.NET Cowboy

One of the main disadvantages of the Kindle cited by my iPad-loving friends is that web browsing on a device meant for reading is lackluster at best.  Indeed, Amazon doesn’t help its own case by listing the built-in, WebKit browser as Experimental.  I have found however that the Kindle browsing experience is greatly enhanced by using two features.

The first feature really isn’t something built into the device but it is a trick you can use to make browsing more Kindle-friendly.  Despite the fact that most top sites now offer custom versions of their content in the form of apps for the various mainline mobile devices, they also maintain mobile sites for those of us still muddling through with a Motorola Razr.  If you put an m. in front of most web sites in a browser (m.cnn.com for example) you will be redirected to their mobile version.  Most of these mobile versions are greatly stripped down versions of the main site.  Web sites meant for mobile devices format very nicely for Kindle browsing and make the sometimes painful browsing experience actually doable.

The second feature is Article Mode.  After you have loaded a web page on the Kindle you can press the Menu button and select Article Mode.  This will reformat the web page to a text only version.  This makes reading the page uber-simple and involves none of the heartache of changing the orientation or upping the magnification.  Of course, Article Mode doesn’t work with graphic intensive pages or anything that doesn’t have a majority of the text in its presentation.

Both of these have made web browsing on the Kindle enjoyable to the point that I’ll actually use my Kindle to look something up instead of opening my computer.  Of course an iPad or similar tablet device has a larger, full color screen that is more visually appealing.  At least with these tips in hand you won’t be ashamed to use the “experimental” side of the Kindle any more.

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