Thursday, June 7, 2012

Kindles are not Necessarily Necessary

By Terry Wright

I’m a gadget kind of guy. Give me the latest and best gizmo on the market: all-in-one touch screen desktop computer, wireless printer/scanner, awesome laptop, Thunderbolt smart phone, iPad 3, and yes, Kindle Fire. Bobette and I ordered ours before they were released. The best thing about the Fire, we can email files to it; each one has its own email address. I send mine pdf and mobi files so I don’t have to print and read paper documents. It’s a great tool for proofreading. Mistakes leap off a Kindle screen at the speed of light.

This is all fine and dandy, but did you know that you don’t need a reader to read e-books? Most people look at me slack-jawed when I tell them this. Both Kindle and Nook offer free apps for PCs and MACs, smart phones, and tablets. I actually read more e-books on my smart phone than on my Kindle Fire, like when I’m waiting at Motor Vehicle to get my driver’s license renewed. Jeeze!

Most everyone on the planet has an Amazon account, maybe not as many Barnes and Noble, but these accounts are easy to set up and free (of course). Being that these free apps are connected to an account, it’s necessary to sign up. Then you can download the apps from their Web sites or directly from your app stores on your smart phone and tablets.

Here’s the link to Amazon’s free Kindle app: CLICKHERE

Here’s the link to Barnes&Nobles’ free Nook app: CLICK HERE

Now say you download a mobi file (for example) from a site like twbpress.com (for example), all you do is click on the file and it’ll open in the appropriate app. Or you can email your mobi file to your Kindle Fire and open it there. The file is uplifted to The Cloud and becomes available on all your devices.

The technology is so cool it gives me the shivers.

7 comments:

TheaH said...

I have the Kindle app on my computer and phone. I hardly ever use them. I don't like the small screen on my phone and I don't want to be tied to my computer chair. I want to relax when I read. But I have to admit the phone app is really handy when I am somewhere and get the itch to read or need to pass some time. There are few things worse than feeling the need to read and not being able to satisfy it.

Patricia Stoltey said...

I love new toys, so I now have a Kindle for reading books and just got a Nook tablet for e-mail and internet access (thanks to a Mother's Day gift card) when I'm traveling. And I have both PC apps, just in case I want to read at my computer. I think I need to stop shopping now, at least for a while. :D

angelaparsonmyers said...

I have kindle on my computer and phone as well as my reader, but wanted nook also because my novel is available on both and it would be nice to see it on both. Apparently my Mac is too old for the nook app. Good excuse to get a new MacAir, right?

Giles Hash said...

I TOTALLY agree about the proof-reading. I've found it's so much easier to catch mistakes that can't be changed right away.

Vicki said...

I have Kindle apps on my computer, iphone, and MacBook Air, all tied to the same account so I can read any of my ebooks I wish on any of the devices.

Still ... I continue carrying paperbacks with me. LOL

Terry Wright said...

Did anyone notice the book title, by-line, and first paragraph displayed on the Kindle reader in this blog post?

Chris Devlin said...

Terry, that's too funny. I didn't notice the inimitable author on the Kindle display because I'm reading on my iPad and I didn't make the print big enough until you mentioned it. Clever not-so-blatant self-promotion.

Oh, and thanks for showing me how to download Kindle free on my iPad so I can join the e-book revolution.

Nice post, cheers.