Comments on: Kindle for PC – What’s in it for Educators? http://www.edukindle.com/2009/11/kindle-for-pc-whats-in-it-for-educators/ eReaders for Educators Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:43:53 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Gene Venable http://www.edukindle.com/2009/11/kindle-for-pc-whats-in-it-for-educators/comment-page-1/#comment-624 Gene Venable Mon, 28 Dec 2009 05:32:56 +0000 http://www.edukindle.com/?p=564#comment-624 Kindle for PC has a HUGE advantage that reviewers seem to be overlooking. You can read your Kindle book and take advantage of the OTHER software you have on your PC while reading the book. For example, I use the no-cost mind-mapping software Freemind while reading -- that is impossible on a Kindle, but easy with Kindle for PC. Also, when I want to browse the web, I can switch to whatever browser I choose, such as my current favorite, the Google Chrome browser -- but next week I might rather run Opera -- no problem! It also happens that you can easily use Kindle for PC in conjunction with Wine on a Linux machine -- set Wine to emulate Windows 98 for best results. I am not a Wine expert, but I got it working with no special effort in Ubuntu on my ASUS eee PC 1000h, and under Windows 7 as well. I find myself using Kindle for PC for about half of my reading, despite the fact that I own a Kindle 2. Kindle for PC has a few drawbacks -- but notice that when you start to wish for more, it means that whatever you are doing must be working fairly well -- revisit your adolescence for an example. Kindle for PC doesn't support mark and transfer, aka copy and paste -- so when you want to preserve information, you have to type it in as new. And as mentioned elsewhere, Kindle for PC doesn't let you change background or text colors -- that is coming soon, I hope. And there is no integrated dictionary, so looking up word meanings isn't as quite as easy as on a real Kindle. But for my money (none, it happens), the advantages of Kindle for PC go above and beyond the price issue, and there will of course be improvements to come. I suspect that Kindle for PC may become a testbed for new features that may later be incorporated in the Kindles of the future. Color, for example, and an actual integrated mind-mapping program that you can freely cut and past to. Yummmm. Those are just the beginning of a great future for Kindles and Kindle for PC. Kindle for PC has a HUGE advantage that reviewers seem to be overlooking. You can read your Kindle book and take advantage of the OTHER software you have on your PC while reading the book. For example, I use the no-cost mind-mapping software Freemind while reading — that is impossible on a Kindle, but easy with Kindle for PC. Also, when I want to browse the web, I can switch to whatever browser I choose, such as my current favorite, the Google Chrome browser — but next week I might rather run Opera — no problem!

It also happens that you can easily use Kindle for PC in conjunction with Wine on a Linux machine — set Wine to emulate Windows 98 for best results. I am not a Wine expert, but I got it working with no special effort in Ubuntu on my ASUS eee PC 1000h, and under Windows 7 as well.

I find myself using Kindle for PC for about half of my reading, despite the fact that I own a Kindle 2.

Kindle for PC has a few drawbacks — but notice that when you start to wish for more, it means that whatever you are doing must be working fairly well — revisit your adolescence for an example. Kindle for PC doesn’t support mark and transfer, aka copy and paste — so when you want to preserve information, you have to type it in as new. And as mentioned elsewhere, Kindle for PC doesn’t let you change background or text colors — that is coming soon, I hope. And there is no integrated dictionary, so looking up word meanings isn’t as quite as easy as on a real Kindle.

But for my money (none, it happens), the advantages of Kindle for PC go above and beyond the price issue, and there will of course be improvements to come. I suspect that Kindle for PC may become a testbed for new features that may later be incorporated in the Kindles of the future. Color, for example, and an actual integrated mind-mapping program that you can freely cut and past to. Yummmm. Those are just the beginning of a great future for Kindles and Kindle for PC.

]]> By: willd http://www.edukindle.com/2009/11/kindle-for-pc-whats-in-it-for-educators/comment-page-1/#comment-290 willd Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:44:33 +0000 http://www.edukindle.com/?p=564#comment-290 Diana, great questions. As to the one about the cover, KFPC and other ereaders appear to have a function where they grab the first image in the article and use it for a cover. Note that the title of the article does not appear on this type of cover. If Kindlepedia made covers, we would include the title with the image. So, the cover you see in KFPC was created automatically by KFPC. Your other question is a great one as well. Amazon will only archive stuff you bought from them. For anything else you must find your own storage and management. So, you could either email the article to your Kindle using the email address you have for the Kindle you are sending it to (e.g. yourname@kindle.com) and it will appear on the device pretty quickly, or you could follow the procedure you describe: connect your Kindle to the computer with the USB cord and drag the article into your "documents" folder on the Kindle. Hope that helps! Diana, great questions. As to the one about the cover, KFPC and other ereaders appear to have a function where they grab the first image in the article and use it for a cover. Note that the title of the article does not appear on this type of cover. If Kindlepedia made covers, we would include the title with the image. So, the cover you see in KFPC was created automatically by KFPC.

Your other question is a great one as well. Amazon will only archive stuff you bought from them. For anything else you must find your own storage and management. So, you could either email the article to your Kindle using the email address you have for the Kindle you are sending it to (e.g. yourname@kindle.com) and it will appear on the device pretty quickly, or you could follow the procedure you describe: connect your Kindle to the computer with the USB cord and drag the article into your “documents” folder on the Kindle.

Hope that helps!

]]> By: Diana http://www.edukindle.com/2009/11/kindle-for-pc-whats-in-it-for-educators/comment-page-1/#comment-289 Diana Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:22:40 +0000 http://www.edukindle.com/?p=564#comment-289 One more followup question.... in your berlin kindleized wiki article, how did you get the picture to be "the cover"? One more followup question…. in your berlin kindleized wiki article, how did you get the picture to be “the cover”?

]]> By: Diana http://www.edukindle.com/2009/11/kindle-for-pc-whats-in-it-for-educators/comment-page-1/#comment-288 Diana Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:27:49 +0000 http://www.edukindle.com/?p=564#comment-288 Thanks for that great blog, especialy the part about adding the wiki entries to the KFPC, which I hadn't thought about. Followup question - when you say that "if you don’t finish reading it in KFPC, just pop the file onto your Kindle and read up on this topic later", do you mean that I should just turn on the Kindle and sync or do I still need to use the USB cord to put the file on the Kindle? I thought the former, but it doesn't seem to work that way. Can you Edukindle me? Thanks Thanks for that great blog, especialy the part about adding the wiki entries to the KFPC, which I hadn’t thought about. Followup question – when you say that “if you don’t finish reading it in KFPC, just pop the file onto your Kindle and read up on this topic later”, do you mean that I should just turn on the Kindle and sync or do I still need to use the USB cord to put the file on the Kindle? I thought the former, but it doesn’t seem to work that way. Can you Edukindle me?
Thanks

]]> By: willd http://www.edukindle.com/2009/11/kindle-for-pc-whats-in-it-for-educators/comment-page-1/#comment-286 willd Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:05:54 +0000 http://www.edukindle.com/?p=564#comment-286 Thanks Paul. Given the feature wars going on out there, that is a bit of a slip. I regretted in an earlier post the loss of the button to turn off the Whispernet because it meant that I had to have the device in the active mode to even determine whether the battery-eating service was on or off. With the Kindle 1, I could monitor that no matter the on-off-asleep status of the device. That's from an educator's perspective--the kind of device management that a teacher might have to perform. In any case, thanks for the comment! Thanks Paul. Given the feature wars going on out there, that is a bit of a slip. I regretted in an earlier post the loss of the button to turn off the Whispernet because it meant that I had to have the device in the active mode to even determine whether the battery-eating service was on or off. With the Kindle 1, I could monitor that no matter the on-off-asleep status of the device. That’s from an educator’s perspective–the kind of device management that a teacher might have to perform. In any case, thanks for the comment!

]]> By: Paul Biba http://www.edukindle.com/2009/11/kindle-for-pc-whats-in-it-for-educators/comment-page-1/#comment-284 Paul Biba Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:52:41 +0000 http://www.edukindle.com/?p=564#comment-284 Just to correct a miss-statement you made above, the Kindle does not have WiFi. It uses something called Whispersync which uses the mobile phone spectrum. Also, its' not always on, but can be turned on and off through the Kindle menus. Thanks for mentioning David. Regards. Paul Biba Co-Editor, teleread.org Just to correct a miss-statement you made above, the Kindle does not have WiFi. It uses something called Whispersync which uses the mobile phone spectrum. Also, its’ not always on, but can be turned on and off through the Kindle menus.

Thanks for mentioning David. Regards.

Paul Biba
Co-Editor, teleread.org

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