Kindle Tips

When I deleted a lot of old Free and Sale Kindle Book posts, I accidentally deleted this one as well. I am reposting it because I think it is still helpful.  If you have any suggestions to add, let me know.

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Since I am going to cut way back on my blogging for the short term, I thought I would post about where I find free kindle books.

Because Amazon made some changes to their affiliate programs a many websites or bloggers have cut back on their free books. But I also think free books have declined in popularity. Last year I averaged about 4000 free book “˜purchases’ a month. This year I am averaging about 2000.

There are three main types of sites. The first is the Christian focused Kindle blog sites. The three best of those are GospelEbooks, which posts daily in the morning. Usually not more than one or two free books a day. Vessel Project is similar but often posts once in the morning and once at night. The third is Thrifty Christian Reader, which is run by Chris Smith of the Englewood Review of Books. These posts are more occasional and run a bit more literary. (Update: Chris Smith has really started increasing his posts and even includes sale print books occasionally.)

The second type is the general free kindle book blogs. A lot of them have shut down and the only reliable one I know of is ereaderiq. You can have it send a daily email (the others above do this as well) focused just on your interest. But this requires that the books are properly categorized by the author or publisher. Ereaderiq is also the best place to track prices of books.  This is the link for religious books (not all Christian). Ereaderiq is also the best place to track the price of non-free books.

The third type is the publisher free book links, social media accounts or emails. Usually these are a mix of free and sale ebooks because publishers need to make money. David C Cook has 4 or 5 free books a week, usually for only one to two days. Baker Publishing usually has 10 to 20 for a month at a time (this includes Baker, Baker Academic, Bethany House and Revell.) Destiny Image has an email. Others may have occasional sales which you might be able to find via official publisher social media sites.

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If you asked me what my favorite thing to do, on the list would be floating in the ocean, reading. Several years ago I found a floating waterproof case for my Kindle 2. And up until recently I had still been using it. It finally broke and on impulse I picked up a refurbished Waterfi Waterproof Kindle Paperwhite two weeks ago right before I went to the beach for a week’s vacation.

The first thing you notice about Waterfi’s waterproofed Paperwhite is that it is basically indistinguishable from a regular Paperwhite. The waterproofing is not visible and doesn’t add any weight (at least not enough to be noticeable).

Waterfi is an aftermarket system. So you purchasing one from Waterfi voids the Amazon warranty. A refurbished Waterfi has a six month warranty. The refurbished Paperwhites are a mix of 1st and 2nd generation Paperwhites, but you can ask them for one or the other.

There are two main negatives about the Waterfi system that was not true of my old floating Kindle case. First, it does not float. So if I dropped it in the ocean, I would have go grab it. I have thought about how to create some type of float for it, but I haven’t worked that out yet. (I think some type of foam case should work.) I was just careful when I was swimming with it.

The second negative is that because the Paperwhite is a touch screen device that moves by electrical conduction, hard spray from salt water can turn the page or turn on the screen commands. It was not a huge problem, but I did need to try to keep it out of the spray to actually pay attention to the book. (And it really makes me wish that either Amazon had real page turn buttons or that Waterfi had waterproofed a Kindle Voyage).

But those two negatives aside I am really happy with the purchase. It is waterproof, the screen was not at all fuzzy as the one waterproof case for the Paperwhite that I have tried was and while I would not normally spend the extra $20 to get rid of ads, it is nice to not have ads.

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Update: Ken Edgerly of Kindle Chronicles has a video, the only one I have seen, comparing the 2nd generation Paperwhite, 3rd Generation Paperwhite and the Kindle Voyager that I think is helpful to seeing what is actually changed.

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Amazon quietly announced a new Paperwhite this morning. The new Paperwhite follows up on the original Paperwhite in 2012 and the second generation released in late 2013.

The 2015 Paperwhite keeps the same physical specifications as the first two Kindle Paperwhite generations and the same price.

The main differences are that the new Paperwhite has the same screen as the Kindle Voyager (300 dpi up from 212 dpi) and doubled the ram to 512 MB. The battery and storage space remain the same (and quite adequate).

The other differences are software. The new Bookerly Font that was released on the iOS apps recently will now be native on the Paperwhite. Also there will be a new layout engine that will more closely match the way print books look.

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The HD 7 (internally the same machine) is on sale today only for $79 for the 8 GB or $99 for the 16 GB (configure the size in the checkout page). That is a very good price, but it is still a weak machine. If you are considering I would recommend the 16 GB.

Note: after several months, I really cannot recommend this tablet. It crashes almost daily. The storage amount is so small it is almost unusable because I can only keep about 6 to 8 apps loaded at a time. And it is frustrating that Amazon blocks the standard Google App store (I know you can get around it, but I should not need to do that). So good apps like the Kids YouTube app are not accessible. If I had it to do over again, I would buy an iPad mini, even an older refurbished version would be better than this. If I only used it for Scribd or video streaming, which still works fine, I would probably be happy.

However, if I had the option to return for a full refund at this point, I would.

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Original Review

Summary: If your expectations are not an iPad, this is an acceptable tablet, especially when you find it on sale.

A couple weeks ago when the Amazon Fire HD 6 (Kids Edition) was on sale for $119 I picked one up.

I had a couple of use cases that I was interested in. Primarily, I wanted to use it for myself with Scribd (review) for audio and ebooks. But I also was interested in the Kids Edition because I have a one year old. (And frequently visiting nieces that are 6 and 7).

After almost 2 week’s use, I am mixed on the Tablet as a whole, but less negative about it than I was initially.

Pros:

I really like the size. It is roughly the size of my Kindle Paperwhite, and fairly light. My 13 month old daughter has no problem at all carrying it around. The case that comes with the Kids Edition seems like it is a bit cheap but it really is really protective. It is made of foam and stands up to the one year old frequently throwing it on the floor. And because the Kids Edition includes 2 years of accidental damage warranty, I really don’t have to worry about it. The cases only come in Green, Pink or Blue, the Fire HD 6 Kids Edition itself only comes in Black (the standard HD 6 comes in Black, White, Pink, Blue and Green). The one negative of the cover is that it can get a little warm if used for a long time.

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