iBooks Author allows you how to write, design, and publish interactive e-Pub books and post them for free or for sell on Apple’s iBooks Store.

In the latest 1.0.1 update of iBooks Author, Apple states “If you want to charge a fee for a work that includes files in the .ibooks format generated using iBooks Author, you may only sell or distribute such work through Apple, in such distribution will be subject to a separate agreement with Apple.”

The above is essentially what Apple required in the original license. In this update, however, it adds in part, “This restriction does not apply to the content of such works when distributed in any form is not include files in the .ibooks format.”

Apple further clarifies it policy agreement on its iBooks Author: Publishing and distribution FAQ page. It says in part:

If a fee is charged for the work and it is in the .ibooks format, the work may only be sold through the iBookstore. If the work is in a different format, such as PDF or ePub, this restriction does not apply.

When the work is provided for free, it can be distributed through the iBookstore or by other means, including when the work is in the .ibooks format.

While Apple says it doesn’t own the copyright of your book, it might be a good idea to hire a legal expert if you think your book is going to have significant sell value.

Source: ZDNET

I scoured the Kindle Store in search of worthy books to recommend, and came up with a list of nine titles that all seem worthy. It’s an eclectic mix, so be sure to scroll all the way through even if the first one or two don’t catch your eye. These books are all offered for free at the time of this writing. Pricing on the Kindle store can change at any time.

Wild Mustang Man

To start things off, let’s look at Wild Mustang Man. This isn’t a long book (about 181 pages), but it’s one for the girls. Wild Mustang Man is a Western romance story about a single dad, Josh Gentry, who also happens to be a farmer. One day, a lovely lady by the name of Bridget McCloud comes into his farm, takes a look at him, and decides he’s going to be perfect for her ad campaign… and for other things, too.

The books comes from Carol Grace, who authored over 35 novels and has a definite following. Again, this one may not be for everyone, but some of the ladies in the audience might find it to be an enjoyable read.

The Jackpot

The Jackpot is a legal thriller by David Kazzie, who also created the (NSFW) video So You Want to Write a Novel. The video isn’t directly related to the book (thankfully), and is a blatant parody of people who just randomly decide to write a book one day, without realizing what it entails. The book itself received 17 reviews with an average of 4.5 stars, which is fairly impressive for a work in the long tail.

The book’s hero (a lady, by the way) goes through all sorts of trouble trying to return a winning lottery ticket which her boss stole from a client. The whole thing is more complicated, of course, but that’s the main premise.

The Nemesis Worm

Gory cover aside, The Nemesis Worm is our first sci-fi entry. It’s a 60-page novella, not a full-length book, featuring the heroes from author Guy Haley’s book Reality 36. It revolves around a high stakes investigation undertaken by those same heroes (Richards and Klein) to clear Richards’s name from murder.

The Ghosts Of Varner Creek

With 36 reviews and a 4.5-star average, The Ghosts of Varner Creek is aimed at readers 18 and above. It is a Nook sci-fi/fantasy Bestseller, and tells of Solomon Mayfield, whose mother and sister disappear one day in 1909. He goes through life not knowing what happened to them, haunted by lies, speculations, and secrets. He finds out the truth only after he dies. Once again, be warned – this one contains adult content.

Seven Exes Are Eight Too Many

Seven Exes Are Eight Too Many is another foray into romance. Madeleine-Cora Spencer is single, and after being shunned by a friend’s new wife because “you can’t trust desperate single women”, she is finally driven to participate in a “Find Your Prince” reality TV show – only to find herself dumped on an island with seven ex-boyfriends. With 40 reviews and a 4.5-star average, this looks like one entertaining read.

Bright Of The Sky (Book 1 Of The Entire & The Rose)

Bright Of The Sky is one of the few books on this list that have also seen light in dead-tree format. It’s the first part of a four-book sci-fi cycle, and the other three parts do cost money. This reflects a growing trend in the Kindle store, where authors offer the first book of several for free, in the hopes that readers will be hooked and buy the rest of the series. With 109 reviews and a 4-star average, Bright Of The Sky is an epic tale of the far future.

To wrap things up, I would like to share three interesting classics. These are not Kindle exclusives, but are worth a read all the same.

Pride & Prejudice

Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen’s timeless classic, needs little introduction. It is one of only two books on this list who have their own Wikipedia page. In a nutshell (and in Wikipedia’s words), “The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England.” 

This is exactly the type of timeless classic we all have access to in this digital day and age.

Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know

This one’s for the kids – Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know. It is an anthology containing such classics as Sleeping Beauty, The Ugly Duckling, Beauty and the Beast, and more. It’s entirely devoid of illustrations, though – just the text. Still, if you are looking for some classic bedtime reading for your little ones, this is a free book that could go a long way towards educating them in the classics.

A Tale Of Two Cities

A Tale Of Two Cities is one of Charles Dickens’s greatest classics, set in the late 18th century against the backdrop of the French revolution. It may not be light reading, but it’s supposed to be exceptional. If you do read it, tell me how it was.

Final Thoughts

Free books for the Kindle are a mixed blessing. Sure, there are some lovely finds, but there is also an incredible amount of drivel, trash, and empty words. I wish Amazon would make it easier to filter books by price and minimum reviews. They let you sort by price and filter by “four stars or more”, but not by how many reviewers there are… and many, many books have a single five-star review.

Did I miss important free Kindle novels at Amazon? Let me know in the comments.

As someone who has recently been getting sucked into reading more and more novels, I’ve been on the prowl for the best ebook readers on Android. So far, nothing has matched the sheer power and elegance of Stanza, but Aldiko has gotten close.

First released in 2009, Aldiko has been working towards offering the best-in-class ebook reading and management experience for Android users. Let’s take a look at what this app can do.

eBook Formats

Aldiko officially supports ebooks in the .epub and .pdf formats. However, if you have ebooks in a different format, you can use a program called Calibre to convert those files into .epub format. From there, Aldiko will be able to read it just fine.

Importing ebooks into Aldiko is extremely easy. All you have to do is connect your Android to your computer and drag the files onto your device. Then, from within Aldiko, you can search your device and tell it which files to import. Simple.

If some of your ebooks are locked by Adobe DRM, you can even sign into your Adobe ID to have those ebooks unlocked.

In-App Bookstore

At the time of writing this article, installing Aldiko on your device will result in a free ebook for you: White Fang by Jack London. For those of you who have never read this book, it is a small and unexpected treat.

However, one of Aldiko’s great features is an in-app bookstore powered by Feedbooks. Without ever having to leave the app, you can purchase books that have been recommended by other readers, books that have been featured in the New York Times Bestseller List, or books that are entirely free of charge.

On top of that, you can use the app to browse through ebook listings on Smashwords. Smashwords is a great place to find ebooks, both free and paid, across all genres and formats.

Library Management

Managing your pile of ebooks is extremely easy with Aldiko. You’ll be able to find the book you want to read almost instantly by sorting by title or by author–whichever you prefer.

Reading

If you want to bookmark a page–in case you have to stop reading for a bit, or if you want to return to a specific spot later–you just tap a button and label the bookmark.

If you want to look for a specific scene but don’t remember where it is, use the full-text search.

As you’re reading, you can bring up a context overlay with a single tap on the page. You’ll instantly see how far into the book you are, and you’ll be presented with a bunch of options for customizing your reading experience.

Settings and Customization

Aldiko allows you to change a lot of settings in order to maximize your comfort. Change the font face, the font size, the margin sizes, and the colors of the text and page. You’ll never be distracted by poor aesthetics again.

And it doesn’t stop there. There are a few other options that really add those finishing touches while you read.

Verdict?

Aldiko still lacks a few features that I would like to see, such as tracking your progress through the current chapter (as opposed to the whole book), more options for sorting your library, the ability to edit book details, etc.

However, compared to other ebook readers on the Android Market, Aldiko is definitely the best one I’ve tried so far. I would highly recommend it for anyone who plans on reading many ebooks on their Android device.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

A few years ago, I stumbled upon Twournal which can put your latest 3,200 tweets into a PDF or paperback book. When you see your Twitter content archived in one document, you gain a better appreciation of what it means to be a published author. Twournal allows you to create, buy and sell books printed from your tweets. Registering on the site and creating your first book is nearly as easy as signing in and allowing Twournal to access your Twitter timeline, going back to as far as your very first tweet.

InvderMedia, the developers of Twournal are gracious enough to provide your Tweet collection for free in PDF format. Dozens of twitter users take advantage of this feature every day because the process is so simple, and it is a great way to archive your Twitter content.

Creating Your First Book

To create a Twournal, simply sign in with the Twitter account you want to use, and select if would you like to include photos posted to your timeline (via Twitpic, Yfrog, Flickr, Instagram, etc.)

Your Twournal includes a standard multicolor cover, but you will probably want to customize it with your own photo. Before clicking the Finish button, you have several other options to consider for creating your book, including what years to include and not include, and whether or not you want to remove replies, URL links, hashtags, and retweets.

After you submit your book, you will be e-mailed within 24 hours a link to a free PDF version of your book. Even if you plan to purchase a paperback copy of your Twournal, you should definitely order and view the PDF first.

Writing Your First Book

When I first considered ordering a Twournal book, I wasn’t quite sure if it would contain the kind of content that I wanted. What I discovered early on was that few of my tweets included photos, which I felt was essential for my book.

Photos help break up the pages and pages of tweets, and of course provide visual context. So in 2011 I started using my iPhone to snap and upload them directly to my Twitter timeline.

There is nothing really special you have to do in order to write “good” Twitter content. Though you’re communicating on Twitter with your contacts, you mainly post what is important to you and not someone else. However, if you would like to make your Twournal the sort of memorable diary or journal of your thoughts and experiences, you might very well put some thought into the types of tweets you are posting.

For the last several days I have been reading back through my tweets from 2010 to 2011, and though there a great mixture of links to articles I was reading on the net, I noticed that I tweeted quite heavily about important issues that mattered to me – e.g. the death of singer and songwriters Teena Maria and later Gil Scott Heron, the execution of Troy Davis, my thoughts and participation in the Occupy Movement, and posts about goals and accomplishments I made in my day-to-day life.

It looks as if I never went more than three days without posting something to my Twitter timeline, and that was probably the key to making a useful and memorable Twournal.

By the end of last year, my Twournal came to 325 pages – starting from March of 2010.

I also noticed that what makes my Twournal worth reading is how often I made comments about issues and topics I’m concerned about, instead of just retweeting tweets and headlines.

Including Photos

With a smart phone camera and a Twitter app, it is quite easy to post photos directly to your timeline. You might take and post photos of events you attend, special meals you cook, and projects you’re working on.

But you need not limit yourself to camera images. My Twournal consists of over a dozen images composed of desktop screenshots and photos I grabbed from websites.

Memorable Artifact

In the digital age, we often take for granted that the digital content we produce will always be available to us online or on some personal storage device. While that might surely be the case, producing paper documents and artifacts from our digital content is still important.

Whether you purchase a Twournal book or print your PDF, you will appreciate your collection of tweets a lot more when viewing them in hand, in paper format. I’m actually reading through my Twournal as I do any other book, except this time, it’s my own.

For other articles about Twitter, check out our directory of articles that includes tips and recommendations for using the microblogging site.

Let us know what you think about Twournal. Do you plan to create your own?

Apple recently introduced iBooks Author in a live presentation at the Guggenheim in New York. The software is aimed at textbook writers and publishers, but it can just as well be used for producing cookbooks, picture books, interactive fiction novels, how-to books, and the like.

iBooks Author looks to be the first consumer-based e-Pub software designed for multimedia books.

Feature Overview

E-books designed with iBooks Author are basically geared to be read on the iPad platform using the recently updated iBooks 2 reader app. iBooks Author books can however be exported to PDF format, and to plain text format—excluding the embedded images and other media.

If you’re familiar with Apple’s desktop publishing application, Pages, you’ll feel at home with iBooks Author. Both programs share a similar interface, including text editor formatting tools and page layouts, and the familiar drop and add multimedia features.

iBooks Author, however, also includes several unique features including what are called Widgets, which allow you to include interactive images, 3D objects, Keynote presentations, custom HTML, and a review study guide tool for textbooks.

iBooks Author opens with six basic templates to get you started. You can write a book from scratch, but you also can import existing Pages and Word documents.

For the purposes of this review, I imported my Awesome Guide To Mac Automation, formatted in Word. iBooks Author pretty much kept all my text, font and header styles, screenshots, and titles in place. However, it did put extra spaces between the paragraphs.

Extra Features

iBooks Author is a pretty familiar text editor, so let’s focus on some of its unique features.

Because multimedia books produced in iBooks Author are primarily designed to be read and consumed on the iPad using the iBooks 2, by default you lay out books in landscape orientation, rather than the traditional portrait view.

In either view, the content remains the same, but the landscape view provides more interactive features. You can, for example, design your book so that readers can view a gallery of photos, or tap and watch an embedded video, or use various multi-touch gestures with say interactive maps and 3D objects. Portrait view on the other hand, pushes photos and interactive media to the side and puts the focus on text, with a more Read-only format.

iBooks Author also includes a textbook Glossary feature which allows you to not only select special terms and definitions but to also include related glossary terms for cross-referencing.

As with traditional textbooks, iBooks Author enables you to create multiple-choice review questions that can be placed at the end of each chapter of your textbook.

iPad Preview

Though iBooks Author is a WYSIWG desktop editor, you have to physically connect your iPad to your Mac in order to preview your book. Unfortunately Apple has not yet created an iBooks reader for the Mac. To view your book, you launch iBooks 2 on your connected iPad and then you click the iPad icon Preview button in the toolbar of iBooks Author. iBooks Author will send a Proof copy of your book which you can update as you a make changes to your book in iBooks Author.

This preview gives you the opportunity to see how the layout and multimedia features of your book will appear and work.

The iBook 2 reader includes features specifically for iBook Author-designed books and textbooks. In this updated version, for instance, you can use the highlighter simply by pressing down and over selected text with your finger, without having to make two or three taps that are still required with regular e-books.

iBooks 2 also comes with a dedicated flash card feature (that you of course create in iBooks Author), and a notepad that lists all of your highlights and typed notes.

However, Apple still does not allow you to export and share highlighted text in iBooks, but you can e-mail your written notes.

The updated features in iBooks 2 are good improvements, but its annotation tools for studying are still inadequate. Apple would do well to learn from iOS PDF reader apps, like iAnnotate for the types of tools  and features iBooks are still missing. For instance, the bookmarking tool in iBooks doesn’t allow you to change the name of the bookmark page. So when you review your bookmarks, all you get are the page numbers, which when reading and studying large textbooks is very inadequate for studying.

Both iBooks Author, which requires OS X Lion, and the iOS 5 version iBooks 2 are available are for free in their respective app stores.

Let us know what you think of these programs. What tools and features would you like to see added to them. Do you think iBooks Author will be a game changer for education?

In the tech world, some of the most useful books available are from the O’Reilly collection. So, what could be better for your ebook collection than getting some of these great O’Reilly ebooks for free? Not a lot, really.

Today we’ve decided to showcase a few of the best O’Reilly ebooks you can pick up for free. Many of these are out of print and offered online specifically to keep the works accessible to you all, so you don’t need to feel bad about getting it for free. And if you do feel bad, just go buy a new O’Reilly book to keep the money going towards more of these projects. Note that some of these are available in ePub or PDF formats, while others are only available as HTML.

Linux Network Administrator’s Guide

Olaf Kirch & Terry Dawson, ISBN 1565924002

This book explains all the basic software and protocols you need to understand in order to begin network administration under Linux. It also talks a little about hardware needs. It doesn’t focus on Samba as there’s another free O’Reilly eBook dedicated to Samba.

Readers of this book may also appreciate Linux Device Drivers and Learning Debian GNU/Linux, which are also available to read for free.

Producing Open Source Software

Karl Fogel, ISBN 0596007590

This is a book to guide readers through the process of creating open source software. Primarily, it’s for the developers and managers of the open source project, but it’s also useful information for people who plan to participate in open source projects. Essentially, it discusses the human side of the process and how to make your project succeed.

Creating Applications With Mozilla

David Boswell, ISBN 0596000529

You may have heard of a number of excellent Mozilla-based projects, such as Songbird, the Flickr Uploader and Postbox. If you want to create a Mozilla application or work on one of the established applications, then this book is a great place to start.

CouchDB: The Definitive Guide

J. Chris Anderson, Noah Slater, Jan Lehnardt, ISBN 0596155891

CouchDB is perfect for creators of web applications that need a reliable, scalable, fast database manager. Written by three of the creators of CouchDB, this book is intended to be all you need to know about the document-oriented database.

We The Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People

Dan Gillmor, ISBN 0596102275

We The Media is something a little lighter for anyone who’s interested in citizen journalism, either as a movement or as a new participant. If you want a glimpse into how online journalism will change journalism as a whole forever, this book will deliver.

Don’t forget that O’Reilly have a current list of their open books here. Which O’Reilly eBooks are your favourites?  If they are online, let us know the links to them so we can check them out.

But as mentioned above, more and more people are switching over to the eBook side, whether it’s using a designated eReader, a tablet, a smartphone, or even a regular computer. If you love eBooks, it does not mean you have to forego your library habits! On the contrary, checking out eBooks is much easier than checking out actual books. This guide will show you how to merge eBooks with your love for the library, where available.

Finding A Local Library That Lends Kindle Books

The easiest way to lend out library eBooks on Kindle is by using Amazon’s Kindle public library books. While only available in local libraries in the US, Kindle books are a great choice since you don’t have to own an actual Kindle to read them. The free Kindle app is available for iOS and Android devices, and you can even read those books on your computer using Kindle Cloud Reader. But how can you find a library that lends Kindle books?

To start, head over here. This is a database of libraries and bookstores around the world which hold downloadable media.

Choose the “Library Search” tab to search for libraries. You can also use this site to search for titles or bookstores. In the search box, type in the name of your library, your city or a zip code. Note that you don’t need to include the state, the search does not support that.

You will now get a list of all the libraries which match your query. All these libraries (the US ones, anyway) also have Kindle books to lend.

Click on the library that’s closest to you, or one you already have a library card for, to access the downloadable media section of this library. If the name itself is not sufficient for you to recognize the specific library, the next page also contains the library’s complete address.

On this page you can also see what kinds of media are available in this library (audiobooks, eBooks, music, video). Click on the bottom link, as shown, to enter this section in the library.

Checking Out A Kindle Book

To actually check out a Kindle book from a library, you would need to have a library card and a PIN number with that library. Browse the eBooks the library offers, and when you’ve found the one you’d like to take out, find the Kindle version of it and add it to your cart. This part can look slightly different for each library.

You can now check out, using your library card ID and PIN number. Once you’ve checked it out, choose Get for Kindle. This will redirect you to Amazon’s Public Library Loan page for that title. After logging into Amazon, click on the “Deliver to” menu and choose your device (a Kindle, a tablet, a phone, etc.). Choose “Get library book” to send the book to your device.

Note that this option will only work if the device is connected to Wi-Fi. If you don’t have an available connection, you can simply download the file and upload it manually onto your device. The book will expire at the end of the loan period, which depends on your library. You will get an e-mail notification 3 days earlier, but no need to worry about heading to the library to return it!

And What If I’m Not From The US?

Although Amazon may have forgotten, we don’t all live in the US. Should this small fact exclude us from lending out eBooks? Not necessarily. While eBook lending outside the US is not supported by Amazon, it’s still possible to download eBooks from many libraries around the world, and read them on different devices.

To find local libraries that lend eBooks, head over here again and look for your library, same as above. You can also use the interactive map to browse for your library.

If your country is on the list, you can browse for libraries. After you’ve found a local library, access the downloadable media section, as seen above, and choose your book. You will now have the option to check it out in the ePub or PDF formats. You can read these eBook formats on multiple devices using apps such as iBooks for iOS, Aldiko for Android, or a PDF reader of your choosing for PDFs.

This may not be as convenient as lending out a Kindle book, but it is still a great way to enjoy library books without even having to leave your chair, and without having to worry about returning the book on time.

Where do you get your books? Do you prefer buying them or lending from a library? Do you have any experience with taking out Kindle books or other eBooks? Share in the comments!

Image credit: Shutterstock

Send to Kindle adds new ways for you to send any personal document from your PC to your Kindle device or Kindle app. From Windows Explorer, you can right-click a document and choose “Send to Kindle” from the context menu. This can be done on several documents at once, without opening them. From any Windows application that can print, choose Print and then choose “Send to Kindle” from the print dialogue.

When you first install Send to Kindle, it will prompt you for your Amazon credentials. After logging in, you can start sending documents to your devices. When you choose to send some documents, you will get to choose which device you want to send the documents to. This can be your Kindle device or any other device on which you have installed the free Kindle app. You can also choose to archive documents in your Kindle library, and re-download them again whenever you wish.

Surprisingly, it seems that you can send almost any text file to your Kindle. Every file you send gets automatically converted to PDF, and is then able to display correctly on your Kindle. This enables you to send all sorts of documents to your Kindle, or back them up in your Kindle library as a form of cloud backup.

What do you think of the new app? Are you going to be using this new functionality?

Source: Kindle Daily Post

I’ve chosen full-length techy related books, although there are several hundred pages of free iBooks to download to the iBooks Reader– from trashy sex novels to hundreds of sampler books.

iPhone and iPad Guides

If you’ve just got your new iPhone or iPad and you want to get a complete overview of all the features and how to use them, the iBooks Store has two full-length, each over 200 pages, official guides for free download: The iPhone User Guide, and the iPad User Guide for iOS 5.

Both books are well illustrated with step-by-step instructions. While these guides may not contain the tips and tricks you will find here on MUO, they are definitely two good starter guides that you should have in your iBooks library.

iPhone 4S Starter Guide

The leading Apple magazine, Macworld, has also released one of its guides for free – the iPhone 4S Starter Guide – which covers every feature on the device, from the Home button, to setting up Mail, Contacts, iCal, iCloud, to a review of accessories including cases, headphones, and speakers.

The Unofficial Siri Handbook

This is a 23-page guide on how to use the Siri app on the iPhone 4S. While the guide is not illustrated, it does include lots of examples of verbal commands you can use with the voice activation app.

The Price We Pay For Google

While I haven’t had a chance to read this book, the topic looks interesting. Journalist Peter Olsthoorn examines the power and possible dangers of Google’s data collection reach and how you can combat it in your personal life.

It also takes a critical look at Google’s advertising machine, censorship, social network failures, and privacy guidelines.

The Beatles Yellow Submarine

For more lighter reading, Apple has just released an iTunes exclusive, The Beatles Yellow Submarine, which features clips from the movie and Beatles songs, and awesome illustrations.

Young readers can use iBook’s audio feature to have the story read to them. The formatting of this iBook book does not fill the entire iPad screen, so it may feel a little awkward to many readers.

Geek Mom

Geek Mom is a quirky collection of fun projects for the tech-savvy parent. The author shows you how to put together a Motherboard PCB Bracelet, cook Geek Cupcakes, create a Lego USB Stick, make a wallet from a computer keyboard, and over a dozen more projects.

Superheroes

If you’re into Batman, Superman, Captain America, and the like, you might be interested in Superheroes: The Best of Philosophy and Pop Culture. Written by William Irwin, the book explores such weighty questions as, “Why doesn’t Batman just kill the Joker and end everyone’s misery? Does Peter Parker have a good life? What can Iron Man teach us about the role of technology in society?”

Superheroes gets into deep philosophical questions and analysis, with references to classical intellectual thinkers like Aristotle and Kant. If you can wrap your head around this type of thinking, Superheroes might be worth your time.

The best way to browse the free books available in the iTunes Store is through the the iTunes application on your computer whereby you can click from page to page of book covers. Also check out MUO’s large and growing collection of free PDF guides that focus on similar topics, from Using iOS 5 to BAM!: Your Guide to Digital Comic Books.

Can you recommend any other good free books for the iPad and iPhone?

Oh, and the Kindle Fire is originally a US-only device – so if you’re outside of the States, this may be your best chance to get one. Let’s get started, shall we?

Introduction

The Kindle Fire is a 7-inch multi-touch tablet. It has a dual-core processor, a resolution of 1024×600 pixels, and 8GB of internal memory. It runs a custom build of the Android operating system – so heavily customized, you won’t feel it’s Android most of the time (more on that later). At $200, the Kindle Fire costs less than half of an iPad 2.

As noted above, Amazon has opted to make the Kindle Fire available only within the US. This means that if you’re outside of the US, many parts of the Kindle experience will not be accessible for you (for example, the App Store and movies). I tested the device in Israel, and this review reflects that user experience. There are ways to circumvent Amazon’s regional protections, but they tend to be convoluted, and since I wanted to keep the device in a pristine state for a lucky reader, I did not try them. So, this review is mainly about the hardware, and what you could expect from the Kindle as a hardware platform.

Initial Impressions

The Kindle Fire arrives in a sturdy no-frills box. In the spirit of the times, Amazon clearly made an effort to use as little packaging material as possible. If you’ve ever bought a “regular” Kindle, the Fire’s packaging should be familiar. Within the cardboard box you’ll find a molded “holder” for the Kindle. Under the Kindle you’ll find a power adaptor, and that’s about it:

Design

Above you can see the Kindle Fire sitting on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. While the Fire has a smaller screen, it is significantly thicker than the Galaxy Tab:

This is a side-by-side view of the Kindle Fire and Galaxy Tab. The Tab is tapered so it feels even thinner along the edges, but even when you compare the base thickness, the Kindle is noticeably thicker.

For another size comparison, here’s the Kindle Fire next to a Kindle 3:

This is much more similar – in fact, the Kindle Fire is almost exactly the same size as the Kindle 3, only much thicker. Unlike the Kindle 3, the top of the Kindle Fire is completely unadorned – not even an Amazon logo in sight. No buttons, either. It’s just a bezel with a screen. You can find the Kindle logo embossed on the heavily rubberized back of the device:

The rubberized back, combined with the device’s compact width, make it easy to hold. But at 413 grams (14.6 ounces), the Kindle Fire is not a lightweight device, especially not when held with just one hand. So while size isn’t an issue when trying to grip it with just one hand, for prolonged use you will probably find yourself using both hands to hold the device, or propping it up against something.

Controls are bunched up at the bottom of the device, much like on “regular” Kindles:

There’s a headphone jack on the left, a Micro USB port, and a power button. Let’s compare that with the control layout on a Kindle 3:

Above is the Kindle 3, and below is the Kindle Fire. As you can see, Amazon has done away with the volume button on the Kindle Fire: It’s not located anywhere else – it’s just gone. Another significant change: The power button isn’t activated by sliding, but by a simple push. Both of these are actually big steps backwards for the Kindle. Changing the volume requires fiddling with the touch screen, and I’ve turned the screen off by accident many times just by holding the device. I hope Amazon improves the control layout on future revisions of the Fire, and makes it more similar to the Kindle’s proven layout.

The Kindle Fire also includes two speakers:

As you can see above, the speakers are lined up on the device’s “top” side – i.e, opposite of the controls. This is a very strange place for the speakers, given the fact that videos must be watched in landscape mode. When you turn the device over to watch a video, both speakers are on the same side. It’s also very easy to muffle the sound accidentally when holding the device. A much better position for the speakers would have been on the wide side of the device, for actual stereo when watching videos.

Using The Kindle Fire

This is what the Kindle’s main interface looks like in landscape orientation. At the very top is a heavily modified Android status bar. Directly underneath is the list of content types the device can display, and under that is a display of your recently viewed items. You can swipe between them in a CoverFlow-like display:

Under the recently used items you will find wooden “shelves” containing your favorite apps, books, and other content:

To place something on the shelf, simply grab it from the “recently viewed” display and drag it onto the shelf. Couldn’t be simpler, really. Now let’s look at the video store:

The Kindle Fire comes with a 1-month free Amazon Prime membership, which entitles you to view lots of content for free (if you’re in the US). If you’re outside of the States, you’ll have to make do with trailers:

My screenshot tool won’t show the video, but you can see the control interface. When you don’t touch the screen, the interface disappears, leaving nothing but the video you’re watching. The top-left button lets you rewind ten seconds back; on the top-right you can see the volume slider, and at the bottom is a scrubber. Very simple, really.

Now let’s look at reading a book with the Kindle Fire:

Amazon WhisperSync works pretty well, and the Kindle Fire usually syncs to the last page I’ve read in the book. The reading app interface looks like this:

This is in landscape mode. The app is virtually identical to the Kindle Android app, except that controls are laid across the bottom bar because the Kindle Fire doesn’t have a Menu hardware button. Tapping the screen’s right side flips to the next page, tapping its left side flips to the previous page. This is nice in theory, but it’s very easy to tap the screen edges by mistake when holding the device. Tapping the middle of the screen pops up the control interface you can see in the screenshot above. When you’re just reading, the app looks like this:

You can pick one of three different background colors and several fonts, and also change the font size. Pretty much what you would expect from a Kindle Android app, really.

Next, let’s look at reading a magazine on the Kindle Fire:

This is the January 2012 issue of Popular Science (you can buy magazines internationally in the Kindle Store). There’s a strip along the bottom for quickly scrubbing through the magazine. A spread looks like this:

This particular magazine is a perfect copy of its paper counterpart. If you were expecting crazy interactivity, embedded videos and other cool stuff, you won’t find it here. To be able to read anything, you’ll need to pinch to zoom and then pan around with your finger. The maximum zoom level isn’t very high, either. So while magazines can display well on the Kindle Fire, the small screen size makes them difficult to read.

Some magazines are offered in a “Kindle native” format, which looks more like an eBook than a magazine. Take Fantasy & Science Fiction for example:

As you can see, this is much like reading a Kindle book. This format works very well for text-heavy magazines, and is perfectly readable.

The Silk Browser

One of the Kindle’s main selling points is Amazon Silk, a “revolutionary cloud-accelerated” browser (Amazon’s words, not mine). The Silk browser uses Amazon’s cloud to make browsing faster. Amazon says: With each page request, Silk dynamically determines a division of labor between the mobile hardware and Amazon EC2 (i.e. which browser sub-components run where) that takes into consideration factors like network conditions, page complexity and the location of any cached content.

That sounds slick, and should translate to blazing-fast browsing times. Unfortunately, in regular use, I would be hard pressed to say that Silk made any noticeable difference. Gizmodo took around 15 seconds to fully render, and MakeUseOf took around 20-25 seconds. The page was usable before it completed rendering, but it didn’t feel blazing fast.

On a positive note, page rendering was spot-on perfect:

Flash content works silky-smooth, and the whole thing feels very solid. Pinch-to-zoom is highly responsive, too. All in all, browsing with the Kindle Fire is a lovely experience.

Living With the Kindle Fire

In my day-to-day life, I usually spend quality time with my Kindle in bed, right before I go to sleep. With a regular Kindle, this means I have my reading lamp on, and I read it like a book. When using the Fire, I didn’t need a reading lamp, which was nice. The downside was that after a couple of hours reading in the dark, my eyes hurt. This happened even when I used a black background.

Another annoyance was software-related. As I mentioned, there are no hardware buttons for controlling the sound volume. You can turn the volume down using the top control bar, which looks like this:

However, even with the volume muted, the Kindle sounded an audible alert when battery dropped below 15%. This was late at night, with my significant other lying in bed next to me, trying to sleep. Pretty irritating.

Due to the Kindle’s heft, I had to adapt a new reading posture. I couldn’t really lie on my back and hold the Kindle over my head; I also couldn’t hold it vertically because I kept turning it off by mistake. Eventually I was able to read by moving to landscape mode and gripping the Kindle with both hands.

Should You Buy It?

If you’re in the US, my answer would be an unequivocal YES. For $200, the Kindle Fire is a lot of tablet. The UI is very responsive, and with Amazon’s tempting content options (Kindle lending library, videos, etc.), the Kindle Fire would probably be a joy to use. I would not, however, buy it instead of an e-ink Kindle. For just reading books, the regular Kindle still wins.

If you’re outside of the US, the answer becomes more complicated. On its own, with its default Amazon firmware, the Kindle Fire is not such a great choice. The Amazon App Market doesn’t work outside the US, which means you won’t be able to install any apps (that’s why I didn’t review that part). You also won’t be able to watch videos. However, if you are interested in the Kindle strictly as a hardware platform, it is a lovely device. Alternative Android distribution CyanogenMod is available for the Kindle Fire, which means you can reflash your Kindle Fire, utterly void any sort of warranty, and have fun with a slick 7” tablet. Whether or not you choose to go down that path is up to you, of course.

We’re giving this Kindle Fire review unit away to one very lucky MakeUseOf reader. Here’s how to join the giveaway.

How do I win the Kindle Fire?

It’s simple, just follow the instructions.

Step 1: Fill in the giveaway form

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This giveaway begins now and ends January 31st. The winner will be selected at random and informed via email.

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