ereader
#Kindle post gets me on the radio (#BBC #Cumbria)
Well my post on Kindle’s hidden features certainly surprised me on the statistics front, what I didn’t expect was to appear on radio in part because of it…
Yesterday (27th October) I got phoned at work by a chap called John Bowness, who asked whether I would like to come on Mike Parr’s breakfast show on BBC Radio Cumbria, to talk about ‘ereaders’. He said it would be at 7.45am this morning (28th October) and would last for 5 to 10 minutes. He said Lucy Mangan a Guardian Columnist would be talking about how she didn’t approve of ereaders and I would be there in defence of them. It was amusing to be asked whether my Kindle made noises so that it could be heard on radio! Unfortunatley it doesn’t make beeps and I thought it unwise to mention the text to speech feature… (not exactly its best selling point)
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| These lifts are never working… (source Google) |
He said he had found me by typing in “ereader cumbria” in Google and my blog GeoPlanIT came up top of the list (try it and let me know if it works for you!). So okay looking at the post that comes up its actually a link for downloading this site for an ereader (check it out here). However I don’t think I would be so prominently listed in google if it weren’t so popular my original Kindle post, combined with my activities on twitter.
My first instinct was to say no, those of you who know me will understand I’m not that shy and am somewhat outgoing. However I can assure you I go weak at the knees at the thought of public speaking! Then a little voice in my head said “why not, you don’t get the chance to go on radio everyday” this time the little voices in my head won out.
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| The lifts didn’t work then either |
Fortunately I was somewhat prepared for my appearance thanks to a friend of mine Matt Deegan who works in the radio industry. His calm reassurance in the form of an email was much appreciated.
So this morning I went to BBC Radio Cumbria in Carlisle with my wife and 16 month old daughter (moral support in reception). We had to take the detour from the Castle carpark as pushchairs and that bridge don’t work!
You can listen to it here:
My 6-7 minutes of fame on BBC Radio Cumbria (1hour 18 minutes in)
So barring my hopeless performance (hey its my first time), I was surprised that there was no discussion, I thought that’s what Lucy was there for and the whole thing went by so quickly I was out of the building as before I knew it and struggling to cross Castle Way in Carlisle (I think they’ve given up on those elevators on the bridge)…
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| Good luck going 100% internet! |
One last thing I noticed: I was on directly after the owner of Fluffy Bums, who are located next door to BBC Cumbria and it’s where we got our daughters reusable nappies from.
It’s a shame they are closing down the shop and going 100% internet as we always enjoy going in and getting our ‘poop’ related supplies! They’re helpful and always chatty and friendly I hope that ethos continues online.
So there you go a meaningless blog post but I hope you found it slightly interesting. For those of you interested some related links are below.
- My 6-7 minutes of fame on BBC Radio Cumbria (1hour 18 minutes in)
- Mike Parr on Twitter
- Lucy Mangan on Twitter
- BBC Radio Cumbria on Twitter
- Matt Deegan Writes
- Fluffy Bums
Posted in Kindle 3 : Some Hidden Features : Part 2 Technical stuff
Following on the back of my last post I have found some more hidden features/functions for the Kindle 3. As before please be careful using these, I’ve looked at them myself and had no problems. That doesn’t mean you should do it though, if you are anyway unsure please don’t use these. That is all!
Okay these little functions bring up some information on your Kindle, they’re not hugely useful as I’m not as what one might call a ‘hacker’ (I’m just a bit geeky) but I like to know what else my Kindle can do.
Navigate to the Settings screen on your Kindle (Menu – Settings, from the home screen):
- “Switching Wireless Providers”: type 311 (ALT+EQQ) – I’ve not said okay on this so you try at your own risk!
- 411 Page (serial Number MAC address etc): ALT+RQQ
- 611 Page (Modem, SIM and Network details) : ALT+YQQ
- 711 Page (Connection, Wi-fi and IP): ALT+UQQ
- Serial and Barcode displayed: ALT+SHIFT+. (period)
- ALT+J scroll right
- ALT+H scroll left
Kindle 3 : Some Hidden Features
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| Mmm keyboard… |
- shift + alt + m = play minesweeper (from homescreen)
- GoMoku: press G from Minesweeper
- alt + shift + G = screenshot (plug your Kindle in via the USB and navigate to the folder ‘documents’ screenshots are GIF and named something like “screen_shot-******.gif”)
- alt + G = screen refresh
- alt + home = Kindle Store
- alt + top row of letters on keyboard = numbers 1-0
- Press menu to check the time
- Press menu on homescreen to see available memory
- To change the primary dictionary by going to settings then menu
- Standby (uses minimal power is my understanding) Quick switch of the power slide.
- To turn off kindle 3 (i.e switch off the screen as well) by pressing and holding the power slide for 7 seconds
- To reset the kindle by pressing and holding the power slide for 15 seconds (restart is also in settings then menu)
- alt + B = add and remove bookmarks
- shift + Sym = Turn text to speech on and off
- set cursor down the page to start text to speech from there
- right arrow on nav controller = skip to next chapter
- left arrow on nav controller = skip to previous chapter
- alt + space = turn music on and off
- alt + f = skip to next track
- Plug your Kindle 3 into the computer with the USB.
- Open the Kindle drive that is now in your displayed with your removable drives, in the root (i.e. not in another folder) create a folder called “pictures” within that folder you can create a number of other folders (think of them as collections), then add your images/pictures to this (or these) folders. I’ve only tried Jpegs and they work fine.
- Once finished safely unplug the kindle and then press “alt” and “z” on the homescreen, this will refresh the screen and add your new folders.
- Click on the folder/collection and Image Viewer should launch.
- f = full-screen
- q = zoom in
- w= zoom out
- e = reset zoom
- c = actual size
- r = rotate
- nav controller = pan
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| As Requested… by kuroikaze85 |
Update (1st October 2010): Acknowledgements
Apologies for not posting this sooner, I only compiled this list for my benefit (and limited followers) but now others are interested!
Articles and posts that made this page possible and some more I’ve found after I posted this list. If you want some more technical stuff you could look at these but be careful. NOTE Not all relate to Kindle 3 (latest version):
- Kindle Bonus Tips from 15th January 2008 (I guess in regards to the first Kindle)
- Kindle 2 Easter Eggs Not sure of date…
- Engadget Kindle Easter Eggs from 28th December 2007
- Hacking the Kindle part 3 from 21st December 2007
- Kindle Tricks and Hidden Features Kindleboard.com Thread – 23rd January 2009
- K3 FAQ plus shortcuts and tricks Kindleboard.com Thread – 2nd September 2010
- Kindle 3 Keyboard Shortcuts et al From Down the Hill – blog.diannegorman.net – 5th September 2009
There are more sites with information just goto Google like I did and search for “Kindle hidden” or “kindle easter eggs”
Update (1st October 2010): This post was featured on Geek.com thanks Matthew Humphries!
Update (2nd October 2010): This post was linked to on Teleread.com Ebook Roundup from Resource Shelf
Update (3rd October 2010): This post was linked to on Mike Cane’s xBlog GeoPlanIT: Kindle 3 : Some Hidden Features
This Article now has a part 2 : Click Here
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