It’s time for another rambling post…
Kindle Fire Winner
With the most recent giveaway of the Kindle Fire, the first name drawn from the entrants didn’t contact me (still haven’t heard from her) so I was forced to draw another name; Jennifer A. of San Diego contacted me promptly and has received her brand new Kindle Fire on Friday. She said she already had a Kindle Fire, but she was going to give this one to her husband who kept “borrowing” hers to play with and read books. I hope both of you enjoy your Fires!
You may recall I launched this giveaway in an effort to re-populate the blog’s Facebook page after being forced to take the original one down. Our little community has managed to re-connect with about half of the previous participants: if you would like to stop by and take a look at it, you can click here or type in http://www.facebook.com/fkbooks into your web browser. While you’re there, why not give the page a “Like?”
If you do stop by the blog’s Facebook page, make sure you check out the “Recent Posts by Others” section on the right-hand side: independent authors are free to post about their free book offers, and they are posting in this section.
Refurbished Kindle Fires
Yesterday, I told you Amazon was running a deal on refurbished Kindle Fires: for just $159, or $40 less than a new Kindle Fire, you can get a refurbished Fire that looks brand new and comes with free shipping and the same one-year warranty as a new one. There are still some left, so if you want one you can click here or type in http://bit.ly/firedeal into your web browser.
Default Dictionary on an e-Ink Kindle
This seems to be the week people are asking me about the dictionary pre-loaded on your Kindle.
Your Kindle comes pre-loaded with a dictionary, which is handy at times to look up various words and other things you may not know the definition or context the author is using. For example, the standard dictionary on my Kindle is called The New Oxford American Dictionary, and is the 2008 version published by the Oxford University Press; I find it ironic an American dictionary is published by a company with a UK-sounding name, as we don’t use the Queen’s version of English over here but then again, I have a strange sense of humor.
Sense of humor aside, that brings up the point I want to make: what if you want to use some other dictionary, say in another language or one that uses the Queen’s English, or Spanish, a specialized topic, etc.? Amazon has a special category with well over 100 dictionaries that can be changed to be your default dictionary. You can click here or type in http://bit.ly/kindledictionary into your computer’s web browser and shop away.
Want a medical dictionary? They have it: click here for an example.
Spanish to English? It’s the #1 dictionary in this section: click here for an example.
English to French? Click here for an example.
Looking for a Bible dictionary? Click here for an example.
A review of the Top 20 best-selling dictionaries you can make as your default Kindle dictionary has most of the “major” languages (defined in terms of the world’s population), each of which you can put on your Kindle.
The next question you will have is, “how do I make one of these my default dictionary” vs. staying with the default New Oxford dictionary. Of course I am going to tell you it is pretty easy (because it is), and here is how you do it:
- I’ll start off with you need to buy or acquire from one of the free sites a new dictionary; I would stick with one from the Amazon Kindle store as they have been formatted and tested to work with your Kindle – I know, that’s not a free book, but the point I want to make is you want to make sure it works (and not giving you a bogus definition to boot). Additionally, if you don’t have another dictionary on your Kindle the following instructions will not work at all.
- Once you have acquired this new dictionary and have it on your Kindle, go to your Kindle’s Home screen (press the “Home” button).
- Press the “Menu” button.
- Scroll down and select the “Settings” option.
- Press the “Menu” button again.
- Move the controller to underline the dictionary you want to use and select it.
Hope that helps!
Traveling with a Kindle
Sharon E. sent me this note:
Michael, first thank you for all the free offers of books. I have accumulated quite a few and enjoy them very much. We are getting ready to leave (in 3 weeks) on an Alaskan cruise and I am wondering about reading my Kindle while on the ship. Do I need to download the books I want to read before leaving so that I will not have to use the wi-fi onboard ship? The cost for internet service on the ship is expensive. Can I read in the Kindle without the internet being turned on?
I know I do here at home, but I haven’t downloaded the full books yet as some are in the Cloud. This may not make a bit of sense. By the way, I just knew I was going to win that Kindle Fire this time, but I didn’t. Congrats to the one that did. Thank you for your help.
If you have a Kindle with 3G, accessing the Internet should not be a problem as long as you are onshore or in port. If you are relying upon the ship’s wireless, it can be a challenge and is quite expensive: my family went on a cruise last year and, while I was able to connect via 3G when we were in port (Mexico, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica), the Wi-Fi service on the ship while at sea was expensive, spotty at best, and extremely unreliable – even in the areas where they said it was a Wi-Fi hotspot (we were on Royal Caribbean).
I had a lot of books loaded on my Kindle as a just in case – I actually have way too many books on my main Kindle as it is. If I were you, I would download at least half a dozen books or more to your Kindle before you leave. Nothing could be worse than just having a few books on your Kindle and, while at sear with no capability to connect to the Internet, realize (a) the book you’re reading now is bad and you’re ready to move on, followed by (b) not having the capability to move on to another book because your Kindle was empty.
Your Kindle will store hundreds of books electronically: it costs nothing ot kep the books on your Kindle, so why not leave them there until you are done with them?
Anyway, that’s enough rambling for now…I hope each of you are having a great weekend!
Michael
Posted in: Kindle Tips, Misc. and Random Stuff
August 25th, 2012 at 9:18 am
[...] a week ago I told you how you could change the default dictionary on your e-Ink Kindle (you can click here or type in http://bit.ly/Pc1KDq into your web browser in case you missed that post. If you are [...]