Tag Archives: kindle

Searching Google Images by exact size

I wanted to find some 600×800 images for the Kindle and learned that Google Images doesn’t let you perform this kind of search now. However, there’s a small hack that lets you do exactly the same. Append the following text to the end of the Google Image search URL:

    &tbs=islt:2mp,isz:ex,iszw:600,iszh:800

This will return only the images that match the exact size. Like in this example. You may replace the 600 (width) and 800 (height) with whatever dimensions you need.

Source: seroundtable.com

Changing the default screensavers in Kindle 4

The Kindle comes with some stock screensavers, but you soon get tired of them. You can’t change them as easily as you change the wallpapers in your PC. The process involves getting into the diagnostics mode, enabling USBnet, SSHing to a server and moving some files. It’s not as scary as it sounds though.

If you use Linux, the process is less messy. I followed this guide and everything worked fine, except the password mario didn’t work. However, I could generate a password by entering the serial number in Amazon Kindle root password tool. A directory called ‘screensaver’ gets created in the Kindle, to where you can copy any jpg or png files, preferably 600×800 grayscale images.

If you use Windows, the following two videos will guide you through the process:
Getting into diagnostics mode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZEhsCKgMHw
Changing the screensavers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG_pGDMsAYo

I also created an album of Paulo Coelho Kindle Screensavers. You can view and download them from here: http://imgur.com/a/QRDq6
Or download them as a zip file from here: Dropbox link

paulo coelho witch of portobello kindle screensaver

Find and replace by font color

I was emailing some documents to the Kindle and it turned out that some sections of gray colored text in these documents are not readable. The solution is to change the color of the gray text to black. One option is to select all text and set the text color to black. But I wanted to change only the color of gray text (i.e. keep the red, green text as is). How does one do that? How do you find text with some color and replace them with another?

The in-built Find and Replace functionality in both Microsoft Word and LibreOffice Writer can do this. If you use Microsoft Word, press Ctrl+H to invoke the Find and Replace dialog box. While the cursor is on the Find what text box, click on More. To the bottom of the dialog, a Format button will appear. Click on it and choose the font style you want to find. Now go to the Replace with text box and repeat the same to choose the style you want to replace with. Finally press Replace All.

Click to enlarge

If you have several documents that need this operation, you don’t have to choose styles again and again coz Word saves the last Find and Replace parameters. The method is almost the same with LibreOffice Writer.

Bookmarklets for bulk deleting items from Kindle

I got my Kindle 4 a few days back. Other than for reading books, it’s ideal for reading long articles and blog posts you come across in the web. You can even direct RSS feeds to the Kindle. All items you send to the device (other than by transferring directly from the PC) get stored in your Amazon account. You can view these documents in the Manage Your Kindle page. As days go by, this list of items become too long. And you want to delete them.

Amazon doesn’t let you select several items or all of them at once. You have to go through the tedious process of clicking Actions, then clicking Delete from Library and answering ‘Yes’ for each item.

Luckily, there are bookmarklets to help you avoid the mess. For example, the Check and Delete bookmarklet adds checkboxes in front of each item and you can check the items you want to delete and press Delete. There’s also this MDKI bookmarklet which lets you specify the titles of the items and delete them. The former option is more convenient in most cases. You’ll be able to modify the MDKI bookmarklet to select all items from a given author (i.e., source) and delete them.

Beware though, if you delete any item from the library, it’s gone. Even purchased items.