I thought you could access the whole internet on the Kindle, just text-only.

Ahh! Interesting! So you could maybe get google maps directions without the maps (for example)?

Huh. Maybe I'll get one.

Amazon downplays use of the Kindle for web-browsing; the browser is listed under “experimental” in the device’s main menu. There is a warning that the browser is most suited to viewing web sites which are mainly text.

But there is a huge attraction to using this browser despite its limitations: reasonably fast Internet access using it is free anywhere that Sprint’s EVDO network is available. Pretty useless outside the US but very useful at many places domestically including most airports and urban areas.

Moreover, turning on the Kindle and checking it for flight delays or travel directions is much easier than turning on a computer. Because it uses cellular technology for access, Kindle works well in moving cars and trains. Of course, you’re supposed to turn its radio off (which is easy to do) while on a commercial flight.

Kindle – Web Browsing Reviewed

eta:

Google Maps: The mobile version of the site is great for getting text directions; doesn’t support maps in a meaningful way. You can use Kindle to display a map from the standard Google site but the black and white map is hard to see and can’t be scrolled or zoomed. Looking up restaurants etc. in a neighborhood works well.

eta²:

Bottom line is that Kindle browsing is both cheaper and in many cases better than browsing on a mobile phone. If you’re already carrying the Kindle to read books (and carrying less books), you haven’t added to the load in your equipment bag.

It is inferior to browsing on a computer and useless when much typing is required – don’t think you can blog with or answer your email it but you can twitter. Using to get specific information in a hurry from mobile-formatted sites is helpful both because it powers up quickly and the browsing is free.

Great link, Tommy. Thanks.

Oooh. I wonder how, say, b.org looks on kindle...:)

Oooh. I wonder how, say, b.org looks on kindle...:)

Yeah. Since b.org is mostly text, I think it'd work well. (eta: For reading, at least. Maybe NSM for posting.)

If it could handle Goodle Reader, I think I'd be sold. Hmmm... Reader has a mobile version (that I get on my iPod touch) that works well - maybe that would work well on the kindle too.

Anyone have a new kindle and use Google Reader?

eta: Apparently it works OK on the older Kindle: Using Google Reader on the Amazon Kindle

Maybe NSM for posting

Does it have copy-paste? t /bitter iPhone user

my friend, who is an iphone user says: "since when do you use copy-paste? I never use it."

Which blows my mind.

Come to think of it, posting on b.org is the only time I wish I had copy-paste on my iPod touch. Otherwise, I use it strictly for reading-browsing.

I have both read and posted on buffistas using the original Kindle. It works quite well, actually.

There are definitely ways to read RSS feeds on it, but the coolest ways involve using feedbooks.com to send the feeds to you as often as you want to update them. They update then you can read them offline, just as if they were Kindle books. You can group them into categories or do individual feeds. Unfortunately, I don't think it's possible to sink Feedbooks with Google Reader, but maybe I'm wrong (as a NetNewsWire user myself, I had to start from scratch). I never used that feature much, but i tend to forget to open my RSS reader a lot too - it's not a killer feature for me like it is for many. Read more about Feedbooks Kindle integration here: [link]

I miss my Kindle. I left it in Barnes and Noble about 4 months ago. Which I find almost amusingly ironic enough to be worth the pain of its loss.

A negative look at the Kindle: Amazon's E-Book Strategy Re-Kindles Debate on Open Standards

The issue isn't about DRM protections on the books, but on Amazon's decision to create — and now perpetuate — a non-portable format that a) denies readers the ability to read e-books they buy from the company on another device and b) books they might buy from an e-books competitor on the Kindle.

It's a high-stakes strategy that has the potential of creating a standard by the scale of adoption — or join the lengthy list failed attempts to impose a format on market willing to put up with it only until a better alternative comes along. And, it almost always does.

For most, especially those who love their Kindles, this is a below-the-radar issue. But proponents of portability yearn for a world where lovers of content can easily abandon a device they had once been seduced by, so they don't have to go through the digital equivalent of the evolution of music: replace your 45s with LPs, with tape (reel-to-reel/8-Track/cassette), with CDs — just to keep your own collection.

...

Kindle e-books can be purchased online or using the built in Whispernet service in a matter of seconds with many readers not needing to know — or likely caring — about the proprietary format (.azw). But in addition to being Kindle-only, any books protected by digital rights management (DRM) are restricted to a specific user and transferable on up to only six Kindles, similar to the way iTunes worked before recently going DRM-free.

...

"There is no future in which we have a happy peaceful literary marketplace dominated by single proprietary format owned by a single company," said Doctorow. "That should be self-evident to anyone who's been paying attention to the internet."