Kindle

Free, online file converter tool

Although I’m a big fan of Calibre and use it to manage the bulk of my e-book collection, occasionally, I just want to quickly convert individual documents or ebooks. And for this purpose, I’ve come across a helpful free, online book converter tool – cunningly called “Online Converter Tool” – and you can access it here.

Just saying it’s an ebook converter tool is a little misleading though because it can do a lot more than that. It can convert to most of the main ebook and document formats – including ePub, mobi (for Kindles) and PDFs – but it will also convert audio files into different formats too, including to AAC, MP3, OGG, WAV and WMA (among others). 

Similarly, there are video converters – think AVI, MKV, MOV, MP4, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and WMV – as well as device-specific settings for iPhone, iPads, Android devices and others. And there are also free online converter tools for images (BMP, EPS, GIF, JPG, PNG, etc.), documents (DOC, DOCX, HTML, PDF, RTF, TXT, etc.) and even archive converters (7Z, ZIP, etc. – but no RAR). 

Considering it’s a completely free resource, the few files I’ve thrown at it were dealt with quickly and produced flawless PDFs from ePubs, with no watermarking or other additions to my document. So it’s earned a place in my bookmarks and will no doubt be a tool I continue to use in the future.

Full Amazon Prime finally in the UK

How good is this? The UK version of Amazon has finally announced that they’re introducing the same features as the US version! This means free access to the Kindle library of 500,000 books, unlimited movie & TV streaming, and next day deliveries from Amazon’s stock. The usual price will be £79 per year, but if you sign up before 26th February (you can take a free 30 day trial if you’re unsure) – then you can get it at the reduced price of £49. The service will go live fully in 5 days. Follow the link HERE to find out more.

The future of ebook technology

I came across this in-depth article all about the various technologies that are in development for ebook readers and tablets. It’s mostly about the different screen types – whether they’re e-ink, Qualcomm’s mirasol, or liquavista – the article’s a great background on developments that have taken place and what we can look forward to. Link: HERE

Daryl Gregory books

Don’t you just love it when you stumble across a book that’s just… well written, enjoyable and you struggle to put it down? Well I do, which is why I wasn’t pleasantly surprised by The Devil’s Alphabet by Daryl Gregory. It’s a contemporary fantasy story that could appeal to people who don’t normally appreciate the genre. As I was reading it, I could easily imagine it being a cinematic blockbuster… if only someone would take a risk and make a film like this.

I had the paper back version, but it’s also available on the Kindle too (HERE).

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If you like books by Harlan Coben

Once you find a good author, one that you’re happy with… you like their style and the way they build a good story, then you often want to read more of the same, or find other authors who write in the same genre and at a similar level. But knowing where to find these similar authors isn’t always easy. So, here’s a quick guide to some similar authors to Harlan Coben.

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Kindle software update rolls out

Amazon Kindle 3GAmazon have announced that they’re rolling out a software update to Kindle owners, taking the software version to 3.1. It’s a seamless update that should come through automatically, just as soon as you activate your Kindle’s wi-fi. There’s no information about whether the update comes through via 3G.

There are 4 main features that will become enabled as part of the update and I’ve listed them below in order of importance (from my own perspective). Unfortunately, there’s no change to allow custom screensaver images (as was possible on previous Kindle versions), or to default the images to align with the current book or publication you’re reading. I’d much prefer to see something specific that I choose as opposed to the classics author images that currently pop up.

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Amazon Kindle ebook sales higher than paperbacks

Amazon Kindle 3GInteresting to see two bits of news in the press today about the Amazon Kindle. First there’s the report that Amazon Kindle ebook sales has outstripped traditional paperbacks in the US during the final quarter of 2010. This trend has apparently continued in to January 2011 too, with 115 ebooks being sold for every 100 paperbacks. (Source: HERE)

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CODY1 is now available on Amazon’s Kindle!

How cool is this, you can now subscribe to this blog through my very own Amazon Kindle subscription (link HERE).

As with all blog, newpaper and magazine subscriptions on Kindle there’s a 14 day free trial – so what’s to lose?! It’s only 99p per month too – and there’s always new jokes, information, advice and general news being added.

To find out how to publish your own blog to Amazon’s Kindle service – click HERE – and read my other post about how to do it.

Use Windows Task Scheduler to send news to Kindle with Calibre

Amazon Kindle 3GFollowing on from my earlier post about “Automated free news for Kindle using Calibre” (link HERE), nickredding over at Mobileread.com suggested a much simpler approach. Rather than using a separate wake up timer application to wake my PC up, ready to run Calibre – I should use the one built into Windows.

Windows Task Scheduler allows you to schedule your PC to wake up and run a specific application at a specific time.

Calibre will have to be set up the same, in terms of scheduling the download of news from specific sites at specific times, so as to coincide with the task scheduler, but it just means you don’t have to download the separate wake timer.

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Kindle and wordpress

Amazon Kindle 3GThe more I play around with the Kindle the more uses I’m finding it for it. Already there’s a plugin that can be used with WordPress to benefit Kindle owners/users. It’s called Kindle This (more info below HERE). And if you’re wanting to publish your blog to Kindle – then you can do so now – and it’s actually surprisingly easy, taking around 10 minutes to do; info on this, including step by step instructions is included below HERE.

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