Well, it looks as if Amazon is gradually increasing the scope of the Kindle’s abilities. If you go to your Kindle account on Amazon here is the notice you get:
Our customers have told us that they love being able to add highlights and notes to their Kindle books, and now we’ve made it possible for you to access your highlights and notes here at AmazonKindle.
To view your highlights and notes from your browser, sign in with your Amazon account, and select one of your books where you’ve added highlights or notes.
Just as automotive GPS units are starting to move to a “connected” model, it is becoming clear that ereaders are moving that way also. Amazon is blazing the trail and everyone else better follow or they will be left behind. The “reading” experience on the Kindle is no better or worse than on any of the other ereaders I’ve seen. But the wireless feature, especially when coupled with the iPhone app, make the Kindle stand head and shoulders above anything else right now. Once you have become accustomed to the ability to browse for, and buy, books wirelessly it is almost impossible to settle for anything else. And the convenience of have both a large reader an a pocketable one with the same content is unsurpassed. And now the ability to access notes and highlights on line. What’s next?
I tried to use this new feature but could not find it on my list of books at Amazon. When I called Customer Support the first level guy had no clue what I was talking about. When he bumped it up a level, a woman said, yes, this is a brand new feature and she could not figure out how I could access it on my account. She said she thought some people were getting notified about it by email, perhaps on an experimental basis or a gradual rollout. I asked if I could be among those being rolled out to, and she said she would check on it and call me back later today.
I’m very excited about this new capability – thanks for the tip, Paul!
One of the things that must folks in the publishing world neglect is that Amazon is not just a retailer, but also a software developer. More, they are one of a handful of companies working on a platform for (potentially)the next age of computing: the so-called “cloud computing” era of blended local and remote computing. Once you factor this in it is hardly surprising that they are leveraging their cloud platform capabilities into boosting Kindle.
And when you consider that none of their existing ebook competitors has any experience in that arena (except Microsoft, who may not even be in the game anymore) this just might turn out to be the deciding factor.
I just heard back from my Kindle Support person, and the new highlights/notes feature seems to be up and running. All you have to do is navigate in your browser to http://kindle.amazon.com and enter your Amazon username and password, and voila: A complete list of the books I’ve purchased for my Kindle with all the highlights and notes.
The only nit I would pick on first impression is that I can see only five highlights/notes on a screen. It would be nice to see a whole page of my annotations, for printing out. But still, this is a very handy enhancement of the Kindle features set.
I’m not too keen on this feature. I have no real interest in accessing notes made on my Kindle via the web; even though they are password protected, and nobody in their right or wrong mind would ever likely attempt to access my data, nevertheless, I find it vaguely creepy and disconcerting to find it so easily available. Fortunately, I can disable the Annotations Backup.
I agree with Greg M. As convenient and exciting as this new feature may be, it’s also a little creepy. Amazon doesn’t guarantee the privacy of its data beyond a few vague promises.
I am not very knowledgable about this whole ereader thing…I do know what I want though
Beable to download reading material, highlight points of interest, make notes…in regards to the material beingread. And…then beable to transfer those notes, highlights, or reading material to my PC….is this possible???and without any monthly fees or contracts.
"There is always something better coming ... sometimes it arrives on time, sometimes its delayed, sometimes it never arrives. (We're still waiting for the iPhone ..."
Well, it looks as if Amazon is gradually increasing the scope of the Kindle’s abilities. If you go to your Kindle account on Amazon here is the notice you get:
Previous
SUBSCRIBE TO RSS
Comments:
I tried to use this new feature but could not find it on my list of books at Amazon. When I called Customer Support the first level guy had no clue what I was talking about. When he bumped it up a level, a woman said, yes, this is a brand new feature and she could not figure out how I could access it on my account. She said she thought some people were getting notified about it by email, perhaps on an experimental basis or a gradual rollout. I asked if I could be among those being rolled out to, and she said she would check on it and call me back later today.
I’m very excited about this new capability – thanks for the tip, Paul!
This is good news. But for some reason, I cannot find this feature either on the main Amazon site or on the Amazon Locker…
Is it working for you?
One of the things that must folks in the publishing world neglect is that Amazon is not just a retailer, but also a software developer. More, they are one of a handful of companies working on a platform for (potentially)the next age of computing: the so-called “cloud computing” era of blended local and remote computing. Once you factor this in it is hardly surprising that they are leveraging their cloud platform capabilities into boosting Kindle.
And when you consider that none of their existing ebook competitors has any experience in that arena (except Microsoft, who may not even be in the game anymore) this just might turn out to be the deciding factor.
I just heard back from my Kindle Support person, and the new highlights/notes feature seems to be up and running. All you have to do is navigate in your browser to http://kindle.amazon.com and enter your Amazon username and password, and voila: A complete list of the books I’ve purchased for my Kindle with all the highlights and notes.
The only nit I would pick on first impression is that I can see only five highlights/notes on a screen. It would be nice to see a whole page of my annotations, for printing out. But still, this is a very handy enhancement of the Kindle features set.
http://kindle.amazon.com worked.
Thanks Len.
The next step I suppose is for Amazon to let you search your highlights and see them in context.
I’m not too keen on this feature. I have no real interest in accessing notes made on my Kindle via the web; even though they are password protected, and nobody in their right or wrong mind would ever likely attempt to access my data, nevertheless, I find it vaguely creepy and disconcerting to find it so easily available. Fortunately, I can disable the Annotations Backup.
I agree with Greg M. As convenient and exciting as this new feature may be, it’s also a little creepy. Amazon doesn’t guarantee the privacy of its data beyond a few vague promises.
I am not very knowledgable about this whole ereader thing…I do know what I want though
Beable to download reading material, highlight points of interest, make notes…in regards to the material beingread. And…then beable to transfer those notes, highlights, or reading material to my PC….is this possible???and without any monthly fees or contracts.
Hope