The Kindle Chronicles

News – Firmware update to version 2.3 arrives for Kindle and DX. After a delay, the conversion feature is working, enabling you to convert a PDF to Kindle format for your Kindle 2, which provides access to text-flow, annotations, and highlighting.

Tech Tip – Chris Westergaard writes in praise of Stanza as an alternative to Calibre for managing eBooks on your Kindle.

Interview – David Weinberger, a co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto and a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, interviewed Cory Doctorow recently on copyright issues and the future of the eBook. (Click here to download audio file of the Doctorow interview.) I caught up with David this morning for his views on the Kindle specifically, and for more of his thoughts about the issues raised by Doctorow. Click here for David’s Wikipedia entry.

Content – A few items currently on my Kindle: Rick Limpert’s blog, “My Little Place on the Interweb” (Click here for Rick’s profile of The Kindle Chronicles); Younger Next Year: A Guide to Living Like 50 Until You’re 80 and Beyond by Chris Crowley and Henry S. Lodge, M.D.; A Kindle World blog, Kindle Nation Daily and the Magic Catalog of Project Gutenberg eBooks.

Comments – Firmware update and larger-font hack.

Next Week – I hope to interview Brent Evans of GeekTonic to share our first impressions of the Barnes & Noble Nook.

News – What Kindle for PC can and can’t do, with help from TeleRead, Kindlerama, and Stephen Windwalker . Note: the audio incorrectly states Steve’s URL. I should have identified it as TheKindleNationBlog.blogspot.com. My apologies for the error! As Steve points out, Kindle for PC plays nice with Project Gutenberg Magic Catalog (click here to download Magic Catalog), Feedbooks, ManyBooks, and Mobipocket Mobiguide. (click here for Mobiguide download).

Tech Tip – I fail to find a way for my wife to delete titles from her Kindle archive. Mary McManus addressed this in March.

Interview – James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic, talks all things Kindle in an interview recorded on November 11. His most recent book, Postcards from Tomorrow Square: Reports from China, is available for Kindle, as well as Free Flight: Inventing the Future of Travel. He cites this book as one that’s best read on paper, because its graphics matter.

Content – Len Charnoff tipped me off to a great eBook search engine, Inkmesh. Highly recommended! Click here for Modern Library’s “100 Best Novels” list.

Comments – yisroel parker with a link suggesting the Kindle International has better screen contrast than the discontinued Kindle 2, Paul Levin, Bob Hare, Alex Bowman on the new Kindle TV ad, Rick Limpert on Kindles for breakfast at the Four Seasons in Washington, D.C., Mary McManus, Jesslyn Hendricks, Richard Fischer noting a price drop on Bufo Calvin’s “I Love My Kindle” blog, Kindle edition, Vern Elmore with a Cole Haun Kindle cover recommendation, and Andrys Basten (welcome home, world traveler!) with a link about Cushing Academy’s new Kindle purchases.

News – More information, via FierceWireless, on Amazon’s parting from Sprint for Kindle wireless coverage (except for the DX), and Andrei Pushkin’s reasoning on why we probably won’t be seeing new wirelessly transmitted Kindle firmware updates any time soon.

Tech Tip – Via listener Mike Detlefsen, a handy way to find out at Amazon when a book was published, and an additional resource for similar information, Fantastic Fiction. Also, Andrei Pushkin updates his Unicode Font Hack for the Kindle International, and Al MacDiarmid turns me on to a font-enlarging hack from Ted Inoue.

Interview – Karen Oland of Books on the Knob highlights some non-Amazon sources for Kindle content, including Baen Books, Fictionwise, and Smashwords. Click here to subscribe to Karen’s blog on your Kindle.

Content – Sudoko for your Kindle from MobileReference, and a Kindle crossword puzzle from Puzux, “the first company to bring quality interactive content to Amazon’s Kindle.” For a look at what these offerings may foretell, I’m singing, “What’s it all about, Abhi?”

Comments – Steve Shank, Rick Askenase, Will DeLamater with a question from the Kindle Educators Group, Jim Jones, and Mike Detlefsen. Also worth checking out: Will DeLamater’s thoughts on last week’s interview with Michael Koenig of the Darden School of Business.

Cambridge Meetup Scheduled – Please email me at PodChronicles AT Gmail if you can attend a Kindle Chronicles meetup Wednesday, November 11, at 2 p.m., probably at Darwins Ltd. in Cambridge, at 148 Mt. Auburn St.