Amazon Kindle Paperwhite: Built-in light

Image Credit: Amazon

The latest e-reader from Amazon the Kidle Paperwhite starts shipping globally from today. One of the special features of the Paperwhite, is its built-in light. Kind of similar to Barnes and Noble glowlight. Offering readers the ability to read in any kind of light situation either night or day. The light is evenly displaced within the screen and not directed at the reader's eyes. Illuminating and e-ink screen can be quiet a task which Amazon has almost reached perfection in.

The Paperwhite comes in two versions, a 3G version for $179 and a Wi-Fi version for $119. Each Paperwhite is capable of holding 1,100 books and can can last for more than 8 weeks on a single battery charge, this even with the light on. Now this is an impressive e-reader.

So, how good is the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite's built-in light.
You will feel that the device glows when it is switched on. Unlike back-lit displays that project light out to a users' eyes. The Built-in lighting of the Paperwhite actually guides lights from above onto the whole screen. So the device has a glowing feel to it - this allows users to adjust the light to all reading conditions; sunny day at the beach or nighttime reading conditions. There is also no glare from the device when you turn it on, on a sunny day. Amazon achieved this by flattening out fiber optic cable into a sheet and nanoprinting to ensure even distribution and display of light. Thereby reducing eyestrain on the e-ink screen, as there is a balanced whiteness across the display. 
Read More: Official Amazon Kindle Paperwhite

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Sociolatte

Trade-in old electronics on amazon

Amazon has a new trade-in program for electronic goods. You can use the program to exchange your old laptops, netbooks, smartphones and other gadgets and get an Amazon Gift Card. This card can then be used to buy your next gadget on Amazon.com. This program opens doors for people who are especially fond of browsing Amazon for products to buy. The process of exchanging and trading-in old electronic goods just got simpler. Almost everyone has old laptops and other goods that are no more used. Amazon will handle that for you in the easiest manner possible. You can get an exchange for old laptops. MacBooks, iPhones, iPads, external hard-drives, tablets and a host of other electronic goods. Once Amazon agrees for a trade-in you can then print a label, pack your items and ship them for free. Once received you get a gift coupon in your Amazon account within two days.

How to trade-in old electronics on Amazon

Amazon electronics trade-in: How does it work
You will need to go to Amazon trade-in for electronics and then use the search bar to find product you want to do a trade with. Essentially if you model number and product is not found than it is not eligible for a trade-in. Under the find the electronics you'd like to sell bar you can enter the tile or keyword to search by. Once your product appears on this page you can click the trade in like and get started. If you goods reach them and they think you have overvalued your goods they can send it back or you can accept they lower valuation and trade-in or sell it anyway. So go ahead and sell your old electronics goods on Amazon.com. So search if your product is eligible and how much it's worth. 

Amazon Electronics Trade-In

 

How to send web pages, PDFs or documents to your Kindle

So if you are surfing the web and find interesting content that you might want to read later on your Kindle there is now an easy way to do so. Available for your Windows and MAC PC - Amazon's Send To Kindle desktop App makes things easy and lets you easily send stuff to your Kindle for easy reading. Once you download the app onto your PC you can then easily use functions like drag-and-drop to send articles or documents to your Kindle. You can also use the print option and choose print and then send to Kindle. Once you do this a PDF version of the webpage or document is then sent to your Kindle reader. 


How does it work


Once you download the App on your PC or MAC it installs as a virtual printer. So using that virtual printer you can choose to transfer any page to your Kindle by using that printer. Which will then transfer any web page to your kindle in PDF format. Handy if you send a lot of PDF or DOC files to your Kindle.
Or
You could select the documents you want to transfer by selecting documents in Windows Explorer or Finder on MAC, and then choose 'Send to Kindle' from the menu. The App can transfer PDFs, images, documents and text files. 


You can also use the same app to transfer documents from your desktop to devices that have the Kindle app on them. So this means you can use the same app to send documents to your Android, iPhone and iPad devices. 
Send to Kindle for PC
Send to Kindle for MAC

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Sociolatte

Google's new program will pay users to browse the web

Google has launched a new program called Screenwise. The way it works is that you would need to sign-up for the program and install a Chrome Extension in your browser. This extension will monitor the sites you visit and how you use them. This information will be sent to Google and they will use this data to study user behavior on the web. 


What's in it for you? As soon as you sign-up you get an $5 Amazon.com Gift code, if you stay with the program you will get an additional $5 Amazon Gift Card every 3 months. You can get up to $25 in amazon Gift coupons. To be eligible you would need to be over 13 years of age, have a Google account and be ready to use the Google Chrome Browser. Not surprisingly new sign-ups are currently on hold due to the large response received till now.


There is also another program which has not yet been launched by Google. This is for people who would allow Google to view their browsing habits as an open book. This will involve hardware as well, a special device will need to be attached to your broadband router. This device will monitor all the computers in your home and track all the browsing activity of your home computers. This program will compensate participants $100 for signing up and $20 a month for up to a year. 


Screenwise was launched by Google in order to help the company improve its products and services.
Google Screenwise

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Sociolatte

Best sites to download free eBooks

Your eReader is that much more fun when you have free books to read. The good thing about the internet is that there are millions of books out there, that can be downloaded and read on your device and the best part of it is that it is totally legal and pretty easy to download and read. There  have been millions of books that have been printed from the time the printing press was invented and millions of them are available as classics which come with no copyright issues.There is a vast difference between people who love reading books and those who are satisfied with blogs and articles. If you are that person who needs your books no matter what. We hope this post will definitely lead you to your pastures. These ebooks can be downloaded on your SmartPhones, Tablets and eReaders.

 List of best sites to download free eBooks online.

1. You can visit Amazon's Limited Time Offers or Amazon's Kindle Popular Classics. 

Limited time offers from Amazon has a whole lot of free books while Kindle Popular Classic has a whole list of free books that are ready for your downloading.

2. Visit Archive.org - You can download free eBooks and texts over here. The Archive has a whole lot of fiction, children's books, Academic books and history books.

3. Visit openlibrary.org - The world's classic literature at your fingertips with over a million copies available

4. Project Gutenberg - Use their topics section to browse through topics and download free books. 

5. Visit ManyBooks.net - providing the best books at the best price - free

6. You can also visit Google's Book search that has a huge collection of free ebooks available for download. 

7. You can also visit FeedBooks.com to download free books, thay have more than 3 million titles available. 

 

So the next time you are wondering where to go online to download free eBooks for your Tablet, SmartPhone or eReader we hope the list above helps. If we have missed a resource please let us know in the comments section below.

 

How to know when prices drop on Amazon, Direct2Drive and Steam

So there is this gadget that you are wanting to buy. You check online and find out that you are not willing to buy it at it's current price. In your mind you have a a different price you are willing to pay for it. There is a problem however you would need to keep checking and wait till it comes down to the right price you have in mind. This can be quiet tedious and you might even forget about it. 


That is worth is a Chrome extension that could come to your rescue. With this extension you can specify what you are willing to pay for a gadget and it will notify you immediately once the price drops below that range you specify. 


That is worth: How does it work
You need to simple install the extension in your browser. There is nothing that has to be downloaded and it works in your browser only. There is also no registration that is required. It is free, simple and easy to use. Currently works only with  Amazon, Direct2Drive and Steam


That is Worth

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Sociolatte

Amazon to open a digital-books library [Report]

Image: Unesco

According to people familiar with the matter, Amazon is in talks with books publishes to open a NetFlix Inc. type service which would allow users to read these books by paying an annual fee. Publishes though do not seem to happy with the idea as it might actually lower the value of the books they feel. Amazon on the other hand seems to be pushing this more for older tittles. This however will benefit readers as they get to choose what they want to read and rent it our for a few days. Users can browse through the library content and take their time in selecting books they would like to read. However how will this benefit publishers., with sales of real books falling and the sale of e-books rising. Publishers it seems are not attracted to such a proposition and would rather that people actually go out and by their books. which also makes a lot of sense as some effort should be involved in getting nice books. This also leads to word of mouth sales and the whole thing associated with buying and reading good books. What do you think about such an idea please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Sociolatte

How to ask an Author a question on Kindle or Amazon @Author Page

Amazon has released a new feature called @Authors and it is currently in limited beta. What it essentially allows you to do is to ask authors a question that you would like answered. So if you are reading a book from a particular author on your kindle you can ask for a clarification on any passage or clarify a doubt you might have on maybe what the author actually meant. 


With Amazon's @Auhors this is what can be done
1. Readers can ask questions directly from their Kindles
2. You can also post a question on Amazon's Author page
3. Anyone who has purchased from Amazon.com can reply to a question



How Do I Ask a Question?
Posting a question from the Kindle:
1. Place the cursor at the beginning of the passage you'd like to ask a question about using the 5-way controller, then press down to anchor it
2. Highlight the passage using the 5-way controller
3. Enter your question about the passage you highlighted, beginning with the phrase "@author". Please note that questions asked from the Kindle are limited to 100 characters. If you would like to ask a longer question, feel free to ask the question from the Amazon Author Page.
4. Select "save & share" from the options at the bottom of the note window when finished


If you don't have a Twitter account associated with your Amazon.com account, you'll have the option to press Alt + Enter to manage your social network registration before your message is posted. You can read more about posting to Twitter on our Help pages.


Source: Amazon.com

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Sociolatte

Kindle Daily Deals - go live at approximately 12:00 A.M. Pacific time

Amazon now has a daily ebook deal for all their kindle books and there is a new deal every night.

How does the Amazon Kindle Daily Deal work

Everyday there is a new kindle deal announced and you have 24 hours to claim your deal. When you reach their site you will know how many hours you have before the daily ebook deal expires and if you like the deal you can pay for it and get your ebook. Amazon has already already made it's foray into the daily deals market  with Amazon Local. Amazon Local has now come to New York.

Today's kindle daily deal is the book 'Water For Elephants' and is priced at $2.99. So to get the best deal you will need to check in everyday and find out what the best deal is. If you would like to bookmark the Kindle Daily Deals page please find the link here. 

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Sociolatte

Kindle Cloud Reader: Web App lets you read your Kindle books, instantly.

There is a reason why Amazon is calling the Kindle Cloud reader a Web App. Apple has a problem with Kindle's iPhone App and pulled the 'buy' button on the iPad App. Basically what the button did was allow users to make purchases outside of Apple's control. which meant a loss of 30% in revenue for Apple. Apple's is know for it's tight control of all Apps that enter it's App store. which has forced companies to create web based Apps that can be used on the iPhone and iPad. One of the first web-based Apps was the one from Playboy. With Apple's tight control on not allowing adult content on to it's platforms. Companies have had to innovate.


Amazon has done just that and have created and released their own web App that can be used on the iPad. it is free to use and allows users to read all their books and purchase new ones all on Amazon.


If you ask Amazon what is the Kindle Cloud Reader a brief description on the site says 'Kindle Cloud Reader is a web app that lets you read your Kindle books, instantly.' That's as simple as it gets. the kindle Cloud Reader is available on Safari for MAC and PC, Chrome and iPad (iOS 4+). With support for additional browsers coming son. Try it out now. 

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Sociolatte

Amazon Local to bring you daily deals

Amazon has entered the daily-deals market place with the Launch of Amazon Local. So what is Amazon Local and how does it work. Amazon Local is the deal-of-the-day type of website that has launched in a few cities in the US. The website seeks to bring to people living nearby deals from businesses which helps you save 50% or less.Amazon Local has also launched in Chicago which is significant because that is Groupon's home turf. Amazon Local is now available in California, Florida, Idaho, Illinois and Washington. There is plenty of rooms for multiple players in the daily-deal market and Amazon has slowly started spreading it's wings. 

Amazon has said that the deals have initially started coming from LivingSocial another daily deals site in which Amazon has invested but that now they have started bring daily-deals from their own sales team. Amazon has setup it's own team to bring daily deals to cities that they are operating in. With Amazon being such a huge brand adn given their credibility in the market, which is something they are banking on. Amazon is convinced people will trust them and come to them to get their daily best deals. 

To get started with Amazon Local please click here. 

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Sociolatte

Amazon Cloud Player access and play your music from anywhere

So what is Amazon Cloud Player and Amazon Cloud Drive how does it work.

With Amazon entering the streaming music business users can now store their music in the cloud and listen to it on the go using a PC or an Android device. This is Amazon's hosted consumer storage device. There are other companies that are also set to enter this arena, but Amazon beat Apple and Google to it. 


To get started all you need to do is to purchase a song or an album from the Amazon MP3 store and click ' Save to your Amazon Cloud drive'. Your music gets saved instantly and and it's also free, since you bought it on Amazon this will not be charged and will not count to your against your storage quote.


next you can click the 'Launch Amazon Cloud Player' and start listening. You can also use the cloud player to search your library, create playlists and download to your computer.


If you want to add music to your cloud player from your PC all you need to do is to click the 'Upload to your cloud drive' button and you can add your favorite music to your cloud player. 


You can also use the cloud player with an Android device by installing the Amazon MP3 App on your phone. After which you will be able to stream music to your device from your cloud player.


So now users don't have to be bothered with how to store music they buy this makes things really simple. Simply purchase and store it in the cloud. All users get 5GB of storage free and 20 GB of storage if they buy an entire album it is $1 / GB after that. 


The Advantages are you can buy music and not be worried about syncing, play on the go, no need to download to every new device you buy, music will always be safe even if something goes wrong with your device, one single place that has all your music that you can access from anywhere.


Cloud drive does not let you store music only but also photos and documents and different kinds of content in addition to tunes. 


Amazon Cloud Drive and Cloud Player works with any PC, Mac or Android device for now. Users of other mobile devices will have to wait a while longer to be able to use the services.

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Sociolatte

Audible menus and bigger font for Kindle

Amazon has announced that it will add two new features that would make it's Kindle e-book reader more accessible to blind and vision-impaired suers.

"Monday's announcement comes a month after Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y., and the University of Wisconsin-Madison said they would not consider widely deploying the device as an alternative to paper textbooks until Amazon makes it easier for blind students to use. Both universities bought some Kindles to test this fall."

So with it's new feature of Text-To-Speech, Amazon will make it more vision-impaired friendly and stand by it's commitment to improving the device for the visualy challenged.

"The update will be available during the "summer" of 2010 and was prompted by feedback from Amazon users.


"The Kindle will have a read-aloud feature that could be advantageous to blind students and those with other disabilities including dyslexia, but getting to that point is a problem. The turn the Kindle on, users have to navigate through screens of text menu"

An original post by

Sociolatte