One way of opening a device up is by offering a software development kit (SDK), I was reading k.indled today and the question came, If Kindle had an SDK, What would you do with it?

One thing I would do is add support for the .epub format, I’m not sure if it would be possible because I am no programmer, but I feel that Kindle must support .epub one day, its the industry standard and I think this will get a lot more publishers on board, especially the ones who have a lot of technical content which isn’t easy to render on the Kindle.

I think Amazon will have to eventually open up the Kindle and they should do it sooner rather than later, having an ‘app store’ similar to the iPhone app store I think would go a long way in helping the Kindle attain mainstream acceptance, and it could open up a while host of other uses for the Kindle.

What would you create with a Kindle SDK?

Source: k.indled

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Feedbooks.com

From MobileRead forums by Hadrien;

Feedbooks provide an easy way for Kindle users to download and read RSS feeds directly on their device:

1. You can create a file for a single feed: http://www.feedbooks.com/feed
2. … or you can create a newspaper with multiple feeds: http://www.feedbooks.com/newspaper/create
3. Generate a Mobipocket/Kindle file and transfer the file to your Kindle through USB or e-mail
4. Once the file is on your Kindle, you can directly update your feeds inside the file, through the link on the cover or in the main menu of the file
5. You can also subscribe to these feeds/newspapers from the main website and download those subscriptions from the mobile website: http://feedbooks.mobi

Here’s an example, just add this file on your Kindle to read the feed from Mobileread: http://www.feedbooks.com/feed/743.mobi

It is a smart idea to provide feeds in an “offline” format for those times when your Kindle had no wireless signal.

One of the most interesting things to try once this feature is online will be to read a blook (blog+book), which is basically a serialized novel published on a blog. For the last 2 years, Lulu even created a Blooker Prize to award the best blooks. I’m not a huge fan of LCD screens for reading, but with an e-paper device on my hands, things are much different and I’ll probably start reading a few blooks and hope that I’ll find one that suits me pretty well.

Create your own newspaper for you Kindle at Feedbooks: http://www.feedbooks.com/news. It will be interesting to keep your eye on this service and see how it evolves.

Source: MobileRead forums, Feedbooks

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A few days ago we found out that is was possible to once again log into Yahoo Mail using the Kindle, turns out that you now access Yahoo Messenger with the Kindle using the Yahoo mobile service. How cool is that? not only can you read books and browse the web you can now check your emails, instant message your friends/family/colleagues and organise your schedule!

Staying logged into your Yahoo messenger account will cause a significant drain on the battery so its a good idea not to stay logged in for too long. Since the mobile Yahoo messenger site does not use flash or java, you will be required to manually refresh the page to see any new messages you have received.

Now, if only I could log into MSN this device would become perfect! Im sure someone out there is working hard on making that a reality. We already know that meebo.com doesn’t work on the Kindle becuase it uses flash so if anyone knows of a service which allows you to log into several instant messaging services which also works on the Kindle, please feel free to leave a comment.

If you want to try this out yourself, you can follow the link to the Yahoo mobile messenger site:

http://us.m.yahoo.com/p/messenger/

Source: kindlekorner yahoo group

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• May 21, 2008 -- Kindle calender now available (0)

Here is the product description from Amazon.com:

This is a 2008 Daily Planner for the Amazon Kindle. Like the paper version, each of the 366 days of 2008 is represented by a page. When the font size is large enough, a day’s entry covers two pages instead of one. Each day has hourly slots for appointments or reminders from 8 am until 8 pm. This planner takes advantage of the annotation capability of the Kindle so that the user can add, view, modify and delete appointments. Major U.S. holidays are included.

It is as basic as a calender gets, there is no synchronisation with other calender services which is a big let down and one I feel would have made it a much more attractive device. Just like a real paper planner you can flip through the pages to view your reminders or appointments, but instead of editing your events directly you annotate the dates, just like you would annotate a page on a book. I spoke to a friend who had the calender application and what she tells me that she likes to use the calender to keep track of when she started a book to see how long it took to finish.

At $1.59 it is certainly not going to break the bank and it would save you carrying around an organiser if you use one, however most people have calenders on their phones, Blackberry’s, PDA’s and desktops, so is it really necessary to have yet another calender application to update and carry around.

If you already have a Blackberry/PDA or use any other calender service then there really isn’t a need to get this calender application, however if you don’t use a calender service then this little application would be quite functional, handy and practicable.

You can check out the calender on the Amazon Kindle store by following the link below. You can even get a free sample calender send to your Kindle with a couple of months on it to play around with.

2008 Daily Planner for the Amazon Kindle (U.S. Edition)

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• May 22, 2008 -- Yahoo instant messenger is now available on Kindle (1)

When the Kindle first launched you could log into your Yahoo Mail account using Yahoo’s mobile email service through the Kindle web browser, but then for some mysterious reason it stopped working. Now after many weeks of waiting, you can once again log into your Yahoo Mail account through the Kindle web browser.

Log into Yahoo Mail through this link: https://us.m.yahoo.com/p/mail/?_dm=0

Thanks to woody_woodward @ kindlekorner

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