Glitch: Book goes to end of pile on your Kindle

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There seems to be some sort of glitch or bug on the Kindle reader that happens after doing a hard reset. Sometimes the Kindle will freeze, so you need to reset it. Problem is that most people like to have their ebooks sorted as newest first so when you change the book you are reading it appears at the top of the list, but after resetting the Kindle when you exit a book to read something else it goes right to the end of the pile, which means you have to go through several pages of books until you find it.

So, how do you fix this?

Easy:  probably your Kindle reader just forgot what time it is. . . .turn on whispernet and let it ask the world.

What if you lose your Kindle Reader?

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There is an internet buzz going on right now after Cnet.com published a story about a Kindle book reader found in a Taxi cab and wondering how could they return it to its owner.

This made me think… how many Kindle owners are out there right now using their device and not putting any information on it to be able to track the owner in case it is lost. If you are one of those, then you really need to fix that.

Here are a few ideas:

First of all, use the Kindle’s feature of adding your personal info. The link to “edit personal info” can be accessed from the “Settings and Device Information” tab when you click the menu button from the Kindle’s home screen.

Another way is to  rename your  Kindle reader.  Every time it comes on,  it can say something like:  “Reward if found:  (plus your phone number)

Or you could  create a .txt file that says the Kindle belongs to you and  give your cell number and email address and then state that there’s a reward if returned to you. The title of the document would be REWARD For Return of Kindle To Owner. Keep that document listed first or second on  your home menu so it’s hopefully easy to see.

Of course, all of this would work is the Kindle still has some battery left, but what if not? For that you should always use the “low tech” way… just paste your business card on the back of your Kindle book reader.

Use your Kindle charger for other gadgets

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kindle chargerDid you know that the tiny power adapter from your Kindle reader works great to charge an iPhone or iPod? This is a great bonus feature for us Apple enthusiasts. One less device to carry! Just plug your Apple cable into this and charge away.  I tried it with my iPhone 3G and iPod and it worked great.

And it seems you can also charge some cellphones. For example the Blackberry storm seems to fit like a glove.

If you find any other gadgets that can be charged with the Kindle adapter please let us know in the comment section :)

Fix Calibre’s long loading time for your Kindle

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frustrated

I had a lot of problems hooking up my Kindle to my computers so I could use Calibre.  The “connect” job was taking 8 minutes and wouldn’t let me do anything else!

What was the problem? Well, Calibre reads all the metadata on your Kindle ebook reader before it is ready to work. However, there is a way to make it stop. Go to PLUG-INS, click on the one for your Kindle reader model, and then click the button in the middle CUSTOMIZE PLUG-IN,  and uncheck READ METADATA.

Connection now takes seconds.!

Step-by-step tutorial on how to do this:

1. Open Calibre.  (Your Kindle doesn’t need to be attached)

2. Click on Preferences at top of the page, on the right.

3. Click on Plug-ins on the left side of the page.

4. Double click on Device Interface Plug-ins to open it.

5. Select your device (Kindle DX/Kindle 2/Kindle 1 ) and highlight choice.

6. Click on Customize Plug-in at middle-bottom of the page.

7. Calibre window will now open and then you need to uncheck the box that says read metadata from files on device. Click OK at the bottom of the window.

8. Click OK at bottom of the Preferences window and you’re finished and ready to plug in your Kindle reader.

How to archive the e-books you already read on your Kindle reader

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Ever wondered how to archive the books you already read on your Kindle reader? It is pretty simple:  from the Home Screen  move your 5 way controller until the line is under the book you want to remove. Then press the 5 way to the left. You will see the message “remove from device“.  Press the 5 way and the book will go to the Archive file.

Hundreds of thousands of Kindle ebooks are available

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Amazon isn’t the only place where you can get ebooks for your electronic Kindle reader. There are tons of places out there, here is a short list of the best ones:

  • www.gutenberg.org Mostly classic ebooks or ebooks that no longer have copywrite
  • www.freekindlebooks.org Mostly Gutenberg ebooks in a kindle reader ready format
  • www.worldlibrary.net Almost  half a million electronic books available, although it does require an $8.95 yearly subscription fee
  • www.fictionwise.com Offers both unencrypted and encrypted electronic .mobi files
  • www.webscriptions.net Mostly SiFi.  Choose Kindle reader compatible for the download of your boks
  • www.mnybks.net If you access it through the basic WebBrowser in Kindle, you can download the books directly.
  • www.ccel.org Christian centered ebook works.
  • Baen.com Free and very inexpensive SciFi e-books for your Kindle ereader
  • Freetechbooks.com Great site for free tech e-books such as computer science, engineering and programming, textbooks and lecture notes.
  • www.BookYards.com This is a relatively easy to navigate website, with plenty of free ebooks to download to your reader.