one then might as well keep it – Which Kindle 3 you have isn’t going to affect your happiness much. If you really feel like returning something will make you happy buy a Kindle book from your Kindle 3 and then click the ‘cancel this purchase’ button on the confirmation screen – There, now you’ve returned something.  

Q4: Where do I find free books?

A4: Well, you can check the free kindle books post for public domain books and the 50 free new kindle books post for new book offers.

Q5: Where do I find book deals?

A5: Well, there isn’t a kindle bargains and deals section in the Kindle Store. Check this blog for occasional posts on book deals and check the official kindle forum at Amazon (on any Kindle Store page click on the little ‘Discussions’ button on the top right.

Q6: If I delete a book from my Kindle 3 is it lost?

A6: No, it’s simply moved to your archive. You can go to the ‘Archived Items’ section in your Kindle and download it again.

Q7: Can I delete a book from my archive?

A7: Yes, simply go to the Manage My Kindle page at Amazon (the link is on the top right of every Kindle Store page). At the bottom of the Manage my Kindle page is a list of your purchases. Click on the ‘+’ icon next to any of the books and a number of options will show up including a ‘delete’ button. Press ‘delete’ to permanently delete the book from your account.

Note that if you delete a book in this way it’s gone – you will have to re-purchase it to get it back.  

Q8: Where do I find Kindle 3 Tips and Tricks?

A8: Well, here are some posts to get you started -

1. New Kindle 3 owner advice - A good place to start.
2. Kindle 3 Insights for some Kindle 3 tips and hints.
3. Kindle Tips and Shortcuts – This has 50 tips and also links to a follow-on post with 40 more Kindle tips. Most of these will apply to Kindle 3.  
4. Kindle Folders Guide – The best tips for using your Kindle 3′s Collections/Folders feature.  

The best source is probably the Kindle User Guide which comes with your Kindle. However, these posts include the best parts of that Guide as well as the best Kindle tips from the official kindle forums.

The best source for new Kindle 3 tricks and tips will be the official Kindle forum.

Q9: Is there a Kindle FAQ?

A9: Not an official one. Here’s an unofficial Kindle FAQ courtesy Bufo Calvin at the official Kindle forum. Please note that some of these questions and answers are not Kindle 3 specific.

Q10: Where do I find the serial number of my Kindle 3? Where do I find its MAC address? Where do I find whether I have 3G+WiFi or only WiFi?

A10: On your Kindle 3′s home page press Menu and then choose Settings. At the bottom of the first page in Settings you’ll see a Device Info section. This has information on your unique WiFi MAC address, your serial number, and the type of Kindle 3 you have.

Q11: What all can I do on the Settings Page?

A11: You can do the following -

1. On Page 1 you can – register and deregister your Kindle 3, set a device name, connect to a WiFi network, see your Serial Number and other device information.
2. On Page 2 you can – Turn on the voice guide, see your device email (the email address to which you can email documents to have them converted into Kindle format and sent to your Kindle 3), set a device password, set the device time, turn on the popular highlights feature, turn on backup of your notes and highlights and collections.
3. On Page 3 you can - enter your Facebook and Twitter account information so passages from books you are reading on your Kindle 3 can be shared (if you choose to share them), set your personal information.

Q12: What if my Kindle 3 gets lost?

A12: Well, you’re out of luck. There isn’t really much you can do.

You should -

1. Set a device password so if the device is in screensaver mode when found or goes into screensaver mode it gets locked.
2. Deregister your Kindle 3 at Amazon’s Manage Your Kindle page so whoever finds your Kindle 3 can’t buy books through it.
3. Set your Kindle 3′s name as your contact information (your email or phone number), set your contact information as your password hint, and enter your contact information into the personal information field on page 3 of the Settings page.

Don’t go to meet someone who claims to have found your Kindle 3 alone or in a dangerous place. If you’re under 18 let your parents know.

Q13:  Can I search the official Kindle forum?

A13: Yes, in the right side column, around halfway down the page, there is a search bar. If you want to see only results from the Kindle forum tick the box that says ‘Limit results to this forum’.

Q14: Where is the Kindle App Store? Are there any games for the Kindle?

A14: There are currently only two apps – Shuffled Word, Every Word. Every Word was using very inappropriate words and is in detention and will be back in some time. That leaves one game.

The App Store is rumored to be out sometime this year.

You can also play Minesweeper by pressing Alt+Shift+M on the Kindle Home Page. On the Minesweeper page press G to play gomoku.

Q15: Why isn’t my favorite book on the Kindle 3?

A15: Bad Luck?

Ask people at the official kindle forum to click on the ‘Ask the Publisher to make a Kindle Edition available’ link on the physical book page of the book you want. Perhaps the Publisher will think a lot of people are likey to buy the Kindle edition of the book and will release one.

Q16: If I drop my Kindle 3 will it break? If it breaks will Amazon replace it for free?

A16: Yes, it will most likely break. No, Amazon will not. If you have an extended warranty it might allow for one replacement. If you don’t have an extended warranty you’ll have to buy a new Kindle 3.

Q17: If my Kindle 3 breaks one day after the 1 year Amazon warranty ends what will happen?

A17: Nothing. It’s out of warranty and it’s broken. You have to buy a new one.

Q18: My Kindle 3 screen isn’t any different from my Kindle 2 screen. What do I do?

A18: Please add a link to a photo comparing the two. While there have been a few reports of this no one has been kind enough to add any photographic evidence.

Your Kindle 3′s screen ought to be clearly better than the Kindle 2 screen. Someone actually did a spectro-lumino-something-meter analysis of the Kindle DX 2 screen (which uses the eInk Pearl screen used in Kindle 3) and found that there was indeed a 50% improvement in screen contrast. He also found that most of the improvement was in having a much darker black. So perhaps you should compare the darkness of the fonts and their contrast with the whiteness of their respective screens and see if you still feel there’s no improvement.

Q19: What is this Article Mode I keep hearing about?

A19: When you are on a blog or on an article page in the Kindle 3 Browser you can press Menu and choose Article Mode. This strips away the formatting and ads and extrinsic structure and shows you only the article text and main image. It’s like turning the webpage with the article into a book chapter with just the article. It’s great for reading.  

Q20: Can I return Kindle books I’ve bought?

A20: Yes. If you purchased them accidentally then the purchase confirmation page has a link to cancel the purchase. If you don’t like the formatting then up to a week after buying the book you can call up Customer Service and ask them to process a return. Keep in mind that it’s not a free for all – If you keep returning books they’ll disable your ability to do Kindle book returns.

Q21: How do I put the Kindle 3 in sleep mode? Alt+Aa doesn’t work any more.

A21: Slide the power switch once to put the Kindle 3 into Sleep Mode. Slide it again to bring the Kindle 3 out of sleep mode.

Q22: How do I listen to music on my Kindle 3?

A22: Put a bunch of DRM-free mp3 format songs into the ‘music’ folder of your Kindle. On the Kindle 3′s home page or when in a book press Alt+Spacebar to start music and press Alt+Spacebar again to stop the music. You can also use Alt+F to skip to the next track - that’s about the only option. It’s meant as background music.

Those are all the Kindle 3 answers we have time for now. Will add-on more Kindle 3 questions and answers when time permits.

Please note that there are very few complaints – This post might seem scary because it’s leaving out the hundreds of positive things said and noting down only people’s thoughts on Kindle 3 cons.

Will add my own thoughts wherever possible regarding how valid these concerns are.

Kindle 3 Cons – The Significant Ones

Here are some of the Kindle 3 cons that seem like they might be important issues -

1. Lack of library books. A few people have mentioned that they chose Nook or Sony instead of Kindle only because of the lack of support for library books. This is a real issue.
2. Lack of ePub support. This is usually mentioned in connection with library books. However, a few people also mentioned it independently. Don’t see how this is relevant. If you feel very strongly about ePub then this is an issue – not otherwise. The only significant way in which it currently impacts readers is lack of support for Library books.  
3. Freezing – Kindle 3 is freezing on some PDFs, some websites, and rarely in other situations. That’s what it seems like from the forums and from my experience. This might be a real issue and might need a software fix. This does happen – not often enough to be a big issue but often enough that you can’t disregard it.
4. There might be variation in screen quality. Have taken a lot of photos of my Kindle 3 and the review unit Amazon sent me and can’t really find anything conclusive – So the probability is low but not zero. Lots of people look at the same thing and see different things so it’s quite possible that the screens are all within 5% to 10% of the same basic improved level of screen contrast.
5. The size of the screen isn’t conducive to PDFs. This really isn’t the Kindle 3′s fault. It does very well as this Kindle 3 PDF post shows. However, if you’re expecting to be able to read PDFs page by page you’re going to be disappointed – the screen is 6″ and not an A4 size sheet of paper.
6. The thinner page turn buttons have got some people upset. You can hold the Kindle 3 along the side edge (a tiny bit to the back so you don’t press down on it) and then this shouldn’t be a problem.
7. The 5-way being next to Back and Home means you sometimes accidentally press Back. The solution to this is to keep your thumb over the 5-way centre button and then move down or up or left or right from this central position to press the inside edges of the up,down, left, and right buttons. This works much better.
8. The 5-way and page turn buttons take a little getting used to. There’s no way around it – you have to spend a little time to get familiar with them.
9. There are no number keys. You have to either use Alt+Top Row to get numbers (Alt+Q = 1, Alt+W = 2, etc.) or use the SYM key.
10. The Kindle 3 Graphite gets pretty hot in direct sunlight. This is actually a pretty important point. It’s a bit obvious but it might mean that when it’s really hot outside you can’t take the graphite Kindle 3 out for reading. Hopefully, someone in a hotter place than Montreal will let us know if that really is the case.

That’s a good collection of Kindle 3 cons and it helps highlight that while Amazon did get things right with the Kindle 3 it is by no means perfect. You can find discussions of various Kindle 3 Cons as well as lots of Kindle 3 reviews at the official kindle forum.

Kindle 3 Cons – The Interesting Ones

Here are some interesting Kindle 3 cons -

1. A few people find the new size too small and the weight too low. They felt using the Kindle 3 with the cover fixed the issue.  
2. A few people don’t like the new layout of buttons. The top complaint seems to be the power slider being at the bottom.
3. There are some concerns about the Kindle 3 graphite not disappearing in the background as well as a white Kindle would. For me there was no difference and in fact the better screen contrast of the Kindle 3 helps make it more engrossing than Kindle 2. If we were to compare the white Kindle 3 and the black Kindle 3 perhaps there’s some difference – Haven’t tried it so don’t know.
4. Concerns about the weight of the lighted case.  Well, it’s 7.8 ounces.
5. Concerns about the uneven lighting the Lighted Cover provides. Well, you can read the entire screen but the top corner (that is closest to the light) is brighter than the opposite corner (which is the case with every reading light in my experience).
6. It’s smaller and the bezel around it is narrower so you have to be careful how you hold it. Tip: You can only press the page turn buttons if you have downwards pressure on them – so just hold them with your fingers a little to the back of the side of the buttons. Try a few positions and you’ll see what I mean.
7. PDFs still can’t be downloaded using the web browser.
8. Several people are finding that they need to try a few times to connect to WiFi. Sometimes it’s a WiFi network issue solved by resetting the WiFi network or changing the type of encryption by choosing ‘Enter other WiFi network’ in Kindle 3′s WiFi dialog.
9. Sometimes the browser will cause a problem where the top bar of the browser with the url etc. stays even after leaving the browser. A reset (slide and hold power button for 15 seconds) fixes this bug.

There’s also this interesting tip on finding out information about WiFi and 3G network -

Go to Settings page and type in 311 or 711 or one of the other numbers listed below -

311– providers
411– one page of info
611– now 6 pages of info on everything 3G communication
711– wi-fi

It’s interesting that most of the complaints stem from a core group of people. You have to appreciate their desire to point out each and every flaw in the Kindle 3 so that prospective owners are fully aware that the overwhelming number of positive Kindle 3 reviews don’t mean the Kindle 3 is perfect.

Please do read the kindle 3 user review post which covers what Kindle 3 owners love about the Kindle 3. Also, my kindle 3 review includes kindle 3 strengths and weaknesses. You can get the Kindle 3 at Amazon for $189.