Readability kindle 300x283

A few days ago Readability added support for Kindle devices. This is another big addition to already the most powerful tool designed to reduce web clutter and help you focus on reading.

There are a couple of web-to-Kindle tools available already, naming only Instapaper, Delivereads or SendToReader, but I’m really glad my favorite distraction-removing service added it to a list of features.

Why is it useful and how to set it up? Read some tips below.

Useful for readers

Setting up Kindle-Readability sync is very easy.

First, go to your Amazon Kindle settings page and add to your approved e-mail list a new address: kindle@readability.com. Then go to your account at Readability and type in your Kindle’s e-mail address under a Kindle Settings tab.

In order to send content to Kindle you can use browser add-ons. You can also click on Readability’s Send to Kindle button if it’s embedded in a blog or site.

A really nice feature is a possibility to receive daily digests with all content you saved for later the day before. To enable it, go to your Kindle Settings and in point 3, “Receive daily reading list updates to your Kindle”, check Yes.

Kindle support is available for registered users of Readability. You can check the conditions and sign up here. A lowest monthly subscription is $5.

Useful for writers

I’ve scheduled for June 17 a special post about how writers can benefit from Readability (don’t hesitate to get blog’s free updates). Kindle is a great, long-expected way to let readers consume what you write.

If you are a book author and use a blog to direct readers to your books – give them a chance to send your content to Kindle, add a special button to your blog. You’ll give yourself a chance to appear on their ultimate reading device. One day it might be a blog post about your new book, next day it might be the book itself.

If you own a blog, open a publisher’s account and earn 70% from any contribution made by saving your article for later.

Via Piotr Kowalczyk’s Password Incorrect blog

7 COMMENTS

  1. I’m glad to see this new “send to” feature, but it’s not nearly as useful as a full-featured Kindle app would be. The resulting files clutter a Kindle’s in box and there’s no synching between view platforms. What I read in a browser or on my iPhone doesn’t get removed from what’s sent to my Kindle. What I read on my Kindle doesn’t synch back to those other devices. A Kindle is left sitting at the end of a one-way street.

    That leaves me still reading Instapaper articles through the Kindle’s web browser and Instapaper’s website. That does let me synch and sort where articles are saved. But their web page is designed for a mouse-equipped computer, so it’s clumsy on a Kindle. It also means I can only read when I have access to WiFi.

    In the end, what Readability and Instapaper readers need is a Kindle app with the same storing and synching features as those for smartphones. Reading those articles on a epaper screen would be a delight and selling it would bring in much-needed income.

  2. Not sure what’s meant by the previous comment. Just delete the article after you’ve read it on your Kindle. Also, you do some kind of synching w/Instapaper as well.
    Kobo, if you’re listening: get Readability to add a “Send to Kobo” function. That is, after you’ve set up a Kindle like document delivery system. Would make your Kobo Touch more useful. When’s it coming out btw?

  3. Not everyone will have/want an iOS 5 device (aka iPad, iPhone, iPod touch ) so… still

    We shall wait and see how long that lasts.

    I’ve been a fan of Apple products for a long time. I still have the original Newton MessagePad (that I purchased in 1992?) and all of my non-work laptops and desktops for the last decade have been Apple designed and built. (I’m even a registered iOS developer for what that’s worth and someday I’ll finish that app that’ll let me quit my day job writing .NET software) . So I’m not even remotely an Anti-apple fanboy.

    But I think a little realism is in order here. Apple isn’t going to achieve world dominance in this or any other tech space. Historically speaking, they aren’t even trying to take over the world. They are a premium tech vendor. They might be better than some other unnamed companies at selling consumer products but they aren’t going to replace devices like Kindles, or Nooks, or Android based ereader devices with iPads, iPhones, or MacBook whatevers.

    iOS 5 has some interesting new features, and being able to buy books from the iBookstore directly from iTunes 10.3 is great (but a Mac or windows ebook reader that can handle FairPlay ( Apple’s DRM ) is still a missing piece of the overall picture.) but that doesn’t invalidate the existence of Kindles or Nooks and software like Readability any more than when Apple added readability-like features to non-mobile Safari.

The TeleRead community values your civil and thoughtful comments. We use a cache, so expect a delay. Problems? E-mail newteleread@gmail.com.