I remember a few months ago, in the pre-Kindle era, people were complaining about the fact that Amazon uses a proprietary eBook format on the Kindle device. What people didn’t know then was that there would be indeed a way to convert PDF document to a format compatible with the Amazon Kindle. So basically there are two ways to go about this:

Simple Way: The most simple way to convert a PDF document to .AZW format is by emailing your PDF documents to your Kindle email address. If you go to manage your Kindle section on Amazon, you can see the e-mail that is authorized by you to receive document for your Kindle. Let’s say it’s paul@kindle.com. If you send a blank email you that email with your eBook as an attachment, it will be converted to the right format and will be sent to your Kindle automatically (don’t forget to turn your wireless on!). Amazon will charge you .10 for every wireless delivery but that’s not too much really. Also, you can follow the same process and use paul@free.kindle.com. That way, you will receive an email back from Amazon with your converted book as an attachment. This time though you won’t be charged, but you will have to put the book on your Kindle yourself. (more…)

I know a lot of people paid over $100 for the Black Macbook. Would you something extra for the Black Kindle? If so how much.

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If you have gotten your white Amazon Kindle already, then you should know that there may be a better looking Kindle on the way. There is no question that Amazon Kindle 1.0 looks great, and it performs quite well. But it would be stupid for Amazon not to take advantage of their opportunity to introduce Kindle in other colors. The first logical change would be to offer Kindle black. It would be a similar approach to what Apple did with their MacBook line, but I doubt Amazon would charge a hundred extra for the black version.

Introducing a black version of Kindle would be the best way for Amazon to keep its Kindle relevant throughout 2008. Amazon needs to cross a certain threshold for its Kindle business model to work, and as such does not have the luxury of being upstaged by millions of gadgets that come out every day. It’s a given that reading is not really on the top of the list for many these days, but if Kindle stays relevant in the gadget world, people will eventually pick up on it. Kindle needs some momentum to catch fire, and introducing Kindle black might be one way to do just that.

Amazon published the following titles for the Amazon Kindle today:

The Age of Big Business by Burton J. Hendrick (Kindle Edition - Feb 7, 2008)
At Agincourt by G.A. Henty - Kindle Book
The Black Robe by Wilkie Collins - Kindle Book
Blind Love by Wilkie Collins - Kindle Book
Davis’ Short Stories Volume I by Richard Harding Davis - Kindle Book
Davis’ Short Stories Volume II by Richard Harding Davis - Kindle Book
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Davis’ Short Stories Volume III by Richard Harding Davis - Kindle Book
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The Dead Alive by Wilkie Collins - Kindle Book
The Dream Woman, a Mystery in Four Narratives by Wilkie Collins
The Evil Genius, a Domestic Story by Wilkie Colllins - Kindle Edition
The Fallen Leaves by Wilkie Collins
The Frozen Deep by Wilkie Collins
The Guilty River by Wilkie Collilns
The Haunted Hotel, a Mystery of Modern Venice by Wilkie Collins
Heart and Science, a Story of the Present Time by Wilkie Collins
Helpmate (Android Women) by Charles Carreon
Hide and Seek by Wilkie Collins
I say no by Wilkie Collins
Jezebel’s Daughter by Wilkie Collins
A Knight of the White Cross by G.A. Henty
The Law and the Lady by Wilkie Collins
The Legacy of Cain by Wilkie Collins
Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins - Kindle Book
Mr. Captain and the Nymph by Wilkie Collins
Political Economy by J.C.L. Simonde de Sismondi
Tangled Trails - A Western Detective Story by William MacLeod Raine
The Texan - A Story of the Cattle Country by James B. Hendryx
Under Drake’s Flag - A Tale of the Spanish Main by G.A. Henty
Under Wellington’s Command - A Tale of the Peninsula War by G.A. Henty
With Frederick the Great - A Story of the Seven Year’s War by G.A. Henty
With Kitchener in the Soudan- A Story of Atbara and Omdurman by G.A. Henty
Won by the Sword - A Story of the Thirty Years’ War by G.A. Henty (Kindle Edition - Feb 7, 2008) - Kindle Book

Amazon has released the following titles for Kindle today, February 6th 2008:

Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland
Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini - Sculptor, Goldsmith & Duelist
Captains of the Civil War - A Chronicle of the Blue and the Gray
Chief Black Hawk
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
The Count of Monte Cristo
History of the American Negro in the Great War
The Jew of Malta
Lameness of the Horse
Mark Twain - a Biography
Massacre at Paris
Natchez
Pagan and Christian Rome
The Scent of Wisteria
A Smaller History of Rome
A Tale of Two Cities
Tamburlaine the Great - Part Two & One
The Ten Books On Architecture (Illustrated)
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus
Tyranny Unmasked by John Taylor of Caroline
Wildflowers, or Pastoral and Local Poetry

If you go to Amazon Kindle forums or any other Kindle related forums for that matter, you will probably find a ton of people who are complaining about Kindle being very expensive. But no one seems to mention why they think Kindle is expensive. So here are 5 reasons that I believe are behind this misperception:

1. You are better off buying regular books: You are not. That’s just the simple fact. Forget about the fact that Kindle allows you to change the font size on you ebook. Good old books take so much space and you can’t take them everywhere with you. When I moved to the U.S. a few years back, I decided to bring over 300 books with me. I loved those books, but my back is still paying the price for those reckless days.

2. Kindle experience is not as rich: That’s simply not true. I agree that it takes a bit of time to get used to reading with Kindle than a normal book, and of course Kindle looks very much different from your paperback books, but you are not going to know about “Kindle Experience” unless you actually use it.

3. Lack of enough good titles on Amazon Kindle: Now that is not true. You can certainly claim that Amazon Kindle store does not have enough big titles for you to justify buying Kindle, but there are so many Acrobat books out there, and you can send them to your Kindle automatically for 10 cents or you can put them on your Kindle yourself for free. Once you add these PDF titles to the ones available on the Kindle store, you have enough titles to go on reading for years.

4. Kindle is not so different from other eBook readers: That is just not fair. I would understand this coming from someone who has had a Kindle for a while, but for people who have not even seen a Kindle in their life to come with that statement is just not fair. Amazon Kindle not only matches what Sony Readers offer, it offers a wide range of features (e.g. Wireless connection, GPS) that are simply not offered by anyone else in the market. Can you connect to Wikipedia to look something up on your Sony Reader?

5. Kindle’s Battery Life Is a major Turn Off: This is another excuse that I wouldn’t read too much into. Sure. If you leave your Wireless connection on, your Kindle will be needing a recharge after about 2 days, but I have gone for 8 days without the wireless on, and I think you can probably not going to be able to hold your Kindle straight for 8 consecutive days. Get a spare battery and you are good for half a month.

I think some critics have been really hard on Kindle without even giving it a try. Sure. You are not buying a book, and Kindle surely has its limitations, but it is the best eBook reader out there, and it does the job real well. Not many will afford it these days, but that doesn’t mean it’s overpriced.

Amazon Kindle is one hot gadget that many don’t seem to get their hands on quickly enough. So why is it that the most wanted gadget around is out of stock indefinitely. There are two ways to explain this. Amazon obviously underestimated the demand for Amazon Kindle. In other words, they had a bunch of Kindles ready to go, but once they opened the gates, even people who were not looking at Kindle before were tempted to buy it due to all the hype and praise around the product. This is Amazon’s explanation of course. But even iPhone did not experience such long delays which shows that Amazon may have been a little bit slow in manufacturing new Kindles.

But the real reason behind Kindle’s late arrival is due to the early issues that some Kindle owners have experienced with their wireless connections and other features. I am hearing that Amazon staff members will give a higher priority to orders that have been returned for a replacement. So in essence, even if you are looking at a 5% defect ratio for Amazon Kindle, this could set people who are in line back by a week or two at least. But thankfully, Amazon is shipping items quite faster now, so if you haven’t bought your Kindle yet, you may want to do it now.

If you had the money to buy either a Kindle or iPod touch, which one would you go for? These two gadgets are quite clearly highly popular but which one has the upper hand?

I know a few excited Kindle owners who have ordered Kindle content even before they get their Kindles (of course you want to make sure that your Kindle is registered with the username that you have bought those books under). But here is how you can view what’s waiting to be delivered to your Kindle:

Go to Amazon.com and click on your account tab. Then click on manage your Kindle link way down the page to view your Kindle settings. On the right side of the page you should see a “Delivery Status for” title at the top of it. On the same page you can see your recent orders and changes at the very bottom. So if you have ordered anything from Amazon for your Kindle, you can view it there. Here is how it will look on your account:

That seems to be the question everyone is asking at this point. Have you got your Kindle yet? Is my Amazon Kindle here already? If you have your Kindle already, how long did it take to get it? Mine took 42 days to be exact..