Curated content delivered to your Kindleis as easy as 1, 2, Read
If you’re looking for interesting content to read on the move but can’t be arsed trawling the net for articles then Delivereads is for you. Click the link above, enter your kindle email address and voila – you’ll have exciting new articles delivered each week.
I should really update http://www.rossmcculloch.com/10-kindle-websites-apps-goodies-you-cant-live with http://kindlebility.darkhax.com/ when I get a minute!
I’ve literally just stumbled upon Lendle so I’ve no idea how useful it will become but here’s the jist:
According to the blurb Lendle works with Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod and Android. Here’s the page for Beth Kanter’s latest book on Lendle, I seem to be the only Lendler who owns it right now. I may well need to add Lendle to my top ten Kindle sites.
So…could Lendle become the social glue that binds together Kindle users?
UPDATE
The answer to the question above, outwith the US anyway, is a big fat no:
Does Lendle work with non-u.s. Amazon accounts?
Unfortunately, at this time Amazon only allows book lending for u.s. customers. As such, Lendle does not work with non-u.s. Amazon accounts. We expect Amazon to allow lending elsewhere soon.
About TEDBooks
The success of TEDTalks has demonstrated that millions of people around the world are hungry to absorb new ideas. Many of the talks create a desire to go deeper — but not everyone has the time to read an entire book on a subject. TEDBooks fill that gap. While a traditional book is at least 60,000 words, TEDBooks, at less than 20,000, allow someone to see an idea fleshed out in a satisfying way — but without having to devote a week of reading time to it.
The mass adoption of new e-book technologies like Kindle and iPad has changed the rules of the game. We suspect the traditional length of books has been dictated as much by the constraints of the physical medium of print as by what a modern reader actually wants. (Publishing wisdom is that 20,000 words in print feel too small to sell, so authors may be encouraged to write much more expansively, even if the idea itself doesn’t require it.) But just as iTunes allowed people to build new listening habits around individual music tracks, instead of albums, so the new reading technologies allow instant distribution of books of any length — facilitating new, more focused reading habits.
With more demands than ever on people’s time, we think many will welcome the chance to absorb a TEDBook on a single short plane flight or on a day’s commute.
Does this mean the dumbing down of reading? Actually, we suspect people reading TEDBooks will be trading up rather than down. They’ll be reading a short, compelling book instead of browsing a magazine or doing crossword puzzles. Our goal is to make ideas accessible in a way that matches modern attention spans.
Where to buy / How to view
TEDBooks are available from Amazon.com as Kindle Singles. They can be purchased for $2.99 each, and can be read on any device equipped with the Kindle app: iPad, Mac, PC, Android, iPhone, Blackberry and Windows 7 smartphones.
A great concept but, as one reviewer on Amazon points out, a standard sized Kindle book would cost $40 each at these price to page ratios.
Wouldn’t 99c be a more realistic/accessible price point?
If you’re interested in using your Kindle for more than just reading The Da Vinci Code here’s ten websites you should bookmark. If you know of any other gems please add a comment with the linkage.
1. Kindlefeeder
Rather than paying to read blogs on your Kindle, yes Amazon expect you to pay to read blogs, you can use the rather useful Kindlefeeder. Basically Kindlefeeder takes your favourite RSS feeds, chews them up and spits them out in a Kindle friendly format. There’s a free version which allows up to 12 feeds and a paid version which, for the time being, will even deliver the blog posts to your Kindle wirelessly.
2. Instapaper
If, like me, you bought your Kindle to read long articles on a screen that won’t destroy your eyes then you need to start using Instapaper. As the blurb states, it’s ‘a simple tool to save web pages for reading later’. So, spot an article, hit your ‘read later’ bookmarklet and it’s sent to Instpaper – you can then download Kindle friendly versions of articles with all the ads and other nonsense stripped out.
3. LongForm
Too lazy to seek interesting and long articles yourself? This is where the LongForm comes in to play. Use it with Instapaper for a match made in heaven.
4. LongReads
See above.
5.Calibre
Calibre is probably the best ebook management app out there, and it’s free. You can convert docs in to ebook format, sync devices and process RSS feeds just like you can with Kindlefeeder.
6. How to do (almost) everything with a Kindle 3
This Wired article is a great place to start if you’re new to the Kindle.
7. Kinstant
It’s a start page for the experimental browser built in to the Kindle. Simple but effective.
An uncluttered collection of free ebooks for your Kindle. There’s some classics in there.
9. FeedBooks
With over 3 million downloads every month FeedBooks is one of the best places to find both paid-for and free ebooks for various devices.
10. RetroRead
It’s great that Google Books provides a million free ebooks but the Kindle doesn’t like the epub format very much. This is where a tool like Calibre comes in to play, allowing you to easily convert these free books in to a Kindle friendly format. For the lazy amongst us there’s RetroRead – they’ll convert the book for you and even deliver it to your Kindle, free of charge. Even better, they have a searchable library of popular Google Books which have already been converted.