I have been a big fan of the Kindle since my wife gave me one about a year ago. Its an incredible little device that I use on a daily basis. The electronic ink display is easy to read and easy on the eyes. The Kindle supports enough file formats that I don’t have to buy all my eBooks through Amazon. The Amazon store also has a number of cheap and free books that are quite good. All in all I am very happy with my Kindle experience.

Demand for the Kindle has been very high and at times Amazon has had trouble keeping the wonderful little device in stock. Well, apparently they don’t have those supply troubles any longer and are ramping up to battle the iPad. Here are a couple of Kindle commercials that are now airing:

I just installed Firefox 3.6., which was released today.  There are some new features which include:

• Personas – A new type of theming,
• Stability improvements,
• Performance improvements,
• Open video and audio based on HTML 5.

I can only comment on two of these.  I could not get any selected persona to work.  I believe my current theme is conflicting with this new feature.  I don’t really care as this isn’t something that really improves the Firefox experience, IMO.  However, I have seen a significant memory gain.  Before I upgraded I had three tabs open, running at 277 MB.  After reinstall with the same three tabs I had 77 MB, which shot up to and stayed at around 150 MB after some page changes, etc.  I would say that that is a significant improvement.  Better memory usage by Firefox means my whole system runs faster because I have more RAM free.  I almost always have Firefox open since my primary job responsibility is developing applications that run in a web browser (Silverlight, ASP.Net).  At home Firefox is my browser of choice.  It is more features and has a bigger plugin ecosystem than Chrome, and is much more secure and must faster than IE.

I recommend downloading Firefox 3.6 today.

I updated my Kindle 2 last night with the recently released 2.3.2 firmware update. It came with a couple of nice things. There are a couple of new screen savers. I also like the new viewing modes. One can now choose to read normal, side-way (holding left or right), or you can actually read it upside down.

Now to the bad part, which is the part I was looking forward to the most: PDF support. Kindle PDF support pre-2.3.2 firmware consisted of one emailing yourkindleaddress@free.kindle.com with a PDF, and it would email an AZW file back. The file was then placed on the Kindle. It works well, but is a little tedious. The new firmware supports native PDF rendering, which means you can place a PDF directly on the device and it will display. This is where the support ends. I placed a PDF on the device. It was unreadable. The text was tiny.

Amazon has not implemented two critical features of Adobe’s PDF reader: zoom and text flow. On the Kindle, you cannot zoom in on the PDF nor can you change the text size. Text flow is also not enabled. Pages are shown in their native size, which on the Kindle is small.

I cannot believe Amazon is calling this PDF with a straight face. Come on Amazon! I love you guys. You always treat me right. When you mess up an order you always fix it immediately. Don’t mess with me now. If you don’t have PDF support ready yet, then don’t release it. Software is hard to write and even harder when you are dealing with a device with limited processor like the Kindle. We will all understand if you need to wait.

I love my Kindle.  But I don’t always have it with me.  Enter Kindle for PC, a program that will display Kindle books on your, um, PC.   Its now available on Amazon.com for free.

Kindle For PC

How cool is this: using the gyroscopic effect to replace training wheels?!  Seriously, we all learn about this in Physics so why hasn’t it been in use for years?  Apparently no one thought about it, or thought to build and market it until now.  A company called Gyrobike will be selling the Gyrowheel front wheel replacement for around $100.

This time Engadget has some information on the new Microsoft Courier Booklet device, as does ZDNet.  ZDNet seems to think it will run on Windows 7, on Microsoft hardware.  Very interesting indeed.

I wrote a short blurb on this a few days back.

A few days ago I reviewed my Kindle 2, and now I want to offer up a short review on the Kindle 2 Leather Case offered by Amazon.  The case is not very bulky, and just barely larger than the dimensions of the Kindle.  It is a nice looking case, and is durable (so far).  With the Kindle 1 the case was free, now it is $30.

The Kindle 2 has built-in mount points for a case (or anything else for that matter) on the left edge of the device.  It should be noted that other companies are building cases that work with the Kindle 2.

The mount points are utilized by the Amazon Leather Case.  The bottom mount point is like a hook that rotates into the Kindle.

The second clip on the case is spring-loaded.  It slides up to click into the Kindle, then slides down to hold the Kindle firmly in the case.

The whole package feels like a book.  It is certainly lighter than a typical book, and holds more information!  The case holds the Kindle well.  I have full confidence when holding the case that the Kindle will stay in place.

As you can see, it is thin and very portable.

If you are going to buy a Kindle you better buy the case as well.  Sure its $30, but it is well worth it.  It was built for the Kindle and works well.  It seems to be built with quality.