Send web articles to multiple Kindle devices

We’ve just updated our Kindle It service to allow you to send web articles to up to 5 Kindle devices in one go.

Last December Amazon enabled its Kindle Personal Documents Service for iPhone/iPad users, assigning each device a new email address, and this month the same feature has been enabled for Android users. Our Kindle It service has up to now been able to send to only one Kindle email address at a time, but as of today you can enter up to 5 addresses (separated by commas):


This will also work with our Push to Kindle Android app (no update necessary).

Let us know if you have any trouble.

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Freedom in Dependency

Excerpts from Richard Capes’ interview with David Edwards (Medialens co-editor and author of Free to be Human):

To work for a corporation is to be part of a system in which power flows strictly from the top down – it’s a totalitarian power structure. That’s the lot of enormous numbers of people in the world. If you try to opt out in the UK, you are ordered to ‘look for work’, mostly different kinds of corporate bondage.

Our freedom is undermined by less obviously political forms of social manipulation. For example, we’re propagandised by society to seek freedom in dependency. One of the key purposes of modern schooling is to instill a thirst for ambition and status in the young. The emphasis is on competition, coming first, getting the best grades to get to the best universities to get the best jobs and salaries. This version of freedom chains us to external sources of reward and respect. If we believe we need high status and ‘success’ to be happy, we are chained to the people and organisations with the power to bestow these rewards. So we are trained to actually seek, to willingly embrace, a life of dependence.

Read more: Free to be Human: An Interview with David Edwards

Also well worth a read: Falling by David Edwards

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Kindle It 1.0

We’ve just released a new version of Kindle It, our web application for sending online articles (e.g. blog posts, news stories, Wikipedia entries) to your Kindle. It now looks like this:

Kindle It screenshot

Try it

You can test it now with the following articles:

What’s new?

Edit titles

If an article doesn’t have a title, or if we misidentify the title, you can now edit it before sending to the Kindle. Simply click the title block in the preview box and you’ll be able to change it.

Improved block quote support

If an article uses block quotations, these should show up indented now on the Kindle.

Clickable source URL

The URL of the article which we append to the end of the piece is now clickable.

Report problems

We know that some articles do not work well with Kindle It, if you encounter one of these, feel free to use the ‘report problem’ link to let us know. The URL will be prefilled and you can report the problem anonymously. If you want to know when it’s fixed, you can supply your email address and we’ll let you know.

New design

We’ve redesigned the interface using the Bootstrap toolkit from Twitter. We hope you like it.

@kindle.com sending enabled for sustainers

Previously we only sent articles to @free.kindle.com addresses – Amazon delivers these to Kindle 3 owners via Wi-Fi, and it’s free. Using the @kindle.com address allows you to receive articles via 3G if Wi-Fi is unavailable, although Amazon will charge for 3G delivery.

For older Kindle models which don’t have Wi-Fi, the @kindle.com address is the only way to get automatic delivery (downloading the MOBI and transferring it via USB is the other option, and doesn’t cost anything). Because @kindle.com sending can cost users, we’ve restricted it to sustainer accounts…

Sustainer accounts

We’re now inviting users who like the service to consider signing up for a sustainer account for 5 Euros. Sustainer accounts help us to maintain the service and continue developing it. More information.

Regarding the last point, I want to stress that the service will remain free. Everything which worked before, should still work the same way – we’ve improved things but haven’t disabled any features. Sustainer accounts are primarily a way for users to help us cover costs and sustain the project. Sustainers do get a few benefits – if you’re interested, there’s a 30 day trial to test the @kindle.com delivery.

Extensions

The most convenient way to use Kindle It is by using our browser extensions. So far we have extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Android. If you use a different browser, we also have a bookmarklet.

Feedback

We’d love to hear what you think. We’ve had some nice comments on Twitter so far, including:

“I think I’m in love: fivefilters.org/kindle-it/ – it’s perfect.” (Translated from Portuguese) — @myriamkazue

“Kindle It sends web pages to your Kindle and it’s insanely good.” — @coldclimate

“The second most useful extension (after firebug) in Firefox” (Translated from Spanish) — @sourcerebels

“@Evenwing @fivefilters ooh…I like this..” — @Yappings

“2 things = joy. 1: if you have a Kindle you can push long web articles to it with Kindle It http://bit.ly/ozPyWb 2: Tor http://bit.ly/HcV9F” — @kjftec

“@JayGreasley thanks for the tip on fivefilters.org, through it I found @medialens and that’s my type of news!” — @tashacres

If you have any trouble using it, email us: fivefilters@fivefilters.org

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Kindle It: Send web articles to your Kindle

Kindle It is a new service from FiveFilters.org to let you send web articles you encounter to your Kindle. If you own a Kindle device, or use the Kindle for Android app, you might find it useful. We have extensions for Firefox, Chrome and Android available.

See the video below to see how the Android app works:

Try it: Kindle It

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