The Amazon Kindle is one of the high points of the 2008 holiday selling season for retailers. The Kindle wireless reading device for reading e-books sold-out before the holidays and at this writing is on a 8 to 10 week backorder. There are some great reasons for the popularity of this device:

It holds a LOT of e-books:

The internal memory of the Kindle can hold up-to 200 text-based books so you can take a virtual library with you wherever you go. Whether you are on an airplane, in the train on your way to work, or at home your favorite books are available to read at the flick of a switch.

The quality of the text is great:

Amazon has designed the reader and the “e-ink” used in the Kindle’s display to handle books. While this does mean that images display less than optimally, text is crisp and easily read. You also can adjust the size of the text on the display letting those of us with less than great vision keep reading without our glasses or contacts.

Amazon offers a “try before you buy” feature:

Like browsing at a bookstore, Amazon will instantly deliver a sample of any book you might be interested in purchasing to your Kindle so you can see if you’d like to make a purchase. This is a great feature that makes the whole experience more enjoyable. 

Many e-books are available for the Kindle:

At this writing Amazon offered over 215,000 titles for the Kindle

The Kindle is lightweight and easy to carry:

You can carry around 200 books in the same space as a typical paperback book

The Kindle also plays audiobooks:

If you’re a fan of Audible.com or have some .mp3 e-books you can put them on your Kindle and listen as you would on an mp3 player or iPod.

Adding more memory to your Kindle -

As mentioned above, the internal memory of the Kindle holds about 200 e-books that are primarily text-based. Books containing images take more memory so the total number of books your Kindle can hold may be more or less than 200. To increase the number of e-books you can store on your Kindle e-book reader do the following:

1. Choose an SD memory card for your Kindle – typically you’ll want a 4mb or 8mb card

2. Turn your Kindle OFF

3. Disconnect your Kindle from the charger

4. Turn your Kindle face-down on a hard surface – remember to protect your screen!

5. Remove the back cover of the Kindle – this is the dark gray embossed cover

6. Locate the SD card memory slot on the inside edge of the Kindle

7. Insert your SD card into the slot until it “clicks”

8. Replace the cover

For more complete instructions with photos visit www.guidetokindle.com.

Michael Piston is a technology enthusiast, voracious reader, and Kindle owner. He edits a web site for Kindle owners www.guidetokindle.com

The Amazon Kindle is a great e-book reader and audio-book player. Wouldn’t it be great if you could use the built-in wireless service for other things like surfing the Internet or sending and receiving e-mail? Well, actually depending upon the e-mail service you use, you can!

Not surprisingly, we’ve found that the Amazon Kindle (both version 1 and 2) work great with Google’s Gmail. However, “right-out-of-the-box”, you will not be able to use Gmail unless you make a few modifications to your Kindle’s settings. If you do not do this, you will get an error message when trying to get into your Gmail account.

Here are the steps you need to follow:

1. Get a GMail account if you do not have one already – very simple – visit www.gmail.com and sign-up. Gmail offers a number of great features including over 7GB of storage space, IMAP support, and easy labeling of e-mail.

2. Turn on your Kindle and go to Menu > Experimental > Basic Web. This will open the Kindle’s Web Browser. Keep in mind that the Kindle browser (even on the new Kindle 2) is VERY basic.

3. When your Kindle browser has opened, go to Menu > Settings.

4. Navigate to the Menu item “Enable Javascript” – Gmail requires Javascript to work. If Javascript is not enabled then you will get an error message when trying to access your Gmail account.

5. Close the Settings window.

6. Go to Menu > Enter URL and then enter www.gmail.com – this is important, if you use the Kindle’s default shortcut or bookmark for Google you will get the Google “PDA” or mobile edition. When you try to access Gmail from the Google mobile site it will prompt you to download an e-mail application. This application cannot be installed on your Kindle. Go direction to the gmail site.

7. Log into the Gmail site with your existing user name and password, or use the new one you created in Step #1. Click “Sign in”.

8. You should now be logged into Gmail and ready to read and send e-mail messages.

A few things to keep in-mind when using your Kindle for Gmail. First, don’t forget the “Next Page” and “Prev Page” buttons. You have to get-out of your computer mind and into your Kindle mind. Next, the screen quality is not exceptional because it is in gray scale vs. color. The Kindle 2’s screen is better than the Kindle 1, however you will not equal anywhere near the experience of using your computer for e-mail. Finally – you won’t be able to open attachments sent to your Gmail account, and you may not be able to see all of the images sent with your e-mails.

With all of this, it still is pretty neat that you can take advantage of the wireless “Whispernet” service to take care of some basic e-mail tasks while you are using your Kindle. Who knows? In the event that your computer crashes and you’re out on the road your Kindle might be just come in very handy!

Congratulations, now you know how-to use Gmail on your Amazon Kindle wireless reading device.

The Amazon Kindle e-book reader includes features that can make your e-book reading and audio-book listening more enjoyable. Find out about the Kindle’s basic features, “hidden” features, and more by going to http://www.guidetokindle.com. News, information, and how-to tips for owners of the Amazon Kindle 1 and Kindle 2. Sign-up for our e-mail newsletter and stay informed about everything Kindle.

Amazon has sent-out press releases for a big announcement on February 9th in New York City hosted by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Since the event is being held in the Morgan Library, the big rumor is that the new Kindle 2 will debut. For Amazon this is big news since the Kindle was one of the big bright spots of the depressing 2008 holiday selling season.

One of the other interesting reasons that the Kindle is great for Amazon is that it appears to be incremental sales for the company. During a recent earnings call, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos claimed that for every physical book Kindle owners purchase from Amazon they also purchase 1.6 to 1.7 e-books for their Kindle. It seems that the Kindle really gets owners even more involved in reading.

So what’s in it for people like you and me that might buy a new Kindle 2? We’ve done a little research on the rumors and some sites like The New York Times and The Boy Genius Report have some interesting details.

1. According to The New York Times the big feature is the improved responsiveness of the display on the new Kindle. One of the key irritants owners of the Kindle 1 have is that when you click the “Next Page” button the Kindle screen goes dark for a second before the next page displays. The new display uses a new microchip and digital ink technology that – reportedly – does away with this issue.

2. In addition to improving responsiveness for reading, the new display also improves responsiveness for doing things OTHER than reading – for example browsing the Web and working with e-mail. The Kindle 1 Web browser was an “experimental” feature that handled text-based sites best. You could use G-Mail for example, but in the “mobile phone mode” which is primarily text vs. graphics based. The new screen technology seems to remove this barrier.

3. Keyboard is larger – based on “leaked” pictures posted on The Boy Genius Report, the new Kindle 2 keyboard is larger making it easier to work with the keys.

4. The scroll wheel is replaced with a track-ball. Again – checking out the “leaked” pictures of the Kindle 2 it appears the scroll wheel is replaced by a track-ball. We expect this means the way you might interact with the new Kindle 2 screen will be significantly different than the Kindle 1. Rather than using the screen in a “linear” fashion, the track ball will allow you to roam the screen and select text more easily for bookmarks, notes, etc. The new Kindle 2 track-ball might also make it easier to interact with web pages vs. the current scroll wheel.

Let’s think about what we’d like to see in the new Kindle 2 as well!

A. Better web browsing – this seems to be covered

B. Built-in Media Player – allow selecting and playing of mp3 files vs. random play

C. Built-in ability to read .pdf files – Adobe .pdf is a universal file format for a lot of e-books. You can now read .pdf files by e-mailing them to your Kindle e-mail address. Google will convert them for a small charge

And the big question – will those people who now have Kindle’s on back order get the new Kindle 2 when it is released?

We can only wait until February 9th to find-out!

Do you want great tips, how-to information, and news on the Amazon Kindle and Amazon Kindle 2? Visit http://www.guidetokindle.com the web’s best resource. Sign-up for the Guide To Kindle e-mail news and keep up-to-date on everything Kindle.

One of the great features of the Kindle Wireless Reading Device from Amazon is that it holds so many e-books and audio books. Even with it’s fairly large built-in storage however, your book collection might exceed the limits of what can fit on your Kindle. 

To help you handle your growing collection of e-books and audio books, the you can add extra memory to your Kindle in the form of an SD memory card. You can purchase these cards in many sizes from 1 GB up-to 16 GB. At the time you read this 32 GB cards may readily be available and affordable. Installing SD memory in your Kindle is straightforward. You can find complete instructions in our Kindle How-To Series available in the web-site listed below.

Once you have your memory card installed it’s time to move some of the e-books or audio books stored in your Kindle’s main memory to your new SD Card. There are a few things you should consider first before “making the move.”

1. Audio books are a good candidate for moving from your Kindle’s main memory to the SD card. Audio book files can be large – some are up-to 90 mb or more. Audio books will quickly consumer your Kindle’s main memory leaving less space for your e-books.

2. If you’ve purchased books that are on the Amazon digital site and have yet to be sent to your Kindle these also might be good candidates to load onto your SD memory card. This will keep all of your e-books and audio books in one place in-case you run into a situation where you do not have wireless access.

3. Pictures, music files, and digital files other than e-books also consume a lot of space in the Kindle’s main memory. Again, this makes them good choices to move to the new SD card you’ve installed in your Kindle.

Now – let’s take a look at your Kindle and get ready to save some files to your SD memory card. Here are the steps you can follow to do this -

A. Turn on your Kindle

B. Move the scroll wheel to “Menu” and press to select the Main Menu

C. Scroll to “Content Manager” on the Main Menu the press to select the Content Manager

D. Once the Content Manager screen opens take a look at your list of audio books and e-books – pay specific attention to the storage location of the book listed directly under the first word of the title –

a. “Kindle” – the book is stored in your Kindle’s main memory

b. “SD Card” – any books you’ve moved to your SD Card will have this location

c. “Amazon” – books you’ve purchased but that have not been downloaded to your Kindle will have this location

E. Choose a book now located on your Kindle by scrolling to the location of the book and pressing the scroll wheel to “select” the book. When you do this you will notice an “x” in the box immediately to the right of the book’s title.

F. Next scroll back down to “Menu” at the bottom of the Kindle screen and press the scroll wheel to select.

G. When the Menu opens, scroll to “Move to SD Card” and press the scroll wheel to select.

H. Once you do this you will notice the location icon will show the book is being transferred to your Kindle’s SD memory card. For example you will see an arrow pointing from the “Kindle” location to the SD Card location.

I. When the move is complete the location icon below the title will change from “Kindle” to “SD Card” – this is how you know the transfer process is complete.

That’s all there is to it! You’ve now learned how-to quickly save books from your Kindle’s main memory to the SD Card you’ve installed in your Kindle.

Complete instructions with photos can be found at the web site in the resource box below.

Do you own an Amazon Kindle or are you thinking about getting one? Go to www.guidetokindle.com for free information, FAQs, and how-to tips and help make your e-books and audio books even more enjoyable.

Since the Amazon Kindle is a fairly new innovation, most owners have not had their Kindle e-book reader long enough to require a new battery. However, if you use your Kindle frequently and charge it often then you may get to the point where the battery doesn’t seem to last as long as when your Kindle was new. This is not an usual phenomenon – most rechargeable batteries have a “life” measured in number of re-charges.

Another reason that you may wish to replace the battery on your Kindle is that you are going to be using it for a long period of time and can’t charge it. For example let’s say you are planning a trip with a long international airplane flight. In this case you can take two (or more) fully charged Kindle batteries with you and replace them as required.

To save battery life, the Kindle goes into a “sleep” mode if you have not been reading an e-book or listening to an audio book for a long period of time. You’ll recognize when your Kindle has entered “sleep” mode because a screen saver will appear on your screen in-place of the book you were reading. Kindle comes with built-in screen savers, or you can check the site in the resource box below to learn how-to create your own.

Your Amazon Kindle has a built-in battery power meter you will find at the bottom right-side of the screen. The battery power meter is right next to the wireless signal strength meter. It’s sometimes easy to get these meters confused. The wireless signal strength indicator appears as a bar graph with a small antenna in-front of the first bar. When your battery power meter shows nearly all white you know it’s either time to recharge your Kindle or replace your battery. If the power meter goes down quickly after a charge it may be time to replace your battery.

Here’s how you replace the battery on your Amazon Kindle:

1. Turn-off your Kindle 

2. Find a soft cloth or other means to protect the face of your Kindle 

3. Place your Kindle face down on a flat, secure surface 

4. Slide the gray back cover off of your Kindle 

5. You will see the gray battery in it’s compartment 

6. Note the battery compartment has a rounded “notch” on one end 

7. Using your finger (not a screwdriver or any other device that might damage your Kindle)gently push the battery to the back of the compartment then lift it out 

8. The battery is attached to your Kindle by a white plastic connector and several wires 

9. GENTLY pull the white connector back until the battery is disconnected from your Kindle 

10. Attach your new battery by pushing the white wiring connector into the proper location in the battery compartment 

11. Seat the battery into the back of the battery compartment – make sure the white wiring connector is attached properly 

12. Press the battery down at the front of the battery compartment – note that the battery and the compartment have a small notch and grove to help you line-up the battery 

13. Replace the cover 

14 Turn on your Kindle and you’re ready to get back to reading your favorite e-book or listening to your favorite audio book

Congratulations! You have just learned how-to replace the battery in your Amazon Kindle.

While this is not a procedure everyone will do regularly it’s helpful to know either when your battery does not hold a charge or if you are traveling with more than one charged battery.

One more important point! The battery in your Amazon Kindle is made from Lithium Polymer. It should be disposed of properly – likely at a battery recycling center located near you.

Want to learn even more about how to make your Kindle e-book or audio book experience even more enjoyable? Great free information, tips, and well illustrated how-to articles are available at http://www.guidetokindle.com

Be sure to sign-up for our free newsletter and keep up-to-date on everything Kindle.

While the Kindle wireless reading device lets you carry literally hundreds of e-books, newspapers, and magazines anywhere you go, your Kindle is actually pretty picky about the types of documents it will let you read. Free e-books, articles, white papers, and other documents you might wish to read on your Kindle are everywhere on the Internet. The problem is that they are not in a format that is “Kindle-friendly.” 

The Kindle “natively” supports the following document formats -

Kindle documents (.azw)

Text documents (.txt)

Mobi Reader documents (.mobi or .prc)

But, if you have a document you wish to read on your Kindle that is in another format – for example = a free e-book that is an Adobe Reader (.pdf) file or a Microsoft Word (.doc) file then you have to convert it to the proper format for use on your Kindle. Fortunately this is not something that is hard to do.

Amazon has a service for which they charge a nominal amount allowing you to convert documents such as .pdf (Adobe Acrobat Reader) files to Kindle files. To do this you must first have an active Kindle e-mail address. You can make sure you are set-up with a Kindle e-mail address by visiting the “Manage Your Kindle” section of the Amazon web site. Typically, your Kindle e-mail address will be “yourusername@kindle.com”.

1. Make sure the document you want to convert is in one of the following formats

Microsoft Word (.doc)

HTML (.html)

Adobe Acrobat Reader (.pdf)

2. Check to be sure the file is not “protected.” This can occur with e-books you have purchased with DRM (digital rights management) restrictions. You also might have documents that include passwords or other means to restrict access. You will not be able to convert these files.

3. Create an e-mail to your Kindle e-mail address and attach the file you wish to read on your Kindle.

4. Send the e-mail – Amazon will convert the document and send it to your Kindle via the wireless connection.

5. The cost for this service is $.10 (ten cents) per document.

If you want to convert your document at no charge, or are in an area where you cannot access the Kindle’s wireless service you can do so with a slight change in the steps above. 

Rather than send the e-mail with the attached document to your Kindle e-mail address send it to “yourusername@free.kindle.com”. Amazon will convert the document and send it back to the originating e-mail address.  When you get the e-mail back from Amazon you can transfer the document to your Kindle using the USB cable connected to your computer.

It’s as simple as that!

A few important things to remember. First, as stated above, if the files you wish to convert have any sort of DRM (digital rights management) restrictions then the file won’t be converted. Also – this is an “experimental” service for Amazon. Documents with complex formatting, or certain .pdf files, may not convert as expected. While this may not prevent you from reading the document, it will make it a bit more difficult to navigate through and around your e-book. 

Congratulations! Now you know how you can quickly convert e-books in Microsoft Word, HTML, and Adobe Acrobat Reader format to “Kindle-friendly” e-books. This process can help you add a lot of great content to your Kindle wireless reading device.

Get more great how-to information, news, and tips on the Kindle wireless reading device by visiting www.guidetokindle.com. Sign-up for the Guide to Kindle e-mail newsletter and keep informed and up-to-date on everything Kindle.

The new Amazon Kindle 2’s features and navigation is easy to access with the MENU, and HOME buttons, along with the 5-way navigator. But there are keyboard shortcuts built into the Kindle that can make using your new e-book reader more enjoyable. There also are some special features only available using keyboard shortcuts. Here are some of the shortcuts you should keep in-mind when using your Kindle 2.

Refresh your display – the new Kindle’s screen is a big improvement over the Kindle 1. The new “digital ink” gives the screen a little better contrast and sharpness. It also moves from page to page more quickly. What you’ll find however is that sometimes you get a “ghosting” image on your screen. This can be annoying as you read. To refresh your screen hold down the ALT key then press the “G” key.

Use the Kindle’s built-in Spoken Word feature – you can press and hold down the ALT key then press the SYM key to turn the Spoken Word feature on or off. If you want to pause the Spoken Word feature press the ALT key and the space bar. Press the ALT key and the space bar again to resume playing Spoken Word.

Can’t wait to buy some new books for your Kindle 2? Press the ALT key and the HOME button to go immediately to the Kindle store. 

If you find a key passage of a book that you want to send to someone you can take a screen shot using your Kindle. Press and hold the ALT and SHIFT (up arrow) keys and then the “G” key. The screen will flash when the screen capture is complete. Attach your Kindle 2 to your computer using the USB cable. You’ll find your screen shots there with a .gif file extension. You can copy the screen shots to your computer and attach them to e-mails or print them out.

Are you bored of reading and thinking of something else to do? Of course you could use your Kindle 2 to surf the web – or – you could play a game of Minesweeper. Press and hold down the ALT key and the SHIFT (up arrow) keys and then press the “M” key. The Minesweeper game will appear on your screen. Press the MENU button to change the game options.

If you’ve uploaded your own text files to your Kindle you may need to have the Kindle scan your documents so the new files show-up on your Home page. To do this hold-down the ALT key and then press the “Z” key.

How long have you been reading this book? To find-out press the Menu key and look at the top of your Kindle display. There you’ll see the time, the memory free on your Kindle 2, and details on your wireless network connection (right now mine says “3G”).

Need some detailed technical information on your Kindle 2? From the Home Page go to Menu > Settings and then type “411″. A screen will open showing your Settings and Device Information. Take a screen shot – hold down the “ALT” and “SHIFT” keys then press the “G” key – to save the information on the screen. Press the Home button again to close this window.

Congratulations! You’ve just learned how to get more use and enjoyment from your Kindle 2 e-book reader. To get keyboard shortcuts for your Kindle 1 visit the Guide to Kindle link at the bottom of this article.

Got a Kindle? Then you need to get right over to http://www.guidetokindle.com. News, information, pictures, and how-to advice for the worlds most popular e-book reader. Exclusive, well-documented articles show you how to get the most from your Kindle investment. Be sure to sign-up for our e-mail newsletter and stay informed about everything Kindle.

Your new Kindle wireless reading device is great for holding e-books and audio books but did you also know you can display your pictures on your Kindle? Keep in mind that the Kindle has a gray scale display, not color, so the quality of your pictures won’t be great. But, despite that it might be nice to have a few of your favorite pictures for quick viewing on your Kindle.

The process for loading and viewing pictures on your Kindle is not entirely intuitive, but it’s not difficult for you to master. Follow the steps below and you’ll have more than just books on your Kindle.

1. Get a collection of pictures you want to load on your Kindle. These can be color images but remember that your Kindle will display them as gray scale images.

2. Use a photo editing program to reduce the size of your images before loading them into your Kindle. The Kindle screen can display a picture at a maximum size of 550 pixels high x 450 pixels wide. There is no sense loading large images – which will take-up a large amount of your Kindle’s memory – if the image size is limited.

3. Attach the Kindle’s USB cable to both your Kindle and your computer. 

4. Once the screen letting you know your Kindle is attached to your computer via USB appears you can double-click on your computer’s “My Computer” icon.

5. Your Kindle should appear as one of the disk drives attached to your computer.

6. Double-click on your Kindle drive. You will see several folders. One for Audible books, one for documents, and one for music.

7. Add a new folder to your Kindle called “pictures”.

8. Open the new “pictures” folder and create one sub-folder for each of the groups of pictures you wish to load onto your Kindle. For example “Moms Birthday” might be one folder and “Summer Vacation 2009″ might be another. These folder names will appear on your Kindle’s Home Screen so make them descriptive.

9. Open each new sub-folder then copy the pictures you’ve collected into their appropriate folder.

10. When you are done take a look at your Kindle’s screen. If the USB activity indicator at the bottom right side of the screen is not showing any activity you can remove the USB cable from your Kindle.

11. Go to the Home Screen of your Kindle. Press the “ALT” key and the “Z” key at the same time to refresh your Kindle’s list of e-books. The screen will blink a few time – when it stops use your “Next Page”, “Prev Page” buttons to locate the new picture folders you created in Step 8.

12. Scroll to the picture folder you want to open then press the scroll wheel to select it. The folder will open and in a moment or two your first picture will appear. You can move through your pictures by pressing the “Next” or “Prev” page buttons.

Congratulations! You now know how to make using your Kindle even more enjoyable by being able to carry special pictures with you in your Kindle wireless reading device.

For more complete How-To information, including screen shots of the process described above visit the web address in the resource box below.

Happy reading!

Visit www.guidetokindle for the latest news, information, and great free how-to advice for the Kindle e-book reader. Join the Guide to Kindle e-mail list to get how-to tips delivered right to your in box.