Wondering on Wednesday: Magazines on E-Readers

[This post is for those of you with the Kindle Fire, Nook Color or Nook Tablet. Unfortunately, the e-readers that don't work as mini tablets don't have this feature.]

So you have that new Kindle Fire for Christmas and you're all excited because you can now get all of those magazines your subscribed to onto your Kindle to take anywhere you want to go! But wait, as you're looking through you're noticing two types of magazines: your subscripions and the apps. Now you're all confused. What's the difference? How does it work? Do I even want to bother? Well today I'm going to answer your questions concerning magazines.

There found there are 2 types, the first one being the ones you subscribe to. These will show up just like the magazines you buy in the store. I’m subscribed to a couple of food magazines and Rachael Ray and I really enjoy reading them from my Kindle. The second type is the kind that you purchase through an app.

Say you find an app that is the name of a magazine, like Shape and Glamour (just ones I’ve seen off the top of my head- I’ve seen others), Amazon has it for free. You download it, bring up the app on your Kindle and it will ask you to subscribe to this magazine through the website. So you pay through the website instead of through Amazon. The super cool thing about these, is that, for example: it’s a fitness app. And it’s telling you about ab exercises you can do, well it will show you a picture and have words describing what to do like your typical magazine would, but when you clicked on this picture, it would actually show you a video of how to do the exercise. Normal magazines won’t do this, just the ones you go through the app for.

Meg has these and LOVES them. She's a huge magazine reader too, but to see how to do what the magazine is talking about brings this technology to a whole new level! I know I talked mostly about Amazon but it works the same way for Barnes and Noble. What has been your experience with magazines through your Kindle or Nook? Which ones do you follow?

Wondering on Wednesday: Renting Library Books (Nook)

A few weeks ago, the Amazon Kindle released that they can now rent library books. (To see how to, you can click here.) But long before the Kindle came around to the idea, the Barnes and Noble's Nook has been actually been able to. I apologize to all of you Nook owners for not posting this sooner but better late then never... here's your step by step how to:

First off, you're going to have to install Adobe Digital Editions, if you don't already have it on your computer. It's a completely free program and a pretty simple step by step process that they lead you through, just make sure that you use the same e-mail and password that you use for your Nook (which should be the same e-mail and password you use to access B&N's website).

Next, just like when you do this on the Kindle, you need to go to Overdrive.com. Once that loads...
1) Find the box that says "New to downloads?" and put in your zip code.
2) This will lead you to a page where you find the closest libraries to you, click on the one you typically go to.
3) Now click on the link it provides for you. For instance mine is:http://kyunbound.lib.overdrive.com/
4) Once you're in your library page, search through to find the book you want. Be sure you find the Adobe ePub format of the book.
5) Proceed from your Bookbag to Checkout.
6) Be sure to specify how long you want the book out by clicking on the drop down box. Then press "Confirm Checkout".

Now go ahead and download your selection into Adobe Digital Edition. Once it's downloaded it will pop up so you can view the book on your computer, this will work as an iTunes library for your books so to speak. If you haven't already, plug your Nook into your computer using a USB cord to transfer the book over. Once it's connected, you should see "Nook" show up in your left hand side bar, simply drag and drop the book from your libary over to your Nook connection on the side.

And TADA! You have officially downloaded a library book onto your Nook.

Have any of you guys done this before? What did you think of the process? To be honest, I still haven't done this on my Kindle due to my over abundant book supply of TBR, and the fact that I didn't really see many books I was interested in getting.

Also, what other things would you guys like to know? Anything we can cover that we haven't already?

Making Notes on Your E-Reader

I'm always baffled when I learn new things that my Kindle can do, for some time I've known that my e-reader had the ability to take notes, but I hadn't actually tried it. Now that I've started highlighting and taking notes, I'm wondering why I never did this before! Hopefully this this will be helpful to all of you! The following are the steps that you need to know to make notes on your Kindle or Nook.

For the Nook Color:

To highlight within a book, open your book and find the passage which you want to highlight. Click on the word you wish you start with and drag your finger to the end of the selection. A tool bar will pop up where you will click "Highlight".
To make notes from that highlight, select "Notes" from the tool bar and type what you want then select "Post".
And unfortunately, from everything I've seen, you can't bookmark a page on any Barnes and Noble's e-reader. It's in their policy somehow. If someone knows differently, comment and let me know.

For your Nook:

To do this on the traditional Nook, click on your book you want to work in, click the menu button then "Highlight". A cursor will appear, touch the screen to the place you want to highlight and click "Begin Highlight." Use the arrow pad to scroll across to the end of the passage and press "End Highlight".
You can make notes from there by clicking "Add Notes" in your menu.

A couple of other little things to know are that your notes on the Nook won't transfer to the Nook Color (for now at least... they could update and fix this in the future.) and many magazines don't support highlighting or notetaking.

For the Kindle:

(These tips are for Kindle 3, I'll be updating everything once the Kindle Fire and Touch come out.)

To highlight words/ passages of a book, place your cursor on the work you want to start the highlight and hit the center button. Now move the cursor over until you hit the end of the passage and press the center button again. Now the passage will appear with a small underline!

Also, if you want to bookmark a page for future use hit Alt + B, you'll see a little tab folded over in the right upperhand corner. To unbookmark a page, just hit Alt + B again.

And while I didn't find a way to do this on the Nook (if I do find a way, I'll update this page and let you guys know.) You can also take notes on your Kindle outside of a book using a PDF type file. Here's how to do that:

1) From your computer upload a Wordpad document and save it as whatever you want it to be, I just used "Notes" as the title.
2) Open the folder you saved this document in.
3) Now plug in your Kindle using your USB cord.
4) Bring up the folder with all of your Kindle things on it. If it doesn't come up right away you can access it by going to My Computer -> Kindle -> Documents
5) Now go back to the folder you saved the document in, and drag and drop your Notes Wordpad page to your Kindle Documents page.
6) Unplug you Kindle, watch it download your new items.

From there you can go on your new document from your Kindle and click on "Menu" then "Add Notes". Type in what you want, and make sure you save your item. Then click "Home" and click on "Notes" again to see your new notes!

Now that you know how to do this on your e-reader, will you utilize it? As a college kid, I'm thinking I'm going to try and get my books on my Kindle next semester and start doing this even more. (Talk about a load off! My Kindle is much lighter than my 50 lbs books!)  What do you guys think?

Accidents Happen - Part 3!

Busted screens

Whether your e-reader was dropped or hit by something wrong in your purse or carryon bag, this can usually be fixed. All Kindles, whether bought in a retail store or online at Amazon’s website, automatically have a one year warrantee. In this one year time period you can replace one Kindle free of charge. All you have to do is call Amazon’s customer service line at 1 (800) 201-7575 and tell them your situation. They will then send you a replacement Kindle within two business days, along with a UPS tag so you can send your old Kindle to them.  Usually all this is done with little to no hassle and no rush on sending the old Kindle back!

And of course, all of your purchased books can be found in your achieves. And next week I will have a post on transferring collections, whether that be from a Kindle 2 to a Kindle 3, or from a broken Kindle to replacement one.

Note: I have heard stories of the customer service rep saying “Anything that happened to your Kindle that wouldn’t have happened to a normal book if it was in that situation, we’ll replace. They’re supposed to be more durable than books.” Then I’ve heard the other side saying “I’m sorry, there’s nothing we can do because it was done was busted inside your bag (purse, carryon, ect).”
Point of this story: be on the safe side and don’t mention that your Kindle was broke in a bag. You never know who you’re talking to on the other end.

Every Nook you buy also has a one year warranty automatically. Barnes and Noble is a bit more selective than Amazon on replacing your e-reader though especially in broken screen situations.  You can contact B&N at 1 (800) 843-2665, talk to a service representative and if they are willing to replace your Nook, they will pay for shipping to send you the replacement as well as for you to send the broken one back.

You could also replace the cover yourself. You can find the screen on Ebay, the model number is: LG LD070WS1. It’s about $69 plus shipping but you’ll also need to get a kit give you the tools you’ll need to replace the screen. Personally, this route is more difficult, but it may be worth the trouble. If you want to see how click here to watch a video we found on YouTube.

If they don’t offer to replace your Nook and you don’t feel comfortable replacing the screen yourself you can contact the Nook Repair Service. It looks like the price to replace the screen is about $199 plus $69 for labor plus shipping… which it sounds like you would be better off just purchasing a new Nook unfortunately. And if you buy a new one, always hold onto the old parts such as the battery.

Have you guys had much difficulty with customer service at either place? How durable has your experience with your e-reader been?

-J

Note: We are obviously not liable for any damage done  while trying to replace your screen.

Autographing on E-Readers

I know I briefly talked about this last week, but I thought I would give you guys the details today. Kindlegraph is a website that’s designed to give authors the chance to autograph their books on your Kindle. There are currently around 5,000 books and 1,000 authors but the numbers are growing daily. 

Here's how to do it:
1)      Sign in on Kindlegraph’s website with your Twitter account.
2)      Search either by books or by author.
3)      Find the book you want the author to autograph and make your request!

When the Kindlegraph comes through, it’ll look like this:

Cool, right? I’m super pumped about this feature. Of the people we’ve reviewed so far, Rose Pressey, Wenona Hulsey, S.W. Benefiel and J.L. Bryan, all have books available to be Kindlegraphed.

The Nook also has a feature for this as well. Only theirs is an app you can download onto the Nook Color that allows authors to actually sign the book, using the stylus! This way, it’s literally an autograph, just as if the writer had used a sharpie to sign a book. Also, if you loan the book to a friend, they can view the signature as well. The Sony e-reader works the same way, only theirs is a bit slower due to the ink technology they use.

So there are all kinds of ways people are trying to keep E-readers just as awesome as books, if not better. What do you guys think of the autographing? Have you tried it? What kinds of advances would you like to see happen?

Lets Face It, Accidents Happen- Part 2

Replacing Your Battery

If your E-reader’s life seems to be getting shorter and shorter, it may be time for a new battery. While you can have Amazon do replace the Kindle battery for you for $59, you can also do it yourself. (And who doesn’t like to save money?!) You can find replacement batteries on Amazon or Ebay for relatively cheap. Once you have the battery here is how you replace it on the Kindle:

-          Turn your Kindle off by holding down the power button until the Kindle screen goes blank.
-          Face your Kindle screen down on a soft, protective surface.
-          Slide the gray cover.
-          Slowly (with your fingers-NO tools) lift up the battery and notice the direction the notches lay.
-          There will be white cords attached, gently pull this white connector back until it is disconnected from your battery.
-          Place new battery, pushing white connector cord back onto the battery.
-          Slide the cover back on gently until it snaps into place.

Now onto the Nook! 

-          Turn off your Nook.
-          In the small crack between where the top and bottom crease meet, pry open carefully using your fingers.
-          Use a Phillip’s screw driver to unscrew the battery cover. Once the screw is out, pull the battery out by placing your finger in the small crescent shaped hole.
-          Now replace the new battery in the same position where the old one was.
-          To put the cover back onto the Nook, align the bottom piece with the top and press gently until you hear a “click”.

Now hopefully if you’re put in the position to need to do replace your battery you will know how! Or if a friend or family member needs to, you can always impress them with your awesomeness.

-J

Note: We are obviously not liable for any damage done  while trying to replace your battery.

Let's Face It, Accidents Happen- Part 1

This has happened to me a few times, my Kindle is about to go dead so I put it on charge and pull it off an hour or so later and it won’t do anything, it’s just stuck on the sleep screen. I’ve tried quite a few things to fix this but the thing that has worked best for me the about 3xs I’ve had it happen in the past year has been to:

-          Plug your Kindle into the power source and wait 5 minutes.

-          Remove from power source and turn it back on.

-          No luck? Hard reset the device by holding the power key for about 30 seconds until your Kindle restarts itself. The page will refresh and take a little bit but slowly come back to life.

Now for the Nook:
Try the steps above used for the Kindle, it’s exactly the same process the Troubleshoot says. If that doesn’t work (as many people in forums are saying it doesn’t)…

-          Carefully remove the back cover.

-          Take out the battery and wait it out for about a minute.

-          Press and hold the power button for about a minute to have “Nook Final Shutdown”.

-          Put battery back in, replace cover.

-          Place Nook on charge.

TADA! Hopefully your e-reader will be back up in no time! Just be sure not to freak out and call customer service until after you’ve tried these steps. So you guys have anything else that has worked for you? Do your devices have this issue often?

-J

Etsy and E-Reader Cases

M’s fantastic review on Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini is up! Also, I’m learning a lot about technical computer stuff and making webpages do what I want them to do, it’s just taking some time. So with that said, I hope to have The Ink Puddle up and looking awesome in the next month or so. I have some plans to make our blog much more organized, easily accessible and even have a new look.

Speaking of new look, who doesn’t love cute cases for your e-reader? I have been looking up, down and sideways for cases that are attractive to the eye and still protective with little luck… until now. Have you checked out Etsy? It’s basically a place for people to make and sell anything you can think of, many of those things are actually homemade. And if you want it altered in some way, just ask! They usually do it without extra charge. And here is what I found and ordered on Sunday:

That one is made and sold by PuppyDogsNPolkaDots but many other people make them too. So it may be something for you to check out.
Let me know what you think about M’s review and where you find your Kindle/ Nook essentials. We’re always open to new ideas!

-J

How to Loan E-Books

I’ve wondered for some time how this process worked, so today we will be discussing how to loan a book to a friend on the Nook, as well as doing it on the Kindle.

There are a few things you need to know before you get started, and this applies to both e-readers. Once a loan is made and accepted, it cannot be taken back. Unless the person you lent the book to already has that book, then the book will appear back into your library.  You can only lend a book once, so if I lend Virtue by Amanda Hocking (which I’ll be reviewing Friday) to my mom, I can’t later decide to loan the same book to my sister. During this time, you have no access to that book. When you loan a book, the person who is borrowing has up to 14 days to read the book before it disappears back onto your e-reader. Also, not all books are lendable, but many of them are. From what I understand, this limitation is set by publishers but if you ask me, is a step in the right direction for sharing books.

Nook Directions:

1)      Choose the book title in your library. Press “lend” in the Menu.

2)      Add a contact or select an existing contact. The only things that are required is the person’s name and e-mail address.

3)      Type a note if you choose to (completely optional).

4)      Submit and confirm your loan!

The Nook lending process is really cool because you can let anyone who uses the same B&N book format borrow books! Inotherwords you can send it to an iPad reader, PC, Mac, Android reader, ect. You aren’t simply limited to your Nook friends. However, this doesn’t cross over into the Kindle world, Amazon has their own format altogether.

To accept a book that someone is trying to loan to you, go to your library. From there you will see a offer to accept, click on “Yes, borrow this.” Or “No thank you.” If you do not answer within 7 days, the book will be returned to the owner.

Kindle 3 Directions:

1)      Go to “Manage Your Kindle” from the Amazon website.
Amazon.com-> Your Account -> Digital Content Box-> Manage Your Kindle

2)      Find the book title from your Kindle library, click “Actions”

3)      From the drop down box that will appear, press “Loan this title”

4)      Fill in the lending details! And click “Send now”.

You can send Kindle books to anyone with a Kindle or a Kindle app whether that is on their Android device, iPhone, PC or Mac.

To accept a book that someone is trying to loan to you, go to your e-mail where the book was sent. Click on the e-mail, then “Get your loaned book now”, which will pop up a link with the book, name of the person lending, message and “Get your loaned book now”. From there it will be sent to you via Whispernet.

I hope this little guide helps you, I know I educated myself quite a bit! I'm sure as time goes on there will be improvements made to make both processes easier and more flexible. What do you think? Is this a good process? How would you like to see this improved?
-J

Kindle VS Nook

With the evolution of the e-reader came the opportunity for many writers to self-publish their books. Since we will be covering a lot of those independent or “indie” authors for reviews, I thought it would be best to make a basic post covering the two most commonly purchased e-readers: Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes and Noble’s Nook Color. Both devices are fantastic, but have special features to offer that is different from the other. This way, if you don’t have an e-reader and decide in the future that we’ve won you over from the traditional way and you want one, hopefully this list can help you decide what’s best for you.

Amazon’s Kindle 3:

·         - Graphite display which means no color, but less glare

·         - 10 days battery life with wireless on, 3 weeks with Wifi on

·         - Free Wifi with browser to surf web

·         - Whispernet technology- Allows any book you purchase from Amazon.com to be downloaded to your Kindle without use of USB cord

·         - Kindle apps are available on Android and iPhone devices

·         - Built in dictionary

·         - Ability to make the font smaller or as large as you want it while reading

·         - Read to Me feature- Reads books aloud to you

·         - Audiobook and music compatibility

·         - Ability to trade books with other Kindle users (still in development)

·        -   Kindle apps are available, such as games, calendars, blogs, ect.

·         - Prices  begin at $139 for just Wifi, $189 for Wifi & 3G

·       -   Kindles with “Special Offers” are $114 with Wifi & $139 for Wifi & 3G, Special offers are ads that  show up on the front of the Kindle in the sleep screen, & a small bar at the bottom of your library page

Barnes and Noble’s Nook Color:

·         - Has backlight, color and touch screen

·         - Up to 10 days of battery life

·         -  Free Wifi with browser to surf web, check e-mail, upload music or pictures

·         - Built in dictionary

·         - Ability to make the font smaller or as large as you want it while reading

·         - Access to online bookstore to download books straight to the Nook

·         - Lendme Technology- allows you to share books with other nook users

·         - Enhanced books- Example, Reading a recipe, you can read it but also watch a video

·         - Loosely based Android system to provide what has become known as “The Readers Tablet”

·         - Apps such as Angry Birds and friendly kids apps

·         - Nook apps are available on Android and iPhone devices

·         - Price is $249

Economically speaking, e-readers are fantastic. Less gas to travel to a bookstore, more environmentally friendly with printing and you have thousands of books at your fingertips!

So what do you guys think of e-readers? How has it changed your reading experience? Which one do you have?

Until next time,
M&J