Eleanor: My Kindle is the white kind, and probably the second one. I emailed Amazon about it but haven't had any reply.
- Q: I don't know whether it is important for me to know which one it is.
- A: I don't know how important it is, the 2nd generation Kindle and the 3rd generation one are very similar, but they do have one easy to see difference. The 2nd generation Kindle (K2?) has a toggle switch for the 5-way controller with no buttons surrounding it. You navigate by pressing the switch to the left, right, up or down, and press in on it to make something happen. The latest one has more of a square button surrounded by 4 button slivers. These 4 slivers are for the up, down, left and right movement of your cursor and when you are navigating your Kindle screen. Then you press in on the center button to make something happen.
Another big difference you can see right away is the K2 has the power button on the top, while the newer K3 has the power button at the bottom. The Home, Menu and Back buttons are in different places too.
The additional color choice was made available with the latest Kindle. The Kindle DX has two colors to choose from now too. I can hardly wait to see what the next generation of Kindles is going to offer!
- Q: It seems to me they go into the Archive on the kindle, though I'm not exactly sure whether the Archive is just a list or whether the books are still get-at-able.
- A: When you are finished with a book and get ready to delete it, what message do you see? When the book is selected (underlined) on the Home screen or in a Collection on the Home screen right click on it (toggle the 5-way switch to the right if you have a Kindle 2 or press the little sliver of a button to the right of center in the 5-way switch area if you have a Kindle 3) to see what your choices are. Press the Back button if you are just peeking and don't really want to select or do anything.
If you see the words Remove from Device, it is a Kindle book you purchased from Amazon. Choose Remove from Device and the book will be removed from your Kindle, but a copy (the one you purchased) will always be available on the Amazon servers in the Archives for you to download again to that Kindle or any other Kindle device you own. You are only removing it from that particular device, not deleting it from your account. Anytime you want your book back, or want to put it on another device, go to the Archives on Amazon with your Kindle software, find the book, select it, and press in on the 5-way. This will cause the book to be downloaded to the machine you selected it with.
If you see the words Delete This Document, you are dealing with a personal ebook file, one you did not purchase from Amazon. While it is relatively easy to put personal files on your Kindle to use and you can get all kinds of free books from places like Manybooks.net, these books are not backed up on the Amazon servers. It is up to you to do that on your own computer. If you choose Delete This Document, you will be removing it permanently from your Kindle. If you don't have the original file somewhere you can get your hands on it again, it is gone gone gone.
- Q: Does the kindle have a limited capacity of storage, in the way a computer's hard disc does? Or can I stop worrying and just load down a whole lot more?
- A: You have room for thousands of books on your Kindle. Press the Menu button any time and look at the top left of your Kindle screen to see how much free space you have. Most books are not even 1/2 Mb in size. Some may be, but all in all, a young person wouldn't live long enough to read all the books on a full Kindle. It truly is capable of being an impressive library in your hands.
Oh... and from the Home screen, press the Menu button. Select Settings. Look at the bottom of your Kindle screen then, to see which version Kindle software you have.
