
Send to Kindle: any web page text, with one click, using Chrome browser. - typester
http://kindleworld.blogspot.com/2011/01/using-googles-chrome-browser-extension.html
======
dwwoelfel
I've used this extension, Instapaper's wireless delivery, and Wordcycler (a
desktop app that that syncs files from Instapaper when your Kindle is
connected to your computer).

This extension is better than Instapaper's wireless delivery because it treats
each article as a separate "book". Instapaper, on the other hand, groups all
the unread articles in a single book with each article as a different chapter.
This means that if you read halfway through one article you can't start
another article without losing your place.

The extension also works better for me than Wordcycler because Wordcycler
doesn't download the article from Instapaper. In order not to hammer
Instapaper's servers, it grabs the URLs when you connect your Kindle, then
downloads and formats the articles itself. By the time I connect my Kindle to
my computer many of the articles are only available as previews, so Wordcycler
doesn't get the full article.

~~~
drtse4
Am i the only one that checked the content of background.js (in
~/.config/google-chrome/Default/Extensions/[extension-id]/etc... on linux)?

~~~
Flenser
Thanks for pointing that out. It's also loading the google analytics script.
Disabling and reporting! Any idea what it's doing?

~~~
drtse4
I'm inclined to think that the author is not doing anything malicious, the js
code is obscured/minified so it's hard to verify that. I'll say that the
analytics script has the sole purpose of tracking real usage (the webstore
doesn't provide any info on "active" installs).

Other than this, the author already received a comment pointing out the
existence of readability, i hope he'll update his code soon.

~~~
drtse4
Ok, the author confirms with a webstore comment that none of this data come
from the users. It looks like they test the extension on various websites and
add there manually the text location for sites that are not being parsed
correctly...

~~~
Flenser
Still don't understand why it would need the url to specific articles. Surely
the domain would do.

------
Jun8
Just another reason to totally _love_ my Kindle.

As an aside, I just traveled with my Kindle to Europe and was ecstatic by the
ability to load up on (free, from Gutenberg) books, and easily switch between
them on the long flight.

However, those who herald the end of books is here are very wrong. Except from
the "many books on long trip" or "Netflix-like instant book delivery" (and a
few other, like reading long web pages) use cases, I wouldn't event _think_
about switching to Kindle full-time. Gripes are:

* All books appear almost the same, little or no typesetting

* The note taking interface is shockingly primitive, e.g. just to get a questions mark requires several clicks

* AFAIK, pagination depends on you display, so bookmarks may change place among Kindle readers on different devices.

Of course, all of these are easily addressable. The question is: can the
device that does these and other cool stuff (e.g. color) be sold around ~
$150.

~~~
philh
> The note taking interface is shockingly primitive, e.g. just to get a
> questions mark requires several clicks

Do you normally make notes in your physical books?

> AFAIK, pagination depends on you display, so bookmarks may change place
> among Kindle readers on different devices.

The start of the page you bookmarked will still be the start of the page you
jump to, whatever display layout you use. The pages might be different length.

~~~
Jun8
Yes, I do take notes in books, but as they say, the margin is too small for
some of my notes. I thought this would be one of the big pluses of Kindle for
me, and it still is, but using the 1980s style interface really is a killer.

Bookmarks work as you say, which is counterintuitive is one is used to how
bookmarks use in real books, i.e. generally one or two points are of interest
on a page. On the Kindle, with different pagination, a sentence you like may
not be on the bookmarked page anymore. There's no easy solution to this
problem, I guess.

~~~
andrys1
With bookmarks you need only type an alt-b -- it toggles.the bookmark.

    
    
      What you want here is to get back to a sentence.  I'd highlight it instead.
    
      At the beginning of a sentence, press the 5-way center down and 

then continue to the right or down (or even across a page) and when you get to
the end of the sentence or partial paragraph you want, press the 5-way button
down again.

    
    
      That creates a highlight (underlined) and is faster for me than 

doing it on my NookColor with my finger, which invariably gets the wrong
letter or row.

    
    
      When you want to find your highlight (or note), press the Menu 

button and go down to "View my Notes & Marks" and you'll get a list of the
ones you made in the order they're in the book, with context and a link to the
annotation.

    
    
      That's a pretty good solution.  You'll also find a personal 

private,password-protected annotations webpage of all your notes for a book,
on the Amazon servers. See how at bit.ly/webknotes1 as it's a really useful
feature.

    
    
      If you don't want your annotations backed up to your area on their 

servers, just go to the Kindle's Home screen and use the Menu button to get
Settings and turn off Annotations Backup.

APOLOGIES. I have no idea how to edit on this. The first one I did w/normal
word wrapping while writing didn't wrap when I was reading and most of it was
off the screen. This final result is very odd. :-)

------
drtse4
I considered building something like this for some time (there are similar
extensions but they either not work or send only pdf) and will probably do it
anyway even if send to kindle kinda work. The thing i don't like about this
particular implementation is that looking at the code (background.js) it looks
like that it contains a list of urls with the location of the text content
(tag path to the location).

I _guess_ this is done for pages that are not being parsed correctly (the user
then select the text manually, and the url+tag path is sent to the server and
it will be added to the list in the next release), he should have used
readability. I'd prefer something that doesn't log in any way the urls i'm
sending to the kindle (even if only to fix some issue with the text extraction
algorithm).

Edit: The contained urls have query parameters too, not good.

------
rodh257
I tried RekindleIT but could never get it to work properly, and I didn't like
instapapers method of doing things, was looking for something like this -
awesome.

I love my kindle, no more piles of heavy coding books that I buy and never
read (because I can only read them at home due to their size). I love the
ecosystem, I bought ASP.NET Pro MVC 2, and for the walkthrough bits I can read
it on Kindle for PC whilst doing the tutorials in Visual studio (I have a 24"
monitor rotaed 90 degrees - perfect for reading short instructions). Then when
it got into chapters where it is just explaining how things work, I could
continue them on my kindle with its awesome screen anywhere I wanted, or on my
phone while waiting in line somewhere. Brilliant.

------
euroclydon
I've gotten to where I hardly ever read from my latest-gen small-sized Kindle
Wi-Fi. I prefer the touch screen interactivity of the Kindle app on my
iPhone4. This makes me think that reading on an iPad would blow the Kindle
away, with the only caveats being battery life and nighttime reading where I
wouldn't want a back-light to keep me awake.

Anyone else feel this way?

~~~
ylem
I have a Kindle, Ipad, and android phone (Droid X). Kindle: Pro: One great
thing about the kindle is battery life and how easy it is on the eyes. For
reading fiction, it's great. Con: It is horrible for technical work--pdfs in
particular. If you're like me and you jump around in a book, it's impractical
to do so on a kindle given the slow page refresh rate. Pro: The nice thing
about the kindle app on the android phone is the convenience--when I'm
standing in line at the grocery store (or am on the subway), I can catch up on
some light reading and have finished a number of books this way that I
wouldn't have ordinarily. Con: Screensize. I used to use the kindle app on the
ipod touch and find the screensize of the Droid X to be a much better
experience--but it's still small.

Ipad: Pro: The screensize is great and bookmarking pages is intuitive. Also,
for technical books, I can get them in pdf form and use GoodReader.

Con: Battery life--for international flights, if you don't have power, you can
survive, but the kindle wins with battery life hands down.

These are just my thoughts and as always ymmv.

------
mbesto
Instapaper has made me addicted to my kindle. I enjoy tube rides now ( _GASP_
)

------
pedanticfreak
Direct link:
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ipkfnchcgalnafehpg...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ipkfnchcgalnafehpglfbommidgmalan)

